Moira H.
Yelp
On our recent Viking ocean cruise, October 17-24th, I developed a medical condition that couldn't be addressed (due to the Viking medical clinic's limited morning hours) until after an expensive, pre-paid, non-refundable land excursion.
I knew I would be in need of a comfort stop during the 2 hour bus ride to the destination. Viking's guest services representative (onboard) had 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, 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 the womens') bladders to back up.
BTW, most of the clientele on our cruise appeared to be in their 60s-80s, making this more likely.
So this wasn't just one on-land tour guide showing no respect or consideration for one passenger, but appears to be a typical pattern affecting many of Viking's passengers.
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, in these situations, as 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. And that was one on of the 'lucky' tours, where our guide allowed us to stop for a bathroom break!
If you go on 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 right 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 in 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 the trip was overpriced and 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 much 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 (because 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 clearly has not been corrected.
Considering we spent roughly 15 times this amount, 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 enjoy the world in luxury and comfort', yet its MO (land-based travel industry partners that do not allow geriatric passengers timely bathroom breaks) constitutes elder abuse.
We have already booked our next cruise; not with Viking.
