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

[gramfrog]

1 minute ago, BarbRN said:

This is not just another cruise for us.  It’s the biggest outlay we’ve saved for our 50th Anniversary and has been nothing but daily stress already for weeks. 

This was to be our 50th Anniversary trip, also..... right now just glad we sprang for the small bit of extra square footage in our stateroom in case we are quarantined..... or there might not be a 51st Anniversary haha

[KarNog]

2 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Well this is a lesson to make sure your phone works for voice, text and data in each country you visit.

I had considered leaving my phone on airplane mode and using it only in wifi mode while on the ship. But now I've decided to risk a $10 per day fee from Verizon to have my phone available everywhere I go in Iceland.

[TayanaLorna]

3 minutes ago, Wander58 said:

Thanks for the info - I can't remember reading this anywhere...but there are ALOT of posts and many just noise. 

I saw this also - a case mid cruise and then one near the end.  Not much info tho.

[KarNog]

1 minute ago, gramfrog said:

This was to be our 50th Anniversary trip, also..... right now just glad we sprang for the small bit of extra square footage in our stateroom in case we are quarantined..... or there might not be a 51st Anniversary haha

I laughingly remarked to my partner last night that our stateroom, including the balcony, is 1/2 the size of our family room. He did not laugh. Does the balcony door lock?

[TayanaLorna]

1 minute ago, KarNog said:

I had considered leaving my phone on airplane mode and using it only in wifi mode while on the ship. But now I've decided to risk a $10 per day fee from Verizon to have my phone available everywhere I go in Iceland.

That is what we always do.  In the future we may turn airplane off for a day, make an outgoing test call and have a friend make an incoming test call just to be sure it works.  We already know texts work with WhatsApp and that WiFi works for email.

[TayanaLorna]

2 minutes ago, KarNog said:

I laughingly remarked to my partner last night that our stateroom, including the balcony, is 1/2 the size of our family room. He did not laugh. Does the balcony door lock?

The balcony door locks.

[sleepybobo]

12 minutes ago, Wander58 said:

Thanks for the info - I can't remember reading this anywhere...but there are ALOT of posts and many just noise. 

Found the posts. #2402 and #2469 in this thread. 
 

hmmm… why no report of people being sent home from the Sky? 

Edited August 14, 2021 by sleepybobo

[C-sea]

On 8/10/2021 at 1:29 PM, jan_az said:

On Viking sky. They just announced we have a positive asymptomatic case. That person is in quarantine and all close contacts have been retested and are negative 

Were close contacts put in quarantine?

[Milliegirl229]

23 minutes ago, BarbRN said:

That’s my gripe. Who can help?

Perhaps you could convince Viking to change you to a Bermuda cruise as I've seen reports that as few as 100 on a recent sailing. Things are much clearer in Bermuda with no need for long bus trips and the ability to venture out on your own.

[PacoC]

6 hours ago, Jimmcdaniel said:

Jim here..still on the Jupiter. My wife made an appointment to speak with the ship’s General Manager this morning to get clarification. Here is what we understand:

* The policy is an Iceland policy not a Viking policy.

* The policy applies to tours on buses not tenders or boat tours

* The policy also applies to tours not related to cruise ships (we are doing some private touring after the cruise so this was important to us).

* The policy is that if a guest on a tour bus tests positive everyone on the bus is deemed have been in contact with that person and must be quarantined. 
* For quarantined cruise passengers you have two options:

     1) Stay on the ship in quarantine. At the end of the cruise, if you test negative ,  you are free to go and do what ever you want. 

     2) Leave the ship. In this case you have to leave the country immediately if you test negative. 
* The GM stated that it has been their experience that in almost all the cases so far these breakthrough infections are detected by day 3 or 4 (Thursday or Friday in our case) and no one who was exposed subsequently tested positive. 

