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"In Search of the Northern Lights" cruise


OnTheJourney
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Hi,

 

I just got a Viking brochure that lists this cruise. It looks very interesting, especially for me in that I recently read a fascinating book about Professor Kristian Birkeland, the first scientist in the world to link the northern lights with electromagnetic solar storm activity. He had his observatory on Mt. Haldde in Alta, which is the most northern stop on the itinerary. I think it would be an awesome trip to take, especially with any good luck on seeing auroras.

 

Having never sailed with Viking, does anyone have any suggestions or advice? This cruise has dates between January - March 2019. (My preference would be March since generally I don't care for traveling in the winter due to the chance of running into bad departure or return weather here in PA.) The ship this trip sails on, the Viking Sky, looks absolutely amazing. I like the idea of being on an ocean cruise that only has 930 passengers too.

 

We were recently on a river cruise with Tauck and saw many Viking longships during our trip. We were quite impressed with them, and so I imagine the ocean vessels are also nice. I'm impressed too that Viking Ocean cruising appears to have high ratings.

Edited by three4rd
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There is another thread covering this topic; it is a short one but worth reading.

 

I've been thinking about this one, too. There is a lot that can wrong. It can be cloudy the whole time so that you never see the lights. The weather and the seas can force you to miss ports. It is very cold such that to enjoy the trip you will want to invest in appropriate outer clothing (which you may never wear again).

 

Finally, forget all the pictures you see of the lights. They don't look like that to the human eye.

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Your points are well taken and are reminiscent of what I learned regarding cruises to Antarctica (at least in terms of weather). Luckily, when we went down there last February we had spectacular weather and sailing conditions and did not miss any ports. Then again, can't get lucky all the time I suppose. Thanks for the input.

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We have taken the plunge and booked 14th March 2019, very few cabins left

 

Great! This cruise really tempts me. What I don't care for about Viking's website is that, unlike some others, you can select a cruise date but not much more. I don't see any way to actually choose a cabin and determine pricing, etc. Is there a way to do that? It appears you have to call them to "request a quote" to book any cruise. Love the website - very nicely set up and it runs well - but I don't care for not being able to research more on my own.

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There is another thread covering this topic; it is a short one but worth reading.

 

I've been thinking about this one, too. There is a lot that can wrong. It can be cloudy the whole time so that you never see the lights. The weather and the seas can force you to miss ports. It is very cold such that to enjoy the trip you will want to invest in appropriate outer clothing (which you may never wear again).

Finally, forget all the pictures you see of the lights. They don't look like that to the human eye.

 

Based on some quick research of the approximate temps for 2nd week of March at Alta, I'm seeing an average high/low of 29/18. Not really that bad. The weather in northern Norway is relatively mild due to the warming influences of the northern gulf stream, whereas the interior can go down to -40 F. As you pointed out, I think I'd be more concerned about the possibility of rough seas and weather. The one thing holding me back is that the cruise does not go to Geirangerfjord. Unless I'm missing something in the itinerary, it seems a shame to travel all the way up there and not experience the fjords.

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We are booked on the March sailing- a new moon (dark) is at that time and might help in seeing the lights. March seems to be, historically, a good time for the lights (take that with a grain of salt or some herring). Either way, we love Viking Ocean, so we win. Also, spend some time in Bergen and go thru the fjords.

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You're tempting me even more! You really did your homework to already know the moon cycle! Which sailing date are you on? 3/2 or 3/14? I was thinking this trip doesn't really go through any fjords such as at Geiranger. Wasn't considering Bergen. Never been so I don't actually know.

 

I could kick myself in that we did a Baltic cruise (not with Viking) a few years ago and at the time I booked it I didn't realize that the following week was a Norwegian cruise - should have done B2B.

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In looking at this cruise further, after a close look at google maps - the topography in the Northern section of Norway is amazing. I'd especially love to know what route the ship plans to take to navigate into Tromsø and Alta. Take a close-up look on google with satellite view and you'll see what I mean! What an amazing journey this is.

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Great! This cruise really tempts me. What I don't care for about Viking's website is that, unlike some others, you can select a cruise date but not much more. I don't see any way to actually choose a cabin and determine pricing, etc. Is there a way to do that? It appears you have to call them to "request a quote" to book any cruise. Love the website - very nicely set up and it runs well - but I don't care for not being able to research more on my own.

 

We booked direct with Viking, they talked through available cabins and we used the deck plan to make our choice .

 

Northern Norway is more important to us for this cruise, from the UK it is easy to do summer cruise that includes Geiranger amongst other fjords

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Got a reply email from my request for a quote. I'm confused in that the guy said he needs to know the airport I plan to fly out of in order to reserve a cabin for 24 hours. Really? I have no idea at the present time what airline I want - with the trip being 14 months away I can't even look at exact itineraries and pricing. He also included the price for air. I'm not even sure I want to use Viking air.

