How are career development opportunities at Viking Cruises?

good pay, lots of opportunities to make sales

terrible work/life balance. call center vibe

Work from home No overnight shifts Great benefits

Not much room for advancement

No many... $100 gas card is nice, health insurance is good

So many cons. If you're thinking about working here, please read the reviews, very consistent. - Low PTO and hardly any holidays off (first time ever I had to work the day after Thanksgiving) - Awful micromanagement with someone constantly looking over your shoulder, not being given any autonomy to actually do your work - Frantic culture with just doing doing doing and not being given the time to actually think things through - No recognition - Low pay for the industry

Brand recognition and options on trips

The older more tenured travel consultants are on completely different comppay plans than newest agents. It’s much easier for them and not fair. Horrible work life balance

Growing company in the industry

Not a fast progression in positions

Can make a lot of money

Take about 8-12 calls a day total, expected to convert 65-70% of inbound calls. All calls count against you, including hang ups, wrong numbers, misdialed extensions, or just silent or dropped calls. They don’t remove calls from counting against you, no exceptions. This is how they can tank your career. You’ll get 4 hang up’s in a day with no explanation and watch your conversion drop. Also, all sales revenue finally calculated 10 days into the following month. Many times you will see a bunch of random cancels the day before the final numbers are released. Asking anyone for help is like talking to a brick wall. You will be gaslighted the entire time you work there. Starting day 1 in training they decide the 3 people of the 12-15 in your class who is going to stay. It’s not a matter of how good you are it’s a matter of who do they personally like. This is a place where you can sell $1-2 million a month and make a commission check of zero, if you’re less than 50% you don’t get commission that month!!! If you’re more than 5% away of the floors peer average you get written up. If you get written up twice your fired. Because you can build a book of business some agents who worked there for a decade don’t even take calls, they just have repeat business. Good for them! This will drive their average to 150%, meanwhile as a new person you will take 10 calls a day, convert 50% if your lucky. At this point your 100% away from your peer. In the end it will take 1-2 years to catch up to any agents. The stat rankings are basically in order of seniority. The people there the longest get fed the best leads and make all the money. Everyone else fights for scraps and gets micro managed

Starting a career as a wine stewardess with Viking can be a good entry point. The standards aren't too high initially, so it's a manageable environment where you can gradually learn the company’s products, bar operations, and develop your knowledge of cocktails.

Training and Expectations: The company doesn’t always provide clear guidance on tasks, especially when you're assigned to work in the dining room. You’ll wear the same uniform as the restaurant staff, and sometimes they may expect you to help with their duties, even if it's outside your role. Workload & Staffing: There are typically only three wine stewards on each ship, with each of us responsible for one restaurant. This can be demanding, particularly during busy periods or inventory nights when overtime is common. Overtime & Pay: Overtime is not compensated, especially during inventory or restocking shifts, which often go beyond regular hours. Promotion Policy: Be aware that if you receive a promotion, your seniority pay may be reset, which can impact your earnings.

Incredible insurance packages- multiple carriers- very affordable. Yearly free cruise (FAM) with plus one and expenses paid. Commissionable months average of 3-5k, once or twice 8k during best months. 5+ years in and it will be a great sales career.

Commissions; metrics These are hidden from new hires all through out training despite being asked for multiple times. Targets/KPIs are unrealistic versus industry norms. Commissions are denied if monthly conversion average is below 50%; expected conversion after 6 months is 75% or higher. The company bases their average off their most tenured reps who have 100% or more conversion every month because they have amassed huge client pools and very rarely get on the phones to ding that conversion. It's like judging a rookie chef on orders per hour against a head chef who only ever cooks a handful of signature dishes from a prepped pantry — then firing the rookie for not matching that steady, sheltered pace. Max commission 0.7%; typical first-year commission 0.1–0.2%. Low commission despite the average monthly revenue that you make the company ≈ $1.5M/month. All non-actionable calls (e.g., “remove me from mailing list,” “asking for X who booked my cruise last week”, "I want to make changes to my booking.", "I'm a travel agent") All of these count against sales reps numbers, driving conversion below thresholds; a couple such calls can cost commission and jeopardize your job every month. Some days reps receive multiple non-actionable calls and zero bookings.Happens atleast 2-3 days a month for me. Fear-based culture: reps avoid inbound calls to protect income by spamming their warm leads. Metrics should be reduced or inbound call rules changed/inbound options changed to allow call flow to become more accurate. PTO often denied without clear SOPs; system can cancel 2 of 5 requested days with no guidelines. Always put in 3-4 weeks in advanced. Was denied 3 days to take spouse to emergency surgery and recovery. Denied 2 days for child's graduation from highschool. SOPs are effectively nonexistent compared with large call centers (e.g., Safelite), causing operational breakdowns, unclear expectations for managers/reps on LOA/PTO/training, and legal/liability exposure.