In Search of the Northern Lights Jan 10, 2020 - Daily Viking

[Peregrina651]

6 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

You can determine, from your sailing date, what approximate phase the moon will be in.

 

the website timeanddate.com covers sunrise, sunset and phases of the moon

[Mibele]

13 hours ago, Phoenix cruiser said:

We are a year away from doing this cruise in reverse but this gives us a great preview of what to expect. Since sunset is so early, what do the night skies look like? Easy to see the Milky Way and thousands of stars or too much ambient light from shore and the ship?

The skies last night were pretty clear.  I was only out on our balcony, but I could see many stars.  I’m sure from the top decks, one could see much more.  We were out in the sea, so ambient light was not a problem.  

[Phoenix cruiser]

On our transatlantic cruise on Cunard the captain turned out most of the exterior lights for a bit but the skies were so cloudy it was not worth it. On our South America/Antarctica cruise on Holland America the captain did the same and it was amazing. Many of the folks were thrilled just to be able to see the Southern Cross. Neither of those experiences matched a night in the Outback where it was like seeing the skies from 200 years ago before light pollution covered the globe.

[Brad1185]

That’s a shame that happened. I’m not liking the clampdown in the dress code. They are not this strict on the river cruises.  But if it was up to me the dress policy for the restaurant would be shorts only no long pants allowed 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Brad1185

[Phoenix cruiser]

I don't find having to wear pants other than jeans and a shirt with a collar rather than a t-shirt particularly limiting, assuming that by "no jeans" they don't exclude all casual slacks such as "day to evening" pants. I will say on our Holland America cruise to Antarctica and Patagonia, HAL was more forgiving on dress code as they recognized we were already hauling layers of thermal underwear, parkas, gloves, scarves and more and so I never saw anyone turned away from the MDR. On the other hand on our Queen Elizabeth cruise to the Canaries if you were not wearing a coat jacket you couldn't get near the MDR.

[Geosez]

OK.  Jeans at dinner in World Cafe are acceptable.  Jeans at any meal in MDR, or dinner at Manfredi’s or Chef’s Table, not acceptable.  Simple as that.  
However, after reading this forum regularly for over three years, I can tell you that some jeans wearers have been stopped by the Maitre ‘D on some ships and some have not on other ships.  If you DO wear jeans to these three restaurants and are not sent to change,  be forewarned:  the Passenger Fashion Police will be alerted (via this forum) and you may have your gelato card lifted for the remainder of the cruise.
Consider yourself warned!

[Peregrina651]

46 minutes ago, Geosez said:

, after reading this forum regularly for over three years, I can tell you that some jeans wearers have been stopped by the Maitre ‘D on some ships and some have not on other ships.

 

Agreed. The only reason I commented on this thread about enforcement was because it was the same ship and the same staff in charge. Of course, it is now a very different itinerary and the enforcement level may change.

 

Now, may I please have my gelato card back.

[Geosez]

Peregrina, you have permanent special dispensation and your gelato card is gold plated!

[Phoenix cruiser]

On 1/14/2020 at 3:15 PM, Mibele said:

Day 6 - Tromso - Jan 15.  We are doing the Lifestyle of the Sami optional excursion.  Our included excursion is the next day.  

Daily Viking Jan 15.pdf 2.89 MB · 20 downloads

Any Aurora sightings yet? How was your Sami excursion? It sounded very interesting.

[cweaver423]

On 1/11/2020 at 5:52 PM, carollouise said:

Thank you for this!  We are on a different cruise, but it is nice to see an example of the info on the dailies. Took notice to the dress code bit.  I was under the impression that jeans were ok at the buffet.  Not a deal breaker, but looking to know what to pack. 

Seconded! Thank you for all of these! We are setting sail on this cruise in March so it's really helpful!

[Mibele]

Alta - WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!  Off the bow of the ship 🙂 I’m doing an excursion to see the lights (hopefully) so I’ll post any of that tomorrow.  

[Phoenix cruiser]

That is fantastic. Did you have to do anything special to capture them or just point and shoot? Also how was your Sami excursion?

