Viking Reviews 315

I am on a Fjord cruise in May, I booked an all day excursion on the Viking website all paid for in advance. After I boarded the ship, I found the ticket missing, so I went to the guest service , wala , it was cancelled! Without notifing me! And they offered me other excursions that were available but which I had no interest in. The lady at the desk told me the vendor cancelled on them so there was nothing they could do , I could not believe Viking had no other vendor. After almost 30 minutes, they told me the manager would come and resolve it .Eventually, the manager came with two pieces of paper , the first one is an official notification of my cancellation, the second piece of paper is the fine print of the contract, she told me to read it and there was nothing they need to do. So that is how their level of customer service . NEVER VIKING AGAIN !

Lack of customer service on deviations! Informed today by Viking Agent that we get dumped on our upcoming Viking Mediterranean Odyssey Ocean Cruise in 2026 because of our air deviation for return home at later date.... so we can venture out on our own after cruise. Even though Viking charges an extra $100 per person to fly back home at later date, Viking will not take us to airport along with all the other passengers schedule to fly back to their home. Thus we are on our own to catch our internal Italy flight to visit attractions since Vikings shore excursions are limited in time to visit. Bottom line ---guests get DUMPED out at the ship disembarkation site and are on their own to travel to airport even though Viking has buses/vans taking all the passengers returning to their homeland. Strongly feel this is Poor customer service for a company that charges top dollar for guests to cruise. A major drawback traveling with Viking!

Viking customer service leadership is horrible!!

Zero empathy for a documented medical emergency surgery which required trip cancellation
A lack of empathy for their customers is appalling!!
Never book a cruise with Viking!!!

Harsh and strictly enforced severe penalties that do not even allow exceptions for proof of recent diagnoses and treatment plans.

Took a Viking Expedition cruise to Argentina & Chilean Fjords with my wife. First half of the trip went well and we signed up for three additional trips while on board totaling $79,000. Developed a deep cough midway through the trip. Reported to medical staff early one morning at the direction of a Viking customer service rep. Nurse realized I was sick and immediately placed a mask on both her and me. Asked if I had a fever and if my body was aching but did not take my temperature, blood pressure, pulse or test for COVID. Offered to sell me some Tylenol to address my deep and constant cough.
Upon my return home I was diagnosed with a severe case of pneumonia which required several medications and an overnight hospital stay. Doctor thinks I may have contracted COVID on the plane or on the ship. Have lost all confidence in the onboard Viking medical staff and Viking refused to provide a credit of $209 for an excursion I had booked later that day. I did receive an apology for the lack of service from a customer service representative by email.
Began having issues with an ocean cruise which we had booked for June 13 while on board. Booked our flight through Viking Air but when our flight was changed by the airline I was told it was my responsibility to book seats on the rescheduled flight. The included excursions on that cruise were very short and not very interesting. Ended up selecting an additional $6000 in excursions to fill our time and see the premier sights. Revised our excursion choices and had to pay for the new ones in advance but did not receive credit for the ones I had cancelled. I contacted customer service & was advised they did not have the data on their screen to provide a credit.
After many calls and a good deal of my time I was able to resolve the seat situation and eventually did receive full credit for the excursion revisions. I have not yet been able to resolve the credit for the excursion I missed due to illness.
There appears to be a serious issue with Viking policy and procedure which we had never experienced on previous Viking cruises. After reading recent Viking customer reviews on several sites it appears as though we are not the only ones with customer service issues. I was able to cancel two of the trips we had booked on board at a cost of $50 per trip but would have been penalized too much to cancel the June trip. I believe it would certainly benefit Viking to read and consider customer feedback but I have no reason to believe that will ever happen which is unfortunate for Viking, as well as their once loyal cruise customers, since this is our very last Viking Experience. In closing, I would also strongly recommend reading and understanding the disclaimer information in its entirety before booking a cruise.

We'll never go on a Viking cruise again. Their customer service is terrible, we had an issue and they refused to take responsibility or make an effort to correct the situation.

