fairweathertraveller

Yes 2025 itinerary still showing as bookable, though some threads here suggest dates have been cancelled already. Same for 2024 itinerary despite possibility of cancellation too. You would think Viking might take all these dates down in light of events, but no doubt a commercial reason for not doing so! vouchers v cash an interesting discussion….some bad experiences and certainly worth a bit of consideration before taking a tempting offer!

Just recently had email comms from Viking regarding the October 2024 dates for ‘Passage to India’. They do not expect anything to change between now and then as regards safety in the Red Sea area and committed to advising customers booked on this at latest by 15th August maybe sooner. They have also waived cancellation fees on this cruise until 31st August so anyone wishing to pull out up to that date can do so charge free. They have listed a number of options open to customers of this booking….these include cancelling/full refund : booking another 2024 cruise with £800 spend added to the new booking: booking a 2025/26 cruise with a 10% spend added to that booking. A voucher option is also available….I suspect they WILL pull this itinerary but am still mystified as to why they are delaying this decision given they’ve already pulled this from 2025 schedule. At least they’ve give us a number of options NOW for those worried enough about whether, even if this itinerary does proceed, would we want to go?

As I mentioned previously, the longer they delay making a decision the fewer choices will be left, if you wish to take another Viking Cruise this year….booking 6 months ahead nowadays quite ‘short notice’ for a lot of holidays as many people are booking much farther ahead. 125% is an attractive offer, but only if you can find something which appeals! I see that on the UK web site, for this cruise 2025/26 dates there is still a lot of availability showing, which suggests they are still selling staterooms…which seems odd, if, as been commented, these cruises are now no longer running. Who knows…? If I hear anything further I’ll post an update here asap👍

As of today 15/4, Viking are still intending to operate this itinerary for the October, 2024 dates. I find it quite bizarre that next year’s sailings for this itinerary are confirmed as cancelled and, yet this October is deemed ok to run🤔! Also, for those thinking about cancelling, (before the due date for the payment of the final balance), seems like this would cost you 25% of the full payment, according to their T&Cs….unless I’ve read that wrong? Please correct if I’ve misread this information…. a bit of a dilemma then?

I’m also booked on the October 2024 itinerary from Athens to Mumbai. Despite asking the question to Viking a few times, have not been given any direct answer as to whether we are going on the advertised itinerary/a different version of that/not going at all😮! The problem is, if Viking do not communicate their intention with this cruise pretty soon, other 2024 options will be very limited indeed🙁! More chance then that customers will look elsewhere to spend their money, so that’s a risky strategy for them! I find it curious that, having cancelled this itinerary for 2025, why, given the circumstances, would they appear to be going with it this year???🤔 As other contributors have said, it would just be good to know so that alternative options can be considered…