
Viking Cruises Reviews
Year Started: 1997
Ships in Fleet: 18
Category: Upscale
Summary: Viking River; lovely and modern European river cruise boats also in Russia, China, Egypt and Asia. Soon to now Viking Ocean cruise ships with free tours.
Viking Cruises Cruise Ships

Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: First-time Cruisers. Families. Overall Service.
User Reviews
This past year, my husband and I were aboard the Viking Skirnir for the Grand European Tour beginning September 26 and ending October 10. This was our “Swan Song,” because due to our age, we knew we couldn’t take another trip like this. I must say that the food and service on the ship was excellent. We enjoyed every mile of the trip until we had occasion to deal with Verona, the Concierge.
When we arrived in Vienna, my husband became suddenly and extremely ill with what we later learned was pneumonia. The doctor that Verona called came to our stateroom, observed my husband on the floor and said, “I’m a doctor. I don’t pick people up.” He didn’t touch him or talk to him, which I thought was very arrogant. Then he charged me 100 Euros, leaving me with three Euros. I asked him to call an ambulance, which he did, because my husband was feverish and unable to rise from the floor. He is nearing 90, so of course, I was extremely worried about him, and I was sick, too. Verona did nothing to advise us in any way.
As we were leaving, she told me I would have to find my own way back to the US. I asked her how I should do that, and she said to call my travel agent. Viking was my travel agent! She also said I would have to find a way to get to Budapest to pack up our things and get them back to Vienna. She told me that a taxi would be too expensive, and I should take a train, but didn’t tell me where I could find a train station. She made no suggestion where I might find a hotel in Vienna, or anyone I could call to get some advice as to how I might manage alone in Vienna. She also reminded me that there were expenses we had incurred on the ship that needed to be paid for. She didn’t call my emergency number to notify my daughter what had happened to us. Why do we give emergency contacts to Viking? Our children were terrified.When I left the ship in a panic, worried about my husband, I took only a change of clothes for him and our toothbrushes. I forgot any clothes for myself, and I had no money. It took a couple of days for me to find a hotel room, an ATM for money, and a coat and umbrella to keep me from the rain. I also had a terrible sore throat and cold, so I was miserable in more ways than one.
Meanwhile, on the third day, Verona called me to say I could pick up my belongings when the ship made its return trip to Vienna. She knew all along that the ship was coming back, but she let me worry over how I was going to get to Budapest to get our things. My blood pressure was 228/110 and I had to make two trips to the emergency room for IVs to try to lower it. I’ve never been so alone and so worried in my life.
I didn’t have time to get the insurance papers, so I couldn’t call them for assistance, until I picked up all our things the 5th day of our stay in Vienna. I didn’t have the leisure of thinking of and picking out the various items I might have needed for ten days, when my husband is getting in an ambulance going to a hospital, which I wasn’t familiar with. I had to get on the ambulance in a hurry to accompany my husband. However, Verona had time to rudely warn me of all the things I needed to take care of.
My husband was in the hospital for 10 days, when we were finally discharged to return home, but unfortunately I have only the memory of being an old woman completely helpless in Vienna without even a hint of concern or assistance and unable to speak the language. Would you have wanted your mother to have been put in this situation? No one takes a cruise thinking there would be an emergency, but Verona surely could have recommended a hotel in Vienna or had someone accompany us to translate. She is a very poor individual to represent Viking Cruise lines, and the fact she is there is a reflection of poor hiring patterns by Viking. We were notified by Viking that we could have a $250 coupon for another trip.
This past year, my husband and I were aboard the Viking Skirnir for the Grand European Tour beginning September 26 and ending October 10. This was our “Swan Song,” because due to our age, we knew we couldn’t take another trip like this. I must say that the food and service on the ship was excellent. We enjoyed every mile of the trip until we had occasion to deal with Verona, the Concierge.
