I recently returned from an 11-day cruise departing on September 10, 2025, and I must share my serious concerns regarding my experience. I feel misled by your cruise consultant regarding crucial details that significantly impacted my trip. Despite my specific inquiries about the age of the ship, the quality of the food, and the Internet access options, the reality on board fell far short of what was promised. The connectivity on the ship was abysmally slow, frequently timing out and rendering it completely useless.  Moreover, I experienced a particularly disruptive incident when a flood in our stateroom was caused by faulty plumbing. Instead of addressing the issue promptly, the staff placed a loud commercial blower in our room and suggested we sleep elsewhere. This is not how paying guests should be treated. The extended time it took to pack, move, and settle into a new room forced us to cancel our planned excursion the next day. Additionally, the flood damaged our luggage, staining several expensive pieces, and the proposed solution—to send the luggage to the laundry—was wholly inadequate. To further compound my frustration, I received a letter from Holland America falsely claiming that the room switch was handled immediately, which is not true. For a trip costing over $9,000, the offered compensation of $150 per person is not just insulting; it is utterly inadequate given the extent of the disruptions and lost experiences I endured. The disappointments didn’t end there. The ship and its amenities felt outdated, and the "world-class dining" was nothing more than a marketing gimmick; the food was mediocre at best. Our booked excursion in Venice was a disaster, as the guide provided a non-working phone number, leaving us stranded and forcing us to return to the ship prematurely. Customer service throughout the cruise was disorganized and unresponsive. Any concerns raised were met with vague apologies or partial service fee refunds




We like to be catered to while on vacation and we were.  Everyone was very helpful and very happy to help with whatever we needed.

Our expedition was in 2012 and we were on a Russian research vessel called the Valivov.  I know this is several years later, but an advertisement came across my hotmail and I thought I should write.  We left Ushuaia and crossed the Drake and went past the Antarctic Circle.  Saw Lemaire Channel, Wendell Sea, etc - too many places to name.  One night we even camped overnight on Rongier Island.  My husband and I now do travel presentations as we have travelled the world.  Antarctica and Bora Bora are two places in the world that the English language does not really have words to describe them.  They are past fantastic.  Thank you for the wonderful trip we had with your company on our Antarctic adventure.  John and Rochelle Plesko,  Canada please excuse the date of experience below as I was unable to type the exact date in.  The trip was 31 Jan - 14 Feb 2012

First time cruiser and was in awe from the outset. I traveled on the Queen Victoria ship which was just spectacular. Great service and friendly staff. Loads of activities and entertainment to keep me busy. Also the opportunity to relax and enjoy the sea days. Definitely will travel again with Cunard.

I believe the reputation of your world is overstated. We found a ship to be very dated, mirrors everywhere, worn furniture in the lounges and state rooms. Their website talks about upscale dress, this is totally contrary to what we found on our cruise where many people were dressed in jeans. The average age on our cruise had to be 70 or greater. The upper deck is very utilitarian and the lounge chairs extremely uncomfortable. The daily management of tour excursions is a bit haphazard, whereas Viking is very structured and you know ahead of time which group you will be in. It is true that alcohol is included, but unless you feel the need to be constantly drinking, I don’t believe it’s worth the added expense of the cruise. I will give the shore guides excellent marks as they know their history and provide a lot of interesting details. I found the food to be over rated and nothing special. The physical location of dining services with the buffet located close to the entrance made for traffics jams during breakfast and lunch. It would not be my expectation to sail with Uniworld again as the price does not live up to the overstated expectations. Viking is a far better choice. 

Shocking 'customer service'.  Booked a Hurtigruten cruise only, through a third party agent.  Hurtigruten charged £300 to change just the name of one of the passengers.  Covid prevented the sailing twice, then Hurtigruten cancelled on me because they sent the ship I was due to sail on for a refit.  Then they wouldn't allow me to reschedule for a second time, seemingly having forgotten that they were the cause of the first post Covid reschedule.  I subsequently lost a very hefty deposit.  I won't EVER contemplate booking with them again, I am deeply disappointed with them and profoundly shocked that they can treat customers the way they do.  

