Dukefan

1 hour ago, Snit13 said:

Menu quite interesting.  Are you permitted to order more than one item as you are on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean?  On occasion when I don't see something I want to enjoy the waiters will get me what I want from another restaurant on the ship or allow me to have multiple starters instead of main course.  Not really a picky eater and love to try new things but certain foods don't agree with me.  One in our party of 4 eats Plant Based and NO oils.  She will not have an issue but may need to have a dish prepared differently.  Chef on more than one cruise came to table to assist cruisers with menu choices for the following night.

I would imagine with Vikings excellent reputation they may too be flexible.

If I order something I have never had is it ok to send it back and get another item in its place?

On your MVJ, under "Onboard Experience" in the "Preferences" Section, enter any diet restrictions or preferences in the "Dietary Restrictions" Section to flag the waiters and cooks the need for Plant Based and No oils restrictions or any other food preferences you or your party has.  Do it at least seven days before you board since that is when this information is downloaded to the ship.  Doing this will simplify your ordering, just tell the waier to check your dieary restrictions in your cruise profile.

Yes, you can order as many starters or main courses or desserts as you want but try not to be wasteful.  If there are multiple things that I want, I generally ask for half portions.

1 hour ago, FLORIDA FLOUNDER said:

https://www.port.is/index.php?pid=65&w=v

According to the calendar it should be in Oddeyrarbryggia. Could be wrong though.🤷🏼‍♀️

On the calendar, the current cruise was also booked for Oddeyrarbryggia 12.  Tangabryggja 11A appears to have better views of both sides of the fjord.  Hope our cruise gets changed to there.

1 hour ago, vslparis said:

 

Yes, we have been very lucky.  In Akureryri today there were blue skies and some clouds , about 70 F  for a high.  Great weather for touring . But as every guide so far has told us, the weather could be totally different the next day. We did the Northern Iceland’s Natural Treasure tour and the scenery was awe- inspiring. From the unique lave formation at Dimmuborgir ( watch out for those trickster Yule Lads 😉),  to the snowcapped mountains, the bubbling sulphur hots springs and the powerful Godafoss waterfall it was a day to take in the power and beauty of nature in Iceland.

We are booked on this same excursion on July 13th.  I hope we are fortunate enough to have weather even close to what you experienced.  We are really enjoying the posts from you pioneers and are so longing forward to following in your footsteps.  Wishing you continued success on your adventure!

51 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Us too

I wonder if the really unnormally high temperatures today for Akureyri played a role in not spotting any whales.

31 minutes ago, patchicago said:

On the Iceland cruise I’m traveling with a friend so asked for separate beds. We could use the extra room….tell me how you got upgraded from a DV to a PV! 

One strategy is as the cruise date gets closer to watch the cruise on the Viking sales site.  If a room in a category you want becomes open, either you or your travel agent call Viking and ask what it would cost to upgrade.   If they say, full fare different, then tell them if they offer a reduced difference to contact you.   They do this randomly often times without even asking. For example, on our Vikings Homeland Cruise we were upgraded from a PV1 to a PS1 for a fraction of the actual cost difference at the last minute.  The downside even though we got a better cabin for a fraction of the cost difference, it happened too late for us to get the extra early booking advantages of a higher cabin for the specialty restaurants, the excursions and spa bookings.

You folks in Iceland now are really lucking out, record high temperatures in many areas including Northern Iceland are possible today - temperatures in the high 70's!

2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Here is a webcam that is working. It is a long range view but Viking Sky is visible.

 

https://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/akureyri/

I really like this web page.   If you clink the arrow on the left, you can hit on 2021-06-29 and be able to see the Viking Sky arrive.  (Note:  Bes sure to go to full view by clinking the bottom right hand corner first or another arrow will pop up sending you to a different Iceland camera)   When watching the Viking Sky arrive, I was able to see it arrived at 8:18 am instead of 8:00 am.

2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Here is a webcam that is working. It is a long range view but Viking Sky is visible.

 

https://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/akureyri/

This appears to show the Viking Sky at the Tangabryggja 11A dock instead of the Oddeyrarbryggja 12 dock that it was scheduled to be.

1 hour ago, LindaS272 said:

They don’t load for me either, but #2 gives a thumbnail of the ship—so she’s there!

You can actually see the ship in the thumbnails of cameras 1, 2 and 3 but I can't get any of them to load live.

