Danube Water Levels Low

[greenman1168]

Editing not being possible after 20 minutes, I rethought the somewhat esoteric "get a bath, get a job" reference to a statement by a current popular presidential candidate might be more easily understood if I replaced that with "you didn't buy the insurance, so too bad, we have your money, good luck getting your value."

[Viking River Cruises]

Dear Viking Guests,

We understand that you have questions and concerns about how river water levels have affected your cruise, or if your upcoming trip will be affected. Please consider that we always do our best to provide you with accurate, up-to-date information regarding itineraries that are specific to ships and destinations around the world. Weather-related changes that are beyond our control are particularly challenging, but we will continue to do everything in our power to provide you with a wonderful travel experience.

If you have recently returned from a cruise and are disappointed with how it was affected by the river levels, please first accept our apologies and then contact us directly so that we may discuss your concerns with your personally.

If you have questions about your upcoming cruise, we also encourage you to contact us directly so that we may address your questions on an individual basis as they will pertain to your ship and itinerary.

In each case you can reach us at TellUs@vikingrivercruises.com or 1.877.668.4546, extension 4525 (Customer Relations).

With warm regards and best wishes for a happy holiday season,
Viking River Cruises

[at_nyc]

Originally Posted by VikingRiverCruises1

we always do our best to provide you with accurate, up-to-date information regarding itineraries that are specific to ships and destinations around the world.

I've just read the Viking's Facebook discussion page. A passenger departing from Budapest was told 2 days prior departure there's NO WATER ISSUE! When in reality the previous week's cruise wasn't able to reach Budapest and the passengers had been bused.

If you have questions about your upcoming cruise, we also encourage you to contact us directly so that we may address your questions on an individual basis as they will pertain to your ship and itinerary.

We were told on board "when you get home, you'll find a letter from Viking detailing the compensation". Well, there's no letter!

(Not that I was even interested in some partial credit I can only 'redeem' by sinking more money into Viking's bank account. And how do you compensate the lost of vacation time wasted on a bus on some boring highway?)

And as posted by greenman1168, Viking didn't even return his call concerning water level!

[BPCruiser]

Well after reading all the negative posts about Viking's handeling of the river level situation I truly empathize with all of you who are scheduled on Viking upcoming or have completed a Viking cruise/buse tour with disappointment. My point of this post is to give my very best positive compliments to Avalon's handeling of our Budapest to Prague trip from which we just returned. I too was initially very disappointed at the news about being changed from the new ship the Panorama to the older Tapestry but I must now say how lucky I we feel that we were able to spend all 7 nights of our scheduled cruise on a river boat sailing( 5 on the Tapestry and then moved to our final 2 on the Panorama). The Tapestry was apparently designed differently being a older ship and could make it as far as Linz. We overnighted on the Tapestry our 5th night in Passau and only had to take a short bus ride the following morning to Regensburg to meet up with the Panorama late morning to complete our final 2 days of cruising to Nuremburg.
For the inconvenience of having our river boat changed from the Panorama to the Tapestry for 5 days, Avalon offered us a full cancellation refund before we even departed the U.S. They also offered for those who decided to stay with the cruise on the Tapestry a $400/pp refund to our credit card used for trip payment as well as a 100 Euros/pp on board ship credit to use for drinks, extra excursions or whatever. We did take out the trip insurance thru Avalon but did our own airfare and I venture to say from speaking to many people on board that all were so very pleased that they did not cancel as the Tapestry was cozy, comfortable and staff wonderful. Many passangers even hated to have to pack up and switch for the final 2 nights to the Panorama as they were quite happy on the Tapestry. The Panorama as I have said was beautiful as a brand new ship and we are glad we had at least 2 nights to experience her luxury and spaciousness. In my personal opinion, we all came out as winners from the perspecutive that we had a great cruise, felt that we missed out on nothing other then maybe a little extra morning time in Regensberg while being transited there on bus to meet the Panorama, had money extra to spend on board as we wished and money back to our bank accounts.

That is Customer Service in the long run and I think is what will bring so many of those who were on this particular cruise back to Avalon in the future, including myself!! Thank You Avalon for changing my initial very disappointed and disgruntled attitude about the changes to our cruise to being a an avid promoter of why others should seriously consider Avalon for their river cruises. We left this cruise with many wonderful memories, new friends and look forward to future cruises. I am so glad we did not cancel!

[greenman1168]

BP Cruiser wrote: That is Customer Service in the long run

BP Cruiser, Thank you for posting your experience! I am very glad that it was a positive one. This will hopefully give Viking an idea of how good customer service in adversity, such as what you and others have reported with Avalon, will profit them more in the long run than their heretofore cavalier attitude and paltry compensations.

