Daramblinman

I'm waiting to hear from Viking which is even more disappointing since after emailing tellus@vikingcruises.com I initially received an email stating that the following person is my contact person and now after emailing that person I am told that if I don't hear back via email or phone in 10 days to try emailing or calling them!

I now feel like a fish out of water... With no one willing to help.

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Viking Customer Service: Thank you for your response!

I'll contact you at the tellus@vikingcruises.com to at least learn about the Bergen excursions and will address our concerns with the Viking Star issue upon our arrival home as opposed to addressing the issue while trying to enjoy the rest of our trip.

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Dear Viking cruise customer service. As we took a pro-active direction to ensure we would make our flight from Oslo on August 11 as previously planned we have not heard from you as promised by your Viking desk about getting access to the Viking excursions in Bergen. I am a bit upset as you have now responded to many comments but not mine. We will arrive in Bergen on Thursday morning and depart for Oslo on our own as planned on August 9. Please advise!

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To our friends (passengers and crew) on the Viking Star "Homelands" cruise (July 25-Aug 8):

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on this new vessel (for the few days we got to experience it), although we are disappointed that it had ended with this unfortunate mechanical issue. The onboard staff and crew of the Viking Star was top notch and very accommodating!

We are very sad and disappointed about how this trip ended. We are NOT retired and had taken a large amount of time off from work to be able to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. No ship in the world had this amazing itinerary except for the Viking Star as most others were limited in their destinations! Seeing the fjords in Norway was the main incentive for us to travel with Viking. Upon boarding the ship and setting sail out of Stockholm, we were dazzled and thought this voyage was going to be a dream come true...... What began as a relaxing journey had devolved into a fiasco.

Viking Star Issue

The crew of the Viking Star began providing a few updates with multiple changes to the schedule (beginning Thursday - Sunday) as they learned more about the severity of the ship's dire mechanical problem. My wife and I began discussing what options we might have with the onboard staff; at this point we were provided no guarantee to get to Bergen (and we had booked non-refundable business class seats back home from Oslo on August 11th).

A few observations

1) On Saturday we were initially given 1.5 to 2 hours to decide if we intended to remain on board OR disembark within the next 48 hours. The form they gave us to complete did not provide details and thus we and others grew concerned about which option to select and what consequences would ensue based on our decision. Naturally, we were stressed and confused due to the ambiguity of the situation (and the form) we were concerned about what Viking would do with this information moving forward.

The language deployed in the letter included phrases like, should you stay on board or "choose" to cancel your trip and disembark. To be clear, I was NOT openly choosing to cancel our trip but felt that getting to Bergen was essential so we could eventually make our flight home on our non refundable business class tickets on August 11. This was a goal especially since we didn't believe Viking would do anything to get us on business class seats as we bought them directly through our airline.

As neither option was very clear we began our discussion with the Explorers Desk staff on determining what we should do:

1) After explaining our situation in regard to our non-refundable business class return flight out of Oslo in ten days, they agreed that we should do what was necessary to get to Bergen.

2) After very quickly (remember, we had 2 hours max to declare our decision!) assessing the situation, we relied on our own resourcefulness, tenacity, and optimism to get us out of this dismal pickle. How could we get this trip back on track? So we frantically made alternative arrangements using the ship's spotty, weak wi-fi to book flights out of Tallinn and on to Copenhagen and Bergen. We could not sit idly by. Time is money, after all!

3) On Sunday we were notified that the ship would not sail to Bergen and all passengers were to be flown home or maybe to Bergen. Initially, we felt frustrated because before, Bergen was not a guarantee. We worried that our pro-active plan could backfire on us in the long run!

HOWEVER, after speaking with the Explorers Desk on board again, they indicated that it would be best to NOT cancel our arrangements as they were still trying to work out the details and plans to get people home or to Bergen-- again, none were guaranteed. They suggested that we stay the course and keep our receipts for possible reimbursement later.

4) We decided to listen to the Explorers Desk at that time and not cancel our newly planned trip although we are concerned as now Viking is apparently chartering a plane to transport as many passengers as possible to Bergen today (Tuesday).

We are confident that our decision to find our way to Bergen was logical with the advice we received and limited information we were given overall.

5) We hope that the additional delays we ran into were not due to Corporate being based in Southern CA. Additionally, is it true that the ship's issues began on a Thursday but became a clearer problem over the weekend-- and if this was the case, why was the problem not fully addressed more quickly? Alas, we are left with more questions than answers.

Next Steps

While we were sad to leave the Viking Star since we enjoyed our time with the passengers and crew, we look forward to a future journey with Viking although it will be harder for us as we need to take more time off work which is not easy to do.

