JandKsVistas

Vikki Van Tassel was by far the best cruise director (Nova, last September) with whom we have ever had the pleasure of sailing. I say this comparing multiple trips on Silversea, Regent, Oceania, Celebrity. We wish her much success!

January!

Just now, JandKsVistas said:

Enough said. South Georgia is magic. 

We have been to Alaska three times on different cruise lines. We love Alaska, the scenery the people, the history, the wildlife. You either love Alaska or you don’t. Not sure a cruise line could change that. I was just answering the question about Regent. 

This is our first Regent Cruise. We have sailed on Silversea, Oceania, Viking Ocean. We haven’t even left port in Vancouver and we already love it!  I know it is a short seven day cruise onSeven Seas Mariner, but just the welcome and the people and the attention to detail have grabbed us. My husband contacted Regent-before the the trip to ask about his preferred drink in the ships bars and when we entered our cabin it was there, with preferred mixes. We may be new converts to Regent!

We’re you able to use taxis or Ubers or Lyft to get to and from Ward Cove?

Thank you for taking us along on your cruise!  We would be curious to know about the new docking positions for Regent. We’ve heard that they no longer dock at Ketchikan, wonder if there are more out of town docks being used. We will be on the Mariner in September, we are concerned about coordinating third party tours if we have a 30 minute shuttle into town. Thank you. Love the pictures!  

We are traveling in September. Thank you for alerting us about the “out of town” Ketchikan dock. Are there taxis available?  We planned an outside tour thinking we would be docked, as before, in Ketchikan. Wish Oceania/Regent/NCL would note the new dock position during the booking process. 

A secondThank you to Flatbush Flyer. I followed his directions and was able to book on line with the YWYW and free O excursions. Our TA had sent the PDF file of shore excursions when we booked. That was a giant help. Crazy numbers,  but I went straight to the bottom line and it jived with my calculations. 

Did anyone Zipline?

Messinn Restaurant downtown is really good. Fresh Seafood served in a cast iron with wonderful sides. We went twice. 

Tried that before and no decaf to be found. 

I have read on these Oceania forums that there is a special services email to request items not usually provided, but cannot seem to find it. I emailed Oceania coustomerservicea and got no reply   Help. 

we r booked on the viking star 8/2518 out of bergen. found it better to book icelandair out of boston ma to iceland with a 2 night stay then a direct flight to bergen on way home flight from stockholm to boston with a short layover in iceland

We highly recommend Messinn Restaurant in Reykjavik. I emailed for reservations before we left.

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we r booked on the viking star 8/2518 out of bergen. found it better to book icelandair out of boston ma to iceland with a 2 night stay then a direct flight to bergen on way home flight from stockholm to boston with a short layover in iceland

I think your two day stay in Iceland will be much better than the Viking pre cruise offering.

We are in the middle of the Iceland precruise to our Midnight Sun cruise starting June 12 in Bergen.

Our thoughts:

We love Reykjavik! The old town, the harbor, both old and new. Restaurants are wonderful. We arrived a day early (booked or own air). We have had reservations for dinners and glad we had them.

Everything is expensive, but we were prepared for that

It is so worth visiting this beautiful country.

But...

Wish we had done this on our own, not through Viking.

The Hilton Nordica is a 30-45 minute walk to town. A taxi ride one way is 25-45 US dollars depending on traffic. There is a bus, it has been raining and we have been too impatient to figure it out,(our bad) so we have walked when no rain, or are paying the taxi fares. There are many hotels in and around town, would have preferred that location. We think this Hilton is too far out.

Our Golden Circle tour was today. A very long day with lots of bus time. Beautiful sites, but again wish we had been on our own time table. We would have spent more time in some places and skipped others. Think we could have added the other side of the island, black sand beach, (the south I think) to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow if we had been on our own.

Viking has bus tour of Reykjavik planned in the afternoon tomorrow, but buses can’t get into a lot of downtown, so

we are going to do the church, Opera house, etc on our own, and skip this last bus tour.

Viking booked our flights into Bergen through Oslo,

with an airplane transfer in Oslo. We have talked to some guests who were booked through Viking on a non stop flight to Bergen. I guess it was the luck of the draw. We would have much preferred the non stop.

If we were to plan this again, we would have visited Iceland before the cruise, but made our own arrangements. We have loved Reykjavik! Now on to Norway!

