jtwind

17 hours ago, frantic36 said:

What happened in Iceland? Positive cases went up a bit but deaths from Covid are rare. As far as I know they have only had one death from Covid since May. I have a friend that lives there.

I guess your friend didn't tell you that this has been their biggest wave by far, and that they have gone back to mask wearing, distancing, and serious contact tracing.  If you get pinged by the tracing, you're off to a designated hotel.  No going outside for a quick walk, no visitors, nothing.

Never change a winning game.  Always change a losing game.  For the short term, anyway.

Sure.  Just take a look at what happened to Iceland, French Polynesia, and Hawaii when they relaxed their restrictions.

I'm surprised so few tried to go to the active volcano.

My agent consistently gives me 10-15% discounts, extra onboard credit, free meals at specialty restaurants, and occasional upgrades to business class.

The lady with the smart phone (at 0:44) looks far too young to be a retiree.  But, I guess many young people can be considered to be on a fixed income.

6 hours ago, rbslos18 said:

This is not about Viking's quarantine policy which is acceptable and reasonable. It is about Iceland's policy which overrides Viking's protocol. This information should be shared by Viking so we can make intelligent decisions.

What is Iceland's definition of close contact?

18 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Unfortunately the crew come from places that vaccine is not readily available. Viking vaccinated the crew on board so that they knew they were all done. Not all ship take as good care with their crews.

We were under the impression that the crew was vaxed in its home port, Galveston.

2 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Not looking for an argument, but I AM curious why you think Viking's policies seem to endanger others in Iceland.  If you test positive, and are retested/confirmed positive, you and traveling companions are quarantined on the ship.  Viking doesn't (and can't) fly you home, and Viking doesn't let you continue to go out into the community (ship or ports).  The people who flew home were not positive. 

Folks supposedly wouldn't test positive for a few days.  That's why Iceland requires the longer quarantine period.  Every country that does contact tracing does the same, as far as I know, for the same reason.

9 hours ago, Jimmcdaniel said:

Jim here..still on the Jupiter. My wife made an appointment to speak with the ship’s General Manager this morning to get clarification. Here is what we understand:

* The policy is an Iceland policy not a Viking policy.

* The policy applies to tours on buses not tenders or boat tours

* The policy also applies to tours not related to cruise ships (we are doing some private touring after the cruise so this was important to us).

* The policy is that if a guest on a tour bus tests positive everyone on the bus is deemed have been in contact with that person and must be quarantined. 
* For quarantined cruise passengers you have two options:

     1) Stay on the ship in quarantine. At the end of the cruise, if you test negative ,  you are free to go and do what ever you want. 

     2) Leave the ship. In this case you have to leave the country immediately if you test negative. 
* The GM stated that it has been their experience that in almost all the cases so far these breakthrough infections are detected by day 3 or 4 (Thursday or Friday in our case) and no one who was exposed subsequently tested positive. 

Then the Viking policies for quarantined passengers is much softer than Iceland's quarantine policy for locals and other travelers.  The Viking quarantine policies would seem to endanger others in Iceland, and I wouldn't want to be on a flight with someone who was cleared that easily.

9 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Huh? That is one of the two technologies used by contact tracer devices. Same with your phone.

I was surprised too.  But folks have been saying the Viking ones don't do gps.

20 hours ago, Liz Masterson said:

So if you go on a land tour by yourself and are not tested daily.. you can continue to tour....

But if you do all the extra protocols.... and a person you are with on a bus tests positive you have to quarrentine. 

 

Hmmm... 

Yes.  Viking is ahead of the curve on testing, and behind the curve on the length of quarantine.  Weird combination.  But I can see the extra testing vs. land tour.  IN GENERAL, the land tour people won't be around near as many other people.  The land based people will interact with some unvaxed folks, but the same is probably true for cruisers (fake cards).

5 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Contact tracing then was being within 6 feet of a positive person for more then 15 minutes over a 24 hour period.  So dining at those too close 2 person tables in The Restaurant, sitting across/behind someone on a bus, sitting at the same 6 person excursion lunch table or near someone in the Theatre would qualify.  But not the whole bus, Theatre or Restaurant.  Vikings policy is the same but they are required to report any Covid positives on board but must comply with what Iceland tells them to do which has changed dramatically in the last couple of weeks.

This is exactly what people have been looking for.  Where did you get this info?

