ATLANTA — A Fulton County couple spent more than $20,000 for a luxury cruise but say they did not get what they paid for.
John and Rosemary Kaasa booked their 15-day Viking River Cruise through Europe after he recovered from a major health scare. It was supposed to be a voyage of a lifetime.
The couple paid more than $11,000 each -- $22,000 for the trip
“I said, you know what, let’s do one more trip. Let’s go across the pond one more time,” John Kaasa said.
But in the middle of a European heat wave, the air conditioner was broken on boat No. 1.
“And they said, don’t open your door, your sliding door, because you’ll get gnats in,” Rosemary Kaasa said.
After five days with no air conditioning, they were moved to a second ship because of low water levels on the river.
“It was 87 degrees in our cabin when we got there,” John Kaasa told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray.
That air conditioning did not work either, and the cabin ceiling leaked. That’s when passengers complained to the captain.
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“I had to hold Rosemary down,” John Kaasa said.
“He did,” Rosemary Kaasa said. “At one point, he’s like, ‘Sit down.’ I had more to say. I was not happy.”
Then the Kaasas, like many of their fellow passengers, ended up spending much of the rest of the journey sick in bed.
“There was no escaping it. It was miserable,” John Kaasa said. “I’d walk up and down the hall, and all you could hear was people coughing one room after another.”
“When we got back, we were both diagnosed with bronchitis,” Rosemary Kaasa said.
“So, the cruise industry is very good at taking money in and very reluctant to ever pay money back out,” Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard said.
Rosemary has been hearing advice like that from Howard for years as a longtime volunteer at the Consumer Action Center.
“From Clark, I’ve learned that you go to the CEO. So, I sent him a letter,” Rosemary Kaasa said.
At first, the Kaasas were only offered $1,000 toward a future cruise.
“You complain everywhere you can, hope that at some point they decide it’s better just to get this person to go away,” Howard said.
This is when Rosemary knew she needed Channel 2 Action News to call, too.
“Are you disappointed or angry?” Gray asked the couple.
“I’m terribly… No, I’m beyond being angry. I’m just very, very disappointed,” John Kaasa said.
After we reached out to Viking, they went back to the Kaasas and were able to resolve the issue amicably.
The couple signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of the settlement, so they can’t talk about the specifics, but told us they believe that without our involvement, they would have been ignored.