Such an expensive dinning for nothing. The worst food, no drinks included, not even water. Very disappointed!!!! Don't fall for this not even as a tourist 

Viking Helgrim cruise on the beautiful Douro. I’ll start at the end, we left the overcrowded ship, where we were packed in like Portuguese sardines in the dining room,(one lunch and dinner sitting only) and standing room only in the only lounge during briefings, listening to people coughing and speaking about partners staying in their rooms as they were ill, and after taking a test on getting home, (eventually) we discovered we had Covid, (we wore masks all the way home even though we didn’t know it was Covid), we were very ill and still suffering now! This was a treat for my 70th birthday, we paid for a top stateroom AA, with a lounge, separate bedroom, and full veranda plus the Silver Drinks Package, came out at over £20,000! Never been on a cruise before, thought this would be a calm and casual way to try it, Viking spoke of having a library, HA!behind the grand piano in the lounge was a bookshelf, so only one indoor gathering point. We were flown by TAP airlines, Air Portugal, and before we left the UK I did query why we had two flights home from Porto where the ship would disembark us, Porto to Lisbon and Lisbon to Manchester. I was told in an email that Porto was a small provincial airport and that there weren’t international flights from there, a downright lie, when we were at the airport, not only is it far from small or provincial in fact it’s one of the best we’ve been in, and we’ve been in a few as our work required us to fly overseas, there were dozens of international flights leaving from there. So we arrived in Lisbon on Sunday and our first two days were at the Corinthia Hotel a beautiful hotel, but we were booked as bed and breakfast, I queried this and was told that Viking had been told by passengers that they like to dine out in Lisbon so hence the B & B! But it’s an all inclusive booking, what if you didn’t want to dine away from the hotel, which we didn’t? Surely an allowance could be put onto your room, use it or don’t? Always things done to the convenience and cost saving to Viking. So on Tuesday we were put on a coach at 8am, (up at 6:30 so we could breakfast and put our luggage out for it’s to be put on the coach), for what was a 3hr 20 drive to Porto, or should have been a 3hr 20 drive to Porto, but no, there was and I can only put it like this, an enforced visit to Coimbra, just over 2hrs away from Lisbon and about 1hr and 20mins from Porto. Coimbra, a lovely place, but up at 6:30, we wanted to get on board and relax, we’d other excursions booked. Now, as we paid for the AA Stateroom we were told that we could board the ship at 12, but no, even though Viking could have put those of us that wanted to and had paid to go straight to the ship onto a smaller coach, we were made to stay with the excursion. I know this sounds like we think we are privileged, but we really did push the boat out on this one, (no pun intended) and did expect to get all we highly paid for. We got to the Helgrim at 4:30pm. Our stateroom looked great, the veranda small but had two chairs and a small table and was on deck 3 the ultimate deck for cabins, the aircon in the bedroom was unusable as it was so noisy, we reported but nothing happened. First briefing in the very cramped lounge, with all passengers there people were standing. This was where there were talks, demonstrations and briefings, evening entertainment with the resident musician, dancing etc, oh and also the “library!” Also known as a bookshelf at the back of the grand piano,so no quiet areas on board! dinner at 7:30pm only one sitting so all together in the dining room, quite snug. Crew in there were lovely, we were always served by Andy, a great guy, made us feel very welcome, the food was very good, the chef calls around the dining room and asks your opinion, again a lovely guy. We didn’t join the entertainment lecture in the lounge, we were knackered after our early start, and as there was no other place to go other than on deck which was a little chilly we went to our stateroom. The in house on demand movies was a bit of a joke, think there was about 7 or 8 films, one of which was the Sound of Music? Live TV was CNN and another American news channel, (predominantly American passengers), the entire series of Downton Abbey, Americans apparently can’t get enough of that, we heard this from Americans, and there was a documentary. How many films can you get on an airplane? We went to bed. At just before 6:30 we were awakened by the most god awful noise, bloody amazingly loud, additional to that was the vibration. This the day after too, and on other days. Our veranda was unusable on some days due to being berthed inches from other ships, even though this was one of the things that made the stateroom so expensive. We avoided the lounge, it was a plague pit. There other things wrong I could go on given space. We notified the Prog Director and C S re Covid, no reply, crew  has Covid!

Our trip to the Galápagos Islands with Quasar was absolutely spectacular ! The ship was very comfortable and the meals and drinks were excellent. The friendly and professional crew really put the experience over the top. Multiple snorkeling and land adventures everyday got us up close to the wildlife and there was never a dull moment.  I highly recommend this trip  !

One of the best experiences I have ever had. If you want to see these animals, this is your best bet. Keep in mind it is always dependent on the weather so you do need to be patient, but if the sharks are out, you are literally swimming 2 feet away from them. Worth every penny. 
Thanks whole team of EcoColors and specially to our guide Alex, Oscar and the captain!

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