Boarding a Viking Ship

[lkear]

How does boarding work?

 

What deck do you board on,  how easy is it to checkin and board, etc

[philw1776]

Could be deck 1 or the A deck below. Elevators & stairs. Usually you go through a pre-checkin somewhere in the port* then outside and up the ramp into the ship where you touch your new room card ID to the scanner and off you go. You may or may not be able to go to your room right away depending upon time and cleanup status of your room. Luggage magically appears in your room from the Viking bus you used from the airport.
Easy.

 

* bring viking printout of your itinerary to satisfy some port authorities

Edited April 24, 2022 by philw1776

[lkear]

24 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

Could be deck 1 or the A deck below. Elevators & stairs. Usually you go through a pre-checkin somewhere in the port* then outside and up the ramp into the ship where you touch your new room card ID to the scanner and off you go. You may or may not be able to go to your room right away depending upon time and cleanup status of your room. Luggage magically appears in your room from the Viking bus you used from the airport.
Easy.

 

* bring viking printout of your itinerary to satisfy some port authorities

thank you

[The-Inside-Cabin]

The ship system and MyViking.COM are not connected.   You will have to provide much of the same information again at the port.  
 

Checking in on Viking takes longer than on most other cruise lines.     Be ready for a wait.  

 

 

[GregoryPaul]

Pretty sure the website  “MyViking.COM” belongs to an electronics company, 

[Blackduck59]

4 hours ago, jrkear said:

How does boarding work?

 

What deck do you board on,  how easy is it to checkin and board, etc

 

You will need your passport, your boarding documents and your proof of vaccination. You will have to have completed Verifly but they probably won't ask about it. You will have to fill out a health questionnaire with the same questions as Verifly as well as hand fill in the vaccination information which is already in Verifly. You will get your key card and contact tracing device here. You will then proceed through security where your carry on gear is all scanned. Next stop (still on shore) you will give your spit sample. Now you board the ship. You can have lunch in the World Cafe and wait anywhere on the ship. The cabins ready announcement will be made and there you go. Masks on when moving around the ship for the first day. This was the process we went through when boarding Viking Orion in San Pedro 2 weeks ago. 

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, jrkear said:

How does boarding work?

 

What deck do you board on,  how easy is it to checkin and board, etc

 

Which deck you board on depends on the condition of the tide and the type of passenger terminal.

 

If boarding from the dock, most of the time it will be Deck A or 1, depending on the tide. When boarding from an upper-level terminal, you can also board on the outer decks of Deck 2.

[lkear]

7 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Which deck you board on depends on the condition of the tide and the type of passenger terminal.

 

If boarding from the dock, most of the time it will be Deck A or 1, depending on the tide. When boarding from an upper-level terminal, you can also board on the outer decks of Deck 2.

We board in Bergen, Norway

[Heidi13]

31 minutes ago, jrkear said:

We board in Bergen, Norway

 

Again, it depends on the state of the tide, however Bergen does have a fairly low tidal range of about 4 to possibly 5'. Bergen also has multiple cruise ship berths, so depends on how many other ships are in port and their respective lengths.

[lkear]

12 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Again, it depends on the state of the tide, however Bergen does have a fairly low tidal range of about 4 to possibly 5'. Bergen also has multiple cruise ship berths, so depends on how many other ships are in port and their respective lengths.

thank you

[molymoo]

On 4/24/2022 at 5:45 PM, The-Inside-Cabin said:

The ship system and MyViking.COM are not connected.   You will have to provide much of the same information again at the port.  
 

Checking in on Viking takes longer than on most other cruise lines.     Be ready for a wait.  

 

 

Interesting … pre-Covid Viking check in was remarkably quick and easy.  How things have changed!

[austinetc]

We boarded Viking Sky on Saturday. Right up until we got off the bus we were continuously given instructions that in the end did not match what the actual boarding process was. So I suggest you be prepared for everything, but surprised by nothing. No one wanted to see our vaccination card (Verifly worked) or credit card (registered online). We were asked four health questions, which were written out on the counter. A single "no" answered all four. From bus to ship was maybe five minutes, mostly walking. Once on board, there were crewmembers at every corner guiding us through the process. For us it was a quick video about life preservers, then directions to our cabin. Easy.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

3 hours ago, austinetc said:

We boarded Viking Sky on Saturday. Right up until we got off the bus we were continuously given instructions that in the end did not match what the actual boarding process was. So I suggest you be prepared for everything, but surprised by nothing. No one wanted to see our vaccination card (Verifly worked) or credit card (registered online). We were asked four health questions, which were written out on the counter. A single "no" answered all four. From bus to ship was maybe five minutes, mostly walking. Once on board, there were crewmembers at every corner guiding us through the process. For us it was a quick video about life preservers, then directions to our cabin. Easy.

This is how it should be everywhere.....wonder why it's inconsistent?   We boarded in Vancouver and during our slow check in process I looked for anyone with a Viking name tag that might be overseeing events in the terminal.    Didn't see anyone.   

 

Once on the ship I spoke with a senior officer and shared my check in observations.   He said that Viking staff was not allowed in the terminal during check in....

 

A different senior officer called me later to follow-up on my first conversation and said that they did have staff in the terminal.....

 

I suspect that ports with a lot of Viking embarkations may have contract shore staff that are more used to Viking procedures.    I thought it was odd that there wasn't a very visible presence of Viking personnel ashore to monitor what was happening in the terminal.

 

What was most surprising was they wanted to see actual vaccination cards instead of the verifly app QR code