MarkTapley

6 hours ago, KarNog said:

For those of you currently on the Sky, where are we on the Chef's Table rotation? I'm hungry and counting the hours (instead of weeks).

 

 

Here is the CT menu titles, starting tonight, Wednesday, August 18, through Tuesday, August 24:

Wed: Asian Panorama

Thu, Fri: Xiang

Sat, Sun, Mon: La Route Des Indes

Tue: Lotus

2 hours ago, molymoo said:

Are they still allowing passengers off of the ship to "do their own thing"?  

No.  Currently in Iceland we have to take Viking excursions.  We cannot leave the ship to do our own thing.

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

And puffins are viewable on the "Vigur Island" excursion out of Isafjordur

The puffins which nest on Vigur Island are all gone now.  We were there yesterday.  We did see two humpback whales swimming very close to the boat on our way back to Sky, just south of the island.  The skipper stopped and let us watch for about 10 minutes.  Fortunately, we were sitting on the small outside deck, so we got great pics.

Jay23, Yes, turndown service is provided.  We are currently on Sky and we are waiting in the Explorer Lounge as our room is being tidied up.  Attendant also delivers the Viking Daily, the Covid testing tubes, clean laundry, etc.  Really a nice service.

We are on Sky now, sailing around Iceland, and we visited with the future cruise consultant last night.  She told us that there is also going to be a Hawaii to Tahiti cruise on Orion, some time after it leaves Bermuda.  This voyage also doesn’t seem to be on the website yet.

Jerry

2 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

We can wander at will but Ive heard third hand that next cruise coming up will be different.

You heard correctly.  We are on Sky, starting on August 14th and we will not be allowed to leave the Viking “bubble” once we enter it.  Glad to have a week on our own to drive and wander at will.  Having a great time.  BTW, we saw the Viking busses as we passed the Fjallsarlon lagoon, on our way to the Jokulsarlon lagoon for our Zodiac ride.

@CharTrav

Great thread.  Thanks for all of your hard work.

We’re supposed to be on Orion in April (Hong Kong to Vancouver).  Any more recent cancellations of her itineraries?

Just a thought:  could Orion be in line to be transferred to the China venture?  Seems to me there was talk when Sun was transferred that there was to be a second ship sent to China as part of the agreement.  Then Mars would take over her schedule.

Jerry

3 hours ago, DAVE & PAT said:

Not sailing till 8/31 but not clear on what the "bar code" document is . Apparently needed to enter country. Can someone explain what it is.

You’ll get information from Viking that explains everything you need to complete.  But in summary, you receive the bar code from Iceland after you complete an online form at visit.covid.is. You must wait till you’re within 72 hours of arrival to complete this registration.  Just completed our registration.  Very easy to do, so no worries.

2 minutes ago, jayray said:

United Airlines is apparently requiring a PCR test despite the Iceland guidelines.

Not sure that is true.  Here’s what United has on their Travel-Ready Center for our flight from ORD to KEF in 6 days:

“All passengers who present a certificate of full vaccination or previous infection are required to hold either a negative COVID-19 PCR or Antigen test taken prior to departure.”

6 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I googled it and I think it's this (not a U.S. rating): https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2021/07/29/iceland_gets_an_orange_covid_19_classification_for_/

Great, thanks much!

18 hours ago, BQEC said:

Posted on the live thread Iceland now “orange. Possibly going “red” next Thursday according to a click through in the “orange” news article. 

I may have missed something.  Anyone know what this means?

Yes, I saw this reply from @TayanaLorna yesterday right after she posted it on the Viking Live from Iceland thread.  You will see on that thread that I thanked her for the reply immediately below her post (which you copied here).  I had asked on behalf of someone on our Viking Sky sailing. 

For those fully-vaccinated and flying United to Reykjavik, the United Travel-Ready Center page was just revised and now indicates both PCR and antigen tests are acceptable.  See quote,  below:

“All passengers who present a certificate of full vaccination or previous infection are required to hold either a negative COVID-19 PCR or Antigen test taken prior to departure.”