OK.  It has been determined that the devices don't have gps data.  This means that the person reviewing the data has no idea whether the folks were masked or unmasked, and whether the folks were outdoors or indoors.  These things make a HUGE difference in determining whether there was close contact or not.  Interviews would normally be performed to determine these.  In fact, we did have a single poster who described their interview process.  Do these rules mention an interview process?

3 minutes ago, schnapperin said:

Iceland’s quarantine & isolation regulations didn‘t change since spring 

 

if you are a contact to someone who tested positive it’s a 14 day quarantine period with the option to test out on Day 7 (if Viking is telling people to simply fly home and breaking quarantine regulations I hope the officials will take further steps)

 

if you test positive it’s a 14 day isolation period - no testing out or less if fully vaccinated. Also it’s 14 days and 7 days after last symptoms so it could even be longer

Viking has just been blatantly breaking the rules all along.

22 hours ago, kate7047 said:

Thank you for some actual data

 

The data in the graph shows that, by the time you are ready to travel, covid numbers in Iceland will be either higher, lower, or about the same.

I wish the "transporter" was available.

10 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

I think it is just the opposite.  If you are fully vaaxed and gone back to your pre-pandemic lifestyle, you will probably be the one who tests positive on the ship but is asymptomatic.

Yeah, that's been the tough thing about traveling during this pandemic.  In general, the risk takers are the ones who are willing to travel.  The cautious people stay home.  By default, when we travel during a pandemic, it's going to be with those who aren't on the careful side.

24 minutes ago, sinsonte said:

If statistics matter in the go/no-go decision then the following should make a difference.  Notice that the trend line is going down and by 8/31 (our embarkation date) should be in good shape.  The only troublesome locations will be airports.

Downturn doesn't mean return to near zero.  See here:  https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/iceland/

9 minutes ago, sinsonte said:

If statistics matter in the go/no-go decision then the following should make a difference.  Notice that the trend line is going down and by 8/31 (our embarkation date) should be in good shape.  The only troublesome locations will be airports.

No doubt that we'd rather see the 7 day average going down than up, but that doesn't mean that it will continue in that direction.  Look at the 7 day averages over the last year for the US, or any state, as examples.

1 hour ago, Wander58 said:

Also, if you look at the stats on Covid.is, almost all the cases are domestic, with only 5 out of 100,000 at the at the border for the rolling 14 day average.

The vast majority of people in Iceland are locals.

26 minutes ago, KarNog said:

I'm accustomed to living in a bubble. Going to Iceland means I'll be in a different, more beautiful bubble. 

If Viking cancels my trip, then I'll unpack and only then.

If that's really the way you think it is, you're good to go.

But first, you have to go outside your current bubble, take the parking shuttle to the airport, sit in crowded indoor terminals for hours, sit on crowded planes for hours, etc., etc.

Then, just declaring that you're in a safe new bubble doesn't really work.  All of the people in your new "bubble" have had totally different exposures to you, and the virus will take several days to develop.  Maybe after about 10 days with no positives, congratulations, you got yourselves a bubble.

Some will be comfortable with this situation, some won't.  Ignorance is bliss.  On the other hand, statistics are in our favor.

1 hour ago, taylorbun1 said:

Not hearing very much about people changing their travel plans because Iceland is now a Level 4 country.  We are on the Aug 31 sailing and were going yesterday morning, but last night we are a big "should we be doing this-no"  Of couse we are devastated that we probaby are not going but, the statistics regarding Covid are not to be forgotten.  Can we get some conversation going here?

You have to be realistic about the comparison between traveling to Iceland vs. staying home.  Reactions to this big surge in the US are all over the place.  Some fully vaxed people have gone back to wearing masks everywhere and cutting out any unnecessary potential exposures.  If you're one of those, you shouldn't be going.  Other vaxed folks in the US have completely gone back to their pre-pandemic lifestyles, even during this big surge.  If you fail into that category, travel to Iceland shouldn't be a problem for you.

I get the feeling that no one is even getting close to answering his original question.

There still seems to be a huge disconnect between Viking and Iceland's response to a person who has had close contact with a person with covid.  Iceland puts people in a quarantine hotel for over a week. Viking just sends people to they room for a test.  If Viking started following Iceland's rules, it could be trouble for some passengers.

I know what the current rules are, but can those of you who have recently been in KEF and walking around Reykjavik comment the percent of folks who are actually masking and distancing?