"Abandoning Ship"

[Viking Cruises]

Dear HMforcruise,

 

Please accept our apologies for the last-minute air arrangements and the errors within them. Without know the specifics of this particular situation, we can only speculate that due to the limited flight availability out of the small capital of Estonia they took whatever flights and whatever time they could get. Still, while that may explain how your situation came about, it does not absolve us from your disappointment and frustration. We’re happy to hear that British Airways was able to work out your flight to Toronto.

 

Now that you are home and have had some sleep, we hope you’re able to reflect fondly on your overall time aboard Viking Star. And we hope that you will contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in touch with Customer Relations to further discuss your experience. We hope to hear from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

 

This is how our flight arrangements played out. Hope your goes better.

We advised Viking that we would take option 1 and go home from Tallinn. Last night, at 9:30 I checked to see if there were any arrangements yet. No. Then at 12:10 a.m. the phone rings in our cabin, saying we have Berlin, Heathrow, Toronto and have to be on bus for 4:15! No sleep, just pack.

We get to Tallinn airport and it is not Berlin, it is Brussels! Off we go landing in Brussels by 8:45 am this morning. We then try to board the British Air flight at 11:55 Brussels to Heathrow., as told. No, we are not booked on it and it is full. But we were booked on the 3:30 flight. So we hang around for that one, wondering why we lost a night's sleep and were loaded on a 4:15 am bus from ship only to sit in Brussels so long. We had to run like crazy in Heathrow to connect to a 5 pm BA flight to Toronto. Almost missed it. Out of the 4 of us, 3 had seats on the issued boarding pass. 1 was on stand by. The good news is that British Airways got it worked out, but we were pretty worried for a few hours in Brussels when we thought one of us may have to stay back. The good news is we made it! Landed safely and are settled in Hampton Inn for some sleep, before driving home tomorrow. I hope the mass exodus from the ship on Aug 4 goes smoothly. Now, when I read that many who wanted Bergen, got itineraries home instead, I think we did the right thing in choosing home as our first option. HTML][/html]

[Viking Cruises]

Dear TERRIER1,

 

We recall having seen your posts for months leading up to your cruise and know how much you were looking forward to the trip. While we’re happy to hear you say that the ship is beautiful, the food good and the service excellent, we’re truly sorry that your trip was interrupted in the way it was and that you are as disappointed as you are with the outcome. Please do contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in contact with a member of our Customer Relations team who can speak to you about your concerns. We do want you to travel with Viking again, and we would like to work with you in order to restore your trust in us. We hope to hear from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

 

I am sitting here waiting for our disembarking color to be called. I fully agree that a 50% credit is unacceptable. We booked this cruise for the Norway segment. 50% will not cover my seeing the fiords with another Viking Oceans or another cruise line and I don't know if I ever want to sail with Viking again. The ship is beautiful, the food good and the service excellent. However, dealing with Viking from day one of booking this cruise nearly 2 years ago has been one miscommunication, no communication and wrong communication. Viking has had our money for close to 2 years now. I feel like we financed this disaster.

[Daramblinman]

Viking Customer Service: Thank you for your response!

 

I'll contact you at the tellus@vikingcruises.com to at least learn about the Bergen excursions and will address our concerns with the Viking Star issue upon our arrival home as opposed to addressing the issue while trying to enjoy the rest of our trip.

 

 

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[kruz4adventure]

This my first post on Cruise Critic, although I had eagerly read the posts on our Viking Star July 25th departure. Having experienced the 12:05 am call to be ready for a 4:00am departure on Aug. 3rd and now reading OBX cruisers posting it seems Viking spent more effort in arranging entertainment and excursions for those passengers lucky or obstinate enough to get to Bergen, than on those who had to take the only option made available to them. I'm not interested in a future credit, just my money back.

[HMforcruise]

Dear HMforcruise,

 

Please accept our apologies for the last-minute air arrangements and the errors within them. Without know the specifics of this particular situation, we can only speculate that due to the limited flight availability out of the small capital of Estonia they took whatever flights and whatever time they could get. Still, while that may explain how your situation came about, it does not absolve us from your disappointment and frustration. We’re happy to hear that British Airways was able to work out your flight to Toronto.

