Viking Venus - What is the status of her build?

[What was that?]

I checked at the official Bergen Port Authority website https://bergenhavn.no/en/cruise-en/call-schedules-cruise/ and found this:

I had checked with Viking a couple of weeks ago and they said that this site is not a Viking site, and that all information on the Viking website is up-to-date and correct. And I will be notified if there is any change...

Edited September 14, 2020 by What was that?
Removed extraneous graphic.

[GoesBoom]

Fincantieri shipyard going on strike October 8th due to increase in COVID and lack of prevention protocols.  Likely a one day strike, but delay and increase in COVID in shipyard doesn’t bode well for Venus.

[What was that?]

11 hours ago, GoesBoom said:

Fincantieri shipyard going on strike October 8th due to increase in COVID and lack of prevention protocols.  Likely a one day strike, but delay and increase in COVID in shipyard doesn’t bode well for Venus.

GB - Does this strike include the Fincantieri Ancona shipyard? I could find no information on it.

[GoesBoom]

It does.  I googled Ancona News and was translating local news feeds.  Found this on only one site.  Fincantieri came up.  I think they had a photo of a previous Viking ship at the top of the article.  Will look for the link.  Sounded like the standard European 1 day stoppage.  More troubling was the reason for the stoppage.

[GoesBoom]

Here is the link.  I used google translate.https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/ancona

[What was that?]

6 hours ago, GoesBoom said:

Here is the link.  I used google translate.https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/ancona

Thanks for that link. Yes, it appears that the problem continues to affect Italian workers, including those at Fincantieri-Ancona.

BTW, the ship photo I saw is of a Regent ship:

[OnTheJourney]

On 10/7/2020 at 11:10 PM, GoesBoom said:

doesn’t bode well for Venus.

 

Even if the ship would be ready...looks like possibly noone from the US allowed to board her anyway at least for the January sailings. 

[Peregrina651]

18 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

 

Even if the ship would be ready...looks like possibly noone from the US allowed to board her anyway at least for the January sailings. 

 

Maybe not an issue of not being permitted to board but not able to get to the ship in the first place -- because we are persona non grata around the world.

[What was that?]

38 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Maybe not an issue of not being permitted to board but not able to get to the ship in the first place -- because we are persona non grata around the world.

I am already making contingency plans for our Jan-Feb cruises - Maui is looking really attractive, even with the rather stringent rules for visitors to the islands.

I think traveling can be safe, but you have to use your head, in addition to masks and sanitizer! We did a flying trip to the East Coast in August, and are in the middle of self-quarantine from our more recent 3,000-mile road trip to Mt. Rushmore and other places. We have remained (apparently) healthy and will get tested on Monday to confirm it. These trips made serious dents in our supply of sanitizer wipes, as we sanitized everything we could come in contact with! Consider traveling options other than cruising, for a while, and here is a tip: before selecting a hotel, call them and find out what their mode of operation is. Do they usually have a breakfast buffet? Then ask what they are doing in response to the pandemic. Two of the nine hotels we stayed at provided acceptable alternatives to buffets, with attended service for several options, including hot items. Others offered pitiful grab-and-go options. We brought our own breakfast cereal, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, milk, fruit - you would have thought we were moving in for the duration when we checked in!

 

[OnTheJourney]

49 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

we are persona non grata around the world.

Yeah well, we deserve to be I suppose. 

[OnTheJourney]

22 minutes ago, What was that? said:

I am already making contingency plans for our Jan-Feb cruises - Maui is looking really attractive, even with the rather stringent rules for visitors to the islands.

I think traveling can be safe, but you have to use your head, in addition to masks and sanitizer! We did a flying trip to the East Coast in August, and are in the middle of self-quarantine from our more recent 3,000-mile road trip to Mt. Rushmore and other places. We have remained (apparently) healthy and will get tested on Monday to confirm it. These trips made serious dents in our supply of sanitizer wipes, as we sanitized everything we could come in contact with! Consider traveling options other than cruising, for a while, and here is a tip: before selecting a hotel, call them and find out what their mode of operation is. Do they usually have a breakfast buffet? Then ask what they are doing in response to the pandemic. Two of the nine hotels we stayed at provided acceptable alternatives to buffets, with attended service for several options, including hot items. Others offered pitiful grab-and-go options. We brought our own breakfast cereal, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, milk, fruit - you would have thought we were moving in for the duration when we checked in!

