:(:mad: The trip up the Rhone in France on the ship Neptune 8-14 May 2013 was an utter disaster. My 93-year-old mother in law, who was fresh out of hospital, had the idea she would be resting in her stateroom watching the river go by. This was the only reason she'd agreed to come on holiday.
It wasn’t entirely Viking Cruises’ fault (the river was so swollen, negotiating the locks was dangerous). But surely a company of Viking’s size might have had the common sense to anticipate that some elderly and frail passengers might not take kindly to being disembarked each morning for 9 hours while the boat sailed up the river and through the locks with a skeleton crew in accordance with Health and Safety. The only place for the frail and elderly to rest was on the tour bus taking us on the hours-long trip to the next docking place! As a diversion, we were offered an unscheduled tour of a candy factory, but we and other elderly passengers declined. So we found ourselves shortly afterwards having paid thousands of pounds sterling in order to sit on a bus in a car park ! Many of us complained of course, and one American passenger who had paid 7,000 US dollars for his trip stood up at dinner and challenged the senior officer and chief tour guide about the lack of foresight and organisation. Their response? They offered us free drinks in the bar that night! The next day we were given the offer of transferring to a hotel in Lyon, but of course, the stress of it all was too much, and to take up the hotel offer would have meant my husband, myself and the 93-year old lady packing and disembarking within 20 minutes flat! The situation became totally bizarre when a senior officer told my husband and me that ‘Your mother can stay on board tomorrow, but she must hide in her cabin. Otherwise I will be in big trouble!!’ The upshot? Unsolicited, Viking offered my husband and me a discount of 50% on any cruise we might book with them in the future. I thought it was very rude of them not to offer the same discount to my mother in law! We will of course never, never, never take up Viking’s offer. A Viking cruise is now our idea of hell.
Just returned from Viking's Portraits of Southern France
in River Cruising
Posted
:(:mad: The trip up the Rhone in France on the ship Neptune 8-14 May 2013 was an utter disaster. My 93-year-old mother in law, who was fresh out of hospital, had the idea she would be resting in her stateroom watching the river go by. This was the only reason she'd agreed to come on holiday.
It wasn’t entirely Viking Cruises’ fault (the river was so swollen, negotiating the locks was dangerous). But surely a company of Viking’s size might have had the common sense to anticipate that some elderly and frail passengers might not take kindly to being disembarked each morning for 9 hours while the boat sailed up the river and through the locks with a skeleton crew in accordance with Health and Safety. The only place for the frail and elderly to rest was on the tour bus taking us on the hours-long trip to the next docking place! As a diversion, we were offered an unscheduled tour of a candy factory, but we and other elderly passengers declined. So we found ourselves shortly afterwards having paid thousands of pounds sterling in order to sit on a bus in a car park ! Many of us complained of course, and one American passenger who had paid 7,000 US dollars for his trip stood up at dinner and challenged the senior officer and chief tour guide about the lack of foresight and organisation. Their response? They offered us free drinks in the bar that night! The next day we were given the offer of transferring to a hotel in Lyon, but of course, the stress of it all was too much, and to take up the hotel offer would have meant my husband, myself and the 93-year old lady packing and disembarking within 20 minutes flat! The situation became totally bizarre when a senior officer told my husband and me that ‘Your mother can stay on board tomorrow, but she must hide in her cabin. Otherwise I will be in big trouble!!’ The upshot? Unsolicited, Viking offered my husband and me a discount of 50% on any cruise we might book with them in the future. I thought it was very rude of them not to offer the same discount to my mother in law! We will of course never, never, never take up Viking’s offer. A Viking cruise is now our idea of hell.