Viking Cruises
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Worst vacation ever!
Worst vacation ever! Viking Jupiter Cruise 6/16/2024 to 6/25/2024 We lost touring in Venice due to arriving 18 hours because of an airline delay. Viking made no attempt to find a way for us to tour Venice. We both got sick from some kind of flu bug (not covid) on the 2nd day on the way to Split. My wife was too sick to tour the city. Same for the 3rd day in Dubrovnik and the 4th day in Kotor. 5th day: We managed to tour Corfu because it was mostly travel by motor coach. 6th day: Katakolon to Olympia via motor coach. Temperatures were approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Too much walking, not enough breaks, we couldn't keep up and the group and they were at least a half mile ahead of us. My wife started experiencing chest pain. The tour guide showed no interest in our problem. Somehow, we made it back to the ship and went immediately to the medical doctor in their clinic. They performed a few tests which were inconclusive and gave her some nitroglycerin. She immediately felt much better. They recommended that we go to the hospital on shore. At this point the ship should have left port over an hour earlier. Viking quickly helped me pack our luggage and rushed us off the ship. There was an ambulance waiting for us at the pier and a man said that he was from Viking and would help us at the hospital. We never saw him again. The ship left as soon as we got off. The hospital that we were taken to was a free community hospital on the east coast of Greece. It was dirty and old. We were there for only an hour when another ambulance came to take us to Metropolitan Hospital in Athens. It was a 5 hour drive. Metropolitan Hospital is a private hospital. They did some more tests and said that my wife needed 3 stents which were performed the next morning. They would not let me see her the next day. Then they hit me with the bill. 43,000 euros. They would not accept the insurance that we bought through Viking. When I said that I didn't have 43,000 euros, they asked what I could pay. I said 21,000 euros. They said "OK." It seemed like a possible scam or were they being nice. We will never know. We left the hospital after 2 days against their medical opinion because our flight home was the next day. We finally found a Viking representative at the hotel where the group was staying before leaving Athens. Got to the airport and made it back home. My wife saw her doctors here in Chicago and she is feeling much better. Both her arms were completely back and blue. I spoke with the Viking representative and told him our terrible story. He offered us $500 each off our next Viking Cruise. I said that you must be kidding. He raised the offer to $1000 each. We spent $16,000 with airfare and insurance. Even if he offered us an all paid cruise we would have declined. Lastly, the cruise clinic charged us $1,212 for their services. We got back almost all of the expenses through Medicare part B and the Viking insurance through Ship Mate but it took 6 months. My advice is to skip Viking Cruise’s insurance and get a better travel insurance that is accepted at all of your ports of call. Gary Frisch 1/12/2025