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

[gramfrog]

23 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?

Well, I guess that makes my packing much easier!  No buses on excursions means no excursions taken/no heavy coat and boots= check; no wandering the cute little towns means no sturdy shoes=check; there's a lovely pool onboard that I can swim away from anyone = check; So I guess my suitcase contents will look like a Caribbean party for one!!  😅🤣😬

[BQEC]

Any word on the 26 people making their way to KEF to depart - hopefully without a hassle??

[jan_az]

33 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?

Yes 

[Clay Clayton]

24 minutes ago, BQEC said:

Any word on the 26 people making their way to KEF to depart - hopefully without a hassle??

Last post on the site that cannot be named is that they are in a quarantine hotel in Reykjavik. The poster who up until then had been positive and had a great attitude said it was “DISGUSTING”. They are supposed to fly home tomorrow. 

Edited August 13, 2021 by Clay Clayton

[DaveSJ711]

2 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Last post on the site that cannot be named is that they are in a quarantine hotel in Reykjavik. The poster who up until then had been positive and had a great attitude said it was “DISGUSTING”. They are supposed to fly home tomorrow. 

What a way to have your trip end -- prematurely, in a hotel not of your choosing, and one that's DISGUSTING to boot. The Icelandic Tourist Board won't feature that experience on its website.

[BQEC]

3 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Last post on the site that cannot be named is that they are in a quarantine hotel in Reykjavik. The poster who up until then had been positive and had a great attitude said it was “DISGUSTING”. They are supposed to fly home tomorrow. 

Clay. Thank you for your update. I pray that all are allowed to fly and have an uneventful entry into the US. 

[BQEC]

1 minute ago, DaveSJ711 said:

What a way to have your trip end -- prematurely, in a hotel not of your choosing, and one that's DISGUSTING to boot. The Icelandic Tourist Board won't feature that experience on its website.

Neither will Viking. Earlier post said that Viking paid for the transportation and the hotel, meals. 

[bluesea777]

The Golden Circle bus tour is a FULL day excursion, so if an infected person was on it - in an enclosed non open-air bus - it's possible for the person to infect some, if not all, if not none, others via the air in the enclosed bus.

 

We do not have a full account on what happened on the bus - did the infected person truly keep the mask on the entire time? Did the others? We know for fact the a couple sitting in the back of bus kept theirs on the entire time, but what about the others?

 

Another thing to consider - travelling to the ship after the negative pre-travel test ... airports and domestic planes have unvaccinated people, and the D variant is now a new s**t that is hitting the fan, and it's everywhere now. Worse than the original covid virus.

 

Here in Bermuda we are seeing a sharp increase in new cases and MOST of them are D variant. Some of them were imported by air - failed the arrival test even after the negative pre-travel test taken no more than 4 days before travel to Bermuda. And there were some that failed the Day 4 test after the negative arrival test. The incubation period is 4-14 days.

 

Here in Bermuda everyone masks up indoors, on buses, in taxis, etc, and dares not take it off. But it's not in the case in the USA or UK, so that's why we are still reluctant to fly off the island. Our son made two trips so far in June/July - one to NYC and other to UK - he and his travelmates successfully wore masks the enter time, ate outdoors, did social distancing, etc. Bet they looked like sore thumbs amongst the maskless people (when in the UK bang when they removed the mask mandate).

 

We hate this graph 😶. The population is 63K.

 

[BarbRN]

54 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

Well, I guess that makes my packing much easier!  No buses on excursions means no excursions taken/no heavy coat and boots= check; no wandering the cute little towns means no sturdy shoes=check; there's a lovely pool onboard that I can swim away from anyone = check; So I guess my suitcase contents will look like a Caribbean party for one!!  😅🤣😬

Not true. All excursions have a bus I think. 

[Crockett&Darla]

2 hours ago, jtwind said:

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

FWIW.... when we were on the Orion in June.... one of the Viking staff...and self professed techie....said the contact tracing devices we wore pinged off of routers located throughout the ship. He also went on to show how the thermal scanners with facial recognition could recognize you with a mask on. 

