LIVE from "Iceland's Natural Beauty" -- All Sailings, 2021

[bbtondo]

15 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

Yes I agree. The odds of being quarantined by Viking greatly exceeds the risk of testing positive if you are vaccinated. Viking needs to change its current policy soon or face large numbers of cancellations. We would be crazy to take our 15 day December cruise with this hanging over our heads.

Yes, I too hope Viking changes it's current policy regarding quarantine.  I'm hopeful that more major countries (Spain, France, Italy, etc) will have more reasonable rules. I like what France is doing, no vaccine, not museums, restaurants, etc.  I have a Nov Med Cruise.  If this quarantine "rule" is still here, I'll probably cancel. 

[bbtondo]

3 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Unless you are entirely using Viking for your travel (Viking Air, transfers, and only a trip in-and-out), you would be wise to download the Rakning C-19 app. After our cruise in July, we did a week-long drive in the Westfjords Region. Hotels of course had our information, and every restaurant we ate at required name, date we entered the country, passport number, and reachable phone number. We didn't receive any notifications.

Wow!  Now 2 contact tracers for Iceland cruisers?  Absolutely nuts!  A little too much for me.

[jtwind]

20 hours ago, Liz Masterson said:

So if you go on a land tour by yourself and are not tested daily.. you can continue to tour....

But if you do all the extra protocols.... and a person you are with on a bus tests positive you have to quarrentine. 

 

Hmmm... 

Yes.  Viking is ahead of the curve on testing, and behind the curve on the length of quarantine.  Weird combination.  But I can see the extra testing vs. land tour.  IN GENERAL, the land tour people won't be around near as many other people.  The land based people will interact with some unvaxed folks, but the same is probably true for cruisers (fake cards).

[Rappersmom]

31 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

But the point is that Viking is not being transparent with current and future cruisers about the risks of being swept up in unnecessary quarantine.

Of course. I've said that multiple times. They parrot their official policy, not whatt is happening.

[Heartgrove]

7 minutes ago, bbtondo said:

Wow!  Now 2 contact tracers for Iceland cruisers?  Absolutely nuts!  A little too much for me.

 

It is for the good of your family and community. If you were exposed, you could be the next positive. Too much "Me, Me, I,  I. "

Edited August 13, 2021 by Heartgrove

[Rappersmom]

6 minutes ago, bbtondo said:

Yes, I too hope Viking changes it's current policy regarding quarantine.  I'm hopeful that more major countries (Spain, France, Italy, etc) will have more reasonable rules. I like what France is doing, no vaccine, not museums, restaurants, etc.  I have a Nov Med Cruise.  If this quarantine "rule" is still here, I'll probably cancel. 

Viking's official policy appears to be no quarantine for negative tests. Are you saying they should get more strict? It appears to be Iceland authority that is causing the quarantines and interrupted trips. They are trying to protect their people, and apparently their quarantine hotels are filling fast. 

[bbtondo]

1 minute ago, Rappersmom said:

Viking's official policy appears to be no quarantine for negative tests. Are you saying they should get more strict? It appears to be Iceland authority that is causing the quarantines and interrupted trips. They are trying to protect their people, and apparently their quarantine hotels are filling fast. 

No, you're right.  I wrote Viking changes it's current policy, I meant to say Iceland. And if the quarantine rule of Iceland is also the rule of the countries I am cruising too, I probably will cancel.

 

Wrote too fast!

[bbtondo]

5 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

It is for the good of your family and community. If you were exposed, you could be the next positive. Too much "Me, Me, I,  I. "

Actually it is too much "if" and "could be" for me.  I have been very diligent during Covid.  You have no idea.  😷

[schnapperin]

3 minutes ago, bbtondo said:

No, you're right.  I wrote Viking changes it's current policy, I meant to say Iceland. And if the quarantine rule of Iceland is also the rule of the countries I am cruising too, I probably will cancel.

 

Wrote too fast!

Iceland didn‘t change any rules about quarantine/isolation in the last months

 

and also all other countries like Spain, Malta, Germany and so on are all having strict rules about isolation and quarantine- and most are not taxpayer funded

[Twitchly]

34 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

Yes I agree. The odds of being quarantined by Viking greatly exceeds the risk of testing positive if you are vaccinated. Viking needs to change its current policy soon or face large numbers of cancellations. We would be crazy to take our 15 day December cruise with this hanging over our heads.

We too are closely watching this prior to our January cruise. If we can be sent home because of being on a bus with someone who tested positive, we will sadly cancel. 

[Heartgrove]

24 minutes ago, jtwind said:

This is exactly what people have been looking for.  Where did you get this info?

 

OK.  It has been determined that the devices don't have gps data.  

 

Huh? That is one of the two technologies used by contact tracer devices. Same with your phone.

[jtwind]

9 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Huh? That is one of the two technologies used by contact tracer devices. Same with your phone.

I was surprised too.  But folks have been saying the Viking ones don't do gps.

[Ballerina Sweetie Pie]

4 hours ago, BarbRN said:

What’s the exact name of the FB group. There are several. 

