Has Anyone Made it to Greenland?

[philw1776]

I travel to Greenland from Stratham several times per week.

[malawijay]

12 hours ago, luvtosing said:

Thanks so much for this info. Did the canceled port/rough seas make the trip difficult or did they avoid the discomfort to passengers by canceling?  

The ports they cancelled (later they canceled one in Iceland) were both tender ports so there was a safety issue with the rough seas, but apparently the seas were pretty rough and it made quite a few passengers uncomfortable. That was just for maybe two days though, it wasn't the whole cruise.

[philw1776]

On our Transatlantic from Bergen to Montreal In the Wake of the Vikings we did reach one Greenland port, Nanortalik. We took a Viking excursion on a RIB to tour the Icebergs around the outside of the harbor. One of the best ever.  "In search of Icebergs"

[uktog]

I read that although getting Greenland 😀 Saturn has cancelled L’Anse again today. I don’t think they’ve made it to that Canadian port all season. It’s replaced with a sea day (so 3.5 sea days in a row). By now other lines would have made a tweak to the itinerary to avoid this tender port. Why doesn’t Viking? 

[Hazel52]

17 minutes ago, uktog said:

I read that although getting Greenland 😀 Saturn has cancelled L’Anse again today. I don’t think they’ve made it to that Canadian port all season. It’s replaced with a sea day (so 3.5 sea days in a row). By now other lines would have made a tweak to the itinerary to avoid this tender port. Why doesn’t Viking? 

Maybe because it’s so well liked when they are able to stop there. It was probably our favorite port on Trade Routes last year.

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Hazel52 said:

It was probably our favorite port on Trade Routes last year.

Trade Routes?

[OneSixtyToOne]

17 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Trade Routes?

Maybe they mean In the Wake of the Vikings? Trade Routes is between Bergen and Barcelona.

[LindaS272]

19 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Maybe they mean In the Wake of the Vikings? Trade Routes is between Bergen and Barcelona.

I know—we went there on In the Wake of the Vikings.

[Hazel52]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Maybe they mean In the Wake of the Vikings? Trade Routes is between Bergen and Barcelona.

So sorry, that’s what I meant… In the Wake of the Vikings.

[CCWineLover]

10 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

I know—we went there on In the Wake of the Vikings.

So the reason isn't that Viking just doesn't want to go there or no one likes them there (as seemed to be implied).  I would think VIking would do everything possible to get there since it is just an important Viking site.

[BluebonnetTexan]

If you check Saturn's current location and weather radar, it appears that it is right in the middle of a considerable rain storm. I'm guessing the weather forecast played a role in missing L'Anse aux Meadows as opposed to the actual weather at the time they arrived. Also, in Cruisemapper it shows their destination is Sydney, NS. So, maybe they are adding that stop before Halifax as a substitute? Hopefully, someone currently aboard will fill us in! 

[PasadenaDave]

I believe that Viking actually lands its tenders at a dock at L’Anse aux Meadows which is why rough seas often cancel the stop.  We went on HAL last September specifically for this historical site.  HAL stops in St Anthony some distance away and has limited excursions due to lack of busses in this remote region.  The northern and eastern part of Newfoundland was canceled due to a hurricane so we missed it….but we got Covid!!!

 

That was our first and last time on HAL.  Back to Viking.

 

 I do think to see L’Anse aux Meadows you need to take long flights and a long drive.  Cruising is tough, unless you take one of the ultra small ships of under 50 passengers.

[island lady]

10 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

If you check Saturn's current location and weather radar, it appears that it is right in the middle of a considerable rain storm. I'm guessing the weather forecast played a role in missing L'Anse aux Meadows as opposed to the actual weather at the time they arrived. Also, in Cruisemapper it shows their destination is Sydney, NS. So, maybe they are adding that stop before Halifax as a substitute? Hopefully, someone currently aboard will fill us in! 

 

We are currently spending 9 nights here on the east coast of NS.  Indeed yesterday was really wicked weather, a nasty "nor-easter".  Strong winds, heavy driving rains, and wild seas pounding the rocks in front of us on the beach.  

Still foggy and dismal this morning, with 80% chance of returning rain, but not as bad as yesterday.  

[Mackdogmolly]

11 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

Also, in Cruisemapper it shows their destination is Sydney, NS. So, maybe they are adding that stop before Halifax as a substitute?

According to a Viking FB fan page, Sidney was substituted for Halifax some time ago.

[EddiesToys]

9 hours ago, PasadenaDave said:

I believe that Viking actually lands its tenders at a dock at L’Anse aux Meadows which is why rough seas often cancel the stop.  We went on HAL last September specifically for this historical site.  HAL stops in St Anthony some distance away and has limited excursions due to lack of busses in this remote region.  The northern and eastern part of Newfoundland was canceled due to a hurricane so we missed it….but we got Covid!!!

