Disappointed in viking star's organizational ability

[rayandshirl]

:(As a past cruiser of Celebrity and Princess), I have to say that I am very disappointed in our cruise planning with Viking. We booked the Med cruise and paid in full for it in March 2014. AT the time of booking we wanted to add on the 2-day Venice extension but it was not available then to book it. We went ahead and booked a 2 night extension with our TA and now have to pay Viking a deviation fee for not flying out the day the cruise ends in Venice! Also, we booked air with Viking and cannot use 2 different air carriers on the trip.

 

Cancelling and re-booking with Princess who has a sale on right now is really calling to me.

 

I doubt that we'll ever travel on Viking again.

[Vineyard View]

Unfortunately..... those air rules have been in place since the beginning. They are the same with Rivers....

[huntersyaya]

we have cruised Celebrity and Princess but feel the difference is going to be in the size of the Viking ship and the number of people on it. Our river cruises with Viking and their attention to detail throughout our cruises have been first rate. Hope we all find it to be the same on their ocean product!

[lahlah57]

Thank goodness it's a free country and you can do as you wish. We too have done princess several times but dislike large cruiselines with more than 1200 passengers. We too have done 2 Viking river cruises and both were experiences of 10 star quality. We are optimistic that the Oceans will be the same.

I believe they are having growing pains which in turn will have faux pas but once everything is in place......BLISS!:D

[bksunbuddies]

Thank goodness it's a free country and you can do as you wish. We too have done princess several times but dislike large cruiselines with more than 1200 passengers. We too have done 2 Viking river cruises and both were experiences of 10 star quality. We are optimistic that the Oceans will be the same.

I believe they are having growing pains which in turn will have faux pas but once everything is in place......BLISS!:D

 

We sure hope they have it together by the time they set sail in a few weeks! We have had enough disappointments already. I have to say this is the least excited I have been for a cruise in over 35 years! Maybe it is because when I get something planned on this trip, Viking changes their plans. There may be a lot of very disappointed people on the ship when they discover all the changes upon embarkation. A lot of people do not participate in Cruise Critic.

 

I think extra shipboard credit and/or drink packages should arrive at everyone's stateroom! :p

[Vineyard View]

Well said LahLah. I agree with you.

And yes, there have been frustrations, let downs, and disappointments. Viking has been making efforts to offer us all compensation - does it give us back Paris , London, and Flam? No. But that happened two months ago....and I read that excursion times have continued to change.....but For me, I have to keep in mind that This is a maiden voyage - which we knew going in - for a company that excels in rivers...they are figuring it all out....and I have to believe that they will carry their reputation forward and do an outstanding job. For me, if I go into this trip carrying frustration and disappointment, then I will not only be carrying negative energy, but I may be looking for the negative rather than enjoying the positive.....and I am planning on having a fabulous trip.....

[algaes]

I can't imagine boarding for any part of this maiden cruise without the knowledge learned on Cruise Critic this winter. As we have learned, Viking corporate, marketing, and PR have been well worked with the new longboats launched, the somewhat premature leak of the Mississippi river cruises, and the maiden voyage of Star. But they could have shared that with us to promote patience and understanding. It's a strange choice by management at Viking Cruises.

 

I agree with bksunbuddies that there will be some buyer's remorse especially among those coming aboard uninformed and sailing the Barcelona to Bergen leg.

Edited March 28, 2015 by algaes

[Vineyard View]

And Leo I also agree with that, completely. I hope that passengers who are not on CC are not blind sighted - that would be incredibly wrong. I truly hope that everyone boards the Star with knowledge of the changes.

[cassandra44]

We too have had a lot of issues with our booking for the Stockholm-Bergen cruise at the end of May.

We had the misfortune of being amongst the first to book - around May 2013 and at that time there wasn't even a proper brochure.

Since that time there have been a lot of changes - including a rigid hierarchical structure around fixed dining bookings - ranging from 90 - 60 days in advance. On the first day we could book fixed dining we found that the first period we could book for was 8.30-10.30 ....far too late for us.

So unless you book the highest priced suites there is no guarantee that you will get fixed dining from 6.30-8.30....(the higher you go obviously the better chance of success).

They have told us there shouldn't be a problem....and we dont mind waiting for a table for say 15 mins but if we have to wait longer every day then we shall be really annoyed (and we have no intention of dining in the cafeteria). Also having health issues we do need to dine early.

 

The frustrating thing is that if we had known we were going to have these problems we would have booked a higher class of stateroom to ensure we could get early dining and be able to book specialty restaurants in advance - or we could have switched to a different cruise line with a different dining policy :-

(I wonder if they considered the Oceania model which works very well....flexible for the main dining room but you have to book specialty restaurants (on Marina there are 4). Your ability to book in advance for the specialty ones does depend on stateroom choice but that really doesn't cause any problems and you can ALWAYS get into the main dining room with a minimal wait.

 

The other thing is that since we booked we have had no communication from Viking Oceans telling us that the website was up and running. We kept checking and never saw anything...surely when the site was up and running it would have been courteous to have emailed everyone...or their agents (especially since the booking was done 2 years in advance of the cruise!). Finally in exasperation we called Viking and they told us that myvikingjourney was the place to go...we had never heard of it...and in any event it only contains some of the relevant information which is on the main site....something of course we never looked at it since we had already booked and paid for the cruise.

 

When I contacted our agent the other day she thought it was all flexible dining- she had no idea there was fixed dining at all....so obviously Viking hasn't even told the agents about all the changes! I was appalled.

 

There is also a problem with their website re excursions...It shows some included excursions as sold out....and when I pointed out they were included in the price and could not be sold out I was told to keep trying on the website. Finally I got most of them but I have tried multiple times to include 1 destination...it says I have done so successfully but it doesn't appear on our calendar even though I keep clicking that button...it is unbelievably frustrating.

 

We had wonderful cruises on Viking River cruises and we booked very early on Viking Oceans on the basis of those experiences. So far we are disappointed because it doesn't appear that Viking Oceans has anticipated many of the problems.

 

We are really looking forward to this cruise...our first in the Baltic and just hope these are all teething problems that will be ironed out when we get on board. We know it's a new cruise line and we need to cut them some slack but even when problems are pointed out they are not addressed e.g. the "sold out" included excursions.