I'm onboard the Viking Sky this week for a cruise around Iceland...
And it's been an interesting cruise because there's a passenger onboard that has tested positive for Covid 19!
And I got to see firsthand how Viking's Covid protocols work...
And I honestly believe that they've saved me from getting Covid myself.
I think that if I had been on some other cruise line besides Viking...
And there was a Covid-positive passenger aboard...
There's a chance I might have gone home with Covid myself.
But it hasn't happened on this cruise because of all the things that Viking has done to combat the spread of Covid.
The key to Viking's approach to preventing a Covid outbreak on the ship is daily testing.
Because there's a new group of passengers coming aboard the ship every week...
Somebody at some point is going to bring Covid aboard.
They'll be asymptomatic... Not even know they have Covid... And come aboard the ship with the virus.
In fact, that's exactly what happened this week here on Viking Sky.
So, daily testing is the key to identifying a passenger like that...
And then being able to quarantine them before they can infect anybody else.
I was shooting video of a waterfall right next to the ship...
When this announcement was our first clue that something bad was going on.
(Chimes alert passengers to an imminent announcement)
A very good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is your Cruise Director with an important update.
All guests need to remain on the ship.
Again, all guests need to remain on the ship until further notice.
We do apologize for the inconvenience.
And then a little later on that morning... The Captain made this additional announcement:
(Chimes)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain, Markus, speaking.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
I'll have some... Some short brief information for you.
Viking Sky has one positive Covid case onboard...
And they are now in isolation.
And we are following our strict protocols.
We are in contact with Icelandic public health...
And in compliance with their protocols.
So, this is a new situation for this local community and we are working on a solution with them.
Our number one priority is keeping all guests and the community healthy and safe.
We will update you soon as soon as we have any more information.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
The way that the daily Covid testing works onboard the ships is like this:
Each evening, the cabin steward drops by a couple of test tubes...
And in the morning, my wife and I, pretty much as soon as we wake up...
Will spit into those tubes to provide a saliva sample.
Then we just leave it here in the cabin, and about 8:30 in the morning...
The cabin steward comes by and picks up those samples.
Those test tubes from all the passengers and crew are then taken up to the PCR testing lab...
Up on the 7th floor of the ship.
I got a tour of it yesterday.
It was really impressive to take a look at it and talk to the medical doctor in charge...
And to the technicians that do the test analysis.
Because Covid has an incubation period, it's vital to have daily testing of the passengers and crew.
A lot of cruise lines just require you to have a Covid test at home...
And show a negative result to prove that you don't have Covid.
But what if on your flight to the cruise port you pick up Covid along the way?
Because of the incubation period, it may be several days into the cruise...
Before you actually show a positive result if you picked up Covid somewhere along the way.
So, those daily tests are the key to identifying any passengers or crew...
That have picked up Covid somewhere and then become infectious.
That way, once you identify them, you can quarantine them...
And keep them from infecting everybody else on board.
So, that's exactly what happened this week here on Viking Sky.
There was a passenger that had absolutely no symptoms at all...
And passed the Covid test the first few days of the cruise.
But then, finally, about halfway through the cruise, got a positive result on the test...
Because, of course, of that incubation period of the virus.
So, that passenger was immediately quarantined...
So that he or she wouldn't infect anybody else onboard.
Furthermore, there is a very high tech contact tracing system onboard Viking ships.
All the passengers and crew are given these little contact tracing electronic devices.
Now, you usually just wear it on the end of a lanyard...
With the lanyard around your neck, and you're good to go, but...
You can also take that electronic device off of the lanyard if you want...
And just keep it in your pocket. Whatever you prefer.
So, these devices keep a record of all the other devices that they come in close contact with.
So, when that one passenger failed the Covid test...
The data was downloaded from their device...
To find out what other devices it was close enough to...
For long enough, for that person to possibly have infected somebody else.
Then all those people are notified...
And they do some additional Covid testing to see if any of those people got Covid.
In the case of the incident we've had this week here on Viking Sky...
Nobody else but that one passenger was infected with Covid...
And so, there was no outbreak.
Thanks to all the steps that Viking put in place...
The daily testing and the contact tracing...
An outbreak was prevented. And it's proof... what happened this week is proof...
That all the money that Viking's spent on all that stuff has been worth it!
Of course, the daily Covid testing and the contact tracing devices...
Those aren't the only things that Viking is doing, as far as Covid detection and prevention.
There are daily temperature checks of all passengers.
You just walk up to this little kiosk...
And let it scan your key card, so it knows who you are.
And then it just measures your temperature... You know, in a contactless manner, by checking your forehead.
There's also a daily health questionnaire... Which you can either do on printed paper, or...
