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I would imagine that if you caught Covid that could not be controlled with cold meds, you’ll likely wind up off loaded to a local hospital.

Go to REI or a similar specialty store and have them fit you. My current hiking shoes are Keen Terradoras, which are waterproof. My preferred Merrill’s have decided that 10.5 size isn’t necessary in many styles, 10 (too tight) or 11 (too loose) should be good enough. Most people have brands of shoes that they find fit them best. I know there are only about 4-5 brands of shoes in my closet.

Last winter, Chile’s entry paperwork was an absolute nightmare (as I posted earlier). The website sucked, it regularly went down and even with a team of Viking staff helping passengers get ashore, some passengers still had to remain on the ship due to incomplete paperwork. There were a lot of frustrated passengers and Viking staff. Even so, the scenery on that sailing was utterly spectacular.

It looks like Chile’s nightmare paperwork is no longer, BUT things change on a dime. So what happens next year is always going to be a big question mark. I would not not go due to Chile’s entry requirements (even the old ones). Chile’s fjords are spectacular.

Chile’s requirements were a nightmare. I truly felt for the Viking staff in trying to jump through those hoops, because it was a total mess. In the middle of it, Chile’s web site went down too. It was a clusterf#$&, and despite Viking’s customer service, some were not able to get off on the first stop. Just watching that staff deal with the madness made me appreciate them more.

We spend 54 days on the Jupiter last fall/winter just when Omicron started taking hold. We lost a lot of countries and ports due to countries closing borders at the last minute. Viking did whatever they could to make things good for us. As we sailed with them pre Covid, we did not see an appreciable change in the service. There were changes, but we just rolled with the changes as there was nothing Viking could do. It’s not fair to blame Viking for things that are totally out of their control. If you are going to look for problems, you’ll find them. But why don’t you go onto your cruise with an open mind and not look for problems in the first place?