Price Increase for Silver Spirits Package and Gratuities?

[uktog]

I can see the Silver Drinks Package for my August cruise has gone up from £210 to £280 each - quite a big jump.  We had already purchased ours last month glad I did not hang about on that one

[SantaFe1]

9 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

We have SS included for our upcoming cruise as part of the promo-I can only imagine the uproar if suddenly $5pp/pd appears on the onboard accounts. At the moment MVJ still shows it as being included. 🤞

Well, this is sort of what happened to us.  I had the SSP in the cart for $558.  I went in and paid for it yesterday.  I got a “receipt” for $558 paid and a thank you.  But now MVJ shows I have not paid in full for my cruise which is six weeks away.  I can’t add shore ex, dining, spa treatments, I can’t even change seats on my Viking air until the difference in SS is paid!  And I can’t pay it, because my TA has the booking and the payment has to go through her.  I think this is COMPLETELY unprincipled!  I may be a Viking cheerleader, but this is very off-putting.  I think it has to work both ways.  If Viking lowers the price of a cruise you have booked, you don’t get the new lower price, but if Viking ups the price of SSP and gratuities from what it was when you booked, they tack the difference right on.  Am I mad about this.  You bet!!  (And upping gratuities at a time when everyone is complaining about service is just a bad business move, in my opinion.). Sorry to vent…

[Squawkman]

38 minutes ago, uktog said:

I can see the Silver Drinks Package for my August cruise has gone up from £210 to £280 each - quite a big jump.  We had already purchased ours last month glad I did not hang about on that one

So UK folks get a 33% increase while Americans get 25%? Weird.

[Squawkman]

29 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

Well, this is sort of what happened to us.  I had the SSP in the cart for $558.  I went in and paid for it yesterday.  I got a “receipt” for $558 paid and a thank you.  But now MVJ shows I have not paid in full for my cruise which is six weeks away.  I can’t add shore ex, dining, spa treatments, I can’t even change seats on my Viking air until the difference in SS is paid!  And I can’t pay it, because my TA has the booking and the payment has to go through her.  I think this is COMPLETELY unprincipled!  I may be a Viking cheerleader, but this is very off-putting.  I think it has to work both ways.  If Viking lowers the price of a cruise you have booked, you don’t get the new lower price, but if Viking ups the price of SSP and gratuities from what it was when you booked, they tack the difference right on.  Am I mad about this.  You bet!!  (And upping gratuities at a time when everyone is complaining about service is just a bad business move, in my opinion.). Sorry to vent…

I wonder what would have happened if you paid before yesterday (I.e., in 2022). BTW, I’ve been on 4 Viking cruises post Covid and had no problems with service at any time. But I do feel Viking blew it by not announcing the SS and gratuities increases in an email. We only find out when we look at MVJ, most likely with a calculator at hand.

 

Question for those who book SS when on board:  is the cost immediately charged to your credit card or does it remain in your on board account until late in the cruise (like gratuities)? If it’s treated like gratuities, then you should be able to pay the difference at the end of the cruise and not have it block other functions of MVJ.

[CurlerRob]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

Here’s something interesting - last month we booked a cruise using a promo which included gratuities. So I just checked MVJ which showed $18 per day - but the following paragraph appears on the right:

 

 Pre-Paid Gratuities are included for a portion of your trip. To purchase for the remaining days please contact us at 1-855-706-2326.

 

Then I checked my billing statement which clearly states:

 

Promotional Amenities EHT22 Complimentary Pre-Paid Gratuities
 

I’ll check this out with my Viking agent next time we speak, but I would expect Viking should pick up any increase for gratuities just as it does for cruise fare, prepaid extensions and excursions, etc. Honestly, I have no problem tipping extra, but I am a little perplexed with this policy.

 

Question for anyone who has prepaid SS:  do you get a similar statement for SS on MVJ?

 

We have the same thing occurring with PPG on a December/23 trip. Your observation led me to do a search on "price" in the passenger ticket contract and the booking terms.

 

Viking is clear that it reserves the right to apply a fuel surcharge, a surcharge if the US dollar changes vs the Euro, or if contracted airfare prices climb, even after final payment. The documents appear silent on items such as PPG and SSBP.

