Viking Mars Boarded today Wellington Cancelled!

[Relaxing Rita]

We have boarded Mars in Sydney today ready for our long planned  New Zealand Cruise. 
Check in was standard, every passenger needed proof of negative Covid test, which was different than we were told by Viking but we did our tests in the tent. All good. 
When we reached our cabin we saw the Daily News and noted that Wellington was no longer listed. We have now checked with guest services who told us this has been a last minute change. Now we have 2 ports cancelled… Dunedin and now Wellington.

No refund of port fees has been offered or anything else.  We have been told we need to contact Guest Service Main Office in California. 
Has anyone had any experience like this? Please let us know, we are so very disappointed in the way this has been handled.

We have cruised many times on other lines and have been offered an OBC or the like. 
 

[Little Monty]

10 minutes ago, Relaxing Rita said:

We have boarded Mars in Sydney today ready for our long planned  New Zealand Cruise. 
Check in was standard, every passenger needed proof of negative Covid test, which was different than we were told by Viking but we did our tests in the tent. All good. 
When we reached our cabin we saw the Daily News and noted that Wellington was no longer listed. We have now checked with guest services who told us this has been a last minute change. Now we have 2 ports cancelled… Dunedin and now Wellington.

No refund of port fees has been offered or anything else.  We have been told we need to contact Guest Service Main Office in California. 
Has anyone had any experience like this? Please let us know, we are so very disappointed in the way this has been handled.

We have cruised many times on other lines and have been offered an OBC or the like. 
 

What will they do with the 2 spare days (any ports added ? stay overnight somewhere ?).

 

They might be still working on a Plan B. There might be more information to come.

 

We did Auckland - Sydney in 2019 and missed Christchurch and Hobart and were offered compensation. However that was pre COVID and the T's and C's for such things might be different these days. 

 

Stay calm, enjoy the ship, and hope for more information shortly. Please come back and let us know what happens.

 

Oh, and please take good care of the ship. We board Mars in Barcelona in June.

 

Cheers, LM

 

 

[tocruiseguy]

Didn't NZ get hit by a cyclone a few weeks ago?

[Little Monty]

5 minutes ago, tocruiseguy said:

Didn't NZ get hit by a cyclone a few weeks ago?

 

Cyclones are typically tropical but the weather systems which result from them do occasionally go far enough south to impact NZ. 

 

The weather in Wellington today was fine and 22 degrees (celsius).

 

I assume there is more at play than the weather, and hopefully OP will provide an update over coming days.

 

 

[harbourside]

Doing this cruise 21st February on Mars Sydney to Auckland.    I have purchased an excursion for Wellington with Viking.  I would also like to know what is going on.

[katlew]

I hope it’s not a hull cleaning issue!

[oskidunker]

How long is the cruise and what was the totals number of ports?

[oskidunker]

9 ports in 15 days?  Overnight in two ports. This is not a cruise I would take. Too many sea days for what they are charging, especially with the cancelled port. Oceania is more port  intensive ,suits me better, although they are shortening port time claiming they are reducing their foot print.  After my March Viking cruise I am not booking any more cruise's until I see all this shakes out. Cruising looks less attractive as the months pass .

 

its kind of like your favorite restaurants who decide to increase costs AND reduce quality.i am eating out less.  Just not enjoyable anymore.  

 

 

 

[tocruiseguy]

1 hour ago, oskidunker said:

9 ports in 15 days?  Overnight in two ports. This is not a cruise I would take. Too many sea days for what they are charging, especially with the cancelled port. Oceania is more port  intensive ,suits me better, although they are shortening port time claiming they are reducing their foot print.  After my March Viking cruise I am not booking any more cruise's until I see all this shakes out. Cruising looks less attractive as the months pass .

 

its kind of like your favorite restaurants who decide to increase costs AND reduce quality.i am eating out less.  Just not enjoyable anymore.  

 

 

 

It seems Australia and NZ aren’t exactly welcoming the cruise industry with open arms.  We are on a cruise out of Sydney in a few months and we still need to be tested before boarding while how many thousands of international air passengers land in Sydney daily with no testing requirements?  Seems a little strange to me.

[zalusky]

59 minutes ago, tocruiseguy said:

It seems Australia and NZ aren’t exactly welcoming the cruise industry with open arms.  We are on a cruise out of Sydney in a few months and we still need to be tested before boarding while how many thousands of international air passengers land in Sydney daily with no testing requirements?  Seems a little strange to me.

We just finished an Oceania cruise Bali to Sydney and had no testing requirements.  Go figure!

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, zalusky said:

We just finished an Oceania cruise Bali to Sydney and had no testing requirements.  Go figure!

That's because it didn't start in Australia. That's where the issue as we require testing of people before embarking on cruise ships here. No testing required on disembarkation here. Not a mystery.
 

I expect this will be relaxed for next season. Unfortunately Ruby Princess back in March 2020 has scarred the cruise industry as that brought Covid whole scale into Australia, over 800 infected passengers and 27 deaths as our first mass entry of Covid and then people flew back home across the world.  Prior to then we had very few infections. 
 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-15/carnival-s-ruby-princess-cruise-ship-spread-coronavirus-around-the-world

There's just a couple of months left for the Australia season now. NZ is much more stringent with its marine biosecurity. We have it too but NZ are enforcing it more. Wellington isn't an at risk place for that anyway, more like Milford Sounds and other protected areas in the south. If you are allowed to enter other ports then it isn't the hull thing. Just something to do with Wellington. NZ does get high winds and ports are often cancelled. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Pushka

[harbourside]

Wellington Port is not until February 3rd.  Can  not be weather related. 

[zalusky]

20 minutes ago, Pushka said:

That's because it didn't start in Australia. That's where the issue as we require testing of people before embarking on cruise ships here. No testing required on disembarkation here. Not a mystery.
 

...

 

Does not make a lot of sense to allow a ship in with half untested starting in Bali  and the other half originally started in Sydney so we have a mix

 

Oh well!

Edited January 24, 2023 by zalusky

[Little Monty]

21 minutes ago, zalusky said:

 

Does not make a lot of sense to allow a ship in with half untested starting in Bali  and the other half originally started in Sydney so we have a mix

 

Oh well!

 

In Australia we have a rule for every situation, and an exception to every rule.

 

I read about this issue every second day and I'm still confused (insert smile here).

 

Pushka is correct - it all goes back to the Ruby Princess situation, which was literally a disaster in every sense.

 

As time passed and international flights were allowed to start bringing in passengers again cruise ships were still banned (the stigma of Ruby Princess wouldn't go away). So the cruise line industry and government authorities agreed if cruise ships went over-and-above what airlines were doing they might be allowed to start cruising again.

 

Over time these cruise line protocols were written into a document known as the Eastern Seaboard and Western Australian Cruise Protocols.

 

Under the Eastern Seaboard and Western Australian Cruise Protocols, cruise vessels must report COVID-19 cases 12-24 hrs prior to arrival at a NSW port. Once reports are received from cruise vessels, their tier level is published below.

 

 

I can't get the link to work .. but if you are interested just search for 

Eastern Seaboard and Western Australian Cruise Protocols

 

I can't find any reference to this document being superseded so I assume it is still in effect.

 

We are dealing with 3 scenarios;

 

1 passengers on a cruise ship in international waters heading for an Australian port. Basically if passengers show symptoms the cruise line is responsible for testing them. Positive numbers have to be advised to local authorities prior to arrival.

 

2 passengers who are about to disembark. If nobody showed symptoms prior to arrival and there was no need to test (perhaps your situation) everybody is free to disembark. This assumes people who showed symptoms advised medical staff on board, and assumes medical staff on board did the test correctly, and assumes any relevant information was passed on to authorities.

 

Of course there may have been other people on board your cruise who did test positive - but of course this information is not shared by the cruise staff so you would not know.

 

3 passengers who are embarking on a cruise from an Australian port. The need for testing is driven by the desire of cruise lines to prevent COVID positive people from boarding.

 

Interestingly I am flying to New Zealand on Saturday and I don't have to test before I depart nor when I arrive. If however I was boarding a cruise ship to NZ I have no doubt I would need to be tested and negative.

 

This is of course all unrelated to the Wellington cancellation issue, but thought it might be useful.

 

Cheers, LM

 

  

[Pushka]

55 minutes ago, zalusky said:

 

Does not make a lot of sense to allow a ship in with half untested starting in Bali  and the other half originally started in Sydney so we have a mix

 

Oh well!

Never said it did! I agree. It's stupid. But it is what we have. Much of this stuff never made sense. 🤷‍♀️😂

[Fieldofdreams]

16 hours ago, Relaxing Rita said:

We have boarded Mars in Sydney today ready for our long planned  New Zealand Cruise. 
Check in was standard, every passenger needed proof of negative Covid test, which was different than we were told by Viking but we did our tests in the tent. All good. 
When we reached our cabin we saw the Daily News and noted that Wellington was no longer listed. We have now checked with guest services who told us this has been a last minute change. Now we have 2 ports cancelled… Dunedin and now Wellington.

No refund of port fees has been offered or anything else.  We have been told we need to contact Guest Service Main Office in California. 
Has anyone had any experience like this? Please let us know, we are so very disappointed in the way this has been handled.

We have cruised many times on other lines and have been offered an OBC or the like. 
 

[Fieldofdreams]

Just got off the phone with Viking in California and I was told that it is a biofouling issue on the Mars. Also concerned as harborside as we embark on the Mars Feb. 21st.  The representative did put me on hold and verified this information with another individual within Viking, so I believe there is some accuracy to what I was provided.