 

 

You're far braver than we've been. We had a fly/drive trip planned for this month for some of the national parks in AZ, NM, and TX but just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of all the hotels, and especially flying. Rescheduled it for next year and so haven't done any traveling since a bus trip this past December. You're absolutely right - it (traveling) CAN be done - but peace of mind is worth something too. The whole idea of being sort of relaxed and carefree while on a trip just doesn't mesh well, for me anyway, with being paranoid about sanitizing every surface you come in contact with and all else that goes with it. I'd rather just wait until things settle down (assuming they will???) Our March cruise was of course canceled, and then we usually do a shorter driving trip in May - didn't do that either. One of the reasons we're taking very few chances is so that I can safely continue to visit my soon to be 98-year old Mom at her assisted living facility. Haven't been allowed to see her in person since March... until just last week. My aunt still lives alone and is 95 - so visited her a few times already. Cruising is not our favorite mode of travel anyway - car trips are still the top of our list, so I've got several planned. 3-weeks out west next October (the one that was supposed to be this year) - all hotels pretty much already rebooked, then in '22 I'm planning two road trips - one all by car to the New England states, and the other fly/drive for the Canadian Rockies and Glacier NP - probably starting in Calgary. I'm leaving most of next year open for who rescheduled cruises plus those we already had booked. For '23 (nothing like planning ahead) I have two Viking cruises booked - things had certainly be much better by then!!  Have a short road trip planned within the next few weeks but just staying at one location. See how things go. It's just scary with the number of virus cases continuing to rise. Our county is doing very poorly in that department. 

 

So...3k miles, huh? What all did you see?  We've done several of those over the years. 9-10 hotels sounds about right. I book all of them ahead of time. We love that stuff but I've started to enjoy fly/drive alot so as to save several days of driving for us (especially starting from PA) if, for example, we're heading out west. Our most recent one was about 3 weeks to see all the parks in Utah along with Monument Valley and Mesa Verde - truly amazing trip, one of my favorites in recent memory. I don't know what your east coast experiences have been, but if you've never driven the entire Blue Ridge Parkway - especially in the fall - add that to your list. For me, while our international trips have all been great in their own way, I'm still partial to some of our trips here in the US. We've been into car trips long before ever getting into cruising. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by OnTheJourney

[What was that?]

2 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

So...3k miles, huh? What all did you see?  I've done quite a few of those over the years. We love that stuff but I've started to enjoy fly/drive so as to save several days of driving for us (especially starting from PA) if we're heading out west. 

After Rushmore - really quite worthwhile - and Custer State Park, we went to Colorado Springs to see my brother and his wife for a few days. Then on to Lake Powell at Page, AZ via Durango. Since we had already done the train in Durango (and the pandemic) we were only there overnight. A couple of days scouting houseboat options and lake tours (not operating now because, well, you know).

And then home to Reno with an overnight at a Fairfield Inn (Marriott) in NW Vegas. I cannot say enough about how excellent that hotel was (it was one of the "two" in my message above) - their hand sanitizer, which was almost everywhere, was almost straight Everclear! Or so it seemed. Everything was top shelf! And there was an Italian restaurant next door that delivered us wonderful meals (and - full disclosure - desserts). I ordered the pasta puttanesca, and my wife ordered some chicken dish with artichoke hearts which she doesn't like, so I added them to my dish - if you cook at home, make your puttanesca with artichoke hearts. You will thank me when you do!

[What was that?]

19 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

March cruise was of course canceled,

OTJ - weren't you scheduled on the same Grand European, Budapest-->Amsterdam that we were, 8-22 April on Viking Lif? We rebooked that ours for 2022, A-->B, 26 April-10 May. I know somebody here was...