 

Like you, I'm not fussed about price increases, but I'm not tolerant of potential arbitrary alterations to a contract by one party. Even if my scan is incorrect and this is provided for under the contractual documents, it would be very poor optics. 
 

Please let us know what you find out from your TA. Thanks. 🍺🥌

[uktog]

19 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

So UK folks get a 33% increase while Americans get 25%? Weird.

I suspect we got screwed on exchange rate which added to our pain

[FetaCheese]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

We have SS included for our upcoming cruise as part of the promo-I can only imagine the uproar if suddenly $5pp/pd appears on the onboard accounts. At the moment MVJ still shows it as being included. 🤞

FYI: on Sea TA last month, No Maker's Mark onboard.

Edited January 2, 2023 by FetaCheese
Addl info

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

We have SS included for our upcoming cruise as part of the promo-I can only imagine the uproar if suddenly $5pp/pd appears on the onboard accounts. At the moment MVJ still shows it as being included. 🤞

 

If you look at your invoice you'll see that the complimentary SSP is listed as "Promotional Amenities" without a dollar amount. It will not be affected by any price changes.

[Squawkman]

6 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

If you look at your invoice you'll see that the complimentary SSP is listed as "Promotional Amenities" without a dollar amount. It will not be affected by any price changes.

If you read the posts here, you see that statement regarding SSP and gratuities on our invoices may be meaningless. I expect to check this out this week with my Viking agent.

[JM0115]

I asked Tellus to consider allowing us to buy now at the lower price for gratuities and SS. I received a call from Viking saying that it would not be possible. The price increase is in effect period. She told me that the Viking reps were not aware of the price increase and my e-mail was the first she heard of it. 

[mariavii]

Ugh. I am boarding tomorrow and held off buying SSP because my mom (a TA) wanted to gift it to me once she realized the other celebration options were not to her liking - she wanted to send flowers. So with all the back and forth with her viking rep, when she went to purchase SSP/provide OBC for it she was told it was too late (like when MVJ cuts off).  

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Well, this is sort of what happened to us.  I had the SSP in the cart for $558.  I went in and paid for it yesterday.  I got a “receipt” for $558 paid and a thank you.  But now MVJ shows I have not paid in full for my cruise which is six weeks away.  I can’t add shore ex, dining, spa treatments, I can’t even change seats on my Viking air until the difference in SS is paid!  And I can’t pay it, because my TA has the booking and the payment has to go through her.  I think this is COMPLETELY unprincipled!  I may be a Viking cheerleader, but this is very off-putting.  I think it has to work both ways.  If Viking lowers the price of a cruise you have booked, you don’t get the new lower price, but if Viking ups the price of SSP and gratuities from what it was when you booked, they tack the difference right on.  Am I mad about this.  You bet!!  (And upping gratuities at a time when everyone is complaining about service is just a bad business move, in my opinion.). Sorry to vent…

Agree with your vent!

 

Where on MVJ do you see whether or not final payment has been made?  I don’t see anything that shows we’ve made final payment…other than the paid in full invoice we got via email but nothing in MVJ. 

[Pushka]

6 hours ago, deec said:

I am disappointed that Viking did NOT take this opportunity to include gratuities into the price of the cruise.

Thankfully for Aussie and Brit cruisers they are. Perhaps because it is we don't have the usual tipping practices here. Of course our cruise prices are more expensive to accommodate this. 

[Pushka]

4 hours ago, Squawkman said:

So UK folks get a 33% increase while Americans get 25%? Weird.

Ours in Australia added an extra 50% because of currency fluctuations.   Went from $530 to $750. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Pushka

[SantaFe1]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Agree with your vent!

 

Where on MVJ do you see whether or not final payment has been made?  I don’t see anything that shows we’ve made final payment…other than the paid in full invoice we got via email but nothing in MVJ. 

There is not a place where I see that it has been paid.  That is on the final invoice.   But right away when there was a balance due between the original price of the SSP and the new price, I got red notices at the top of every category on MVJ telling me that I couldn’t access that category (even air) until my balance had been paid in full.  So, for example, if yesterday, after purchasing the package in good faith, I had wanted to purchase a spa treatment, I wouldn’t have been able to.  And unless I had read about it on CC, I would have had no idea why that message suddenly appeared.  This morning my TA paid the difference and the message disappeared.  That really doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about Viking right now!

