oldgeez

The crew is always masked on this cruise but it’s voluntary for pax. Very few wore masks early in the cruise but the percentage has gone up significantly in the last few days. None of the crew say anything about Covid cases (they may not know either) but there’s suspicion (without evidence) that we have one or more infections.

This is still my favorite menu:

This was what we had last night. Frankly, I wasn’t wild about it.

Here's an interesting change to pre-cruise Covid testing: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/why-viking/health-and-safety/covid-19-testing.html Still need to be vaccinated and AFAIK the daily testing on-board is still in place. I'm happy about that.

We've used it multiple times as well. Depends on the city; sometimes the $98 compares very unfavorably with bus, train, or taxi options. Other times it's well worth the convenience and certainty of knowing where you're going.

Interesting. We've been on a number of Viking ocean cruises and always liked Manfredi's. We've been unimpressed by the Chef's Table. I guess it all balances out!

Are they doing daily covid testing or just for boarding? On last year's Iceland cruise we did it daily. It took my wife forever to get enough in the tube!

As you say, the rate will be better at a local ATM than at a Maryland bank. If we're on a trip through countries using the euro, I'll usually accept the exchange rate hit and minimum transaction amounts and buy euros before traveling. However, on this trip we will be in countries using SEK, DKK, PLN, EUR, and NOK. (Our trip starts in Iceland, so we'll also need ISK.) I'm going to rely mainly on the credit card and whatever small amounts of currency I might have left over from prior trips. BTW, on a trip to Spain last month just about everybody I saw was using credit cards for the tiniest purchases. Felt odd using the card for an ice cream cone but using cash would have made me the outlier! [Still have to figure out how to tip. I hate to tip in anything other than the local currency.]