UK Only Viking Venus Cruise

[arlowood]

1 hour ago, pcolmer said:

Viking have just sent an email out saying that all passengers will need to have had at least one vaccine dose before the end of April. 

 

Yes , the email I got announcing that My Viking Journey was now active for these UK cruises also updated their safety procedures to require at least one COVID vaccination by April 30th to qualify for these sailings.

Bit of a bummer for those younger passengers who may be down the priority lisy for vaccination but my guess is that the numbers in this category will be quite small if not non-existent.

Viking claim that it was prompted by their plans to initiate "Welcom Back" cruises from Bermuda and Iceland that require vaccination proof for all shore going personnel

[arlowood]

Also just logged into MyViking Journey and the website appears to be in chaos. Managed to book some included tours but it took ages going back and forward with the web page timing out and going back to the Home page. It now appears that I have confirmed bookings from the individual destination pages but these are not showing up in My Calendar as the should do. Also I can't access the Dining options section - it just times out - then nothing

Hopefully things will sort themselves out.

Edited April 6, 2021 by arlowood

[MikeD1000]

 

 

It does begin to look promising that we will cruise.

 

We have no idea of boarding time allocation, but we live several hours' drive from Portsmouth.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a hotel in Portsmouth?

[old biddy]

16 hours ago, MikeD1000 said:

 

 Does anyone have a recommendation for a hotel in Portsmouth?

Several years ago we stayed at the Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Portsmouth then got a taxi to the port. I remember finding long term parking in Portsmouth an impossibility. The hotel did a 'cruise package', parking and overnight stay. I can't remember the cost but I don't think it was too horrendous.

I will be very interested in your feedback after the cruise. We love Viking cruises but feel the constraints (all for very good reasons) will severely detract from the holiday, so for the time being it is land based UK breaks for us.

[MikeD1000]

28 minutes ago, old biddy said:

Several years ago we stayed at the Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Portsmouth then got a taxi to the port. I remember finding long term parking in Portsmouth an impossibility. The hotel did a 'cruise package', parking and overnight stay. I can't remember the cost but I don't think it was too horrendous.

 

Many thanks.  We'll give it a try.

 

We have used the Holiday Inn in Southampton in the same way (free parking), and it happens to be within walking distance of one of the ports, but a taxi ride to the other.

[sugarside]

52 minutes ago, MikeD1000 said:

 

Many thanks.  We'll give it a try.

 

We have used the Holiday Inn in Southampton in the same way (free parking), and it happens to be within walking distance of one of the ports, but a taxi ride to the other.

 

52 minutes ago, MikeD1000 said:

 

Many thanks.  We'll give it a try.

 

We have used the Holiday Inn in Southampton in the same way (free parking), and it happens to be within walking distance of one of the ports, but a taxi ride to the other.

Portsmouth International Port Car Park are currently offering Viking cruisers a discounted rate of £55 . 

I have taken it up.

It is directly by the cruise terminal.

[steroc]

3 hours ago, sugarside said:

 

Portsmouth International Port Car Park are currently offering Viking cruisers a discounted rate of £55 . 

I have taken it up.

It is directly by the cruise terminal.

Thanks for the info. I have just booked this 

[Janet&David]

3 hours ago, sugarside said:

 

Portsmouth International Port Car Park are currently offering Viking cruisers a discounted rate of £55 . 

I have taken it up.

It is directly by the cruise terminal.

Thanks for this. I'd checked the car park website a couple of weeks ago and the deal wasn't on there - glad I didn't book then, but I have now.

 

David

[Minnie29]

Thanks for posting this. 
I booked a couple of weeks ago and phoned them and they have refunded the difference. 
Not familiar with Portsmouth port, having only sailed from Southampton 

[arlowood]

On 4/9/2021 at 1:50 PM, sugarside said:

 

Portsmouth International Port Car Park are currently offering Viking cruisers a discounted rate of £55 . 

I have taken it up.

It is directly by the cruise terminal.

Cruise Parking Services (CPS) are also covering the Viking cruises much in the same way as they do the P&O cruises at Southampton.

https://www.cruiseparking.co.uk/

Theirs is a valet parking service where your drop off your car at the terminal and they take it away and park it. On return there is usually a key collection booth and you are directed to where your car is located. Normally a short walk from the terminal.

