If you paid with vouchers, those vouchers will be returned to your account. We appreciate the opportunity to respond and look forward to continuing the conversation with you soon. How can they do that to passengers. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, By Windstar Cruises. But Keyles wasnt ready to accept such an offer. Their refund policies are strict. Had they waited 10 more days, they would have received the full refund. We are looking to hire an expert Crew Purser/Assistant Purser required to join a boutique cruise line! most do research before making an investment in travel products. And while the travel vouchers are good for 24 months, given the state of the pandemic, the couples medical conditions and age, they didnt think they would be traveling any time soon. Chicago SW Suburb. Never, never again. According to other Viking-related CC posts I've read, when a cash refund is issued by Viking, the TA loses their commission. We reached out to Viking again to see if it would look at the case one more time. stream The world is an amazing place with remarkable treasures on every continentand we look forward to exploring them together, whenever and wherever you choose to sail. endobj As a private company, we have the flexibility to do what is best for our guests and our employees. operators in regard to the cruises described herein. Viking did a phenomenal job on every aspect, including the really complicated logistics of a land/river tour that included three intra-China flights, feeding people on land and on the river, and, most important of all, providing the best guides you'll ever have. If we had waited even one more day, we would have only been entitled to 50% cash and 50% travel vouchers, Keyles said. read more. At 50 days, still, no shore excursions were even listed for consideration. Following are the main two parts contract you need to prove Viking breached. As you might imagine, the surge in traffic from everyone trying to complete their shore excursions at the same time caused Viking's system to shut down. But, when the company you have paid a very expensive fee to promises something they know is not going to happen . Our help is free. Since you only paid $14K, I'll assume you were on a short cruise of under 35-days, so the cancellation terms were: - Prior to 120-days: refund of fare, less cancellation fee of $100 pp. If you are a resident of another country or region, please select the appropriate version of Tripadvisor for your country or region in the drop-down menu. - 120 days to 90 days: refund of fare, less cancellation fee of 15%. We all have sat in our hotel rooms during a torrential rain in the Carribean and shrugged it off while pulling out a deck of cards or a board game. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SUPERSTAR GEMINI STAR CRUISES X CROWN JEWEL BROCHURE 1998 INCL DECK PLANS at the best online prices at eBay! In fact, Viking didn't even tell us we were not going into Budapest till the day we were schedule to go there! After all, this too shall eventually pass. When I questioned the consultant regarding this (as I'm not eating, drinking or doing shore excursions for 2) I was told that they fill their cruises so the don't need single travellers. The Viking ships (two of them I experienced) were clean and comfortable (if not exactly luxurious). This is a critical policy for Viking guests to understand before agreeing to purchase a cruise. Again, superb advertising. Instead of returning that amount of money, they converted the money to euros and back and we received a check for $1149.61 which is over $170 less than we paid. . Four days into our cruise, it ended abruptly.The Rhine river was too shallow.We were given no choice but to pack our bags and climb onto a tour bus. YodaMom, December 19, 2011 in River Cruising. Then what? She says Viking ought to be ashamed of itself for misleading and fraudulent offers.. What Viking advertises in not what you get. (Sounds like something we would really enjoy.) Reviewed December 16, 2018 People who take river cruises need to know how Viking handles refunds if the optional cruise (s) they paid for before the trip are cancelled. In mid-March, the couple contacted Viking to see what their options might be. We were told to "give it another day". He advised us that if we were thinking about rebooking in 2021, we should wait to see if Viking cancelled our 2020 cruise making us eligible for a 125% voucher. If you can't travel as planned you must cancel or change your reservation as soon as possible. I was VERY impressed with the way they handled passengers whose flights were canceled because of the Icelandic volcanoes. Viking should not sell a product that it cannot convey. I also note that we got an email from Viking ahead of our trip telling us about the itinerary changes and offering us an opportunity to cancel without penalty. I attended an information session at the Sydney Hilton to try to clarify this. Not to defend Viking by any means but Uniworld did this to a friend. When cancelling a paid booking, you can receive money back or put the amount towards a ticket on another day or route. Travel companies always do the math so it favors them. And it did so twice. Since we knew with our health concerns and our ages we would likely not take any other cruises, we did not want to risk losing any more money by waiting.. (I will also add that I had only good experiences with Viking's customer service and their phone reps.). It was cancaled by Viking. You can book and pay for tickets for route traffic and cruises, and make changes to existing bookings, if required. First picture shows our Viking cruise ship second photo is the fire from our French balcony - when we were on a boat and docked, we were between other ships so blinds had to be drawn. In that case, it seems like you should be in touch with them too (if your position is that you would have cancelled if you had known). .. this is not an Act of God. Now it wont refund my $3,606. Started June 21, 2021, By July 27, 2011. Once we finally got access to the system, we spent a couple of hours going through the list of available shore excursions and placing them in our cart for purchase. Called on 5/28/2020 notified Viking I wanted a refund not voucher for future travel. