Cruising during COVID-19

Highlights

• All guests and crew must be vaccinated

• A negative test is required to board the cruise

• Guests and crew are tested daily

• Guests and crew must have a daily temperature check

• Guests and crew are required to wear contact tracing devices whenever leaving the stateroom

• There are specified quarantine staterooms

• A crew member is stationed outside the buffet to ensure you wash your hands before every meal

• There was a high level of mask use by guests and crew (in some cases, crew would refuse service if the guest was not wearing a mask)

Lowlights

• Documentation before the cruise about the timing of testing required to board the cruise was contradictory

Trip planning

Like everyone else, we heard the horror stories of people stuck on cruise ships during the initial outbreak of Covid in 2020. My parents were in the heart of it. They left on March 7, 2020 for a cruise in Norway. After a few days, their ship turned around and docked in London. My parents were luckily able to get one of the last flights from London to Seattle before the international flights shut down due to Covid. They were fortunate, but many people weren’t as lucky. Who can forget the stories of the Diamond Princess sitting in Tokyo with hundreds of people trapped on board and no definite plans to get the home? I was skeptical about going on a cruise. We weren’t regular cruisers in the first place, and it seemed like an opportunity ripe to get sick.

My parents (and Covid) changed my mind in mid-2021. The cruise industry was starting up again and the various lines were theoretically taking all the proper precautions. My parents booked a trip on Viking ocean cruises to cruise around Iceland in early September. They had a great experience and said they felt safe throughout their cruise. It got me thinking…

My husband and I were scheduled to visit several European countries in December 2021. We had planned this trip for 2020 but didn’t go at that time. We were scheduled to fly to Munich, take the train to Prague and spend a few days there. After that, we were scheduled to travel to Budapest to board a Viking river cruise that would take us back to Germany. As we watched the world evolve through 2021, we started to question whether we’d be able to travel to Europe in December. After my parents’ cruise, we decided to pivot our plans and use credits from our river cruise to a Viking ocean cruise to the Caribbean. And whew! We are so happy we changed our plans. By the time our cruise in December rolled around, Europe was slowly shutting down again, and then the omicron variant appeared about a week before we traveled.

We called Viking and the process to cancel our river cruise and use the funds to go towards an ocean cruise was seamless. As a side note, I was easily able to cancel our United flights to Munich and rebook them to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The costs were similar for both the cruises and the flights, so we spent very little out-of-pocket money to change our plans.

Before the cruise

Viking was proactive with communications about requirements for the cruise. The Viking representative who helped us with our reservations explained all the requirements in detail and then followed up with documentation outlining the steps we’d need to take.

As our cruise approached, we were given a timeline outlining what steps needed to be completed and by when. It was beneficial, and I referred to it many times in the month leading up to our cruise.

The first step was to complete some details in the Verifly app on our phones. Viking provided step-by-step instructions that weren’t needed because it was pretty self-explanatory once you started the process. It took maybe 10 minutes to complete for both myself and my husband.

No later than 14 days before our cruise, we had to ensure we received at least our second dose of the Covid vaccine. This requirement was a non-issue for us as we’d received our second doses in May and our boosters in November.

5-7 days before the cruise, we completed a health survey from Viking. It had all the standard questions you might expect of a Covid survey, so again it took about 10 minutes to complete for both of us.

We had a challenge in getting our Covid test ahead of boarding the cruise. One document indicated we had to have a test taken within 72 hours of boarding, whereas another document said we had to take it within 48 hours. The timing was crucial because we planned on having the test done on December 20 to board on December 23. We were flying all day on December 21, which made getting the test that day what felt like impossible. Not only that, documentation was unclear and contradictory about whether we could or could not use a rapid Covid test. At the time, the omicron variant was accelerating, and everyone was traveling for the holidays. All the places we researched indicated that it might take up to 96 hours to get the results. I called Viking to clarify the requirement. The representative was unhelpful, just telling me to reach the documentation provided. I ended up emailing the person who helped us make our reservations, and he helped clarify that we a) had to have the test taken within 48 hours and b) it could be a rapid test. Given how our flights were scheduled, we could not get tested in Seattle or San Juan. Luckily we had a 3-hour layover in Houston, and there was a testing facility in Terminal E where we could get results in 30 minutes. That worked well but was expensive. We paid $250 each for our tests.

Boarding the cruise

Boarding a Viking cruise is an easy and fast experience. The terminal was across the street from our hotel (Sheraton Old San Juan) so we walked over. There was staff out front to take our bags (we’d been sent luggage tags about four weeks previously). Inside the terminal, we had our temperature checked, vaccine cards reviewed, tests results reviewed, and we filled out a health survey. From there, we checked in for the cruise and asked to go directly to our muster station for a safety review. There was a crew member at every point to direct us to the correct location, which happened to be the theater at the ship’s bow. A crew member was there to show us how to put on our life jackets and answer any questions we had about ship safety.

We then proceeded directly to our stateroom to take a Covid test. “Spit tubes” were already in our stateroom, so we filled them up and our stateroom attendant showed up about 2 minutes later to pick them up. He also gave us a complete tour of our room. We were free to wander around the ship or stay in our room at this point.

During the cruise

Every night, the stateroom attendants would drop off spit tubes for us to fill the following morning first thing. You fill those with 2ml of spit before eating or drinking anything. We also filled out a health survey every morning on the TV.

Any time we left our cabin, we wore masks and a contact tracing device. There were temperature check stations at all the restaurants, and we were asked to do that once a day. We were also asked to wash our hands before entering the buffet. Sinks were available right at the front of each entrance. Not consistently, staff at the buffet would ask people to wear masks if they came up to grab food without wearing one.

We started and ended our cruise in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the itinerary had us visiting eight other locations. We felt fortunate that we were able to see seven of the ports. St. Thomas was closed down by the time we got there at the end of our itinerary.

We also found out that we were the only cruise ship allowed in Dominica because it met appropriate Covid protocols. That was also the only port where we were not allowed to explore independently (we could only do excursions offered through Viking). The area around the cruise ship was cordoned off with police officers at every point. Fortunately, about 30 vendors were able to set up shop within the area so passengers could buy souvenirs.

On the fourth day of the cruise (as we were leaving St. Kitts and Nevis), the captain informed us that “very few” cases of Covid were identified. Those who tested positive were isolated and treated while the company used contact tracing to see who came in contact with those people. That was the only time we heard of any cases on board.

Disembarking

We received our last Covid tests the night before disembarkation, which could meet airline and country requirements for people traveling abroad. Disembarkation was smooth and efficient, and we were able to get to the airport in plenty of time for our flight home.

General reactions

Overall, we felt very safe while onboard the ship. Virtually everyone followed the mask requirement while sitting in the lounges, eating in the restaurants, or just wandering around the ship. Knowing that everyone was tested daily was a great relief to us and increased our confidence. We found the cruise very enjoyable with minimal interference dealing with Covid protocols or worrying about contracting the virus.