terrible

Viking Sineus Cruise Review to River Cruises - Russia

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 90

Overall rating:

1.8 out of 5
Viking Sineus

10 Night Kiev To The Black Sea (Kiev To Odessa)

Sail date: May 17, 2018

Ship: Viking Sineus

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 417

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

My wife and I recently returned from a riverboat cruise to Ukraine. This was our fourth trip with Viking and possibly our last. We have recommended Viking to all our friends and worst of all we invited our very best friends to join us on this trip and they accepted to join us on board. This was by far the worst trip I have ever experienced; not just on Viking but also on any trip we have ever taken. 1. To start with, since our second cruise we have always been recognized as special travelers and have always received a gift, not this time. 2. The communication with the staff was at best minimal. Most of the staff could barely speak English and had trouble speaking and understanding our requests. At breakfast, lunch and dinner we would just point to what we wanted. Requesting wine was impossible, the staff had to get the head maître d’ to decipher. 3. The tours had only one guide that could speak English and that was Anna. The tours were poorly organized. It was really terrible when 200 people show up and one statue or a church at the same time. The Viking travelers were not pleased with such long lines to get anywhere. 4. We paid $100 for the Kiev Jewish tour. We were shown statues/monuments and a ravine where the Jews were shot. In our opinion, that is not worth $100. 5. There were too many optional tours on this cruise. The previous Viking river cruises did not have “optional” tours that cost more money than the expense of this trip. And this trip to Ukraine was “very expensive for what we got.” 6. We have no complaints about the boat, the rooms were very good. The food was nothing out of the ordinary. There was not as large of a selection of breakfast or dinner items on the menu as we have seen on our other trips. The wait staff was less than adequate, very difficult to communicate with. On all of our other trips with Viking and other companies, the staff knew our names and what we always had to drink and most times they would even guess what we wanted to eat. They were always exceptional but not on this trip. This trip was by far the worst we have ever experienced! On “Captains night” The Captain left after just a few minutes and of course he could not speak English either. Yet another disappointment! Finally, our overall impression was one of very poor preparation for the tours, as well as poor advance information. The billing cycle was not explained clearly, I received the final bill stating we were behind on our payments and were about to be canceled if payment was not received immediately! Upon calling I received no explanation. We are not sure how you can advertise this as an English speaking tour when most of the staff did not speak English? Also I can’t even start to explain our air travel, too many stops, too many layovers plus much confusion with all the booking problems. It would take another page to explain all of the problems we had with our air travel. Extremely terrible planning on your part. This trip was definitely terrible, not up to your usual standards. Generally speaking we are not sure if we will ever book on Viking again if this is representative of your current standards. I must say that traveling with Viking is not inexpensive. I am requesting at least a 50% refund in the form of a check. Please respond.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Ship tip

don't go

Ports of call

Kiev, Ukraine

1 out of 5

Kremenchuk, Russian Federation

1 out of 5

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

1 out of 5

Zaporizhia, Ukraine

1 out of 5

Kherson, Ukraine

1 out of 5

Odessa, Ukraine

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 90

7 Comments

JM1951    6 years ago

Something doesn't ring true here. We've travelled on 12 river and 3 ocean cruises with Viking. There have NEVER been gifts, per se. In certain stateroom categories there have been "gifts", but these are listed in the stateroom category, pre-booking (like wine or champagne). On all Viking ships, why request wine? They walk around with bottles of it (it's free & included) and pour pints of it into your glass until you yell, "Stop". Advance information on excursions?? Having spent more than 150 nights on board Viking ships, there has NEVER been a night when, on returning from dinner, a "Viking Daily" hasn't been waiting on the bed, detailing everything about the next day is set out in great detail. Captain's Night? Only happens on river ships. There's only one table of 10 where the Captain sits. If he doesn't speak English, only 9 people would know or be affected. There are no speeches! You may have had a bad experience, but I feel a touch of negativity exaggerating reality.

frada    6 years ago

I am leaving for this cruise on August 5. I am also a Viking traveler - this will be our fifth Viking river cruise. I am praying that either you are wrong or the trip will improve!

BN70    6 years ago

Here some figures; 1026 million people speak Chinese 765 million people speak English 466 million people speak Spanish 380 million people speak Hindi 353 million people speak Arabic 272 million people speak Russian

BN70    6 years ago

Yes many people outside the USA speak a differend language. Verry strange !!!!!🤣

banaford    6 years ago

I would suggest you take down your personal information. This site is not connected to Viking cruise. They will never see this post.

greenbay2018    6 years ago

May I suggest Royal Caribbean!!!!!

hookem72    6 years ago

So, you go to another country to take a cruise and you are upset because they did not speak english??? Seems legit. I am pretty certain that you can count out the 50% reimbursement. If I were you, I would probably look into the entitlement cruises.