Weather.

Our cruise happened to coincide with a severe heat wave in France. High temperatures each day were 90-100+ degrees for the entire cruise. This would have been tolerable if the ship’s air conditioning hadn't started breaking down on Saturday and had pretty much failed completely by Monday in much of the ship. Cabins were only slightly cooler. We were eating in 95+ degree temps in the dining room at dinner Sunday-Tuesday. People brought pillows and bedding up on the sun deck at night to escape the heat in their cabins. The crew did not acknowledge the problem until Monday at the evening briefing. They did declare an open bar, but that was all and then they ran out of ice. The problem was not fixed until 2am Wednesday morning just before we got off. Viking is giving everyone a 25% refund on the cruise in the form of a voucher to be used within 1 year for another cruise. Reasonable if not generous compensation.

It is interesting to note that other reviews mentioned that another Viking ship on this route, the Hermod, also had A/C trouble on this route during this time. There may be a fleet wide design problem that needs to be addressed. Read more