ExCapt

Do you really believe that Viking has no control over this hotel???? With 3 ships on the Douro and each ship spending 2 nights pre-stay at this hotel they provide this hotel with 600 room nights a week. They must have tremendous leverage with this hotel and I suspect there are many others in Lisbon that would like the business. As I said, the hotel was great and the rest of our stay was fabulous but it is inconsistent with the Viking brand and otherwise top notch service to expect guests to wait this long for comfort. If they have to rent a few rooms for the previous night to ensure that guest are accommodate then so be it.

You bought a "package" you knew what the package included but yet you expect Viking to cough up out of their profit to make sure everything is ready when you think it should be! Wake up and smell the roses my friend! If it was that important that you walk right off the plane and right into a hotel room...you should have booked and paid for the room a night in advance! Now do the right thing and correct the heading!! This has absolutely ZERO to do with Viking!

Never ceases to amaze me how people are so quick to blame Viking (or other companies) when the first thing goes wrong! You try to tarnish a reputation when they have absolutely no control over your hotel policies! Next time you should book your own flights and make sure they get you there after hotel check-in times! Might want to change that heading too!!

Thanks for the information on the docking outside of Paris. If we do decide to do that particular cruise, that fact would not be a deal breaker for us.

My wife and I are looking to book our third Viking cruise around June of next year. She is interested in the Paris/Normandy or one of the France itineraries, and I have an interest in the Russian trip. Looking to get some input or links to some reviews with the pro's and con's or recommendations. Thanks.

We booked our first river cruise for this July through a local travel agent. We are paid in full and very excited for the upcoming trip to celebrate my mom and my aunt's 70th birthdays. However, now that our TA has her money, she is completely nonresponsive to any contact from us. She received the air information email from Viking almost a month ago and JUST forwarded it to us yesterday. We had additional questions about possibly upgrading to Air Plus because we're not 100% happy with the flights chosen. I have emailed our TA and left multiple voicemails with zero response. Our TA now has an out of office message stating she will be out of the office the remainder of the week (and the message was changed after I left other voicemails, so it's clear she's not concerned with getting back to me). She does not work weekends, so we're looking at next Monday as her earliest call back to us.

 

I called Viking today to see if I could get more information about the Air Plus, how it works, and possibly upgrade myself and my 3 travel companions. I was told by the rep that there's nothing she can do for me because it went through a TA. I explained our TA is nonresponsive and will now be out of office until next week which will put us past the 60 day cutoff to upgrade. The rep (Ellen) basically told me to just cross my fingers and hope it doesn't get ticketed before our TA gets back with us. I understand there is a contract between Viking and the TA, but if the TA is completely failing at helping then surely Viking has some protocol for assisting.

 

The Viking rep spoke with her supervisor who gave the same answer and she refused to let me speak with the supervisor directly.

 

This is our first river cruise, but these interactions are leaving a very bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Viking as a company. Obviously we will never use this TA again either.

 

Anyone have a similar experience and get any sort of resolution from Viking directly?

 

Lindsey

My goodness. Another one that wants to jump on the bandwagon of "lets blame Viking even though this has nothing to do with them"

This is no different to booking a trip without insurance and then something going wrong. You won't get your money back! You chose to bypass Viking and use a TA (and there's nothing wrong with that) so cry to the TA now that things are not right and stop blaming Viking!

I'll be the first one to jump on them if they did something wrong but they have ZERO responsibility in this!!:mad:

Hmmm....Great info. Thanks!

I believe that Travel Agents [at least those who book a lot with Viking] can get final payment moved up closer to sail date. My TA was able to do this very easily on Viking Ocean.

Talking of which...I am looking at booking my 3rd Viking Cruise and was wondering if there is any benefit to booking with a TA rather than just dealing directly with Viking?

"Stinky Smokers"

I'm a non-smoker but I have to say that's quite an offensive subject matter title! Could have used a little bit of class and gotten the same point across! :rolleyes:

Perfect......Thank you.

Setting out for the Danube Christmas markets in about a week and a half sailing from Budapest to Nuremburg. Just wondering if there are any issues with the water levels at this point?

So we're doing our second Viking cruise soon. We're going on the Danube Christmas Market cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg. (Enjoyed our first cruise immensely).

The cruise is scheduled to end on December 4th, and we should be flying back to the U.S. on that day. Turns out our scheduled flight on Lufthansa was cancelled that day so the airline automatically moved our booking to December 5th. Nobody was informed of this by the airline and we assumed that the 5th was the planned day to return. So, last night I received a call from Viking saying they were "ticketing" my flight and had noticed the error, and as a result, they were re-booking us on a different flight on the 4th which is the day we would disembark from the ship. They also mentioned that the flight would now be 3 legs instead of 2 and would be arriving at my home destination at approx 1am instead of the original (civil) time of 4pm. Not a very attractive alternate by any standard.

