LIVE from "Iceland's Natural Beauty" -- All Sailings, 2021

[alohadave]

11 hours ago, Wander58 said:

Actually, I should re-phase, what happens when someone doesn't wear it?

Are you ame type of person who cuts que!

[BQEC]

Iheart. Thank you again for your details on the observed antigen test. Best wishes for you and your fiancé in Iceland. Looking forward to your future posts. 

[Australia08]

27 minutes ago, Ellistravels said:

My question is about mask compliance on shore excursion buses.  I have read some posts  that say masks are not being enforced on the buses.  
Has this been your experience?  Your response will help me decide whether or not to cancel our shore ex that involve a bus ride …. at least those that are all day trips.  

There were always several people on our bus excursions who took off their masks. No one said anything to them. On one excursion the Viking geologist didn’t wear a mask on the bus. I mentioned to guest services when I got back from the excursion. 

[VI_Lounger]

7 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

There were always several people on our bus excursions who took off their masks. No one said anything to them. On one excursion the Viking geologist didn’t wear a mask on the bus. I mentioned to guest services when I got back from the excursion. 

The majority of passengers wore masks on the bus excursions but there were those who didn't wear them on every tour we took. One or two of the tour guides mentioned it once at the start of the tour but probably figured it wasn't worth an argument so gave up. 

[IheartNYC]

17 minutes ago, BQEC said:

Iheart. Thank you again for your details on the observed antigen test. Best wishes for you and your fiancé in Iceland. Looking forward to your future posts. 

You're most welcome. I wanted to share my experience with the home test kits + video verification because I know that someone out there will be relieved to know that those tests were actually valid and accepted for entry into Iceland (just print out the pdf to present as proof of negative test.) As much as I wanted to do a PCR prior to flying Iceland, the circumstances just didn't allow for that. I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Here is the copy of the report I presented to Delta 

[Triptkr]

2 minutes ago, VI_Lounger said:

The majority of passengers wore masks on the bus excursions but there were those who didn't wear them on every tour we took. One or two of the tour guides mentioned it once at the start of the tour but probably figured it wasn't worth an argument so gave up. 

I wonder if this will not be an issue here on out...now that Iceland has reversed their mask policy?  

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

On 7/28/2021 at 4:29 AM, Heartgrove said:

 

I was going to bid on upgrading to Saga Seats on our flight to Iceland. But I was doing dummy Saga bookings and when we could bid, only the "throne" seats were left. I had already paid for the extra legroom seats (7F, 7G outbound and 7A, 7B return) so that money would be lost. It is not much better for our return flight this Saturday. The flight from Dulles to Keflavik is barely longer than flying to the West Coast from Dulles.

 

Also be aware that Row 8 is missing a window.

Heartgrove, just saw this. Yes, I saw the missing window on Seatguru. By "throne" seats, do you mean the ones in the middle (ie., a double aisle seat of sorts?)  And did you by chance pay for the bulkhead extra legroom seats on  IAD to KEF?  I think Icelandair may fly a slightly different 767 on that route, so I wasn't totally sure which seats might be better than others, despite looking them up on seatguru. 

 

I'm jealous.  We have the almost 6 hour nonstop going TO KEF but a pair of Delta flights coming back.  

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, Ellistravels said:

My question is about mask compliance on shore excursion buses.  I have read some posts  that say masks are not being enforced on the buses.  
Has this been your experience?  Your response will help me decide whether or not to cancel our shore ex that involve a bus ride …. at least those that are all day trips.  

Hopefully people on excursions where small boats are used  (Vigur Island, for example) will be space out as best as possible,  and wearing their masks. And a question: on Viking tender boats, for people who need or want to be extra cautious, do the boats have an upper deck if people want to sit up there?  In Iceland, it may be a little chilly there early morning, and/or Viking may not want people up there without a crew member around to keep a watchful eye.  But if there's seating up top, is that an option for some of us who either want to space out more or just like looking at the scenery (and taking pictures of the ship)?!  

