tmccaleb

But also see the reports from the August 10 sailing on Sky (about post #2991).

As I reported earlier, on Monday we cancelled our 8/21 booking even though we were past the 14-day risk-free guarantee, so Viking's normal cancellation penalty applies. Today, I checked my credit card statement, and Viking has promptly refunded the amounts we paid for shore excursions and gratuities. Still waiting to hear from TripMate about our Cancel for Any Reason claim, but past experience is TripMate takes a while to process a claim.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I originally said our cash refund would include excursions, gratuities, and transfers, but then Viking informed me when I asked that transfers were non-refundable. And of course the travel protection plan cost is non-refundable.

I have now filed a claim with TripMate under the Cancel for Any Reason clause, and that should result in a voucher equal to the cruise cancellation penalty, which at this point equals the entire cruise fare. Unlike the two-year vouchers issued by Viking under the 14-day risk-free guarantee policy, the vouchers issued by TripMate under the Cancel for Any Reason policy are only good for one year. I just filed the claim today so I do not have those in hand nor any confirmation from TripMate, but I have read the policy carefully, and I have no reason to believe that they would deny this claim.

The bottom line is that if it works as I think it should and if we are able to use the vouchers within the next year, we will be made whole except for the cost of the travel protection plan. We started to cancel two weeks ago before reaching the 14th day, then decided there wasn't enough difference between the risk-free guarantee and the cancel for any reason policy to justify not waiting until "the bitter end". By Monday, we were no more comfortable with the idea of having a partially aborted cruise or possibly being quarantined outside the US than we had been two weeks previously; hence, we cancelled on Monday. Reading the posts on this message board, of which I had not been aware, during the last two weeks helped us make that decision, so thanks to all of you for that.

Correction: Just heard from Viking that under their normal cancellation policy, payments for transfers are non-refundable as is true of payments for travel protection plan. Gratuities and excursions are refundable in cash or credit card.

Viking's confirmation to me indicates that we will get a refund to our credit card for excursions, gratuities, and transfers. No refund for travel protection plan premium. It appears that we must file a claim with TripMate for the voucher (should equal the cancellation penalty, which is now 100% of the cruise far). But we are invoking their normal cancellation policy as we are already past the 14-day deadline for the no-risk guarantee.

For the no-risk guarantee (that's the one we rescinded), we got vouchers from Viking that included the full amount we had paid to them including excursions, gratuities, travel protection premium, etc. 

Each time we did it (we did it 3 times, although we rescinded the second one), it was a simple email to vcmail@vikingcruises.com.

Booked on June 26, but had to cancel due to illness. Invoked the 14-day risk-free policy. Rebooked for August 21. Two weeks ago, we began to have doubts, primarily concerned with rise of delta in both US and Iceland, diminished effectiveness of vaccine (we were among the first), but actually less concerned about the virus itself than the possibility of being sick or quarantined outside the country. So we started to cancel again invoking the 14-day policy, but then decided to defer the decision for two weeks. So two weeks is now, we feel no more comfortable than we did two weeks ago, and we are put off somewhat by the reports on this board about the August 10 cruise. This morning we cancelled. We did buy the travel protection plan so should get vouchers for the cruise fare, more restrictive than the 14-day vouchers, but on the other hand, we do get some cash back (shore excursions, gratuities, transfers, but of course not the travel protection plan premium), which we didn't with the 14-day plan. Fortunately, we paid about $600 extra for fully refundable fares on Icelandair, so we get that back, and we get ecredits for our Delta flight to Boston. We felt we were fully informed until we read the experience of the August 10 cruise, and while we might have cancelled anyway, that did throw us over the edge. Whether that is a result of Viking's policy or Iceland's policy is immaterial, it's just not at the level of the risk we were prepared to take. Two months ago, seemed like a good idea, today not so much. Best wishes to the rest of you, and wishing for you a completely uneventful and joyful cruise. I have, by the way, encouraged Viking to add this itinerary to their catalog of future cruises.