My husband and I purchased a cruise to Cuba leaving mid November. This past week we wer advised that the entire itinerary of the cruise had been changed. We were not interested in the new itinerary so we cancelled the trip. Vikings rule are that you pay a cancellation fee of $11 if you cancel 121 days prior to departure. The notification we received was about 110 days prior to departure. Because we did not meet the 121 day requirement we were charged over $2000 dollars or fifteen percent of the trip cost. This seems unfair as we were not given 121 day notice. Do we have any recourse to get the rest of our money back?

Dear mbnord,

Although the change in your itinerary was necessitated by forces outside of our control, your decision to forgo the revised cruise is understandable. You will, however, be missed on board.

We’d be happy to review your booking once more to determine if any amicable resolution can be reached and encourage you to contact us at [email protected].

mbnord, we appreciate the opportunity to respond and hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Viking Cruises

Certainly seems you ought to get a full refund. Viking offered you a product, then substituted a different product.

For that amount there is always small claims court if you can't resolve it.

It does look like Viking may be open to a compromise so definitely contact them. Maybe you can meet somewhere in the middle -- since every cruise description I've ever seen says something to the effect 'The cruise line may change or cancel any part of an itinerary . . .'

So in a way they were right, but you have a valid point too. so I;d try to work with Viking . . .

It would be interesting to see what they do so if you decide to contact them would you post what happened please? We could benefit from knowing how this was handled.

Thank you!

I am happy to report that after my issue was published here on Fodor's cruise forum I was contacted by Viking's customer relations and was advised that my husband and i will be receiving a full refund. Thank you to all who shared your advice on this matter.Thank you also to Viking cruise line for doing the right thing.

That is great to hear. Thank you.

I applaud Viking for this gesture.

Great news!

Congratulations to you and to Viking.

Also on the subject of canceling. If by no fault of yourself the booker, of the cruise and there is something that you did not do, like act of war with korea, and so on... will Viking give us our money back>? how does that work?