Ship Excursions Only??

[mskaufman]

A friend travelling with us said that Viking would only let people off the ship on Viking excursions.  Has anyone else heard this?  Does it apply to river cruises or possibly only to their ocean cruises.  If so, would that affect your cruising in 2021.

[Host Jazzbeau]

If would affect me less on a river cruise, when I only consider taking the ship's excursions so this change would cover only the odd extra time in the afternoon – which I would gladly exchange for a G&T in the ship lounge!

[Coral]

A lot of cruise lines (river and ocean) are discussing this. I think there are a lot of unknowns out there but there is a possibility that you may only be able to be off the ship on shore excursions. No one really knows how things are going to go when ships start sailing and if they do restrict people to ship's excursions, how long that will last.

 

Time will tell.

[Roz]

For a variety of reasons, most passengers on river cruises take the included shorex, so if that were the rule it would have little if any impact on me.  

[Coral]

12 hours ago, Roz said:

For a variety of reasons, most passengers on river cruises take the included shorex, so if that were the rule it would have little if any impact on me.  

On my last river cruise - we had a lot of "free time" on our excursions. How this is handled is what sort of bothers me.

[sbjornda]

Certainly that's not the case with Scenic river cruises. Once the ship is docked you are free to come & go as you will. You just need to check out / check in so they have a head count before sailing on. 

[Daisi]

3 minutes ago, sbjornda said:

Certainly that's not the case with Scenic river cruises. Once the ship is docked you are free to come & go as you will. You just need to check out / check in so they have a head count before sailing on. 

Same with our Avalon cruise...however times have changed, and this may be one way the lines are trying to ensure that passengers and staff remain healthy.

[Coral]

12 minutes ago, sbjornda said:

Certainly that's not the case with Scenic river cruises. Once the ship is docked you are free to come & go as you will. You just need to check out / check in so they have a head count before sailing on. 

We even had overnights on our Crystal cruise. Several went out on their own or stayed later downtown and found their own way back to the ship after the excursion. 

 

This will definitely be an issue on how things are handled in the future.

[mskaufman]

12 hours ago, sbjornda said:

Certainly that's not the case with Scenic river cruises. Once the ship is docked you are free to come & go as you will. You just need to check out / check in so they have a head count before sailing on. 

Is this the plan post-COVID?  It was like this on Viking pre-COVID.

[JerseyGem]

8 hours ago, mskaufman said:

Is this the plan post-COVID?  It was like this on Viking pre-COVID.

Since none of the many companies have started up their river cruises yet, none of us can answer this question.  The companies we have used (in the past) did not require you to stay with the included shore excursion (except in Russia- a different story!).  But we don't know if that requirement (to be in a bubble) will be included in any new guidelines.  

 

If you don't want to be limited to only the ship's excursions, I suggest that you NOT book any river cruise at this time.  By Spring, we should know more about how future cruises will be run. 

[Daisi]

10 hours ago, mskaufman said:

Is this the plan post-COVID?  It was like this on Viking pre-COVID.

 

What cruise were they on @mskaufman?  My S-I-L and her husband travel with Viking and they have gone on excursions that weren't organised by them.  When they did the tour of France, their CD arranged a taxi for them to go to Versailles, even though there was a tour that they would have had to pay for.  Could it be that your friends were trying to pre-book their own tours like you would on an Ocean Cruise?  That's not recommended due to the fact that timing in port is not a "set" thing.

 

As someone mentioned, the Russian cruise could be very different.

[mskaufman]

12 hours ago, Daisi said:

 

What cruise were they on @mskaufman?  My S-I-L and her husband travel with Viking and they have gone on excursions that weren't organised by them.  When they did the tour of France, their CD arranged a taxi for them to go to Versailles, even though there was a tour that they would have had to pay for.  Could it be that your friends were trying to pre-book their own tours like you would on an Ocean Cruise?  That's not recommended due to the fact that timing in port is not a "set" thing.

 

As someone mentioned, the Russian cruise could be very different.

We were on Viking and could get on and off the ship whenever we wanted.  The purpose of this question was whether anyone was seeing communications that post COVID there would be a new policy.

[Daisi]

On 1/13/2021 at 8:12 PM, mskaufman said:

A friend travelling with us said that Viking would only let people off the ship on Viking excursions.  Has anyone else heard this?  Does it apply to river cruises or possibly only to their ocean cruises.  If so, would that affect your cruising in 2021.

 

13 hours ago, mskaufman said:

We were on Viking and could get on and off the ship whenever we wanted.  The purpose of this question was whether anyone was seeing communications that post COVID there would be a new policy.