 

Now that you are home and have had some sleep, we hope you’re able to reflect fondly on your overall time aboard Viking Star. And we hope that you will contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in touch with Customer Relations to further discuss your experience. We hope to hear from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

 

Thank you Viking Guest Relations. I have just sent you off an email and look forward to any phone calls. Emotions are still running high, but I hope that our discourse will be positive.

[TERRIER1]

Dear TERRIER1,

 

We recall having seen your posts for months leading up to your cruise and know how much you were looking forward to the trip. While we’re happy to hear you say that the ship is beautiful, the food good and the service excellent, we’re truly sorry that your trip was interrupted in the way it was and that you are as disappointed as you are with the outcome. Please do contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in contact with a member of our Customer Relations team who can speak to you about your concerns. We do want you to travel with Viking again, and we would like to work with you in order to restore your trust in us. We hope to hear from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

 

Thank you Viking. I sent an email yesterday that was given to me onboard at the ExplorersDesk. I received an automated reply stating that if I haven't heard back from them in ten days I was to contact them. I want to continue my vacation stress free and will attempt to deal with customer relations upon my return.

[paluni]

I have read other stories for a long time, where, if anything goes wrong, the Viking company leaves people twisting in the wind. They are being so stingy after this disaster, I have concluded they are short of money and just don't have the money to make it right. This confirms in my mind to avoid this company like the plague. It will never go right if there is a problem, and their operation runs into lots of problems, particularly with transportation.

[HMforcruise]

This my first post on Cruise Critic, although I had eagerly read the posts on our Viking Star July 25th departure. Having experienced the 12:05 am call to be ready for a 4:00am departure on Aug. 3rd and now reading OBX cruisers posting it seems Viking spent more effort in arranging entertainment and excursions for those passengers lucky or obstinate enough to get to Bergen, than on those who had to take the only option made available to them. I'm not interested in a future credit, just my money back.

 

Oh, you are so right! How can this be fair to those of us who did not go to Bergen ( it took luck, obstinance and trust in Viking on their part) but went home on the flights from hell? Were there any Red Shirts assisting you through the wee hours? I think they just got rid of us and now hope we do not see the inequity in the situation.

[Patria21]

I'm not unbiased on this subject; I had friends on board. But as someone who deals every day with people in public relations, for the life of me, I can't figure out what Viking thinks it's doing - unless it thinks simply saying "let's talk" is somehow recompense enough. The last thing a company should want in this situation is to extend this story, yet with every excuse and apology, the story lives on. Viking did not provide anything close to the trip promised. At this point, blame doesn't matter and the company's faltering attempts to fix things won't help. Give these people their money back. Nothing less will bring the story to an end, and nothing less will make people on the outside think Viking is worth the risk.

[Mammacat]

This is my first post on cruise critic. We are sailing Sept. 3rd on Viking Star. At this point I would love to cancel and get my money back...I agree Viking has had our money for 2 years and reading all about this latest drama and how Viking has treated passengers on this past cruise sickens me. I'm so over this! Don't want to think of getting on a plane with a layover not even a direct flight for what!! UGH!

[Viking Cruises]

Dear kruz4adventure,

 

Welcome home. We apologize for the late-night phone call to advise of your early-morning flight departure. Every effort was made to arrange comfortable transportation for our guests – to Bergen or otherwise – and we truly regret to hear of your less-than-ideal departure time paired with the absence of options. We appreciate your request for a full refund and would encourage you to contact us at tellus@vikingcruises.com so that we discuss your experience further and endeavor to reach a resolution. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Best regards,

Viking Cruises

 

This my first post on Cruise Critic, although I had eagerly read the posts on our Viking Star July 25th departure. Having experienced the 12:05 am call to be ready for a 4:00am departure on Aug. 3rd and now reading OBX cruisers posting it seems Viking spent more effort in arranging entertainment and excursions for those passengers lucky or obstinate enough to get to Bergen, than on those who had to take the only option made available to them. I'm not interested in a future credit, just my money back.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear paluni,

 

It is truly not our intention to leave our guests “twisting in the wind.” Contrarily, we are very interested in reaching an amicable resolution with each and every one of our passengers. If you have been impacted by these changes, we would be happy to hear from you! Please contact us at tellus@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss your experience further.

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

 

 

I have read other stories for a long time, where, if anything goes wrong, the Viking company leaves people twisting in the wind. They are being so stingy after this disaster, I have concluded they are short of money and just don't have the money to make it right. This confirms in my mind to avoid this company like the plague. It will never go right if there is a problem, and their operation runs into lots of problems, particularly with transportation.

