CDNPolar

Any update on Covid count? Just curious on how Hurtigruten is handling this overall. We have sailed Viking during Covid and they have PCR labs on the ocean ships and test all crew and passengers daily. Viking were successful in preventing outbreaks like just happened on the Majestic Princess in Australia.

RR, this remains a mystery, but on some digging and discussions in forums like Trip Advisor, below I have pasted an apparent response from Hurtigruten: Return flights from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires are confirmed a couple days prior; guests will be notified of the return time on board the ship. Due to late notice about the return charter flight times, and the changing of airports, we strongly recommend planning a 10 p.m. or later flight, or an overnight stay in Buenos Aires at the end of your cruise. We are unable to accept responsibility if you miss your booked return flight in the event of a delay of the flight between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.“ From the above and other discussions I have read, it would seem that not all the charter flights necessarily depart and arrive at EZE which is where I assume that you are flying from? You could be landing back in BA at a smaller regional airport and have to arrange transport to EZE. Because we could not get absolute information from our TA on this, we decided to extend our stay in BA for a few days, thus eliminating the fear or concern of making a flight the same day as the return from Ushuaia. I find it interesting that they don't tell you - and perhaps Patrick can confirm this fact - when your flight time is until "a couple days prior". How is one to plan for this? Also in this apparent response from Hurtigruten, they are denying any responsibility for a missed flight out of BA based on your return after the cruise. I suppose the question is, IF you booked your air through Hurtigruten, when would they book your flight home? We could not book flights through Hurtigruten as they have no contract rates for Canadian travellers. We had to book our own air. Interesting to see this play out. This is our first experience with Hurtigruten and there are bits and pieces that we find frustrating - this being one of them.

Part of the problem that I see with all of this is that so many are passing this off as a mild cold and nothing to worry about. More and more evidence is coming out now about people who have had 2 or more mild cases are having long covid issues, and other heart and lung issues. Some are popping up 2-3 months later. I personally know too many people that are not concerned any longer, and I get after 3 years of lockdowns and masking that no one wants more. Heck, I don't want more, but I also don't want lingering or worse health issues later. I am approaching retirement and want to enjoy life and travel and not be held down by illness because others are careless or misinformed.

How did this discussion about 800 Covid cases on the Majestic Princess become a debate on Ontario's health care system and the use, or misuse of the same?

Thank you for this update! Great tip on the waterproof pants... we don't have those yet and I don't remember them being recommended? Can you comment please on the temperatures when you are landing?

Interesting that they are announcing the covid counts. I guess with the Majestic Princess in Sydney and 800 covid cases they are being very transparent. Also interesting that all the PCR tests missed these cases. Do you feel "covid safe" on this ship and the way that the crew are handling it? We have never sailed Hurtigruten before. We have sailed Viking Ocean many times and they have daily PCR testing and PCR labs installed on every ocean ship. In the past they used electronic trackers that everyone wore as well so that they could assess proximity to anyone that did test positive.

Transferring the risk and cost to the insurance companies won't last long. Insurance is different in every country, but in Canada in the beginning of the pandemic, no insurance gave any coverage for Covid. Did not matter what the cause or result was. Things have changed a bit now. We have coverage for a December cruise and a March cruise. Both with different insurance companies, but similar. IF we test positive prior to leaving we can cancel and be covered. IF we test positive during, our interruption is covered. The only condition now is that if we catch covid during the cruise and we traveled against a no travel or no non-essential travel issued by the Canadian government then we are not covered. Currently there is no travel advisory... Insurance companies will turn this off quickly if they are getting beaten up by claims, and / or the government will issue a no travel cruise warning and essentially take away our coverage. We ONLY have $700 per person hotel and food cost if we were forced to isolate in a hotel in any city regardless of any of the above.

This has been a major discussion in other forums on CC. It is well established that many with mild symptoms will NOT step up for voluntary testing because they are afraid of being isolated and losing their freedom. This is pure selfishness and disregard for their fellow human being. We sail on December 29th and start our travels on December 26th. We will be PCR tested before leaving home - required or not - and we will be masked except when in our cabin. This is not the time to trust anyone that they will do the right thing.

We are concerned about this "upgrade" - did you have any say over the upgrade? We carefully selected our cabin based on research we did and we have a mid-ship cabin that we would be really upset if they move us to forward or aft. We want mid-ship. Can you guide us more on this upgrade?

