Review of an overpriced and uncomfortable Viking "Rhine Getaway" cruise

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

OP is MIA folks but sure has created much reaction! :eek:;)

 

I surely could be wrong - but I think the OP was here to stir us up and it worked! Kling-Klang! Even the screen name hints at a bit of tongue in cheek. I would expect someone with that screen name to be having some fun and the review clearly is about someone who had NO fun. Never offered beer or wine? :rolleyes: That was the first clue.

 

Its weird because if you are standing in your cabin everything is fine, its only when you lie down that the noise starts.

Engine noise that you can only hear when you lie down? I don't buy this either - too weird! Many regular posters have made positive comments about aquarium cabins. Edited September 9, 2014 by SeaTheWorldBySea

[nana541]

Did you know that in English, Kling Klang means "ding dong" sorry thinking this OP may be a troll....

 

 

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[MinotLight]

I find it very hard to believe that all the staff became so bad In a matter of two weeks....

 

The OP had to convince himself that the staff/service was lousy so he was justified in not tipping the staff (except attendant).

 

It's really pretty sad as I'm sure the OP could have used a relaxing vacation but instead they brought the stress of the job loss with them and had a lousy time.

[tobique33040]

That ding dong theory is interesting because I think the person who said this was a troll, is almost certainly right. Or, alternatively, as others have suggested, a person for whom nothing is right. Like the joke about the ladies lunching and their regular waiter came to their table and said, after the lunch, "Well ladies, was anything alright?" I am currently on theViking Waterways of the Tsars cruise and also did Viking Budapest to Amsterdam five years ago. I cannot conceive of sitting at any of the meals for more than a couple of minutes without a waiter coming to check on us. The meals have been great. We missed a stop because of fog,but other than that things have been wonderful, organized and fun. The OP has an ulterior motive imo or is a completely negative person. Viking is not perfect, but we have been really pleased so far.Our cruise five years ago, before there were so many river cruises, was pretty close to perfect,and we actually stayed in D deck. Not the very bottom, but river level. Just fine for us. This time we decided on a veranda and love it. Just saying

[nana541]

This is the OP's review on trip advisor, it is slightly different than the one posted here. OP's name is the same on TA and he has 11 reviews over there. I have not had a chance to look at other reviews yet.

 

Have a read!

 

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187389-d254590-r222265124-Rhine_River-Rhineland_Palatinate.html#review222265124

 

 

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[Mark_T]

I have not had a chance to look at other reviews yet.

 

Thanks for the link, the pattern in the other reviews is clear. I was particularly impressed by the one where he was apparently reading other guests bills placed outside their room so he knew he had paid more per night than they had ... :)

 

For the person who was concerned about the number of posts being a factor, this is why.

 

When someone pretty much only ever posts negative comments about everything you are able to form an opinion based on the trend.

 

When you only have one post to consider, you can't see any trend so have to be careful how much faith you put in the comments.

 

That is all it is, less posts doesn't make you inherently less trustworthy or less believable just that without the context of other reviews and comments it is hard to judge what to take from a single post.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Mark_T

[G.M.T.]

The OP in his original message said that 8 people had to sqeeze into a van meant for 6 persons, in TA write up he is now saying 9 persons in a van with 7 seats.

 

In a later message the OP said he had worked on all continents except Antartica, so he must have travelled widely with a wealth of experience under his belt. Yet his wife only eats American food also a statement from him (TA writeup) he cannot understand the reason for early flights " but I don't understand why they schedule leaving at that time for what is supposed to be a leisure trip."

 

What this guy writes is totally crap.

[Viking Cruises]

This review is for the Viking "Rhine Getaway" cruise on the longship Ingvi August 8, 2014 from Amsterdam to Basel with the two night pre-cruise extension in Amsterdam.

 

We made the mistake of trying to take advantage of an offer from Discover Card that required us to use their Cruise and Vacation Group travel agency. The only "special" request that we had was that the cabin be equipped with a refrigerator to store my insulin, all of the new longships and several of the older ships have this. The first six trip proposals that we received were for ships without refrigerators in the cabins, by the time that that we could book a reservation on the longship Ingvi it was for seven weeks past our requested cruise date. Our credit card was charged for a higher amount than I had authorized, we eventually received a refund for the excess amount. We never received an itinerary from Cruise and Vacation Group, we only received the Viking cruise kit two days before our sailing date. Whenever we tried to contact Viking for information we were told that we had to work through our travel agent. Every time that we spoke with someone from Cruise and Vacation Group it was with a different agent.

