klh720

Congratulations!  Our cruise is in 6 months, so I hope no grandbabies will arrive in that time period.  At least, we're not expecting any as of now.

Does Viking serve these?

great answer! thanks.

Thank you!

Thanks.  I'm inclined to buy third party insurance.  Can you explain what circumstances would be "cancel for any reason?"  I can only imagine cancelling for illness or death, which are usually covered reasons.  So I'm not sure how useful a cfar provision would be.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but when would you use this as opposed to cancelling for a covered reason, such as illness?  I'm hesitant to buy Viking insurance, since the only reimbursement is for vouchers.

We just cancelled our Viking cruise for May 2021.  We just aren’t confident it will be able to sail, at least not without many restrictions.  Viking said we could change our booking to a similar cruise in 2022, but would have to pay the full balance a year in advance.  We don’t want to do that.  We’ll just wait for the pandemic to get more under control before we book another cruise.  I’m sure there will be a big rush at that point, but we’ll take our chance on getting the cruise/cabin we want.  One good thing, Viking will give us a credit on the travel insurance for a future cruise, which they don’t normally do.

We have a Greek cruise (Athens to Athens, Ephesus, but not Istanbul) booked for next May, payment is due next month.  We will probably cancel before full payment is due, given the pandemic.  Even if the cruise sails, I don't think it will be much fun with a lot of restrictions.  We will wait to cruise until a vaccine is widely available and the pandemic is under control.

We have a Viking cruise in Greece scheduled for May 2021.  Final payment is due next month.  Even if the cruise sails, it will probably have all sorts of pandemic restrictions, which would take much of the fun out of it.  If Viking cancels the cruise, we run a risk of getting our money back if the cruise lines start declaring bankruptcy.  Our TA told us we could push our reservation to a similar cruise for April 2022, but we would have to pay in full by the end of this year.  We will probably just cancel the May 2021 cruise and see how things go, knowing that we may not be able to get a reservation if we wait.  I really do not want to pay the full amount 14 months in advance.

Theoretically, 250 days, but we will probably cancel when full pay is due in Nov.

I'll see if my TA can negotiate a better payment plan for a 2022 cruise.  I wondered why all those people were lining up on our last cruise to book another one!  

13 minutes ago, klh720 said:

I assume Viking would keep the deposit if we cancelled now or in Nov., but am not sure.  Trip insurance will cover it in many circumstances (but maybe not because of a pandemic).  As to why we book with Viking, even with their less than ideal pay options, what can I say?  We liked the other Viking cruise we took and so do thousands of other people.  Obviously, if Viking cancelled the cruise, we would get back everything we paid them, including the deposit. 

I will have to check with my TA, but after further research, I believe I will get most of the deposit back.  So it's not completely non-refundable.

6 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

If you're saying that Viking would keep your deposit now (if you cancel) when final pay isn't due until November, I have to ask why ever did you book with a cruiseline that has non-refundable deposits???

That's like using a TA who charges booking and/or cancel fees when there are equal/better vendors available.

I assume Viking would keep the deposit if we cancelled now or in Nov., but am not sure.  Trip insurance will cover it in many circumstances (but maybe not because of a pandemic).  As to why we book with Viking, even with their less than ideal pay options, what can I say?  We liked the other Viking cruise we took and so do thousands of other people.  Obviously, if Viking cancelled the cruise, we would get back everything we paid them, including the deposit. 

If you can't use one of their offers (like book now with deposit and pay 6 months before sail date, which is what we did last October for a cruise in 2021), Viking requires full payment almost immediately after booking.  Their payment requirements are generally less favorable than other cruise lines.  Our TA told me that if I rescheduled our cruise to 2022 now, we would have to pay in full by December 31, 2020, since the offer we used before would not apply to the rebooking.

Our drop dead date for payment in full is November 15. I suspect Viking will not cancel a May cruise any earlier than next March.  If Viking offers any book-now-pay-later deals between now and Nov., we will try to rebook for 2022, as long as we can carry over the deposit and insurance.  If not, we will probably cancel and forfeit the money we've already paid.  I'm not confident that if we pay in full in Nov. (or paid in full by the end of 2020 for the cruise in 2022, as required without a deal) that we will get our money refunded.  It would be nice if we had not already made the reservation, but who knew in Oct. 2019 when we made the reservation that there would be this crisis????  The itinerary we wanted was not offered in 2020 and only two similar sailings were offered for 2021.  It's a smaller ship, so we wanted to make sure we got a spot.  Yes, we could have waited until closer to the sail date, but, assuming it sails, we might have been shut out.

Unfortunately it’s not always that easy, especially on Viking.

Ugh - I asked my TA about rebooking the same itinerary in April 2022.  She said that was doable, but that the final payment would be due December 31, 2020.  I am very hesitant to give Viking the entire balance 14 months ahead of sailing, given all the current uncertainty.  Apparently, my original booking for May 2021 allowed me to pay the balance 6 months ahead of the cruise, but that deal would disappear for a rebooked cruise.  (some people think that is still too far in advance of a cruise, but Viking is notorious about advance payments.)  She advises waiting until September to see if another deal is offered for final payment closer to the cruise date.

Unfortunately, I checked with my TA and although I could move my booking and deposit to April 2022 (from the current booking for May 2021), I would still have to pay the full amount of the cruise in December 2020.  I guess I could wait until then and decide whether to pull the plug at that point.  I would not want to pay Virgin the whole amount 16 months in advance with all the current uncertainty.

Thanks to you both.  I will call my TA next week and see what I can work out.  I'm pretty pessimistic about the cruise happening next May.  Even if it does, it may not be very enjoyable if there are a lot of restrictions.

That’s what I’m inclined to do.  Surely things  will be better by 2022??

Thanks, I hadn’t thought about it that way.  

Pretty depressing prospect!  We may try to reschedule the same trip for 2022 and carry over the deposit and travel insurance for another year.  Even if Viking ultimately cancelled the trip for 2022, we would not be out any additional money than if we cancelled this November.  I would just hate to pay the balance in November and then wait in the bankruptcy line.

Well,  I have only 3 months before the full payment is due.  That will fly by.

Yep, that makes sense.  Just asking a hypothetical.  November is not far off and I doubt the situation will be much clearer then.  I looked on the Viking Ocean forum and saw that someone rescheduled the same cruise for 2022, which is another option.  

I have a similar dilemma.  Last October, we booked a cruise to Greece on Viking for May 16, 2021.  Put down a deposit and purchased Viking trip insurance.  I believe the full payment will be due November 2020.  We have a few months to decide, but are debating whether to cancel then (and forfeit the deposit and insurance, I assume) or pay in full and see if the trip is cancelled and we can get a refund.  I have not looked into whether we could postpone until 2022, but maybe that would be a better option, assuming Viking still exists!