New Pricing

[j_anandu]

17 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Viking were allways a bit expensive, and standards had fallen as the fleet expanded, but since covid there are far too many cost cutting measures evident, along with a change in culture onboard and little shore based customer service. 

We now think they are way overpriced for the product, we will only book with Viking if the price is right or a unique itinerary. Our TA no longer has Viking in their premium/luxury cruise brochure after feedback from customers

Wow so happy someone pointed this out because there has been a decline and I feel they have grown too much, too fast. Still a good product but just a lot different than when they first started. 

[CurlerRob]

In scanning this thread, there seems to be a wide variety of increases, with some targeted to specific itineraries.

 

My examples: Hawaiian Islands Sojourn in December/23 - no change to a PV2 cabin (old booking). April/24 Far East & Alaska - +3.8% to a DV2 (also an old booking). @millybess identified a 17% kicker for the same cruise - they obviously have a much better cabin, or were able to get a much better deal than I did originally 🙄 - good on them!  🍺🥌

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by CurlerRob
Correction

[Mich3554]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

List price vs list price or your discounted price vs list price? 
 

 

List price, not including my booking discounts.

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, j_anandu said:

Wow so happy someone pointed this out because there has been a decline and I feel they have grown too much, too fast. Still a good product but just a lot different than when they first started. 

 

To us the decline is in the experience level of the crew and their ability to deliver a truly memorable experience.  

 

Our thought and opinion is/was that during the pandemic when the ships were idle, Viking lost a lot of trained crew that did not return fast enough when sailing resumed.  The ships were full of crew that were good, but were finding their feet in the service category that we had been used to.

 

We could quickly spot new vs. tenured crew just in the way that tenured crew learned your name and greeted you differently over new crew members.  Too many of the newer crew members were "shy" in a way that was sometimes obvious.

 

In any case, we are looking at value for money spent with any vacation.

 

We can afford Viking, but there has to be value for spend.  For argument sake, we considered Mekong with Viking, but we can travel with a highly regarded and reviewed land based tour group on a much fuller itinerary for half the cost of Viking and that is substantial to us.

 

As cruise fares continue to rise, we will look at alternative lines more often and alternative travel options more often.

 

Friends ask what we love about Viking and it is this:

 

1). Viking is a luxury'ish line and the service standard checks all the boxes for us.  (Used to check all boxes.)

2). We unpack once.

3). The food is - in our opinion - great, but we are not saying the best ever or that there have not been misses with Viking food.  For the most part we find it well meets if not exceeds our expectations.

4). We love that every ship is the same and we don't have to learn new ship layouts and "rules" for dining and all that.

5). Specialty restaurants are included.

6). WiFi, and included beer and wine at meals, although we generally take the SS package.

 

What we don't like about Viking is:

 

1). Price keeps going up.  (Understandable as everything goes up, but where is the value now?)

2). Land side interactions with Viking are challenging at best most of the time.

3). Only a snapshot of most places visited - especially on Ocean - where we might like a deeper dive into a country or city.

4). Service levels on the ships seem to have dropped.  (In opposition to my first point above)

[Jjg34219]

Travel in general has gone up!

I think we forget the industry as a whole was basically shut down for close to 2 years due to Covid. Everybody now is trying to recoup losses. Even our std hotel stays here in the US are running 30% higher. 

[flare3192]

when we were on the cruise in May we booked an Egypt cruise for Oct 2024. When I returned home I realized that the pre to Israel would coincide with Rosh Hashana which meant that three days of the 4 days in Israel would be closed down. The person who suggested the dates to us worked for Viking and was from Israel. I think he should have considered that . In that month the fare went up $500 and we have to pay it to have the date moved 3 days earlier. Since then it has increased $1,000. I think they are getting greedy. I also think that the $25 deposit causes people to claim cabins they will not fill just in case and that hurts the rest of us by making it more difficult to find a cabin and therefore the price increases as cabins appear scarcer than they may be. Just thinking out loud.

[millybess]

10 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

In scanning this thread, there seems to be a wide variety of increases, with some targeted to specific itineraries.

 

My examples: Hawaiian Islands Sojourn in December/23 - no change to a PV2 cabin (old booking). April/24 Far East & Alaska - +3.8% to a DV2 (also an old booking). @millybess identified a 17% kicker for the same cruise - they obviously have a much better cabin, or were able to get a much better deal than I did originally 🙄 - good on them!  🍺🥌

 

 

@CurlerRob We booked Far East and Alaska in August 2022.

