Cambodia - Vietman Cruises 2021

[jtslattery]

Does anyone have insight as to what is happening here. We are booked on the new ship next November.

It looks like they have cancelled all trips on route this year of old ship but still showing all 2021 ships. Both countires still locked down hard.When we first booked I thought December 2021 a good but but after 4 months with no progress I am begining to dobut I should pay the final as it comes due. Anybody have any insights or ideas.Was thinking of asking my TA to try to extend? Any thougths?

[Heidi13]

The latest update from the Viking Chairman on Aug 12th advised all cruises were cancelled through to the end of 2021. He also promised an update on the new measures Viking will be taking when they resume. I anticipate receiving another update end of October to middle of November, as to the status of 2021.

 

What will that announcement contain - only Viking and those with crystal balls know. Personally, with the situation throughout the world, I have no desire to speculate, especially when considering which countries, if any, will open ports to cruise ships.

 

While predicting the future COVID world is challenging, I would consider the terms and conditions of Viking's refund policy that were in effect at the time of booking, with your personal risk tolerance. If you pay the final balance and Viking cancels, you will be offered a full refund or future cruise voucher at 125% of monies paid.

 

When cruising resumes, you have a nice 25% bonus; however, if it doesn't, you could be an unsecured creditor.

 

Personally, we have a PIF due next month for a May/June River & Ocean combo with pre and post excursions. While our FCV's will cover most of it, I will pay the balance with a credit card. At present, I figure the odds at 50/50 the cruise will go.

[Peregrina651]

Viking has cancelled all cruises through December, 2020.

 

Not sure what insights we might have. Viking tends not to air its plans and thoughts publicly and the pandemic has made it impossible to even guess what might happen in the future. Since you are talking about a Viking River itinerary, you might find more help in the River Cruise forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/115-river-cruising/.

 

Here, however, are two things that we can tell you that might help you decide how you want to proceed.

 

First, final payment dates tend to be set in stone and we don't hear very often of people who have been successful in convincing Viking to budge on a final payment date.

 

Second, you have up until 121 days prior to the start of your trip to cancel and get all of your cash refunded, less $100pp which under the current risk-free policy will be return to you in the form of a future cruise voucher.

 

Once you hit the 120-day mark you enter the cancellation penalty phase and any refund you receive, should you decide to cancel, is given in a combination of cash and vouchers. The cancellation matrix is part of your Viking Guest invoice and it can also be found on the Viking website as part of the Passenger Ticket Contract https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/3-191004_PassengerTicketContract.pdf.

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

The latest update from the Viking Chairman on Aug 12th advised all cruises were cancelled through to the end of 2021.

 

Andy, please confirm. You meant to type 2020. Right?  I just want to make sure that that we aren't confusing people.

[Heidi13]

OMG!! that was a huge typo. 🙁Thanks for picking it up.

[SM77]

On 10/19/2020 at 9:32 AM, jtslattery said:

Does anyone have insight as to what is happening here. We are booked on the new ship next November.

It looks like they have cancelled all trips on route this year of old ship but still showing all 2021 ships. Both countires still locked down hard.When we first booked I thought December 2021 a good but but after 4 months with no progress I am begining to dobut I should pay the final as it comes due. Anybody have any insights or ideas.Was thinking of asking my TA to try to extend? Any thougths?

We have the same concerns. We had booked a Viking Ukraine river cruise for October 2021 and also not sure if it will still go - I'm thinking about moving it to 2022, but haven't decided yet - I thought we would wait until early May whether to cancel or not.  My only concern about canceling this cruise is that part of Viking's payment was paid by the travel agency from their portion of the payment for the Viking canceled river cruises that were scheduled for April 2020.  I'm not sure whether we would get that portion back from Viking or it would wind up going back to the TA and would be a credit there(it's about 2K).  Also there is the travel insurance but that amount is not very much.  I think Viking has been very flexible about moving booking to later dates but we haven't tried it yet.  BTW, we saw that new ship for the Cambodia Vietnam river cruise and we are also very interested in booking that one as well.  But after having three cruises canceled, I'm waiting until after we do this Ukraine river cruise.  My days of booking multiple cruises far in advance are over.  Considering that we had monies/deposits on three trips and we essentially did not lose much, I don't want to press my luck.