I just received a call from Viking regarding our concerns about our upcoming cruise in light of their previous unsatisfactory responses to the disruptions...they have definitely read the posts on these forums, and seem to be taking them to heart. The person I spoke with was very helpful, and offered a definitive solution that we can live with. That was followed up with a couple of emails and a promise to keep in contact as the situation develops, that we should know within a week of flying out if we can rebook at a later date.

at_nyc, I hope that you and others on recent and current Viking itineraries will receive satisfactory compensation from Viking River Cruises. It sounds like they listened to us.
Cheers!
Edie

[shoshona2]

To BP Cruiser,

So glad to hear that Avalon did a good job of handling the situation for your river cruise.

to greenman1168,

So glad to hear that Viking has responded to you in a positive way.

Sheila

[ninthisland]

Originally Posted by BPCruiser

Well after reading all the negative posts about Viking's handeling of the river level situation I truly empathize with all of you who are scheduled on Viking upcoming or have completed a Viking cruise/buse tour with disappointment. My point of this post is to give my very best positive compliments to Avalon's handeling of our Budapest to Prague trip from which we just returned. I too was initially very disappointed at the news about being changed from the new ship the Panorama to the older Tapestry but I must now say how lucky I we feel that we were able to spend all 7 nights of our scheduled cruise on a river boat sailing( 5 on the Tapestry and then moved to our final 2 on the Panorama). The Tapestry was apparently designed differently being a older ship and could make it as far as Linz. We overnighted on the Tapestry our 5th night in Passau and only had to take a short bus ride the following morning to Regensburg to meet up with the Panorama late morning to complete our final 2 days of cruising to Nuremburg.
For the inconvenience of having our river boat changed from the Panorama to the Tapestry for 5 days, Avalon offered us a full cancellation refund before we even departed the U.S. They also offered for those who decided to stay with the cruise on the Tapestry a $400/pp refund to our credit card used for trip payment as well as a 100 Euros/pp on board ship credit to use for drinks, extra excursions or whatever. We did take out the trip insurance thru Avalon but did our own airfare and I venture to say from speaking to many people on board that all were so very pleased that they did not cancel as the Tapestry was cozy, comfortable and staff wonderful. Many passangers even hated to have to pack up and switch for the final 2 nights to the Panorama as they were quite happy on the Tapestry. The Panorama as I have said was beautiful as a brand new ship and we are glad we had at least 2 nights to experience her luxury and spaciousness. In my personal opinion, we all came out as winners from the perspecutive that we had a great cruise, felt that we missed out on nothing other then maybe a little extra morning time in Regensberg while being transited there on bus to meet the Panorama, had money extra to spend on board as we wished and money back to our bank accounts.

That is Customer Service in the long run and I think is what will bring so many of those who were on this particular cruise back to Avalon in the future, including myself!! Thank You Avalon for changing my initial very disappointed and disgruntled attitude about the changes to our cruise to being a an avid promoter of why others should seriously consider Avalon for their river cruises. We left this cruise with many wonderful memories, new friends and look forward to future cruises. I am so glad we did not cancel!

Glad to hear that your Avalon experience turned out well for you. Having read your posts about the progress of your cruise I was somewhat optimistic about our Avalon cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna leaving on the 27th November. I did ask my T/A to check and Avalon assured her that everything was as per the itinerary. We boarded the Panorama in Nuremberg on the 27th and now late on the 30th we are still in Regensberg. We have been told at midday that we are to disembark at 8.00 am tomorrow morning but have no idea as to what will happen then. As we were due to arrive in Vienna in the afternoon of the 1st of December I can only imagine that we will be bussed to Vienna in the morning.
One of the reasons that we chose a suite with the very large windows was that we could view the Danube from our cabin. So far a large majority of this time we have been moored against another ship so that we must keep the curtains drawn for privacy,
I realize that some things are out of the control of the company, but being honest about the situation, keeping the passengers informed and aware and attempting to make this holiday what we had planned is important. So far Avalon have done none of these things. We wait until tonight to see of we receive any information other than we are being offloaded here in Regensberg tomorrow at 8 am.
I came all this way to see the Danube and so far have seen almost none of it.