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The Risk-Free Guarantee allows guests to change their cruise date up until 14 days before their planned departureand Viking will waive any fees. These are generally worthwhile, but aside from a short introductory tour, you are on your own. Viking Cruise lines, horrible. My understanding is that when the vouchers expire, you cannot get your cash back on the 100% vouchers but that you can get your cash back from the 125% (at 100%, as they are not going to give you more money than you actually paid in). Is this legal? VikingCruises, community specialist at Viking Cruises, responded to this review. The booking must be cancelled before applying for a refund. Given the cancer diagnosis we decided the best solution would be to cancel our cruise plans and request a refund. Can I get my 173,116 Chase Ultimate Rewards points refunded? Future Cruise Vouchers valued at 125% are available exclusively for those guests whose cruise was cancelled due to, or associated with, our suspended operations. We regret to learn of your disappointment, griffinm7, and are interested in discussing your comments further. They essentially had a bus trip in Europe. Business Started Locally: 1/1/1997. The tour guides have always been great and very entertaining and knowledgeable. :) Then just continue with GCT if we like them as much as we expect to. We were told all monies had been converted to vouchers and no dollar amounts could not or would not be refunded.Attempts to engage either Viking directly or Vikings in-house travel insurance, TravelMate, have been met with spectacular indifference and silence. Not much Viking can do about that. And heres a 2015 case involving United frequent flier points. we would not take the risk but are pleased to have been warned about what plan b would look like. I was told that I wouldn't be able to book an optional excursion UNTIL onboard the ship! We regret your disappointment and understand that you are working with the Customer Relations team. Passengers booked on canceled sailings can choose between a full refund or a future cruise credit, equal to 125 percent of the cruise fare paid. The cruise line offered her future cruise vouchers worth 125 percent of her fare. <> And I'm urging everyone who got shafted to do the same. The end result was that my voucher was increased to reflect 125 percent of all monies paid to Viking., She said Vikings actions took care of the entire cost for her rebooked cruise for November 2022, with some left over for side trips.. Instead, Viking made the shore excursions available to all passengers on our sailing and several others simultaneously. Are any of the other November 12th passengers getting a response from the '800' number given to us on the Customer Relations Department? 2. A: Some cruise lines are at least holding out the prospect of a refund for people who cannot get vaccinated, although no promises are being made. But for me, the best explanation is that the company is in business. Ultimately she said that she would honor his statement, even if he wasnt authorized to make any offer to us, and would offer us a $500 cash settlement as a gesture of goodwill, Keyles said. We just recieved notice they are sailing in September 2021. Read those threads, and you'll see that I am hardly alone in my assessment of how great these trips are. So Fosse had no way of knowing how they were calculating the percentage. Even so, we enjoyed the experience to the fullest and wanted more.Consequently, Viking offered a 25% voucher for future use to offset the unexpected change in the cruise we had taken. Refund will be given as Returns shipping; 14 days: Money Back: Buyer pays for return shipping: Raising the cruise fares to the point where she has to continuously pay more for a replacement cruise that does seem unethical. (In fact, first time to Europe). Viking's large fleet of over 70 ships and counting sail to a large variety of itineraries in Europe, Russia, Egypt, China and more. I have been recommended that I not be vaccined and I asked for a refund. READ CAREFULLY. MonFri 08.0017.00SatSun 09.0015.00Finnish time. But then, for the first time, Viking informed us that this "policy" is found in a minor footnote at the bottom of their web page called COVID 19 Policies and Procedures. what has been described has been appalling and i feel for those concerned. They got no advance notice, no onboard cash. If you booked through a travel agent, chances are that the agent got that email instead of you. Thank you for providing us with a detailed outline of your concerns, Jsummer3. It promised refunds later,. Powered by Invision Community. Started June 21, 2021, By Refunds are made upon receipt and depend on the working times of banks. Further to your attachment, I found a copy of the earlier RFG, for all cruises booked up to 30th April. 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