I'm not sure why Viking put us through all these steps.
- Our neighbor is using anpther expedition ship, Antarctica, two weeks after ours (Jan 2024). The Seabourn Pursuit, same size and class of ship, has no medical or evacuation papers to sign at all. No medical testing when you board in Ushuaia, etc.
- The Viking documents wouldn't pass a HIPPA test or probably the EU privacy either. Doctors from medical systems in California can't just log into a random domain with .EU and enter patient information. 2nd, Our travel friends got an email back from Viking that the Viking system doesn't work with the Kaiser Permanente system - Kaiser being the largest single medical provider (HMO) in the US.
- Spend 20 minutes searching high-end travel credit cards. For $550 annually, we get a $300 credit on any travel related charges, entrance to many airport lounges, $25,000 trip insurance included, $25,000 evacuation insurance, foreign car rental insurance, free Doordash and Instacart, and 5% cash on all travel charges. No international charges.
- BTW - nobody is going to be able to evacuate from a ship near the Antarctica Peninsula. Too far for helicopters, no place to land airplanes. Be healthy before you go and trust the quality of the doctors on-board.
- By paying for the cruise with the credit card, I saved more than if I had paid cash from checking debit transaction.
Respecting this forum's rules, no names, but at least three of the five cards I investigated were this good.
