When my wife's mother died 5 days before our river cruise, Viking told me the “Risk Free Guarantee” they gave me at booking no longer applied after they canceled our June trip—now we would simply lose all we paid. Rather than lose everything, I decided to go without my wife.

Then Viking called the night before I left to say I owed $6,971 more for a single supplement—despite having already paid $13,145 for two people. Only after long phone conversations with multiple uninterested people was I “allowed to travel” without paying more.

When I got food poisoning from a meal onboard I had to skip two excursions. Their only concern was that I understood the excursions were “non-refundable.” Read more