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We are booked on the March sailing- a new moon (dark) is at that time and might help in seeing the lights. March seems to be, historically, a good time for the lights (take that with a grain of salt or some herring). Either way, we love Viking Ocean, so we win. Also, spend some time in Bergen and go thru the fjords.

 

Which date in March? I'm going to do the 14th.

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Got a reply email from my request for a quote. I'm confused in that the guy said he needs to know the airport I plan to fly out of in order to reserve a cabin for 24 hours. Really? I have no idea at the present time what airline I want - with the trip being 14 months away I can't even look at exact itineraries and pricing. He also included the price for air. I'm not even sure I want to use Viking air.

 

We're booked for another cruise with Viking called Majestic Cities. One of the benefits of using the Viking air packages is that the transfers to and from the ship are included in the price which is important when you;re flying in to a new place.

 

Also, they just wanted to know what airport you were planning to fly from. Living in PA, are you leaving from Philadelphia, Newark, JFK ?? They weren't asking for an airline pick.

 

I wanted to go on In Search of the Northern Lights but DW wants to go on Majestic Cities with her friend and her husband, even though she says seeing the Northern Lights is definitely on her bucket list. 38 years married to the same woman and I still can;t figure out what she is thinking. We will just have to go for her 65th birthday.

 

I think you will have an excellent cruise on In Search of the Northern Lights. Think dressing in layers and the scenery looks amazing. Don't forget all the amazing food and drinks you will have to keep you warm. As another poster said the Northern Gulf Stream has a warming influence near the coast. Don't let any of the nay-sayers talk you out of it.

 

Enjoy your cruising days.

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There is another thread covering this topic; it is a short one but worth reading.

 

I've been thinking about this one, too. There is a lot that can wrong. It can be cloudy the whole time so that you never see the lights. The weather and the seas can force you to miss ports. It is very cold such that to enjoy the trip you will want to invest in appropriate outer clothing (which you may never wear again).

 

Finally, forget all the pictures you see of the lights. They don't look like that to the human eye.

 

If they don;t look like that then who's taking the pictures?

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Yes, sometimes they do look like the photos! I have seen them in the northern areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin and they are different every time. Beautiful! They should be on everyone’s bucket list.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Great! This cruise really tempts me. What I don't care for about Viking's website is that, unlike some others, you can select a cruise date but not much more. I don't see any way to actually choose a cabin and determine pricing, etc. Is there a way to do that? It appears you have to call them to "request a quote" to book any cruise. Love the website - very nicely set up and it runs well - but I don't care for not being able to research more on my own.

 

On the Viking website, on the main page of each itinerary, at the top, there are tabs. One says itinerary and one says dates and pricing. Dates and pricing will show you the price and availability for each category. It will not tell you which exact cabins are available.

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If they don;t look like that then who's taking the pictures?

 

In order to capture any image at all, a long exposure is needed. Our eyes function much more quickly and we don't get the blur. My son was in Sweden this past October and was disappointed, between almost not seeing them at all because of cloudy weather and the difference between photographs and live viewing.

 

If you sign up for this cruise you need to keep in mind that there is a lot that can go wrong or not as you expected.

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Based on some quick research of the approximate temps for 2nd week of March at Alta, I'm seeing an average high/low of 29/18. Not really that bad. The weather in northern Norway is relatively mild due to the warming influences of the northern gulf stream, whereas the interior can go down to -40 F. As you pointed out, I think I'd be more concerned about the possibility of rough seas and weather. The one thing holding me back is that the cruise does not go to Geirangerfjord. Unless I'm missing something in the itinerary, it seems a shame to travel all the way up there and not experience the fjords.

 

Geiranger is all but landlocked in winter. The road up onto the glacier is closed, thus eliminating many of the excursions. Much better to wait until summer.

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If they don;t look like that then who's taking the pictures?

 

The miracles of photo enhancing perhaps?..... I run all my pictures through auto enhance software using an old Mac Picture Project app. Works great since you can select as many pictures as you want and it does them all one by one. Can't understand why the newer "Photos" app on MacOS only allows you to do one picture at a time manually.

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The miracles of photo enhancing perhaps?..... I run all my pictures through auto enhance software using an old Mac Picture Project app. Works great since you can select as many pictures as you want and it does them all one by one. Can't understand why the newer "Photos" app on MacOS only allows you to do one picture at a time manually.

 

Some photo enhancing but mostly the effect of a long exposure time. No matter what, what you see in the photos is not what you are going to see with the naked eye.

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