Early Final Payment Date

[CJANDH]

I have booked my first Viking Ocean voyage, an Iceland/Greenland cruise on Neptune embarking July 13, 2025. I was surprised to find that the final payment date is April 30, 2024, over a year ahead of embarkation. This seems awfully early to have to tie up the full cruise amount (including airfare and hotel). I am used to 4/6 month dates on Regent, Silversea and Explora. How come Viking is such an oddball?

[1985rz1]

2 minutes ago, CJANDH said:

I have booked my first Viking Ocean voyage, an Iceland/Greenland cruise on Neptune embarking July 13, 2025. I was surprised to find that the final payment date is April 30, 2024, over a year ahead of embarkation. This seems awfully early to have to tie up the full cruise amount (including airfare and hotel). I am used to 4/6 month dates on Regent, Silversea and Explora. How come Viking is such an oddball?

One-year out Final payment due date is not new and has long been a topic of discussion/complaint on Cruise Critic, especially in cruise line comparisons..  However, if you already have a cruise on the books, you can ask for 6-months on a new booking.  

[Jim Avery]

If the OP would spend a few minutes on search function for this topic they would find this ole dead horse has already been kicked all around the block.

[CJANDH]

21 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

If the OP would spend a few minutes on search function for this topic they would find this ole dead horse has already been kicked all around the block.

Thanks for the tip. I will "search".

[Peregrina651]

59 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

If the OP would spend a few minutes on search function for this topic they would find this ole dead horse has already been kicked all around the block.

 

Jim, agreed, but only to a certain extent.  Maybe it is my browser, but I find the search function here to be completely useless.  Since the move to the new platform a number of years ago, I have yet to search for anything successfully. I can't be the only one who has issues with it. 

[Jim Avery]

Agreed with the search shortcomings but just scrolling back through a few pages of the threads and you find extensive discussions of the topic.

[Pam]

My friends had to pay 14 months in advance, and after that if they approached Viking about anything like an upgrade or a program that Viking had just announced, they were met with a stone wall and "no'. Others on their roll call were talking about getting free upgrades, while my friends were willing to pay.  Strange.

Edited March 30 by Pam

[Peregrina651]

Viking marches to a different drummer and it takes some getting used to. Guests have to decide for themselves if the onboard experience is worth the difference in policies. 

[oakridger]

I've been "Viking Ocean Curious" ever since the line started sailing when a good friend sailed on them and absolutely loved it!  The pay in full policy has been one of the big reasons I haven't booked yet.  It's a huge turn off for me even though I think I'd really love the product.  Maybe I'll change my mind.  Tor Hagen is filling the ships, so he's not worried about me and likeminded folks.

 

~Nancy

[Jim Avery]

Easy, don’t book till 6 months out.🍸

[CDNPolar]

This will work for North America - don't know about UK and AU.

 

Book your first cruise, and then immediately book another cruise further out - as far out as possible.  If you are under the $25 pp deposit, this only costs you $50 bucks.

 

The policy is to have a future cruise booked gives you the 6 month payment window.

 

You can move that $50 bucks to a different date or even to a different itinerary before the 6 months payment date on that one.  

[Mich3554]

5 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Easy, don’t book till 6 months out.🍸

This is what we did for our first cruise.  We booked a trans Atlantic (only cruise with rooms available) in Sept for Dec.  Payment was due almost immediately, but while we were on that cruise, we booked the next for a 6 month payment date.  Since that cruise, we have always had at least one cruise on the books.  

I am embarrassed to say we currently have 4 in the pipeline right now, and DH is talking about booking another while on this cruise!

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Easy, don’t book till 6 months out.🍸

 

6 months out is ok, but we only book the V1 and V2 cabins and those are generally gone if we wait.  This is why we generally book at least 12+ months out as on the more popular itineraries, these cabins are gone early.

[LindaS272]

Just like restaurant reservations, cabins open up all the time. Stuff happens, plans change, many cancel or transfer at the six months payment date. We have been able to book this way many times. We book PV most often.

[OneSixtyToOne]

8 hours ago, oakridger said:

I've been "Viking Ocean Curious" ever since the line started sailing when a good friend sailed on them and absolutely loved it!  The pay in full policy has been one of the big reasons I haven't booked yet.  It's a huge turn off for me even though I think I'd really love the product.  Maybe I'll change my mind.  Tor Hagen is filling the ships, so he's not worried about me and likeminded folks.