VIKING RIVER & OCEAN CRUISES FRIENDS

[uktog]

In the UK on land if we are "pinged" for being a contact we do not have to quarantine so long as we turn in a negative test.  This seems to be proportionate.  There is also increasing evidence that high levels of testing is throwing up many asymptomatic cases.  In the UK we are being encouraged to take two tests a week but even for our health service/care jobs it is not daily.  A GP on TV did question whether such high levels of testing is counterproductive - we can test for other medical conditions that lie asymptomatically but we do not so the question was asked why covid testing - just saying.

Edited August 13, 2021 by uktog

[Heartgrove]

7 minutes ago, bbtondo said:

Actually it is too much "if" and "could be" for me.  I have been very diligent during Covid.  You have no idea.  😷

I am sure that you have been diligent. Those who have unfortunately been singled out by the use of contact tracing, I feel sorry for. We had the luck of traveling when it was on the downturn and left before the upswing in cases.

 

When the original positive diagnose onboard the July 10 sailing occurred, we were sitting at the airport on our way to Iceland. We wondered if our cruise would be cancelled by Viking? No one knew at the time what would be in the future. If we were to travel now, I would cancel. The only way to prevent "if" or "could be" is cancellation.

[Rappersmom]

38 minutes ago, bbtondo said:

No, you're right.  I wrote Viking changes it's current policy, I meant to say Iceland. And if the quarantine rule of Iceland is also the rule of the countries I am cruising too, I probably will cancel.

 

Wrote too fast!

Yes, I understand. I wondered since you went on to name countries. This is such a mess. I keep hearing that the delta variant peaks and decreases quickly, but not seeing that so far here at home. I hope your upcoming cruise is trouble and stress-free. 

[Rappersmom]

40 minutes ago, schnapperin said:

Iceland didn‘t change any rules about quarantine/isolation in the last months

 

and also all other countries like Spain, Malta, Germany and so on are all having strict rules about isolation and quarantine- and most are not taxpayer funded

So if this has been the Iceland policy all along, it has been even more disingenuous of Viking to not admit that to its passengers. Even and especially the ones who have called with specific questions. Telling us the Viking policy is worthless when Iceland is far more stringent and makes the final decision.

[rbslos18]

1 hour ago, sleepybobo said:

Totally agree with you.  I really hope Viking rethinks its current policy.  This policy now is rounding up a good number of people in quarantine unnecessarily.  

 

I also have a December cruise scheduled.  I may reschedule if the current policy is still place in December.  

It also virtually eliminates the possibility of a World Cruise! Imagine the first week you are near someone who tests positive. The policy was just not well thought out. Being in close proximity to someone who tests positive could be a 100 or more people all of whom test negative and are of no threat to anyone.

[rbslos18]

2 minutes ago, Rappersmom said:

So if this has been the Iceland policy all along, it has been even more disingenuous of Viking to not admit that to its passengers. Even and especially the ones who have called with specific questions. Telling us the Viking policy is worthless when Iceland is far more stringent and makes the final decision.

I'm not convinced this is just Iceland. My guess is this is a collaborative mess-up. Usually a country such as Iceland has people who know the science. But until Viking lets people know we are subject to an end to an expensive vacation. How about being quarantined in Turkey for a vacation? Or what about paying $50,000 for a World Cruise and coming in contact with someone the first week? 

[sleepybobo]

7 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

It also virtually eliminates the possibility of a World Cruise! Imagine the first week you are near someone who tests positive. The policy was just not well thought out. Being in close proximity to someone who tests positive could be a 100 or more people all of whom test negative and are of no threat to anyone.

 

May be a cruise to nowhere for vaccinated guests only is the safest cruising option now.  Doing regular testing (embarkation, mid-sailing and disembarkation) and no contact tracing.  If Viking comes up with a NYC round trip, I'll book in a heart beat.  

[Rappersmom]

3 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

I'm not convinced this is just Iceland. My guess is this is a collaborative mess-up. Usually a country such as Iceland has people who know the science. But until Viking lets people know we are subject to an end to an expensive vacation. How about being quarantined in Turkey for a vacation? Or what about paying $50,000 for a World Cruise and coming in contact with someone the first week? 

If it's not just Iceland, then Viking is flat out lying about its quarantine policy. Either way, not impressive the way we are kept in the dark. And yes, some of the other cruise scenarios are even more grim. One thing I have heard is that the particular vaccine used in Iceland (Janssen?) is less effective against Delta than ours. Maybe only 40%. They are faced with a tough decision to keep their lifeblood--tourism--going in the face of escalating infections. 

[BQEC]

It would be interesting to research exactly when Iceland instituted its requirements of quarantine for contacts of positives. Viking knew or should have known of Iceland’s stance in view of Viking’s testing/tracing policies.

per Schnapperin this has been Iceland’s policy all along?? 

[BQEC]

Interesting information about Janssen. 

[whipperwilleo]

On 8/8/2021 at 8:16 PM, hoorayy said:

On the sky now.  You are not allowed in town or ports unless you are with a Viking  excursion.  

What happens if you don't purchase the extra excursions? The included excursions are only 1 1/2 hours. Are you confined to the ship for the rest of the day?

[KarNog]

5 minutes ago, whipperwilleo said:

What happens if you don't purchase the extra excursions? The included excursions are only 1 1/2 hours. Are you confined to the ship for the rest of the day?

At this point in time, yes. 

When I booked, that was the case; then the rules were relaxed. Now we are back to the bubble.