[juliesaddiction]

Unfortunately I have to say I am not surprised at all with Viking's solution to the problem. I am not affected by this disaster, just a bystander who has had issues with Viking before and found that only those that make the biggest noise, on social media get their problem handled. A credit for another cruise definately isnt the answer, if I had been involved with the current problem I definately would not want a credit for another cruise. I did cruise on the Viking Star in May of this year and while it is a great ship and the cruise was good for the most part it wasnt worth paying so much so far ahead of time and we had concluded we probably wouldnt sail with Viking again, and after seeing how this is being handled I definately wouldnt sail with Viking again.

 

The problems we faced on our cruise were handled with the same mis management and different solutions for different people. Non communication played a huge part in all of it as well. The owners were on board with us and I have to say they were very snobby and made us feel unworthy. Looks like all the same problems are still happening. I would hope that in a disaster of a situation like this one that they would have a better plan. The cancelled cruise was cancelled by Viking, they need to refund all of the passengers money and pay any costs those passengers incur to get home. Viking needs to understand what it feels like to plan for something for 2 years, manage to take the time off, pack, fly, and then be treated like these passengers have been treated. A credit for a future cruise is not an answer when treated in this manner.

 

The only thing I can say is to use social media to your advantage and share your experience as much as you can, Viking probably will seek you out to make it right, even though it cant be made right. There is nothing that will undo your two year experience with Viking but a full refund will allow you to plan another vacation without it having to be with Viking.

[tt44]

I am really surprised but a full refund posted to my credit card today. We looked forward to this cruise for over a year, but when London was no longer included and they offered a refund we took it. We wish all those still on a cruise a wonderful time. Maria and Tony, NY

[AggiePilot]

juliesaddiction,

Appreciate your thoughts. Have been gathering and organizing material to write our story of this unfortunate situation. Want others here to see where we are coming from and what and how our personal perspective has evolved. This was a cruise location we and another couple had wanted to do for several years and after a Viking River Cruise together on the Danube we started searching many different cruise lines for a Baltic/Norwegian Fjord combined or back to back trip. I am retired military and flew hundreds of hours over the Baltic during the Cold War years keeping watch on the Bear to the East and really wanted to see many of these places up close that I only saw from 30,000 plus feet and 50 miles away. Anyway we were ready to put down money on a 2013 Regent Seven Seas 20 day Cruise in June 2012 but it was hard to pull the trigger even with a $6000 bonus the total for two was about $25K, due to the fact only a few higher price cabins were left. We decided to defer to 2014 with hope they would offer this itinerary again and expected that schedule out around April of 2013. It never came around again. But on May 23, 2013 I received an email from Viking announcing the Viking Star. A comparison between what Regent had offered and now Viking amounted to $7000 less but also 2 less days, if we added the 3 day Iceland extension. After a couple more emails back and forth 8 of us (Four Couples) pulled the trigger on June 4, 2013 for the 15 day Viking Homelands Cruise Jul 24-Aug 8 with the 3 day Iceland extension. The only other hurdle now was full payment was due Dec 31, 2013. This caused a bit of a hardship as we already pulled money out of our deferred savings accounts to pay for a trip to Africa & Italy and pulling out more in calendar year 2013 would push us up to a higher tax bracket. So we took out a short term signature loan and paid it off in January of 2014. We had one more hurdle that took all of us by surprise. One of our friends passed away. We all encouraged the spouse to stay the course and come with us. We all searched for someone that would share a cabin and one was finally found and we moved on. Little did we know there were more hurdles to come. Five of us were sent home and three were selected to go on to Bergen and stay the course to Iceland. Why and how this happened is unknown, but it is really a test of our friendship. The three that went on are feeling guilty and those of us who were sent home are sad to not be there but happy for them. Our friendship is deep and long and this will not affect us. There is more to our story and I will post it when I get the rest of my thoughts together. Here is hoping good weather and a good time for those who were able to get on to Bergen and Iceland.

[HMforcruise]

Aggiepilot,

 

Thanks for sharing the details of your experience. How did Viking make decisions for who got to go to Norway.?? So they broke up your group!!!

 

In order to learn from all this, is it really the obstinate that got on the flight to Bergen as an earlier poster said when dealing with Viking? I believe in equity and fairness. Business ethics, where are you?