[BPCruiser]

Originally Posted by ninthisland

Glad to hear that your Avalon experience turned out well for you. Having read your posts about the progress of your cruise I was somewhat optimistic about our Avalon cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna leaving on the 27th November. I did ask my T/A to check and Avalon assured her that everything was as per the itinerary. We boarded the Panorama in Nuremberg on the 27th and now late on the 30th we are still in Regensberg. We have been told at midday that we are to disembark at 8.00 am tomorrow morning but have no idea as to what will happen then. As we were due to arrive in Vienna in the afternoon of the 1st of December I can only imagine that we will be bussed to Vienna in the morning.
One of the reasons that we chose a suite with the very large windows was that we could view the Danube from our cabin. So far a large majority of this time we have been moored against another ship so that we must keep the curtains drawn for privacy,
I realize that some things are out of the control of the company, but being honest about the situation, keeping the passengers informed and aware and attempting to make this holiday what we had planned is important. So far Avalon have done none of these things. We wait until tonight to see of we receive any information other than we are being offloaded here in Regensberg tomorrow at 8 am.
I came all this way to see the Danube and so far have seen almost none of it.

So sorry to hear of your situation. I truly understand how disappointed you are. I am not surprised to hear that you cannot get further down river then Regensberg since we were bussed from Passau where we got off the Tapestry because it could go no further up river due to low water levels to reach Regensberg. Apparently there is a very low stretch of water difficult to transit between Passau and Regensberg right now. You will probably be bussed to Passau and hopefully still given the option to do the day trip to Salzburg as it was quite lovely with the Christmas Markets and then on to Vienna. Hopefully Avalon will communicate in a timely manner what the remaining trip plans are to the passangers, either on to another boat for the remainder of your downriver trip to Vienna or Hotels. I can understand your disappointment about not being able to enjoy the view from your Panorama suite. I can only hope that Avalon does right by their guests under weather circumstances beyond anyone's control yet wanting their passangers to have as much of the enjoyable vacation they planned for. I hope you have been able to take advantage of your time on the Panorama and get to make the most of the stops in the ports you will be visiting. Keep us posted for how the situation is handled on your trip as I know all cruises are handled differently. Is Robert Z. your Cruise Director for your trip? Best of Luck, I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[at_nyc]

Originally Posted by greenman1168

BP Cruiser wrote: That is Customer Service in the long run

BP Cruiser, Thank you for posting your experience! I am very glad that it was a positive one. This will hopefully give Viking an idea of how good customer service in adversity, such as what you and others have reported with Avalon, will profit them more in the long run than their heretofore cavalier attitude and paltry compensations.

I just received a call from Viking regarding our concerns about our upcoming cruise in light of their previous unsatisfactory responses to the disruptions...they have definitely read the posts on these forums, and seem to be taking them to heart. The person I spoke with was very helpful, and offered a definitive solution that we can live with. That was followed up with a couple of emails and a promise to keep in contact as the situation develops, that we should know within a week of flying out if we can rebook at a later date.

Edie, glad you had a satisfactory aggreement. Enjoy your trip, whatever form it turns out.

at_nyc, I hope that you and others on recent and current Viking itineraries will receive satisfactory compensation from Viking River Cruises. It sounds like they listened to us.

Not yet.

I have the review ready, including a couple of Christmas Market we did manage to hit. But waiting till tomorrow to hear whatever Viking's latest offer will be. Review will get a final touch base on that.

[greenman1168]

How do you get that partial quote to turn blue? I've only managed to quote the whole post in blue...
at_nyc wrote:
Not yet.

I have the review ready, including a couple of Christmas Market we did manage to hit. But waiting till tomorrow to hear whatever Viking's latest offer will be. Review will get a final touch base on that.
................
It appears that Viking prefers to negotiate with passengers individually, rather than having one standard policy for all who were/are/will be affected. But they seem to be negotiating in good faith, so keeping fingers crossed.
I wish you the best of all possible outcomes. Looking forward to reading your review when you publish it.
Edie

[at_nyc]

Originally Posted by greenman1168

How do you get that partial quote to turn blue? I've only managed to quote the whole post in blue...

Two ways to do partial quote:

1) Hit the quote button on the lower right corner of the post you want to quote. That quotes the whole post. Delete the part not needed.

2) hit the quote ("") icon on top of the reply box. Copy and paste the part you need, put it inside the quote bracket

It appears that Viking prefers to negotiate with passengers individually, rather than having one standard policy for all who were/are/will be affected. But they seem to be negotiating in good faith, so keeping fingers crossed.
I wish you the best of all possible outcomes. Looking forward to reading your review when you publish it.
Edie

Actually, Viking had made a blanket offer of 30% CREDIT towards future cruise. Considering they didn't deliver even half of the cruise as advertise, they have the guts to keep 70% of the money we paid! And they probably wish everyone just accepts that and few will actually ever use that "credit"!

