Welcome to Tauck’s Norwegian Fjords & Coastal Treasures - Eastbound Forum
Welcome to Tauck’s Norwegian Fjords & Coastal Treasures - Eastbound Forum - Find the answers to your trip questions, answer questions posted by fellow travelers, plus share your Tauck experiences and stories. Stop by often and join in on the discussions.
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My wife and I felt hopeful after getting our first Pfizer doses and seeing COVID caseloads drop here in California. We booked the Aug. 18, 2021 eastbound cruise since our 2020 Norway cruise was cancelled. Tauck website says we'll be aboard the Le Dumont d'Urville but the Ponant website says that ship will be in Iceland at that time! However, it appears that Ponant will be running the Le Jacque-Cartier for four Norway cruises with boat days corresponding to Tauck's dates. Any little boat glitch strikes fear into us after reading that the owner of Tauck's riverboats has taken some of them back.
Now all we need to travel is (1) getting that second COVID shot, (2) airlines actually scheduling flights again, (3) Norway opening its borders to U.S. travelers, and (4) sufficient vaccinations occurring in northern Europe for us to feel safe traveling there.
Anyone else booked on the Aug. 18 eastbound Norway cruise? Feeling hopeful, or not?
Not having any hope for our July Scandinavia Tauck tour. We can’t find any appointment for the vaccine anyway.
We just booked the July 15 2022 cruise. We hate to wait that long, but really want to wait until some of this uncertainty gets resolved.
There are no "Destination Specific" Covid requirements posted yet for this cruise, but I see they aren't supposed to be up until 60 days before the first trip of the season, which would be about the first of May.
Looks like Norway currently has no requirements. Sweden is allowing no entry before the end of this month. But the CDC shows very high levels of Covid and recommends against travel to both countries. And a test is still required for entry back to the US?
Is this cruise going to make?
We haven’t rebooked this tour
We would like to take it in the future. If you go, please post a review
As of 18 Feb 2022, the Norwegian government lifted all COVID-19 entry requirements except for Svalbard which requires a negative COVID test. If the itinerary takes you there, Tauck will arrange for testing.
Be sure to carry your original CDC vaccination card, however. More and more countries are defining fully vaccinated as the two base injections and the booster.
Testing for return flights is dictated by the United States.
The fjords are remarkable. Enjoy!
The Norwegian government's abandonment of all COVID requirements while infections are still very high is one reason we just bailed on this trip. That plus we didn't see dealing with all the requirements on a long multi-leg flight and on the cruise leading to the kind of experience we had envisioned. So we re-booked for Jul 2023
I'm booked for Scandinavia in August, the land tour.
Anybody going on the July 1 Ponant cruise with Tauck?
We were scheduled for the July 15 cruise, but have postponed until next year. We'd love to hear any feedback when you go.
Terry from Boone - You may have dodged a bullet. The SAS pilots have gone on strike and any air travel into Oslo is really a mess if it happened to include flights on SAS. My wife and I are going to celebrate her 70th birthday which was in 2020. I wish we had postponed our trip another year, like you, but the birthday girl wants her dang birthday gift.
I don’t blame her. Life is just too short. You’ll have a great time; I just know it.
TMcA - we just saw that on the TV this evening - said SAS filed for bankruptcy and pilots on strike. Since our flight had two connections in Europe involving SAS, we were thinking this trip was not to be this year. Hope it works out for you two.
TMcA, Did you make the trip? How did it go?
I looked at Tauck's page for this cruise. I was disappointed that at Geiranger they didn't offer an excursion to do the hike from Volsetter Farm to Flo (or the reverse). It's a bit of a hike, 6 miles, but a beautiful hike through the mountains. Here's some information about the hike - https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/travessa-vollset-flo-1097162
My wife and I did the hike recently and it was one of the highlights of our vacation. You need to be in decent shape to do the hike, but it's not too much of a challenge. I have a bunch of pictures of it on my blog.