We had a land tour to Australia and New Zealand booked for September/October of this year that the tour operator canceled last week.  They are rescheduling if for the fall of 2022. We had been expecting this so it was disappointing but no big surprise.    While we are on the Iceland cruise we plan to discuss what we will do in that trip's place this fall.

1 hour ago, DaveSJ711 said:

This morning we received the Covid test that’s required no more than 72 hours before we fly home. We went to a facility in downtown Reykjavik, and the test was a breeze — no line, in and out, and a negative result for each of us. Now we can fly back to Seattle on Tuesday to endure the worst heat wave in the region’s history. We’ll miss Iceland’s cool temperatures!

Dave & Linda,

Thank you both for your posts.  Have a save trip back to Seattle.   And remember if we are ever on a future cruise together we owe you both a drink (or two) for giving us a preview of some of what we might expect in Iceland in a little over a week from now.

2 hours ago, Snit13 said:

Is this menu for Chef's Table or what?

Yes, on the current Iceland Cruise SantaFe1 reported there would be three different Chef's Table Meals each on different nights   They are the Xiang meal, the Asian Panorama meal, and the British meal.   Since we experienced the first two meals on other Viking cruises, I sharded what the menu was for each of these meals when we had them.  It will be interesting to see if any of them has changed.

13 hours ago, mskaufman said:

I was thinking of walking the wall around sunset and then having dinner in the old town.

Great plan!

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

We are going tonight.  Xiang menu.  Then the British one, then our favorite, Asian Panarama on the last night.  We are going to all three.  Sorry, I don’t have the menus yet.

Last time that we had Xiang, this was the menu:

Xiang

Amuse Bouche

Hot & Sour Soup - cantonese style

First Course

Fried Prawns - crispy garlic & chili

Granité

Coconut Granité - lemongrass & ginger infused

Main Course

Wok-Fried Beef - black pepper sauce, rice in lotus leaf

Dessert

Chilled Mango Cream - pomelo and sago

The last time we had Asian Panorama this was the menu:

Asian Panorama

Amuse Bouche

Chilled King Crab - coconut foam & curry

First Course

Lobster & Chicken Shu Mai - Shanghai style

Granité

Lemongrass & Red Chili Granité - lychee foam

Main Course

Peking Duck - crispy skin, Mandarin pancake, hoisin sauce

Dessert

Asian Trilogy - spring roll, crème brûlée & cheesecake

Have never had the British on yet.   Please let us know if either of the first two menus changed and what the British one is.   Thanks.

24 minutes ago, FoggyEthan said:

Dailies for day 2 are up:

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rJqx62oEB9Ty8LckUD5NfSUM8HYyC_fs?usp=sharing

 

Great Job!  Thank you!!!!

15 minutes ago, FoggyEthan said:

The dailies are also up at the link I created. As I get more dailies I'll put them up there.

 

I figure in some ways this is better than posting them here, because you just KNOW that there will be multiple people asking "can someone post the dailies" requiring someone to point them back to the earlier post.

Where is the link you created  How about posting a link to your link or telling us the link's title and where it is created.  Thanks

9 minutes ago, madrone said:

I saw a screen shot of the Daily and it said that passengers would be dropped off at Harpa Concert Hall and that there would be Viking reps there to assist. 

 

I lifted these from the site that can not be named since the folks on our site have been to busy getting settled in to post them yet.  Enjoy!!

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

There is more than enough to easily fill fourteen hours in this amazing, historical city. We have visited twice and immensely enjoyed ourselves each time.

The old medieval city of Dubrovnik is a UNESCO World Heritage site - it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea. You may want to read a little of Dubrovnik's history to whet your appetite.

Some suggestions:

Medieval city walls - it will take you about an hour to do the full circuit of battlements & you will probably recognize several locations from the Game of Thrones.

Old Town - you can spend quite some time strolling the old alleyways. Enjoy some local food.

Cathedral - an example of Dubrovnik's baroque architecture - the interior artwork is splendid. The main altar's amazing triptych was painted by the famous renaissance artist, Titian.

You can take a ride on Dubrovnik's cable car which takes you to the top of Mount Srd - excellent panoramic views and a great place to take photos.

Other sights not to miss assuming you have the time.

Sponza Palace _ GOT

St. Blaise Church

Franciscan Monastery 

Fort Lovrijenac - GOT

Pile Gate - GOT

St. John's Fortress

Orlando's Column - GOT

Clock Tower

Walking tour map GOT:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1CMu8ACaHRf9yQSMBu2I_mq1d9LIaBe-Z&ll=42.66876642266429%2C18.052144899999995&z=12

This is a great recommendation.  We have spent over 4 days in Dubrovnik and never ran out of things to do or see.  We love the city.  You are fortunate that you will be there in the evening when it is really special.  After most of the cruise crowd leaves at around 4 pm, it becomes a very different city.  Doing the walk around the old city walks at sunset is magical.   We are headed back to Dubrovik for our third visit next May and are really looking forward to it.