Do it through the Viking app...
Just to, you know, confirm that you don't have any symptoms of Covid each day.
Well, then the other big thing is also that all passengers on Viking Sky and all the crew have been vaccinated.
That is a requirement to sail.
So, that also goes a long way towards preventing things.
But remember that just because you've been vaccinated doesn't mean you can't get Covid.
It just means that you're not going to get a severe enough case to put you in the hospital or die.
You can still get Covid, and you could still infect somebody else.
So, that's why the daily testing is still important.
Of course, there's crew members all the time going around disinfecting things all around the ship.
But there's also a very high tech system that's used every night.
There's a thing that a lot of people are calling a disinfection robot.
It's not really a robot... But anyway, it's a ultraviolet light that disinfects the ship...
And it moves around the ship.
It's guided by a crew member that walks along beside it.
And the UV light is able to kill germs all along the way.
And that is run through all the common areas of the ship.
Doesn't go into the cabins, but out in the hallways in front of the cabins, and...
All the other public areas of the ship, every night.
The ship's ventilation system uses a similar technology.
There is a ultraviolet system in the ventilation system...
That disinfects and kills germs as the air is circulated around the ship.
Of course, there are also hand washing stations and hand sanitizing stations all around the ship.
And as far as social distancing goes...
There are seats blocked off in places like the main theater and in bars...
And even on the tenders that are used to take people ashore in ports where there isn't a big enough dock for a cruise ship.
They have seats blocked off so you don't get too close to other passengers.
And while I'm talking about social distancing, I should mention...
That Viking Ocean Cruise ships only carry 930 passengers.
So, that goes a long way to making it easier for social distancing compared to other cruise lines...
Where their cruise ships may have three thousand, four thousand...
Five thousand passengers on board the ship.
In the state rooms, when you first get onboard...
You'll find hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes...
As well as face masks that you can use during the cruise.
Now, passengers are required to wear face masks at all times on Viking Sky...
Except for when, of course, you're in your cabin...
Or if you're in the swimming pool or a hot tub...
Or when you're eating or drinking.
Of course, when you're on a shore excursion, masks are required there, too...
Especially like if you're taking a bus to get to somewhere on a shore excursion. That's vital.
If you get out and you're doing like a kayaking shore excursion...
Of course, you don't have to wear a mask when you're out kayaking on the water somewhere. Common sense.
They also enforce limits to how many people can be in any certain area at any time on board the ship.
For example, in the self-service laundry facilities...
Only two people can be in there at a time.
My wife and I went to one of the shops onboard the ship today.
They only allowed four people in the shop at one time.
And if you're in the hot tub, that's just two people at a time in a hot tub.
And in the thermal suite inside the spa... One of the greatest features on a Viking ship...
I think it was limited to eight people in the thermal suite at any one time.
And you had to make a reservation. You basically had an hour to stay in there,
The eight of you... And then eight more came in after that.
As far as Iceland's Covid rules regarding entering the country...
You do have to either prove that you don't have Covid...
By showing a negative Covid test result from within a couple of days of entering the country...
Or just show proof of vaccination.
And you do that all online. You upload the documents online...
And then they generate a little barcode that you show at the airport when you enter the country...
To prove that you've passed all those requirements.
So, I hope that gives you a pretty good summary of the situation with Covid detection and prevention here on a Viking Ocean Cruise ship.
As far as what happened to us this week with the one case of Covid onboard...
You know, of course, that was bad news because it kind of messed up our Iceland cruise...
Because once that was detected, of course, it was reported to the Iceland authorities...
And ironically, the public health department, I guess within the Iceland government
Was totally fine with what Viking was doing to prevent an outbreak from happening, but...
There was a little disagreement within the government...
And the Coast Guard felt... I think probably out of an abundance of caution...
That it wouldn't be a good idea to let us roam around Iceland once that one case was detected...
Just in case, you know, there was an outbreak afterwards, so...
From that point on, unfortunately, we weren't able to dock anywhere in Iceland...
And for the whole rest of the cruise it became a series of sea days where we just stayed aboard.
So, that was too bad, you know, just from my point of view as far as a vacation. But from the...
My other point of view is that, you know I came aboard to see and to document for YouTube...
What the situation was with cruising in the post-pandemic era.
So, I mean my timing was great for that!
To see what actually happened when Covid was detected aboard a cruise ship.
And I'm really glad that I was on a Viking cruise when this happened because...
It could have become an outbreak, you know, on some other cruise line...
Because they don't go to all the measures that Viking goes to with the daily testing and things like that.
But on Viking it was no problem, and it was limited to one passenger and no outbreak, so...
That was good news... And a happy ending as far as I'm concerned!