Lisa1a

YES I AGREE - they cannot control the water levels. But they do have an obligation to try and inform us that they will not be able to provide the services that are offered. If they had cancelled our cruise with a full refund we would have happily used the $1,000 a day to go to another part of Europe that we could have enjoyed and booked a river cruise again. But without a choice and being held hostage with false promises and not being allowed to enjoy what we expected is wrong. I do not think our expectations are wrong. We spent thousand of dollars and for the cruise not including our airfare and the hotel rooms before and after the bus rides. Our trip did not have one day of cruising. We did not get to experience most of the cities we were promised. We were given only minutes to explore places that where promoted as having a half a day or more to explore. Even with a bus tour you do not travel the same route day after day only longer trip as we did. So if you are happy with our 75% credit good for you. I am not.

River cruising is ALWAYS subject to water levels. Several years ago, we faced low levels which almost caused us to take the bus.

 

No cruise line can control the river water. If it's too high or too low, river boats cannot pass.

 

I agree that river cruise lines need to deal with this known issue. Realistically, the only choice they have is land transport (i.e., buses). No question that those who booked cruises affirmatively chose NOT to change hotels every night, pack/unpack every night, etc. But what is a river cruise line to do when the river is impassable?

 

Some compensation is appropriate. However, given that the water level situation is beyond the line's control, how much do you really expect? If they refunded 75% of every passenger's fare when there is low/high water, they wouldn't be in business for long. Sorry to be brutal, but it's a fact.

 

Bottom line: If you book a river cruise in Europe in the summer, you ALWAYS run the risk that your cruise won't go as expected due to high or low water levels. For the overwhelming majority of passengers, everything is fine. For a small minority, it's not.

 

The above said, we had a lot of issues with our Viking cruise earlier this year, so I'm NOT an apologist. There is room for improvement. Just consider what the line can and cannot control, your REALISTIC expectations, and what happened.

I emailed the tell us email address and received a phone call, the representative informed me that I would need to wait for a corporate decision which may take a week regarding my request. So I will wait a week and post the result.

Mark T - I talked to Viking Friday morning I asked for clarification on what 75% off paid cruise meant and she said 75% off what we paid. I told her that didn't work for us. She said that was all they were offering. Also said that the vouchers were only good for a year so would have to book by this time next year. This does not work for us hence my post. In my opinion Viking's post was just a empty PR spin. I will contact them again and will post the outcome on whether they have actually changed their position on their offer.

Sorry for the confusion. I booked a Veranda B room. The french balcony you refer to is only a sliding window. I also quoted the wrong price, I just looked at our invoice and we paid $7,711.00 for a bus trip and our small room. Our room had a balcony with two chairs and a table. We wasted a $1,000 a night. I am sorry that I looked this up because I am even more upset than I was before.

I have been monitoring the boards regarding Viking's treatment of affected passengers during the terrible flooding in Europe. This is my story.

I had the displeasure of being on the Viking Forseti June 1, 2013 from Basel to Amsterdam. We arrived in Basel the night before the cruise. On the morning of the 1st we headed to the harbor to drop of our bags and explore Basel. We arrived to the port and their was no ship! After searching in the rain trying to contact Viking with no luck. a gentlemen that hardly spoke any English arrived and told us we needed to go to the airport and we would be bused to the ship. No problem.

We arrived at the ship that was docked in Breisach Germany. Nice little town, took a guided tour to see the church on the hill. That evening we were told that the water was too high, but they expected it to recede in the next day or two and then we could cruise. We were also told that Viking would compensate us for our trouble upon our return home.

Well the river never receded, they bused us to a few of the sites on the itinerary, the destinations got further and further away, so my husband and I did not take a five hour bus trip to see a castle. We instead hired a driver to take us to a wonderful castle in France and a few other places. We got back to the ship hours before the others.

Everyday we were told that thing would get better and then we would sail, after 5 nights we were told to pack up our things and that we would be bused to Cologne. They could not take us straight their because they had to get people that were currently on the ship in Cologne out, clean the rooms and then allow us to board. We ended up in Cologne in a dirty smelly harbor. The bus driver got lost trying to find the place.

We were bused into the city of Cologne the next morning and had the day to explore the city. The next morning we packed up once again and were sent to Amsterdam, another full day of a bus ride.

We returned home to offer of a 75% credit to what we paid for our cruise. While this may seem generous it is not. We are out our $3,000 in airfare, our hotel stay on both side of the cruise and 25% of $4,200. Yes we paid $4,200 for a extremely small hotel room, and a few meals with some horrible bus rides. This does not take into account that the price for the cruise has also increased since we booked our over a year ago.

Let me mention our room - we paid extra to have a nice balcony, but that was unusable as another Viking ship was parked next to us and we had to keep our drapes shut so the other ship could not see into our room. I would call our room a dark cave.

Viking's customer service is sticking to their guns. No further compensation except the 75% discount that must be taken within the year. This is unacceptable, if they would have just cancelled the cruise gave me my money back I would have happily headed for Italy for the week. We were held hostage with false promises. They were cancelling cruises on the 2nd of June and the other cruise lines were refunding the cruise cost and also giving credits to future cruises.

I hope you never have to go through what we did, but be warned that if something happens Viking will not take care of you!

On last thing. I noticed that on another post from Viking that the Forseti was in Amsterdam on June 6th or maybe 8th - funny how our ship got all the way their with out us on it?