LIVE from "Iceland's Natural Beauty" -- All Sailings, 2021

[commencemilo]

My friend cancelled the excursions on Sat 8/14  and the credit hit her cc on Wed 8/18.  Viking did say that if he the transaction did not go through before she cancels the cruise then it would be part of the FCC.  She will cancel the cruise tomorrow 8/20.  This is for the 9/7 cruise.

We are still sitting on the fence but another friend is currently on 8/17 sail of the Jupiter and so far so good.  We will talk with them later and then make our final decision.

 

[readsalot]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

If anyone's interested in seeing photos from our August 3 - 10 trip on Jupiter, my photo galleries are here, with captions: https://pbase.com/roothy123   You don't have to sign in or anything pesky like that, just look.  But you'll need to look at separate galleries for each place we visited - i.e., Reykjavik through Heimaey.  And be sure to push the "All" button at the bottom of each gallery to display all pictures for that gallery.  (In other words, there are multiple pages.)  The photos are mostly of places we went on excursions.  I didn't take a lot of photos on the ship. But for those still traveling to Iceland, it may be helpful to get a preview of some of the things you'll see and do.  

Thank you for the lovely photos! We’re enjoying the cruise vicariously through you!

Lynne

[KarNog]

11 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

Packing for next week: YES or NO-- do I need to pack a puffy (down) jacket?????

I'm having the same discussion. Rain forecast for Reyjkevik Sat and Sun. It looks rainy and cool in Isafjordur.  Sunny in Akureyri, Seydisjordur and Djupivogur. Couldn't find anything on Heimaey's weather.

So yes. Or no. Or maybe. lol

[Camden lady]

Beautiful pictures.  Thank you so much for sharing them with us.  I now know some things I definitely want to see on my trip.  Just wish we could walk around on our own....but not this time.   I leave tomorrow and am getting so excited.   Thanks again!!! 

[Camden lady]

7 minutes ago, KarNog said:

I'm having the same discussion. Rain forecast for Reyjkevik Sat and Sun. It looks rainy and cool in Isafjordur.  Sunny in Akureyri, Seydisjordur and Djupivogur. Couldn't find anything on Heimaey's weather.

So yes. Or no. Or maybe. lol

I am going to take mine and hope I don't need it.  🙂

Also taking a lightly lined rain jacket and hoping I don't need that either.

[MarkTapley]

1 hour ago, BarbRN said:

How many sailed. 

I was told 635 guests on board Sky this week.

[BarbRN]

42 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

Packing for next week: YES or NO-- do I need to pack a puffy (down) jacket?????

 

[geffric]

48 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

Packing for next week: YES or NO-- do I need to pack a puffy (down) jacket?????

I am bringing mine..but then again 50s in Florida is winter..so I planning on cold!

[C-sea]

36 minutes ago, gramfrog said:

Packing for next week: YES or NO-- do I need to pack a puffy (down) jacket?????

I was in Iceland in December and what worked well for me was layering. The most important outer layer needs to be wind and rain proof also good to have hood attached. Long underwear (silk), long sleeve tops, thin woolen socks & hat. I am not bringing a down or puffy jacket. I'm looking for protection from wind and rain. We could get lucky and have some warm weather days. Hope to see you onboard this Tuesday!!!

[ShannonJim]

23 hours ago, Rappersmom said:

I just canceled that same cruise yesterday. I canceled the excursions first but Viking said the money wouldn't process that fast and it was rolled into the future cruise credit. They also said the refund for excursions takes about a week so it wouldn't have mattered if we had waited closer to the final cancellation date. So it's a waste of time to cancel the excursions. I think we have lost a lot of trust in Viking.

Me too.  Same situation and experience.  They can still resell the excursions and now they have even more of my money tied-up.  I had no idea the excursions wouldn't be refunded.  Page 4 of their policies said excursions would be fully refunded if cancelled 48 hours or more in advance.  Apparently that doesn't apply with the No Rick Cancellation Policy.

