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

[sprshop]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Puffins are also viewable, much closer, on the "In the Footsteps of the Elves" excursion out of Seydisfjordur - assuming they're still around.  But "Footsteps" is a long bus excursion, so that may make it undesirable for some, for more than one reason.  And puffins are viewable on the "Vigur Island" excursion out of Isafjordur, though the viewing is distant there, similar to Heimaey. Occasionally they may land on a rock not terribly far away from where you can stand to wait for them, but I had to wait 20 minutes for that to happen a week ago.  And by now, they may be leaving; not sure. 

 

Here's a picture from the Elves excursion; name of place is something like "Hafnarholmi."  I took this with a telephoto lens, but I was probably only about 30 feet away, on steps that go up a hillside.

Nice picture, thanks for sharing.

[Camden lady]

56 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Glad to know it just wasn’t me!

Are your subscriptions gone too?

Yes.  I have no subscriptions now.  Don't know what happened but it was down for a while.  I was in the process of trying to ask a question and it booted me out.   

[Camden lady]

My question:   For those of you who have been on the cruises have the positive cases been showing up around day 3 or 4?   I may cancel my bus trips for those two days if that proves to be true.  I know we have the National Treasures tour on day 4 which I think is a mostly all day tour so might let that one go.   What do you'll think?   

[MarkTapley]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

And puffins are viewable on the "Vigur Island" excursion out of Isafjordur

The puffins which nest on Vigur Island are all gone now.  We were there yesterday.  We did see two humpback whales swimming very close to the boat on our way back to Sky, just south of the island.  The skipper stopped and let us watch for about 10 minutes.  Fortunately, we were sitting on the small outside deck, so we got great pics.

[mcjyl]

Does anyone know when we will receive our cruise document and luggage tags?  We will be on Sept 07 sailing.  I thought it is three weeks before the cruise.  We still have not received ours yet.  Thanks

 

[Chilicatx]

38 minutes ago, BarbRN said:

If you are familiar who do you sit with at meals or in the lounge

I have not previously sailed with Viking. I will sit alone or meet new friends. I’ve been on several cruises alone and have met some of my good friends that way. 

[KarNog]

5 minutes ago, Chilicatx said:

I have not previously sailed with Viking. I will sit alone or meet new friends. I’ve been on several cruises alone and have met some of my good friends that way. 

I think Barb is fearful that Viking won't seat her with persons she isn't traveling with. While I am admittedly strange, my partner and I would welcome any and all to join us for meals and cocktails.

[NeilP57]

4 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

That means that there are still likely to be puffins on Vigur Island as well, though I suspect not for too much longer. And for Vigur, you just walk a minute or two across the harbor and get on a boat for a 30 minute ride to the island.  

 

https://twitter.com/islandvigur/status/1424279291324473346?s=21

 

Not sure if this link works to the Vigur Island Twitter Feed will work but last week (8/8) they reported far fewer puffins. 

[NeilP57]

2 hours ago, MarkTapley said:

The puffins which nest on Vigur Island are all gone now.  We were there yesterday.  We did see two humpback whales swimming very close to the boat on our way back to Sky, just south of the island.  The skipper stopped and let us watch for about 10 minutes.  Fortunately, we were sitting on the small outside deck, so we got great pics.

And then there were none……

 

The whale watching sounded fun though. 

[BQEC]

7 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Anyone else having issues with CC?  I couldn’t see threads this afternoon at all. Now I can but it appears I have lost all my subscriptions. 😢

Same here. Interesting development. 

[Seaharvest]

13 hours ago, travelordie said:

We're on the August 28th sailing.  Does anyone know whether Viking will provide us with disposable masks or are we expected to bring them aboard?  We have cloth masks for the flights but don't know what sort of masks are expected on board.

We were on the July17 sailing and there were 20 masks in our cabin when we checked in. And you can get them from staff at almost any desk or maitre d stand.

[BarbRN]

7 hours ago, Chilicatx said:

I have not previously sailed with Viking. I will sit alone or meet new friends. I’ve been on several cruises alone and have met some of my good friends that way. 

