ronayne

On our recent Viking ocean cruise, October 17-24th, I developed a medical condition that couldn't be addressed (due to the Viking clinic's limited morning hours) until after an expensive, pre-paid, non-refundable land excursion. I knew I’d be in need of a comfort stop during the 2 hour bus ride to the destination. Viking's guest services representative (onboard) told me to explain the situation to our tour guide, who would accommodate. The tour guide was standing next to the bus as we approached it. She angrily refused to schedule a bathroom stop, stating that there was 'nothing but woods and countryside' between the ship and our destination. The bus driver said there was a bathroom on the bus, but we later discovered that passengers aren't allowed to use it. It turned out the tour guide was miked, and it was live, so the entire busload of Viking passengers heard me discuss my condition, before we got on! I only understood this when friends we were traveling with, who were already onboard, told us. How humiliating, and what an egregious violation of my privacy. The doctor onboard told me that she sees UTI's in Viking's passengers frequently. She estimated 40-50 this year. She stated that a likely cause is that passengers are stuck on busses for hours, with limited or no bathroom breaks, causing (particularly womens') bladders to back up. BTW, most of the clientele on our cruise were in their 60s-80s, making this more likely. So this wasn't just one mean on-land tour guide showing no consideration for a passenger, but appears to be a systemic pattern, affecting many Viking guests. While I stood in line with 2 dozen women at a rest stop, on a different land excursion, a bus driver yelled at his passengers to hurry up, he was behind schedule and leaving, ‘with or without’ them. Passengers had no choice, there weren't enough stalls. The rest stops' facilities haven't expanded to accommodate several cruise ships arriving in ports at once, sending busloads of seniors to the same attractions concurrently. And that was one on of the 'lucky' tours, where our guide allowed us a bathroom break! Another area for improved communication, if you book a land excursion, if you are deaf in your left ear, tell the Viking staff, in advance. They may be able to loan you a headset. The tour guides' wireless transmission audio systems' ear pieces are universally left-eared. It isn't possible to flip the parts to use the left bud in your right ear. The bud is only designed to fit the left ear. So if deaf in your left ear, you won't be able to hear the guides, unless you're standing next to them. They are speaking into a mike at a normal conversational volume. They don't need to yell, with these systems, but they are often in very crowded environments with dozens of other tour guides speaking concurrently. So it's very hard to hear them without the audio sets. I wish I'd known about the Viking onboard staff's ability to remediate this situation before our 4th excursion. Staff onboard the ship were mostly great (cabin stewards and restaurant staff, in particular), the food was good, but some of the excursions were a waste of time. Way too much time was spent on buses, and in the lines for restrooms, onshore. The food on the QM2 was better. In spite of this, we'd considered taking a river cruise, later, with Viking, avoiding all of its land excursions. In talking over the phone with Viking's travel agent, however, we received conflicting accounts of the reliability of air travel arranged for and paid through Viking. First she said it would be premium economy; later in the conversation she said only the 'over water' portion of our travel would definitely be premium economy, unless we wished to pay another $300 for additional assistance. By the time I'd digested this 'bait and switch' conversation, I'd already paid a $50 deposit. I've since been assured by two other Viking agents that our deposit will be refunded for this trip that we decided to cancel (we no longer trust Viking). The first one was overridden by her managers, last week, which she failed to relay to me. I'm not holding my breath about the second one. Viking extended travel vouchers for $600 each, to us, good for one year. One of them is made out to the wrong person, a woman on the East Coast, a problem throughout our booking with Viking (over five months) that has not been corrected. Considering we spent roughly 15 times $1,200., on our last Viking trip, its band-aid approach to customer amends did not fly, or float, with us. What Viking needs is institutional change. Its slogan is 'allowing travelers to explore world in comfort', yet its MO (land-based travel industry partners that refuse to allow geriatric passengers timely bathroom breaks) constitutes elder abuse. We have booked our next cruise; not with Viking.

J62

Sounds like a bad experience. Personally, I avoid any long excursions and mostly choose the included half day tours. Reading tje tour descriptions carefully helps us make a choice that is best for us.


I agree, the on ship staff on the Viking Sky go out of their way to give a great experience - from the restaurant manager and dietary specialist, customer service agents and their management. All have taken the time to speak to us in person and address our needs right away.

ronayne

Good idea, thanks. I fully agree about the cabin attendants and restaurant workers. If we go on another cruise, however, it won't be with Viking.

mlgb

Consider using a cruise specialist travel agent next time. They probably have received that kind of information from other passengers. Often one needs to trade off food and onboard service with the lack of flexibility on land.

I don't know Viking personally (although friends use them) but it's common for cruise lines to contract out their shore excursions.

We use Cruise Criitc, private Facebook Groups, and even TripAdvisor a sources for chosing excursions, and also for booking independent shore excursions (is that even allowed on Viking?)

katybird

Why weren't you allowed to use the bus bathroom?