Total Bait and Switch on Viking Sea Seville Apr 13

After advertising and selling the first stop on Barcelona, the Baltics and Beyond as Seville/Cadiz, Viking has dropped their two tours to Seville and the Sea arrives in the glorious freighter port of Cadiz at 8am and departs at 2pm. Even with a privately booked Cadiz-Seville tour, that only leaves about 90 mins to enjoy Seville. I don't understand how - with a full sea day before to travel from Barcelona to Cadiz - they can't arrive early enough and stay long enough to enjoy a reasonable excursion to Seville. Having already lost Seville on a previous cruise due to Atlantic weather, Seville on the itinerary was one of the main reasons we booked this itinerary and we are hugely disappointed with the way Viking handled this. Very UNCLEAN. :mad:

After advertising and selling the first stop on Barcelona, the Baltics and Beyond as Seville/Cadiz, Viking has dropped their two tours to Seville and the Sea arrives in the glorious freighter port of Cadiz at 8am and departs at 2pm. Even with a privately booked Cadiz-Seville tour, that only leaves about 90 mins to enjoy Seville. I don't understand how - with a full sea day before to travel from Barcelona to Cadiz - they can't arrive early enough and stay long enough to enjoy a reasonable excursion to Seville. Having already lost Seville on a previous cruise due to Atlantic weather, Seville on the itinerary was one of the main reasons we booked this itinerary and we are hugely disappointed with the way Viking handled this. Very UNCLEAN. :mad:

When is your sailing? I think the departure time of 2pm is the problem. Have you ask Viking why the time change in port? email them at Tellus@viking.com

Sometimes it is due to the port master, not the curise line. What is your next port of call after Cadiz?

Sorry that the trip to Seville is dropped.

I am on the Viking Sea on March 27 with a stop in Cadiz. we have booked the ship tour to Seville We lost he port of Casablance Morocco . It is the second time this port has been dropped form a cruise I am on.... I know the frustration but it is part of cruising. Ports and time do change, even at the last minute.

One thing I have learned through years of cruising is that you can NOT count on a port. So many factors determine whether the ship can dock and for how long it can dock are absolutely NOT under the control of the cruise line.

To title this thread "Total Bait and Switch" and "UNCLEAN" - serious overreaction, IMO and uncalled for. I can understand disappointment, but if you were so set on seeing that port, you should have flown in a few days early and visited it. You can still do that.

Our cruise called for a stop at Tortola and I was looking forward to a trip over to Jost Van Dyck and a visit to the Soggy Dollar Bar - but they had two hurricanes hit that area and our stop has been changed. Such is a cruiser's life. Am I disappointed? Sure, but I'm not ranting about it.

I truly hope that you contact Viking and give them a chance to explain. There are so many factors that goes into docking in ports some if not most of the cancellations are beyond their control. Please comeback here afterwards so we all know the truth rather than the speculation of bait and switch.

On our Barcelona the Baltics and Beyond last year they cancelled Guernsey and we went to Jersey. I think we found out about it when booking excursions, not sure. We missed Porto because of rough seas....and they WERE very rough!!!

Well, the departure time has been listed at 2pm. Our bad for assuming it was an error given the offer of 2 Seville excursions. Seville is a nice place to visit; Cadiz not so much. Casablanca is worth missing. Jersey for Guernsey no big deal - one channel island about the same as the other.

Viking response was "We hope your travel agent will be able to organize a private Seville tour for you." when they know they cannot because the operator can't guarantee they can get you back to the ship in that little port window. Which is exactly why Viking cancelled their excursions,

We are experienced cruisers with over 25 mostly high-end cruises. We don't overreact - we just act. At this point the least Viking could do is be intellectually honest and remove any references to Seville for the Apr 10 cruise - like here and several other places: https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/barcelona-baltic-beyond/index.html

That would be CLEAN. And oh, BTW, this has nothing to do with weather which everyone knows is out of all of our control and a regular cause of missed destinations. This Seville destination was never to be no matter the weather. We'll just put Seville back on the bucket list sans Viking.

So the departure time for your port of call at Cadiz was always 8-2pm your MJV calendar for this itinerary? And when your excursions opened up there was no ship tour to Seville? Do I have it right?

Again what is the next port of call after Cadiz? There is a reason why the ship is leaving at 2pm rather than 6pm when we are there on the sailing before yours.

BTW, I loved Cadiz. We were there on a Sunday and walked the town... went to church, ate a alvoely sidewalk cafe, visited a market set up on their plaza. Wewere the only ship in port and it was not an industrial port , but easy to walk off and into town. It was July of 2016 and it was hot and sunny.

Jersey was fine, we didn't mind. Are you saying that the Cadiz departure time has always been 2 PM? I don't remember what time we left because we stayed in Cadiz and enjoyed it.

