Rickkentucky

I’ve read all the comments regarding the christening of the Viking Sun with some amusement. Yes, it didn’t go as probably planned or hoped for by Viking, but what do you want Viking to do - comp everyone a free cruise. My wife and I stayed in the ship and had a great dinner at Manfredi’s. Didn’t see any “special” guests at all in the restaurant. We’ve heard more petty complaining on this cruise than any we’ve taken in the past. My hats off to Viking. They don’t nickel dime their guests to death with fees for everything; the food’s been great; the drinks free flowing; and the tours have been fun - need I go on. Sure, I think some things could be better, but I’ve been on big cruise ships with 3,000+ of my favorite friends and I’ll choose Viking every time. Thank you Viking!!

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Mr. Torstein Hagen

Ms. Karine Hagen

Captain Atle Knutsen

Mr. Sujith Mohan

As well as looking forward to the event for weeks before sailing, we received a lovely formal invitation to the Viking Sun Christening. Little did we know that it was our first UNinvitation to an event in our lives. To add insult to injury, new clothing and jewelry was purchased in Shanghai because we were told a half of a dozen times or more by the Cruise Director and in the Viking Daily that it was an "elegant" event. Instead, this was nothing more than a scam to get us off the ship that we paid in excess of $114,000 to be on to not even be in the bleacher seats to witness the most momentous event of the Inaugural World Cruise we selected. We were herded onto buses, having to step aside for the "valued" guests, to an off-site, low class venue where we were not served in any way. We "enjoyed" lousy, largely unedible food in a combination of family style and long buffet lines because you wanted us out of our dining rooms. There was cheap wine and warm water and juice with no ice and only one glass per person. Despite all this, we still waited excitedly for the event. The event appeared on a few TVs that were postage stamp size from where we were sitting and we could see little and hear nothing. Although this was better than the Viking brand of internet, there is better media coverage at your average local sports bar. We are sure you enjoyed it very much and we knew that every management crew member (because they were not with us) and many members of the press were truly enjoying the event, a real kick in the gut to those of us who have made a major monetary and time commitment to this Viking voyage. Finally, word got out before the event was over that there was a few buses waiting and a mass stampede ensued. All ticket groupings were ignored and there was pushing and shoving to get on the buses because people could not wait to get out of there. We have photos that are suitable for #myvikingstory.

We have since heard that there was not room for everyone so some people (who didn't arrive until 7:45, by the way) were shuffled off to another room. It makes the poor planning and lack of due diligence by Shore Excursions for this world cruise to look not quite so bad.

We waited a couple of days to write this for two reasons. First we wanted to see if we would be less angry in the light of day. This has not happened because there is nothing you can sugarcoat or excuse but mostly we waited for the second reason. We waited for you. There has been not one single note of acknowledgement or apology let alone compensation for what we endured and lost since this debacle happened two days ago. Organizations should not do world cruises who do not know what world class behavior is and the importance and impact of their paying guests. We suppose you wish to retain your #1 ranking, but it is going to be difficult.

My wife and I choose to stay onboard during the christening ceremony, because we could see it was hectic and probably not going as Viking planned. We had a pleasant dinner on board and watched the ceremony from the ship. While it may not have been as glamorous as Viking planned we don’t fault Viking. We can’t imagine the logistics of trying to coordinate such a big event and will not allow this one event define how we feel about the level of service provided by Viking on our round the world trip - they are still number one in our book!

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