We hope that Viking will work with "us all" as passengers as this is a major issue for their first ocean cruise liner and one that many of us have paid dearly for both financially and personally (e.g., emotional and physical stress and anxiety of trying to recover a vacation at the last minute).

We hope our friends-- passengers and crew-- will enjoy the rest of the holidays in whatever decisions they have made under these strange circumstances. Our wish is that everyone ultimately travels home safely!

For now we will remain open and confident that Viking will do the right thing for us all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To our friends (passengers and crew) on the Viking Star "Homelands" cruise (July 25-Aug 8):

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on this new vessel (for the few days we got to experience it), although we are disappointed that it had ended with this unfortunate mechanical issue. The onboard staff and crew of the Viking Star was top notch and very accommodating!

We are very sad and disappointed about how this trip ended. We are NOT retired and had taken a large amount of time off from work to be able to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. No ship in the world had this amazing itinerary except for the Viking Star as most others were limited in their destinations! Seeing the fjords in Norway was the main incentive for us to travel with Viking. Upon boarding the ship and setting sail out of Stockholm, we were dazzled and thought this voyage was going to be a dream come true...... What began as a relaxing journey had devolved into a fiasco.

Viking Star Issue

The crew of the Viking Star began providing a few updates with multiple changes to the schedule (beginning Thursday - Sunday) as they learned more about the severity of the ship's dire mechanical problem. My wife and I began discussing what options we might have with the onboard staff; at this point we were provided no guarantee to get to Bergen (and we had booked non-refundable business class seats back home from Oslo on August 11th).

A few observations

1) On Saturday we were initially given 1.5 to 2 hours to decide if we intended to remain on board OR disembark within the next 48 hours. The form they gave us to complete did not provide details and thus we and others grew concerned about which option to select and what consequences would ensue based on our decision. Naturally, we were stressed and confused due to the ambiguity of the situation (and the form) we were concerned about what Viking would do with this information moving forward.

The language deployed in the letter included phrases like, should you stay on board or "choose" to cancel your trip and disembark. To be clear, I was NOT openly choosing to cancel our trip but felt that getting to Bergen was essential so we could eventually make our flight home on our non refundable business class tickets on August 11. This was a goal especially since we didn't believe Viking would do anything to get us on business class seats as we bought them directly through our airline.

As neither option was very clear we began our discussion with the Explorers Desk staff on determining what we should do:

1) After explaining our situation in regard to our non-refundable business class return flight out of Oslo in ten days, they agreed that we should do what was necessary to get to Bergen.

2) After very quickly (remember, we had 2 hours max to declare our decision!) assessing the situation, we relied on our own resourcefulness, tenacity, and optimism to get us out of this dismal pickle. How could we get this trip back on track? So we frantically made alternative arrangements using the ship's spotty, weak wi-fi to book flights out of Tallinn and on to Copenhagen and Bergen. We could not sit idly by. Time is money, after all!

3) On Sunday we were notified that the ship would not sail to Bergen and all passengers were to be flown home or maybe to Bergen. Initially, we felt frustrated because before, Bergen was not a guarantee. We worried that our pro-active plan could backfire on us in the long run!

HOWEVER, after speaking with the Explorers Desk on board again, they indicated that it would be best to NOT cancel our arrangements as they were still trying to work out the details and plans to get people home or to Bergen-- again, none were guaranteed. They suggested that we stay the course and keep our receipts for possible reimbursement later.

4) We decided to listen to the Explorers Desk at that time and not cancel our newly planned trip although we are concerned as now Viking is apparently chartering a plane to transport as many passengers as possible to Bergen today (Tuesday).

We are confident that our decision to find our way to Bergen was logical with the advice we received and limited information we were given overall.

5) We hope that the additional delays we ran into were not due to Corporate being based in Southern CA. Additionally, is it true that the ship's issues began on a Thursday but became a clearer problem over the weekend-- and if this was the case, why was the problem not fully addressed more quickly? Alas, we are left with more questions than answers.

Next Steps

While we were sad to leave the Viking Star since we enjoyed our time with the passengers and crew, we look forward to a future journey with Viking although it will be harder for us as we need to take more time off work which is not easy to do.

We hope that Viking will work with "us all" as passengers as this is a major issue for their first ocean cruise liner and one that many of us have paid dearly for both financially and personally (e.g., emotional and physical stress and anxiety of trying to recover a vacation at the last minute).

We hope our friends-- passengers and crew-- will enjoy the rest of the holidays in whatever decisions they have made under these strange circumstances. Our wish is that everyone ultimately travels home safely!

For now we will remain open and confident that Viking will do the right thing for us all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk