Viking Cruise - South America Day One and Two

 

Pre-Departure

About two months past checking the Internet for travel to Chile requirements, I found that a “Mobility Pass” was required by Chile. So began our sojourn into the Land of Documentation.

The Mobility Pass simply verifies one's COVID vaccinations including booster. Ours were approved in one week. One uploads a photo of his/hers CDC vaccination card. In addition to the pass, each of us received an ID number to be used to link the Mobility Pass to an Affidavit.

The Affidavit cannot be requested before 48 hours before one's flight to Chile. The affidavit attests that one tested PCR negative within 72 hours of one's final departure to Chile and that one has travel insurance. One uploads PDFs of the test result and insurance. To meet the test requirement we scheduled “same day test results” tests for 9AM Monday morning at Any Lab Test in Venice at a cost of $199 ea. We received our test results shortly before 1 PM. The process for the Affidavit changed but not the instructions. The ID number linking the Mobility Pass to the Affidavit had been eliminated; the link is now automatic. Upon completing our requests, the Affidavits showed up in our emails almost immediately.

Viking uses Verifly to verify one's COVID vaccinations. Using the Verifly app, one takes a passport style photo and uploads a photo of the CDC vaccination card. Mine went right through providing a green good to travel check mark on the Verifly app and our record on the Viking website. Joanne's green good to travel check mark did not transfer to Viking. I called Verifly whose rep said I was Viking's problem. We called Viking; nope it was Verifly's problem. Eventually, someone at Viking requested Joanne to send her a screen shot of her Verifly green good to travel check. Issue resolved, we were issued our Viking ship boarding passes.

I printed two copies of all of our documents. I also downloaded all the documents to my tablet and phone. We were ready to go! We flew from Fort Myers through Houston to Santiago, Chile. United asked us to upload our documentation to their Travel Ready Center 24 hours before our flight. Didn't matter. A United Representative reviewed our our documentation before issuing our boarding passes.

Flight

Wind and more wind. We woke to wind. We dropped Bleu off at the Cat Cottage and returned home for our our ride to RSW. Trash was blowing down the street from overturned garbage cans. Palm branches littered the streets. The sun shade on the back of the boat held in place although one motor cover dangled alongside the boat.

Upon arriving at RSW, we found far fewer passengers than expected. We checked in right away at an United kiosk with the assistance of an Untied rep. Oops, the handle on my brand new bag popped right off as the baggage handler hoisted the bag unto the belt behind the check-in stations. We passed through security like a breeze.

At RSW in light wind about 11 AM, our security camera showed the sun screen blowing over the top of the boat but otherwise OK - light wind at RSW and crazy wind at PGI.

Following an uneventful flight to Houston, our security camera showed the sun screen blown over and stuck on one of boat lift's guide poles. It looked weird. Our neighbor, Brian, looked it over and reported that the bimini frame was probably bent. That will be something to repair when we return.

Flight Delay in Houston

Missing airplane cleaners delayed our night flight to Chile by one hour. Only 2 out of 10 cleaners showed up to work. Otherwise, we enjoyed a nice flight although we missed a night's sleep.

Airport Arrival

Fly Fort Myers to Sanitago, Chile, About 6000 miles

After our plane landed about 9:30 AM Chile time, we found ourselves in a long long line both ahead and behind us slowly moving forward. Eventually we reached a rank of maybe twenty or more stations where officials checked our documents: passport, mobility pass, affidavit, PCR test results and insurance. Satisfied, we each received a token and proceeded to PCR testing. At 11:42 AM, we entered our passport numbers on a touch screen to receive printed BioNet tickets. We bobbled a little as the touch screen proved to be a little finicky.  A couple of dozen stations setup for the testing were manned by technicians suited up as if for major surgery. With our ticket in hand, our noses and mouths were swabbed. Upon exiting the testing area, we surrendered our tokens and walked on and on.

At immigration, following another review our documents, our passports were stamped. We were off to retrieve our bags. Somehow we missed the customary customs declaration forms upon which you state that you have nothing to declare so we just passed our luggage through x-ray machine without them.

Out the door about three hours and about what seemed like half a mile of walking after we landed, a host of Viking reps greeted us, checked us off their list of arriving guests, collected our bags, and led us to Viking bus #10. Socially distanced with every other pair of seats occupied, we rolled down the freeway through tunnels under the mountains with vineyards along the way to Valparaiso.

At the cruise ship terminal, all of our documents were reviewed again followed by a temperature check.  And then at check-in all our documents were checked again before our room key cards were presented. Photos were taken to be used by facial recognition temperature check stations on-board the ship. Finally, we received GPS trackers that will track each us through out our cruise.

After another bus delivered us to the ship a short distance away, we finally reached our room about 3 PM. Following a late lunch, we unpacked, listened to a “Port Talk” about Valparaiso, consumed a wonderful dinner, attended a presentation on Astronomy and slept for eleven hours.

Viking Jupiter at Pier 8 in Valparaiso

Day Two - Quarantine

Panorama - Starboard Side

A number of guests tested positive at the airport and are now quarantined on the ship. About thirty of us on the flight from Houston are considered to possibly have been in close contact with one or more of them so we are quarantined to the ship. We were not allowed to leave the ship for our tour of Valparaiso. What to do?

Quarantine in the Infinity Pool

We wandered about the ship, checked out the Infinity Pool, consumed a wonderful seafood dinner, attended an Abba concert, listened to Christmas Carols, listened to a beautiful piano and cello rendition of “Send in the Clowns plus more music and worked on our blog + photos.

View from Our Balcony on Port Side  - A Dry Dock

Valparaiso from the Port Bow

Temperature Check

All of us are PCR tested every day. So far all of our

tests have been negative as far as we know. We also have the daily temperature check. Masks are mandatory in all public areas unless one is eating or drinking. Every day we must complete a health survey on a Chilean website.

Day Three will be at sea. We are cruising South.