Smiling Sam, thank you for all your info.
I hope other forum viewers will post about their tours, all the ones starting up from June, it’s so helpful and reassuring for anyone who is nervous about going back on the road.
Thanks for the great reporting. We did Iceland a few years ago and your posts bring back great memories. I am excited to hear you will be experiencing the new volcano eruption. That sounds so cool. Please post some pictures of that as well when you are back. Safe travels!
Here is one view in the Saga lounge in Reykjavik. It is very spacious. Not lots of food and drink options but spacious. The lounge is located on the second floor just past gate A15. Fly home in a couple of hours.
Today’s sightseeing before airport transfer was to the Reykjavik Botanical Garden. Here are a few shots.
Sam - now that you're (almost) home, curious about your take on whether jumping through the Covid hoops and uncertainties were worth it?
Personally, I'm waiting until Apr 2022 for my first international trip (Japan), and given that first-world country's shocking mismanagement of Covid, I wonder if it will be a go by then. I just returned from a week touring the natural wonders of my home state, including a National Park. The simplicity of the trip made it very worthwhile.
Sam, have a great time in Seattle.
My question is, how much did the tour stops vary from the original published ones on the website?
How strict was it all in the end?
BKMD - It WAS worth the COVID hoops to make the trip, but the anxiety level was much higher than pre-COVID. All it would take is one test failure for anyone in your party along the way to turn everything really bad. We had done a trip to Jamaica before Iceland and all went well so we felt we could meet all the requirements and have acceptable risk/anxiety for the trip to Iceland.
That said each element of a tour that returns to normal will make things better. Tours to Iceland now will be better, from a COVID perspective, than ours was. Tours now don’t have to get tested at the airport in Iceland upon entry, hence no quarantine; they don’t have to meet a Ponant PCR test requirement; likely Ponant won’t require masks on the ship; about the only requirements will be that you have to be fully vaccinated and you have to take the PCR test on the ship for return to the states ( I expect that may go away before long).
So, by your April 2022 trip I would expect very few limitations beyond being fully vaccinated. I think if you pick and choose opportunities there are other tours that I feel would have acceptable risk/anxiety levels before your trip next April. It’s all very personal and subjective.
Here’s hoping that no one encounters any COVID related hiccups. If hiccups occur, let’s hope they are more along the lines of weather cancelling our volcano helicopter tour, ie setbacks/disappointments, but not disasters, with serious financial impacts.
British - I don’t have a good answer on how the tour stops varied from the published ones. I know they changed some things and of course there was one ‘Tauck Surprise’ stop ( intentionally not published ). One example that comes to mind was on the day we did Godafoss. Originally if you wanted to see Godafoss then you couldn’t do the Myvatn Baths. They changed that to have a Godafoss option with Myvatn and one without. We were very happy about this and selected the option with both. Both Godafoss and Myvatn Bath were highlights to us.
With respect to the strictness I assume you mean for COVID protocols. At the time of our visit Ponant had the strictest protocols, especially after Iceland went maskless and eliminated the entry PCR test in the middle of our tour. Tauck followed the Icelandic and Ponant rules. One thing I’m not sure I have mentioned before is that Ponant had a device at the entry to the dining room that measured your temperature when you looked into it. It would say something like Temperature is Normal. Or one time for my wife when she forgot to clear her bangs from her forehead it said, Security has been Notified. She cleared her bangs and got the Temperature is Normal message. Not sure what the outcome would be if you truly had a temperature.
Just curious . . . I haven't seen any statistics, but does anyone have any idea or seen any reports about how many un-vaccinated people, who have recently come down with COVID (all variants), have had COVID before? I guess if the number were significant, we'd hear about it.
Call me what you want, but I'm a firm believer in vaccinated people, in addition to having a card/certificate/passport, etc. also having some sort of visual or electronic confirmation (lapel pin, bracelet, microchip, "V" tattoo on forehead ) of vaccination (more to identify those who haven't been vaccinated!)
Thanks Sam….we went to the movies this afternoon, yes the movies! Black Widow of course, six other people in there with us.
It’s pretty much been proved that taking temperatures to detect Covid is no longer necessary. They don’t even do it when you have a hospital appointment. If I thought I had a temperature, the first thing I would do is take two Tylenol about a half hour before I was due to get mine checked. This is opposite to what some hospital patients would do when they wanted to stay in the hospital, put their thermometer in a hot cup of tea when the nurses did the temperature rounds on the long Nightingale wards….yes I’m old enough to remember working on those!
Comments
Smiling Sam, thank you for all your info.
I hope other forum viewers will post about their tours, all the ones starting up from June, it’s so helpful and reassuring for anyone who is nervous about going back on the road.