 

We booked flights and transfers as part of the package, big mistake. I'm sure that we were charged twice as much as we should have been for airfare. For our transfer from Schiphol airport to the Moevenpick hotel we had to search for an agent who made it clear that she didn't care about us and that we should "wait over there". We ended up riding with eight people in a van with seating for six and holding our luggage on our laps.

 

At the hotel our room was not ready, so they checked our luggage and carry ons. After spending four hours walking around Amsterdam on our own we were allowed to check into our room at 4:00 pm but had to wait five more hours for our luggage to be located. The hotel said that they were "very busy".

 

The Moevenpick hotel room was barely adequate but not worth the price, the included breakfast was spectacular. We took the mediocre Viking walking tour around the same section of Amsterdam that we had previously explored on our own and spent additional time walking and on a canal cruise. When we returned at 7:00 pm our room had not been made up, the hotel said that they were "very busy".

 

There was a Viking representative at the Moevenpick hotel, but her dining and tour recommendations were very overpriced compared to what we found on our own. Don't go to the recommended restaurant at the library, there is a Subway fast food restaurant three doors down from the hotel with better food.

 

The "included transfer" from the hotel to the Ingvi consisted of walking from the hotel to the ship. Once again our room was not ready, once it was we had to wait another three hours for our luggage to arrive. We took another Viking walking tour of central Amsterdam which covered the same area as the tour the previous day.

 

The exterior of the Viking longships is very unattractive compared to the ships from other cruise lines. The interior is acceptable except that the lounge is too small for events attended by all passengers, the cabin layout is very efficient given the limited size. We had a cabin on the lowest level, we didn't mind the porthole window but the noise was terrible. We had to try and get some sleep after dinner each night since once the ship began moving we couldn't sleep at all. We missed not having a clock or a top sheet for the bed. The service from the cabin attendant was excellent.

 

Dinner the first night was seated at 7:00 pm, we didn't get any food until 9:00 pm. When you are a diabetic on insulin this is extremely uncomfortable. In general the ship's breakfast buffet was excellent, the lunch buffet/service OK, and the dinner service skimpy and very slow. Tuesday night was German food night served buffet style in the lounge, the restaurant, and the galley. There was five times as much food as anyone could possible sample. The food was better than anything else served on the cruise, I wished that they had saved the leftovers to serve the next two days. If you don't order the 'Silver Spirits' drink package you are out of luck getting any beverage service. We never were served wine or beer during lunch or dinner.

 

The included Kinderdijk windmill and Marksburg castle tours were very good. Our guide for Cologne spent all of his time talking about how Catholics mistreated the Jews, celebrities he had met, parties he had been to, and current middle east politics. The Heidelberg and Strasbourg guides abandon you in the middle of the cities and tell you that you should look for your busses "back there" after shopping for a couple of hours. On the Black Forest tour the bus drives on winding roads past beautiful scenery at 100 kph without stopping so that you have more time to spend in the souvenir shops. The guide was from Italy and couldn't answer questions about the region. We didn't take any of the optional tours. We enjoyed walking through the towns of Rudesheim, Speyer, and Kehl on our own during these times.

 

The last night's program was a disaster. You can not get a cocktail during the 'Captain's Cocktail Hour'. The seven course dinner starts late, then there are simply not enough servers to serve every guest simultaneously. After 3 hours my wife left the table when she saw the rare (raw) 'Beef Wellington'.

 

Our flight out of Basel Switzerland was at 6:50 am, so we had to get up at 3:00 am to have our luggage ready at 3:45 am and depart at 4:45 am. They did an efficient job getting us off of the ship and to the airport, but I don't understand why they schedule leaving at that time for what is supposed to be a leisure trip.

 

In summary we do not feel that this trip was a good value and we will not be taking any more Viking cruises.

 

Dear Kling_Klang,

 

We’re very sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your cruise. Your feedback, like all of our guests’ feedback, is important to us. Our Customer Relations team would like to speak with you to discuss your experience, and we kindly ask that you send an e-mail to TellUs@vikingcruises.com so we can put you in touch with them. Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

[Viking Cruises]

I'm an avid Viking cruiser, having taken four Viking cruises. I have also had a cabin on the lower deck of a Viking Long Ship, and so I sympathize with you. It's miserable. The engine sounds like a dog barking all night. I will never travel with Viking on the lower deck again, unless perhaps we're very close to the front of the deck, where the noise wasn't as bad according to others we were traveling with. I also don't like the long ships as much as the older, smaller Viking river boats. Viking has grown too large, too fast, and they manage the long ships like they are the smaller ships, which leaves the long ships understaffed. With all of the ships Viking has added so quickly, it appears that Viking is focusing their revenue stream on building more long ships (and ocean ships) instead of enhancing the passenger experience once they are on them.

