Trying to book excursions

[zitsky]

Very slow.  Getting errors.  I don't remember it being this difficult with river.

 

Edit:  I guess I'm just wondering... is this normal at booking time???  I am new to Ocean.  Just got off the phone with Viking and they said "sorry.  try again in 20 or 30 min".

Edited July 23, 2019 by zitsky

[Hanoj]

21 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Very slow.  Getting errors.  I don't remember it being this difficult with river.

 

Edit:  I guess I'm just wondering... is this normal at booking time???  I am new to Ocean.  Just got off the phone with Viking and they said "sorry.  try again in 20 or 30 min".

 

I was under impression Guest Services is able to book excursions for you. They have for us in the past when we had issues.

[zitsky]

I will call back but I was specifically told that the website is the only way.  I am not disagreeing with you.  I think the customer service reps need more training.

[Vineyard View]

I am trying to book as well. Website keeps crashing. I was able to get one excursion booked, but their website said it was no longer available- I called customer service and they confirmed that it went through. Now I can’t even get onto the site 

[Hanoj]

In addition to their reps needing more training, I think it is important to contact the correct department. I had success contacting the Guest Services number shown under contact us in My Viking Journey (not helpful if this is not accessible). Phone number may be 888-663-8454 for US customers. Of course, Viking's policy for booking excursions may have changed.

[zitsky]

I wondered why a few excursion weren't going to my cart... then I realized they are included and don't need to be paid for, so they don't go into the cart.  But I do get a reservation, when the website is working.

 

Edit:  I guess a lot of these problems are because several hundred people are trying to access the website at the same time.  But this is not Viking's first time at doing this.  So why are they not prepared?

Edited July 23, 2019 by zitsky

[zitsky]

So I finally managed to get all but 2 excursions.  One is sold out (a wine tasting) and the other is marketed as a two part activity back to back.  So as I've been told here before, I need to call Viking to book it, I think.  I had to go back into the website multiple times.  And entered my credit card multiple times.  Twice I entered my CC info and there was an error but when I went back later it showed that the payment had gone through.

[Peregrina651]

5 hours ago, zitsky said:

Edit:  I guess a lot of these problems are because several hundred people are trying to access the website at the same time.  But this is not Viking's first time at doing this.  So why are they not prepared?

 

Because maybe there are just somethings you can't prepare for. We are assuming that it is so many people trying to access the system but we don't know. Maybe that isn't the problem. Why are we rushing to judgement when we have no idea what the problem is. It is a computer. At least you are all in the same boat: no one has access to the booking site. Sorry the timing is so bad for you but this isn't the end of the world.

 

5 hours ago, Hanoj said:

I was under impression Guest Services is able to book excursions for you. They have for us in the past when we had issues.

 

Yes but they do not have the manpower to cover when the computers go down and no one can book. I can understand why they are refusing to book for anyone when they can't book for everyone. That seems only fair.

 

5 hours ago, zitsky said:

I think the customer service reps need more training.

 

Second verse. Same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse.

I have thought this years.

[zitsky]

I get your point Peregrina but I still say that signing up for excursions could be improved (a lot).  I do IT project management.  If it were up to me, I would fire Viking's CIO.

[Cyber Kat]

I made our reservations from Bermuda!  My only problem was getting it to take the credit card for the second batch. Now I have the charges on my bill 3 times 😳

 

I called and they said they would issue credits, but I’m waiting. It hasn’t been the 21 days yet, but I will soon have to pay my cc bill. I called the credit card company but got someone who’s command of the English language wasn’t optimal 🙄. I may have to call back! 

[Vineyard View]

We were able to finally book the second excursion we wanted last evening. I just gave up during the day. The site kept crashing and it wasn’t worth the frustration. My cc did get charged twice, when the site said the excursion was not available, but the Viking rep said she would issue a credit. 

We honestly do not typically book ship excursions,  and typically DIY or independent small group tour. This upcoming trip to the Caribbean is early season though, and the catamarans require 8-12 people to sail. Because of that, we may end up on bigger catamarans with these two excursions,  rather than small independent, but we will be out on the water and I am grateful we were able to book them. 

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

I made our reservations from Bermuda!  My only problem was getting it to take the credit card for the second batch. Now I have the charges on my bill 3 times 😳

 

I called and they said they would issue credits, but I’m waiting. It hasn’t been the 21 days yet, but I will soon have to pay my cc bill. I called the credit card company but got someone who’s command of the English language wasn’t optimal 🙄. I may have to call back! 

 

Thanks to your post... I realized I have a double charge.  I will call Viking.

[RetroRod]

3 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

I made our reservations from Bermuda!  My only problem was getting it to take the credit card for the second batch. Now I have the charges on my bill 3 times 😳

 

I called and they said they would issue credits, but I’m waiting. It hasn’t been the 21 days yet, but I will soon have to pay my cc bill. I called the credit card company but got someone who’s command of the English language wasn’t optimal 🙄. I may have to call back! 

I had a similar issue with Viking saying it would be 3 weeks to issue a credit to my CC. I thought it was unacceptable to take that long since the charges I made hit my card in 2 days. I called Viking to express my concern and asked that the refund be “expedited”. No luck. I then emailed Tellus@vikingcruises.com and explained the issue. My refund appeared in about a week. 

[Hanoj]

16 minutes ago, VJMAZZ said:

I had a similar issue with Viking saying it would be 3 weeks to issue a credit to my CC. I thought it was unacceptable to take that long since the charges I made hit my card in 2 days. I called Viking to express my concern and asked that the refund be “expedited”. No luck. I then emailed Tellus@vikingcruises.com and explained the issue. My refund appeared in about a week. 