[Fieldofdreams]

14 hours ago, harbourside said:

Doing this cruise 21st February on Mars Sydney to Auckland.    I have purchased an excursion for Wellington with Viking.  I would also like to know what is going on.

Harborside - You might want to look at the information I just posted. Just off the phone with Viking, seems to be a biofoul issue again. We are on the same cruise.

[Pushka]

This is becoming untenable for the cruise industry.  But why Wellington stopped but other ports are ok? Makes no sense. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Pushka

[harbourside]

The ship is not a year old yet.  I hope Viking sorts this out, there is not enough ports on this cruise to actually have some of them cancelled.

[WestW]

3 minutes ago, Fieldofdreams said:

Just got off the phone with Viking in California and I was told that it is a biofouling issue on the Mars. Also concerned as harborside as we embark on the Mars Feb. 21st.  

 

17 hours ago, Relaxing Rita said:

No refund of port fees has been offered or anything else.  We have been told we need to contact Guest Service Main Office in California. 

 

Has anyone had any experience like this? Please let us know, we are so very disappointed in the way this has been handled. We have cruised many times on other lines and have been offered an OBC or the like. 
 

Biofoul issue seems to becoming more problematic with several ships being denied entry - particularly to New Zealand's South Island (see link).

 

We were on the Orion on the reverse itinerary - Auckland to Sydney - from Dec 21- Jan 4th - which had a biofoul issue along with Princess Coral Princess.  Discovered while we were in Tauranga, we were still allowed to dock in Wellington before we headed all the way to Adelaide to get the hull cleaned. Originally we were going to miss 3 ports (Christ Church, Dunedin and Hobart, Tazmania). At that point Viking told us we would received 50% of our cruise fare paid back in vouchers.  

 

Turns out we were banned from docking at Adelaide and had to get the hull cleaned offshore. This took 2 days causing us to miss Melbourne for a total of 8 1/2 days at sea after leaving Wellington. Viking then upped their compensation to 100% of cruise fare paid.

 

 I suspect they are working on something to compensate you for the missed ports.  

 

https://maritime-executive.com/article/fourth-cruise-hit-with-biofouling-as-new-zealand-and-industry-meet

[harbourside]

Viking Mars has been sailing Auckland/Sydney route since December.  Why now is it being stopped.

Anyone on a Viking Mars/Orion cruise been able to complete a cruise in Aust/NZ this season.

[Pushka]

24 minutes ago, WestW said:

 

Biofoul issue seems to becoming more problematic with several ships being denied entry - particularly to New Zealand's South Island (see link).

 

We were on the Orion on the reverse itinerary - Auckland to Sydney - from Dec 21- Jan 4th - which had a biofoul issue along with Princess Coral Princess.  Discovered while we were in Tauranga, we were still allowed to dock in Wellington before we headed all the way to Adelaide to get the hull cleaned. Originally we were going to miss 3 ports (Christ Church, Dunedin and Hobart, Tazmania). At that point Viking told us we would received 50% of our cruise fare paid back in vouchers.  

 

Turns out we were banned from docking at Adelaide and had to get the hull cleaned offshore. This took 2 days causing us to miss Melbourne for a total of 8 1/2 days at sea after leaving Wellington. Viking then upped their compensation to 100% of cruise fare paid.

 

 I suspect they are working on something to compensate you for the missed ports.  

 

https://maritime-executive.com/article/fourth-cruise-hit-with-biofouling-as-new-zealand-and-industry-meet

Adelaide didn't ban the ship but we just couldn't get our international border entry for passengers sorted with little notice. Adelaide is never the first arrival port for international arrivals. 

[Relaxing Rita]

Very good question Harbourside…. I spoke with Guest Services onboard again this morning and Wellington is confirmed as being deleted from our shrinking cruise, again the issue is “operational issue”. She said that our compensation has been noted …. We are a party of 10 and would like some answers from Viking soon. 
thank you everyone for your input…will update when we know more.

[harbourside]

16 minutes ago, Relaxing Rita said:

Very good question Harbourside…. I spoke with Guest Services onboard again this morning and Wellington is confirmed as being deleted from our shrinking cruise, again the issue is “operational issue”. She said that our compensation has been noted …. We are a party of 10 and would like some answers from Viking soon. 
thank you everyone for your input…will update when we know more.

What was the reason given for your Dunedin cancellation.  Same issue??????   I am getting a bit anti this cruise now.  I live in Auckland and just used a credit to cruise close to home in these times.  Vikings New Zealand cruise does not have the best itinerary, (No Milford Sounds), but as I like Viking I decided to do the cruise just to enjoy the ship and see more of New Zealand.   This cruise has already been cancelled once, (2022).  I hope things improve for you.  I was planning on doing their New Cruise, 32 days Circle Australia, Sydney to Sydney  Jan 2025, booking on board.   Viking had better get back in my good books.