When we arrived in Vienna, my husband became suddenly and extremely ill with what we later learned was pneumonia. The doctor that Verona called came to our stateroom, observed my husband on the floor and said, “I’m a doctor. I don’t pick people up.” He didn’t touch him or talk to him, which I thought was very arrogant. Then he charged me 100 Euros, leaving me with three Euros. I asked him to call an ambulance, which he did, because my husband was feverish and unable to rise from the floor. He is nearing 90, so of course, I was extremely worried about him, and I was sick, too. Verona did nothing to advise us in any way. As we were leaving, she told me I would have to find my own way back to the US. I asked her how I should do that, and she said to call my travel agent. Viking was my travel agent! She also said I would have to find a way to get to Budapest to pack up our things and get them back to Vienna. She told me that a taxi would be too expensive, and I should take a train, but didn’t tell me where I could find a train station. She made no suggestion where I might find a hotel in Vienna, or anyone I could call to get some advice as to how I might manage alone in Vienna. She also reminded me that there were expenses we had incurred on the ship that needed to be paid for. She didn’t call my emergency number to notify my daughter what had happened to us. Why do we give emergency contacts to Viking? Our children were terrified.
When I left the ship in a panic, worried about my husband, I took only a change of clothes for him and our toothbrushes. I forgot any clothes for myself, and I had no money. It took a couple of days for me to find a hotel room, an ATM for money, and a coat and umbrella to keep me from the rain. I also had a terrible sore throat and cold, so I was miserable in more ways than one.
Meanwhile, on the third day, Verona called me to say I could pick up my belongings when the ship made its return trip to Vienna. She knew all along that the ship was coming back, but she let me worry over how I was going to get to Budapest to get our things. My blood pressure was 228/110 and I had to make two trips to the emergency room for IVs to try to lower it. I’ve never been so alone and so worried in my life.
I didn’t have time to get the insurance papers, so I couldn’t call them for assistance, until I picked up all our things the 5th day of our stay in Vienna. I didn’t have the leisure of thinking of and picking out the various items I might have needed for ten days, when my husband is getting in an ambulance going to a hospital, which I wasn’t familiar with. I had to get on the ambulance in a hurry to accompany my husband. However, Verona had time to rudely warn me of all the things I needed to take care of.
My husband was in the hospital for 10 days, when we were finally discharged to return home, but unfortunately I have only the memory of being an old woman completely helpless in Vienna without even a hint of concern or assistance and unable to speak the language. Would you have wanted your mother to have been put in this situation? No one takes a cruise thinking there would be an emergency, but Verona surely could have recommended a hotel in Vienna or had someone accompany us to translate. She is a very poor individual to represent Viking Cruise lines, and the fact she is there is a reflection of poor hiring patterns by Viking.
My husband and I were recently aboard the Viking Skirnir for the Grand European Tour beginning September 26 and ending October 10. This was our “Swan Song,” because due to our age, we knew we couldn’t take another trip like this.
When we arrived in Vienna, my husband became suddenly and extremely ill with what we later learned was pneumonia. The doctor that Verona, the concierge, called came to our stateroom, observed my husband on the floor and said, “I’m a doctor. I don’t pick people up.” Then he charged me 100 Euros, leaving me with three Euros. I asked him to call an ambulance, which he did, because my husband was feverish and unable to rise from the floor. He is nearing 90, so of course, I was extremely worried about him, and I was sick, too. Verona took charge as we were leaving the ship, but did nothing to help us in any way. She said I would have to find a way to get to Budapest to pack up our things and get them back to Vienna. She told me that a taxi would be too expensive, and
I should take a train, but didn’t tell me where I could find a train station. She made no suggestion where I might find a hotel in Vienna, or anyone I could call to get some advice as to how I might manage alone in Vienna. Nor did she call my emergency number to notify my daughter what had happened to us. Why do we give emergency contacts to Viking? Our children were terrified. Meanwhile, on the third day, Verona called me to say I could pick up my belongings when the ship made its return trip to Vienna. She knew all along that the ship was coming back, but she let me worry over how I was going to get to Budapest to get our things. My blood pressure was 228/110 and I had to make two trips to the emergency room for IVs to try to lower it. I’ve never been so alone and so worried in my life.My husband was in the hospital for 10 days, when we were finally discharged to return home, but unfortunately I have only the memory of being an old woman completely helpless in Vienna without even a hint of concern or assistance and unable to speak the language. Would Verona have wanted her mother to have been put in this situation? My letter to Viking about this was sent a month ago, but it has has gone unanswered.