[BarbRN]

5 minutes ago, ShannonJim said:

Me too.  Same situation and experience.  They can still resell the excursions and now they have even more of my money tied-up.  I had no idea the excursions wouldn't be refunded.  Page 4 of their policies said excursions would be fully refunded if cancelled 48 hours or more in advance.  Apparently that doesn't apply with the No Rick Cancellation Policy.

If you paid with Visa you have recourse 

[SBRworld]

2 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

If anyone's interested in seeing photos from our August 3 - 10 trip on Jupiter, my photo galleries are here, with captions: https://pbase.com/roothy123   You don't have to sign in or anything pesky like that, just look.  But you'll need to look at separate galleries for each place we visited - i.e., Reykjavik through Heimaey.  And be sure to push the "All" button at the bottom of each gallery to display all pictures for that gallery.  (In other words, there are multiple pages.)  The photos are mostly of places we went on excursions.  I didn't take a lot of photos on the ship. But for those still traveling to Iceland, it may be helpful to get a preview of some of the things you'll see and do.  

Fabulous photos- I have to say my favorite might be from the plane! 😁 Thank you for sharing!

[C-sea]

To  anyone who is on Jupiter now, I would love to know... is Viking providing more entertainment and opportunities to go for a stroll off the ship with a Viking rep. How many cruisers are on board? This week, what is Chef Table's menu rotation? Hope you're having good weather and a great cruise. 

[sinsonte]

3 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

If anyone's interested in seeing photos from our August 3 - 10 trip on Jupiter, my photo galleries are here, with captions: https://pbase.com/roothy123   You don't have to sign in or anything pesky like that, just look.  But you'll need to look at separate galleries for each place we visited - i.e., Reykjavik through Heimaey.  And be sure to push the "All" button at the bottom of each gallery to display all pictures for that gallery.  (In other words, there are multiple pages.)  The photos are mostly of places we went on excursions.  I didn't take a lot of photos on the ship. But for those still traveling to Iceland, it may be helpful to get a preview of some of the things you'll see and do.  

Nice pictures!

[Jay23]

15 hours ago, Camden lady said:

Has anyone else been told that Viking does not have their Verifly verification?  Filled mine and my sister on Aug 11.  Got the "ready to travel" for both of us.   Today got an email from Viking that we needed to do Verifly.  Called Verifly and was told they had a technical problem and they were not being sent to Viking.   Nothing I can do about it.  Said we will have to do the long embarkation process. Frustrating as I spent time jumping through their hoops for nothing.

Yes.     We completed the Verifly some time ago.   I hope they have sorted this by September.   J

Edited August 19, 2021 by Jay23

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, ShannonJim said:

Me too.  Same situation and experience.  They can still resell the excursions and now they have even more of my money tied-up.  I had no idea the excursions wouldn't be refunded.  Page 4 of their policies said excursions would be fully refunded if cancelled 48 hours or more in advance.  Apparently that doesn't apply with the No Rick Cancellation Policy.

 

IMHO, time to lodge a complaint with the folks at tellus@vikingcruises.com. You have cancelled more than 48 hours in advance and should be able to get that refunded to your credit card -- and not rolled into a voucher.

 

If that doesn't work and you paid by credit card, try getting your credit card company involved.

[jdlg4silb]

1 hour ago, C-sea said:

To  anyone who is on Jupiter now, I would love to know... is Viking providing more entertainment and opportunities to go for a stroll off the ship with a Viking rep. How many cruisers are on board? This week, what is Chef Table's menu rotation? Hope you're having good weather and a great cruise. 

We’re on Jupiter now. I have heard anywhere between 600-700 passengers are on the trip. I am not aware of any opportunities to stroll off the ship with a Viking rep as you would likely come in contact with people “outside the bubble” which goes against what the bubble tries to accomplish.

I am new to Viking but it doesn’t appear as though there is any more entertainment than what prior Viking cruisers tell me. There’s plenty of music at various venues on board.

Chef’s Table has a California menu, an Asian menu, and I think an Indian menu. We’re going to the first two but missed out on the Indian menu.

