Almost live Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes, July 28th 2023

[BluebonnetTexan]

I’ve loved following along with you on your trip! Thanks for the great reporting and pics. We did some of the Norwegian fjords on our Viking Homelands cruise in 2019 and will be on the Iconic Iceland, Greenland, and Canada in three weeks. I’d love to see more of Norway fjords and probably Iceland again, too, so may have to add this cruise as a future idea. 

[Peregrina651]

Thank you for the reminder that we should be packing our rain pants and waterproof shoes for our May, 2024 London to Bergen (and Oslo). You are so right, there is nothing worse than being cold and wet.

[WanderingBrit]

We arranged our own air travel, but opted to pay $49 each for the transfer from ship to BGO.

 

Within 4 minutes of the published time, our group was called and we walked across to the cruise terminal to identify our bags. A porter then took the bags and loaded them on the bus, which we then boarded. Upon arriving at the airport we were asked to remain on the bus until the porters had a chance to unload our bags directly to luggage carts, which they then pushed to the check-in desk for us before bidding us farewell.

 

There was no one ahead of us at the SAS check-in desk, and the process took barely 2 minutes with almost no conversation at all between ourselves and the checkin agent. Our boarding passes show each of the three flights that we have to take to get home.

 

FastTrack security was calm, quiet, and swift. Staff are unfailingly polite and pleasant, and Bergen airport is very quiet. I don’t know it gets any easier or calmer than this!

[uktog]

Thank you for your postings - they have been very helpful - and safe travels home

[WanderingBrit]

2 flights down, just the final jaunt from Reykjavik to O’Hare.

 

It’s all gone very smoothly, with a Nordic blend of calm and quiet at every step of the way. AirTags confirm our bags are right where we are on the plane.

 

To those who insist on traveling with (overstuffed) carryons only, be advised;

 

- You will likely need to carry your bags up stairs to board the plane at least once on your journey.

- Check the type of aircraft you’ll be flying. Your oversized carryons simply will not fit on some of the smaller jets, like the Canadair Regional 900 from Bergen to Copenhagen. You’ll get to hold us all up while you crawl up the built-in stairs of this small jet with your too many bags, and again while you try to defy the geometry of the overhead bins, and again when you then give up and struggle to the front to ask for your bag to be gate checked. Exactly as the gate agent told you would be the case, but you chose to ignore them.

 

My last glass of complimentary bubbly beckons, so here we go!

[WanderingBrit]

Some closing observations specifically as it relates to the travel aspects:

• Personnel we encountered during our travel were unfailingly polite, pleasant, helpful, and calm. It's easy to see a correlation between ensuring that all these positions have a living wage and the quality of interaction we experienced
• Icelandair provide a very pleasant onboard experience in Saga Premium. It's not International Business Class the way many larger airlines deliver it, but it's also much less expensive. Food and service onboard was excellent, and who doesn't like every announcement starting "Dear passengers ..."
• Check to see if your airline offers a pre-booked vegetarian option, I selected this for our Icelandair flights and it worked like a charm. On some flights there may be no choice but Lamb, or you might have "lamb or fish". Icelanders don't really "do" vegetarian so manage your expectations accordingly.
• O'Hare feels like a war zone by comparison to any of the airports we saw. Demolition/construction never seeming to end, missing sections of ceiling, filthy everything, temporary signs held up with tape that have outlived their expiration date, and a mass of confused humanity trying to make sense of it all. Nothing, anywhere, seems to have been done with the traveler experience in mind, it's more a series of trials to weed out those insufficiently determined to travel.
• If you work for an employer that has relationships with ground transportation providers, explore that as an option to get to & from the airport. I book a limo through our corporate travel system and charge to my personal card. It's cheaper than Uber Black and eliminates a significant source of stress at each end of the journey. Rideshare services can no longer collect at O'Hare T5 (International) and so you'd be forced to ride the shuttle train to T2 and book a ride there. Our driver texted me once he saw our plane had landed and told us to exit through a specific door on the departures level, where there is an order of magnitude less traffic.
• T-Mobile global roaming worked flawlessly, and often better than ship WiFi when in Port. We received a text in each new country confirming our service access, and not a penny in charges.

[KTRaveller]

Thanks for taking the time to post -- your pictures are really excellent.  I doubt Iceland will be in our travel future so it was a lovely armchair adventure -- and always nice to be aboard Viking.  We embark on October 6 for 3 weeks in Italy, Greece, Croatia and Turkey -- hopefully a bit warmer than Iceland in July!  Cheers!

[Brewgator]

I was on this trip and can confirm that the crew on board were fantastic and the scenery in Iceland and Norway never disappoints.  Have done 5 Viking river cruises but this was my first ocean (although I now have 2 more booked) and I cannot say enough good things about the experience.  On a side note, I was in in the Explorer's Lounge early one morning for my waffle (entering the fjord going to Flam).  While waiting for it to be served I went up to the front and looked out over the gorgeous fjord.  I said out loud 'I could look at this forever. It's just so beautiful' and a very familiar voice said 'It certainly is' and I turned around and sitting there was Torstein Hagen himself.  I guess he boarded at Alesund either to check out the ship or, as I suspect, for a meeting of some sort.  I was wondering why the executive chef was loitering around at Mamsen's at 6:30 in the morning.  

[Peregrina651]

Wow! @Brewgator, love it. That is a great story for your travel memory book!

[WanderingBrit]

Timelapse of sailing out from Reykjavik.

 

[WanderingBrit]

And another timelapse, sailing out of Isafjordur - more to come

 

 

[WanderingBrit]

Sailing out along Geirangerfjord, including the "Viking donut" 🙂