Anyway, I asked them if I could keep my original flight plans and I would pay for my own hotel. That keeps us on a much better flight schedule and gives us an extra day in Nuremberg. Her response was that by doing that, it would involve a change from what the schedule should have been so would incur a "change" fee. But, before I could respond to that, she said she was putting me on hold to speak to her supervisor. Within a minute, she came back on the phone and said they were going to waive the fee. (I believe that fee is $100pp)

So, my point being, Viking seems to get more than it's fair share of criticism, and a lot of it comes from people that have never sailed with them. This is my second trip, and so far I've had nothing but a positive experience. It wasn't a huge sum of money, but a $200 fee was waived unsolicited. I personally think that's pretty classy!

Now, because of what did transpire.....I'm looking for a good hotel recommendation in Nuremberg. :-) I don't mind paying for something nice, and my wife loves hotels with a really nice lobby. Thank you.

As per my post above, I never considered the Avalon USA post to be encouraging, they merely made sure you had the correct direct contact information, so no, I don't think it was window dressing or a subterfuge.

 

For the rest, well, no point in repeating too much of what has already been said. You accepted a risk by not insuring, the gamble didn't pay off and you blame the company instead of your decision not to insure.

 

I would hope when you tell others about this you tell them the whole story without omitting the part your choices played in the outcome...

 

For now though, my thoughts remain with you and your wife in the days ahead.

Couldn't have said it better!!!

Hi! Been on the Danube Waltz Christmas market cruise twice (Viking.)

 

Which of the afternoon tours are you thinking of taking?

 

These cruises are geared towards the markets so they make sure you have plenty of time to visit the markets. They dock in town within walking distance to the main markets (some cities have several markets like Budapest and Vienna) and others only have one market, like Bratislava, Linz and Passau. Also, the ships generally don't cruise until after dinner or later so you do have time to amble out and visit the markets before dinner or after. As long as you're aboard a few minutes before departure, you're good.

 

The best markets are in Budapest and Vienna. The market outside the City Hall in Vienna is very large but I found it to be more "Made in China" kind of stuff...and the food was so-so. HUGE pastries and HUGE sausages...they go for bigger is better rather than finesse. The market outside the Schonbrunn Palace, which is an afternoon tour, is fabulous. I want to say it's curated, like an art show, and had a lovely selection of local crafts, art, foods and alcoholic beverages like schnapps and honey wines. I'd highly recommend doing that tour and then spending time at the market--you have about an hour or so to do the market which is a little fast, but plenty of time to see it all if you don't lollygag and dally.

 

I am impartial to Budapest (by and large anyhow) and the markets there are outstanding. The main market on Vorosmarty Square is outstanding and chock-full of crafts and art and pottery and soaps and herbs and teas and palinka (schnapps-type drink) and foods and candy. There is also a small market in the Gresham Palace-4 Seasons Hotel that is inside their extravagant lobby. We didn't buy anything there but it was fun to walk through and ogle everything. If you are travelling Budapest to Passau, you will arrive in Budapest about mid-day and not depart until after dinner the following evening. You will have plenty of time to jump off the boat and wander. The market at St. Stephen's Basilica is 5 minutes on foot and Vorosmarty is 5 minutes past that. I have found the nicest treasures in Budapest and their prices are really good. Be on the lookout for essential oils and organic soaps...they are a specialty in Hungary and really very nice. Also, be sure to get a hot kurtokolacs, or chimney cake, in Budapest. They are in other markets, but they originated in Romania and are "most" authentic (and big and delicious) hot off the wooden roller in Budapest. Oh and cabbage rolls, and pork knuckles and and and.

 

Save the potato pancakes for Austria. They are lighter and crispier. :-)

 

Bratislava has lots of crepes and sausages. I'm powerless over a good hot crepe with pretty much any filling.

 

The Christmas markets generally open by lunchtime and close around 10. I think they are open later on Friday and Saturday nights.

Thank you Bailey for the incredible info. My wife is going to love that. She actually now has convinced me to "just wait and see" until we get there before booking anything extra as we're doing the pre-cruise stay in Budapest. She's willing to take a chance on there being no availability.:rolleyes:

For our second Viking tour, we're doing the Danube Christmas market sailing on Nov 27th.

After reviewing the itinerary, we're interested in adding some of the optional tours. My question is, by adding these, mainly afternoon tours, do they interfere with and take time away from visiting the Christmas markets?