Has Anyone Made it to Greenland?

[uktog]

Saturn got to Greenland today 🎉😀

I’m  posted a full story on the live from which  I am doing -  fingers crossed for our second stop tomorrow 

[chirk]

We were on Saturn Iceland to NY Aug. 16. Greenland was one of our top priorities!

 

First: the absolute highlight of our 2 weeks was Prince Christian Sound: indeed the most spectacular we've seen anywhere. The captain took his time circling and we just soaked in the sheer mountains and glistening glaciers. It was mostly overcast but the rain held off until we reluctantly departed! 

 

We did miss two stops due to rough seas: our first, at the Westman Islands, and L’Anse aux Meadows.

 

Luckily, we stopped at both Nanortalik and Quaqortoq, tendering to both. 

 

It was drizzling/raining/cold all day at Nanortalik but without wind. Lots of folks walked around carrying Viking's big red umbrellas. 

 

The day started gray and wet in Quaqortoq (so folks with early excursions were very bummed), then turned beautiful. I had a wonderful time walking up and around town for different viewpoints. They are very well set up here for tourists, with locals directing you to key spots with native activities. 

 

I had fretted that I couldn't find good excursions but, really, just walking around the towns and seeing the locals was quite fascinating. Feel free to ping me if you want more info. 

 

Our top photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GYCguB8mbG8th3WUA

 

[luvtosing]

2 hours ago, chirk said:

We were on Saturn Iceland to NY Aug. 16. Greenland was one of our top priorities!

 

First: the absolute highlight of our 2 weeks was Prince Christian Sound: indeed the most spectacular we've seen anywhere. The captain took his time circling and we just soaked in the sheer mountains and glistening glaciers. It was mostly overcast but the rain held off until we reluctantly departed! 

 

We did miss two stops due to rough seas: our first, at the Westman Islands, and L’Anse aux Meadows.

 

Luckily, we stopped at both Nanortalik and Quaqortoq, tendering to both. 

 

It was drizzling/raining/cold all day at Nanortalik but without wind. Lots of folks walked around carrying Viking's big red umbrellas. 

 

The day started gray and wet in Quaqortoq (so folks with early excursions were very bummed), then turned beautiful. I had a wonderful time walking up and around town for different viewpoints. They are very well set up here for tourists, with locals directing you to key spots with native activities. 

 

I had fretted that I couldn't find good excursions but, really, just walking around the towns and seeing the locals was quite fascinating. Feel free to ping me if you want more info. 

 

Our top photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GYCguB8mbG8th3WUA

 

Beautiful pictures! Thank you so much for sharing these and this information! 

[rmalbers]

Didn't read all the comments but Saturn Aug 30th start made it to both Greenland stops.  Crew said only this cruise and the cruise before made it all season. 

[RMMcC]

We made it into both ports in Greenland on our Aug. 7 cruise on the Neptune.  As Chirk mentioned above Quaqortoq was a great town to walk around and enjoy the scenery, views and local people.   We took the Fur House excurstion and very much enjoyed it.  One thing to note is there is only one bathroom that we were told about in the visitors center and there was quite a line .... later we heard there was one available but not "advertised" in the beautiful old church.   On our cruise Nanortalik was changed to  a visit to Paamiut which frankly was a disappointment ..... the only tour available was the free Viking excursion.  The guide was a local and it was his first tour .. ever ... he tried, he really tried but he and several other guides didn't speak enough english to provide any kind of reasonable tour and people simply walked away and toured the town on their own.  The town itself was closed up on a Sunday so what very little that was to be available was closed.  Iceland was really great on the other hand ... worth another trip in our opinion.

[bookbabe]

On Mars right now for In the Wake of the Vikings.  Missed Shetland Islands, but made Faroe and both Greenland stops.  If your cruise can't stop in Greenland, you're not missing much.  Nice stop for an hour, but tough to kill more time than that.

[luvtosing]

46 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

On Mars right now for In the Wake of the Vikings.  Missed Shetland Islands, but made Faroe and both Greenland stops.  If your cruise can't stop in Greenland, you're not missing much.  Nice stop for an hour, but tough to kill more time than that.

Thanks, I appreciate the insight. 

[uktog]

I loved Greenland and could have spent far longer there, it was beautiful

Edited September 20, 2023 by uktog

[Geoffa30]

We were on the Saturn’s 30 August sailing to Greenland and managed both ports, Qaqatorq and Nanortalik. Whilst it was great to get to see Greenland, the two ports were lacking in interest at least for us. The best part of the experience was the amazing scenic sailing through Prins Christians Sund. Seemingly Viking does not advertise this as part of the itinerary because they cannot be certain it will be possible to sail the route because of ice etc. It was truly spectacular. 
 