Weather has been very overcast each day, but regardless of rain in the forecast there has been none. Good touring weather. Temps in the 50’s

Hope this helps.

[Kerrfamily]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:50 AM, sprshop said:

Got our voucher email yesterday for all monies paid.  Now looking to the future travel with Viking and no COVID🙏🏻❤️

Did you get a refund for prepaid excursions? or a voucher for prepaid excursions?

[FoggyEthan]

On 8/17/2021 at 4:44 PM, FoggyEthan said:

I know I've let myself fall behind on this thread, but thought I'd share a photo from a month ago.

 

The album is ready, if anyone wants to be reminded why they travel:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Hb3dXu39R83jvvz7

Edited August 19, 2021 by FoggyEthan

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

6 hours ago, Camden lady said:

Beautiful pictures.  Thank you so much for sharing them with us.  I now know some things I definitely want to see on my trip.  Just wish we could walk around on our own....but not this time.   I leave tomorrow and am getting so excited.   Thanks again!!! 

Honestly, most of the photos were done on excursions as I had little time on my own.  It's nice that Viking has some afternoon excursions.  I doubled up on two days.

 

For people worried about weather, I wouldn't let that enter into your calculation of go/no go.  There was a lot of rain predicted but surprisingly, we had great weather.  Only rained a bit in Reykjavik and Seydisfjordur, never for very long.  Was beautiful in Djupivogur and Heimaey.

 

Everywhere you go there's beautiful scenery. We had such a great trip - no Covid worries, no missed ports, no bad weather, great excursions, great service on ship.  It's sad that some people are canceling, but obviously everyone's comfort level is different. My only (almost) regrets were that 1) I got so little time to take advantage of ship amenities and 2) we didn't use Viking Air Plus to get better flights back home.  But those things were small in the grand scheme of things.   

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, FoggyEthan said:

 

The album is ready, if anyone wants to be reminded why they travel:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Hb3dXu39R83jvvz7

Wonderful pictures; thanks.  Is the first one Solfar (or Soldar?) with part of the city behind?  Love that.    

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

6 hours ago, KarNog said:

I'm having the same discussion. Rain forecast for Reyjkevik Sat and Sun. It looks rainy and cool in Isafjordur.  Sunny in Akureyri, Seydisjordur and Djupivogur. Couldn't find anything on Heimaey's weather.

So yes. Or no. Or maybe. lol

Heimaey weather might be listed under Westman Islands or Vestermann or something like that.  

 

And if it was here that someone mentioned an Indian menu might be coming up for Chef's Table, I'm guessing that might be the Route des Indes or something similarly titled.  If so, I think that's the menu with a lot of spices, though they're not overpowering spices. I believe it includes a very tasty beef tenderloin. (I'm trying to remember more, but this was back in 2017 I believe, so my memory is a bit fuzzy about the particulars.)

[KarNog]

5 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Heimaey weather might be listed under Westman Islands or Vestermann or something like that.  

 

And if it was here that someone mentioned an Indian menu might be coming up for Chef's Table, I'm guessing that might be the Route des Indes or something similarly titled.  If so, I think that's the menu with a lot of spices, though they're not overpowering spices. I believe it includes a very tasty beef tenderloin. (I'm trying to remember more, but this was back in 2017 I believe, so my memory is a bit fuzzy about the particulars.)

I figure if we've survived with appropriate clothing til Heimaey, I'm good.

I'm also good with all the CT menus. Some of my party doesn't eat lamb (I forget which menu) but he can always go for room service or wait for breakfast. I'm so excited to try everything!

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

3 minutes ago, KarNog said:

I figure if we've survived with appropriate clothing til Heimaey, I'm good.

I'm also good with all the CT menus. Some of my party doesn't eat lamb (I forget which menu) but he can always go for room service or wait for breakfast. I'm so excited to try everything!

Or stop by the World Cafe.  

[hikingfan]

4 hours ago, sinsonte said:

Nice pictures!

Just gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your photo memories. Hope mine (using my phone) come somewhere close to this beautiful!