 

Having said that, I love Viking River Cruises on the smaller ships. We took the Elegant Elbe trip this past May on the Viking Fontane (a smaller ship), and had a great time and a great cruise experience. The boat was adequately staffed with excellent personnel. We've also taken the Amsterdam to Basel trip on a smaller Viking ship and loved it. We stayed at the Amsterdam Hilton, which was great. The advantage of river cruises is that you get to see a country up close and personal in the country side while having the benefits of being on a cruise (one room, only unpacking once, meals taken care of). I especially liked the Rhine river cruise because you get to see castles and vinyards all along the Rhine river. It was spectacular, and I would recommend the cruise to anyone, as long as expectations are tapped down if you are on one of Viking's long ships.

 

Dear Mackenzie1,

 

We appreciate your candid feedback and thank you for continuing to choose Viking Cruises. We will pass your comments along to the appropriate personnel, and you can contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com if there’s anything else that you’d like to bring to our attention. Thanks again.

 

Best,

Viking Cruises

[Mackenzie1]

Thank you for your reply, Viking. I look forward to many future cruises on Viking. River cruising is the best!

[rothbury]

Host Jazzbeau, I think it's time to shutdown this thread! Viking doesn't need to do anything for this guy!! I followed the link to Tripadvisor and all this guy does is complain about everything everywhere! JMHO!

[nana541]

Host Jazzbeau, I think it's time to shutdown this thread! Viking doesn't need to do anything for this guy!! I followed the link to Tripadvisor and all this guy does is complain about everything everywhere! JMHO!

 

 

Our Host Jazzbeau is in Spain and can't do too much for us until he returns ;(

 

 

 

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[Kling_Klang]

Thank you to everyone for their insights and (constructive?) criticism.

 

It is correct that I do not have a long history on Cruise Critic since this was only our second cruise, the first was for our honeymoon 30 years ago. It is also true that I am much more likely to report negative experiences on TripAdvisor than positive ones, for that and my other character faults I apologize. I am not a competitor or disgruntled employee of Viking. I would like to point out that not everything that I posted about the trip was negative.

 

One incident that I did not previously relate occurred the first night after dinner. We were walking on the upper deck and the Hotel Manager, Michael Logtenberg, approached us and asked if we had enjoyed our dinner. We both empathetically replied, "No!". When he asked what the problem was, we told him about having to wait two hours for service and asked if it would be like that every night. He asked for the name of our waiter, my wife told him. I don't know if the staff was reprimanded or if this was the reason for the very poor service that we received for the rest of the cruise. Several times the wait staff took the orders for the other persons at our table and left us until the end. It is true that we are not aggressive in demanding service, I am appalled when people physically grab servers, and I feel like I am back in second grade when I have to wave my hand in the air to get attention.

 

Since it is unlikely that we will be taking any more cruises this will be my last entry. Once again, thank you to those who took the time to reply.

[caviargal]

We had bad service from one particular wait person on our last Avalon cruise. She was always terse, sometimes rude, and we had to endure her twice in the bar and then in the dining room, where she was the wine server for our section.

 

Several in our group (not people we were traveling with but whom we met pre-cruise on the land portion of our trip and enjoyed spending time with) reported her attitude to management. We refused to be seated in any section she was working after being subjected to her twice.

 

We (and others) wrote about her on our comment cards and I later was told that she did not get another contract with the line.

 

That was the only time we had bad service on a river cruise. It is not something to be tolerated IMO.

Edited September 10, 2014 by caviargal

[wwinfl91]

Host Jazzbeau, I think it's time to shutdown this thread! Viking doesn't need to do anything for this guy!! I followed the link to Tripadvisor and all this guy does is complain about everything everywhere! JMHO!

 

Why is every time there is a negative thread about Viking in particular do people want to close down the thread. The reason for CC to exist is to share opinions of cruises and cruise lines and not all of those opinions are going to be positive. If someone doesn't want to follow the thread any longer then they can quit checking it out but closing the thread without a good reason doesn't seem like the concept of free speech is being followed.

 

IMHO

[YoungDubFan]

In regards to Kling_Klang's last post about the poor service that he received in the dining room, it should be pointed out to others reading this thread that there is not assigned seating in the dining room. Passengers are free to sit wherever they want, in which ever server's section, and also can sit with whomever they want. It is truly open seating, albeit at a specific time. If I had encountered the service he described, I would not sit in that server's section again. On Avalon, there are 6 waiters in the dining room and the waiters always have the same section - they do not change. That way, after the 1st night, passengers are aware of which waiter has which section, and can choose to use different sections every meal if so desired. I really find it hard to believe that every waiter in the restaurant all had the same poor service. It appears that the OP just didn't exercise their choice to change sections. This may have helped this specific issue.

