We needed some well earned R&R with some pampering. We booked a late Rhine cruise with Viking, a company we had used successfully previously. The shipboard experience and crew were excellent but desperately poor administration, customer care and complaint handling turned it into a sleep depriving disaster.

We missed the whole of the first day in Amsterdam. We were appalled that the flight provided by Viking would never have got us to the ship prior to sailing. We were sent documentation ( provided after several calls, some not returned) which included the whole cruise. We embarked in Utrecht at the dead of night after enduring a strange journey which led our American friends ( others were affected too) to ask whether we had been taken hostage.

Other more minor points. Failure to provide documents without being chased up. Failure to return calls. Failure to get double/twin room arrangements right on board and in the hotel. Failure to put us on a transfer list to our final hotel leaving us believing we had no room for 36 hours. Read more