I think Shake's point is simple and justified. There is a single "Barcelona, Baltics and Beyond" cruise available, departing April 10, 2018. There are no other departure dates. There are still cabins available for purchase. Any online information about the cruise has to be referring to this departure date. If I go look at the cruise itinerary today, the stop at "Seville (Cadiz)" lists several excursions to Seville. They are indicated to be 7 hours in length. If the ship docks at 8 AM and leaves at 2 PM, it is in port for 6 hours, and the excursions to Seville cannot take place. If I were booking this cruise today, I would not know until I had completed the purchase and could get into My Viking Journey and see the details that excursions being advertised at the time of purchase are known to not be available. This has nothing to do with changes that come up once the ship is at sea. It misrepresents the itinerary. I don't see any other way to interpret it.

Yes there were two Viking tours from Cadiz to Seville offered on the VO booking site and on MVJ excursions to preview (Seville on Your Own and Seville Highlights, I think), but they disappeared once MVJ opened up for booking.

We've done Cadiz twice. It was OK - nice church and great jogging there, but it's no Seville for history and character IMO. Lisbon is the next port - less than 300 sea miles from Cadiz - which would take about 15 hrs at 20 knots putting it pier-side at 5am the next day unless they take it slow. Transit time doesn't seem to be the issue; it must be a port departure slot time from Cadiz as some have noted.

Leaving Cadiz at 5pm to arrive Lisbon at scheduled 8am would have been magnificent and Viking would have sold a bunch of Seville tours, but c'est la vie...

I fully expect to love this cruise and the other ports. Just wish Viking had been upfront on the booking page and said "Due to port times we are no longer able to offer the Seville excursions." Pretty simple, pretty transparent, pretty honest. Instead, Seville is still listed on the itinerary for people looking to book the cruise from the Viking Ocean site, including the photo.

Perhaps they will recalibrate their site if they read this site...

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/barcelona-baltic-beyond/index.html

I think Shake's point is simple and justified. There is a single "Barcelona, Baltics and Beyond" cruise available, departing April 10, 2018. There are no other departure dates. There are still cabins available for purchase. Any online information about the cruise has to be referring to this departure date. If I go look at the cruise itinerary today, the stop at "Seville (Cadiz)" lists several excursions to Seville. They are indicated to be 7 hours in length. If the ship docks at 8 AM and leaves at 2 PM, it is in port for 6 hours, and the excursions to Seville cannot take place. If I were booking this cruise today, I would not know until I had completed the purchase and could get into My Viking Journey and see the details that excursions being advertised at the time of purchase are known to not be available. This has nothing to do with changes that come up once the ship is at sea. It misrepresents the itinerary. I don't see any other way to interpret it.

Exactly. Either Viking is being disingenuous or needs help with their website management.

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/barcelona-baltic-beyond/index.html#itineraryday/4

I think it is the later.

Actually, of the eleven shore excursions from the port of Cadiz promoted on the Viking Ocean cruise sales site, only four are available/offered on the "real world" MVJ site. Something is amiss.

We had a similar issue on Azamara on which the featured destination was Carcassonne from Port Vendres. It was impossible to visit in the time allowed. In fact there was a great deal of unrest amongst the passengers who realised the visit was impossible. Azamara listened and in the end extended the time in Port Vendres by arriving much earlier and leaving a little later and they put on the promised tour to Carcassonne.

For those who did not do the tour we had a lovely and rather unexpected day. A few kilometres from Port Vendres was the lovely little town of Coulliere. There was a small land train that took us there, fantastic little seaside town with lots of history, lovely shops, good lunch. We returned on the train over the top the hills with lovely views over the sea and vineyards.

My point really is that even if Viking do not listen (I suspect they might if other sailings have had longer in Cadiz) then you might still have a lovely day as I am sure you will find other options (Jerez or the Hammam which we absolutely loved in Turkey)

Coulliere turned out to be one of the best days on our cruise. Viking is lovely - enjoy your cruise.

Actually, of the eleven shore excursions from the port of Cadiz promoted on the Viking Ocean cruise sales site, only four are available/offered on the "real world" MVJ site. Something is amiss.

I have not looked at the Viking site in detail but on many other cruise websites, they list ALL of the potential excursions available at a given port in the general sales area (for example, if Viking is calling in Malaga on a different itinerary with a longer port call, then these other excursions would be offered).

They usually have some type of cautionary wording (if you look for it) that says you should look at the offerings for your specific cruise and that not all of these may be offered.

In a sense the excursions are there to give you an idea of what MAY be offered before you book. As a veteran cruiser, I always look closely at the port times and also at the day of the week when the ship is in port as indicators of what we may/may not be able to do. You would not believe -- or maybe you would -- how many ships call in to Civitavecchia on a Sunday and promote tours offering the Vatican Museum (closed)!