AlanS - preview mode. 😀😀😀
Thanks for the great reporting. We did Iceland a few years ago and your posts bring back great memories. I am excited to hear you will be experiencing the new volcano eruption. That sounds so cool. Please post some pictures of that as well when you are back. Safe travels!
Here is one view in the Saga lounge in Reykjavik. It is very spacious. Not lots of food and drink options but spacious. The lounge is located on the second floor just past gate A15. Fly home in a couple of hours.
Today’s sightseeing before airport transfer was to the Reykjavik Botanical Garden. Here are a few shots.
When you get home can you update your post with correctly oriented photos? My neck is hurting.
AlanS - Haha! An old man like you needs the exercise. I’m partway home (in Seattle), get home on Monday.
Sam - now that you're (almost) home, curious about your take on whether jumping through the Covid hoops and uncertainties were worth it?
Personally, I'm waiting until Apr 2022 for my first international trip (Japan), and given that first-world country's shocking mismanagement of Covid, I wonder if it will be a go by then. I just returned from a week touring the natural wonders of my home state, including a National Park. The simplicity of the trip made it very worthwhile.
Sam, have a great time in Seattle.
My question is, how much did the tour stops vary from the original published ones on the website?
How strict was it all in the end?
BKMD - It WAS worth the COVID hoops to make the trip, but the anxiety level was much higher than pre-COVID. All it would take is one test failure for anyone in your party along the way to turn everything really bad. We had done a trip to Jamaica before Iceland and all went well so we felt we could meet all the requirements and have acceptable risk/anxiety for the trip to Iceland.
That said each element of a tour that returns to normal will make things better. Tours to Iceland now will be better, from a COVID perspective, than ours was. Tours now don’t have to get tested at the airport in Iceland upon entry, hence no quarantine; they don’t have to meet a Ponant PCR test requirement; likely Ponant won’t require masks on the ship; about the only requirements will be that you have to be fully vaccinated and you have to take the PCR test on the ship for return to the states ( I expect that may go away before long).
So, by your April 2022 trip I would expect very few limitations beyond being fully vaccinated. I think if you pick and choose opportunities there are other tours that I feel would have acceptable risk/anxiety levels before your trip next April. It’s all very personal and subjective.
Here’s hoping that no one encounters any COVID related hiccups. If hiccups occur, let’s hope they are more along the lines of weather cancelling our volcano helicopter tour, ie setbacks/disappointments, but not disasters, with serious financial impacts.
British - I don’t have a good answer on how the tour stops varied from the published ones. I know they changed some things and of course there was one ‘Tauck Surprise’ stop ( intentionally not published ). One example that comes to mind was on the day we did Godafoss. Originally if you wanted to see Godafoss then you couldn’t do the Myvatn Baths. They changed that to have a Godafoss option with Myvatn and one without. We were very happy about this and selected the option with both. Both Godafoss and Myvatn Bath were highlights to us.
With respect to the strictness I assume you mean for COVID protocols. At the time of our visit Ponant had the strictest protocols, especially after Iceland went maskless and eliminated the entry PCR test in the middle of our tour. Tauck followed the Icelandic and Ponant rules. One thing I’m not sure I have mentioned before is that Ponant had a device at the entry to the dining room that measured your temperature when you looked into it. It would say something like Temperature is Normal. Or one time for my wife when she forgot to clear her bangs from her forehead it said, Security has been Notified. She cleared her bangs and got the Temperature is Normal message. Not sure what the outcome would be if you truly had a temperature.
Smiling Sam - Amen and well said. Life is just too short.
Just curious . . . I haven't seen any statistics, but does anyone have any idea or seen any reports about how many un-vaccinated people, who have recently come down with COVID (all variants), have had COVID before? I guess if the number were significant, we'd hear about it.
Call me what you want, but I'm a firm believer in vaccinated people, in addition to having a card/certificate/passport, etc. also having some sort of visual or electronic confirmation (lapel pin, bracelet, microchip, "V" tattoo on forehead
) of vaccination (more to identify those who haven't been vaccinated!)
Here you go Alan
British - see the answer to your question above. I had missed your question previously due to the timing of our posts.
Thanks Sam….we went to the movies this afternoon, yes the movies! Black Widow of course, six other people in there with us.
It’s pretty much been proved that taking temperatures to detect Covid is no longer necessary. They don’t even do it when you have a hospital appointment. If I thought I had a temperature, the first thing I would do is take two Tylenol about a half hour before I was due to get mine checked. This is opposite to what some hospital patients would do when they wanted to stay in the hospital, put their thermometer in a hot cup of tea when the nurses did the temperature rounds on the long Nightingale wards….yes I’m old enough to remember working on those!
Love it, Claudia! 🥂