After we canceled a prior cruise due to Covid, we had a large credit with Viking. To our surprise, the credit must be used on only one single cruise - not applied to multiple cruises. Since the Viking Komodo Australia cruise included the Great Barrier Reef, we chose this cruise despite the half way around the world journey.

We booked a PV (premium veranda) cabin that included a daily stocked mini bar. Unfortunately, after the 3rd day of a 15 day cruise, we were informed that Viking ran out of vodka mini bottles for the mini bar. Vodka is the only alcohol we consume. We were instructed to call room service if we wanted a vodka drink. Calling room service took 30 -40 minutes to get a drink. When we complained to the general manager, he had a bad attitude and said "what do you want me to do about it? We informed him we paid for a mini bar not a telephone to room service. He did not care, After our meeting I emailed Viking headquarters reporting this issue and the general manager's bad attitude. Obviously, Viking needed to take some action because with 2 days left on the cruise, a bottle of vodka was presented to our cabin with a note "Compliments of the General Manager". I asked the steward to wait until I responded to the note, writing "you should have done the one week ago". Other passengers had similar stories about the general manager.

After traveling from Miami to the Great Barrier Reef, Viking informed us their snorkeling trip to the reef was sold out. The only one trip had sold out 7 minutes after posting. In search of an alternative, I contacted Cairns port authority that told me cruise ships purposely dock too late for passengers to connect with commercial snorkeling trips and that cruise sponsored trips cost 3 times commercial trips ($350 per vs $135). Read more