superchel

On 8/22/2019 at 11:08 AM, G.M.T. said:

The town of Roth is correct.

 

The op was not sitting 3 days on the boat, ALL the photos were taken from a moving bus, never mentioned what Viking laid on. Within 1 hour drive of Roth, you have Nuremberg, Bamberg, Regensburg, Kloster Weltenberg,  and lots more.

 

Viking has been got at over various things but not over ship swap, which runs like clockwork with the number of ships they have available.

 

I think there is more to the op rant than just what they wrote. Who knows, maybe he considered himself a vip but Viking didn't, doesn't like German food, expected the natives to be running around in Lederhose and driving the cows into the mountains.

 

I bet the op was a bundle of fun on the boat, probably arguing with the Captain and Cruise Director about chocolate bars, could be turned into  film:

 

"Mutiny over the Bounty".

 

Just imagine, the op sets the officers adrift in a small boat and after a navigation miracle and  fighting off the natives (dropping their Lederhose) and reaching Nuremberg after a 21minute epic journey they are safe. The op is caught and is not sentenced to be hung at the yard arm BUT to take a Viking river cruise once a year for the rest of his life.

 

I think Viking did a good job showing Germany's waste management system and not just dumping plastic rest in the oceans.

 

 

Actually, I am the poster and YES we were sitting on the boat, non stop until they finally took us to Nurembeg.  See my second post.   The part of Roth they tied us too was an industrial waste dump.  The trip to Nuremburg did take two hours.  But thank you for making assumptions on something you know nothing about.  It is well known, (see the other posts here) that Tor was tied there for several days before our swap, and didn't move until our last day...and only then by backing down the canal.  What else would you like to discuss?  I only asked why the other boats we were encountering did true swaps while we were tied there, not moving...

17 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Just for a comparison, let me tell you about our river cruises last year - it was a bad year for all rivers in Europe.

1 Our Viking Elbe cruise from Berlin to Prague was cancelled and we were notified a week before we were to leave for the cruise. We received full refund but no compensation for changing of air

2 This cruise was to be followed by an AMA Budapest to Bucharest cruise so we left for Europe (Budapest) a week later (flew for miles so it only cost us a change fee that Viking did not cover).

Luck would have it that our AMA cruise was cancelled as well as the ship couldn’t get past Vienna. We were offered a cruise of same duration from Vienna up the river instead of the Budapest to Bucharest cruise. In addition to this we received a full refund in a form of a credit for future AMA cruise - in other words, we get a cruise of same duration (different itinerary) PLUS a “free” cruise in the future. In addition, as everyone was in Budapest for the cruise they bused us all to Vienna AND as people were scheduled to end in Bucharest (we had a private tour there) they flew EVERYONE who needed to be there to Bucharest for free or home from Vienna for those that had no plans in Bucharest.

Now - that is what I call compensation for an inconvenience even though it was out of their control.

That will surely want me to cruise with AMA again (in addition to our “free” cruise)😀

I am so happy that AMA treated you so well in the face of disruption.  We had done a previous viking and it was spectacular...which is why we booked again so soon.  This one was such a let down.  Truly poor service.

Here is another post about how TOR was tied up...this guy did the reverse swap.  https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=660036   Or do you think he made this up as well looking for a free cruise because he missed a shrimp cocktail.  At least they got to get off..but his is pretty much ours in reverse.  He went to VAR and did get to cruise. back to Hungary.  We never moved.

For all of you asking:  They DID not do a swap and continue on. This was on and around the first of July. VIKING VAR/TOR.  We were taken from our boat for a swap, but once we got there they left us tied up for 3 days.  The pics of the bus....yeah let me tell  you about that day:  They took us on a 2 hour drive to a city (Nuremberg) and told us we could have ONE HOUR to look around.  At that point we all revolted!  And told them FIND another bus to pick us up at 5 or we would all take taxis back and they could have the bill.  Wanting a 'free cruise"?  Nice try..  NO  I paid $10,000 to sit in a drainage ditch for 3 days?  The tied-up ship is the Viking TOR.  You can sit in the picture of the crane. We were on the Viking VAR and after we were moved,  we were tied up for 3 days.  There are other posts about this experience here.  How many pictures do you need for this?  I have tons, including a satellite photo of the area we were tied in.  Roth is a damn industrial waste site and our drive was 2 hours long - not the hour you are all swearing about. They weren't even going to take any of us anywhere, but so many people were fighting with the staff, that the brought in 1 whole bus! This was.....AFTER a 6 hour transfer trip - yeah  we were told that the transfer would be about 3 hours.  You can all sit there and act like you know what happened.  But I can give you names, dates and times.  Our captain hid in the wheel house.  Our poor CD was left to face a bunch of angry people.  And yes, many other boats did exactly that swap and continued on.  THAT was my point....WHY WERE WE TIED THERE for 3 days.  TOR, we found out, had already been tied there for 3 days before we got there for the swap.   What else do you need?   We were told the boat would just turn around.  NO, they finally on our last day, had to back it all the way down the canal.  So you all think we are just lying?  Nice try.  Viking treated us like ***** and you think we are bitching about a shrimp cocktail?  Wow...    You tell me why the never turned it around and had to back it out.  You try sitting in that canal for 3 days and listening to trucks rumble by. And have trash float by.  Then find out it had been there as long as it had, not moving.  UNREALISTIC expectations?  For $10,000 I got to see below....and you think it is a joke?  Try it....see what you would say  The ship is 450 feet long and that canal was maybe 100 feet wide.  We got screwed bad...and you think we are all just making it up.  WOW.   

They really did.  I saw 3 other posts on here about the VAR/TOR awful 'ship swap' where we were tied in a drainage ditch for 3 days and did not CRUISE.   Finally got an offer of an amount (not allowed to say how much thanks to a NDA)  let us just say it barely paid for one day of sitting in a drainage ditch.  No amount of arguing changed that.  So we are going to just let our 'credit' lapse.  Viking does NOT deserve the amount of money it would cost to do Viking again.  Even with our pitiful credit.  They blew it.  And they really don't care.  At all.   To pay $10,000 to sit tied up in an industrial waste ditch for 3 days and then get nothing but poor treatment by 'customer service',   I wish I could sell my credit to someone who would use it. Heck, I would donate it to a charity but I can't transfer it.  There are at least 12 other cruise lines who were in our exact same situation that didn't tie their passengers up and leave them stranded for days.  Guess I will just be looking at them next time.  look at the pictures and think"  Romantic Danube?"  Thanks Viking.  Great service.  Never again.