 

I can see that those going on the Barcelona segment would win in this and also those booked on the post Iceland segment booked thru Viking would be "chosen". But why would those who had made private, their own air and extensions be chosen?

 

If you feel like sharing the experience your group of 3 received once they abandoned ship and flew to Bergen, I am sure those of us who left in the middle of the night on the flights from hell from Tallinn, would appreciate knowing. We may experience some envy, but knowledge will be power in this situation.(I hope)

[amyr]

Thanks for sharing, Aggiepilot. Did your group all have the Viking extension to Iceland, or did you do your own post-cruise? And they obviously split travelers in the same cabin if your group split 3/5. I assume it was the widow who found a roommate? How does that happen? My experience with such things is that even though a different person is traveling, it's the same reservation number, just a name change within it?

[HMforcruise]

Aggiepilot,

 

Thanks for sharing the details of your experience. How did Viking make decisions for who got to go to Norway.?? So they broke up your group!!!

 

In order to learn from all this, is it really the obstinate that got on the flight to Bergen as an earlier poster said when dealing with Viking? I believe in equity and fairness. Business ethics, where are you?

 

I can see that those going on the Barcelona segment would win in this and also those booked on the post Iceland segment booked thru Viking would be "chosen". But why would those who had made private, their own air and extensions be chosen?

 

If you feel like sharing the experience your group of 3 received once they abandoned ship and flew to Bergen, I am sure those of us who left in the middle of the night on the flights from hell from Tallinn, would appreciate knowing. We may experience some envy, but knowledge will be power in this situation.(I hope)

 

Dear viking guest relations,

Please do not send me a response of apology and instruct me to get in touch with "TellUs" . Just give me the facts regarding my question!

[cruze131]

Do you have an option of refusing and then making your own plans? There is a very good ferry system from Tallin to Stockholm and from there you can catch a train to just about anywhere is Sweden, Denmark and Norway. It might cost a bit, but you are already there.

 

I know if I was in your shoes I would decline and make my own plans and catch my original flights.

 

 

While your suggestion is great,it is the height of tourism and there was no availability on the ferry. We made our own plans, as we were encouraged to do so on Sat we flew from Tallinn to Helsinki, overnighted, Helsinki to Copengahen 23 hr layover and onto Bergen. Gave the ship our detailed itinerary and when we arrived in Bergen, the land team still didn't have us in their list. The staff is lovely, but Viking should have emergency exit strategies for each port. As a travel agent, I made a suggestion to the staff that Viking should charter flights immediately and be pro active. That is ultimately what they did, but without timely flow of information. Some of us are not retired and have to get back to work on Aug 10th and Viking could not guarantee us that on Sat.

[AggiePilot]

I am trying to make a correction to my earlier post today at 6:11 AM and have to do it via Tap Talk on my phone as my Internet service went down! Wondering when the black cloud will be lifted!! Anyway need to correct that our friend passed away during planning process before we made reservations. We did encourage spouse to stay course & did find roommate before reservations were made. Sorry got confused on timeline. Trying to get part 2 posted & will when Internet service restored : (

 

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[RDC1]

While your suggestion is great,it is the height of tourism and there was no availability on the ferry. We made our own plans, as we were encouraged to do so on Sat we flew from Tallinn to Helsinki, overnighted, Helsinki to Copengahen 23 hr layover and onto Bergen. Gave the ship our detailed itinerary and when we arrived in Bergen, the land team still didn't have us in their list. The staff is lovely, but Viking should have emergency exit strategies for each port. As a travel agent, I made a suggestion to the staff that Viking should charter flights immediately and be pro active. That is ultimately what they did, but without timely flow of information. Some of us are not retired and have to get back to work on Aug 10th and Viking could not guarantee us that on Sat.

 

Interesting. There are three different ferry companies and their internet sites still showed available tickets on two of the three when I posted the note (The third said to call). The dates I checked was for Aug 3 and Aug 4. Now I checked for walk on, no room tickets. But the routes were daytime only. Which companies did you check.

