Live from Viking Saturn June 7-21 NYC-Canada-Greenland-Iceland

[SteelCity Cruiser]

53 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Nice somewhat overcast day in Seydisfjordur, East Iceland today. Spectacular sail through the Fjord.  Rainbows tree and church.

That was one of our favorite ports on that cruise.  Adorable, incredibly picturesque town.

 

[SJD117]

2 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Nice somewhat overcast day in Seydisfjordur, East Iceland today. Spectacular sail through the Fjord.  Rainbows tree and church.

 

Linda and I spent the night in Seydisfjordur two years ago during our drive around Iceland. Lovely place.

[CCWineLover]

Wonderful day yesterin Seydisfjordur.  Have to say, the Skalenes Nature Center optional excursion was amazing.  One of the best.  One of the best and most engaged and entertaining guides as well.   We highly recommend it!

our guide:

 

[Azulann]

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

Wonderful day yesterin Seydisfjordur.  Have to say, the Skalenes Nature Center optional excursion was amazing.  One of the best.  One of the best and most engaged and entertaining guides as well.   We highly recommend it!

our guide:

 

I can smell the  fresh air just looking your our photo.  When you get a gem of a guide it makes the excursion perfect in every way. The field of flowers , the sea, and the little red houses are perfect scene  the I think of Iceland. 

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Wonderful day yesterin Seydisfjordur.  Have to say, the Skalenes Nature Center optional excursion was amazing.  One of the best.  One of the best and most engaged and entertaining guides as well.   We highly recommend it!

our guide:

 

I had forgotten about all the flowers blooming!  Was the gal the guide whose mother and aunties worked gathering the eider feathers?  

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Wonderful day yesterin Seydisfjordur.  Have to say, the Skalenes Nature Center optional excursion was amazing.  One of the best.  One of the best and most engaged and entertaining guides as well.   We highly recommend it!

our guide:

 

 

 

Agreed! Highly recommended. Some of my best puffin pictures came from there. Plus the pure beauty of the location, even in the haze we encountered the morning we were there..

 

 

Our guide in 2021 was the owner and manager of the property. Skalanes is not just a tourist destination; it is also an active research station for academics and their students from around the world.

 

[TayanaLorna]

13 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Agreed! Highly recommended. Some of my best puffin pictures came from there. Plus the pure beauty of the location, even in the haze we encountered the morning we were there..

 

 

Our guide in 2021 was the owner and manager of the property. Skalanes is not just a tourist destination; it is also an active research station for academics and their students from around the world.

 

Yes I recall that also.  Our guide, the gal, was related to the owner.

[Twitchly]

That puffin shot is magical.

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Yes I recall that also.  Our guide, the gal, was related to the owner.

Lorna - yes, our guide’s father bought the research center.  Her mother and aunt do the ducks but she isn’t so interested so she is training her daughter at age 8, to work with grandma and the ducks.  
many students (52 at a time) come from abroad (Including USA) to work on various peojects, up to 8 weeks.  
we only saw 3 puffins, but oh so many arctic turns, the Iceland police!  One of the tour passengers got struck and actually got bloodied on his scalp!  He’s fine but many sort of were oblivious of the turns.  We had learned from Vigur of the very protective tendencies!

[OneSixtyToOne]

22 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

we only saw 3 puffins, but oh so many arctic turns, the Iceland police!  One of the tour passengers got struck and actually got bloodied on his scalp!  He’s fine but many sort of were oblivious of the turns.  We had learned from Vigur of the very protective tendencies!

 

As The World Terns

[TayanaLorna]

59 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Lorna - yes, our guide’s father bought the research center.  Her mother and aunt do the ducks but she isn’t so interested so she is training her daughter at age 8, to work with grandma and the ducks.  
many students (52 at a time) come from abroad (Including USA) to work on various peojects, up to 8 weeks.  
we only saw 3 puffins, but oh so many arctic turns, the Iceland police!  One of the tour passengers got struck and actually got bloodied on his scalp!  He’s fine but many sort of were oblivious of the turns.  We had learned from Vigur of the very protective tendencies!

Were the streams you crossed dry or running with water?   One was running with one pretty heavy on our trip.  Right, they didn't give sticks there to deter the terns.  I used my walking stick and we always wear hats outside.

[BluebonnetTexan]

Glad to see a good report on Skalanes excursion as we have booked that one for our cruise in September. Thanks for the tern warning, too!

