Viking September 2020 cruises

[Mitina]

Looks like all September cruises (river and ocean) have been removed from the Viking website.  Our September cruise on MVJ is also no longer accessible.  I suspect an announcement coming soon.

[Peregrina651]

Agreed. What you report is what we saw in advance of cancelling the July and August cruises. It may take a few days or it may be later today.

 

BE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE CANCELLATION E-MAIL: When we got our cancellation e-mail for our August cruise, it already included the 125% voucher, at the very end of the long e-mail. For those who want cash back, there is a deadline for requesting cash back. If some of your September cruise has been paid for with a future cruise voucher, it is not eligible for the 125% and it is not eligible for refund.

[navyskipper]

Moments ago, Viking indicated that their river cruises for September 2020 are "locked down for maintenance".  That nebulous statement led me to ask if she could sell a Sep 16 Prague to Paris booking this morning (yesterday there was plenty of availability).....her answer was no!   Logic tells us that sales folks would jump on a sales opportunity if available.....sooo, the the expectation of a further delay until Sep 30 email seems reasonable.   Damn virus!

 

[franski]

Avalon has already cancelled through September - so expect many others will likely follow suit.  Seems like Viking is following in those footsteps.

 

Fran

[AnhaltER1960]

You read the signs on the horizon correctly. Viking have suspended all their operations until Sept 30th.

 

https://www.vikingrivercruises.co.uk/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

[Canal archive]

Yet in the U.K. at least they are still advertising quite heavily. CA

[AnhaltER1960]

11 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Yet in the U.K. at least they are still advertising quite heavily. CA

 

Trying to fill the ships with Brits, since waiting for the Americans to come back to Europe will take too long ?

[Canal archive]

Good point! CA

[notamermaid]

And creating demand and keeping ahead of the competition in the minds of potential travellers to make up for cash loss? Remember, Viking is the company that has been repeatedly mentioned here as having a very long period from date of full payment to actual cruise date. Keep up the marketing and creating bookings now with full payment very soon for ships sailing next year... Doing marketing and not sailing I would regard as not contradictory. I think Viking will come out of this crisis successfully, I am not so sure about a few others. But overall the confidence is in the river cruising industry, even more so now that the industry has seen itself that river cruises can work, better than ocean cruises can. The catalogues for 2022 are out from some companies.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[79Smiles]

Good Morning, All ~ My husband and I had a river cruise booked for September 3rd which was included in the latest rounds of Viking cancellations.  On July 9th, we opted for a refund rather than the value-added voucher and I am VERY pleased to say that our refund from Viking posted to our checking account this morning. Still awaiting a refund on our credit card for the deposit and insurance, but at least the bulk of our investment has been refunded.  For those of you in the same "boat", I hope your experience is similar.

[Sunshine Bob]

I also had my September cruise cancelled and asked for a refund to my card for the deposit I had paid on the 9th. I was told I will have the refund with 14 days. Lets see when it actually turns up.

 

As a Brit I paid in sterling and was offered a future Cruise Voucher of 125% of the money I had paid.  I paid about £1200 thus far and so would have had a voucher for circa £1500 but as next years cruise is currently £900 more than this years I felt it was bad value for money. 

 

A better promotion would have been to phone me or write to me offering to swap me into the same cruise in 2021 for the same cost or as near as it makes no difference. I believe that would have secured me as a client with a booking for next year , they would have kept my deposit in their bank rather than mine too further helping their cash flow. I did this with Princess Cruises and cant see why Viking did not offer the same kind of deal.

[Canal archive]

Have you got your abta form? CA