We booked passage for a “Romantic Cruise of the Danube” aboard the Viking Freya from November 7 – 14, 2015. In the event, however, there was little cruising or romance to be had. Rather than a cruise our vacation turned out to be mainly a bus excursion during which we stayed aboard ships. Water levels forced us to disembark and travel to other ships by land transportation twice during the week. We did not receive from Viking what we paid well for and we are very dissatisfied by the way the company communicated, or rather failed to communicate, with us. Clearly conditions for cruising on the river had been deteriorating for months and yet they did nothing to alert us in advance to the probable and serious disruptions, let alone offer us the option of canceling or postponing.
We appreciate that Viking has no control over the weather or river conditions. It does, however, have control over the information it provides and it communicated badly with its passengers. Caveat emptor? Perhaps we were naïve in expecting more from the Viking Line.
The distance from Nuremburg to Budapest is about 755 km. That is a
road measurement but the river distances should be at least proportionately similar. We sailed about 112 km from Nuremburg to Regensburg and about 87 km from Melk to Vienna during our trip for an approximate total cruising distance of 199 km, or only about 26% of the total distance we expected to sail. The other 74% was traveled by bus. Having to change boats twice during the week deprived us of one of the most attractive advantages of cruising, not having to pack and unpack repeatedly.The “cruise” was kept from being a complete debacle owing only to the competence and friendliness of the Viking staff and crew on the three Viking ships we were on during our trip. They were uniformly courteous, competent, pleasant, and helpful. The ships were nice and well maintained, the food was good, and the staterooms smallish but well designed and laid out. We wish that we were able to focus this review on those aspects of the river trip. Regrettably, Viking’s mishandling, in our view, of its obligations to its customers denies us that option.
We wrote to Viking expressing our dissatisfaction with its treatment of us then followed up with a phone call. Viking refused to offer us any compensation beyond a 25% discount coupon on a future cruise with them, basically an enticement to us to spend more money with them rather than any real compensation for the inconvenience we experienced at their hands. Their standard contract basically says that they can change any aspect of a cruise they want without incurring further obligation to their customers. Legally, they probably are covered. Morally, in our view, they are not.
If you are planning to take a Viking river cruise in Europe, we recommend that you do due diligence concerning river conditions beforehand and not rely on Viking to keep you informed. We do not expect to be utilizing the company’s services again in the future. If we want a bus tour of Europe, I’m sure that we can find one that is much less expensive.
P.S. - An aside but probably one of interest to those considering this cruise. A strong sewage odor emanates from the water at Regensburg and along other stretches of the canal from Nuremburg and also along parts of the Danube. Something that is not mentioned in the cruise brochures.
Don't understand the negative reviews on here, we had a great time with our viking cruise this summer! We took the Rhine Getaway tour from Basel to Amsterdam and loved it. Great food, very accomodating staff, lots of vegetarian options for those with alternative diets. If you're hesitating since you've never taken a cruise before (like us) I actually liked checking out their videos like (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-QGaVvEWoc) or this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhX_f2IVKfU). Anyway, highly recommend this getaway, we'll cherish our memories for a long time to come!
Our experience with Viking was terrible! We had previously taken a river cruise with Viking, and although there were problems with that trip we still decided to try them one more time. The second time was worse, far worse!
It began when Viking was two weeks late (beyond their on declared time line) in sending us our air reservations. I had to call to prompt them to send the reservations. The overseas flights that they arranged for us had terrible seat assignments and when I tried to change these seats with American Airlines I found that Viking had completely botched the reservations. The information for the couple that we were traveling with was switched with ours. After several hours on the phone with American they informed me that I would have to get Viking to straighten it out. Viking was resistant, claiming that it was American’s problem. After hours more on the phone with Viking I finally got them to cancel the air reservations and get us new reservations. The seat assignments were even worse but at least the personal info was correct so I could go out and pay up to
get decent seats. All in all I spent approximately 10 hours on the phone with Viking and American in order to get our air reservations straightened out. I spoke to ten different Viking employees and almost all of them were unapologetic and resistant to helping. I had to get angry and demand to speak to a supervisor to even get help!After all this, the ocean cruise was fairly nice except that the shore excursions were poorly chosen. We paid $100-200 for several excursions that took us to small, quaint villages that were largely closed up for the winter – no shops or restaurants to visit! All you could do was walk the empty streets.
Needless to say, we have traveled with Viking for the last time!