28 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

We loved this excursion. 

Thanks very much!  I copied your review and posted it into our roll call for the person who asked.

7 hours ago, BarbRN said:

PCR tests results all take up to 72 hours after calling 3 places. The lab wants $75 each and no guarantee. 

Barb,

I think I must have missed some of the discussion along the way, but why not just get the rapid antigen test?  It’s clearly allowed by Iceland.  And I assume you’re headed to Iceland based on the topic of this thread.

Is it because the United Airlines “Travel-Ready Center” currently says PCR test is needed?

If you’re worried about the language on the United web site, I feel confident that United’s site will soon catch up to match the Iceland requirements.  We’re flying on UA from ORD to KEF on August 6 and have appointments for the rapid test at CVS the day before.

I’ve been flying United for work for 35 years.  If the website isn’t corrected in a week, I’ll call United.  But I doubt I’ll need to.

If I’ve misunderstood what your concern is, feel free to set me straight.

Jerry

32 minutes ago, Camden lady said:

Don't know what I am going to do about my sister and her inability to do the app and I can't do it for her. 

Are you sure you can’t enter her information into your Verify account?  I added my wife’s information to my account.  Just need a picture of her vaccine card.  In any case, I’m pretty sure Viking is asking us to use  Verify to facilitate boarding process and would accept your card at boarding.  

Has anyone taken the Vok Baths excursion from Seydisfjordur?  One of the folks on our cruise (August 14, Sky) asked on our roll call thread.  I think the main concern is how accessible this excursion is for someone with mobility issues.  Thanks!

May also want to follow this thread on the Viking Orion page:

2 hours ago, arlowood said:

Avoid any of the Deck 8 cabins. If you happen to run into fog you will certainly know it. The ship's fog horn can be heard very clearly in these cabins.

 
Interesting.  Never read any reviews that mentioned this.  In our experience from two months on Orion, Deck 8 is perfect;  very quiet, near Explorer Lounge and nice walk across the deck to rear stairs to World Cafe.  Never heard the fog horn, although entering busy ports in big Asian cities, one hears lots of ship’s horns, all part of the experience!  As we say in America, “your mileage may vary.”

1 hour ago, gskimmel said:

Is anyone familiar with Arctic Shorex? 

Yes, we have booked two excursions with them.  Our TA looked into several independent tour companies and AS seemed to be the best.

33 minutes ago, Toohottogolf said:

Please stop the "Mask" discussion on this "LIVE" forum

Although I don’t have a strong feeling on the topic one way or another, I have to disagree with your statement.  Seems to me that a discussion of this type is within CC’s new Covid discussion policy, first sentence quoted below:

“Effective immediately, COVID-related discussion should be limited to actual policy on board ships (and other forms of travel) and its practical application.”

If, as others have said, the Captain and CD have asked people to wear masks on the excursions, it appears to be policy.  Discussion of whether fellow passengers wear masks on an excursion seems to me to be practical application of policy.

But I have to agree that it is perhaps going a bit to far to speculate here about what type of punishment Viking should mete out for those not wearing masks.

Dyjandi Waterfall. $229/pp

Black Beach ATV and Lava Tunnel. $299/pp

Heart of Glacier. $399/pp

What cruise are you booked on?  Viking is not releasing excursions according to their previous policy, in priority order by room type.  So the excursion booking date on your cruise statement is meaningless.  We are on the August 14th sailing, on Sky, and our excursions were released on Friday June 25th, 50 days before sailing.  All cruisers were able to book starting at 9:00 AM PDT.  It seems like they’re releasing excursions for one or two Iceland tours per week.  Hope that helps.

28 minutes ago, BQEC said:

I am loathe to download Viking’s Safari from their link.

Yeah, seemed like a bad idea to me also.  I just updated IPad OS from Settings on my iPad.  It installed Version 14.6 and updated Safari to the latest version.

42 minutes ago, SkystheLimit said:

I use Safari and it is not working either.  Says I need to download Safari. ?

You need to update the Apple OS on your device.  I just did that on my IPad and Safari is now working again on MVJ.