Janet&David Posted May 13, 2021 #201 Share Posted May 13, 2021 42 minutes ago, arlowood said: Surprised you've not been able to book, particularly as you are on the first cruise. We're on the 3rd cruise (5th June) and I had no problem booking our embarkation slot about an hour ago. As Dave W 10 says above - I'm really surprised at the times being offered for embarkation slots. I think the first one on the 5th June cruise was 8am to 8.30am. At that time I would have thought the previous cruise would still be disembarking. Anyway I'm sure Viking know what they're doing It may be that the "dedicated waiting area" will be in the cruise terminal (is this the P&O ferry terminal or something different?) or even some sort of marquee. Otherwise, as you suggest, Viking are going to have be pretty canny in terms of keeping boarding and disembarking passengers apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcolmer Posted May 13, 2021 #202 Share Posted May 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Dave W 10 said: Did you receive instructions from Viking on the procedure. Official instructions have just arrived by email from Viking, along with information about the health questionnaire: Your health questionnaire will be available for you to complete via your MyVikingJourney account, from 7 days prior to departure, and we ask that this is completed prior to travel to avoid delays at embarkation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeyump Posted May 13, 2021 #203 Share Posted May 13, 2021 As Viking haven't got to do any airport transfers due to everyone making their own travel arrangements I would imagine they can set an early disembarkation time. Also helps with only 50% capacity. Of course the embarkation time isn't necessarily when you can access your cabin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 13, 2021 Author #204 Share Posted May 13, 2021 3 hours ago, Janet&David said: Hi Neil It may have been fixed by now but when we tried to make advance reservations in the Restaurant for our May 29 England cruise using MYJ it wouldn't allow reservations for V1/V2 cabins. See my post #124 on 13/4/21 on how to sort out reservations by phone. David David Many thanks for this, I have sent my contact at Viking a question on the MDR reservations. Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W 10 Posted May 13, 2021 #205 Share Posted May 13, 2021 34 minutes ago, Hockeyump said: Of course the embarkation time isn't necessarily when you can access your cabin. But if only half the cabins are occupied the rest should be available right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 13, 2021 Author #206 Share Posted May 13, 2021 2 hours ago, NeilP57 said: David Many thanks for this, I have sent my contact at Viking a question on the MDR reservations. Neil After a little confusion, now all sorted, Viking have clarified that they can make dinner reservations for the MDR for us lowly V1/2 passengers and provided me with the times currently available which were all reasonable. The only glitch is that I had to request my preferred times via my TA, which just adds another opportunity for confusion. (For the avoidance of doubt, I am booked onto the Iceland welcome back cruise but David was very helpful in answering my question - generally us Brits prefer a slightly later dining time to the US passengers so a mixed passenger demographic like we have the Iceland cruises will be helpful in getting the times you want) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W 10 Posted May 14, 2021 #207 Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) 18 hours ago, NeilP57 said: The only glitch is that I had to request my preferred times via my TA Neil Is there any benefit booking through a TA for UK customers? I have always dealt direct with Viking and found them very efficient and helpful. Just wondering if I'm missing a trick somewhere. Edited May 14, 2021 by Dave W 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet&David Posted May 14, 2021 #208 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Viking Venus is on the move again - currently near Weymouth sailing in tandem with Viking Star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 14, 2021 Author #209 Share Posted May 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Dave W 10 said: Neil Is there any benefit booking through a TA for UK customers? I have always dealt direct with Viking and found them very efficient and helpful. Just wondering if I'm missing a trick somewhere. David i booked my first cruise direct with them because at the time I don’t think they were offering TA discounts back in 2015 for the inaugural Ocean cruises. Since then I have been booking through a TA and receiving not only the Viking past passenger discount but also a TA discount as well. I use a well known cruise TA near Chesterfield and they share additional discount. The only downside is that any communications to/from Viking get routed through the TA but the additional discount softens the blow. (Or covers the cost of the drinks package, depending on how you look at it!) Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotlanders Posted May 14, 2021 #210 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Luggage tags and red labels arrived in post today Yeah !!!!!1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W 10 Posted May 14, 2021 #211 Share Posted May 14, 2021 2 hours ago, NeilP57 said: David i booked my first cruise direct with them because at the time I don’t think they were offering TA discounts back in 2015 for the inaugural Ocean cruises. Since then I have been booking through a TA and receiving not only the Viking past passenger discount but also a TA discount as well. I use a well known cruise TA near Chesterfield and they share additional discount. The only downside is that any communications to/from Viking get routed through the TA but the additional discount softens the blow. (Or covers the cost of the drinks package, depending on how you look at it!) Hope this helps. Neil I wasn't aware of that. Very interesting. Would your TA be a certain cruise club that starts with a B? Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 14, 2021 Author #212 Share Posted May 14, 2021 6 hours ago, Dave W 10 said: Neil I wasn't aware of that. Very interesting. Would your TA be a certain cruise club that starts with a B? Thanks Dave You could say that but I couldn't possibly comment......... (yes) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcolmer Posted May 15, 2021 #213 Share Posted May 15, 2021 A word of warning for those travelling on these cruises ... Viking are asking that a health questionnaire be completed online 5-7 days before departure of the cruise. The last question asks if the passenger has been completely vaccinated. For the purposes of THESE cruises, one vaccine jab is all that is required and so qualifies as "completed vaccinated" so the answer is Yes. (I emphasise the word "these" because Viking's vaccination requirements may well change for future cruises ...) I mistakenly selected No (as I've only had one jab while my wife has had two) but I'm currently on the phone with Viking to get that corrected. I wouldn't want anyone else to get caught up in that slightly misleading/confusing wording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arlowood Posted May 15, 2021 #214 Share Posted May 15, 2021 Just managed to complete the "Comfort Check-In" successfully this morning. Took pseudo passport pics using my Samsung phone and transferred them by Bluetooth to my PC. I was then able to crop them with my Picassa software and upload them in My Viking Journey. Within that process the uploaded pic is shown against an ideal size template and you can manipulate it larger of smaller to fit within the template. Seemed to work fine for me and I have now printed out our boarding passes with the QR code that will be scanned at embarkation. Also received a warning email about the Health Questionnaire but that won't arrive for us until 29th May. Thanks to @pccolmer for the heads up about the questionnaire. Perhaps less relevant for us as we have both had our 2 vaccine doses. Hopefully all this work done by us pre-cruise will mean a smooth and seamless boarding process 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnie29 Posted May 16, 2021 #215 Share Posted May 16, 2021 Managed to check in on my Viking journey successfully. Has anyone received the health questionnaire yet? If so what questions are there please? Also are Viki g requesting proof of insurance. My husband and I both have a policy with All Clear which includes COVId cover and cruise cover so assume that will be sufficient? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet&David Posted May 17, 2021 #216 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Amazingly the update of the NHS App has appeared today on schedule. The home screen has a link 'Check your COVID-19 vaccine record' which brings up a very clear and simple summary of vaccines administered, including date, vaccine type and batch number. It seems highly likely that this will be all that Viking requires. If they need anything in advance it would be easy to send a screenshot, although there would be no proof that it was of your own data. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 17, 2021 Author #217 Share Posted May 17, 2021 NHS App works shows our vaccination status as well Just need it to work for our Scottish friends as well! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet&David Posted May 17, 2021 #218 Share Posted May 17, 2021 3 hours ago, Janet&David said: Amazingly the update of the NHS App has appeared today on schedule. The home screen has a link 'Check your COVID-19 vaccine record' which brings up a very clear and simple summary of vaccines administered, including date, vaccine type and batch number. It seems highly likely that this will be all that Viking requires. If they need anything in advance it would be easy to send a screenshot, although there would be no proof that it was of your own data. The app also lets you save quite a neat pdf summarising the information in a form that could be printed to give to Viking and/or emailed to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangford Posted May 17, 2021 #219 Share Posted May 17, 2021 4 hours ago, NeilP57 said: NHS App works shows our vaccination status as well Just need it to work for our Scottish friends as well! And Northern Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilP57 Posted May 17, 2021 Author #220 Share Posted May 17, 2021 41 minutes ago, Strangford said: And Northern Ireland. Sorry, no slight intended. I would want it to work for all UK passengers on the cruise whatever nationality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangford Posted May 17, 2021 #221 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Sorry Neil, wasn't inferring you were ignoring us - our health boards here use a different site again from the rest. All I can do online is order prescriptions. It's time they were all singing from the same hymn sheet especially with regard to vaccination records. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arlowood Posted May 17, 2021 #222 Share Posted May 17, 2021 With all the chat about the NHS App I steeled myself and downloaded it earlier today - not expecting great things with the poor track record this Government has with IT projects. Went through the registration process which was less onerous than expected and received the message that my approval would be sent as soon as possible but also with the warning that they were experiencing heavy traffic on the registration of the App. Within 2 hrs I had the email confirming success and was able to connect through to my GP records without a problem. I now have my vaccine status available by an officially approved route. I just need to repeat the process for my wife on her phone with hopefully the same success. I do have a print out of my vaccine status from my GP records just in case. It will be interesting to hear what the "guinea pigs" experience this coming Saturday when the first Venus cruise is due to set sail. I'm hoping that someone will enlighten us how things went. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet&David Posted May 18, 2021 #223 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Today Viking Venus appears to be en route to Falmouth via the Channel Isles - perhaps they could include this detour on our cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sugarside Posted May 18, 2021 #224 Share Posted May 18, 2021 I was wondering if french fishermen were gathering again and the government had requested Ann Diamond wielding her viking axe to go in and fend them off😂🤔 Pictures starting to appear of yesterday’s naming ceremony. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W 10 Posted May 18, 2021 #225 Share Posted May 18, 2021 8 hours ago, Janet&David said: Today Viking Venus appears to be en route to Falmouth via the Channel Isles - perhaps they could include this detour on our cruise. Perhaps that will be the scenic cruising on Friday. Not far from Portland to Portsmouth, I was wondering where we would go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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