[BQEC]

1 hour ago, IheartNYC said:

You're most welcome. I wanted to share my experience with the home test kits + video verification because I know that someone out there will be relieved to know that those tests were actually valid and accepted for entry into Iceland (just print out the pdf to present as proof of negative test.) As much as I wanted to do a PCR prior to flying Iceland, the circumstances just didn't allow for that. I'm glad it all worked out in the end. Here is the copy of the report I presented to Delta 

 

[BQEC]

Just now, BQEC said:

 

I heart, Thanks again. The report and information which you shared is truly helpful. There were many phone calls and emails on the subject of the acceptance of the antigen test vs. PCR.

 

[Envelope21]

We were on the July 17 Iceland cruise. On all our bus tours, we sat in the very back because we liked being able to spread out. Every passenger on every bus we were on wore their masks. Even when we got off the bus and were outside walking around, everyone kept their mask on. The buses were not full. I would estimate they were at about 60%. The only time we were on a full bus was when on our last stop of the day, another Viking tour bus at our same stop had engine trouble. They had to scramble to get their passengers distributed to any remaining buses to get them back to the ship.

 

[jtwind]

20 hours ago, Lily Feghoot said:

When I was on the list,  I was told the time and distance formula is 15 minutes within a meter and a half of an infected person. I was interviewed by the public health officer as to my movements the preceding 48 hours, particularly as to where I'd eaten. I have no idea who the infected person was and where I had spent time in his/her presence.

 

20 hours ago, jtwind said:

So, that makes it seem like the tracers tell them where you are relative to other people, but not physically where you are at the time.  Hmmm.  Maybe they just assumed that you were masked everywhere except your cabin and restaurants?

I would think that the contact tracing data would have a time stamp.  I wonder why they didn't just ask 'where were you between about x and y pm yesterday' to determine if you were inside or outside, and then ask if you were masked or unmasked at the time?  Were they trying to protect the identity of the infected person by keeping the contact time vague?  Were there possibly multiple contacts?  Since the tracers don't have location info, why were the questions focussed on were you were eating?

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

I would guess that eating is a little riskier than doing most other things I can think of, unless you're eating in your room of course!  It's why restaurants in some places (countries, counties, localities, states) ask for contact info in case tracing is necessary. 

 

If someone is currently on Viking Sky, could you let me know?  I have a question. Thanks. 

[jtwind]

5 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I would guess that eating is a little riskier than doing most other things I can think of, unless you're eating in your room of course!  It's why restaurants in some places (countries, counties, localities, states) ask for contact info in case tracing is necessary. 

And bars.  But if they had a time stamp on the contact, why were they asking questions about a 48 hour period?

[Wander58]

2 hours ago, alohadave said:

Are you ame type of person who cuts que!

I was just curious - no need to be nasty!  AND NO, I HAVE NO INTENTION OF NOT HAVING IT WITH ME ALL THE TIME!

[ValarieDennis]

On 7/20/2021 at 1:06 PM, KiwiClaire said:

As long as they're visible you can wear them how you like. 

We had them in our pocket the entire week.

[ValarieDennis]

On 7/21/2021 at 8:09 AM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I have some questions if anyone is able/willing to comment: 

 

What's the phone number on JUPITER?  It will be on the back of your room key & on Viking Daily.  I'm trying to finish my notes.

 

Who is the Cruise Director on Jupiter?

 

Did anyone take the Through the Lens excursion from Reykjavik?  Did you have a photographer/guide named "Sig" for it?  If so, do you know who leads the other time slot for this excursion?  

 

Would love feedback for these excursions:

--Panoramic Scenic  & Wartime Museum in Seydisfjordur (no info so far)

--Nature of Djupivogur & Berufjordur Fjord in Djupivogur (one person reported not great)

 

If anyone not on an excursion in Heimaey tendered in, were you able to get on a tender relatively early, or was there no room on the tenders in the morning because of the large number of people on excursions who needed to go early?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide!

Katy is the Cruise Director on Jupiter. Also, we missed Heimaey because of heavy swells making it too difficult to tender.

[ValarieDennis]

11 minutes ago, Wander58 said:

I was just curious - no need to be nasty!  AND NO, I HAVE NO INTENTION OF NOT HAVING IT WITH ME ALL THE TIME!

Wander58, you won't be able to get off the boat without your tracker as you need your key card to be scanned and it would show that your tracker wasn't with you. I would also assume that your room steward would notice if your tracker was left in the room. We just put ours in a pocket unless we were on an excursion, then it went into out bags.

 

[Heartgrove]

We are sitting in our rental car at Landeyjahofn which is the landslide ferry terminal for the ferry to Heimaey. Checked with the ticket office and good weather although cloudy for tomorrow the 30th. Tenders hopefully run!

 

We might take the 10:45 ferry over because last week our July 17 cruise missed the port call.

[Wander58]

Just now, ValarieDennis said:

Wander58, you won't be able to get off the boat without your tracker as you need your key card to be scanned and it would show that your tracker wasn't with you. I would also assume that your room steward would notice if your tracker was left in the room. We just put ours in a pocket unless we were on an excursion, then it went into out bags.

 

Thank you - good to know that.  But again, I would never be without the tracker...that doesn't mean others might not be as diligent. 

[ValarieDennis]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Hopefully people on excursions where small boats are used  (Vigur Island, for example) will be space out as best as possible,  and wearing their masks. And a question: on Viking tender boats, for people who need or want to be extra cautious, do the boats have an upper deck if people want to sit up there?  In Iceland, it may be a little chilly there early morning, and/or Viking may not want people up there without a crew member around to keep a watchful eye.  But if there's seating up top, is that an option for some of us who either want to space out more or just like looking at the scenery (and taking pictures of the ship)?!  

We only tendered once last week and the tenders are Viking Life Boats. There is no open deck. We missed Heimeny due to rough seas.

[ValarieDennis]

3 hours ago, Ellistravels said:

My question is about mask compliance on shore excursion buses.  I have read some posts  that say masks are not being enforced on the buses.  
Has this been your experience?  Your response will help me decide whether or not to cancel our shore ex that involve a bus ride …. at least those that are all day trips.  

We only had 2 bus trips - the rest were walking tours. The mask compliance was mostly good, but the guides aren't Viking employees; they are private contractors. Viking employees aren't allowed off the ship until the end of their contract.

[Heartgrove]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Heartgrove, just saw this. Yes, I saw the missing window on Seatguru. By "throne" seats, do you mean the ones in the middle (ie., a double aisle seat of sorts?)  And did you by chance pay for the bulkhead extra legroom seats on  IAD to KEF?  I think Icelandair may fly a slightly different 767 on that route, so I wasn't totally sure which seats might be better than others, despite looking them up on seatguru. 

 

I'm jealous.  We have the almost 6 hour nonstop going TO KEF but a pair of Delta flights coming back.  

 

Yes, by throne seats I mean the ones in the middle. Seating in Saga is 2-1-2. We sat in the row behind the bulkhead row. Bulkhead seats have the swingup tray that makes a narrower seat.

 

The ICE 767-300 have identical seating although originally with different airlines. The 757-200 do have different seating.

[ValarieDennis]

On 7/27/2021 at 7:02 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

You have to be in contact with the person for a cumulative 15 minutes or longer for it to count -- and I have never waited that long in the gelato line.

 

But, if you are seated in the dining room with someone behind you for your whole meal, that could easily be counted as a contact for spouse and not the other.

Also, if you are seated at the Viking Bar in the 1st floor or on a 7 hr excursion.

[Clay Clayton]

23 minutes ago, ValarieDennis said:

Wander58, you won't be able to get off the boat without your tracker as you need your key card to be scanned and it would show that your tracker wasn't with you. I would also assume that your room steward would notice if your tracker was left in the room. We just put ours in a pocket unless we were on an excursion, then it went into out bags.

 

Not that we ever left the room without ours, but what makes you think that the key card scanning would show whether you had your scanner with you?  Additionally, we kept our key cards, scanner and mask in the “makeup” part of the desk so unless our room steward was rummaging in it, they wouldn’t know whether it was in the room or not.