How early can we get on board?

[Let Me Travel!]

I have a fairly general question…our flight gets in at about 6:30AM…I booked the flight through Viking, so I know I’ll get a Viking transfer, but what do they do with us that early in the morning? I’m sure that it will be too early in the day to board the ship… is there a “waiting” area, or will they hold our bags and let us explore? Does anyone know?

[TayanaLorna]

Eleven AM.  For our Iceland cruise lots of people arrived between 6 and 8 am.  They transferred us to a concert hall with banquet rooms, fed us breakfast, checked us in, gave us our key cards and transferred us to the ship at 11 am.  We were able to leave our luggage and carry on if we wished with the bus as it was locked and we would be on the same bus to the ship.  Viking will arrange something for you but you probably won't know what until the week before.

[Clay Clayton]

During the before times one could drop your bags and go exploring. Since you’re with a Viking transfer, it’s my understanding you enter the Viking bubble when you board the bus at the airport. After that can only participate on Viking sponsored excursions until you disembark the ship.  Depending on how far in the future your cruise is scheduled perhaps that may change.  When we sailed to Iceland, we purposefully didn’t use a Viking transfer so that we had an opportunity to visit the Blue Lagoon which we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. 

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

During the before times one could drop your bags and go exploring. Since you’re with a Viking transfer, it’s my understanding you enter the Viking bubble when you board the bus at the airport. After that can only participate on Viking sponsored excursions until you disembark the ship.  Depending on how far in the future your cruise is scheduled perhaps that may change.  When we sailed to Iceland, we purposefully didn’t use a Viking transfer so that we had an opportunity to visit the Blue Lagoon which we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. 

 

What's the big deal with the Blue Lagoon? Isn't it a phony man-made tourist trap?

[Jim Avery]

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

What's the big deal with the Blue Lagoon? Isn't it a phony man-made tourist trap?

Not sure what you mean about "phony" but it is definitely a tourist trap.  We loved the feeling in the waters but the showering and lines are not our stuff.  As to "Blue Lagoon", it is absolutely blue and is a lagoon created by the thermal power plant next door.  A fact they do not try to hide.  Simply bathing in hot, mineral rich water that has been run through a power plant.  🍸

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

What's the big deal with the Blue Lagoon? Isn't it a phony man-made tourist trap?

While I would certainly have preferred to have enjoyed sitting in a natural pool out in the beautiful Icelandic landscape, unless you have a lot of time and a vehicle, those are difficult to find.  There are a number of volcanic fed swimming pools in Reykjavik but spending time in a YMCAesque indoor pool wasn’t particularly exciting. 
 

For us, the BL was perfect. It’s more or less on the way from the airport into Reykjavik so we got off our relatively short overnight flight from Boston and got to relax our sore airplane muscles (we boarded a commuter plane in Raleigh at 4 pm and exited it in Boston at 10:30 pm (don’t ask) and then ran to our waiting ride to Iceland. Landed almost on time at 7ish am but due to gate issues spent another hour sitting on the tarmac.) So we were so happy to be out in the fresh air and relaxing in the warm/hot waters. 
 

Maybe it was due to COVID or perhaps our 9 am arrival, but lines were non existent and it wasn’t crowded. We throughly enjoyed our time at the Lagoon. We met a couple onboard who stayed for a few days after the cruise and they enjoyed the new Sky Lagoon.  Similar concept, seemed a little swankier.

 

Sure it’s touristy, but as Rick Steves says, sometimes tourists go to a place because it’s worth going to.   

[cruz_happy]

Along this same question for those recent Viking cruisers, if embarkation is 11 am but our cabin isn’t open until 2 pm and you have to stay in your cabin until testing clears you, should we not embark until closer to 2 when our cabin class opens?   (We are on our own air and will be arriving the night before.).  Can we embark closer to when our cabin opens?    TYIA.  

[duquephart]

14 minutes ago, cruz_happy said:

Along this same question for those recent Viking cruisers, if embarkation is 11 am but our cabin isn’t open until 2 pm and you have to stay in your cabin until testing clears you, should we not embark until closer to 2 when our cabin class opens?   (We are on our own air and will be arriving the night before.).  Can we embark closer to when our cabin opens?    TYIA.  

 

You can embark at 11 ----- you don't have to.

[Peregrina651]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:15 PM, Let Me Travel! said:

I have a fairly general question…our flight gets in at about 6:30AM…I booked the flight through Viking, so I know I’ll get a Viking transfer, but what do they do with us that early in the morning? I’m sure that it will be too early in the day to board the ship… is there a “waiting” area, or will they hold our bags and let us explore? Does anyone know?

 

Back to your question.

 

The answer right now is that we can't really give you an answer. First, every port is handled differently; different governments, different rules/restrictions. Iceland was handled the way it was because there is no cruise terminal. Second, the rules and restrictions seem to be changing every day. Three, how fast they can turn around the ship depends on how many pax were on the last cruise and how many cabins they actually have to make ready.

 

One thing that we can say is that you probably will not be allowed on board until all the departing passengers have cleared the ship. Our last cruise (disembarking 1/5/22), we all had to be off the ship by 9:30am (port regulations, they said).

 

Whether they will hold your bags and let you explore also depends on the port.

 

If you tell us where you are embarking, maybe someone who has embarked or disembarked there post-pandemic can report on their experience.

 

4 minutes ago, cruz_happy said:

Along this same question for those recent Viking cruisers, if embarkation is 11 am but our cabin isn’t open until 2 pm and you have to stay in your cabin until testing clears you, should we not embark until closer to 2 when our cabin class opens?   (We are on our own air and will be arriving the night before.).  Can we embark closer to when our cabin opens?    TYIA.  

 

The 11 am time is flexible; they will start embarking folks as soon as they are ready to receive guests -- and so far, it has been regardless of cabin category. Note, there is a latest time to embark, usually about 3 hours before sailaway. Watch for that detail in the final docs sent about two weeks before boarding.

 

When they are ready to board pax depends on 1) how many passengers just disembarked; 2) how many of those cabins need to be made ready for embarking guests. Currently, Viking is not sailing at full capacity (closer to 50% based on the numbers I've heard being bandied about here) and no idea how these numbers will be changing in the coming months.  HOWEVER, the most recent boarding routine sends you right to your cabin to do the PCR test and so all cabins will have to be ready by the time they start boarding. Also, as reported on a couple of threads here, the boarding protocol requires that you remain in your cabin until your PCR has been processed and you have the results.

 

Now that you have an idea of what you are up against, more or less, you can decide what you want to do.

 

[Let Me Travel!]

Thank you! Great response!