We were contemplating canceling all our remaining shore excursions. After speaking to the GM we will probably keep the excursions we have because they involve little if any bus travel. Today we do a walking tour from the pier. We are also comforted by the fact that if we do get nailed, if we stay on board and “do our time” we will be free to continue our holiday after the ship docks (assuming clean tests). 
 

it seems that by testing everyone everyday Viking is exposing its passengers to a higher than “normal” chance of being caught up in the Icelandic “bus policy”. I wonder if passengers on the other lines that are cruising here now (Ponant, NG Lindblad, Silversea, etc) are exposed to this as much. I don’t know if those other lines are doing this daily testing like Viking. 
 

Do the unlucky passengers listed below, get any cruise credit for being quarantined or sent home wile still testing negative? 
 

“For quarantined cruise passengers you have two options:

     1) Stay on the ship in quarantine. At the end of the cruise, if you test negative ,  you are free to go and do what ever you want. 

     2) Leave the ship. In this case you have to leave the country immediately if you test negative. “

[sleepybobo]

14 minutes ago, Milliegirl229 said:

Perhaps you could convince Viking to change you to a Bermuda cruise as I've seen reports that as few as 100 on a recent sailing. Things are much clearer in Bermuda with no need for long bus trips and the ability to venture out on your own.

Doubtful. Based on my experience dealing with Viking booking department, they are not flexible. I hope they are willing to be more accommodating dealing such trying time. 

[sleepybobo]

6 minutes ago, PaulChiru said:

Do the unlucky passengers listed below, get any cruise credit for being quarantined or sent home wile still testing negative? 
 

 

“For quarantined cruise passengers you have two options:

     1) Stay on the ship in quarantine. At the end of the cruise, if you test negative ,  you are free to go and do what ever you want. 

     2) Leave the ship. In this case you have to leave the country immediately if you test negative. “

According to a person in quarantine in a previous Jupiter sailing, Viking did not offer refund nor cruise voucher. She said Viking told her they stop doing 50% voucher. Viking asked her to file a trip interruption claim with insurance company. 
 

Now the question is whether insurance diners this situation. She, herself, was negative the entire time. 

[Jimmcdaniel]

18 minutes ago, PaulChiru said:

Do the unlucky passengers listed below, get any cruise credit for being quarantined or sent home wile still testing negative? 
 

 

“For quarantined cruise passengers you have two options:

     1) Stay on the ship in quarantine. At the end of the cruise, if you test negative ,  you are free to go and do what ever you want. 

     2) Leave the ship. In this case you have to leave the country immediately if you test negative. “

Sorry. No info on that. Viking is really not announcing anything publicly. We had to make an appointment with the GM to get the info I shared. 

[libraryworld]

1 hour ago, BarbRN said:

Same flight here. See ya!!

Happy to hear that.  There's a joke here somewhere about being on the same boat ...

 

[susanlik]

could someone on cruise now find out if the viking bus excurseions are going to be less full

like maybe only 20 people so fewer people wuold be in possibility of being contacts.

I would consider not canceling if they did.

also let us know which excursions would be considered shuttle to venue vs tour.  example volk baths is a bus ride to baths

 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, KarNog said:

 Does the balcony door lock?

From the inside, yes!

 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 minute ago, susanlik said:

could someone on cruise now find out if the viking bus excurseions are going to be less full

like maybe only 20 people so fewer people wuold be in possibility of being contacts.

I would consider not canceling if they did.

also let us know which excursions would be considered shuttle to venue vs tour.  example volk baths is a bus ride to baths

 

I forget what was reported to be Iceland's criteria (according to Viking General Mgr conversation) for quarantine of passengers on a bus/coach. I also don't remember anything specific about tour buses on covid.is, but perhaps that info is too general, and there's more we can't see.  Do we know if Iceland distinguishes between coaches for tours versus shuttle buses or other short-length rides?  Can going on a 1-1/2 hour tour create a risk for being told to quarantine? 

