Explorer Society Past Guest Discount

[dwlmg]

We just finished our first Viking Cruise (Great Lakes Collection - Duluth to Toronto). Prior to the cruise we booked France's Finest. Now that we are Explorer Society members, will the past guest discount credit be applied to our France's Finest cruise? I thought I read somewhere it would. Can anyone confirm this?

[OneSixtyToOne]

I believe it won’t because it is automatically applied at first payment. Contact Viking. They will probably compensate you. 

Also worth mentioning, unlike Viking Ocean, which offers discounts and other incentives if you book while onboard, Viking River offers vouchers which sell at a 50% discount ($200 for $100). They are good on any future Viking cruise product, never expire, and are transferable. They work just like a cash payment. I believe you can buy up to 10  but you can only use 2 on any one cruise. Something to think about if you are planning any future cruises with Viking.

Edited September 3, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[MikeyB]

1 hour ago, dwlmg said:

We just finished our first Viking Cruise (Great Lakes Collection - Duluth to Toronto). Prior to the cruise we booked France's Finest. Now that we are Explorer Society members, will the past guest discount credit be applied to our France's Finest cruise? I thought I read somewhere it would. Can anyone confirm this?

Post Covid, I was in the same situation.  I needed to contact Viking. They gave me the discount.

[Mich3554]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

I believe it won’t because it is automatically applied at first payment. Contact Viking. They will probably compensate you. 

Also worth mentioning, unlike Viking Ocean, which offers discounts and other incentives if you book while onboard, Viking River offers vouchers which sell at a 50% discount ($200 for $100). They are good on any future Viking cruise product, never expire, and are transferable. They work just like a cash payment. I believe you can buy up to 10  but you can only use 2 on any one cruise. Something to think about if you are planning any future cruises with Viking.

You can also use a second voucher per person if you do a back to back under a single itinerary.  We were able to buy 16 vouchers on our river cruise in 2022.  We have 4 left!

[CDNPolar]

16 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 Viking River offers vouchers which sell at a 50% discount ($200 for $100). They are good on any future Viking cruise product, never expire, and are transferable. They work just like a cash payment. I believe you can buy up to 10  but you can only use 2 on any one cruise. Something to think about if you are planning any future cruises with Viking.

 

We were just told on a Viking River Cruise that these vouchers are not going to be offered for sale at some point in the next year.  We were also told that Viking will honour all vouchers purchased - you can purchase up to ten - and they will have no expiry date, but that the selling of these vouchers on the river ships will cease soon.

 

Also good to remember, as this has been confirmed that if you buy these vouchers - which you can only buy on a river ship - you cannot apply to any currently booked cruise.  The cruise that you use them on - ocean or river - must be a new booking with a booking date later than the issue of the voucher.

[longterm]

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

We were just told on a Viking River Cruise that these vouchers are not going to be offered for sale at some point in the next year.  We were also told that Viking will honour all vouchers purchased - you can purchase up to ten - and they will have no expiry date, but that the selling of these vouchers on the river ships will cease soon.

 

Also good to remember, as this has been confirmed that if you buy these vouchers - which you can only buy on a river ship - you cannot apply to any currently booked cruise.  The cruise that you use them on - ocean or river - must be a new booking with a booking date later than the issue of the voucher.

I had forgotten about these; question:

 

We're headed on a river cruise in a month; we're also booked on the BIE next summer. Our plan next summer is to book a 2025 ocean cruise.

 

Please tell me if this is right:

We can use up to 2 vouchers on any 1 cruise;

I can buy 2 for $100/each, and use these as a deposit on the cruise that we book next summer;

My wife can buy 2 as well.

 

Is that right? Can we each buy 2 vouchers, or is it somehow tied together per booking, meaning that we can only use 2 TOTAL if we book as a couple? My guess is that you can only use 2 vouchers per booking number.

 

If anyone knows the answer, please let me know, thanks.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by longterm

[Squawkman]

Longterm - you can’t use vouchers for a deposit. And no more than one voucher per person for each new cruise booked. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

You can use up to two vouchers per booking, although as someone has noted on a B2B you can use 2 per leg. You can buy up to 10 vouchers. The vouchers are entered in MVJ when you apply payments (or over the phone if booking that way), all you need to use them is the voucher number. They then appear on your invoice as a credit payment.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[bookbabe]

You can get the past guest discount applied to previously booked cruises…our PCC did it for us after we got back from our first cruise.  We just had to remind him.

[PaulS]

We have an upcoming river cruise in November, 2023 that we booked and paid for in February, 2023. In April 2023, we booked and took an ocean cruise in July, 2023. Would our status now as Explorer members mean that viking might give us a past guest discount on the upcoming river cruise?

[LindaS272]

Call them up and ask. But I think usually this would be applied at time of booking and you weren’t a past guest at that point.

Edited September 6, 2023 by LindaS272

[PaulS]

Thanks for your response. I contacted Viking and was advised that the discount would only apply if the booking was made after I came back from the ocean cruise.

[MikeyB]

28 minutes ago, PaulS said:

Thanks for your response. I contacted Viking and was advised that the discount would only apply if the booking was made after I came back from the ocean cruise.

My two cents-

Call Viking again.  If necessary hear it from a supervisor.

I was able to get the discount, no reason you shouldn't.

[PaulS]

2 hours ago, MikeyB said:

My two cents-

Call Viking again.  If necessary hear it from a supervisor.

I was able to get the discount, no reason you shouldn't.

Thanks, I’ll try again tomorrow.

[island lady]

I was told the same thing.  Wait until after the first cruise, then call back and have past cruiser discount applied to following bookings.  

[PaulS]

20 hours ago, MikeyB said:

My two cents-

Call Viking again.  If necessary hear it from a supervisor.

I was able to get the discount, no reason you shouldn't.

Just wanted to let you know that I had my travel agent call Viking today, and he advised that Viking is going to apply the discount to our upcoming river cruise that was booked before we took our first Viking ocean cruise this summer. It pays to be persistent.

[MikeyB]

1 hour ago, PaulS said:

Just wanted to let you know that I had my travel agent call Viking today, and he advised that Viking is going to apply the discount to our upcoming river cruise that was booked before we took our first Viking ocean cruise this summer. It pays to be persistent.

It's always been a problem that the talking heads of Viking (their agents) can be the worse part of the Viking experience.