carolinetodd

My husband has reminded me that the second year we spent there, when I remember the lights being so frequent, was a year of high solar activity, and that in my rosy view of the past, "several times a week" has become "nearly every night" - sorry, didn't mean to be misleading. Regardless, Lifestyle of the Sami and Arctic Landscapes by Husky both sound awesome.

Lights in Tromsø shouldn't be much of a problem, and in Alta even less. We lived in Tromsø a couple of winters, and saw the aurora nearly every evening, usually around dog-walking time - 9:30ish? While it's true that there may have been a fair amount of development since then, I'd worry more about the ship's lights.

In addition to whatever sides there are with the night's specials, we could always get steamed vegetables (always cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and zucchini,) creamed spinach, or a salad.

Are we talking regular salmon or lox? Smoked.

I loved Museo Galileo! Renaissance art leaves me pretty cold, but the displays in the Galileo were fascinating.

I've been to the reindeer races in Kautokeino - reindeer are mean little SOBs and I'm happy to eat them.

We would have enjoyed the reindeer menu, but it wasn't offered. We ended up canceling our Chef's Table reservations once we saw the menus - I'm allergic to shellfish as well as mushrooms and truffles, and my husband isn't a fan of the whole "foam and granita" school, as he calls it.

"Can the mini fridge be stocked with champagne and wine as needed?" You can get wine instead of the mini liquor bottles.

I walk with a stick, and although I was quite able to manage a plate one-handed (or tuck my stick under my elbow while filling the plate) the manager was constantly taking my plate away and carrying it around for me. You'll have no trouble finding someone to to help, and they'll be glad to do it. Our experience was that the staff - in the café and elsewhere - were all eager to be useful and a little disappointed not to be needed.

Our steward kept us well-supplied, bringing a fresh bottle every day, even though we hadn't finished the first, so we had a good assortment after a while. I don't know if the beverage package allows them to bring you the fancier wines - we just had the included ones.

The hard liquor comes in mini airline-size bottles, but the wine is in regular bottles and the beer in 12 ounce cans.

the Norwegian Aegir (from Flam) Doh! I meant Ægir, not Æsir! Is there any way to edit my previous text? Also, I've forgotten the name of the (included) Soave they kept me stocked up with - yum.

Maybe it varies from cruise to cruise? We didn't even ask for it - one evening in the World Cafe, we talked about beer with some of the waitstaff and tried the Æsir on their recommendation. Next day there was some Æsir in our minifridge.

Yes, it includes beer. IIRC, we had four mini liquor bottles and 2 beers, and they were happy to swap out the liquor for wine and more beer. I believe the original included beer was Carlsbad, but we had it switched for Æsir.

We cruised with Viking from Istanbul to Barcelona this past January/February. For the most part, the weather was dry and mild, sometimes overcast, sometimes gorgeously sunny. We had one blustery, windy, rain-mixed-with-snow day at Mycenae and Epidaurus, a rainy day in Ville-Franche-sur-Mer, and the mistral threatened to cancel a boat trip from Cassis. For my taste, much preferable to fighting through crowds in the blazing heat to visit Pompeii or Troy in summer.

Viking is very generous about this. You can bring your own wine to dinner, without any corkage fee, and bars will happily supply ice and glasses if you want to bring in your own liquor and mixers.

I asked my husband if he recalled how we knew we wanted Galataport and not the old port, and he sent me this: The full address that they give (Yeni Yolcu Terminali Salıpazarı Fındıklı Meclisi Mebusan Caddesi Salıpazarı Liman Sahas 1 numara Yolcu Salonu Beyoğlu, Istanbul) is more a description of where a thing is, ending in the city, before that is the name of the (large) “municipality” Beyoğlu (like “Brooklyn” in New York), there is a street (Meclisi Mebusan Caddesi), and a neighborhood (Fındıklı). The new terminal is a few blocks SW of the old one which was by Dolmabahçe Camii (Dolmabahçe Mosque), so a lot of the old description is still correct. The problem is that the description “Yeni Yolcu Terminali” (New passenger terminal) will probably tell a taxi driver where to go because the old location is closed which they should know, but Google is bogged down by lots of old formerly-true information, so you may have doubts (I certainly did). Viking could instead say “Galataport”, refering to the neighborhood Galata, then again, the neighborhood is now called Karaköy. The current one can be found by searching for Galataport, however, Google is not entirely wrong in thinking that Galataport is a shopping complex, so you might reject that option because Maps gives you very many irrelevant businesses in the area, and nothing that clearly says “This is the port!”. Streetview does not help, you don’t see anything looking like a port. That is because the terminal is underground, and you probably cannot see a ship on the other side of the massive street-level shopping center. When they say that there are two locations and they won’t know until the last minute which one they are docking at (which could make you think “How do I get from one location to the other!”), the difference is a few ships’ lengths and not a taxi ride. The biggest challenge is getting from the street to the check-in point. One way is to find a bold cab driver who will just break all the rules and drive you right up to the location, but that is very unlikely (however, that is how we got in). I heard that more often, you get dumped at the street and have to walk forever to get in. I do not know where in that long façade on Meclisi Mebusan street the entrance is, but a sign saying Yolcu would be the right way to go. BTW if you ask someone and have a language problem, Turkish Yolcu is pronounced “Yole-joo” not “Yawl-coo”

We embarked on Viking Saturn from Istanbul last January, and our documents gave the old port location, too, even though we left from Galataport.

We were in Istanbul last January, and found our two cab drivers very personable and helpful. The driver who took us from the hotel to the port stopped at the barricade where he was supposed to drop us and had a word with the security guards - in Turkish, of course, but I think the gist was "This old lady walks with a stick and will never make it all the way to the Viking check-in." The guards asked to see my Viking boarding papers, then opened the barricade and let our taxi through to the check-in spot. I can't say whether this is usual or not, but you could ask your driver if it's possible. Galataport is certainly big, but it wasn't confusing. Viking has a lot of signage and staff members along the route to keep you headed to the ship. In fact, I found this to be the case at every port - they really don't want you to get lost and delay the ship! Ship staff take your passport when you board in Istanbul and return it after you cross into Greece.

Just turn up.

Your best bet is to email the hotel and ask.

I'm surprised by the comments saying that Viking Ocean doesn't have slow-walking versions of their excursions. We were on Saturn from Istanbul to Barcelona in January and February, and on our first tour, we were assigned a bus with many older and slower folks without having to ask, and after that, every evening our original excursion tickets were replaced with new ones with a bus assignment already on them. My stick and slow walking speed made me an obvious candidate for the slow bus, but I'm sure that anyone without an obvious disability could request to be assigned to the "leisurely" group.

Although the food is self-service in the World Café, waitstaff circulate constantly to bring drinks. We never had to ask for refills - when our glasses ran low, there was always someone magically at hand to refill them.

Yep, tough and bland. I really wanted to like it, tried a couple times, but no. Just no.

Here is a thread that contains some info about getting wheelchair help in Galataport.