Lov2smile

Viking advertised (and continues to advertise) "Paris to Normandy".  It doesn't dock in Paris...Never has, Never will.   We were told by the Program Director, Jean Pierre, of Viking River Cruises this ship cannot dock in Paris because it is too big to pass under the bridges in Paris.  Viking Cruise line knew this at least as far back as March 2015, but continues to sell "PARIS to Normandy".  Instead we dock about an hour's bus ride away from Paris in a town called La Pecq.  I guess La Pecq wouldn't market as well.   This was a huge disappointment because we had planned our trip around the time we would have with three full days docked in Paris, to be able to explore the city and return to the ship to eat or rest between visits.   We received an e-mail advising us of a dock change 3 days before sailing.  The explanation for the change in the docking location was that a permit from the French government for the Rinda to use the Paris docking location had not yet been received.  We later learned from a previous passenger of the exact same situation back in March 2015 with this same ship.    Additionally, a similar situation in April 2014 took place on the Viking Forseti in Bordeaux. The ship had not yet received a permit from the French government to go under a specific bridge on the cruise route, so their itinerary was modified.   Our itinerary was considerably modified due to the new docking location and the optional tours of the Louvre and Versailles were both scheduled for our last cruise day,  This made for a very hectic day for those passengers who wanted to do both, and a very crowded day for both venues due to the Weekend crowds.   We were also scheduled to dock at Con Flans but instead we had to bus from La Pecq to get there as well.  There were other River Cruise ships docked at Con Flans, but for some reason Viking decided not to dock there.   Viking reserves the right to change ports without notification. A change is one thing, but Viking never intended to dock in Paris in the first place.  This was very deceitful and I would not recommend Viking for any future cruises.

*** EDITED 6/24/15 BY COMMUNITY MANAGER TO REMOVE WEBSITE LINK ***