Thanks

[BarbRN]

7 hours ago, KarNog said:

I think Barb is fearful that Viking won't seat her with persons she isn't traveling with. While I am admittedly strange, my partner and I would welcome any and all to join us for meals and cocktails.

Sweet

[SBRworld]

41 minutes ago, BarbRN said:

Sweet

Barb I’m not on your sailing but I am going alone. I often travel on my own and find it relaxing. I always take things to read- especially at meals- but I don’t recall a time when others haven’t invited me to join them when they realize I am traveling solo. 

[tobique33040]

I was alone on July 17 cruise. People were pleasant but only once asked me to join a group. Honestly, I was as happy to stay on my own so I would stay Covid free if anyone happened to have it. Our cruise was fortunately trouble free. Missed last port but only because of weather. 

[BQEC]

Hi, Tobique33040. Glad to hear that you had a pleasant an uneventful cruise. I have traveled solo quite a number of times. One adventure - 17 days Antarctica -- met wonderful people. One couple invited me to dine with them on a subsequent trip to Africa, which I did. When my friends asked about travel companions, I said "198 strangers soon to be friends." Happy trails!

[Camden lady]

1 hour ago, BarbRN said:

Sweet

Barb, my sister and I will be on this cruise and you are welcome to join us for anything we are doing.  Be it meals or just lounging (drinks in hand)!!!!   Doris and Donna from Nashville.  

[tobique33040]

Thanks much. I’ve done a couple solo tours and am booked alone for next summer on Viking “in search of midnight sun”. I’m ok being on my own. But hopefully, like you, I’ll meet more people when things get better re the pandemic. 

[Jay23]

10 hours ago, mcjyl said:

Does anyone know when we will receive our cruise document and luggage tags?  We will be on Sept 07 sailing.  I thought it is three weeks before the cruise.  We still have not received ours yet.  Thanks

 

We are on the 7th September sailing.  We have had our luggage tags for about 3 weeks.

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Jay23

[BQEC]

6 minutes ago, tobique33040 said:

Thanks much. I’ve done a couple solo tours and am booked alone for next summer on Viking “in search of midnight sun”. I’m ok being on my own. But hopefully, like you, I’ll meet more people when things get better re the pandemic. 

You are most welcome. Once the pandemic is up, more folks will be forthcoming --- as you probably know, asking couples, families, if you can take their photo is an excellent ice breaker.

[BQEC]

Jay 23, if you booked through a travel agent, your luggage tags, etc may have gone to them.

[tobique33040]

29 minutes ago, BQEC said:

You are most welcome. Once the pandemic is up, more folks will be forthcoming --- as you probably know, asking couples, families, if you can take their photo is an excellent ice breaker.

😻hopefully. That will make it more fun. 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

I was not solo on the cruise (8/3, Jupiter), but I did go solo on 4 all day excursions which included lunch.  For lunch, each person was assigned tables or groups of tables by the guide.  (We were told that this was requested by Viking for contact tracing.)  The guides made assignments as best they could (with what they knew about table/area size) according to who you sat with and around on the coach.  For one lunch, I was placed at a table with one other person.  For another it was a table of 6 who all happened to be from the greater Washington DC area, including two people who lived two miles from me!  For the third I sat at one long table.  For the fourth I sat with two other people at a table for 3.   On Vigur Island, I believe people were assigned to large tables for a short snack break, but I missed that as I stayed near the windmill to watch for puffins landing on the rocks with fish.

 

You definitely won't be alone at lunch time if you take an excursion that includes lunch.  By the way, soup, bread, fish, potatoes, carrot slaw seemed to be typical!  

 

 

  

[Chicagocruiser919]

I think I read somewhere on one of these Viking boards that the Iceland government was expected to announce some revision to their COVID protocols today, August 17. Anyone else recall that, and if so, has anyone seen or heard anything?

 

Thank you.

[bbtondo]

19 hours ago, BarbRN said:

After all this stress my husband developed a serious health Issue to the cancer that we lost all our money to viking 5 years ago. 

I'm soo sorry.  Sending prays and love your way.