I have booked my car with them for the Venus 5th June cruise. Came to £71 so a bit more expensive than the offer above but I'm not sure that the above offer includes a valet service

[arlowood]

The OH and I had our 2nd vaccine jabs yesterday so we will be well within the Viking parameters  for the UK Staycation cruises.

However I'm not entirely clear on how we will be required to satisfy Viking of our vaccine status.

We both have the little cards completed by the staff at the Vaccine Centre but these have a bare minimum of data and in theory could easily be faked. Our local GP practice also operates an online system (via SystemsOnline) whereby we can book appointments, order medication and view our patient records.

On that system, the records of our vaccinations appear in the form of document attachment on the date of vaccination. This document gives a very full record of the vaccination and I am able to print that off from my records. However I am not sure if that would be viewed as acceptable by Viking or would they need something signed by a GP as proof.

If a GP signed record is required, I can see that creating some difficulty due to the potential costs involved and the willingness of GP's to cooperate in these times when they are very busy with other important duties.

Does anyone know what Viking require before I pose the question directly? 

[sugarside]

11 minutes ago, arlowood said:

The OH and I had our 2nd vaccine jabs yesterday so we will be well within the Viking parameters  for the UK Staycation cruises.

However I'm not entirely clear on how we will be required to satisfy Viking of our vaccine status.

We both have the little cards completed by the staff at the Vaccine Centre but these have a bare minimum of data and in theory could easily be faked. Our local GP practice also operates an online system (via SystemsOnline) whereby we can book appointments, order medication and view our patient records.

On that system, the records of our vaccinations appear in the form of document attachment on the date of vaccination. This document gives a very full record of the vaccination and I am able to print that off from my records. However I am not sure if that would be viewed as acceptable by Viking or would they need something signed by a GP as proof.

If a GP signed record is required, I can see that creating some difficulty due to the potential costs involved and the willingness of GP's to cooperate in these times when they are very busy with other important duties.

Does anyone know what Viking require before I pose the question directly? 

 

[sugarside]

Just now, sugarside said:

 

Charlotte who I made my booking with assured me that it was the little card from the vaccination centre would be the proof required.

Perhaps something more official will be around the corner before we travel.

[sugarside]

1 minute ago, sugarside said:

Charlotte who I made my booking with assured me that it was the little card from the vaccination centre would be the proof required.

Perhaps something more official will be around the corner before we travel.

Also said that a negative test would be required before boarding but that would be done by Viking dock side.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, sugarside said:

Charlotte who I made my booking with assured me that it was the little card from the vaccination centre would be the proof required.

Perhaps something more official will be around the corner before we travel.

 

Based on the Viking Policy that I read, you may want to ask which vaccines they are accepting. The policy (version 1) required a FDA approved vaccine, which is a US organisation and at present they have not approved AstraZeneca.

 

I received AstraZeneca and all family & friends in UK got AstraZeneca, so I asked Viking if they will be also accept UK & Canadian approved vaccines. I received a reply that they will get back to me shortly.

[Hockeyump]

If they don't accept the AZ vaccine there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people!

[arlowood]

8 minutes ago, Hockeyump said:

If they don't accept the AZ vaccine there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people!

Thankfully we've had the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine so the AZ issue is moot in our case.

However I think the Viking policy wording could well be an oversight as they normally target the US market principally. 

I would assume that any nationally approved vaccine should be accepted and since these are UK only cruises, it would indeed be questionable if they refused to accept a UK approved vaccine

[Heidi13]

27 minutes ago, Hockeyump said:

If they don't accept the AZ vaccine there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people!

 

That was my thought, along with how can they possibly operate UK only cruises, since I believe AZ is the most common vaccine used in UK.

 

I suspect it was a hastily drawn up policy when they eventually decided on mandatory vaccinations

[friendlyfifer]

20 hours ago, sugarside said:

Charlotte who I made my booking with assured me that it was the little card from the vaccination centre would be the proof required.

Perhaps something more official will be around the corner before we travel.

