Not Sure

We have a Viking Ocean / River cruise scheduled for late July into August. Viking has remained closed through February 1st. We are looking forward to 2 days in Oslo, a train ride to Bergen, a 8 day ocean cruise ending in Amsterdam, a river cruise on the Rhine ending ion Basal and a 2 day post cruise stay in Lucerne. I don't it's going to happen. We cancelled a similar package in 2020 and this booking is the replacement trip. Even with the vaccine being distributed, I'm not sure.

Hi. If it were me, if I got the vaccine and I wanted to go, I'd be there!

We are getting our vaccine (1st shot) today. We have reservations at our local Publix. If Norway lets us in that will be a good start.

Wow, good for you!! Our f*ng county is seriously f*ed up. We have almost NO supply and nowhere to get it, except by contacting the county, by their phone number. The site crashed yesterday, and apparently from the very beginning, you CAN'T CONNECT if you have Verizon wireless. I tried a couple hundred times yesterday to get through on the phone, not knowing that. Nice way to spend several hours of frustration.

Publix has this thing down to a science. We arrived 15 minutes early, they had a list of names and times. We waited a few minutes and we went to the vaccine area. After a few questions, we each got the shot. We were given a card which states that we received the Moderna Covid 19 vaccine, on this date. There is a spot for the follow up shot to be noted. We were given instructions to register for our notification for the second shot. We just took a photo of the design on the paperwork on our phones browser, filled in some contact info and we will be texted our timeframe for the second shot.

Check Publix website, they said there are 65 stores doing this in Florida. Good Luck

None here in Polk county, for sure. Supposedly in Citrus, Hernando and Marion County, all of which are a LONG way from here. Polk County has gotten the very short end of the stick...

We are in Citrus and 3 Publix's are giving shots. Yesterday evening, I received a text from the CDC, asking me to go to the provided site to answer some questions. It was basically regarding how I was feeling after the shot. It said that I might be contacted again, dependent upon my answers. I doubt that I will be, as I had now side effects.

Hope you can get the vaccine somehow, good luck.

Thanks. I hope so too.

This is a link to the Viking site, regarding their preparations for resuming cruising on April 1st. It's worth a look. After seeing this, I am more sure that we are going on this trip.

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/my-trip/health-and-safety/health-and-safety-program.html

The video is about 5 minutes long and shows the extra mile that Viking is going to ensure safety. This must have cost millions

At the moment all the protocols are based on negative test results or positive antibody results. There has not been any suggestion that proof of vaccine is or may be contemplated as travel passport validity or protocol.

I didn't mean to imply that, if that's the way you took it. Even though a person has had the vaccine, I imagine for a while they will still require a test. BUT!! Once I have had the vaccine and a month or so has passed, I would feel perfectly safe to travel.

Good Luck on your Cruise jar87 !! We are anxious and ready to get started Cruising again ourselves. However neither my Wife nor I have gotten the vaccine. We checked our local pharmacy, and they don't have a projected date when they will arrive, so they are not taking names yet. Some other local places (Hospital, etc) are giving them, but only to people over 70 which we don't qualify for (lucky I guess, but we will be there soon enough).
The main thing that scares me about Cruising is that if someone (anyone) gets sick or tests Positive on the Ship, the Cruise passengers will probably be held captive in their cabin for the 2 week quarantine period. Since we always book an inside cabin, that would be a killer sitting in there with the door closed with no windows for two weeks. I guess we would have to start booking a balcony room if/when we start Cruising again, just so we can make it somewhat bearable if we are confined for a long period of time on the Ship.

We just got our second shots on Saturday. If Viking is going then we will. I'm sure it will be different then our past causing experiences. I think that the smaller ships that Viking has, (Ocean & River) are a plus for the safety aspect. Unless there is a resurgence and one of the Countries closes it's borders, we will be going.

jar--Your itinerary looks pretty ambitious to me, could be a lot of different things go wrong. Congrats on having both shots. We got our first one today, and looking forward to follow up in 28 days. With that, we hope to be able to travel to SXM in June, but like I said, your itinerary seems ambitious. I really hope you are able to do it.

I suspect boats will sail especially if passengers are vaccinated. My concern would be countries and ports not letting people off to spread what they got at the last stop. I know we get bummed when we lose a port to weather. Losing multiple ports or all ports would not be an equitable bargain unless communicated prior to sail.