 

I've also noticed a lot of price turbulence on the Hong Kong flight.  A couple of weeks ago the fare was up $2300pp from when we booked!!  Now it has settled down to around +$500pp.  So thanks for the heads up on that!

 

Our hotel in Kowloon for 3 nights has been fairly steady.

 

Also, our New Zealand, Australia & Indonesia cruise in 2025 has increased by 16%.

 

IMO it pays to book early for many reasons.  We have our eye on an Iceland cruise for 2026 and will book that as soon as it becomes available.

[Breckski]

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

To us the decline is in the experience level of the crew and their ability to deliver a truly memorable experience.  

 

Our thought and opinion is/was that during the pandemic when the ships were idle, Viking lost a lot of trained crew that did not return fast enough when sailing resumed.  The ships were full of crew that were good, but were finding their feet in the service category that we had been used to.

 

We could quickly spot new vs. tenured crew just in the way that tenured crew learned your name and greeted you differently over new crew members.  Too many of the newer crew members were "shy" in a way that was sometimes obvious.

 

 

 

Could this change be intentional?  Less informal conversation/interaction between crew and guests, especially during dining, could be viewed as more luxurious.  

 

Just mentioning for thought/discussion as I imagine Viking is well aware of any changes.  Now whether Viking can alter these changes in a significant way is a different question.

[CDNPolar]

Just now, mwike said:

 

Could this change be intentional?  Less informal conversation/interaction between crew and guests, especially during dining, could be viewed as more luxurious.  

 

Just mentioning for thought/discussion as I imagine Viking is well aware of any changes.  Now whether Viking can alter these changes in a significant way is a different question.

 

To us, we have always appreciated that crew we got to know knew when to "turn it on and turn it off".  They were great at greeting us when we first sat down, but did not push it during the meal.  The bartenders and servers in the Living Room and Explorer Lounge were more informal when they got to know us and that was fine because we were not having dinner.

Recent cruises however it was more that we got the feeling that the newer crew had not developed the skill of interacting with the guests...  They were more serious.

 

It is my feeling, and those who disagree will chime in, that we all like to be recognized by the crew, and I never felt that they overdid it.  I think that they were a good judge on when to turn it on and off.

 

 

[Breckski]

4 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

To us, we have always appreciated that crew we got to know knew when to "turn it on and turn it off".  They were great at greeting us when we first sat down, but did not push it during the meal.  The bartenders and servers in the Living Room and Explorer Lounge were more informal when they got to know us and that was fine because we were not having dinner.

Recent cruises however it was more that we got the feeling that the newer crew had not developed the skill of interacting with the guests...  They were more serious.

 

It is my feeling, and those who disagree will chime in, that we all like to be recognized by the crew, and I never felt that they overdid it.  I think that they were a good judge on when to turn it on and off.

 

 

 

Completely understand your view and feel your view is likely indicative of a large % of customers (majority???).  But it could be an instance where folks on the forum are not representative of the majority of cruisers as we know the forum is a miniscule % of actual cruisers.

 

My initial thought comes from a question my father posed to me several years ago.  And as background he did one Carnival cruise a year for his vacation for many years and loved Carnival.  He said, why would I spend more money to go on Viking.  My wife and I thought for a while and could really only come up with 3 reasons and they were all related to a certain extent:

     1.  No children

     2.  Significantly less people on the ship

     3.  No hooky interactions with staff (or fellow passengers for that matter) at dinner

 

The common denominator was that we liked a more private, quiet cruise experience.

 

[CDNPolar]

11 minutes ago, mwike said:

 

Completely understand your view and feel your view is likely indicative of a large % of customers (majority???).  But it could be an instance where folks on the forum are not representative of the majority of cruisers as we know the forum is a miniscule % of actual cruisers.

 

My initial thought comes from a question my father posed to me several years ago.  And as background he did one Carnival cruise a year for his vacation for many years and loved Carnival.  He said, why would I spend more money to go on Viking.  My wife and I thought for a while and could really only come up with 3 reasons and they were all related to a certain extent:

     1.  No children

     2.  Significantly less people on the ship

     3.  No hooky interactions with staff (or fellow passengers for that matter) at dinner

 

The common denominator was that we liked a more private, quiet cruise experience.