 

Just want to make sure new cruisers who may stumble on this thread know there are options to fix issues while still on the cruise. I was very lucky in that I've never had any issues like the OPs on either Ocean cruises or River cruises.

[Talisker92]

I think the bottom line is that if something is not to your liking, you make it known to the management right away. Years ago I had a travel agent tell me about people who went somewhere and complained when they got back.

That serves no purpose because it is too late to fix the problem.

I do not know if this person is a troll, but if he as traveled as he claims, he would know to bring his complaints to the attention of the staff right away.

Frankly, after all the trips and cruises I have been on, some of his comments strain credulity

[tobique33040]

Well said Talisker! For example, it is hard to believe orders would be taken from everyone at a table but two, and those just ignored. At that point, you speak up! Or at least I suspect a seasoned traveller would. Just sayin'

[Ukalady]

While I'm not at all reserved about admitting that Viking has areas it needs to improve (especially note communications when river levels, etc. are questioned during the pre-trip period), I found that the on-board staff were highly responsive to comments/suggestions/concerns on my (one and only--so far!) Viking river cruise.

 

If the OP says he was *always* last to have his order taken, perhaps he was always seated at the same place at the table; servers seemed to have a preferred pattern for taking orders... And besides, *someone* at the dining table had to be the last one to place their order each night, but--unless you were late arriving at the table after all others had placed theirs and the servers were in the process of setting out appetizers--I never saw fellow diners "ignored" when they wanted to order. In contrast, if I sat down a bit late, I always felt they asked me a bit too soon, before I'd had the chance to fully read the evening's choices. But that was my own fault for being a bit tardy to a set dinner time.

 

Wine and beer were certainly free flowing during lunch and dinner. I had to forcibly cover my wine glass most evenings so it wouldn't be quickly topped off by the server while I wasn't looking! Viking didn't really seem to be squeeze every dollar out of "extra" beverage purchases, either: my mom, who liked to dance, would save her glass of wine until the end of the meal then carry it upstairs to the lounge so she could enjoy it with the music. No one had any problems with that.

[tobique33040]

I had the same experience with wine. They always asked what we wanted to drink and when they knew we had asked for wine initially, they always brought it and asked if we would like that. Then it was always filled during dinner and my husband and others would walk out of the dining room with a glass. Our dining experience was super.

[roberts2005]

Nothing on any cruise is perfect. I was not happy with the long tours that ended in the dark on our "Passage to Eastern Europe" in November But the time of year was our choice. The staff and crew were still excellent. The cabin was well taken care of and the meals were well prepared. Would I repeat that itinerary, no. Would I book another Viking Cruise, yes.

[Viking Cruises]

Nothing on any cruise is perfect. I was not happy with the long tours that ended in the dark on our "Passage to Eastern Europe" in November But the time of year was our choice. The staff and crew were still excellent. The cabin was well taken care of and the meals were well prepared. Would I repeat that itinerary, no. Would I book another Viking Cruise, yes.

 

Dear roberts2005,

 

Thank you for your candid feedback regarding your itinerary and the time of year that you sailed. We’re happy to hear that the staff was excellent, the stateroom met expectations and that you enjoyed your meals. We’re also happy to hear that you will consider traveling with us again, and wanted to let you know that you can reach us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com if there’s anything else that you would like to share.

 

Thank you for having been our guest in Eastern Europe; we look forward to welcoming you aboard for another cruise…hopefully sometime soon!

 

Best,

Viking Cruises

[GlobalMethod]

Your comments on your Viking River Cruise were very much like our recent cruise with them. We traveled from Bucharest to Budapest. I won't provide as much detail as you did but briefly try to 'compare notes'.

 

Pre-cruise: Since we have extensive experience in cruising we felt Viking was very over hyped to us and made all pre-cruise experiences as unaccommodating as possible. This includes giving me a hard time in making our regular travel agent our agent of record, requiring we not contact them about anything and only get information from our agent, not working with us to obtain satisfactory air transport via their resources we were using.

Like you, our Viking hotel representative at our 1st hotel was also not properly trained in customer relations. The person in front of my wife in line for information from this person had a substantial complaint and was not picked up at the airport. Instead of just apologizing and trying to make up for this, the Viking hotel person arrogantly and loudly made it this woman's fault totally and worse she carried her bad attitude into my wife's questions.

 

Our 1st night hotel of the cruise was quite nice, available at 1:00 PM and service was extremely good.

