I don't disagree with you guys and I think my wife is close to calling it off anyway, she gets her first shot on Friday. Just wondering if anyone over there knew "Yes no international travelers are allowed in until xx/xx/xxxx or something like that. Appreciate the opinions and thoughts.
I also suspect that Viking will cancel us soon but if they don't we have a decision to make.
The entire poitn of this trip was for my wife to go to St. Petersburg and if we get on the boat and they say "Oh BTW, Russia is closed to us!" it will be a huge money sink!
As said before - I believe it is impossible to forsee any details for June at this point. And believe that 'changes at short notice' will be the norm in June as well. So you will have the risk of a money sink IMHO.
In Germany, there is something of a conference of the (equivalent of the) state governors and the chancellor to convene on the measures for the next two to three weeks. They argue for a day, come up with a half-baked compromise and hours later at least some of the states say that they will not adhere to what they just agreed on. Within the country, you have varying regulations in the 16 states. It is impossible to "plan" anything further than three weeks into the future against this background.
Basically it works (or rather doesn't) like this:
You have the given situation on X-day. You have the advice of science, medicine, etc. what would be the appropriate thing to do on X-day and til X-day +45. You have the people moan that the pandemic is getting on their nerves. You have the economy complain that money is more important than containing the pandemic.
On X-day +14 politics decide to address the situation of X-day. The result is a half-baked compromise between what science advises, what the people complain about, and what the economy wants, i.e. it does not equal what should have been done to contain the pandemic already 14 days ago. Of the half-baked compromise, individual states chip off some pieces. Then it takes a week or two to implement the half-baked compromise or its remains. So measures always seem lag behind for at least a month and fall short of what's necessary.
In the meantime, the virus doesn't give a s*** about this muddle and creates facts that everyone has to carry the can for.
Rinse & repeat.
We've been just through this mess again with view on the Easter holidays 10 days from now. The half-baked compromise was announced yesterday, the chipping away has begun. Go figure...
I don't know how the other countries are doing. Some might be doing a bit better, some are doing worse.
But that is what you are going to have to base your cruise's shore leaves on. If you want to leave ship in Russia, I doubt that you will run into a problem doing so. At least not from the Russian perspective. Not because there is no problem, but because Putin decrees there is none. The kleptocrats there have determined that their money is more important than the welfare of their people and they couldn't care less about a boat-load of Americans and their health.
von Marwitz