Long Time Viking Cruiser - Logistic Mess - Book With Caution!

[JaynBNA]

Writing this up for my mother, who is an iPad user, and it's just too much typing for her.  Active mother and traveling companion, both late 70s, have taken a total of four Viking river cruises since 2015: Romantic Danube, Tulips & Windmills, Waterways of the Czars, and most recently, France's Finest in late October 2021.  That cruise was marketed as one journey comprising of two seven night itineraries  (from Paris to Normandy, round trip + Lyon to Avignon).

 

Basic logistics were a HUGE miss. On the transfer day between ships, group continuing from first portion to the Lyon portion were off-loaded after breakfast around 8am, transferred to Gare de Lyon. The single Viking rep handling the group couldn't handle the group of 60 in the hectic station. The group was taken to the famous Le Train Bleu, but there wasn't a reservation, space or time for them to eat. They hustled virtually on their own to get to the TgV, which evidently didn't have a cafe car. When they finally arrived to the ship in Lyon, it was after 4, and they hadn't eaten or gotten a drink all day. 

 

Second major miss was on their early AM departure, when her departure group was taken, again by a single Viking rep, to the Marseilles airport. Instead of being dropped off curbside, Viking must be cutting corners by dropping off its customers at remote parking lots. This forced the group into a long walk, dragging their suitcases across a large, dark parking lot being led by a sprinting Viking rep.  It was a really insulting way for their cruise to end.  

 

Viking did do some things right, like COVID testing, they felt Viking was respectful of protocols. They aren't foodies, but say the food was just fine;  their cabin stewards were excellent, and the hard product is good. They upgraded cabins when checking in onboard, and were led to believe their $ covered the entire cruise, so the icy receptionists on board need to be clear.  They're looking forward to more river cruises, but won't return to Viking.

[Gourmet Gal]

What a shame but I think in the age of Covid everyone should proceed with caution when traveling.  With staff shortages either from covid infections or just shortage of personnel on the payroll service is going to suffer globally.  If one gets to cruise these days without some sort of hiccup then  that will be an exception.  Everyone needs to adjust their expectations, unfortunately.

[PhD-iva]

Completely shameful of Viking to treat their passengers this way. They know in advance the demographics of who is sailing with them. I don’t accept the excuse, “it’s covid!” 
your mother should request and receive a credit from Viking, which she might never use again in the future, but it would show appropriate concern on their part.

[Peregrina651]

On 1/8/2022 at 1:47 PM, Gourmet Gal said:

What a shame but I think in the age of Covid everyone should proceed with caution when traveling.  With staff shortages either from covid infections or just shortage of personnel on the payroll service is going to suffer globally.  If one gets to cruise these days without some sort of hiccup then  that will be an exception.  Everyone needs to adjust their expectations, unfortunately.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. We need to adjust our expectations and be patient while the tourism industry rebuilds its infrastructure. 

 

We can't blame Viking for everything that is going wrong these days.  Not all of their long-time employees could afford to remain in Viking's employ for the duration of the shutdown.  They had bills to pay and families to feed.They took other jobs and may not be returning. They take with them years of training and experience that is going to take time replace.

 

@JaynBNA, if you haven't already, please tell Viking exactly what you have told us about the transfers. Viking can't be everywhere watching everything and they don't know when things are not done to their standards unless we tell them.  You can email Viking at tellus@vikingcruises.com.

 

 

[Wings55]

On 1/8/2022 at 11:49 AM, JaynBNA said:

..........

 

Second major miss was on their early AM departure, when her departure group was taken, again by a single Viking rep, to the Marseilles airport. Instead of being dropped off curbside, Viking must be cutting corners by dropping off its customers at remote parking lots. This forced the group into a long walk, dragging their suitcases across a large, dark parking lot being led by a sprinting Viking rep.  It was a really insulting way for their cruise to end.  

 

We took this same trip last Aug but with AMA instead of Viking. We too were bussed to a distant parking lot, but our AMA representative was very good about gathering the group and leading us to the airline counters and insuring everyone understood where they needed to be. I curbside drop off would have been nicer but I gathered that was not allowed by the airport authority. 🤷‍♂️ I agree Viking could have done a better job.

 

Paul 

[CPT Trips]

We too were dropped of in an inconvenient parking lot location at MRS for departure several years ago. Might it be an airport rule?