No little cards have been issued in Scotland so we have no proof of vaccination. We are on the 29 May sailing so will wait for a few more weeks to see what is issued by Viking. Hopefully we will simply have to sign to say that we have had at least one dose of the vaccine.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, friendlyfifer said:

No little cards have been issued in Scotland so we have no proof of vaccination. We are on the 29 May sailing so will wait for a few more weeks to see what is issued by Viking. Hopefully we will simply have to sign to say that we have had at least one dose of the vaccine.

It’s a mixture in Lothian, I was at a mass centre in Edinburgh got the AZ and a card, bizarrely my husband was allocated a community hospital the day before, got Pfizer and no card.  I’m sure Scotland will have to quickly address this card inconsistency (friend in Fife Pfizer got a card, partner got AZ and no card) or GPS will be inundated with requests for proof. 

[Dave W 10]

Has anyone on the UK cruises been able to book the main restaurant yet?

Myvikingjourney is saying Dining reservations are not available at this time.

We are in a V2 don't know if that is significant.

[scotlanders]

9 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Has anyone on the UK cruises been able to book the main restaurant yet?

Myvikingjourney is saying Dining reservations are not available at this time.

We are in a V2 don't know if that is significant.

Yes I was able to book 4 restaurant times but no alternatives yet

[sugarside]

11 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Has anyone on the UK cruises been able to book the main restaurant yet?

Myvikingjourney is saying Dining reservations are not available at this time.

We are in a V2 don't know if that is significant.

 

1 hour ago, scotlanders said:

Yes I was able to book 4 restaurant times but no alternatives yet

We are on the June 25th cruise in a PV2 cabin and cannot book anything yet.

I know people on earlier cruises have booked things.

[Janet&David]

12 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Has anyone on the UK cruises been able to book the main restaurant yet?

Myvikingjourney is saying Dining reservations are not available at this time.

We are in a V2 don't know if that is significant.

We are in a V1 and couldn't make any dining reservations. We were expecting not to be able to reserve Manfredi's or Chef's Table as this level of cabin can't book these until boarded. However we were concerned that we weren't able to book The Restaurant as pre-COVID this wouldn't require reservations and we thought it unfair if we could only have what was left in terms of dining slots when we got on board, if other categories of cabin could pre-book.

 

We phoned Viking and they admitted this was one of the (quite numerous) glitches in MyVikingJourney for these cruises. You can't really blame them as they've had to pull this together pretty quickly, with changes to functionality etc. 

 

They can sort out restaurant reservations over the phone but it's slightly tortuous. It seems that the 'front line' customer services can't make reservations so they get someone from the 'admin team' to phone you back. We were phoned by a very helpful lady who arranged reservations in The Restaurant every evening (these appeared in our calendar in MyVikingJourney shortly afterwards). She confirmed that V1/V2 cabins can't make specialist restaurant reservations in advance but we're happy to take pot luck with these when we get on board.

 

Hope this helps.

 

David 

[arlowood]

13 hours ago, Dave W 10 said:

Has anyone on the UK cruises been able to book the main restaurant yet?

Myvikingjourney is saying Dining reservations are not available at this time.

We are in a V2 don't know if that is significant.

I managed to get into MyViking Journey a week ago - just after we'd received the email stating that shore excursion and dining reservations were open. We're in a DV-1 cabin on the 5th June sailing.

 

I had a lot of trouble with the website on that day but eventually managed to book Manfred'i's, Chef's Table and The Main Restaurant for one night each. At that time Manfredi's and Chef's Table were only showing one free reservation available and the main restaurant only had 6 available.

It's quite possible that all the options have been fully booked on your cruise. Keep trying though as it may be a website glitch. You could try calling Viking just to check the situation

One option left is to go straight to the Maitre D' on embarkation and ask to be put you on the wait list for all the restaurants and you may get lucky with a cancellation.

We did that on our first Viking ocean cruise as we were a bit green and did not take advantage of the pre-booking facility. That way we managed to get a table at Manfredi's on one night.

With the main restaurant we did not pre-book on any night but just walked up shortly after opening. Never had a problem with that although this time around things may be different