UK Only Viking Venus Cruise

[JessM66]

I read that someone was denied boarding on the 5th June as a result of covid test issues. How absolutely heartbreaking that must have been. I guess being vaccinated is no guarantee of being able to embark. Not sure if they tested positive, or that they just didn’t test negative, anyone onboard have anymore details?

 

[Clay Clayton]

29 minutes ago, JessM66 said:

I read that someone was denied boarding on the 5th June as a result of covid test issues. How absolutely heartbreaking that must have been. I guess being vaccinated is no guarantee of being able to embark. Not sure if they tested positive, or that they just didn’t test negative, anyone onboard have anymore details?

 

I heard during a cruise Club House that they delayed departure because of a positive initial test but a second test was negative so they left port.  Not sure if that is related to your positive test or not. 

[arlowood]

21 minutes ago, JessM66 said:

I read that someone was denied boarding on the 5th June as a result of covid test issues. How absolutely heartbreaking that must have been. I guess being vaccinated is no guarantee of being able to embark. Not sure if they tested positive, or that they just didn’t test negative, anyone onboard have anymore details?

 

We're currently on that cruise. We were delayed leaving Portsmouth until about 11pm I understand. Can't confirm exact time as OH and I were in the land of nod by then. Announcement the following day said the reason was due to an inconclusive result which I think meant isolating that passenger until a repeat test could be performed. No info on anyone being denied boarding although technically it would be a "get off the ship" order since all passengers are already on board while they do the initial tests.

We did hear a PA announcement for a specific passenger to contact Guest Services immediately but that was late afternoon I think and could have been unrelated to any Covid issues.

[FoggyEthan]

3 hours ago, arlowood said:

We're currently on that cruise. We were delayed leaving Portsmouth until about 11pm I understand. Can't confirm exact time as OH and I were in the land of nod by then. Announcement the following day said the reason was due to an inconclusive result which I think meant isolating that passenger until a repeat test could be performed. No info on anyone being denied boarding although technically it would be a "get off the ship" order since all passengers are already on board while they do the initial tests.

We did hear a PA announcement for a specific passenger to contact Guest Services immediately but that was late afternoon I think and could have been unrelated to any Covid issues.

I'm very surprised. I had thought that the staterooms were meant to be acceptable quarantine areas.

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, FoggyEthan said:

I'm very surprised. I had thought that the staterooms were meant to be acceptable quarantine areas.

 

Can't speak for the Venus, but on the Viking Sun, they set aside a block of cabins in a separate area, in the event of quarantine being required.

[jtwind]

18 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I heard during a cruise Club House that they delayed departure because of a positive initial test but a second test was negative so they left port.  Not sure if that is related to your positive test or not. 

Kinda reckless that the positive results are questioned, but not the negative tests.

[TayanaLorna]

3 minutes ago, jtwind said:

Kinda reckless that the positive results are questioned, but not the negative tests.

If each person each day comes back negative its a safe bet they are.  With the very small incidence of Covid19 in vaccinated persons, you bet they should question a positive result.  Do you want cruising to stop until Covid19 is erradicated from the world?

[Dukefan]

1 hour ago, jtwind said:

Kinda reckless that the positive results are questioned, but not the negative tests.

Jtwind - has everyone you have contact with today been vacinnated and tested?   Ease up man, what is happening in the Viking bubble is significantly safer than the life everyone except hermits are experiencing outside the Viking bubble.   Is it foolproof - no.   I can't think of any environment we have as foolproof against the virus.  But I believe your odds are significantly better of not getting the virus in the Viking bubble than it is as I go about my life at home especially non where I can go into stores and not really know whether the people I'm passing that are not wearing a mask are vacinated or not.

How are you living your life today where you feel Viking plan is more danagerous to you than you are at home?  Just wondering?

