Every year in hurricane season, we end up with some disrupted clients. Most of them handle the changes to their trip well.
I am always sympathetic to the disappointment that an adjusted or cancelled itinerary may cause. I am NOT sympathetic to people who somehow think that the cruise lines have control over the weather.
There is a reason why August and September are cheaper than the rest of the year for Caribbean cruises – and it has everything to do with the fact that there is a fair to reasonable chance that your itinerary will be adjusted as a result of the weather.
And it’s not just the Caribbean. On a reasonably frequent basis Mother Nature likes to assert the fact that she is in charge.
I was recently on a Viking River Cruise on the Danube. If you’ve been following the weather in Europe, you will know that they’ve had a once-in-a-century summer. It didn’t rain for months, and they experienced crop failures all through central Europe, as well as record low water levels for both the Danube and Rhine Rivers.
Clients considering a river cruise quite regularly ask about the risk of high or low water levels. The reality is they don’t occur predictably enough for us (or anyone else) to be able to offer any consistent advice about it. I would suggest the better question would be “what contingency plans does the cruise line have in place in the event of high or low water?”.
So, while it was a little disappointing that my Danube river cruise was affected by low water, it was a great experience for me to see first hand the contingency plans that Viking River Cruises had in place for these circumstances.
The verdict?
I was incredibly impressed with how it was all handled, and I would suggest that 90% of those on the ship were of a similar mind. The last 10% of the guests were those who believed that someone at Viking Headquarters should have been able to put a staff in one hand, lift both arms to sky, and command the heavens to rain.
Specifically – we did not miss any ports of call, although we did have to take a motor coach to two of them. We slept on the ship every night, and ate all but one meal on the ship. The one lunch we missed, where it was too far to get back to the ship, Viking arranged for us to be fed in town. We were not charged extra for any of these (considerable) costs.
In fact, Viking offered all passengers on this ship a future cruise credit worth 25% of the value of this cruise.
If you check your contract of passage on any cruise line, you will know the company is not required to do anything for you in the event that weather disrupts your vacation. So it makes it that much more extraordinary that Viking contributed so much money and effort to compensating for the weather.
The first two days of my Danube River cruise were a bit more onerous than they would have been if the ship was able to get where it was scheduled to go. By the third day, the cruise resumed its normal itinerary. By the time we disembarked, most of the guests had forgotten all about the extra coach rides, and were instead basking in the glory of a great vacation experience.
Of course, there were a few that were still looking for the bearded guy, wearing (Viking logoed) robes and carrying a staff, and continued to air their grievances about the volume of the Danube River.
By the way, if you’re at all interested in following our recent cruise along the Danube, we posted daily video blogs, and you can view them here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA1r3eOMaDVFxRaTWvnN1x-8f9dFUpUIN
Enjoy!
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Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley
