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Cruise Critic is live from Viking Octantis: What do you want to know?


Editor Colleen
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Colleen - do you know what the next cruise was after you disembarked? Where it was leaving from? I grew up on the St. Lawrence River and everyone up there has been posting photos of the Octantis heading downriver. They are all wondering if the ship is traveling with passengers onboard on their way to Toronto for the Great Lakes cruises. I would assume there was some sort of repositioning cruise to get to Toronto - do you know any info?

 

Thanks!

Patti

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Can someone confirm the Octantis is departing Detroit at 2pm tomorrow.    We live up river and want to make sure we are along the shores of the St. Clair River as it passes by. (there are many of us from our area)    I will look at the Marine traffic app for the exact location as it is cruising.  Today they are visiting Point Pelee the southern most point of Canada - birders paradise!  

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9 hours ago, mjox32 said:

Can someone confirm the Octantis is departing Detroit at 2pm tomorrow.    We live up river and want to make sure we are along the shores of the St. Clair River as it passes by. (there are many of us from our area)    I will look at the Marine traffic app for the exact location as it is cruising.  Today they are visiting Point Pelee the southern most point of Canada - birders paradise!  

I'm not sure you'll get an answer on this thread - it was started by a CC representative who was on an earlier cruise.

 

I looked, but did not see a Roll Call for the current Octantis sailing, so that's not available to ask on. I can confirm that the ship was indeed in Pelee today - friends in Kingsville sent us some pictures.

 

Using Marine Traffic as you mention is likely the best way to keep track of her - I show her south of Colchester at 4 knots as of 0945 EDT. 🍺🥌

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50 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Here it is May the 5th, and the ship is leaving Milwaukee on the 7th, so I'm thinking it's up around Mackinac right now.  I'd like to see it arrive in Toronto, I wonder where it's going to dock.

I caught the end of a news bit the other day regarding her being in Toronto - I didn't see the actual shot of the ship, but the reporter appeared to be located somewhere in the Portlands, given the angle to the CN Tower in the distance.

 

Just a guess that she'll come in via the Eastern Gap - from there, hard to tell where she'll dock. (Hopefully not at Redpath ... maybe RCYC will pony up a spot 😈).   🍺🥌

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30 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

I caught the end of a news bit the other day regarding her being in Toronto - I didn't see the actual shot of the ship, but the reporter appeared to be located somewhere in the Portlands, given the angle to the CN Tower in the distance.

 

Just a guess that she'll come in via the Eastern Gap - from there, hard to tell where she'll dock. (Hopefully not at Redpath ... maybe RCYC will pony up a spot 😈).   🍺🥌

Looks like it's right in the Port Lands as you said, along the Eastern Gap.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear Ontarians:

 

Actual address of Port of Toronto is 

 

8 Unwin Ave, Toronto, ON M5A 3L1.  
The rest of the 2022 schedule is below:
 
 
When she came in April, she docked for two days, but I could not go there.  Today, I managed to get there and took a couple of pictures (thru the chain link).  I also got one from across the lake.  Kind of neat to see the "cruise ships" especially such a pretty one on the Lake Ontario and at Toronto.  I never knew we had a cruise terminal until April !!!

IMG_7798.jpg

IMG_7795.jpg

Edited by TOCruisers
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We just completed the Octantis cruise from Milwaukee to Toronto (May 7 through May 14).  Don't expect any nice cruise terminals at any of the port stops.  Those that the ship could dock at were commercial dock with no passenger amenities. The only one that had a nice view, once you got past the immediate industrial docking area, was the skyline view of Toronto.

 

Though the weather was partly cloudy to mostly sunshine, the high winds and rough waves at several locations made us miss a stop or two and almost miss a third at Mackinac Island which was a tender port.  Temperatures were in the high 40's to upper 50's. A number of excursions depended on transportation to and from the shore on one of the ship's many Zodiacs. Several were cancelled at different locations due to the heavy sea (lake?) states. 