 

Not issuing cc refunds timely for what is primarily caused by the inadequacies of their excursion reservation and payment systems is unacceptable. It is also highly anachronistic with today's technologies.

 

Reading about this conundrum provides me added incentive to do our own thing ashore or to book private excursions, which often don't require payment until the service is provided. As we make the transition from tourists to travelers, using private excursions is less daunting. We now view a cruise line as primarily the means to deliver us to ports and as our floating hotel. We prefer Viking for the no kids, no casinos and less formal and relaxed ambiance.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Hanoj
omitted word "timely"

[zitsky]

58 minutes ago, Hanoj said:

 

Not issuing cc refunds timely for what is primarily caused by the inadequacies of their excursion reservation and payment systems is unacceptable. It is also highly anachronistic with today's technologies.

 

Reading about this conundrum provides me added incentive to do our own thing ashore or to book private excursions, which often don't require payment until the service is provided. As we make the transition from tourists to travelers, using private excursions is less daunting. We now view a cruise line as primarily the means to deliver us to ports and as our floating hotel. We prefer Viking for the no kids, no casinos and less formal and relaxed ambiance.

 

Viking does this because they think they are the only cruise company.  People can and do take their business elsewhere.

[Hanoj]

26 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Viking does this because they think they are the only cruise company.  People can and do take their business elsewhere.

 

There's definitely a disconnect between the expectations created from Viking's marketing initiatives and some interactions we've had with customer service representatives in the offices when attempting to book reservations or resolve issues, and to a lesser extent with the Explorer's Desk personnel on the ships. Thankfully, we have had consistently high (or perhaps adequately high) on board experiences with the hotel and restaurant staff. It's perplexing, because the quality of my entire experience from booking, to planning excursions, to the actual cruise is important to me. I can't be alone in this desire. Yet, at times, I have been sorely frustrated with Viking's customer service department. Enough so that if one of the comparable premium or luxury lines adopted no kids, no casino policies, we would give another line a try. Came very close to trying Regent before booking our British Isles Explore cruise yesterday - I'm ready, but the DW  isn't yet. Now we are awaiting the outcome of our TA working with Viking Air (and we chose the Air Plus) to get us the business class flights we want. Our final payment is due August 31, 2019 for a May 2020 cruise and we won't pay until we have the flights we want.

[zitsky]

Thanks for sharing that.  Viking needs to hear from more people.

[lackcreativity]

1 hour ago, Hanoj said:

 

There's definitely a disconnect between the expectations created from Viking's marketing initiatives and some interactions we've had with customer service representatives in the offices when attempting to book reservations or resolve issues, and to a lesser extent with the Explorer's Desk personnel on the ships. Thankfully, we have had consistently high (or perhaps adequately high) on board experiences with the hotel and restaurant staff. It's perplexing, because the quality of my entire experience from booking, to planning excursions, to the actual cruise is important to me. I can't be alone in this desire. Yet, at times, I have been sorely frustrated with Viking's customer service department. Enough so that if one of the comparable premium or luxury lines adopted no kids, no casino policies, we would give another line a try. Came very close to trying Regent before booking our British Isles Explore cruise yesterday - I'm ready, but the DW  isn't yet. Now we are awaiting the outcome of our TA working with Viking Air (and we chose the Air Plus) to get us the business class flights we want. Our final payment is due August 31, 2019 for a May 2020 cruise and we won't pay until we have the flights we want.

I suggest you check on that, as I seem to remember that they won't ticket your flights until after the final balance has been paid. My memory is not what it used to be, so confirm that with your travel agent.

[Hanoj]

4 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

I suggest you check on that, as I seem to remember that they won't ticket your flights until after the final balance has been paid. My memory is not what it used to be, so confirm that with your travel agent.

 

Flights aren’t “ticketed” until about 90 days from departure depending on the airline. However, flight reservations are able to be reserved and confirmed (including seat assignments at least with Delta One) 300 days prior to departure. We were able to do this for our recently concluded Med cruise and had our flights confirmed by Delta a few days before our final payment to Viking. Hoping to do the same for our current booking.

[agnesd]

 Call your credit card.  They will usually just take it off double charges.  

 

[zitsky]

Sure but I prefer to let Viking fix it if they can.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Sure but I prefer to let Viking fix it if they can.

 

I'll bet they are going to have a big stack of charges that need to be reversed. It was not a good day for Viking.

[zitsky]

15 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I'll bet they are going to have a big stack of charges that need to be reversed. It was not a good day for Viking.

 

I hope Viking gets better.

[Hanoj]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I'll bet they are going to have a big stack of charges that need to be reversed. It was not a good day for Viking.

 

They’ve had many not good days in 2019. I, too, hope things go better for Viking.

[Heidi13]

19 hours ago, Hanoj said:

 

Flights aren’t “ticketed” until about 90 days from departure depending on the airline. However, flight reservations are able to be reserved and confirmed (including seat assignments at least with Delta One) 300 days prior to departure. We were able to do this for our recently concluded Med cruise and had our flights confirmed by Delta a few days before our final payment to Viking. Hoping to do the same for our current booking.

Couple of weeks ago, our TA booked our flights pre/post cruise for Jan 2nd & May 27th. In addition to booking references & seat assignments, we also received the eTickets, which is all posted on MVJ. Airlines are Air Canada & British Airways.

 

When we book flights, since they abolished paper tickets, we have always received eTickets at time of booking.🙂