Francesca King

Thank you so much.  That makes it clear and manageable.

When I was trying unsuccessfully to sign up for the meet and mingle I contacted every available link.  It obviously worked as I had at least three emails that I had registered and would receive notification of the get together when on board.

Again, thank you for your time and advice.

Francesca King

What is the difference between a forum and roll call?  This site gives me a headache. I find it disorganized and therefore time consuming.

I had no trouble signing up for our upcoming trips on Viking. Sooo, will the Celebrity mix and mingle become activated here, or do I contact Celebrity! 

Thanks

I have tried every link, but cannot sign up for a mix and mingle. Help!

Some of the excursions we had hoped for are sold out. Viking has said they will not be adding any more buses for those trips.

We are looking at a private tour in Jakarta on Day 8, that is similar to Viking's Chinatown excursion. It was the only one I could find that would pick us up at the port. Apparently the port is quite a distance from "town". While we don't mind the price--$112 per person, we would rather do this with others. Has anyone put together or has knowledge of an existing group doing their own tour that we might join, or is anyone interested in doing this with us?

We have booked a private tour in Bali on our first full day there. If anyone would like the information, I will be happy to share or invite you to join us if the driver has a large enough vehicle.

Francesca King

The Orion is a beautiful ship and the crew is awesome. We booked 3 cruises back to back, starting in Barcelona, ending in Athens. Our flights, transfers, cruises, and post extension in Athens were all arranged by Viking. Our experience wasn’t great on the first 2 cruises. The morning of our flight for departure we got a text that our flight out of Portland would be 2 1/2 hrs late, leaving us 1 minute in Chicago for connecting flight to Zurich. We called Viking immediately, we were told to call the airport and see what we could find. We replied that they need to find flights to get us to the ship on time, which they did, and that they would notify Viking reps in Barcelona of our changed arrival time for transfers. But the too short of connection time in Frankfurt was a problem. We ran to make the connection, however our luggage didn’t make it onto the plane. Arriving in Barcelona, the Viking reps were surprised to see us and we were surprised our luggage wasn’t there. Viking reps told us it will be on the next flight in 1 1/2 hrs. We wanted to wait for it, but they said don’t worry, we are your travel agents, we will get your luggage to the ship tonight, then had us file a claim. Later we found out they took us to the wrong window for the claim. No luggage. All we had were the clothes on our backs. Almost every day we were told it should be at the next port, so we waited to try to find clothes. After several days, we had to find time to shop for clothes. We had to cancel excursions we were excited about, and gave up all our free time in several ports, trying to find clothes to fit. Being a larger man, my husband found not one thing to fit him, and what I found was temporary as there isn’t much I will wear at home. A vacation we anticipated for a year and a half should be fun, not spent shopping for necessities.

I’ll tell you how our days went. It was very hot and humid. We were very sweaty returning from excursions (or shopping). We removed our clothes, put on the provided robes, I used the hairdryer to dry my bra, undies, and clothes, my husband dried all his clothes, just so we could eat dinner in dry clothes. After dinner, we returned to our room, removed our clothes, put on the robes, sent our clothes out for overnight laundry and sat in our room. Our clothes were delivered to us the next morning, to put on the same clothes, to start that day, which was going to go just like the day before and the day before that. We couldn’t go out in the evenings to enjoy the entertainment, we couldn’t go swimming, we couldn’t socialize, we basically slept and ate on this beautiful ship and couldn’t enjoy the amenities. There were parts of the ship we didn’t know were there until the last week.

The friends we were traveling with, one got their luggage on day 2, my husband got his on day 8, the other friend and I got ours on day 15. Two thirds of our vacation was gone.

We haven’t asked Viking for anything, but feel they should do the right thing, step up and offer something. Their website refers to them acting as our travel agents, when a guest calls to book a vacation we are told they are our travel agents, the Viking reps in Barcelona even called themselves our travel agents, but apparently that’s not so. When there’s a problem, then they say they’re not travel agents. To clarify for when we want to make future bookings, my husband called guest relations to ask whether or not they are. Not only was he told they are not acting as travel agents, when my husband tried to explain why he was asking, the Viking person was rude, interrupted him and didn’t allow him to finish. My husband called again the next day, a different Viking person treated him in the same manner. So be warned, if you think Viking is your travel agent, they’re not. You’re on your own if you have problems. Viking can’t have it both ways, either they are or aren’t acting as travel agents.

As I started, the Orion is beautiful and the crew is exceptional! The GM was wonderful and used resources on board to try to make our time as good as it could be under the circumstances. But for this booking, Viking fell down in almost every other way.

In the meantime, our purchase claims are submitted to both Travel Mate travel insurance and Lufthansa. We are waiting to hear from the travel insurance, but they want to hear from Lufthansa first. But aside from automated replies to our repeated emails, we’re finding it impossible to get ahold of Lufthansa, and this has put us in an impossible situation for reimbursement of necessities purchased. We have spent many, many hours dealing with this, and none of this was our fault. Things shouldn’t be this hard.T&jw

Terry and Jackie Woebke

I am surprised to hear your story and that Viking did not step up. One of our past trips had some difficulty with the river levels being too high to pass under and we had to be rerouted by bus. We were offered the opportunity to re schedule the trip or cancel for a full refund, Or take 50% off a future cruise. We chose the latter and have to say that Viking did an exceptional job in re-routing us in Germany. We stayed at lavish spas and hotels until we were able to pick up another river cruiser on the other side of the disabled bridge. As far as trip insurance--Trip Mate will do everything to not pay you. I think they stall so that you will just give up. Your documents get lost, they ask for ridiculous things. It took me 8 months to receive the final payment for emergency room visits. I must have resent all the paperwork 6 times. Insist on speaking with a supervisor when the going gets rough and email her or call every couple of days. Nightmare