 

The ship and crew were fantastic and it has the familiar Viking touch, but it has different "vibe" than the Viking Ocean ships. Viking has a few rough spots to work out as this new entry into their many cruising offerings settles in with some additional time in service.  

 

Senior Gators

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/18/2022 at 10:24 PM, Senior Gators said:

We just completed the Octantis cruise from Milwaukee to Toronto (May 7 through May 14).  Don't expect any nice cruise terminals at any of the port stops.  Those that the ship could dock at were commercial dock with no passenger amenities. The only one that had a nice view, once you got past the immediate industrial docking area, was the skyline view of Toronto.

 

Though the weather was partly cloudy to mostly sunshine, the high winds and rough waves at several locations made us miss a stop or two and almost miss a third at Mackinac Island which was a tender port.  Temperatures were in the high 40's to upper 50's. A number of excursions depended on transportation to and from the shore on one of the ship's many Zodiacs. Several were cancelled at different locations due to the heavy sea (lake?) states. 

 

The ship and crew were fantastic and it has the familiar Viking touch, but it has different "vibe" than the Viking Ocean ships. Viking has a few rough spots to work out as this new entry into their many cruising offerings settles in with some additional time in service.  

 

Senior Gators

 

Thank you for your blog.  I did enjoy reading it and it provided a great escape for me since it will be some time since I will be able to cruise again. 

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On 6/11/2022 at 9:13 PM, effinaround said:

I can't tell you how happy I am that there is a cruise ship in my home port! Here are a couple of shots I took of her tied up at the Port of Toronto this morning not long after she arrived.

Curious, were you flying out of the Island to get these? 🍺🥌

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On 5/18/2022 at 10:24 PM, Senior Gators said:

We just completed the Octantis cruise from Milwaukee to Toronto (May 7 through May 14).  Don't expect any nice cruise terminals at any of the port stops.  Those that the ship could dock at were commercial dock with no passenger amenities. The only one that had a nice view, once you got past the immediate industrial docking area, was the skyline view of Toronto.

 

Though the weather was partly cloudy to mostly sunshine, the high winds and rough waves at several locations made us miss a stop or two and almost miss a third at Mackinac Island which was a tender port.  Temperatures were in the high 40's to upper 50's. A number of excursions depended on transportation to and from the shore on one of the ship's many Zodiacs. Several were cancelled at different locations due to the heavy sea (lake?) states. 

 

The ship and crew were fantastic and it has the familiar Viking touch, but it has different "vibe" than the Viking Ocean ships. Viking has a few rough spots to work out as this new entry into their many cruising offerings settles in with some additional time in service.  

 

Senior Gators

 

 

Thank you Senior Gator for a review on Octantis experience.  (Sorry for the delay response).  I was wondering what was like to cruise through the lakes on ships much smaller than sea ships.  I will not be able to experience it any time soon as the fares are quite dear and 2022 cruises are sold out 😟/ 😊.  We, at Toronto shore, experienced more windy days this spring and were wondering how weather would affect the smaller ships.  Now I know.

 

Effinaround:  Your pictures are beautiful.  Obviously I could not get full size pictures of the ship  from the ground so they look great. 

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MeRose, for the ports of Milwaukee, Detroit and Toronto the Octantis was tied up at commercial docks. None of them had any facilities for passenger ships. Mackinac Island was a tender landing at their tiny docks and with the high winds and waves was very precarious.  Several passengers came back from the island excursion as walking wounded due the difficulty of boarding or disembarking. The only landing at Point Pelee was by zodiac on the beach. Again by virtue of the weather, it was so rough, many passengers who had booked the excursions backed out at the last minute. Also any excursions that involved kayaks were cancelled for this cruise.