Biggest question I have for @CCWineLover and any others on recent Iceland cruises is whether you’ve needed any ISK cash for bathrooms or anything else where a credit card wasn’t accepted? 

[LindaAndBillTravel]

3 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

Biggest question I have for @CCWineLover and any others on recent Iceland cruises is whether you’ve needed any ISK cash for bathrooms or anything else where a credit card wasn’t accepted? 

We only came across one bathroom that required payment and the only option was credit card. Iceland is very close to a cashless society. 

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

Glad to see a good report on Skalanes excursion as we have booked that one for our cruise in September. Thanks for the tern warning, too!

Biggest question I have for @CCWineLover and any others on recent Iceland cruises is whether you’ve needed any ISK cash for bathrooms or anything else where a credit card wasn’t accepted? 

For us, never needed ISK and never got any.  Pretty much all of Iceland has credit card capability - even the hot dog stand we went to.

that leaves tipping as the only reason to gave cash,  we found everyone took $ just fine!

 

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Were the streams you crossed dry or running with water?   One was running with one pretty heavy on our trip.  Right, they didn't give sticks there to deter the terns.  I used my walking stick and we always wear hats outside.

We had 3 very large streams (almost rivers) to cross. We couldn’t believe our driver would make it across, but in the 5x4 bus he did, to the resounding applause by all!.

[_alan_]

I don't see anyone discussing the outbreak on this cruise.  CDC published numbers of like 20% of passengers, which is pretty high.

[LindaS272]

14 minutes ago, flashfearless said:

I don't see anyone discussing the outbreak on this cruise.  CDC published numbers of like 20% of passengers, which is pretty high.

Do you mean Neptune at 12% with GI illness?

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2023/06/articles/disease/gastrointestinal-illness-outbreak-on-viking-neptune-cruise-ship-sickens-over-12-of-guests/

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

Edited June 20, 2023 by LindaS272
Added CDC VSP report

[cal56girl]

On 6/15/2023 at 8:58 PM, jkadventures said:

We will be in Reykjavik for pre-cruise extension in August (14-16) and sadly Viking is not offering the Golden Circle excursion as an option the day we board. We were really looking forward to it, as it sounded wonderful. We will get to the Blue Lagoon, which looks so relaxing. We are counting down the days until the next adventure!

Thanks for all the information you are sharing. This will be our first Viking cruise!
Enjoy the rest of your trip. 

We took a Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon tour from NiceTravel. Smallish bus, 19 passengers. Lunch was not included but we enjoyed it.

 

[_alan_]

39 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Do you mean Neptune at 12% with GI illness?

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2023/06/articles/disease/gastrointestinal-illness-outbreak-on-viking-neptune-cruise-ship-sickens-over-12-of-guests/

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

 

 

Hmmm....I was told Saturn, sorry for the confusion,

[SJD117]

46 minutes ago, flashfearless said:

I don't see anyone discussing the outbreak on this cruise.  CDC published numbers of like 20% of passengers, which is pretty high.

Wrong ship. This thread concerns the Saturn, not the Neptune. Please fact-check your comments in the future.

[leolover]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:42 PM, Clay Clayton said:

Not many puffins because it’s too early?  If we don’t see puffins, I’m gonna have some disappointed cruise mates to deal with for the following 13 days. 

We were on May 23 to June 6 cruise.  Went on the Skalanes Nature Center tour in Seydisfjordur and took a walk up the cliffs to a viewing platform where the puffins were nesting and visible 10 feet from the platform.  Got some great photos we never would have gotten from a boat ride.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, leolover said:

took a walk up the cliffs to a viewing platform where the puffins were nesting and visible 10 feet from the platform.

 

I could have happily stood on that platform shooting pictures until both cameras and phone ran out of battery. Unfortunately, at that point the return bus would have been long gone.

[CCWineLover]

NO outbreak of any kind on this Saturn voyage!  People are getting us confused with Neptune.

with 1 day left we’ve had a great cruise.  Compared to others we’ve hardly seen any hacking coughing or sick people!  We are just a fortunate group I think.  

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I could have happily stood on that platform shooting pictures until both cameras and phone ran out of battery. Unfortunately, at that point the return bus would have been long gone.

Likewise!  It was pretty spectacular!

 

[TweedRover]

Hi This has thread been a great source of information for our upcoming cruise on the Saturn, is anyone able to give give their recommendations on the Shore excursions offered by Viking ?

Edited June 20, 2023 by TweedRover