Pelican--you are probably right there, that with each country making their own rules, it will be very difficult to know what you actually will GET from a cruise, in terms of ports. As we have seen with Sint Maarten, countries can and do change their rules, it seems like every other DAY in the case of SXM,

I agree Carol. If someone gets on a Cruise Ship with restrictions or lack thereof in one of the Ports of Call, the Port can change their restrictions before the Ship even arrives. That would be bad enough, but if you board the Ship and depart, then the City or Country changes it's restrictions while you are at sea, they might not allow anyone to exit the Ship when it returns, isolating everyone on board for who knows how long.
Wife and I got our first Pfizer vaccine on Jan 28th, and due to get the second one on Feb 18th. We used to take three or four Cruises a year (mostly out of our home port of N.O.), but haven't taken one since Mardi Gras last year. We are anxiously awaiting the time when Cruises start up again, but will certainly be hesitant to be the first to get one booked.
Our Mayor, has closed things down in New Orleans starting Friday the 12th, the weekend before Mardi Gras. No parades and no bars or restaurants serving liquor will be allowed to open until Ash Wednesday. Certain streets in the French Quarter will be barricaded unless you live there to prevent people from gathering. She certainly has put a crimp in the party time that visitors used to flock to the City for "the greatest free show on earth". Only problem is, neighboring places still plan on having some parades, so the people will just head there to spend their money.

Yes, Eric and I have talked that we do want to book another cruise at some point, but will not be in a big hurry to do it. For a first trip back, post Corona, I personally would limit myself to the Caribbean, where it wouldn't really matter to me if I didn't visit any particular port. .....although it would be tough if that port were SXM. The last few cruises we took, we almost didn't leave the ship, except for SXM. No interest in buying junky souveniers in Cozumel..

We loved being in SXM for the day when our Ship docked there. That was a Cruise out of Puerto Rico in 1998. We discovered that beautiful Island then, and have returned several times for at least a week, always staying at Club O. We would love to book another Cruise that goes to SXM, unfortunately that Itinerary is not available out of New Orleans. We either have to drive to Miami, Tampa, or Ft. Lauderdale for that. We don't care to fly unless we have to, but that might be the only option when things open back up.

I wonder, when cruises open back up, whether places like NO will have many itineraries open at all. It will be very interesting to see what kind of demand there is, when cruises open back up.

We had 4 Cruise Lines cruising out of New Orleans. Carnival (which had 2 ships), Royal Caribbean, NCL, and Disney. All would sell out every sailing, leaving here with full Ships. I am not sure how many will survive the Covid situation. I can't imagine how the Cruise lines are keeping the Ships maintained and seaworthy without any type of income. Their expenses must be staggering. Most of their money was made through the casinos and liquor sales, neither of which is available to them with no passengers. I doubt they are getting much help from the US Government, since most if not all are based out of the US. I think Carnival is out of Hollywood, Fla, but all of their ships are registered in the Bahamas or Panama to avoid paying US taxes.

True--they don't PAY US taxes, so not much support for bailing them out with US tax money.

The Cruise Lines employ tens of thousands of US based employees. Carnival Corp. ~10 Brands ( Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa, Cunard, Seaborne, HAL, etc) is based in Doral Florida - greater Miami. Princess is based in California. Other major brands also based in Florida include Royal Caribbean/Celebrity, and NCL.

Although not paying corporate taxes, these firms provide a considerable tax basis in the United States and Florida through their employer taxes and the millions of dollars of taxes that their employees pay. They also have hundreds of vendors providing services, goods, and materials with their employees and respective taxes.

They are a major contributor to the economy of Florida, California, and other cities and states from which they operate. Corporate taxes are a minor portion of a company’s expenses.

True, however if the Ships were registered in the US, they would probably get a little more support from the Govt here. It is quite obvious why they register the Ships elsewhere-to avoid taxes. I don't blame them for that. Let's hope this Covid mess is in our rear view mirror soon so that we may get on with a somewhat normal life. I really would like to start Cruising again.

Cruise ships can’t be registered in the USA unless they are built in the USA.

That’s not going to happen.
Passenger Services Act

Viking is building two river ships in the US for use in the US

"The company's first custom vessel, Viking Mississippi, currently under construction at an Edison Chouest Offshore group shipyard in Louisiana, is set to debut in August 2022 and will sail voyages on the Lower and Upper Mississippi River, between New Orleans and St. Paul."