 

We were not so concerned about the ships exterior as you but found the interior design unacceptable. We have done a lot of 'luxury' level cruising and weren't expecting that but found the 'sliding' door to the bathroom very noisy. The closet door was very difficult for my wife to use and not having an electrical outlet near the cabin's mirror was very inconvenient.

 

Dining is such a personal matter and saying what is good really reflects one's own tastes and cultural background. We did not expect 'luxury' level dining but what we received was satisfactory. Just not much special to talk about other than the waiter, Jorge, who I surfaced early on with a little interviewing. Jorge, made sure our wine glasses were always kept full during dinner. I should note that this cruise was the last of the season for the ship and crew and was only half full.

 

Your comments on inappropriate timing hit home with me. During the cruise we were awoken at 3:30 AM to be ready for a mandatory face to face passport check going into Hungary. Why couldn't we have waited a couple of hours so this could have been done during breakfast? Also, most all of our scheduled excursions were also inappropriately scheduled, often so that during the last hour or two of our excursion we were in total darkness. Yes, really!

 

Our departure times were much like yours, extremely inconvenient, but this sometimes is just because scheduled airline departure times seem to run early going to the USA.

 

In conclusion, I can say that Viking does an excellent job on the destination part of cruising. Their concept of sort of putting all the excursions together that you would find on an ocean cruise into a 1 day longer excursion is really a great way to immerse yourself into a new adventure. We particularly liked the excursion we had with a 'local' family. Their tour guides were excellent. However, we have found that the more we travel the more we savor the "journey" to a "destination" as much as seeing more new destinations. Since Viking did not help us do this, in fact, made it difficult for us, we also do not think we will travel with them again.

Edited December 18, 2014 by GlobalMethod

[remydiva]

I'm so sorry your vacation was not what you expected.

 

Perhaps you're not used to traveling? As a frequent traveler, you learn that it takes quite awhile to get your luggage once you drop it off at the bell desk or at the ship. I've waited 10 hrs. sometimes. It happens; I don't like it either, but it's expected.

 

It is common practice for all cruise lines to defer your questions to your travel agent. There are a lot of obvious reasons for this. If you choose to use an agent, you go through them for all your questions and changes to your booking. If you book on your own, you can call Viking directly but you'll get a different agent every time, some of whom have never cruised on the ocean or on a river in their life.

 

If you had done a little research beforehand, you would see that the AMS Movenpick is right next to the river cruise ship docks. You can walk there very easily. IMO, it's not the best location for seeing the city but it's convenient to get to the ship. I did a simple Google Maps search when I was considering that hotel and after seeing the location, decided against it.

 

Why did you continue to go on 3 AMS walking tours? After the first one, did you ask, "What areas will we be seeing?" or did you just blindly follow the leader? By the third time, you should've spoken up and asked that question before taking off with the group. I'm sure you would've enjoyed your time in AMS more if you had gone off on your own. Did you pre-buy your museum or attraction tickets? That always helps with lines.

 

As for meals, a Subway meal is not my idea of good food, but if you did a search on TripAdvisor, you could've probably found some good suggestions for the type of food you wanted and for the budget you wanted too.

 

It really does pay to do your research ahead of time instead of relying on others to make your vacation exactly the way you want it. Read all the reviews you can, do plenty of your own research and then I'm sure your next cruise will be a much better experience. ;)

 

well said Mario....I want to travel with you or people with your attitude :)

[franski]

I really think that noise level - and tolerance of same - is subjective.

 

We travel Aquarium Class almost exclusively - by choice. We do hear the water rushing by the window - but find that soothing. The only truly disruptive noise was on our Russian Cruise when they used the pumps to move the fuel from one tank to another. At 2 in the morning, you can bet that I was up to the front desk to complain!! They didn't do it again.... They did the transfer over dinner - when we were in the dining room. (We did that cruise with Uniworld).

 

I actually found the stairway to the Aquarium Class rooms on the Longships to be the best we have encountered. The stairway was wide, the stairs well positioned (ie: run and rise easy to navigate) and the hand rail easy to grip. Not all ships are as well set up to get to the lowest level.

 

I do agree with a number of posters that the OP perhaps started with a disillusioned view. I am sorry that things did not meet his expectations - but I wonder if any river cruise would have done that. Especially when you add the challenge of his DW only eating American food.

 

We are going on our 2nd Viking cruise next year - and quite looking forward to it. Our first one wasn't without challenges (air conditioning broke down - and we hit a very unexpected heat wave early in the season) but we survived - and consider ourselves blessed that we have the health and resources to take another one.

 

Fran