 

In any case, it may be hard for anyone to give information on how many people were on a bus for a particular tour, as there can be many, many buses used for the excursions.  And while I believe Viking does have a limit for each bus, not all may be filled to that limit.  In general, the buses I took (Jupiter Aug. 3 cruise), whether for long or short excursions, ranged from about half to 2/3rds full, but I have no idea if that's typical.  I also didn't count heads, so I don't know how many people were on any bus if it was 2/3rds full.

 

But I'm thinking that on shorter included bus tours, the ones later in the day may be the least full.  That has been my experience to date with Viking, including Iceland.  But who knows?  And as for the all day tours it sounds like at least some people will be moving away from them, which might make the buses less crowded in the long run.    

 

 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, sleepybobo said:

Found the posts. #2402 and #2469 in this thread. 
 

hmmm… why no report of people being sent home from the Sky? 

Jupiter pax were not really sent home.  If negative, they were offered an option to be bussed to Reykjavik and immediately travel home instead of quarantine on Jupiter.  Perhaps Sky is now trying to get approval from Iceland to let affected Sky passengers have the same option.  And maybe Viking Air personnel are checking availability of flights.  But I really don't know - just thinking aloud here!  I'm sure we'll know in time.  

[KarNog]

33 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

From the inside, yes!

 

Now I have to decide which side of the door I want to be on.

[Milliegirl229]

1 hour ago, sleepybobo said:

Doubtful. Based on my experience dealing with Viking booking department, they are not flexible. I hope they are willing to be more accommodating dealing such trying time. 

I know Viking has been strict with the 14 days but considering the recent issue with a whole bus in Iceland and that the Bermuda cruises have so few passengers it might be worth contacting Viking for those within 14 days and very worried about the Iceland cruise. It seems reasonable for Viking to allow the change with an almost empty Bermuda ship and create good will with cruisers.

 

[KarNog]

For around $400 I can rent a car for the day at KEF and return it to their city center location in time to board the ship in the early evening. That's about the same we paid for the Circle Tour on the second day. It's starting to make sense not to ride a bus for 8.5 hours but I want to see stuff.

Think Viking might be suspicious if I suddenly cancel my transfer (I self booked flight)? And if they are suspicious, do I really care?

[C-sea]

7 minutes ago, KarNog said:

For around $400 I can rent a car for the day at KEF and return it to their city center location in time to board the ship in the early evening. That's about the same we paid for the Circle Tour on the second day. It's starting to make sense not to ride a bus for 8.5 hours but I want to see stuff.

Think Viking might be suspicious if I suddenly cancel my transfer (I self booked flight)? And if they are suspicious, do I really care?

Sounds like a good idea! We were in Iceland for five days in Dec. 2018 trying to see the Aurora Borealis (not much luck, just some green without movement). Anyway, a self tour would be doable and on the chance it may be the only time you get to venture out any real distance, should be seriously considered.

[C-sea]

29 minutes ago, Milliegirl229 said:

I know Viking has been strict with the 14 days but considering the recent issue with a whole bus in Iceland and that the Bermuda cruises have so few passengers it might be worth contacting Viking for those within 14 days and very worried about the Iceland cruise. It seems reasonable for Viking to allow the change with an almost empty Bermuda ship and create good will with cruisers.

 

I agree! if we had not already taken a Bermuda cruise with Viking a few weeks ago, I would try to do this!

[sprshop]

2 hours ago, BarbRN said:

This is not just another cruise for us.  It’s the biggest outlay we’ve saved for our 50th Anniversary and has been nothing but daily stress already for weeks. 

Happy 50th Anniversary.  Sorry there is all this stress attached to such an auspicious milestone.  Wishing you some stress free celebrations🥂🍾🎉

[sprshop]

2 hours ago, gramfrog said:

This was to be our 50th Anniversary trip, also..... right now just glad we sprang for the small bit of extra square footage in our stateroom in case we are quarantined..... or there might not be a 51st Anniversary haha

Happy 50th Anniversary to you.  Wishing you a safe celebration cruise🥂🍾🎉