Overall wonderful, but flights were a mess

Item: Viking Kara
Rating: 4.5
Author: VikingCruise

Viking Kara Cruise Review to River Cruises - Europe

VikingCruise

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Vote: 1

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5

7 Night Rhine Getaway Northbound (Basel To Amsterdam)

Sail date: August 04, 2024

Ship: Viking Kara

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 9 days ago

Review summary

Getting to the boat was a disaster and I was so upset, but once we got on the boat, it was wonderful. Viking air has always been a big disappointment for me and I would not have made it if I had not fought to get out of town a day before since there was a hurricane coming to my area. American Airline even contacted me to change in my flight, but then Viking would not do their part, but the cruise itself was amazing. The destinations were awesome and the food on this one was first class, the best we've had on a Viking cruise. I as surprised with the limited selection of cheaper wines, but I did appreciate the reasonable price of the silver package. I do feel like Viking does not nickel and dime their travelers and it is great to have everything included! The staff was exceptional on this one and I would recommend, but I am doing my own airfare on my next cruise to Greece!

Embarkation

1 out of 5

It is always a mess when booking flights through Viking, even if you pay the extra $200. They really screwed me because I asked to be on American Airlines, where I have status. They booked me through British airways on AA fights, so when a hurricane was coming, I worked with AA to get me out earlier, but Viking seemed to just work against me. They would not do what they needed to do on their end in order to get me on an earlier flight. I even got an email from AA saying I could rebook my flight because of a hurricane coming into SC. I finally was rebooked on a Delta flight, hours later while I sat in the airport on the phone, and sat in a middle seat because they screwed up my previous flights and I was not able to connect to my previous flights where I had picked my seats. If I had not done this, I would not have got out the next day because all flights were cancelled. My son was booked on flights where it took 32 hours to get from Florida to Basel, and this is not my first cruise and my flights have always been a problem. Then when we stayed at the same hotel as people from Viking, they would not even take our luggage to the ship. And even though they had a large bus taking people to the boat, they would not give us a ride?? They did not have to pick us up from the airport and you think they would have allowed us to ride the bus or at the least taken our luggage to the boat.