(Cross-posted) My cousin paid a lot of money for a Viking cruise through Panache. She is elderly, and not able to do a lot of things electronically. Her experience with Paul was not a good one. She was never presented with options for paid excursions (that she was aware of) nor did he try and communicate with me about these options until maybe one week before leaving. By then, many excursions were full. She tried to inform him that she couldn't look at things online well. He didn't help her. He didn't reply to me when I tried to communicate with him, either. The biggest problem was that he didn't communicate that departing in Rome meant that we went straight to the airport without seeing anything. Once we figured that out, she had to pay a lot of money to change and stay in Rome. I'd suggest going directly through Viking if you plan to travel with them. They have good customer service and can make things happen. Also, if you are not familiar with online things, do not go through them. They will just send you links with no explanations. It is your job to scour the internet for information. read more