I’m including some pictures of the Greenland ports and the scenic sail. Hopefully they all appear - unfortunately many came out as blank squares so I’ve removed them from this post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Geoffa30
Remove blank pictures

[Geoffa30]

Second time lucky?

[luvtosing]

19 hours ago, uktog said:

I loved Greenland and could have spent far longer there, it was beautiful

Thank you for all of these beautiful pictures!!

[luvtosing]

4 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

Second time lucky?

These are awesome, thank you so much for sharing! 

[Mike07]

Ditto... love the photos! It gives me an idea of whether this is stuff I'd like to see (and it is!).

[JeffElizabeth]

Warning! Greenland visitors might want to bring netting to protect your face and head from bugs.  They weren't biting badly but they did want to get in your eyes and noses. 

[RMMcC]

While we were there in Aug. the bugs (guides said they were midges and didn't bite) were not bad but quite annoying.  The people that brought the head nets were very happy .... over all a few people said they had been bitten but as for myself, a mosquito magnet I didn't get a single bite with no head net.  

 

[uktog]

No bugs on the 30/08 cruise 

 

What made Greenland so special wasn’t only being able to see how they lived and enjoying the scenery it was the people. Few spoke any English but smiles and gestures said it all. It’s a very hard life they have but they are such a community. That gave us way more interest than many ports we’ve sailed to. Of course there’s little shopping but what they have is genuine often set out on little tables outside houses. 

Outside the seniors centre there was a table with decorations made with the Greenland beading they are known for. In broken English a lady explained the seniors who are brought each day enjoy sitting doing beading. I have the most beautiful new star decoration for our Christmas tree $10 - they aren’t commercial there! - and it will always have a lovely memory with it. 

[Tsunami74]

7 hours ago, uktog said:

 

Outside the seniors centre there was a table with decorations made with the Greenland beading they are known for. In broken English a lady explained the seniors who are brought each day enjoy sitting doing beading. I have the most beautiful new star decoration for our Christmas tree $10 - they aren’t commercial there! - and it will always have a lovely memory with it. 

Did they accept American $?

Not sure how one would acquire a few Krones.

[uktog]

They took dollars and euros

[bookbabe]

In our second Greenland port last week, one enterprising young lad had set up a blanket along the roadway for “candy sales” to the influx of tourists.  He had an open bag of gummy worms, and was selling worms for $1 each, although he’d also take euros.  His English wasn’t perfect, but it was better than that of the older folks with more involved sales booths.  You had to admire his entrepreneurial spirit and optimism.

[AZ_Tim]

We were on the Aug 2 Bergen to New York trip on the Saturn. We made both stops in Greenland as scheduled. Prince Christian Sound was amazing. It was cloudy the whole time we were in Greenland. The day we stopped in Nanortalik, it was quite rainy. Qaqortoq the next day was cloudy with very little rain. No matter when you go, you are likely to encounter wet weather.

 

We prefer to use rain jackets and pants rather than umbrellas, though we do carry small umbrellas. A lot of people like the umbrellas provided by Viking, but we find them to be too big and unwieldy.

 

[deec]

Thanks, everyone.  We are seriously considering this voyage for 2025 as late dates in 2024 are full and we want to do East to West for easier time changes.

[rmalbers]

17 hours ago, deec said:

Thanks, everyone.  We are seriously considering this voyage for 2025 as late dates in 2024 are full and we want to do East to West for easier time changes.

It seems like late/early is a compromise.  Early you will probably have some ice issues but there will be more birds, etc.  Late you might not have ice issues but most of the birds will have migrated.  

[deec]

2 hours ago, rmalbers said:

It seems like late/early is a compromise.  Early you will probably have some ice issues but there will be more birds, etc.  Late you might not have ice issues but most of the birds will have migrated.  

oh I had not even considered that...love birds and my husband loves to take pics!  Were there special excursions for birders?

[janetcbl]

31 minutes ago, deec said:

oh I had not even considered that...love birds and my husband loves to take pics!  Were there special excursions for birders?

Best chance for seeing puffins (if interested) is from May-August in Iceland.

[rmalbers]

1 hour ago, deec said:

oh I had not even considered that...love birds and my husband loves to take pics!  Were there special excursions for birders?

If you want to see birds take one of the mid season great lakes VE cruises.  I was on the late season cruise so I'm not sure about special birding excursions but I'm sure there are excursions where you will see birds, during the right times of the year.

Edited November 6, 2023 by rmalbers