We had the most magical and unforgettable cruise on the Nile on Viking Aton. Everything was first class. The cabins are bigger than the ships in Europe. The customer service was exceptional and that just makes a holiday as every member of staff went above and beyond in trying to help us - especially Malek; Bahaa; Ahmed; Ramadan; Omar and Younis. The food; trips; entertainment and talks were fabulous. I will not go into more details on the actual cruise but will only say JUST GO you will not regret it.

This is a second trip on a Viking cruise and our last. The first trip was good enough to make a second trip.
First the food is a 2 out of 10. Bland, served cold and nothing to write home about. The service is similar to being in a diner. Order fast, deliver fast and then hurry to clear your plate. No relaxing dining experience. The staff actually removes plates as soon as someone finishes as opposed to waiting for all to finish. While we were sitting in conversation at the end of dinner the server cleared all the silverware, disturbing our conversation.
We are in a state room with a balcony, but have no use for a window never mind a place to sit. We are docked next to another longboat so we have nothing to sit out to see.
This was a terrible waste of money. No longer will we give it to Viking.

They DON'T care about your privacy or will to receive they SPAM messages. You unsubscribe just to get added again to they SPAM database. I recommend to STAY AWAY form this spammers and possibly scammers!

VIKING TRAVELER'S BEWARE: We were set to go to France for two weeks on Viking and have looked forward to traveling with friends for 2 years. My husband unexpectedly was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks ago. We did not buy insurance which was our error, we had never missed a trip till this one. We asked if they could give a credit for our money or a portion of it toward another trip so once we got a clear bill of health for my husband we could go on another trip with them. They said no, we asked if our children could use our trip, they said no, we asked if the air business class we paid for would give us our money back, they said no. We spent over $32,000 and were only given 25% back and almost lost 100%. We had to decide to cancel in the middle of working through issues with cancer. They told us they already had other travelers that would be taking our place, kind of like double dipping. Even though they were going to be paid again, they could not give us any credit toward another trip. Who plans cancer? We were told to pay from our bank account for a discount but now realize you loose your credit card insurance by doing this, Viking is well aware of this. There was nobody looking for us the traveler, Viking make it clear they only look out for Viking. We are so very disappointed in Viking for such poor customer service.

Good Grand Euro Tour April-May 2024, EXCEPT… I am female. I booked my trip on one of Viking’s two available “Explorer” suites with 230 degree views, pricey, exclusive for a 21 day tour starting with three days in Prague, then boarding the (Lofn) ship in Budapest and traveling to Amsterdam.
I - a female - booked and paid for this suite and trip. My guest was my male significant other, who paid for NOTHING.
We missed an excursion due to illness, and I found a check made out to MY MALE GUEST, as a refund, and not to me.
I took the check to the concierge desk, pointed out the issue, and they made a new check to me, their ACTUAL CUSTOMER.

This was bad, unfortunate, suspect. And since that time, for the next two years and continuing to this day, Viking sends brochures addressed to my guest at the address of MY HOUSE, that I pay for and he does not. They have NEVER sent me a brochure, their customer, but instead market to my significant other, who is male, who will never buy from them, and IGNORE ME COMPLETELY, the female who did spend $46,000 with them.
Thus sexism is so egregious that I will never buy from Viking again. I even wrote to their president and received no communication or apology in return. They don’t want women who pay??? Fine.

I cancelled an order. It was delivered and I refused it and informed the delivery driver it was being refused and should be returned. Days later it was delivered again - refused and informed the delivery driver it was to be returned. I then sent another email to Viking Customer Services advising them of the cancellation, delivery refusal and the second attempted delivery. As I write I have just refused a third attempt to deliver the cancelled order. I have now been on hold for 20 minutes trying to speak to someone at customer services. I guess that I should not be surprised at the long wait, because Customer Services are busy with a lot of unhappy customers. Will not be using Viking again and will be telling family and friends of how my time has been wasted. If the order is left when nobody is home, I will not be responsible for it.

Crap treatment from Viking! They took a deposit but refused to refund it when problems arose with the itinerary. Bad attitude +++!! If you see good reviews of Viking - don't believe them! They're rubbish!! Silversea, Seabourn, and Regent Seven Seas are all much better! And Oceania is up and coming.

Absolutely useless customer service. Premium prices for terrible product. Stay away!

