lagunalinda

In March, 2020, Viking offered my husband and me the opportunity for priority booking being repeat guests on a Mississippi River Cruise on the new Viking Mississippi for October 15-29, 2022. We were very excited as we had been wanting to do this cruise and on a new Viking river boat, what could be better? We looked forward with great anticipation during the pandemic. In mid -September of this year, we received our luggage tags and cabin assignment; our long- awaited Mississippi River Cruise was almost here! Wrong!!! On September 26, we received a very standard, non-personable email from Richard Marnell, Executive VP for Viking Cruises, stating that some of the cabins on the Viking Mississippi had not been completed, and ours was one of them. Therefore, we would not be sailing! We were offered 100% refund of all monies paid for this cruise or 110% credit on any future Viking Cruise good through 2024. Much to our dissatisfaction all Viking Mississippi River cruises are completely booked through 2024, so the credit wouldn't be valid for this cruise. Why in the world would the boat be sailing when it wasn't completed??? Surely, Viking knew the cabins wouldn't be complete and be able to give us more than 2 weeks notice before the cruise! On September 27, we contacted our Viking agent and requested a full refund which we received in 20 business days. On September 30, I sent an email to Harold Seebacher, SVP of Viking Passenger Operations River Cruises, explaining our misfortune of our cruise being canceled and felt the whole situation could have been handled in a much more customer friendly manner. It doesn't appear that Viking really cares about or gives priority to repeat guests. This would have been our 4th cruise with Viking, and we have another cruise booked with them in 2023. To date, I have not received a response from Mr. Seebacher. Again, very poor customer service! In the meantime, we learned that our friends who were 1st time Viking guests were offered 125% credit when their river cruise was cancelled 2 years ago due to the pandemic, and passengers on the October 1 Viking Mississippi cruise received a full refund plus 25% on any future Viking cruise when the boat couldn't operate due to the low water level of the river. We fail to understand why we weren't offered 25% credit on a future cruise. I sent an email to Viking Guest Services on October 18 requesting a 25% credit and was immediately denied by Mariana Fiel. Why does Viking give 10% credit to some and 25% to others ???We will definitely not be booking any future cruises with Viking! There are other cruise companies that operate on the Mississippi and Great Lakes that have new ships, so we will take our business to them.