Edited October 9, 2020 by What was that?
Added comment

[OnTheJourney]

CO Springs and Mr. Rushmore...wow...that brings back great memories! Visited both as part of a nearly 6-week driving trip with my parents back in '86. Big loop. Southern route heading out. Took a few days off at a time share exchange in Lake Tahoe, then headed back east on a northern route. 

 

Never been to Rocky Mt. NP yet but have to do that. Haven't done the Durango area yet either - sometime want to drive the "million dollar highway" between Silverton and Ouray. The western part of the US fascinates me. Can't get enough of it. 

 

 I've always loved hotel hopping - enjoy researching places on Trip Advisor and checking out reviews. Back in the day, pre-internet, I relied solely on the AAA tour books - looked at how many diamonds, etc. Can't imagine nowadays having to book an entire trip by actually calling places on the phone since most everything can be done online. (By the way, my TA just told me that those tour books are being phased out). Fairfield is a nice hotel - have always found Marriott in general to be good. Great to hear that hand sanitizer was plentiful. That's encouraging. I think for our upcoming road trip we'll probably do mostly take-out. The place we're staying at does the typical hot breakfast - so we'll have to check that out - might fill a plate and take it back to our room. It's just not that same sort of relaxed feeling but, what are you gonna do?!

[OnTheJourney]

9 minutes ago, What was that? said:

weren't you scheduled on the same Grand European, Budapest-->Amsterdam

 

Not me. 

[What was that?]

1 minute ago, OnTheJourney said:

The place we're staying at does the typical hot breakfast - so we'll have to check that out - might fill a plate and take it back to our room. It's just not that same sort of relaxed feeling but, what are you gonna do?!

 

Yup. My mantra: "I can live with that!"

[What was that?]

2 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

 

Not me. 

Must have been OnTheOtherJourney.

[OnTheJourney]

Wait...so there's someone on CC actually named "OntheOtherJourney"?  That's cool....he and I should meet up and share a few journeys!   We did do Amsterdam to Budapest a few years ago, but that was on a Tauck riverboat. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

55 minutes ago, What was that? said:

Maui is looking really attractive

 

Ah...Maui....I could handle some of that right about now. We were in Hawaii only a few weeks before 9/11 and so were on the lists of (long haul) passenger manifests to CA that were being reviewed to look for possible connections with flights the hijackers might have flown as practice runs, etc. Kind of weird, really. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by OnTheJourney

[What was that?]

15 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Wait...so there's someone on CC actually named "OntheOtherJourney"?  That's cool....he and I should meet up and share a few journeys!   We did do Amsterdam to Budapest a few years ago, but that was on a Tauck riverboat. 

 

Maybe I should change my screen name to that...

Actually, I was making - or trying to make - a joke about my imaginative memory.

[OnTheJourney]

lol.....sorry, it's a good joke...but went over my head I guess. Thought you were serious at first. 

[What was that?]

I now offer for your amusement my refined prognostication of Tor's next announcement regarding resumption of Viking's cruise operations, or a further extension of the "pause": Wednesday, 18 November 2020, and if the announcement is an extension of the pause, it will be for at least until the end of February 2021.

This is based on an analysis of the pattern of prior announcements, and NOT on any official or leaked information I may have received, because I don't have any inside contacts at Viking! Please regard this only as an idle speculation and just because it is based on "data", remember what they say about the stock market: "past performance is no guarantee of future results."

Unless I'm right - then I will change my screen name to "Carnac the Magnificent!"

[OnTheJourney]

Carnac....LOL...haven't thought about that for awhile! Carson was indeed the master...one of a kind. The tomahawk episode with Ed Ames still cracks me up everytime I watch it. 

 

With COVID cases taking off in Europe I think our Viking trips are a gone goose.

[Porcupine 52]

In today's world every day is a new day....The one thing I know for sure is unless cruising get started again a bunch of the companies are going broke.

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Carnac....LOL...haven't thought about that for awhile! Carson was indeed the master...one of a kind. The tomahawk episode with Ed Ames still cracks me up everytime I watch it. 

 

With COVID cases taking off in Europe I think our Viking trips are a gone goose.

 

It is that unexpected, unplanned moment that show the genius of the man. Saw him "in concert"  -- Carson not Ed Ames. It was an hour and half of non-stop laughter.