Viking River Cruises

There is no customer service. Their answer is No. No exceptions for sickness or death. "We have your money. It’s our now." Too bad. They are not transparent. “Let Viking keep your money to be used later”. Once you say OK, your money is gone. No refunds your money is ours now. Too bad.

In our case, can not go on our cruise because husband so is a retired, disable, veteran can no longer walk. We were even told by the Viking sales person. "We really can’t accommodate a disable person." "Can we get a refund."

"No, your money is ours now. Too bad. Maybe we can give you a voucher for another cruise." I guess they do not understand the words disabled, can not walk. It’s our money now. Too bad. If you read reviews in BBB (there are hundreds don’t why they say 46), there are few that are resolved for the customer’s satisfaction.

Also complaint in Complaint Board, and TripAdvisor on the same no refund issue. Never told if you took the voucher no refunds. We have your money. It’s ours now. Too bad.

In our case, Viking talked us into getting travel insurance. The salesperson was looking at our account and could see we had a voucher. When we tried to get a refund using the insurance. "Sorry, insurance doesn’t cover vouchers. It’s our money now. Too bad."

I guess Viking River Cruises need the money more than the many (mostly senior citizens some who have saved for years for their cruise) they have been scammed out of their money. "It’s our money now." Too bad.

The tour was very nice. The trip bring us to visit one of those places and beautiful sightseeing. Very good. I will definitely re-visit the tour in the future! All of my family loved it. It's like we are going somewhere we would never expected. It is indeed a lifetime experience!

Their customer service for booking has been terrible. We changed the date of our cruise due to potential low water on the Rhine. Cost us $400 more each. When I made the down payment it was applied to our cancelled cruise.

Called again and asked if we could get the free airfare offer. No problem I was told and was also told the first agent had messed up the original booking. No problem. I make the next payment with one remaining.

6 1/2 months before our sailing my wife calls to ask a question and is told we do not have airfare included. I call and the agent says he needs to escalate this to a supervisor. She tells me we are out of luck because we didn't contact them in time to tell them about their mistake.

I suggest strongly that since it is their error they need to honor our booking. She says she will investigate. I get an email a couple of days later telling me it was their error so they will honor it. No apologies for the mistakes or for the way she responded to me.

They then showed our final payment due of October 15th on an invoice dated November 19th. Got an email and a call that our payment was delinquent and our booking could be cancelled.

Forwarded the email showing a due date of November 30th. No apologies for their error again. Sure hope the service on the cruise is better than this.

We recently returned from the river cruise, Oberammergau with Salzburg. The play was absolutely beautifully done and very meaningful. I can't over rate it, and made up for the disappointments of the other experiences. Viking has done away with all restrictions on covid.

Guests do not have to quarantine in their cabin if they're ill, no masks required, and no testing. As a result, by the time we deboarded the ship many of us were sick with the virus. We also wore masks, but they were ineffective against so many who were infected.

Secondly the Gottweig Abbey was a disappointment. We were looking forward to seeing the monks, or learning about their daily living. Instead it was a walk around explaining the architecture, grounds, etc.

We signed up for the thermal baths in Budapest, not knowing what it was other than reputed to be good for the body. There are very hot pools, very hot tubs, and sauna. We realized very shortly the breeding ground for every virus and bacteria and ended our time there.

I'm shocked that Viking would offer that as an excursion especially in this time of continuing pandemic.

In Krems we did a walking tour of the city, quite interesting and charming, and had several hours free to explore. We learned there was the Mauthausen Memorial (concentration camp) within a short drive. This had not been offered as an excursion trip, no info shared about this memorial.

We tried to take a Uber ($260 euros), or a bus or train that only went on certain times which would have made us late in returning. We were very disappointed this memorial was not provided as an alternative tour.

Upon returning to the ship and talking with guest services we were informed that it was offered and no one signed up for it. It was not offered, no info even given if a few couples wanted to go together on an uber, and not an excursion.

Finally the food was average, not great as in a previous river cruise last year Paris to Normandy and back. There certainly was plenty of food, and presentation nice, but quality not there.

Furthermore going through the locks was very interesting, and the Mozart & Strauss Concert in Vienna was outstanding. We hope to be able to cruise again with Viking, but until covid is handled differently by the cruise ship, we don't feel safe booking another trip.

False advertising. Viking advertises $25 deposit and then tells my travel agent that even though it is plainly stated in their advertisement that it doesn’t apply to this one specific cruise. I called Viking and a very nice lady tells me that the $25 deposit is for all cruises, no exclusions.