[Lucky Lady 13]

Thank you for the pictures and trip reports, I am going on the same cruise in two weeks. Please tell us all about the Sami excursion! I am trying to decide if it is something that I want to do. 😁

[Mibele]

The Sami excursion was great!  The reindeer sledding was nice - it was around 30 minutes long.  The talk with the Sami was interesting.  We were there for maybe 31/2 / 4 hours total.  Included two breaks in the main lavuu (? Tent) that included coffee or tea and cake during one break and a reindeer stew for the second one.   If you are looking for something more adventurous, this isn’t it.  I enjoyed it  I’ll post some pictures from that excursion also.  

[Mibele]

15 hours ago, Phoenix cruiser said:

That is fantastic. Did you have to do anything special to capture them or just point and shoot? Also how was your Sami excursion?

Those pictures taken from the ship were taken with my iPhone using the NightCap app and the Star setting within that app.  It was recommended during one of the lectures on photographing the aurora.  

[Mibele]

Catching up on the dailies.  

Jan 16.pdf Jan 17.pdf Jan 18.pdf

[Peregrina651]

Until I can convince DH that we should do this one, all I have are the live threads. Thank you for sharing your wonder-filled and amazing adventure with us.

[Phoenix cruiser]

36 minutes ago, Mibele said:

Catching up on the dailies.  

Jan 16.pdf 3.11 MB · 4 downloads Jan 17.pdf 3.07 MB · 8 downloads Jan 18.pdf 0 B · 9 downloads

Continuing  to appreciate all this great information and photos. Downside is I have to wait a whole year to enjoy it in person. For some reason the January 18th daily doesn’t load and the icon shows 0 Mb so maybe there was an upload problem on your end?

 

Idle question, have you or anyone you run across booked any excursions independent of Viking? For those using Viking have you heard of anyone who couldn’t get their first choice?

 

keep having an amazing journey!

[Mibele]

Lifestyle of the Sami excursion pictures 

[Mibele]

Pictures from the Northern lights excursion.  I did the ship one that was from 10 pm to 2 am.  It was an hour long bus ride to a place outside the city to a place run by Glod Explorer.  You can look at their pictures on Facebook.  The ones I’m posting here, I took.  Except for the one of me.   

[Mibele]

Repost of Jan 18 daily 

Jan 18.pdf

[Mibele]

We had another ship sighting of the lights tonight at midnight.  You can sign up to get a phone call if someone from the bridge spots the lights.  The bad thing is it doesn’t tell you where they are.  Thankfully, it was off our starboard side balcony.  So I could peek at them without going too far 🙂.  Pics tomorrow.   

[Phoenix cruiser]

1 hour ago, Mibele said:

We had another ship sighting of the lights tonight at midnight.  You can sign up to get a phone call if someone from the bridge spots the lights.  The bad thing is it doesn’t tell you where they are.  Thankfully, it was off our starboard side balcony.  So I could peek at them without going too far 🙂.  Pics tomorrow.   

Great that you are getting so many opportunities. On our Antarctica cruise we were always running from our cabin down the hall fore or aft as the naturalist called out whale sightings, penguins, seals, icebergs, etc. Got lots of exercise. Sometimes we were fortunate to have the action right off our balcony, when I got some phenomenal video of penguins racing through the water.

[Mibele]

On 1/18/2020 at 2:56 PM, Phoenix cruiser said:

Idle question, have you or anyone you run across booked any excursions independent of Viking? For those using Viking have you heard of anyone who couldn’t get their first choice?

 

keep having an amazing journey!

There were people who did independent excursions and had a great time.  The only thing I did on my own was take the train from Narvik to Kiruna Sweden and back.  That was nice to see a different landscape.  I didn’t here any grumbling about people not being able to do ship excursions, but maybe there were some who couldn’t get what they wanted.  

[Mibele]

We are missing our excursions in Bergen as the seas have been rough coming out of Narvik and we had to slow down a lot.  We were supposed to dock at 1pm but now estimated arrival is 10pm.  Flying home tomorrow and an entirely new group of people get to hunt for the lights!   Attached is Jan 19, 20 and the 21st reimagined daily that we got after the late arrival announcement.  

Jan 19.pdf New Jan 21.pdf Jan20.pdf