 

The only water excursions on the lakes that were unaffected were those that involved the Special Operations Boats (fondly referred to by the crew as SOBs). They are a hoot and highly recommended by those of us who were able to book one. There is nothing like taking high speed (40 to 50 mph) S curves, tight donuts and crossing your own wakes without getting wet and felling very comfortable on your shock absorber mounted captain’s chairs.
 

The Helmsman gave us a preliminary taste of what the boat could do and asked the 12 of us if we wanted to slowly go along the shore to view any wildlife there or make so more high speed rerun. It was unanimous and with great glee that we enthusiastically said we wanted to experience more of what the craft could do at high speed. And this was not coming coming from a bunch of young people. I would guess the average age of the passengers on board was somewhere between 65 an 75!

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TOCruiser,  Though to Octantis is smaller than Viking’s Star class ocean ships, in many ways it doesn’t seem that much smaller at over 600 feet in length. It is narrower at 77 feet in order to fit though the Great Lakes locks. Despite the high winds and white capped waves, it is a very stable ship and rides well.

 

Senior Gators

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This sounds like a great trip; sorry the winds have been so high the last few days--it's a bit unusual although Toronto is a windy place, but not like what we've had.  Not surprising that Toronto has no fancy cruise port since there are very few cruise ships that stop here; maybe that will change in future.

 

Would love to do this trip, since I love our lakes.

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Just curious about the expedition ships. Did they manage to find an out of the way location that can easily be avoided if desired for the "designated smoking area" as they did on ocean?

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ropomo, not being a smoker, we can’t say for certain.  But by looking at the deck plans for the Octantis, it appears that the logical place for those that do want to light up would be on Deck 6 in the open air space aft of the Owner’s and Explorers’ suites.  Someone else needs to confirm this.

 

SeniorGators

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  • 1 month later...

"

The only water excursions on the lakes that were unaffected were those that involved the Special Operations Boats (fondly referred to by the crew as SOBs). They are a hoot and highly recommended by those of us who were able to book one"

 

I have not done Viking Ocean but am considering an expedition, and am keen to understand.

what determines who is and is not able to book SOBs?  Is it random lottery, first come first serve, top cost suites get first choice, contingent on who-knows-who who is in charge, reserved for VIPs, or something else?

 

SOBs are of interest to me because you can board before getting into the ocean, e.g., if someone worries about climbing down into a wobbling Zodiak, an SOB alternative (and I think only VIking expedition ships have them) sounds great.

 

Thanks in advance. 

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On 7/23/2022 at 8:44 PM, Catlover54 said:

"

The only water excursions on the lakes that were unaffected were those that involved the Special Operations Boats (fondly referred to by the crew as SOBs). They are a hoot and highly recommended by those of us who were able to book one"

 

I have not done Viking Ocean but am considering an expedition, and am keen to understand.

what determines who is and is not able to book SOBs?  Is it random lottery, first come first serve, top cost suites get first choice, contingent on who-knows-who who is in charge, reserved for VIPs, or something else?

 

SOBs are of interest to me because you can board before getting into the ocean, e.g., if someone worries about climbing down into a wobbling Zodiak, an SOB alternative (and I think only VIking expedition ships have them) sounds great.

 

Thanks in advance. 


I was able to book two of them, prior to embarkation, and I was in the cheap seats. Who gets to go is who perseveres at watching for them to be available to book.

 

I cancelled one of mine and both of Mr B’s. On the one I did enjoy, a member of the expedition team was the 12th one (or tenth … I can’t remember if it holds ten or 12). A few other late arriving guests might’ve been contacted by phone when there were some last minute cancelllations.

 

I posted on FaceBbbok that you should be flexible and ask to be wait-listed and even if no wait-lists are available, I got to just get added at departure time to the birch bark canoe demonstration. I hadn’t booked it in advance b/c I hadn’t read the description! But at the evening briefing, I realized I’d enjoy it. So went to Guest Services but no w/l so the next a.m., I just went down there, prepared to go. Worked out great.

Edited by May B
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