It's those who want more than that they have to negociate individually.

They still hadn't got back to me. And the day (and work week) is dwindlinging faster than the day light of Budapest on our last day of (non-)cruise! That leaves me with a full weekend to tell everyone I meet on our club Christmas party what kind of company Viking is and how they "take care of customers" on their bus tour. You bet they'll be rushing to book with Viking, right?

[at_nyc]

Who cares?

Those who're about to cruise with Viking and don't want to be shanghai'ed. I'll keep the thread on top for as long as necessary.

I wonder why you're reading the water level thread if you don't care. And if you find a thread boring, you always can skip it. What gives?

But thanks for bring the thread up to the top anyway.

[greenman1168]

at_nyc,
thanks for the updates, we really appreciate them. WE CARE.
Maybe travel agents, cruise line employees, frequent travellers who have experienced these cruises in better conditions before, and people with deeper pockets than ours, can be nonchalant about a multi-thousand dollar 11-day bus tour in the dead of winter...who knows? It really does matter how cruise lines treat their passengers under less-than-optimal conditions.

[at_nyc]

Originally Posted by greenman1168

at_nyc,
thanks for the updates, we really appreciate them. WE CARE.
Maybe travel agents, cruise line employees, frequent travellers who have experienced these cruises in better conditions before, and people with deeper pockets than ours, can be nonchalant about a multi-thousand dollar 11-day bus tour in the dead of winter...who knows? It really does matter how cruise lines treat their passengers under less-than-optimal conditions.

I'm glad I was able to help others with my story.

There will be others returning tomorrow. They'll find a thread to add their new tale of Viking bus tour.

[greenman1168]

:-)

[Viking River Cruises]

Dear Viking Guests,

We know you have questions and we know some of you have complaints. We thank you for your input and assure you that we are listening. The magnitude of this late-season drought was not immediately apparent, but we have made adjustments each day in an effort to continually provide you with our very best. For each of the Danube and Rhine sailings that are effected in December, we are providing shipboard credit, complimentary optional excursions, and credit to use on a future cruise. Should you decide instead to not join us, we will provide you with a credit for 100% of your cruise fare towards a future cruise.

We understand that you want answers about how your itinerary may need to be altered. We will continue to update our future guests via email with additional information as it becomes available. We have also made all of these communications available on our website here: http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/about/vikingnews.aspx. We will continue to keep this information on our website updated as well.

For those who joined us in November and had their itinerary altered by the low water levels of the rivers, we are working hard to address your concerns and will also be sending you a credit voucher for a future cruise.

And as always, we are happy to hear from you directly at TellUs@vikingrivercruises.com.

Regards,
Viking River Cruises

[at_nyc]

Originally Posted by VikingRiverCruises1

For each of the Danube and Rhine sailings that are effected in December, we are providing shipboard credit, complimentary optional excursions, and credit to use on a future cruise. Should you decide instead to not join us, we will provide you with a credit for 100% of your cruise fare towards a future cruise.

Hear! Hear!

None of that was provided for us in our cruises. But it's now offered for next week's cruise! Why? Because we complained in public!

Paulmj, see who cares?

[greenman1168]

at_nyc

Thanks, Viking, it is heartening to know that Viking River Cruises is listening, and cares about their passengers.

[at_nyc]

While in the process of submiting my trip review, I can't help but to browse through reviews of the same ship Legend, and found
a review was from one year ago.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...?EntryID=76993

Most shocking to me was this:

"What we most resented was that is was glaringly obvious were not being told the whole story. I had to go on this site to see the same ship had problems on the cruise before ours. If they had only been up front it would have been better. But instead they infantilized us and tried herding us endlessly onto busses. We paid for a cruise, not a bus tour. "

So it's exactly the same kind of behavior from Viking, lying about a known problem. Putting customers through the ordeal.

December 2010, and now.

[LHT28]

I have researched river cruises for a few years & noticed the high/low water level issue
While I have resisted in booking a river cruise for this reason we are going to take a chance ... we booked one for next year
If it turns into a bus tour I will not be happy but I AM well aware this could happen
Maybe the river cruise lines should not offer trips after Oct then there would not be so many unhappy customers or at least offer a full refund

I do not think they have much control over the river levels ...it can be great one year & not the next
They make their best guess if it will be sailing or busing

I think if you are booking a river cruise you have to be aware it could be a bus trip

This is just my outlook on life ...nothing ever seems to go as planned so make the best of a bad situation

YMMV

Lyn