However, I do agree with you that even listing Seville on such a short port stop is disengenuous.

Next time consider a cruise on Voyages to Antiquity -- their small ship (350 pax) sails up the river and actually docks at Seville when she calls there. :)

Exactly. Either Viking is being disingenuous or needs help with their website management.

 

I would suspect it’s more likely website management - and maybe management in the stateside office in general. We had a change in a pre-extension due to an event in Bergen. I had read about the event a couple of months before Viking contacted us about it. Their words were “we’ve recently been informed”. Same with the included tour there - we were notified two weeks before the cruise of a change made due to event they had “recently been informed about”. Need some tightening up. I think I’d save “disingenuous” for the marketing department. Still - I’m really looking forward to our next VO cruise!

Thankfully, Viking onboard >>> Viking home office

I speak from experience

Received a nice call from Viking customer service yesterday. They were totally unaware that there was not a possibility for Cadiz-Seville excursions due to port times on the Apr 10 Viking Sea cruise, nor were they aware that the excursions were not listed in MVJ. They said there have been no routing or time changes to the itinerary. They were going to check with routing folks and get back to me. Film at eleven.

Shack,

Thanks for the current update... Hope it was just a IT error and everything will be restored.

Well, the departure time has been listed at 2pm. Our bad for assuming it was an error given the offer of 2 Seville excursions. Seville is a nice place to visit; Cadiz not so much. Casablanca is worth missing. Jersey for Guernsey no big deal - one channel island about the same as the other.

 

Viking response was "We hope your travel agent will be able to organize a private Seville tour for you." when they know they cannot because the operator can't guarantee they can get you back to the ship in that little port window. Which is exactly why Viking cancelled their excursions,

 

We are experienced cruisers with over 25 mostly high-end cruises. We don't overreact - we just act. At this point the least Viking could do is be intellectually honest and remove any references to Seville for the Apr 10 cruise - like here and several other places: https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/multi-region/barcelona-baltic-beyond/index.html

 

That would be CLEAN. And oh, BTW, this has nothing to do with weather which everyone knows is out of all of our control and a regular cause of missed destinations. This Seville destination was never to be no matter the weather. We'll just put Seville back on the bucket list sans Viking.

I think that they are moving very quickly to open up new itineraries and are not as careful as they should be when posting excursions. They have an excursion to Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg on our homelands cruise on a Tuesday when the Palace is closed. I have emailed TellUS and have not had a response.

I think that they are moving very quickly to open up new itineraries and are not as careful as they should be when posting excursions. They have an excursion to Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg on our homelands cruise on a Tuesday when the Palace is closed. I have emailed TellUS and have not had a response.

Keep in mind that on the Viking website, the port pages are generic pages and can be used in multiple itineraries. The list of shorex shown is a sampling of what tours may be offered in that port and are subject to change and to availability. The exact offering for your sail date will be posted on MyVikingJourney.com shortly before booking opens. If the list of tours on MVJ show Catherine'sPalace on a Tuesday, then it is time to be concerned.

Yes, it is in MVJ for June 9, 2018.

Here is the mea culpa from Viking Ocean on the unavailable Seville shorexes for Apr 10 departure from BCN. They were very nice about it and extended us a small compensation. They clearly care a lot about customer service but have some not insignificant issues with port and shorex scheduling. This is not their first time doing this itinerary. For now, I'd recommend not counting on anything you can't book privately within the port window or wait for MVJ to give you the 'rest of the story...'

I've been in customer service for a lot of years and our watch-words are "Always under-promise and over-deliver..."

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Dear Mr. and Mrs. XXX,

Thank you for taking my call today and allowing me the opportunity to address your concerns regarding your upcoming sailing, Barcelona, the Baltic and Beyond, aboard Viking Sea.

We have brought your valid concerns to Web Support team to start the process of adjusting each sailings advertised list of potential shore excursions. Please accept our sincere apology that we were unable to provide you the tours within Seville that you wished to take.

Mr. and Mrs. XXX, we look forward to welcoming you aboard soon. Please advise if any further assistance can be extended.

Kind Regards,

Kory R I Viking Cruises ICustomer Relations I(t) 877.668.4546 x8860 I(f) 818.594.8463 Ivikingcruises.com

Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m to 8:15 p.m., Pacific Time

I have been interested in this thread and have the following observation to make. We are taking an outside (no -Viking) tour in St. Petersburg, and they notified us that for our two day excusion we would have to flip the Faberge museum from the first day, Friday, to the second, Saturday, because the Faberge is closed on Friday. So I just went into MVJ to check, and Viking happens to be on top of this one. No Faberge excursion is offered Friday, but it is available on Saturday. This is on their hallmark Homelands Cruise, so they have had ample time to get it right, I guess.