[Clay Clayton]

55 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

There is not a place where I see that it has been paid.  That is on the final invoice.   But right away when there was a balance due between the original price of the SSP and the new price, I got red notices at the top of every category on MVJ telling me that I couldn’t access that category (even air) until my balance had been paid in full.  So, for example, if yesterday, after purchasing the package in good faith, I had wanted to purchase a spa treatment, I wouldn’t have been able to.  And unless I had read about it on CC, I would have had no idea why that message suddenly appeared.  This morning my TA paid the difference and the message disappeared.  That really doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about Viking right now!

Agreed

 

Since there isn’t anything available except for gratuities for us to pay at the moment,I will have to wait until May to see if we are able to book excursions. 

[Stickman1990]

10 hours ago, Squawkman said:

So UK folks get a 33% increase while Americans get 25%? Weird.

Be thankful - the package has increased by 40% for Australians paying in A$

 

Certainly seems all over the place in terms of how they’ve adjusted different currencies 

 

Glad we locked our pricing in a few months ago for these packages 

[Stickman1990]

6 hours ago, Pushka said:

Ours in Australia added an extra 50% because of currency fluctuations.   Went from $530 to $750. 

Thats 41.5% isn’t it - $220 increase on $530 - thankfully not a $265 increase

[WNcruiser]

12 hours ago, Squawkman said:

Here’s something interesting - last month we booked a cruise using a promo which included gratuities. So I just checked MVJ which showed $18 per day - but the following paragraph appears on the right:

 

 Pre-Paid Gratuities are included for a portion of your trip. To purchase for the remaining days please contact us at 1-855-706-2326.

 

Then I checked my billing statement which clearly states:

 

Promotional Amenities EHT22 Complimentary Pre-Paid Gratuities
 

I’ll check this out with my Viking agent next time we speak, but I would expect Viking should pick up any increase for gratuities just as it does for cruise fare, prepaid extensions and excursions, etc. Honestly, I have no problem tipping extra, but I am a little perplexed with this policy.

 

Question for anyone who has prepaid SS:  do you get a similar statement for SS on MVJ?

That would be awful if they are expecting people to pay the difference. This should only be for new bookings. It’s only right that if someone prepaid their SS package or their gratuities they should be price protected. 

[Stickman1990]

So this raises the question of whether drink prices for pay as you go onboard are going to increase in line with these package increases 

 

Any word on that yet? I guess it might take a month or two to filter through but you have to expect it given the packages have increased significantly  

[CurlerRob]

2 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

So this raises the question of whether drink prices for pay as you go onboard are going to increase in line with these package increases 

 

Any word on that yet? I guess it might take a month or two to filter through but you have to expect it given the packages have increased significantly  

 

I've seen nothing formal announced as yet, but it has to be a given. Frankly, Viking's drink pricing was an absolute bargain by cruise line standards, so I'm certain that their prices will increase very soon. Logical and completely acceptable in view of the global inflationary pressures.

 

(Attempting to arbitrarily change contracted terms without specific provisions, for example PPG or SSBP is a different issue). 🍺🥌

[Pushka]

48 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

Thats 41.5% isn’t it - $220 increase on $530 - thankfully not a $265 increase

Only 41%. Bargain.  A little more than the 25-33% others are reporting. 😒
 

This is what still shows in MVJ for May. Any change ?  My payment still shows as zero so not being charged the extra. 

 

 

onboardbeveragemenu_oceans.pdf

Edited January 3, 2023 by Pushka

[mariavii]

On the sky now. $25/day but i was told at living room bar that it now includes drinks up to $18 so champagne is included.

[Hockeyump]

Until the champagne price goes up!

[MikeyB]

Nothing wrong with a price increase every 5 years.  However, what is wrong is that the ships run out of your favorite wine or spirit or slim line tonic. Last month on the Neptune and now on Star and Viking has "supply chain" issues.  Not a good time to then roll out an increase.