Viking River Cruises, covid and trip interruption

[westcoastmom]

Agents have been evasive on certain issues such as to how often does passengers get tested on a Viking River cruise? What happens if someone tested positive, will other passengers be in quarantine, on the ship or off? If there's Covid on board, are we still allowed to continue and visit other scheduled ports? If anyone knows the answers to these questions, please post.

[Turtles06]

I had similar questions for Viking regarding our upcoming river cruise out of Amsterdam in April after receiving an email from them outlining the various safety precautions they are taking, including testing upon embarkation and testing during the cruise.  Totally *missing* from that email was any explanation of what would happen to a guest who tested positive either at embarkation or during the cruise. 

 

On Viking's web site, buried in the FAQs, it says that for guests testing positive upon embarkation, "Viking will arrange for them to recover ashore before returning home once their recovery is complete. Upon their return home, Viking Customer Relations will contact the guest and their travel advisor directly regarding any necessary refunding or rescheduling."   Guests who test positive during the cruise "will be isolated on board. Should the destination where the ship is located require those who test positive be disembarked, we will arrange for the guest to recover ashore before returning home once their recovery is complete. Upon their return home, Viking Customer Relations will contact the guest and their travel advisor directly regarding any necessary refunding or rescheduling."

 

This of course left much unanswered, including what arrangements (if any) does Viking have in place for guests to "recover ashore" if they test positive on embarkation, especially in a place like Amsterdam during peak tourist season (April, tulip time), when hotels are very likely booked up.  Surely one would not want to have to wait until the last minute to make such arrangements under such circumstances.

 

I then had a number of frustrating phone calls with Viking, including at the supervisory level, trying to get additional information.  The bottom line is that Viking shoreside does not have many details about what would happen in any specific place to guests who test positive upon embarkation (or during a cruise).  "The ship will know" was one answer I received.   I was told by one rep that in Amsterdam, guests who tested positive would be placed in a "facility."  Asked to elaborate, he said "Not a hotel, but like a hotel."  Whatever that means.  Going up the chain, I was finally told that guests who test positive would be placed in a "standard government hotel."  Zero information about whether the guest would have access to the outside world via internet, TV, or otherwise.  I was told that no one from Viking would check up on the guest while he or she was in isolation, nor assist them in rearranging flights home unless they had booked with Viking Air.  It wasn't even clear that a doctor or nurse would check up on the guest in that "facility."   The daily expenses (room, food, anything else) would have to be paid by the guests (or their travel insurance), but Viking said they have no information even as to what the daily room rate would be.

 

Basically, from what I was told, Viking pretty much will wash its hands of you once it gets you off the boat.   (I was also told that the policy on ocean cruises is the same, there's nothing different from river cruises.)   

 

If Viking continues to test upon embarkation and during a cruise, its seems to be pretty much a pig in a poke as to where a guest who tests positive will wind up (let alone for how long).  And the entire situation is made worse, imho, by the requirement that even fully vaccinated Americans have to produce a negative test to fly home.   Maybe some or all of these requirements will be lifted in a few months, who knows, but I would be surprised if cruise lines stopped requiring pre-cruise tests that soon. 

 

I hope that's helpful. 

[sharkster77]

Recently, restrictions have been loosening all over the place----whatever is required today may be very different from what is the rule when you cruise.

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, sharkster77 said:

Recently, restrictions have been loosening all over the place----whatever is required today may be very different from what is the rule when you cruise.

 

I think we all know that.  But many of us have to make decisions on whether to go forward with certain trips in the very imminent future, and we can only base those decisions on what is required now, and whether we are comfortable with those rules and the potential downsides that might occur.   

[Host Jazzbeau]

I am scratching my head after re-reading the Viking communication.  At first, I thought 'this sounds more applicable to their Ocean ships than to River.'  But it was clarified that it applies to both [at least as far as Amsterdam is concerned].  It still doesn't seem helpful regarding a river cruise once you leave Amsterdam.

 

But I am doing my best not to freak out about my upcoming B2B in Holland/Belgium and France, as restrictions are falling like dominoes and my hope is that by mid-April when I fly to AMS they will all be gone.  [Viking seems to be layering their own regime on top of whatever is happening locally, so YMMV.]

[westcoastmom]

@Turtles06, you are fortunate in that the pandemic is winding down at the moment and countries are starting to relax covid restrictions, so a trip interruption where the ports will refuse disembarkation if there is Covid infection onboard is unlikely.  I am booked to travel in September and any new Covid variant  could appear before then. Did you purchase any type of trip interruption/cancellation/medical insurance?