Thank you for sharing. Some questions: Were you PCR tested at the hotel? Hurtigruten now suggests on their website that we will be tested in Buenos Aries and if positive we will not be able to board the ship the next morning. Was this your experience? Was the transfer from airport to hotel not included in the cruise fare? Was this not provided by Hurtigruten? How is the Emperador in general? We come in one day early and have two nights there. Very curious how the Drake Strait is for you!

Thank you all for your information and recommendations. Now weeding through all the information to see what we might do.

Yes, these are all over social media and especially TikTok

From the Viking Site: There are no “formal nights” in the evening; evening dress is “elegant casual” for all dining venues, performances and special events. On these occasions, required attire for ladies includes a dress, skirt or slacks with a sweater or blouse; for gentlemen, trousers and a collared shirt. A tie and jacket are optional; jeans are not permitted. The evening dress excludes World Café where the dress remains casual after 6:00 PM. Personally, I would say that a Polo shirt is collared so it would pass. I would say that it should not have company branding/logo on it however. I have worn polo shirts to dinner with dress pants and no one has looked twice.

Don't hate on me - this is just my experience and opinion. There is nothing wrong with jeans if they are worn properly and paired with the right top, sweater, jacket, etc. What is wrong with jeans is that even in the corporate environment, most don't understand where the line crosses on a jeans Friday - in my opinion. Yes, jeans can be expensive, but it is the overall look that you create that is the deciding factor. I have seen jeans that effectively have no fabric left on the thigh because of so many rips that are darn expensive - more than I would ever pay for any pants... My husband has effectively worn jeans to the Chef's Table, Manfredi's, and The Restaurant. His version cost a lot. They are made from denim (which is jeans material) but they are not faded old looking jeans that you wear to the grocery store on a Saturday. They are midnight blue, finished like a suit pant, and paired with a button shirt and a cashmere sweater, he looks well dressed and no one has every questioned it. Unless you touched or closely scrutinized you would not immediately know they are "jeans" but effectively from the material they are made from they would qualify. "Jeans" is a wide, wide, wide open range of looks so you cannot use the one word to say that they are allowed or not. IMO Same in the corporate world, when you have "casual" or "jeans" days, it is widely misinterpreted to what is casual attire. My company specifies "Smart Casual" but has to have a list of what is allowed and not allowed so that people can understand. Like the word jeans, the word casual is widely interpreted. Viking have a dress code which is going to be widely interpreted, and in my opinion, cost of the garment has no bearing. How it gets interpreted and policed is really up to the Viking crew member that receives you at the door, and we have to be satisfied with how they police it. IMO.

On one past cruise we got to know the Explorer Lounge bartender very well being there every night, and we had a few "private" tastings... we did a gin tasting, and a brandy/cognac tasting that were just small samples of brands included in the SSP. I don't think that they would have done the same for the wine as all the wines may not have been open at the bar, but for spirits, you can curate your own tasting. Essentially, if the bottle is open and you want a sample taste against one or two others, why would they not do this for you?

We have a cruise in December - we leave home on December 26th. We are in a hotel the night before the cruise, with all that are on the ship. The next day we all charter fly to the ship port. We understand now that we will all be PCR tested at the hotel, and if we test positive we don't board the aircraft the next day. We are masking when in close quarters, but we will actually isolate ourselves for three weeks before our flights - no no family or friends for Christmas - but we have the flights to contend with, and that is 14 hours of flying and layovers. It is hard to know what to do, because in April I went to South Africa for work and I masked with N95's the entire trip and brought back Covid. AND, I had the first booster 2.5 weeks before leaving for SA.

We have 5 days total prior to our cruise starting in Buenos Aries. I would love to hear from my Viking travellers what they recommend to do in Buenos Aries? We are doing this extension on our own and looking for suggestions. We want to "experience" Buenos Aries culture, food, and top sites. Walking tours... day trips... restaurants... recommended local tour companies.... Thank you!

Depending on your stateroom category you may be limited to the number of bookings you can make in advance. Download the Viking Voyager App. As soon as you board the ship, access the ship wifi and the app and you can book multiple additional reservations for your group. We have done this several times now and it works like a charm. We happen to book the lowest level stateroom and we have managed to use the app on embarkation and get reservations to the specialty restaurants as many nights as we have wanted. As the last responder stated, there are no seating times for The Restaurant, you go when you are ready and you will get a table.