[miaf]

2 hours ago, jtwind said:

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

You don't need GPS for contact tracing. Bluetooth can find all the other devices in proximity and save  it for download later. GPS would require a lot of battery. 🙂 

[rbslos18]

Based on Viking's webpage Viking's Health and Safety faq, it may be the Iceland authorities driving the quarantine.

What happens if I am confirmed to be a close contact with a guest who tests positive?

Viking’s policy is that close contacts who are fully vaccinated do not have to quarantine. This policy is in line with current CDC guidelines. However, a different approach may be required when in a destination, depending on the local situation at the time.

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/my-trip/health-and-safety/health-and-safety-faq.html?fbclid=IwAR1fFVZeobjXdBZs5QAR85iOEapYUTWQAs0ZTglRY_8sEhqFopH15E_XQQo

Edited August 13, 2021 by rbslos18

[gramfrog]

53 minutes ago, BarbRN said:

Not true. All excursions have a bus I think. 

It was meant as a joke......   I meant that I'd stay excursion-less......

[BarbRN]

1 minute ago, gramfrog said:

It was meant as a joke......   I meant that I'd stay excursion-less......

Check

[sprshop]

4 hours ago, Snit13 said:

We 4 canceled our shore excursions last night and plan to cancel the cruise on Monday.  We really didn't want to do this but after what happened to the recently reported group who are now on the bus we  decided we didn't want to go thru that.  This is cruise number 5 for me that I didn't get to go on because of world wide health issues.

Us too, #5.  We have one for May 2022 and Jul 2023.  Fingers crossed😍

[gramfrog]

I have a client on the Viking Orion Bermuda cruise that boarded today.

There are only 100 passengers onboard. 

[TERRIER1]

9 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

I have a client on the Viking Orion Bermuda cruise that boarded today.

There are only 100 passengers onboard. 

How is Viking financially sustaining themselves running these cruises?

 

[sleepybobo]

4 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

I have a client on the Viking Orion Bermuda cruise that boarded today.

There are only 100 passengers onboard. 

I was actually tempted to book Bermuda.  Price is really good with the free air promo.  The Bermuda itinerary is less port-intensive than typical Viking cruises, which sounds like an advantage in the current situation.  No need to get on any bus.  Can explore ports on foot.  

 

But... still thinking if I want to deal with the uncertainties.... 

[diana11]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Last post on the site that cannot be named is that they are in a quarantine hotel in Reykjavik. The poster who up until then had been positive and had a great attitude said it was “DISGUSTING”. They are supposed to fly home tomorrow. 

Has the post been removed? I can no longer see it or the numerous comments

[sleepybobo]

3 minutes ago, TERRIER1 said:

How is Viking financially sustaining themselves running these cruises?

 

Better than having an idle ship I guess?  

[sleepybobo]

13 minutes ago, diana11 said:

Has the post been removed? I can no longer see it or the numerous comments

Weird.  I can no longer see the update today and the post from yesterday neither.

[BQEC]

17 minutes ago, TERRIER1 said:

How is Viking financially sustaining themselves running these cruises?

 

With the $ from our future cruise credits. I personally know of 75K tied up!! 5 people. 

[hodges97]

for those of you canceling your excursions.  They are 3 or 4 weeks out on giving refunds.  When I checked, they had shorted up by $700 or so.  My TA had to sort it out even though we made those reservations ourselves.  It's a little late to be talking about it, but I wonder how solid Viking is?  

 

[jdlg4silb]

7 hours ago, Msgolferfhcc said:

Are you on the 8/17 cruise?  We and another couple are. I like someone’s idea of sitting on balcony with silver spirits if nothing else. 

My wife and I are also on the 8/17 cruise. Obviously there is some degree of anxiety, but we're forging ahead with our plans.  Only change is I think we may steer clear of crowded bus trips. Just seems not to be worth the risk.

Edited August 13, 2021 by jdlg4silb

[BQEC]

Makes perfect sense. None of the Iceland Covid issues have been reported in the general press. Nor do I expect them to be. Wonderful that we have each other!!