This is not my travel agents fault. By the way, currently have 5 cruises reserved with Viking. It’s not about the money, I just like dealing with honest people. We are looking to cancel the cruises where we can and try to book with Regents or another honest Cruise Line.

The short term gain that Viking thinks they are going to gain from this false advertising is going to have long term consequences.

I’m a single traveler wanting to take the 4-month world cruise this December 2022 but there is no single supplement and my cost is more than double as a single traveler.

Viking doesn’t match single travelers who might want to “room together” in order to save costs. It feels a bit discriminating to want to travel as a single woman.

In 2019, my wife and I booked a Viking River Cruise for June 2020, from Amsterdam to Budapest before the outbreak of Covid. We used Viking for all the booking arrangements and even upgrades for the air flights plus we added a week's stay before and after the cruise.

We were talked into using the ACH (checking account) method of paying for the trip for a small discount. At the end of March 2020, we were notified due to Covid the trip was cancelled.

OK I can buy that, plus we get a letter telling us that they gave us a voucher worth 125% of what we paid toward a future cruise or if we didn't use the voucher within 2 years, they would refund our money.

They touted the extra 25% would cover a Pre/Post cruise extension; upgrade your stateroom category; or even upgrade to business class air. You also had to read the voucher where it states if you rebook and cancel you lose your money or if you book a cruise at a lesser amount of the voucher you also are out the extra funds.

Hah, as time went by, we continued to check on cruises only to find that Viking had increased the price of the same cruise to exceed the 125% voucher plus they changed their rules for sailing.

You had to be vaccinated, which I'm one in the category of throwing blood clots, so I can't be vaccinated. There are no exceptions with Viking. So, we just decided to forget the cruise with Viking and wait the 2 years for Viking to return our money.

A few weeks before the 2 years were up my wife called to ask when our money would be returned. She spoke to a very nice agent who assured her that he put her request into the system and it would be processed on March 30, 2022 and would take a couple of weeks for the refund but she could call back on that date and get more details.

A couple of weeks went by, still not March 20 yet, she called again and there was no record of her call. Assured once again we would be placed into their system for a refund. April 1, 2022, rolls around and called once again being told of no record of our request but they would add it to the system.

I got suspicious and started checking on Viking only to find that the owner, Hagen, had lost 66% of his wealth which the remaining 34% is probably in his inventory of ships. So since April 1, 2020, we called once a week and for the first 3 weeks we got the same answer.

April 20, 2022, I get an email telling us they are extending our voucher for another year so we can take advantage of the extra 25%.

I called immediately and talked to a nice agent and explained we couldn't sail with Viking due to their vaccination requirements and asked about our refund that was supposed to be in progress. There was no record of a refund but she would process it.

I waited a couple of days, called and the agent said they were processing the refund and he explained that the majority of the money would be sent back to the bank account it was sent from (ACH) and the credit card charge would be credited to the card account.

The credit card was used for the airlines upgrade. So approximately 2 months later we received a check from Viking for $860 with the notation of, "Voucher Refund." No credit card refund and no funds returned to the bank account they were taken from.

Even if Viking relaxed their rules I wouldn't book another cruise with them as I can't trust them and there are now way too many bad reviews for their service, lack of staff on the ships. Poor food and being bused from ship to ship instead of sailing up the river missing the towns and tours along the way.

Viking waited till literally the last minute to change the rules on their cruise. We just happened to check our email and saw the mask mandate. This is the second time. We canceled immediately.

My wife has been planning and replanning this cruise for weeks. Now we've lost $1K+ in Airbnb and prepays. It was for our 30 anniversary and it was down to 2 weeks till flying out. Screw you Viking and your poorly run petri dish.

If you need to get your money back or use a credit they give you, forget it. You will lose money. We booked and had to cancel and we received "credit". We were ready to rebook and found we had to use 10,000 credit on a 5500 cruise or we lose it. Never again for us!

My trip on the Vidar with Viking: Amsterdam to Bucharest My flight was changed three times due to the quarantine change with the Netherlands so I lost my flight on Icelandair. This made it difficult to get a PCR test on time for the flight as times kept changing; I had to reschedule four times!

The flight I took had me going to Newark New Jersey one of the least vaccinated places. Food was bland to bad, service laughable. Tours boring and overpriced. Staff lie and rip you off. Boat collisions, diesel exhaust and cigarette smoked piped into cabin, internet down for days.

Laundry over priced and inept. Left a pass key in room so you could rob other guests. No communication except lies and promises. Tiny bathroom with insects: spiders, green beetles, 4 inch thick lumpy mattress. No refund for last leg of trip despite promises.

For $25,000 avoid this crooked company. Insurance is worthless won't even get flight upgrade you pay for.