We booked a 15-day European river cruise with Viking, taking advantage of the short grace period they offer before you must pay for your entire trip at the time of booking. As this was a large amount of money, we needed to get our finances in order. We received our confirmation for our cruise along with details on the cabin we selected, excursions, dining and even the drink package. Hours later, when we went to pay, the price had gone up by almost five thousand dollars. What a scam. After several phone calls, including one with a manager, we were told we were out of luck, unless we wanted to pay more. Despite all Viking's television commercials and advertising campaigns suggesting they are a class act, they are in fact not even a reputable company. My advice: avoid at all cost.

.If you are using Viking air services and you have a problem while you are in Europe, their offices are in California so calling them at 9am means that its about 9 hours different in California. Chances are they are closed.

I would warn people AWAY from Viking based upon my horrible pre-cruise experience with their lack of customer service and incompetence. I am hopeful that the cruise itself may make up for some of the terrible treatment and dismissive attitude from the company reps, but even it does, I will never stoop to deal with this outfit again. Beware.

I had a fantastic experience on my first Viking cruise down the Douro—the food was exceptional, the service was top-notch, and the excursions were truly memorable.

Because of that, I recently encouraged my parents (ages 78 and 80) to book a trip of their own, which they did. Unfortunately, their experience leading up to the trip has been frustrating. They’ve found it surprisingly difficult to make even simple changes, including spending over 90 minutes on a support call that didn’t resolve their issue.

Based on this—and seeing similar feedback from others—it seems clear that pre-trip support is a weak point, particularly when flights are bundled into the reservation. The added complexity creates unnecessary headaches.

While I still believe Viking delivers an excellent onboard experience, the challenges my parents have faced have definitely diminished the overall brand appeal for me.

Romantic Danube river cruise far from romantic! Quality of food very poor, no variety, and amount limited! Entertainment boring and service poor as well! Paid extra for balcony but couldn’t use it because other Viking ships were docked right next to it, so lacked any privacy. Safe your money!

We are very frustrated with the Viking customer service --- or lack thereof!! We've done 4 Viking cruises and had 2 more scheduled. In August 2025 I called our Viking travel agent to change an Atlantic crossing cruise to a different Atlantic crossing. He said he would save it with the same booking number as the original one. Five days later we received an email reminder that payment was due on the original booking. So I logged into Viking.com and found that he had saved the Atlantic Crossing cruise over our Mediterranean cruise (booked Oct 2024). After discovering the error I called the Viking agent. It was an honest mistake which I expected Viking to handle. Who knew that it would take an act of Congress to get back the original Med cruise. Because the prices were now different it took upper management approval to restore our reservation at the original cost. By the time they approved it (a week later), there were no cabins available in our category so we got a guaranteed cabin. This is unacceptable because we specifically booked a Port cabin over a year ago for the best scenery. Then, they sent a cabin assignment but it was on Starboard. I kept periodically checking and found a cabin available on the Port side but it was 3 categories higher. On the website it cost $400 more per person for the upgrade. So I called our agent and offered to pay the additional cost ($800) to upgrade to get this settled. BUT, he told me if I made any changes we would have to REBOOK the entire cruise at the current rates, which was about $6000 higher. So frustrating!! This cruise is paid in full or we would cancel the whole thing. I contacted Viking tellus email and received a call a couple days later. The new agent offered to allow us to upgrade for the difference of $400 each with a "generous" $50/person discount, but there were no port side cabins. She promised to keep checking every day and nab one when it opened up, and to get back in touch. I didn't hear from her again. About 2 weeks later, I happened to check again and there was a port cabin open so I called her. She returned my call the next day and thankfully the cabin was still available. It ended up costing us another $700 to get back to something equivalent to our original booking. We are very disappointed in Viking's handling of their mistake! It's ridiculous that we had to stress over this issue for months plus pay more money to get something equivalent to our original booking. This is not the Viking experience that we have previously seen. It feels like Viking is totally uncompromising, even when it's their own error. For that reason, we cancelled our other cruises that we had scheduled and don't plan to give them anymore of our business. And, we're making sure we spread the word to friends and social media.