[AggiePilot]

Part Two Our Story CORRECTION TO PART 1-Our friend that passed away died during the planning process before we made the reservation. We did talk the surviving spouse to stay the course and did find a roommate before the reservation was made. Sorry I got confused on the timeline. Continuing: Hopefully those reading this have already read my Aug 6 post which was posted at 06:11 AM in reply to juliesaddiction. It will give you some background material of who we are and where we are coming from. This part will be some background on how things played out and how our personal perspective has evolved and how our hopes have risen and then fallen as things unfolded. It is with great sadness that this happened to Viking, the crew and customers. How Viking handles this will either make them shine or tarnish the image they have. The choice is there’s and I think mistakes have been made but it is not too late to recover. Only time will tell. Moving on, it was after leaving St. Petersburg around 6:00 PM on Jul 29th, Day 5 of the cruise that myself and one other friend suspected something was not quite right but we were not sure. We seemed to be moving slower than normal, however we still had a Pilot on board and were in somewhat shallow waters, but were being passed my other vessels, both larger and smaller. Just about the time we approached the gates that can open and close to prevent flooding in St. Petersburg, the Pilot left the ship but the ship did not speed up like it did on departure from Stockholm and Helsinki after the Pilot left.. One ship that had just passed us kept getting farther and farther ahead of us. We had been watching this on the Promenade Deck but now it was time for dinner. Later that night I got up around 4:00 AM and peeked outside at the sun coming up and looked at Google Maps on my Smartphone. We were a long way from Tallinn and it looked to me like we would not get there by 07:00 AM. I went back to bed. My wife and I had set an alarm for 06:30 and were getting dressed when an announcement came from the Captain to all public and private areas on the ship telling us there was a problem with the propulsion system on one engine and that our arrival in Tallinn would be about noon versus 07:00 AM on Thur July 30th Day 6 of our cruise. Following the Captains announcement the Cruise Director came on and said shore excursions times were being rescheduled and only one ended up being canceled. Kudos to all involved in that short notice change. Later in the day after returning from our tour, not sure of exact time there was another announcement to all public and private areas telling us we would not leave port and that evening and that we would receive a letter in our cabins about changes in our itinerary. The letter basically said they wre continuing to work on the problem and that due to that we would have to cancel our port call at Warnemunde, which was the stop to go to Berlin. Basically this port was cancelled and took the place of our at sea day which was to be on July 30th Day 7 of our cruise. The next day we toured around the city on our own. It is a beautiful city and the weather was better but now we are wondering if the cancellation shoe is about to drop. Standby for more as I want to get this posted with the correction of my last post.

 

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[AggiePilot]

Aggiepilot,

 

Thanks for sharing the details of your experience. How did Viking make decisions for who got to go to Norway.?? So they broke up your group!!!

 

In order to learn from all this, is it really the obstinate that got on the flight to Bergen as an earlier poster said when dealing with Viking? I believe in equity and fairness. Business ethics, where are you?

 

I can see that those going on the Barcelona segment would win in this and also those booked on the post Iceland segment booked thru Viking would be "chosen". But why would those who had made private, their own air and extensions be chosen?

 

If you feel like sharing the experience your group of 3 received once they abandoned ship and flew to Bergen, I am sure those of us who left in the middle of the night on the flights from hell from Tallinn, would appreciate knowing. We may experience some envy, but knowledge will be power in this situation.(I hope)

Not sure HMFORCRUISE how Viking made choice of Bergen folks. We all replied to questions on 2 separate forms EXACTLY the same way. Will post more when I get Internet back.

 

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[cruze131]

Interesting. There are three different ferry companies and their internet sites still showed available tickets on two of the three when I posted the note (The third said to call). The dates I checked was for Aug 3 and Aug 4. Now I checked for walk on, no room tickets. But the routes were daytime only. Which companies did you check.

 

 

We left on Aug 2nd. The sites were difficult to check and the Internet was quite slow as everyone was trying to do the same thing. We asked Viking about the ferry and they had no information. We were on our own to do all planning, flights, hotels, everything. We watched flight options disappear before our eyes, so we booked that which got us to our destination so that we could eventually get home

Edited August 6, 2015 by cruze131
Addition

[AggiePilot]

Thanks for sharing, Aggiepilot. Did your group all have the Viking extension to Iceland, or did you do your own post-cruise? And they obviously split travelers in the same cabin if your group split 3/5. I assume it was the widow who found a roommate? How does that happen? My experience with such things is that even though a different person is traveling, it's the same reservation number, just a name change within it?

Within our group 5 of us booked the Iceland Extension through Viking and my wife and I were not selected. The other 3 planned going home from Bergen at end of cruise all of us booked EVERYTHING through Viking

 

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