Until this cruise, we sang the praises of Viking to everyone but not so much after this trip. We had been on 3 previous Viking river cruises and loved everything about Viking. Along with 5 other couples, we thought this would be a fabulous trip on a fabulous ship but Viking let us down. Yes, the ship is lovely but there seem to be some problems with the design or some issues with the engines. There was a terrible engine shudder that you could frequently feel and it would vibrate in the bed at night as well. In moderate seas, the ship would rock and roll like crazy and it was hard to believe that it had stabilizers. One couple in the cabin next door to us were kept up for 3 nights with extremely loud noises coming from the tender not being properly secured. After 3 nights with no sleep, our friend searched out anyone that could help (in her pi's and bathrobe) and found the cruise director who came to her cabin and after hearing the noise, called the Bridge and had them come listen. In the meantime, they gave her another a cabin for the night. She had complained every night but only after she found the cruise director and he heard the terrible noise, did they ever do anything about it.

We discovered that none of our made in advance plans to accommodate our group of 12 for dining ever made it to the ship. We were told by Viking customer service rep that all of our booking numbers had been sent to the ship and that our request for a table for 12 would not be an issue. Surprise!!! When we visited the Restaurant, we found that they had no knowledge of our group. Fortunately the head waiter, JoHan, took pity on us and arranged for us to have the only table for 12 on some nights and the remainder of the time we had two tables of 6. He really went out of his way to take care of us and we were very grateful but disappointed that the request never made it to the ship.

Rumors started going around the ship that we would need a Turkish visa to leave the country. Now I had checked for our group and was told that Viking handles a blanket exit visa for its passengers and that no individual visa would be needed. I checked with them twice on this and was told each time that we did not need a visa unless we were staying over in Istanbul. When other passengers started to ask, the Viking staff had different answers depending on whom you spoke with--some said oh yes you must have a visa, others said no you don't need one. Finally they got their story straight and said YES..you must have a visa. So 90% of the passengers were trying to get Turkish visas on 4 computers with a slow internet, no help, and no printers working. The Viking Daily put a blurb in the nightly paper that said guests are reminded to get a Turkish visa and gave the website address! Nothing to say they were sorry for the confusion, no apologies, no admitting they made a mistake and that really upset most of the passengers. Had they simply apologized and offered to obtain the visas for those who needed help, it would have been more acceptable. We felt they should refund the $20 per person in shipboard credit to compensate for the mess but no such luck. Read more