 

Sorry, I miss read your intent on the original post, I thought you meant someone you were travelling with had said Viking wouldn't let people off the ship unless they were on the excursions.  Since Covid came up so quickly into the 2020 travelling season, I didn't think you meant the 2020 or future sailings. I would say each company will have different "rules", and we really won't know until they start sailing again.  

[Coral]

6 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Sorry, I miss read your intent on the original post, I thought you meant someone you were travelling with had said Viking wouldn't let people off the ship unless they were on the excursions.  Since Covid came up so quickly into the 2020 travelling season, I didn't think you meant the 2020 or future sailings. I would say each company will have different "rules", and we really won't know until they start sailing again.  

It may be related to "country or state" rules. I have read about Alaska is discussing bubble tours in Alaska excursions. It is possible that Germany or another country may have rules in the future. It may not be "company" but more "regional". This is still pre-mature as we won't know until closer when ships start sailing what the restrictions will be.

[notamermaid]

Quite likely they will follow industry protocol, i.e. what the organisation CLIA suggests. Additionally, yes, countries may well have individual requirements.

 

I am not sure that this is what I would accept, I mean having to stick to the "herd". It rules out meeting friends, choosing your own lunch restaurant, etc.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

29 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Quite likely they will follow industry protocol, i.e. what the organisation CLIA suggests. Additionally, yes, countries may well have individual requirements.

 

I am not sure that this is what I would accept, I mean having to stick to the "herd". It rules out meeting friends, choosing your own lunch restaurant, etc.

 

notamermaid

 

I was going to mention CLIA but I didn't know how far that extended (river boats, etc...).....

 

I agree - I would be upset about not being able to visit my friend @notamermaid when on a river cruise and very close. Or having an overnight in a cruise port and not being able to eat off ship and see the sites at night.

[Roz]

I don't understand how a bubble can be maintained in crowded ports and cities.  

[Coral]

3 hours ago, Roz said:

I don't understand how a bubble can be maintained in crowded ports and cities.  

I don't understand how there can be regular tourists that stay at hotels and have no restrictions but it is possible that cruisers may have to be in a bubble. It doesn't make sense.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I think all this speculation will become moot when the vaccines reach herd-level distribution.  Governments and companies will be content to rely on the stated effectiveness and lift all other restrictions.  I know that some people disagree about how effective the vaccines really are, but IMHO they are good enough for CYA and that's all that will be needed.

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, Coral said:

I don't understand how there can be regular tourists that stay at hotels and have no restrictions but it is possible that cruisers may have to be in a bubble. It doesn't make sense.

There are 2 sides to it. One is the local area, but the other is the cruise company trying to ensure the health and safety of the passengers and crew by trying not to bring local infections on board. 
 

To be honest, I don’t think either is possible without mass vaccination. 

[caripoo]

That would be a NO for me...we usually have a group, and said group usually plan private excursions. .We plan them according to what we want...This really only rewards a small portion of the companies business.   .

[gnome12]

1 minute ago, caripoo said:

That would be a NO for me...we usually have a group, and said group usually plan private excursions. .We plan them according to what we want...This really only rewards a small portion of the companies business.   .

Have you been on a river cruise before? Private excursions can be difficult when port stop timings can change up to the day of travel.

[Roz]

1 hour ago, caripoo said:

That would be a NO for me...we usually have a group, and said group usually plan private excursions. .We plan them according to what we want...This really only rewards a small portion of the companies business.   .

 

As @gnome12 already pointed out, this will be a problem on a river cruise. 

[travelingman]

This is an interesting topic and anything said at this point is purely speculation on what will happen in the future.

As has been mentioned pre-covid one could pretty much do anything one wanted to.  For the few cruise lines that did sail some in during covid the passengers could only tour with the ship's excursions.  Anyone getting away from the tour group was kicked off of the ship.

Not taking into account what any of the states or cities might require in the future the cruise lines might still require cruisers to take and stay with the ship excursion tours.  This is the only way they have of controlling "the bubble."

Question I will have is - we go on the morning excursion and come back to the ship for lunch but then what are we allowed to do in the afternoon?  Will they offer another "free" excursion to allow us to go out again or maybe just paid excursions?  Again, this is an unknown at this time.

 

Stan

[caripoo]

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Have you been on a river cruise before? Private excursions can be difficult when port stop timings can change up to the day of travel.

Yes, several....and yes Rivers can be more problematic...But we have done them on Rivers either at the front or the end as well...and on Oceans....