Booking a Viking River Cruise

[Cardinal30]

Is it better to book directly with Viking when booking one of their river cruises or is booking with your regular travel agent OK?

[Host Kat]

1 hour ago, Cardinal30 said:

Is it better to book directly with Viking when booking one of their river cruises or is booking with your regular travel agent OK?

 

Hello @Cardinal30

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Cruise Blogs & Websites forum! However, it is the forum where our members share their personal travelogue-type of cruise-related blogs or websites. Your inquiry was off topic there. 

 

To help you out your new thread has been moved to the River Cruising forum where it will be on topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed on Viking River cruises frequent this forum and provide feedback here. Browse through the thread titles in this forum looking for threads of interest. You may find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you. Also, your thread may be helpful for other members seeking the same information.

 

Hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[pontac]

1 hour ago, Cardinal30 said:

Is it better to book directly with Viking when booking one of their river cruises or is booking with your regular travel agent OK?

 

I've been on multiple Viking cruises and always booked directly with them. I don't think a regular TA would give anything extra than you can - or already have done. And if you book directly with Viking they know they will not incur TA commission fees so they often throw in extras like a drinks package and/or on board credit.

 

But the host of this forum @Host Jazzbeau has written a post that says a river cruise specialist TA is essential and there's a link to it below, and as I've flagged him our host will probably reply. He'll probably try to steer you away from Viking though, although he's never travelled on a river cruise with them.

 

 

[bhwestgrove]

Our TA offers an onboard credit for booking with Viking.  The price is the same as booking directly, but it's nice to have that extra $$ to spend, and as well as a pro who can offer advice and guidance if needed. 

Edited 13 hours ago by bhwestgrove

[ural guy]

58 minutes ago, bhwestgrove said:

Our TA offers an onboard credit for booking with Viking.  The price is the same as booking directly, but it's nice to have that extra $$ to spend, and as well as a pro who can offer advice and guidance if needed. 

 

To add to this from bhwestgrove, the amount they can give is dictated by Viking, it's something like $250 for a 1 week cruise and $500 for a 2 week cruise.  It pretty much covers the suggested tip amount, which is nice.

 

This is in addition to whatever other specials Viking is running, included drinks package, reduced airfare, etc. 

 

Over on Viking Ocean, there is a thread called 'Post Viking Promos', and they list the specials on offer from Viking, along with the discount code that you can pass onto your TA.  Some one week cruises over US Thanksgiving were $2,000, airfare included. 

[austinetc]

You are probably going to get an even number of Pro-TA, Pro-selfie booking answers. We used a TA once (advice from friends who always use a TA), and didn't like it, mostly because Viking sent things (including notification of cruise details) to the TA, who didn't pass it on. Contrary to the TA's comments, there were zero financial advantages in using her. I'm told that this is not the case for many other cruise lines.

 

For our other 10+ Viking cruises we booked directly. I suppose the key difference is how you view the preparation phase of travel. If you don't enjoy prep work, a TA is probably the best. Personally, I like the research.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I booked and sailed on my Viking Ocean cruise in 2018.  My TA gave me 15.9% of the cruise fare back [the most I've ever gotten – this was before Viking clamped down on such generous TA commission sharing].  Under the current rules booking Viking through a TA is the least remunerative of any cruise line I know [even when I used this TA to book Noble Caledonia, which basically doesn't like to deal with TAs, they gave me back 5%].

 

All the TAs I have used were able to get me the exact deals that a Viking rep would have.  And if you aren't willing to take that on the basis of many posts here, you always have the option to book direct with Viking and then transfer the booking to a TA.

 

The fact that some people have had bad experiences with TAs only shows that there are some bad TAs.  Those of us who deal with good TAs understand the benefits.  Even with Viking, $250 or $500 is more than nothing.

 

As to doing the research – no one is more OCD about travel research than I am.  I don't see that as a reason not to use a TA – having done the research, I will be aware if the TA isn't getting me all the benefits I expect.  The reason for using a TA is to get the extra benefits the TA shares with me, at the small cost of having some paperwork go through the TA.

 

[And since @pontac has surely been reading this with bated breath waiting for the zinger:  Viking's refusal to allow TAs to share their commissions is one of three reasons I won't book with Viking again.  But I recognize that many people sail on Viking (ocean and river) over and over and enjoy their cruises.  If you find their fares, and their fare rules, to give good value:  have no worries about using Viking.  They aren't going away, and they aren't cutting back like so many other (mainly ocean) cruise lines are.]