Viking Sigrun Room 339 Review - August 14-21, 2019
We are following up on our Viking Cruise experience on the ship Sigrun, covering the period of August 14 - 21, 2019. This trip started in Amsterdam and ended in Basel. We had numerous extreme vibration and engine noise issues during this cruise, and will try to document these issues as they occurred on this trip.
•Wednesday evening (14th)/Thursday morning (15th): Started evening cruise from Amsterdam to Kinderdijk. Around 01:00 awoke to excessive noise and vibration in the room. This occurred until approximately 05:00 during which time we had no sleep.
Addressed issue with Hotel Manager, the next morning and informed him of the events from that morning. When informed of issue, he stated they have not had any reports of previous issues on this cruise ship. He also stated they have no other rooms available to move us. I then stated we could not continue to have this issue every night; and we would like to depart the cruise as early as possible. He stated he would also talk to the Captain regarding our complaint. We were very frustrated in our conversation with him and could not believe no one had reported this problem previously. We invited him to come to our room while the problem was happening, which they never addressed.
We had a follow-up meeting with the Captain that evening. His position was that the analysis they performed, based upon our complaint, and did not detect any mechanical issues with the ship that would account for this issue. He also stated they have not seen this problem before. We also requested him to come to our room if the problem reoccurs. We hoped this was a one-time occurrence.
• Friday morning (16th) - Awoke around 01:00 again due to the excessive engine noise and vibrations in the room. Went to front desk and filed a complaint about the issues and to escalate it to the Hotel Manager, which he would not do. He did agree to come with me to listen to the noise in the corridor outside our room. He attempted to close the door that goes to the ship stairwell outside our stateroom and was not successful. He then placed a call into the Chief Engineer, who arrived to look at the door issue. They proceeded to close the door, which provided no change to the noise level in our room. The Chief Engineer stated the wind and current causes this issue due to the increase in the engine rpm. In a discussion he had with the Captain at that time, the Captain indicated they would decrease the rpm level by 500 - 550 rpm's in approximately 45 minutes. If they did decrease the rpm level as they stated, it had no effect on the noise level in the stateroom. We had very little sleep for the remaining portion of that morning.
We again addressed the noise issue with the Hotel Manager in a more verbal tone. He had not yet heard status of his previous email to corporate in California, based upon our desire to depart the cruise. His escalation to his management was useless. Based upon a back-and-forth discussion, which he had no solution to the problem, he again was to follow-up on his previous email and get back with us regarding our departure from this nightmare.
At approximately 22:00 that evening, we stopped by guest services again. Hotel Manager gave us a copy of his response from corporate. Their solution was various flight options leaving from Cologne ranging in price from $7632, $1030, or $931 per person. The biggest insult to these prices was that we would be responsible for these costs. So here we were left with paying for a Viking Cruise Line issue with no knowledge if our optional insurance would even cover these expenses. We told him we would have to review this information. He gave us a hard copy of his communication with customer service, which by the way also included a comment about suite 340 behind us on the ship; and issues they must have reported on Thursday morning also. We had multiple discussions with suite 340 that paralleled our issues.
•Saturday afternoon Scenic Cruising (17th) Attempted to keep awake while watching the scenery of the Rhine, which proved useless since we could not keep awake. Went to stateroom and could not sleep due to vibration/noise issues since we were again under power. Had not planned on using my Cell Phone on the cruise, however had to in order to determine insurance coverage if we terminated the cruise. After multiple attempts, we did connect with the Travel protection plan again located in the US involving time delays. Makalia, the service representative, stated we would not be eligible for reimbursement if we departed the ship. We also left a message with Viking Travel out of Westmont, Illinois regarding our treatment so far. As we retired to our room for the evening around 22:00, the noise was still excessive in our room.
•Saturday Evening/Sunday morning (17th -18th) Excessive noise again a continuing issue from arrival into room earlier; and I finally had enough and again went down to Guest Services at approximately 00:00. Same individual was on duty from my previous trip to Guest Services on Friday morning.) He made a comment that he expected to hear from me that morning. He makes walks around the ship as part of his night duty and could hear the noise from our area of the ship. He stated he would record my complaint and escalate to the Captain. Went down to the desk again around 01:00 to again lodge a complaint. He stated both captains were on the bridge and aware of the problem and that they would be expected to reduce speed in another 45 minutes. Went back to front desk at 01:45 after the noise decreased due to approaching a lock. Watched us go through lock and noise started up after exit, but I eventually fell back asleep between 02:30 and 03:00.
