Viking Star in Iceland Recent Experiences w/Covid Precautions

[jwcruiser2011]

We are planning to be on the August 21 Sailing from Reykjavik.   If you have recently taken this cruise, we are wondering what your experience was like with coved precautions in place.  Any information and thoughts you have are appreciated. Thanks!

[Heartgrove]

These are strictly my thoughts as you asked for. We were on the July 17 Viking Sky cruise. Viking does a fairly good job of taking precautions. The only problem I noticed with social distancing was the dining areas. In particular we were at Manfredi's one evening. I'm not sure what the table number was but the three tables were walled off  into a corner. We were seated at the middle two-top . I seriously felt that the other four passengers were too close on either side considering how the walls constricted the space. The space should be reconfigured to be only two two-tops.

 

But to compound the situation, a number of passengers were not visible wearing the lanyards for contact tracing. It appears that some are too vain to display the lanyard properly and try to circumvent the requirement. Amazing with some of the responses posted here on CC as to what they are doing! Viking should be bold and require that the lanyard with contact tracer be visible. It provides passenger peace of mind as when dining you are in close proximity for more than 15 minutes..

 

One other minor item. Passengers sometimes forget while in the World Cafe to place their mask back on while getting additional food. If not seated, you should have the mask on.

[downsmead]

On 8/2/2021 at 3:40 PM, jwcruiser2011 said:

We are planning to be on the August 21 Sailing from Reykjavik.   If you have recently taken this cruise, we are wondering what your experience was like with coved precautions in place.  Any information and thoughts you have are appreciated. Thanks!

The Viking Star is doing a U.K. cruise on August 21st, do you mean Viking Sky?

[NeilP57]

5 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

But to compound the situation, a number of passengers were not visible wearing the lanyards for contact tracing. It appears that some are too vain to display the lanyard properly and try to circumvent the requirement.

Live from Viking Sky

 

There is no requirement to have your tracking device visible and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous. We all sign up to carrying our tracking device when outside our stateroom but no where is it a requirement it it is visible. 
 

To respond to the initial question the current situation on board is that Covid protection protocols are well maintained. In my opinion the greatest risk is travelling to get to Reykjavik not whilst on board. Of course there are times when you are near others. If you go on a excursion there are others near you on the coach and also at lunch. There is no isolated two tops at lunch. 
 

If you are happy to travel and be by others whilst you travel then you should 

feel safe amongst fully vaccinated, daily tested passengers aboard the ship and on organised Viking tours. 

[Heartgrove]

20 minutes ago, NeilP57 said:

Live from Viking Sky

 

There is no requirement to have your tracking device visible and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous. We all sign up to carrying our tracking device when outside our stateroom but no where is it a requirement it it is visible. 
 

To respond to the initial question the current situation on board is that Covid protection protocols are well maintained. In my opinion the greatest risk is travelling to get to Reykjavik not whilst on board. Of course there are times when you are near others. If you go on a excursion there are others near you on the coach and also at lunch. There is no isolated two tops at lunch. 
 

If you are happy to travel and be by others whilst you travel then you should 

feel safe amongst fully vaccinated, daily tested passengers aboard the ship and on organised Viking tours. 

 

The technology used for the contact tracing does not have enough empirical data to show whether the GPS or Bluetooth methods are better than the other. The visible wearing of the device potentially creates a higher likelihood of users buy-in by prioritizing trust. It augments contact identification by identifying unknown contacts.

 

The OP was not asking about travel to the cruise. If you feel uncomfortable traveling in public to Reykjavik, then perhaps you shouldn't. Of course you are already there. But given Iceland's current requirement of everyone providing results of a negative test to cross their border, even that should be mute.

 

On this forum there has been discussion of how some are not providing samples according to the collection guidelines. They are gathering the sample overnite for the next day and drinking water in to help produce sputum. 

