Welcome Back Cruises 2021 - Malta & Adriatic Cruises and General Discussion

[rizello]

Viking daily for Santorini.  Not sure why the photos get moved to landscape when I take in portrait.  

[CLBSC]

8 hours ago, rizello said:

Viking daily for Santorini.  Not sure why the photos get moved to landscape when I take in portrait.  

 

[CLBSC]

Thanks for your updates. We are ready to fly to Malta from Newark on Sunday, PCR tests tomorrow, Verifly completed, Malta good to go. Only real worry is contact tracing rules from various countries and crowded bus excursions.....ready to cruise!!!

[barney61]

1 hour ago, CLBSC said:

Thanks for your updates. We are ready to fly to Malta from Newark on Sunday, PCR tests tomorrow, Verifly completed, Malta good to go. Only real worry is contact tracing rules from various countries and crowded bus excursions.....ready to cruise!!!

See you on Board

 

[CLBSC]

17 minutes ago, barney61 said:

See you on Board

 

Hopefully we can figure out a way to meet each other.....

[postit1111]

Lufthansa charter question ....

We are flying from LAX on United to EWR to catch the Viking Lufthansa "charter" to Malta.  If you have experienced this can you tell me if you had to collect your bags in EWR and recheck to the Lufthansa flight?

Thank you!!!

[philw1776]

14 minutes ago, postit1111 said:

Lufthansa charter question ....

We are flying from LAX on United to EWR to catch the Viking Lufthansa "charter" to Malta.  If you have experienced this can you tell me if you had to collect your bags in EWR and recheck to the Lufthansa flight?

Thank you!!!

Coming BACK the same way is when you will need to collect bags in EWR and recheck.
Why?
Because then you are clearing US Customs.

[postit1111]

5 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

Coming BACK the same way is when you will need to collect bags in EWR and recheck.
Why?
Because then you are clearing US Customs.

Thanks, I understand the return requirements.  Did you have to get and recheck your bags going to Malta since it's not a continuous United ticket?

 

[karlabsc]

Going on the Malta Adriatic & Greek Isles and followed Viking instructions to get PCR as you never know what might change. Waited 36 hrs to get our negative results from CVS. Arrived at our local airport today and had to provide the PCR results to get our boarding passes along with the dPLF for Malta showing the barcode. Finally getting excited to be on the way!! 

[CLBSC]

Assuming you are not flying directly to Malta. We are under the impression that to fly directly from the USA to Malta we do not need a PCR test just the vaccine card and the dPLF. We are getting one anyway but concerned it might take 2 days.... 

[gma1]

41 minutes ago, karlabsc said:

Going on the Malta Adriatic & Greek Isles and followed Viking instructions to get PCR as you never know what might change. Waited 36 hrs to get our negative results from CVS. Arrived at our local airport today and had to provide the PCR results to get our boarding passes along with the dPLF for Malta showing the barcode. Finally getting excited to be on the way!! 

What airline are you on? Are you going to Newark to connect for the charter?

[gma1]

1 minute ago, gma1 said:

What airline are you on? Are you going to Newark to connect for the charter?

Do you mean the QR code?

[karlabsc]

4 minutes ago, gma1 said:

Do you mean the QR code?

Yes QR. Airlines Delta/AirFrance/Air Malta via ATL and CDG. 

[rizello]

1 hour ago, karlabsc said:

Going on the Malta Adriatic & Greek Isles and followed Viking instructions to get PCR as you never know what might change. Waited 36 hrs to get our negative results from CVS. Arrived at our local airport today and had to provide the PCR results to get our boarding passes along with the dPLF for Malta showing the barcode. Finally getting excited to be on the way!! 

You don’t need a PCR test to go to Malta.  I am perplexed how airlines are asking for something that the country doesn’t require.  But I’m not going to argue with airline staff. We had our PCR tests ready to go in case anyone asked, even though we knew they were not required. 

[crochetgirl]

For those who have flown the charter from EWR to Malta:

 

How strict are airline personnel in checking the weight of the carry-on bag?? I am hoping that it might be more relaxed since the plane probably will not be full.

 

Thanks for your insight!

[gma1]

2 hours ago, karlabsc said:

Yes QR. Airlines Delta/AirFrance/Air Malta via ATL and CDG. 

Thanks for the info. Have a good flight!

[les37b]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:31 PM, JessM66 said:

Hear what you say but for a day 2 test does it matter if it doesn’t come back in 24 hours, it’s one of the cheapest, sorry but I can’t see the downside , if I have done my test with a government approved supplier in the required timescale it’s no longer my issue

 

 

You need to book it in advance to get on the flight. They are charging £43 for the privilege and their responses to the overflowing, unattended collection points is disgusting. If you don't get your test result back (because its lost / stolen), there would be no refund and you will no doubt still be required to produce a negative test result, which you no doubt will need to pay again. I think that will be an issue for most people and a little naive to think you've fulfilled your obligation because "they" lost yours. That is WHY I am not impressed with their behaviour and responses. I think we all agree its all a big money making con.

[les37b]

It would appear (for the UK) that all the Malta cruises to Croatia and Greece for September have been pulled from the Viking website.

 

Having had my early morning BA flight cancelled to Malta for the 19th September and replaced with an afternoon flight 2 hours later than I would otherwise have already boarded, all flight options left for Viking have either become sold out or too expensive. On my particular flight, there was an option to fly business on Air Malta but that would have added £1000 to my fare, which a flight 4 hours earlier really is not worth it.