[jtwind]

2 hours ago, Dukefan said:

Jtwind - has everyone you have contact with today been vacinnated and tested?   Ease up man, what is happening in the Viking bubble is significantly safer than the life everyone except hermits are experiencing outside the Viking bubble.   Is it foolproof - no.   I can't think of any environment we have as foolproof against the virus.  But I believe your odds are significantly better of not getting the virus in the Viking bubble than it is as I go about my life at home especially non where I can go into stores and not really know whether the people I'm passing that are not wearing a mask are vacinated or not.

How are you living your life today where you feel Viking plan is more danagerous to you than you are at home?  Just wondering?

Why test at all if they're not going to do it right?

 

 

[TayanaLorna]

5 minutes ago, jtwind said:

Why test at all if they're not going to do it right?

 

 

So how would You do it right?

[Clay Clayton]

18 minutes ago, jtwind said:

Why test at all if they're not going to do it right?

 

 

What do you mean they aren’t doing it right?

[jtwind]

All of these tests are notoriously bad at detecting a true case of covid within a few days of exposure.  The virus count has to be above some lower detectable limit before showing positive.  As a result, false negatives are way more likely than false positives.

 

I want to see cruising get back to normal as much as the next guy.  To be on the safe side, I would quarantine that person, and the people in their party, in the designated area for a few days, and test them a few more times to make sure that they don't develop the virus.

[FoggyEthan]

5 hours ago, jtwind said:

Kinda reckless that the positive results are questioned, but not the negative tests.

There is reason for it. The tests can detect even truly minute amounts of RNA from the virus. But the tests don't distinguish live virus from some tiny amounts of residue from an exposure you had two weeks ago. The RNA can last a long time after you were exposed to the virus, and (if you're vaccinated) you were probably never contagious at any point. If your body is primed to fight the virus, then you can "have Covid" but so limited as to not be contagious.

 

And yet the test may detect it. I believe the idea is this: if you are really contagious, the test will come up positive EVERY time. So if it is positive once and then negative, there could be lots of reasons, but you are almost certainly not contagious.

 

I hope this helps.

[jtwind]

Sorry.  Doesn't really help, because it could also be the case I outlined.  You won't know.

 

Be careful Iceland and, Viking, in general.  Trying to avoid unnecessarily quarantining a few folks at the risk doing more harm wouldn't be good for the rest of us.

[FoggyEthan]

1 hour ago, jtwind said:

Sorry.  Doesn't really help, because it could also be the case I outlined.  You won't know.

 

Be careful Iceland and, Viking, in general.  Trying to avoid unnecessarily quarantining a few folks at the risk doing more harm wouldn't be good for the rest of us.

When I said "help" I didn't mean that I was hoping it would change your mind. Only that it would add more facts to the discussion.

 

We're in an uncertain moment, and everyone has to decide for themselves what is "safe enough". The science guides, but does not provide a single conclusion.

 

Personally I'd rather that no one be allowed on a plane or even in an airport unless they are vaccinated (or previously had it or are ineligible for vaccine). But, oh well.

[jtwind]

1 hour ago, FoggyEthan said:

When I said "help" I didn't mean that I was hoping it would change your mind. Only that it would add more facts to the discussion.

 

We're in an uncertain moment, and everyone has to decide for themselves what is "safe enough". The science guides, but does not provide a single conclusion.

 

Personally I'd rather that no one be allowed on a plane or even in an airport unless they are vaccinated (or previously had it or are ineligible for vaccine). But, oh well.

I hear ya.  And like I said earlier, I'm hoping for a successful return of the cruise industry as much as anyone else.  But quarantine them for at least a day, and do a third test for the tiebreaker.

 

I worked at a place that had an inaccurate test for one of their products.  I saw these clowns test over and over again until they got the answer they wanted, then stopped testing.

[Dukefan]

43 minutes ago, jtwind said:

I hear ya.  And like I said earlier, I'm hoping for a successful return of the cruise industry as much as anyone else.  But quarantine them for at least a day, and do a third test for the tiebreaker.

 

I worked at a place that had an inaccurate test for one of their products.  I saw these clowns test over and over again until they got the answer they wanted, then stopped testing.

Jtwind - Since you so concerned about these issues, you haven’t answered my earlier question- how are you living your life and protecting yourself now?  Tell us which of these things you are suggesting Viking do you are currently doing.

[jtwind]

The problem cruise lines face is that, if folks test positive during or at the end of a cruise, it will be obvious that they got the virus while on the cruise.  I'm not saying that these Viking cruises aren't relatively safe, I'm saying that, in order to avoid undue bad press, they should have taken more steps to be sure that the positive was indeed false.  If it wasn't, things could get bad.

[jtwind]

8 hours ago, FoggyEthan said:

There is reason for it. The tests can detect even truly minute amounts of RNA from the virus. But the tests don't distinguish live virus from some tiny amounts of residue from an exposure you had two weeks ago. The RNA can last a long time after you were exposed to the virus, and (if you're vaccinated) you were probably never contagious at any point. If your body is primed to fight the virus, then you can "have Covid" but so limited as to not be contagious.

 

And yet the test may detect it. I believe the idea is this: if you are really contagious, the test will come up positive EVERY time. So if it is positive once and then negative, there could be lots of reasons, but you are almost certainly not contagious.

 

I hope this helps.

Hey Ethan, do you have a source for this?  I'm not saying your post is not true, but the sources I've read say that the vaccinations CAN NOT cause a false positive.  I'm curios about this, as we all should be.

[Dukefan]

1 hour ago, jtwind said:

The problem cruise lines face is that, if folks test positive during or at the end of a cruise, it will be obvious that they got the virus while on the cruise.  I'm not saying that these Viking cruises aren't relatively safe, I'm saying that, in order to avoid undue bad press, they should have taken more steps to be sure that the positive was indeed false.  If it wasn't, things could get bad.

Jtwind - I am still trying to understand what you are doing at home that is above and beyond what Viking is doing on it’s cruises, You so negative on Vikings process, please let us know so we can all learn from your expertise.

[FoggyEthan]

2 hours ago, jtwind said:

Hey Ethan, do you have a source for this?  I'm not saying your post is not true, but the sources I've read say that the vaccinations CAN NOT cause a false positive.  I'm curios about this, as we all should be.

I did not meant to imply that the vaccination triggers the false positive. I don't believe that that is true.

 

The current belief seems to be that even if vaccinated people do catch the virus, that they are very unlikely to be able to spread it. Perhaps this will change over time, especially as the variants become more common. 

[FoggyEthan]

56 minutes ago, Dukefan said:

Jtwind - I am still trying to understand what you are doing at home that is above and beyond what Viking is doing on it’s cruises, You so negative on Vikings process, please let us know so we can all learn from your expertise.

Not speaking for him, but I think his concern was about the publicity relating specifically to cruise lines, and the impact it would have on our upcoming sailings if Viking was shown to have ignored a positive test which led to on-board spread.

 

Also, drawing people out on their covid views is rarely productive. The topic involves both lots of uncertainty and lots of emotion. This can heat up very quickly. It's not worth it.

[jtwind]

57 minutes ago, Dukefan said:

Jtwind - I am still trying to understand what you are doing at home that is above and beyond what Viking is doing on it’s cruises, You so negative on Vikings process, please let us know so we can all learn from your expertise.

I'm not negative on the entire Viking process.  Just the part about clearing positive test with a single negative tests.  

[MikeD1000]

Hi. We are on board. We waited 4 hours for the results of a pct test on the lady. We were told by a crew member that it was ok. We feel incredibly safe with all the precautions  being taken. We are issued with disposable face masks, hand sanitisers and wipes. An incredible amount of cleaning going on.

The crew are absolutely wonderful, food fantastic, ship beautiful and we are unbelievably happy to be at sea again.

[MikeD1000]

PS forgot to say we have saliva test and temperature test every day