 

~Nancy

As stated throughout this thread there are strategies that mitigate this requirement. Even without employing those strategies, let’s say you book a $20k cruise and need to pay a year out and you could get a 5% return on that money. Paying by ACH gives you a 3.3% discount, so now we’re taking about 1.7% (some have said they can get more value using a credit card). More than a year out the cruise probably has an early booking discount baked in the price. So how much of a premium are you really paying to get exactly what you want and protecting yourself from future price increases? Less than $200? As someone else said on this board, think of it as buying a cruise future. And if you try it and enjoy the product and book another cruise, you’ll get more than $200 back with a prior guest discount as well as other possible discounts and OBCs.

[DrKoob]

14 hours ago, oakridger said:

Tor Hagen is filling the ships, so he's not worried about me and likeminded folks.

 

~Nancy

You hit the nail on the head. Viking puts the final payment that far out because...they can. People complain but their ships are always full. We have a river cruise in October and there is not a single stateroom available on the entire river (the Douro) during that time. It's amazing. Loyal Viking customers just keep coming back. We finally bit the bullet a couple of years ago and just did one. Going back again in June. 

 

Keep in mind that you get a shorter date when you already have one booked. For instance, we booked our next river cruise with them while on our first ocean cruise. That gave us one that was paid for, so our next ocean we got to wait until six months before to pay in full. That's the June ocean cruise. And since it is paid for, we have until the end of next month to pay for our October cruise. We will probably buy one while we are on the ocean cruise so we will then have one paid for (the October river) and that will make the next one six months as well.

[Mike07]

I honestly don't let it bother me. If the lost interest points are going to make or break my financial picture, then I ought not be taking Viking cruises... Or any cruise for that matter.

[CDNPolar]

12 hours ago, Mike07 said:

I honestly don't let it bother me. If the lost interest points are going to make or break my financial picture, then I ought not be taking Viking cruises... Or any cruise for that matter.

 

Exactly

 

Aside from the loss of interest - if that is a key concern - there is no penalty to cancel until 120 days and less from the cruise.  So pay in full, and then if you can make a decision not to go in excess of 120 days, then you only lose $100 per person.  You don't even have to buy insurance until the 120 day mark.

[pavementends]

I got a couple months delay by just asking, but payment was still due quite early.

 

That's just how Viking rolls.

[Peregrina651]

14 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

there is no penalty to cancel until 120 days and less from the cruise

 

 

Just to clarify. The cancellation policy for voyages more than 35 days is different. It is 180 days and $1000.

[CDNPolar]

10 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

Just to clarify. The cancellation policy for voyages more than 35 days is different. It is 180 days and $1000.

 

Yeah, I guess that I knew that but we are still working and not able to sail for longer that a 12-15'ish night cruise so I guess that I was talking only from what we know and do.

 

In actuality that would change the whole landscape of us looking at annual cancellation plans because it likely would be a much bigger loss if the annual plan has a cap at $5K

[lackcreativity]

On 3/31/2024 at 5:28 AM, CDNPolar said:

 

Exactly

 

Aside from the loss of interest - if that is a key concern - there is no penalty to cancel until 120 days and less from the cruise.  So pay in full, and then if you can make a decision not to go in excess of 120 days, then you only lose $100 per person.  You don't even have to buy insurance until the 120 day mark.

Be careful with this strategy if you need coverage for pre-existing conditions. Those circumstances may be different.

[CDNPolar]

9 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

Be careful with this strategy if you need coverage for pre-existing conditions. Those circumstances may be different.

 

Not disagreeing with you, but travel insurance is so personal to everyone.

 

We don't have pre-existing conditions to worry about, so this strategy works for us.

 

There is also a forum here on CC for insurance and these kinds of topics get discussed in depth.

 

CFAR, pre-existing conditions, single trip, annual plans, etc., etc.

[lackcreativity]

16 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Not disagreeing with you, but travel insurance is so personal to everyone.

 

We don't have pre-existing conditions to worry about, so this strategy works for us.

 

There is also a forum here on CC for insurance and these kinds of topics get discussed in depth.

 

CFAR, pre-existing conditions, single trip, annual plans, etc., etc.

So true, and the need to be clear on one's own requirements is essential. As difficult as it may be to go through all the fine print, that may be what keeps one from posting here after the fact looking for advice/sympathy/outrage when something goes wrong. That's one of the reasons I keep returning here year after year, trying to keep from being the next sad story on Cruise Critic because I didn't know something I should have known!

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

So true, and the need to be clear on one's own requirements is essential. As difficult as it may be to go through all the fine print, that may be what keeps one from posting here after the fact looking for advice/sympathy/outrage when something goes wrong. That's one of the reasons I keep returning here year after year, trying to keep from being the next sad story on Cruise Critic because I didn't know something I should have known!

 

Agree - I have learned so much from my time here and continue to learn.  The members here that share their experiences are invaluable to all of us!