 

So having already accepted that much later BA flight was my only option, I called after I noticed September sailings had been removed.

 

Viking was no longer able to offer cruise and flights packages!

 

The cruises are (thankfully) still sailing and they are prepared to now allow "cruise only" bookings with a £150 discount, which you will obviously struggle to get an airfare for that price.

 

But it does open it up to use airlines like easyjet and arrive and depart when you like. You could probably even get your return fare for that price and then pay for a few days to site see Malta, which has been an option always available to US bookings.

 

We were actually also given the option to keep our return flight and make our own way there, but no discount, all costs at our expense and on your own if it went pear shaped. the latter sealed it for is. If our BA flight was cancelled and we missed the boat (pun intended!).... they would get us to the next port and duty bound. That is worth not taking any risks for to me.

[zodiacsign]

Anyone know what the options are if you are not a smartphone user and don't have Verifly? I tried asking tellus@viking (no reply), and calling their customer service got told "you can do it at the airport" (??).

 

[les37b]

1 hour ago, zodiacsign said:

Anyone know what the options are if you are not a smartphone user and don't have Verifly? I tried asking tellus@viking (no reply), and calling their customer service got told "you can do it at the airport" (??).

 

 

Good point. I just looked on the verifly website at their FAQ - and rather surprisingly it wasn't a question asked. 

 

Maybe they think 100% of the worlds population all use smart phones after all.

 

https://go.daon.com/veriflyapp-faq?hsCtaTracking=3442b3cf-257a-4e08-85ac-491d0aec34c1|a365bb61-d114-425c-8148-b9a728e2de8a

 

 

 

[FirstTimeFreddy]

6 hours ago, les37b said:

It would appear (for the UK) that all the Malta cruises to Croatia and Greece for September have been pulled from the Viking website.

 

Having had my early morning BA flight cancelled to Malta for the 19th September and replaced with an afternoon flight 2 hours later than I would otherwise have already boarded, all flight options left for Viking have either become sold out or too expensive. On my particular flight, there was an option to fly business on Air Malta but that would have added £1000 to my fare, which a flight 4 hours earlier really is not worth it.

 

So having already accepted that much later BA flight was my only option, I called after I noticed September sailings had been removed.

 

Viking was no longer able to offer cruise and flights packages!

 

The cruises are (thankfully) still sailing and they are prepared to now allow "cruise only" bookings with a £150 discount, which you will obviously struggle to get an airfare for that price.

 

But it does open it up to use airlines like easyjet and arrive and depart when you like. You could probably even get your return fare for that price and then pay for a few days to site see Malta, which has been an option always available to US bookings.

 

We were actually also given the option to keep our return flight and make our own way there, but no discount, all costs at our expense and on your own if it went pear shaped. the latter sealed it for is. If our BA flight was cancelled and we missed the boat (pun intended!).... they would get us to the next port and duty bound. That is worth not taking any risks for to me.

Business Class is an absolute rip off with most European airlines. They've ripped out the traditional 2 seater rows and replaced them with 3 economy seats instead. Then they have the audacity to leave the middle seat free and call it Business Class. 😠 Fortunately we had three seats to ourselves in economy on our BA flight in July, but this time around I'm guessing our 10.50am flight with Air Malta will be rammed.  Thank goodness it's only a short flght. 🙏

[travelguy19]

19 hours ago, crochetgirl said:

For those who have flown the charter from EWR to Malta:

 

How strict are airline personnel in checking the weight of the carry-on bag?? I am hoping that it might be more relaxed since the plane probably will not be full.

 

Thanks for your insight!

I asked a similar question in a FB travel group. The responses were that it depends on the particular flight and airport agent, but in general, Lufthansa is very strict on size and weight. Carry on weight limit is only 17 lbs., and an empty roll aboard is 6-7 lbs. I think I’ve convinced my wife to take a shoulder bag instead. I can only look at Business and Premium Economy seats on the website since that’s what we’re doing, but the charter we are taking had surprisingly very few available seats in those sections ( we are on 8/30 cruise).

[gma1]

3 hours ago, zodiacsign said:

Anyone know what the options are if you are not a smartphone user and don't have Verifly? I tried asking tellus@viking (no reply), and calling their customer service got told "you can do it at the airport" (??).

 

FYI:You can simply print out the Malta PLF information form that you get back in reply to your  submitted answers.  It gives you the proper link to print it out in PDF format.  The key part of that document is the QR code it gives you.  That QR code is what you would scan on the smart phone to complete the Verifly application for both Malta and Viking..stupid but that's the way it's done!  Since you don't have a smart phone, you have two options: 1- go to Walmart( or the UK equivalent) and buy their cheap, throw away version smart phone.  ( I"m sure they would help you activate the phone,too)  OR 2- Simply take your printed version of the PLF document and they can scan it at the airport for you, just like the agent said.  I would tell them I'm technically challenged and plead ignorance!!  They do want your business, for sure!!  Just fill out the online version of the PLF,submit it and poof!!,  here's your QR code!!  You'll be fine!!  Have a great time....!!

 

[zodiacsign]

Thanks, that's interesting. I thought the point of Verifly was to prove our vaccine status to airlines and Viking. 

[gma1]

That's correct, however, you cannot complete the verifly application unless you have the QR code that is given only on the receipt email from Malta, verifying you have completed that PLF form.  That's why you can simply print out that email with the QR code and take that to the airport.  They can complete the verifly application with that code......then Viking and Malta will both know you have done everything required to prove your vaccinated.