Had another go around with Hotel Manger the following morning about the previous night; and I think he was pissed that I reported three occurrences earlier that morning. He had no other solutions other than to state it was now a Technical issue and the Captain now owned the problem. I also stated at that time I had recorded the noise in our stateroom.
Another meeting held with both captains that evening and again challenged the captains why we are continuing to have these Extreme noise issues. They again stated that no one has complained in the past about this issue. I asked if they had other similar ships reporting these issues and stated they didn't have data regarding other ships. I asked to change rooms with them so they could experience our frustration, but that their rooms had issues with their location below the water line. The younger captain stated wind and current do affect navigation so speed does become an issue. They dismissed my issue with Viking be responsible for my desire to leave the ship early.
This whole issue was a hot potato between the between the Captain and Hotel Manager with us being held HOSTAGE/PRISONER, or pay the cost to depart early.
•Tuesday Morning (20th) Problem with noise again reported with Guest Services. Same fella on duty. He called the bridge. Captain on duty stated they would be reducing speed in 45 minutes, and the remainder of the morning should be smooth sailing. Did not sleep well remainder of night and told fella that smooth sailing did not occur as promised from Captain on duty.
•When we returned to our room after our excursion, there was a note from the Guest Services, along with Champagne and a box of chocolates (which reminds me of Forest Gump, not knowing what you are going to get), which we took as a joke, and returned to the front desk.
The two owners of the problem (Captain and Hotel Manager) ignored us the remainder of the trip. What was to be a fun and relaxing vacation, it became a trip nightmare. Viking Cruise Line has very little escalation processes to resolve issues like we had, since you do not have available rooms should complaints of this nature arise. This room 339 along with 340 should not be booked on future cruises that go toward Basel. The stairwell behind our room was a magnet for whatever generated the motor noise and vibration. Vibration generated in room affected bed, safe door, bath room door frame, ceiling along with noise and vibration throughout the corridor of rooms going toward the front of the ship. There is no mention of this issue on their web site regarding these two rooms or any reduction on room rate.
Multiple comments made about time to arrive to next stop being locks or excursion debarkation point determine necessary speed to accomplish that arrival time. Thought should be given to leaving earlier so excess speed is not needed to accomplish arrival time.
I am quite sure trips from Basel will not have same issues due to river current going opposite direction.
As I think more about this noise issue and the statement from the Viking Cruise Line management on board, about never having this problem reported before, you would have thought they would have wanted to come to our room while the noise/vibration issue was occurring, in order to get additional information on the problem. This again leaves me to believe this was not the first occurrence of this problem.
Do not believe since problems were not reported on the other nights, that the noise/vibration issue was gone, you have the wrong assumption. Any time the ship was under power there was noise from the generators/engines, but these unreported events did not have the vibration component.
Would suggest a Viking Engineer occupy this room to get to root cause of problem when ship is going toward Basel, since on board personnel have no clue on how to resolve issue. Until this happens, you will have other totally dissatisfied customers.
I do not believe the onboard ship personnel stating this problem has not been reported before. Having two rooms for sure reporting this problem in the same area of the ship will escalate this problem. Hopefully, truthfulness will come out after a review process.
Can someone please tell me why this room was the second last room available on this cruise? Sounds very suspicious, based upon the issues we had with this stateroom.
Also, when asking for a copy of the issues reported with my stateroom, before my departure, she stated it could not be provided. (front desk)
After email exchanges between travel agency and VRC, they offer you a voucher on a future cruise with a 50% off tag, along with a non-disclosure clause. I told them I want a momentary compensation and they offered $500 along with the voucher. Told travel agency I did not want any future trips and additional expenditures with VRC.
Reviewing the number of complaints on their web site in general, they are not customer-focused and all they try to do is offer discounts on future cruises rather than addressing, fixing, and correcting the issues, which may mean the ship needs to be taken out of service. Knowing the almighty dollar, VRC would rather have dissatisfied customers and ignore the issues and continue to offer vouchers trying to drain more money from disgruntled customers, instead of paying them a respectable sum for their known problems that drastically affect the image VRC tries to portray.
Ship escalations going through California are a major delay due to time zone restrictions.
We had a 30 minute call with VRC customer service in California on Wednesday afternoon (8/28/19). They relay the same response we received from the travel agency regarding the last offer and the non-disclosure need. Again, emphasized we would not accept their offer and I was ready to start posting my review of the cruise. He asked me to hold-off on that while senior management reviewed all the data associated with this case. I would have thought this to already have been escalated to that level and senior management was already involved in the offer VRC delivered. I gave them 24 hours to come back to us with their final offer, before I proceed with my escalation of this seven day disaster.
Time is now 17:00 CST on 8/29/2019 with no response from Customer Service.