Does anyone have experience with kayaking in Molde?

We did the kayaking excursion in Geiranger in July 2017.

 

Although the description said you would walk to the kayaking launch site, we met our guide at the main dock in Geiranger and were bused to where we would launch.

 

A pretty rustic site but there is a small trailer where you can leave things such as backpacks, purses, etc.

 

You are provided with special kayaking vests and "skirts."

 

You will be using double kayaks and will launch from a dock. Although the waters are likely to be mostly very calm, there is a current so it was a bit more strenuous than we anticipated. But then, we were somewhat older than most of the other participants so we had trouble keeping up but did "finish the course."

 

Be sure and use the bathroom before leaving the dock area. I think the guys made out at the trailer but nothing for women. The restrooms in the dock area had long lines and about half of them were out of order.

 

VIking normally anchors at Geiranger and you tender to port. Be sure if you schedule an excursion in the morning you have enough time. We had less than 30 minutes between our morning excursion and kayaking excursion so we ate something at the port and also had taken a change of clothes which they recommended with us on our morning excursion. Thankfully, we did not need that change of clothing. :D

 

It was fun.

Thank you so much! This is so helpful JandK

Geiranger is on a fjord and is away from the open seas while Molde is a coastal town. In Geiranger, the fjord is not very wide and you are never far from land (and something to see).

 

Kayakers on Geirangerfjord:

 

Thank you so much, sounds like Geiranger is the vest.

I agree that there's no need to fear not getting back to the ship on time. And yes, generally you can find a tour that costs less than what Viking (and just about any other cruise line) is offering. If a third party (i.e. off ship) tour sounds expensive just for you and traveling companions, maybe you can get a couple other people to share. It's great to be able to more or less plan your day or afternoon, and to have more flexibility.

 

Yes, Norway is definitely expensive, and the excursions often reflect that.

 

In Geiranger, the included tour offered by Viking was actually a little more comprehensive than a popular coach tour offered by the well-known vendor there. So if you only want to go to a few places for views by coach, don't pay the vendor for the excursion, just take Viking's included excursion.

 

In the Orkney Islands, we used Experience Orkney Tours (Ann Marwick, +447798886078, annmarwick@btinternet.com) to (mostly) tour Skara Brae. All 4 of us thought it was a great afternoon. That left a little time for me to explore the town of Kirkwall on my own in the morning.

Hello Roothy,

I have been following your posts, Thank you for all the Information! We will be on the Midnight Sun Viking Sea starting June 12.

My husband and I are trying to decide if doing two excursions in Geiranger, more specifically the Ebike tour up a mountain, 9:45-12:45 and the kayaking 1:45- 3:45 is too much to plan for timing wise.

There is kayaking in Geiranger and also in Molde. In your opinion, Would one be better than the other for scenery, and the experience?

If we book a paid excursion on line, before the cruise, and have to cancel for any reason, sickness etc. does Viking Ocean give a refund? Viking river does not.

Just completing a Grand European Tour on Viking. It was a wonderful cruise. Wanted to point out several things to future cruisers that might help in decision making. We opted for a suite and enjoyed having the second room. BUT there is very little storage in the suite rooms. We had two drawers total! The regular veranda rooms have six drawers. Husband kept his clothes in his suitcase under the bed. Inconvenient for 14days.

The third floor has pros and cons, would chose it again but beware. The creaking and noise in the ceiling from the roof deck when the ship is moving and the roof deck is set up makes for a noisy night. When, docked, no problem.

We were in the middle of the boat, 312, and when I asked the front desk about the excessive noise on the first night out of Budapest, she shrugged her shoulders and said it was due to rough water and when docked it would not be a problem. She was right, but we had four nights of very creaky ceilings, loss of sleep each time. In talking to other shipmates, most did not have the same amount of noise, but room 301 did. You might avoid these two rooms.

Finally, I recommend you do not book the extra excursions before arriving on the boat. If you do, you cannot cancel for any reason and you will lose your money. None were sold out, and by booking once on board you have the option of cancelling should you get sick or change your mind.

We followed a lot of national holidays on this journey (not expected) and consequently visited towns that were closed down for not only Sunday but these holidays. Missed Budapest all together as it was a Sunday and then a holiday on Monday.

Still, enjoyed the cruise. Hope this helps with planning.

Have you had a chance to review this trip? We are thinking about booking this in April

Have you had a chance to review this trip?