Viking World Cruise – Update # 7

Posted on by

We docked in Dubai at 01:00 March 22nd, as Viking negotiated the docking on humanitarian grounds with the local authorities, to repatriate all remaining 361 pax from the World Cruise.

Before arriving Dubai, we had flights confirmed with British Airways, our preferred airline, from Dubai to Vancouver, via LHR. However, the local authorities dictated that everyone must depart Dubai on their local airline – Emirates. A great airline, but that caused significant additional work for the air department, re-booking many flights, ours included.

Yesterday AM, we received new flights for March 23rd – Dubai to Vancouver, via Dublin & LHR. Departure Dubai was 07:05, so we would need to depart the ship by 03:00. After dinner, we checked our cabin for the departure notice and baggage tags, but none were present. Calling Guest Services, we determined that our flights were confirmed late, so we had not been included on the pax manifest provided to the shore authorities. As 1/2 dozen pax found out this morning, if not on the manifest, they send you back to the ship.

Oh well!! while we have a confirmed flight, we are unable to disembark the ship to head to the airport. You guessed it, we are still aboard and enjoying this great ship and crew. Life is tough, being stuck on this amazing ship.😁😊👍

However, the world is quickly shrinking, with respect to international travel, as Emirates advise their last departure from Dubai is March 24th. On arrival Dubai, we had 361 pax aboard and by Noon today, about 200 have already disembarked and are home or heading home. About another 75 are scheduled to depart today and tomorrow, which leaves 80 – 90 of us without scheduled flights before the shut down on March 25th. Few, if any seats are available on the last flights, so we are in the last group.

Yet again Viking Cruises are going the extra mile with their customer service, as they are arranging a “Charter” flight from Dubai to an, as yet, un-named US airport. They anticipate take-off by 18:00 March 24th. On arrival US, they will schedule onward flights to our destination airports.

12 thoughts on “Viking World Cruise – Update # 7”

  1. Andy and Judi, I’ve really enjoyed following your Viking Ultimate World Wonders Cruise blog & CC posts from you and Jim on Ultimate World Cruise. I was so impressed with your blog that I went back and also read your 2015 World Cruise posts. I’m glad to see that Viking seems to be meeting the challenge to get you home safely, and will be looking forward to your next entries, summary, and comparison to your 2015 WC. Paraphrasing from you, “As another cruise closes, we bid you farewell until your next adventure, and hope for fair skies for flying and safe travels home.” Barbara

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Honestly, staying aboard is no hardship. We are enjoying another great day with lots of friends. Even had a behind the scenes tour of the stage, change-room, and a Q/A with Beven and vocalists. Brilliant.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  3. All the best for you! It’s a tough time for almost everyone around the globe.
    Here in Poland it’s even more difficult than in rich countries due to bad condition of health service – lack of everything – and insane politics ruling the country 😦
    I wish you safe journey home and stay in good health.

    Like

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply to oriana77 Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.