4 hours ago, MikeyB said:

It should be added that the "downside" for transferring your booking to a TA is that from that moment forward you "must" contact your TA to resolve any problems with your booking.

 

This is why you want a good TA.  A good TA can resolve problems faster than you can on your own and lets you know things you never thought about because they have experienced it with ay other travelers.  An agent works for you - a Viking employee works for Viking (but I must say the Viking representatives are some of the best I have worked with).  

We actually follow the same method that Andy (Heidi13) follows for exactly the same reason.  Even when we book on-board, we still have them list our TA - that way we get both the Viking on-board booking benefits and our TA booking benefits.

It would be wonderful if someone on each of the first several cruises could take a few minutes and take pictures of the four pages of Viking Daily each day and post them on this site   Since the Viking Daily lists the schedules of all the Viking activities each day it will be helpful for those following the first cruises.  If there are no changes for each of the days after the first several cruises, then this would no longer be needed.   This was something that I didn't see anyone do on either the earlier UK & Bermuda Cruises which really surprised me.   Thanks.

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

The Reykjavik bus system has line 16, see straeto.is.  And there's a little ferry near the port that goes to Videy Island and then to Reykjavik's Old Harbour and then back to the port. I'll post a little more about these possible options on the "other" (big) thread later today in case anyone's interested.

The good news on bus route 16 is that there is a bus stop 450 meters or a 5 minute walk from the habor.  The big news on bus route 16 is that it does not run on Saturday or Sunday.  The closest bus route that runs on Saturday and Sunday is bus route 12 which the nearest bus stop is a 18-20 minute walk from the harbor.

Domestic Restrictions in Iceland to Be Lifted Tomorrow  July 25, 2021

Vala Hafstað
 

All domestic COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted in Iceland, starting tomorrow, mbl.is reports. This was announced by the government of Iceland at a press conference, held at 11 am this morning. This will be the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that no domestic restrictions apply.

At the press conference, it was furthermore announced that beginning July 1, travelers who arrive in Iceland and are able to present valid certificates of prior COVID-19 infection or of COVID-19 vaccination with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency and/or by the World Health Organization, will no longer be tested for the coronavirus at the border. Starting July 1, children born 2005 or later will no longer be tested for COVID-19 at the border.

Travelers who cannot present certificates of vaccination or prior infection will have to present negative results of a PCR test, be tested at the border, spend five days in quarantine, and then be tested a second time.

The new rules at the border will be in effect until August 15.

At present, about 87 percent of Icelanders, aged 16 and older, have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 60 percent are fully vaccinated.

At the press conference, Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir stated that Iceland is the first among Nordic countries to lift domestic restrictions, and possibly the first European state to do so. “Enjoy the summer, and thank you for this joint fight,” she added.

This means there will be no more mandatory use of masks, no social distancing rule, and no limits on the number of people allowed to gather. Fitness centers, swimming pools, stores, restaurants, night clubs and bars will be able to operate without restrictions.

5 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

Dukefan, we were contemplating doing the June 26 Iceland cruise but our pet sitter (three cats) was not going to be available. So we opted for an earlier two week land trip. We arrive near Reykjavik on the 26th and are getting our return test in Reykjavik on Sunday the 27th. We plan to check out the Sky that day too and beg for cinnamon rolls 🙂 .  Sky was the first ship we sailed in July 2019 to St. Petersburg. We fly out on the 29th. Sorry to miss you!

We’re booked on the Venus Sept. 12 for Malta/Adriatic.

 

~Linda & Dave

From looking at your photos and comments, we would have enjoyed meeting you and Dave, Linda.   Maybe on a future cruise.

8 minutes ago, DaveSJ711 said:

Actually, we’re not doing a cruise — we’ve been in Iceland for 11 days, traveling on our own, and have five more to go. No Silver Spirits package for us, at least not this trip! That way I can keep my balance.

 

Thanks for the note of appreciation. It’s been fun writing reports every so often. I only wish I could stay beyond next week to write some more — Iceland is a great place to visit. 

Wish you'd stick around until July 10 cruise with us.  I'd buy you a drink or two! Thanks for your reports!