This was apparently the last outing of the season and it showed. The crew was tired and testy. The food poor and lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables - several meals had no vegetables or fruit at all. Meals were served at differing times each day and the daily newsletter did not always have the correct time listed so we missed a number of meals - especially breakfast and lunch. The heating was often non-existent and at other times smothering. Some of the outings were great, others were very poor, but the crew never bothered to let us know when we could leave the ship and kept a chain across the gangplank until the outings occurred. After missing the opportunity to see Melk because we made the mistake of reading and believing the daily flyer and obeying the chain, only to have a crew member harshly scold us for wanting to actually do what their flyer recommended - stroll through Melk. - we began to simply remove the chain as soon as we docked. It turned out that others were equally as frustrated and they also began to leave as soon
as they saw us go.The area was beautiful, especially in all of the snow, and on the plus side we both lost several pounds on this trip. The New Year's Eve party was karaoke and not pleasant and other events promised did not really occur.
I would highly recommend that if you choose Viking, do not let them make flight arrangements. They routed us to Newark with a connecting flight out of JFK. We had similar problems on the return trip. The upshot of the airline debacle was the loss of a day on the return and having to spend an extra $500 and much anxiety to get home. Definitely not worth the supposed 'savings and convenience' of having Viking make the arrangements.
Viking's solution to our complaints was to give us a voucher for $250 each for travel on their cruise line - to be used within one year. They did not seem to understand that the last thing we wanted to do was waste any additional vacation time on another bad cruise any time soon.
My grandparents booked this cruise in April of this year. My grandfather passed away this last week, unexpectedly. My grandmother called to see what could be done with the tickets, within 2 minutes of talking to someone, they had her in tears saying that it is not their fault that he died and showing a death certificate would unnecessary because it meant nothing to them. My brother took the phone and ask to speak to management on her behalf. When he got a response saying that their is no management, then got hung up on. We then called again to hopefully to talk to someone else. We then came to realize that the lady we were talking to was management, that told us there was no management. We are still waiting for a reply. We mentioned to get an attorney involved and they said it was unnecessary and would not give information to contact theirs.
It's too bad that Viking isn't better prepared to deliver what you purchase when the weather doesn't cooperate. As a river cruise line, they should have back up plans for when ships break down, rivers flood and lock are inoperable. And let's throw in a couple of destination docks that were unavailable necessitating docking in industrial sites. This was a very expensive trip for my husband and I and was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. We were changed to a different ship (with only one day's prior notice; some passengers received no notice at all). We did not receive the suite we paid for, but a standard stateroom. When we finally changed to the Var, the ship we were booked on, it broke down after one day. We then missed a town, received a shortened tour in two locations due to being bussed from the boat and eventually spent the last two nights in a hotel. When trying to resolve compensation with Viking, they ignore phone calls and emails. Unless you have a crystal ball and can guarantee that the weather will be good, plan on NOT
getting what you paid for. Their ads are what got us hooked on doing this in the first place, but their signature clip showing the ship entering Budapest didn't happen for us. We entered the city on a bus.This was our third cruise with Viking and our last. When we arrived in Budapest we found out that the boat was moved out of Budapest due to high water. That should have been our first clue to cancel this fiasco of a cruise. We were held in a hotel for 6 hours and then bused over an hour to the boat. that was the first of many bus rides since the river was too high for the boat to move.
I have cruised with Viking before and had no problems. What an eye opener when we had problems. We were offered a paltry voucher to use on our next cruise. I tried to talk with Viking customer services but they were more interested in telling how much overtime they had to work due to the high water situation. I wanted to voice my frustration at this compensation but received stonewalling and "I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do". I paid a premium to sail with Viking but they are acting like the Dollar Store of Cruise Lines. I have waited more than 2 weeks for a
reply and so far none is coming. Cruisers beware of Viking.We were told misinformation, told things were going to get better, and given no option to being stranded on a floating hotel. Then as the water lapped over the banks of the Danube we were told we will be taken to Munich (a 12 hour bus ride). We can home exhausted from the bussing, and frustrated at the customer service of a cruise line that I thought was reputable. Vacationers beware of Viking. If anything goes wrong they will not be there to fix it.
Editor's note: this was two reviews from the same email address, it has been consolidated into one review.