While I have four trips booked with Viking, I have never been on one of their tours yet. This has been of some concern, but Maxine, my travel agent, has assured me that they are a quality organization that she has used for a number of years. This week however, has caused me a great deal of concern.
Back on February 20, I received an email from Viking discussing the need for a Chinese Visa AND a Tibet Entry Permit. At that time, I did not remember hearing about a Tibet Entry Permit. The email stated:
For the Roof of the World itinerary you will need a China visa and a Tibet Entry Permit.
Tibet Entry Permits will be provided to you in destination and are arranged by our China staff. In order for them to obtain your permit we must receive color photocopies of your PASSPORT INFORMATION PAGE and CHINA VISA PAGE no later than 60 days prior to departure.
If you obtain a visa through our partners Generations Visa they will submit your copies on your behalf as long as they are aware you are booked with Viking and if the proper visa application was processed. If for any reason they are unable to provide them on your behalf you will be responsible to provide them and will be contacted by Viking accordingly.
The details provided must show all information on each page clearly and must be recognizable. For best results, we recommend scanning or using a digital camera to take a picture of these pages and email them to us at operations@vikingcruises.com.
I read and reread this several times. The initialized and underlined paragraph shown above led me to believe I had nothing to do and nothing to worry about. I discussed this with Maxine and she came to the same conclusion.
On March 14, Viking sent out the exact same email. I did not get it but Maxine forwarded the one she received to me. I sent a note to Maxine and said that I had not received any contact from Viking telling me I needed to send them anything, so I again assumed everything was OK.
Maxine called to say that she thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and send Viking copies of the passport and visa...just to be sure. I resisted, telling her that if they wanted me to do that, why didn't they say so. We went around and around and finally, Maxine said she would call them to get clarification. She did and was told the only way to communicate with Viking Operations was via email, so she sent an email. She also had called GenVisa and was told that they had sent both Laura's and my passport and visa photos to Viking. Mine was sent to them on February 12.
Maxine received and forwarded the email response from Viking Ops which said that the photo of Laura was not acceptable because there was a black line through the photo and Laura needed to send new photos. As a footnote, the email said I also needed to submit photos of my passport and visa. I asked Maxine what happened to the GenVisa photos of me that they sent on February 12 and why had they not let us know that we needed to submit photos as their notices said they would. Maxine sent them another email with those questions and also asking what would have happened if we had not inquired?
I was very upset due to the apparent loss of confidence that I could trust Viking. Maxine suggested I could call them and "discuss" it with them. I agreed and told her I would do so. This morning, after calming down overnight, I decided to go ahead and send photos of my passport and visa to Viking Ops. I requested an acknowledgement of receipt and confirmation that they were acceptable for use. I also decided to wait until Maxine had received a response to her email.
I also noticed that the notice Viking sent out both on February 20 and March 14 stated that Viking needed the photos no less than 60 days prior to the trip. The trip begins on May 27, so they would want the photos no later than March 27...12 days from now!! While this did not concern me, I knew that David and Diane had just mailed their visa application to GenVisa last week. My visa took 31 days to be received. I sent an email to Maxine and she suggested David needed to call GenVisa immediately and probably needed to expedite the visa process...at a cost. I sent the recommendation to David and also called him. I explained my concern. He subsequently called both Viking to confirm the deadline (they did and said there was little "wiggle room" and then called GenVisa and authorized expediting the visa application. It still will be very close.
