T&jw
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Posts posted by T&jw
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We were booked for the Sep. 5, 2021 British Isle Explorer.
Viking canceled our trip. We do not think they should have done that. They should have met their obligations and started with China after all current cruises were completed. This trip was a rebooking for us from May 2, 2020, canceled due to covid. We thought Viking stepped up at that time. But the decision to cancel the Sep.5, 2021 trip must have been a money-maker for Viking. They need to do better. Nor impressed.
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Thanks for your post, Francesca. We dread having this drag out another 8 months. Trip Mate won’t do anything until Lufthansa has done all they will do (I imagine to pay as little as they can), but in calls to Lufthansa you don’t get a real person to talk to, and all we get from emails is the same auto-response with a new number assigned. Lufthansa somehow crossed over our paperwork to the couple we were traveling with so everything is a mess, and after repeated requests for them to straighten things out, nothing’s changed.
Viking told us to give them a call after all our dealings with Lufthansa and Trip Mate was finished...if we weren’t happy. I guess that means if we aren’t reimbursed for expenses. So no, Viking has not stepped up, we’ve been offered nothing. It surprises us too, having talked to others who were compensated as you were or in similar ways, as well as a couple people in the industry.
Thanks for the supervisor suggestion, we’ll try that with Trip Mate after dealing with Lufthansa. It’s so frustrating. You’re right, a nightmare.
Thanks again for the post.
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@marykatesmom
Yes, you’re right, shopping options onboard are very limited. We found mostly long pants and sweaters, impossible for the hot weather we had.
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@sherrar
19 hrs is a long time!
We had the same experience with the crew, they were fabulous! They seemed to all know our predicament and went beyond.
From past experiences also, we agree the flight part is where Viking needs great improvement. Like, it makes no sense that we paid in full in November, they hold onto our money and don’t ticket us until the last minute. We were originally put in the very last row, no reclining seats on international flight is no bueno. But, they tell us after we ask about it, for another $25 they will ticket earlier. They probably can make $25 in interest just on the over $20,000 we paid in November to fly in July.
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@philw
All good ideas, as the GM told us, they are still learning. We felt if Viking would have done a couple things differently, things may have ended differently, so we believe Viking shares some responsibility with Lufthansa.
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We will do several things differently next time. We did try to buy clothes but being in a new resortish and unfamiliar city in a strange country every day, it’s not like walking off the ship and finding a Macys. Nothing we found fit my husband and or me very well and I’m average size. It’s the experiences we missed on and off board...
Lessons learned
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No from Viking. Submitted to Lufthansa, have not heard from them and they’re really what’s holding everything up.
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The Orion is a beautiful ship and the crew is awesome. We booked 3 cruises back to back, starting in Barcelona, ending in Athens. Our flights, transfers, cruises, and post extension in Athens were all arranged by Viking. Our experience wasn’t great on the first 2 cruises. The morning of our flight for departure we got a text that our flight out of Portland would be 2 1/2 hrs late, leaving us 1 minute in Chicago for connecting flight to Zurich. We called Viking immediately, we were told to call the airport and see what we could find. We replied that they need to find flights to get us to the ship on time, which they did, and that they would notify Viking reps in Barcelona of our changed arrival time for transfers. But the too short of connection time in Frankfurt was a problem. We ran to make the connection, however our luggage didn’t make it onto the plane. Arriving in Barcelona, the Viking reps were surprised to see us and we were surprised our luggage wasn’t there. Viking reps told us it will be on the next flight in 1 1/2 hrs. We wanted to wait for it, but they said don’t worry, we are your travel agents, we will get your luggage to the ship tonight, then had us file a claim. Later we found out they took us to the wrong window for the claim. No luggage. All we had were the clothes on our backs. Almost every day we were told it should be at the next port, so we waited to try to find clothes. After several days, we had to find time to shop for clothes. We had to cancel excursions we were excited about, and gave up all our free time in several ports, trying to find clothes to fit. Being a larger man, my husband found not one thing to fit him, and what I found was temporary as there isn’t much I will wear at home. A vacation we anticipated for a year and a half should be fun, not spent shopping for necessities.I’ll tell you how our days went. It was very hot and humid. We were very sweaty returning from excursions (or shopping). We removed our clothes, put on the provided robes, I used the hairdryer to dry my bra, undies, and clothes, my husband dried all his clothes, just so we could eat dinner in dry clothes. After dinner, we returned to our room, removed our clothes, put on the robes, sent our clothes out for overnight laundry and sat in our room. Our clothes were delivered to us the next morning, to put on the same clothes, to start that day, which was going to go just like the day before and the day before that. We couldn’t go out in the evenings to enjoy the entertainment, we couldn’t go swimming, we couldn’t socialize, we basically slept and ate on this beautiful ship and couldn’t enjoy the amenities. There were parts of the ship we didn’t know were there until the last week.The friends we were traveling with, one got their luggage on day 2, my husband got his on day 8, the other friend and I got ours on day 15. Two thirds of our vacation was gone.We haven’t asked Viking for anything, but feel they should do the right thing, step up and offer something. Their website refers to them acting as our travel agents, when a guest calls to book a vacation we are told they are our travel agents, the Viking reps in Barcelona even called themselves our travel agents, but apparently that’s not so. When there’s a problem, then they say they’re not travel agents. To clarify for when we want to make future bookings, my husband called guest relations to ask whether or not they are. Not only was he told they are not acting as travel agents, when my husband tried to explain why he was asking, the Viking person was rude, interrupted him and didn’t allow him to finish. My husband called again the next day, a different Viking person treated him in the same manner. So be warned, if you think Viking is your travel agent, they’re not. You’re on your own if you have problems. Viking can’t have it both ways, either they are or aren’t acting as travel agents.As I started, the Orion is beautiful and the crew is exceptional! The GM was wonderful and used resources on board to try to make our time as good as it could be under the circumstances. But for this booking, Viking fell down in almost every other way.
In the meantime, our purchase claims are submitted to both Travel Mate travel insurance and Lufthansa. We are waiting to hear from the travel insurance, but they want to hear from Lufthansa first. But aside from automated replies to our repeated emails, we’re finding it impossible to get ahold of Lufthansa, and this has put us in an impossible situation for reimbursement of necessities purchased. We have spent many, many hours dealing with this, and none of this was our fault. Things shouldn’t be this hard.T&jw
Terry and Jackie Woebke
VIKING SUN joins new Chinese company in 2021
in Viking Ocean
Posted
Yes and no.
We have rebooked for Aug2022.
They give the 125% on money you paid for this trip. As this trip was a rebooking from a trip canceled due to covid, we used voucher from first cancelation. That means you end up having the same amount of money to use . Any increases, you lose out.
We got the 125% from first cancelation, used it on second trip that Viking decided to give to Chinese, but nothing in addition for the third.
So, for the August 2022 booking, the third time trying to do the British Isle Explorer, we feel we did not get the 125%.
We talked about leaving Viking for good, taking the refund. But there is not a similar cruise line that one could use to replace Viking. We decided that we will continue with them, but another business decision by Viking that throws us under the bus, we'll go elsewhere.