 

 

Very fair view and expectation where you want to enjoy the "luxury" but not make friends with the crew.  I get it.

 

We are one couple that does like the recognition from the crew and in that sense, we could take a different table in The Restaurant every night but if we like a serving team we actually ask for them each night.  We also go to the same area of the WC for breakfast and lunch and for that reason get to know the team that serves in that section.

We go looking for it, but I fully understand why someone would not want this.

[CDNPolar]

Part of the experience that we enjoy with the skilled and tenured crew are things like this:

 

In the WC at lunch, we had the same serving team every day.  The Wine server on seeing us would immediately approach and say, "Good Afternoon Mr. L and Mr. K, would you like your usual glass of Prosecco to start?"

 

The answer was always YES and he knew this, but always asked.

 

We actually list this as higher end service and this person never overstepped with conversation, it was just the recognition of what our preference was.

[OneSixtyToOne]

47 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Part of the experience that we enjoy with the skilled and tenured crew are things like this:

 

In the WC at lunch, we had the same serving team every day.  The Wine server on seeing us would immediately approach and say, "Good Afternoon Mr. L and Mr. K, would you like your usual glass of Prosecco to start?"

 

The answer was always YES and he knew this, but always asked.

 

We actually list this as higher end service and this person never overstepped with conversation, it was just the recognition of what our preference was.

Always a good idea to introduce yourself to the sommelier and ask for a recommendation. By chance we found that at lunch time he is often in the back of the WC at the bar checking on the wine stock. (We prefer to eat in this area as we find it quieter.) He recognized us, said hello, brought us our preferred wine, and gave instructions to the wait staff as to what to serve us. Excellent service, and we made a point to personally “thank” him at the end of our cruise.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[CDNPolar]

11 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Always a good idea to introduce yourself to the sommelier and ask for a recommendation. By chance we found that at lunch time he is often in the back of the WC at the bar checking on the wine stock. (We prefer to eat in this area as we find it quieter.) He recognized us, said hello, brought us our preferred wine, and gave instructions to the wait staff as to what to serve us. Excellent service, and we made a point to personally “thank” him at the end of our cruise.

 

These are the crew that we will recognize with a cash gratuity mid to end of the cruise.  

[Redtravel]

Viking is amazing at making you feel good about your booking.  Once you book, if you log on and check prices, you will see higher prices.  Once booked, you will not get emails with promos for any cruise. There is a thread on this board that asks people to post promo codes.   Since Viking gets full payment way ahead of cruise dates and doesn’t price adjust, you’re better off just booking at a price that works for you. It’s like buying airline tickets. 

[SantaFe1]

3 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

 Once booked, you will not get emails with promos for any cruise.

We have four upcoming bookings with Viking and I get Viking promo emails all the time.  

Edited August 3, 2023 by SantaFe1

[formernuke]

Same here( we frequently get promo emails and mailers) with multiple cruises booked. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason why some do and others don’t 

[SJD117]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We could quickly spot new vs. tenured crew just in the way that tenured crew learned your name and greeted you differently over new crew members.  Too many of the newer crew members were “shy” in a way that was sometimes obvious.

Some weeks ago, commenters criticized Viking staff for being too effusive when greeting passengers departing from or returning to the ship.

 

Now the concern, stated above, is that too many crew members may be “shy” (expressed in quotation marks for whatever said marks add to the word’s common meaning).

 

A Viking ship carries several hundred staff. It’s reasonable to assume, therefore, that passengers will meet effusive crew during a cruise, and shy crew, and crew on other points of the emotional spectrum. That was the case on the cruise I completed last month. So I roll with it. Why not? The human condition is endless.

[Redtravel]

29 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

We have four upcoming bookings with Viking and I get Viking promo emails all the time.  

Yes, but they don’t have the lowest prices.

[Squawkman]

49 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Yes, but they don’t have the lowest prices.

Not necessarily. We canceled and rebooked a few times with newer promo codes when it made sense - which isn’t always. We have been using the same Viking agent for many years who works the numbers for us.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Viking is amazing at making you feel good about your booking.  Once you book, if you log on and check prices, you will see higher prices.  Once booked, you will not get emails with promos for any cruise. There is a thread on this board that asks people to post promo codes.   Since Viking gets full payment way ahead of cruise dates and doesn’t price adjust, you’re better off just booking at a price that works for you. It’s like buying airline tickets. 