 

That was our first and last time on HAL.  Back to Viking.

 

 I do think to see L’Anse aux Meadows you need to take long flights and a long drive.  Cruising is tough, unless you take one of the ultra small ships of under 50 passengers.

A Viking ship's Captain explained that Viking tenders are too big to land in windy conditions at L’Anse aux Meadows.  Big tenders = more passengers/trip/less cost to Viking/less service to Viking customers.

No more Viking, back to HAL!

[JeffElizabeth]

On 8/26/2023 at 6:09 AM, uktog said:

I read that although getting Greenland 😀 Saturn has cancelled L’Anse again today. I don’t think they’ve made it to that Canadian port all season. It’s replaced with a sea day (so 3.5 sea days in a row). By now other lines would have made a tweak to the itinerary to avoid this tender port. Why doesn’t Viking? 

I was just on a cruise with HA and the tendering waves were huge when we parked in St. Anthony a few days ago. 

[island lady]

Calm seas and sunny this morning just south of Halifax NS.  🙂 

[kctwinmommy]

Yes, my parents are on the Saturn and they had to cancel Newfoundland because of the rough seas. It was to be at a floating dock, and the waves were too dangerous. So yes, a sea day. They have had quite a bit of rain on this trip is seems. But that's nothing that can be controlled, so they seem to have enjoyed themselves no matter what.

 

They actually had their flight home changed by Delta for tomorrow, so they are going to take a bonus excursion to lower Manhattan. I say bonus in that they didn't plan on being able to go.

[cruisemom42]

On 8/26/2023 at 8:57 PM, CCWineLover said:

So the reason isn't that Viking just doesn't want to go there or no one likes them there (as seemed to be implied).  I would think VIking would do everything possible to get there since it is just an important Viking site.

 

I don't understand why Viking can't make it. I'm just off an Oceania (650 pax) ship that tendered to St. Anthony for L'Anse aux Meadows. We dodged bad weather for most of our days in Greenland and Newfoundland (3 stops) although in Iceland weather was great. We made 3 of 4 Greenland stops; had to skip Nuuk.  

 

From reading above, is there some special dock Viking uses that is not operational?  Do they not take you to the L'Anse site via the town of St. Anthony (about a 30-minute drive)?

[LindaS272]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

From reading above, is there some special dock Viking uses that is not operational?  Do they not take you to the L'Anse site via the town of St. Anthony (about a 30-minute drive)?

Correct. Viking uses a pier at the site—but the report is that it was damaged in a storm. They do not dock at St. Anthony.

 

We made it to this site with Viking on In the Wake of the Vikings in Sept. 2019. Seems to be lots of bad luck this year making that stop—earlier in the year I would have said it was because of the season (spring/ice bergs/wind)—but Aug/Sept is now seeing its share of inclement conditions.

[cruisemom42]

14 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Correct. Viking uses a pier at the site—but the report is that it was damaged in a storm. They do not dock at St. Anthony.

 

Why wouldn't they just re-route and use St. Anthony?  It's not that far to the site. Oceania just used local school buses to transport passengers.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I don't understand why Viking can't make it. I'm just off an Oceania (650 pax) ship that tendered to St. Anthony for L'Anse aux Meadows. We dodged bad weather for most of our days in Greenland and Newfoundland (3 stops) although in Iceland weather was great. We made 3 of 4 Greenland stops; had to skip Nuuk.  

 

From reading above, is there some special dock Viking uses that is not operational?  Do they not take you to the L'Anse site via the town of St. Anthony (about a 30-minute drive)?

On another post I read that Viking has to render which makes bad weather worse

[PasadenaDave]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Why wouldn't they just re-route and use St. Anthony?  It's not that far to the site. Oceania just used local school buses to transport passengers.

Likely capacity issues.  When we were going with HAL cancelled due to weather the trips from St Anthony were very low capacity due to lack of transport.  The population of NW Newfoundland is small and they can’t just order up extra busses from a neighboring “city”

[cruisemom42]

11 minutes ago, PasadenaDave said:

Likely capacity issues.  When we were going with HAL cancelled due to weather the trips from St Anthony were very low capacity due to lack of transport.  The population of NW Newfoundland is small and they can’t just order up extra busses from a neighboring “city”

 

Good point. If there was already another ship at St. Anthony, I doubt they'd have capacity for more.

[CurlerRob]

On 9/3/2023 at 3:58 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

From reading above, is there some special dock Viking uses that is not operational?  Do they not take you to the L'Anse site via the town of St. Anthony (about a 30-minute drive)?

On our 2019 trip, Viking used a tender dock very near the site itself (easily walkable). I can’t speak to the operational status, but it was very exposed to any adverse weather conditions. 🍺🥌