[Margigarcia]

I have asked in every way I know how-with frankly not much success-the number of incidents of quarantining in cabins??? That is our biggest question regarding traveling in September.  If there is a 10% chance (from prior cruise experiences) of being there for days-or higher??  I know it varies and it is a crapshoot-but being from Louisville, Home of The Kentucky Derby, I’d like some sort of odds.  Does this make sense?  

[The Other Tom]

18 minutes ago, Margigarcia said:

I have asked in every way I know how-with frankly not much success-the number of incidents of quarantining in cabins??? That is our biggest question regarding traveling in September.  If there is a 10% chance (from prior cruise experiences) of being there for days-or higher??  I know it varies and it is a crapshoot-but being from Louisville, Home of The Kentucky Derby, I’d like some sort of odds.  Does this make sense?  

Your question makes sense but probably Viking is not releasing that info due to privacy concerns (similar to HIPPA laws in the US)

[NeilP57]

26 minutes ago, Margigarcia said:

I have asked in every way I know how-with frankly not much success-the number of incidents of quarantining in cabins??? That is our biggest question regarding traveling in September.  If there is a 10% chance (from prior cruise experiences) of being there for days-or higher??  I know it varies and it is a crapshoot-but being from Louisville, Home of The Kentucky Derby, I’d like some sort of odds.  Does this make sense?  

 

Well if you can provide us with what the rules will be in Iceland in early September. Will vaccinated close contacts of Covid positive case be required to quarantine. Whats the definition (both Viking and/or the Icelandic authorities) of close contact.

 

If you can provide us with what the underlying Covid rate will be within the general population in Iceland in early September.

 

Then we need to consider what flights you and your fellow airline passengers will be taking. What is the Covid rate in the various territories they flew from.

 

What proportion of the domestic flights passengers were vaccinated and did they practice social distancing and other precautions in the few days before departure.

 

Thats a few variables to ponder over. 

 

I think it may be easier to predict the winner of The Kentucky Derby than calculate the % chance of a quarantine problem.

 

I know this is a slightly facetious response but I am not sure you will ever get the answers you ask.

[Margigarcia]

1 minute ago, NeilP57 said:

 

Well if you can provide us with what the rules will be in Iceland in early September. Will vaccinated close contacts of Covid positive case be required to quarantine. Whats the definition (both Viking and/or the Icelandic authorities) of close contact.

 

If you can provide us with what the underlying Covid rate will be within the general population in Iceland in early September.

 

Then we need to consider what flights you and your fellow airline passengers will be taking. What is the Covid rate in the various territories they flew from.

 

What proportion of the domestic flights passengers were vaccinated and did they practice social distancing and other precautions in the few days before departure.

 

Thats a few variables to ponder over. 

 

I think it may be easier to predict the winner of The Kentucky Derby than calculate the % chance of a quarantine problem.

 

I know this is a slightly facetious response but I am not sure you will ever get the answers you ask.

True ALL that 😊😊

What I really want is an idea how many Jupiter and Sky passengers have had to quarantine-those numbers will also never be made known.  

[Margigarcia]

10 minutes ago, The Other Tom said:

Your question makes sense but probably Viking is not releasing that info due to privacy concerns (similar to HIPPA laws in the US)

I talked to a Viking rep-not sales person-and he agreed that it isn’t HIPPA if names aren’t divulged-but also agreed that Viking wouldn’t release those details.  

[NeilP57]

1 minute ago, Margigarcia said:

True ALL that 😊😊

What I really want is an idea how many Jupiter and Sky passengers have had to quarantine-those numbers will also never be made known.  

I left Viking Star on Saturday 7th August and my understanding is that there were no cases on Viking Star last week.

 

[Margigarcia]

Just now, NeilP57 said:

I left Viking Star on Saturday 7th August and my understanding is that there were no cases on Viking Star last week.

 

That is great comfort.  

[registrar]

Honesty is the best policy!

C’mon Viking just the facts on numbers from previous cruises please!!!!!