VikingReviews of viking.com

I had a reservation for the Heart of Delta Cruise including premium economy for the air portion. I was advised after booking and making my deposit that I was being downgraded to economy. I then called and was told if I wanted premium economy I would now have to pay a higher price. This is called bait and switch and is unethical if not down right fraudulent.

Just received an email from Viking informing us that half of the Xmas markets we were suppose to visit will not be open. They marketed the cruise as a Xmas market cruise which is why we booked it. We get the email 3 days prior to our trip and they knew from the beginning the markets would not open until early December. A clear case of bait and switch and will cause us to never cruise with them again.

We just returned from a Viking Eastern European River cruise. We are so disappointed. We believed Viking was a premiere travel company; this is so not the reality. One of the worst, and most expensive, trips we have ever taken. The flights they booked for us to and from were both 23-hour ordeals. Days were then cut off the beginning and end of the cruise due to low water on the Danube… something they informed us of the day before we left, (even though they knew this was the case well in advance). A third of our “Danube cruise” was instead spent crammed on uncomfortable buses. And, we were crammed into buses for hours daily for crowded excursions. The excursions were not very good, either, with dozens of people being herded around seeing very little. Dining on the boat, and even on extra paid dinner experiences, we were also crammed together. It was always loud, and rushed, and uncomfortable. We often couldn’t carry on a conversation comfortably. Our group of five friends always struggled, and often failed, to find seating together. Everyone ended up sick by the end of the vacation. It was pretty bad. Very sad. I am embarrassed because the trip was my idea, and I subjected five people to quite a bit of misery. Needless to say, Viking is not a company I will ever use again.

We have taken many river/ocean cruises with Viking. For over a year we have been planning a trip to Jerusalem and Egypt. Our primary goal was to visit Jerusalem. On October 10th, 2023 Viking cancel our trip to Jerusalem which we understand. I called Viking and asked to have our trip rebooked to next year. Both the representative and manager I spoke with refused to rebook without a penalty of 75%. I explained several times we would not have booked a trip to Egypt without including Jerusalem. Viking at one time provided excellent customer service, we have been greatly disappointed in the last few trips we've taken and especially our Jerusalem Trip. I do not recommend traveling with Viking.

TO WHO DARES TRAVEL WITH VIKING THEY SHOULD KNOW THE RISKS THEY CAN RUN On August 20, 2023 my husband 80 and I 76 years old, boarded a Viking ship to cruise the south of France, Arles to Lyon. We have done more tha 15 cruises on river and sea. Even though we had read bad comments about Viking’s service we took the risk and committed a terrible error embarking with them, having to suffer personally all said and worse. On one of the tours Thursday 23 of August, I injured my knee when getting off the bus that took us on the tour, having trouble walking and with an excrutiating pain. When we requested for medical assistance from Ivelina Giorgeva and Rafael Poblete, since we had purchased the travel insurance that Viking offers to its passengers, I was surprised to hear that they needed the copy of the insurance so they could give me any aid. I explained to them that Iwe received the statement of purchase but never a copy of the contract. They stated that they did not carry on board any of the passengers information (can you believe this?) and that if I did not have the copy and number I would have to seek medical attention on my own. We should pay with our credit card and present the documents to the insurance company when we got home for a reimbursement. We should not present them to Viking because they were only “intermidiaries” for the insurance carrier and that it was our total responsability. The worst part of all this situation was that none of their personnel or leaders had any intention in helping us in any way. So in a torrential downpour in Lyon we had to find the nearest hospital and limp up 15 stairs to the terrace of our ship, cross throw another ship which was docked on the pier, go down their steps to shore and walk many blocks without a companion (nor wheelchair ) in an unknown city, not knowing the language. They left us totally on our own When we got back we requested Rafael Poblete if someone onboard could assist us to obtain the prespcription they gave me at the hospital, given that we would pay for everything. He answered, again, that the ship did not have that service. Never in all the cruises we have done, have we seen passengers with similar problems be treated in such an inhuman and lack of empathy from the personnel after paying US$20.000.oo for the trip. We communicated American Express that viking had robbed and scammed us selling an “insurance” that we had not been able to use, and we were immediately reimbursed. Viking accepted that we were ill treated, called and wrote to offer us a US$2000.oo voucher for a next trip. They can do with their voucher what ever they want. We advice all Viking passengers not to buy their insurance because it is an expensive and total scam. Additionally to all this, we were informed by some crew members that they had never recieved one cent of the tips Viking requests from the passengers to be distributed among them. We consider, my husband and I, that this trip in all its aspects was abominable and the most traumatic one ever done by us. We have all the correspondence between us and Viking to demonstrate what we assert in this letter. TO WHO DARES TRAVEL WITH VIKING THEY SHOULD KNOW THE RISKS THEY CAN RUN

Attempting to book flights with a Viking Cruise, Passau to Budapest, June/July 2024 - when calling and speaking with three different Viking reps., get three completely different answers to the same questions. Viking needs all their employees to have better training on the exact details of booking flights. I hesitate to book a flight through Viking

We have just got off the phone with Viking Air - the latest of several. Viking Air gave us one hour between when they sent us our itinerary and told us they booked the flights. We had no chance to respond. The return flights call for us to be flying to Dallas for 27 hours with a 3-hour layover in Doha. We initially asked them to let us lay over in Doha so we could get some rest. They proposed an 8-hour layover instead of 3. Since you have to collect bags and then return through security there was no sense in taking the option. On this latest call they gave the option of paying $350 each to get a longer layover even though we would never have accepted this itinerary in the first place. No matter how good the cruise is, what I'll remember are the horrendous flights home.

Have recently returned from a Viking cruise down the Douro. The cruise was fine but the final 36 hours were disastrous. Viking booked our return flight for 2030hrs from Porto to UK. We had to vacate our cabin at 0900 and the only washing/toilet facility was a single small unit on board. We we given a snack lunch at 1200noon but thereafter the only refreshments available were from a coffee machine. We were able to use the public lounge until being “evicted” due to a staff meeting. We were transported to the airport at 1700 and “dumped” there - the promised Viking representative was not in evidence. Due to no fault of Viking our flight was cancelled but we had to find our own accommodation overnight and our own transport to/from the airport. The next day we returned to the airport and, again, there was no Viking representative. We eventually flew home via Lisbon. British Airways have refunded all additional expenses but Viking have only offered a small discount off a future cruise provided we book it within 12 months. The Viking stated company ethos of “far exceeding expectations” is sadly just words and not actuality.