Absolutely totally untrue statements,  an example of the hyperbole going on these days.  
always get promos. Always see lowest prices. Always able to rebook if we desire.  Have many many cruise on the books.

check your words next time.

[Vineyard View]

Our focus the next couple years is Europe - several regions. Our past experiences pre Covid with Viking keep me coming back to look at itineraries and offerings, including pricing.  We were big Viking fans, but the cost for the return of experience, just keeps skewing us further away. 

We have two future cruises booked. One on Oceania with their new promotion. By far, the pricing is miles apart from Viking for similar itineraries, and as mentioned in a previous post here, includes more in areas that are important to us.  We also have another booked with Seabourn. This cruise is also significantly lower than Viking, and includes a whole, whole lot more on a much smaller ship.
I am calculating total cost per day per person in these comparisons. 
 

I know pricing is up - in almost everything. But when the difference is literally thousands of dollars apart for similar, or even a step up in product, it is difficult, and pound foolish for us to remain loyal. 
 

But I will keep looking, because we have such good Viking memories…..pre C. The new prices will either keep filling the ships or it will not. Only time will tell. 

[rbslos18]

On 8/3/2023 at 4:30 AM, CDNPolar said:

 

To us the decline is in the experience level of the crew and their ability to deliver a truly memorable experience.  

 

Our thought and opinion is/was that during the pandemic when the ships were idle, Viking lost a lot of trained crew that did not return fast enough when sailing resumed.  The ships were full of crew that were good, but were finding their feet in the service category that we had been used to.

 

We could quickly spot new vs. tenured crew just in the way that tenured crew learned your name and greeted you differently over new crew members.  Too many of the newer crew members were "shy" in a way that was sometimes obvious.

 

In any case, we are looking at value for money spent with any vacation.

 

We can afford Viking, but there has to be value for spend.  For argument sake, we considered Mekong with Viking, but we can travel with a highly regarded and reviewed land based tour group on a much fuller itinerary for half the cost of Viking and that is substantial to us.

 

As cruise fares continue to rise, we will look at alternative lines more often and alternative travel options more often.

 

Friends ask what we love about Viking and it is this:

 

1). Viking is a luxury'ish line and the service standard checks all the boxes for us.  (Used to check all boxes.)

2). We unpack once.

3). The food is - in our opinion - great, but we are not saying the best ever or that there have not been misses with Viking food.  For the most part we find it well meets if not exceeds our expectations.

4). We love that every ship is the same and we don't have to learn new ship layouts and "rules" for dining and all that.

5). Specialty restaurants are included.

6). WiFi, and included beer and wine at meals, although we generally take the SS package.

 

What we don't like about Viking is:

 

1). Price keeps going up.  (Understandable as everything goes up, but where is the value now?)

2). Land side interactions with Viking are challenging at best most of the time.

3). Only a snapshot of most places visited - especially on Ocean - where we might like a deeper dive into a country or city.

4). Service levels on the ships seem to have dropped.  (In opposition to my first point above)

We agree with your list. We recently had a new room steward on our Neptune cruise who was not well trained. 
Upon arrival, our room did not have a room service menu or Do Not Disturb sign. The arrival/departure cover to protect the bed was not put out. We also had to ask for Body Wash twice. When I inquired if Room Service was available, the steward was caught off guard.  Viking may have somehow been caught off-guard by the surge in cruising. 

[SJD117]

27 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

When I inquired if Room Service was available, the steward was caught off guard.  Viking may have somehow been caught off-guard by the surge in cruising. 

That’s quite an extrapolation — from one steward on one ship to the entire company.

 

But if extrapolation is in order, I’ll say that the stellar service we received last month from Felix and Risa (our stewards onboard the new Saturn) bodes quite well for Viking. 

[KBs mum]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:53 PM, SJD117 said:

Some weeks ago, commenters criticized Viking staff for being too effusive when greeting passengers departing from or returning to the ship.

 

That was about a naff musical dance thing, not an actual greeting. 

 

Even if the individual is shy, rather than social, it is not difficult to develop a work persona and a few tricks of the trade (particularly if good supervision and staff training is in place) so interaction with guests is friendly. I've had conversations with customers who were surprised I remembered them from a while back. I had no idea who they were, I was simply in work mode