OH. Great !!!! I am excited to see what you are posting. We do the exact same cruise leaving December 28th from BA. Same except we are going one night earlier to the Hotel Emperador on our own and the we have the flights to Ushuaia on December 29th. Most interested in your experience with: The Drake Straight - was it rough was it calm was it in between? Once you arrive, the excursions, what is the lotto system to get some of the excursions like kayaking? The food, the ship in general.... Clothing we should pack. (We are from cold Canada and the summer temps in Antarctica are mild winter temps for us...) So excited because there is so little activity in the Hurtigruten forum. I posted a roll call months ago for our cruise and have only had one person respond. Safe travels!

I think that it may depend on the aircraft whether it is a "separate cabin" but there has at least been a curtain between PE and Coach. In PE we may be served a similar meal, but received a menu with the choices, all food served on china rather than plastic tubs, and we got real cutlery too! We go with PE for the seat and the recline. If we are flying Toronto to most European cities and the flight is 7'ish hours we don't really care, but if longer getting into the 8-9 hours or overnight then we want the PE seat where it is just two of us on the side. A lot of the Lufthansa flights are 747s as they retired them and then brought them back.

We have flown Lufthansa Premium many times and the Premium cabin is separate, and the seats are larger with a much better recline, and there is higher end service and food in that cabin. Not sure where you are getting that information from? We have always been happy with Lufthansa's Premium, in general and found it worth the extra. You get - if I remember - Zone 3 boarding with Premium. You are not the first on, but you still have zones 4 and 5 behind you in boarding order.

I believe that you can cancel at any time, but there would be additional cost if the flights are ticketed. In the mean time, if you have Air Plus on your invoice and you have not received ticketed flights, my understanding is that you can cancel.

You know, as I read through this thread, and I have posted thoughts and opinions here as well, I find myself starting to take the position of "live and let live". I personally have gone through a transformation of sorts over the past decade where I learned to lower my expectations with many things, because sometimes, or even often our "expectations" bring disappointment when they are not met. We don't however have control over our expectations especially if it is other passenger behaviour that is failing our expectations. Now, I don't mean to say that you should not have a level of expectation for what is in Viking's control, and we know for the most part Viking deliver on their promise of service and an outstanding experience. Where Viking have not delivered for us in the past, a quick discussion with Guest Services and the situation has been remedied. We all have different upbringings and we all "expect" different things but these expectations are only as good as our experience and what we were taught as right and wrong or acceptable and not acceptable. I live in an area where I am a minority to many different cultures, and each culture has different ways of doing things and different expectations of personal space, and how to conduct themselves. If I was constantly looking for everyone to conform to my standards, then I would be a pretty unhappy person. Most of the people doing the things we don't like will likely never read this thread, and the fact is that even if they did, it would probably make them laugh and take a high road and continue to do the same things over and over... I am the first person to hold "standards" for behaviour. I personally don't want to see some standards of behaviour fall away, but like most things, if there is no penalty for someone not behaving to a standard then human nature will always test the limits. The fact is, and no offence to the discussion about feet on the table, there is no rule posted anywhere that tells someone that it is wrong to do... Just my rambling opinion and thoughts. I find this thread very interesting and the opinion of each and every person valuable to the discussion.

I agree with above. You must get quotes from multiple to understand their restrictions and coverage. I am healthy and stable now, but about 2 years ago I was looking for travel cancellation insurance and had recently been through a medical procedure. Because I am over 60 most of the web sites automatically send you to a medical questionnaire. When I answered truthfully all the questions, I was then told that they either would not cover me, or I would have to contact the underwriter for a quote. I was NOT looking for medical coverage as I have excellent medical through my work. I was just looking for cancellation / trip interruption insurance. Medipac required me to do a long questionnaire and postal mail it to them. I got a decline from them (in postal mail) about 4 weeks later. They considered my situation too risky - I guess. I talked with underwriters at Manulife and CAA and my best rate and coverage was with CAA. Both of these companies would handle all the questions over the phone and would offer me insurance. Each insurance company has a different definition of the "Stable Period" some are 3 months and some are 6 months. Stability includes new medication, change of medication, and stopping medication. You have to be careful with the definitions. Insurance companies build their policies to not pay out if they don't have to, and so be very careful on the medical side that you understand the questions you are answering and the implication they have. You may have a very simple requirement and not have to worry about all of this.

I have no pictures, but we have all seen the absolute disgusting mess that some airline passengers leave behind. Not dissimilar to the train pictures. Yes, air travel is cramped, but one of the first things we do is locate in our seatback pocket the trash bag (sick bag) and we start to use that for the bits and pieces. We leave the seats we sat in as clean as we found them. I just don't know who they think wants to clean up after them. No decorum at all.