Red Sea Transit 2024

[Bob Bruce]

Well, Viking came through finally. They gave us options including full refund(s) for the Grand Passage Asia to Europe Cruise. The original itinerary was what we wanted to do. The major change revised itinerary was not of interest to us. I only wish that they would have done this a month ago. Much hand wringing and angst for the time that we waited for confirmation of a change that was inevitable. I never thought that they would enter and transit the Red Sea given what is occurring there. That situation was beyond their control. What was in their control was letting current and prospective customers know what was going to be changed. As mentioned before, most of their competitors were a month or more ahead of Viking in letting us know what the changed itinerary was going to look like or even letting us know that there would be a change. I hope that they learned a business lesson from this.

[SJD117]

@Bob Bruce If the change was inevitable (and I agree with you that it was), then what was the point of or reason for the hand wringing and angst on your end? You knew Viking was going to take care of the situation, and that’s what the company did. 

 

I see you received a full refund — congratulations! Hopefully it will go a long way toward allaying your angst.

 

 

 

Edited February 24 by SJD117

[Bob Bruce]

The primary reason was that it paralyzed us in trying to decide what to do. We are considering another shorter trip on Viking in May (British Isles cruise that starts in Bergen). We really had no idea how they were going to handle the situation which kept us from making alternative plans. Therefore, the reason for the angst was not knowing what was going to happen so we would be freed up to make decisions (take the cruise with the changed itinerary or do another more desirable cruise). My criticism relates to them waiting so long to make what you and I think was an obvious change when other companies made the change multiple weeks ago. We were in limbo for a lot longer than should have been the case.

[Helenk1234]

On 2/22/2024 at 9:43 PM, Jim Avery said:

With Viking bering the only line with scheduled transits to not avoid the Red Sea I feel Viking is closing in on negligence.  It is past time for Viking to give two shiploads of passengers information on this not insignificant problem.

Marella cruises (TUI) is also still insisting that our cruise from Oman to Cyprus via the Red Sea in April is still going ahead and they are also still selling this cruise. We don't believe it will go ahead but need them to tell us so we can arrange an alternative holiday. 

[Vineyard View]

Azamara and Silver Seas have not pulled theirs either. If there were no penalty to cancel, or a very small one, I think i would consider canceling myself and making new plans. Of people are locked in on large sums of monies on these cruises, it seems completely wrong to keep people hanging when it’s fairly obvious that sailing there in the near future is too dangerous and therefore irresponsible. I think it is wise of Viking to cancel, and to make people relatively whole (can’t speak to airfare), but I a, surprised that it took so long to do so. 

[Bob Bruce]

I agree with you 100%. We took the cancellation option and a refund. We can now plan another excursion. You can find a website that shows the ships currently in the Red Sea by location and type. There are no cruise ships in those waters nor have there been any there for many weeks. I’m happy that Viking made the right (only) decision. I would have preferred that they had done it a month sooner. I’m sad that the trip that we had planned fell apart. We were really looking forward to it as a way to complete the WC that we started in 2020. Maybe we can do it in the future.