Voyage of the Vikings...a Bucket List Item...DONE!

Just off the Veendam's Voyage of the Vikings yesterday and have to say, it is a fabulous itinerary, though we must try to insist that any V of V goes to St. Anthony's for "L'anse aux Meadows" which is historically an extremely important site if you're talking about Vikings in North America.

We only missed 1 port, but the exceptional weather in several made up for it. The highlight for me was going through the Greenland Ice Fields which are a belt of icebergs, bergie bits, growlers, etc. that are calved off the Greenland Ice Sheet and head south where they eventually melt. We were there at a peak time and managed (thanks to Captain Van der Wal) to traverse them safely, though even he said he had a few moments of worry. (1 knot speed!)

The Veendam, as usual (except for a few vociferous people here) is still in good shape, the staff (with a few exceptions) were excellent, the accommodations were terrific (we had one of those aft corner balconies on the "ugly" addition), and the desserts :mad: have gotten a lot better...phooey. Food was good, but the Caneletto and Pinnacle are less than they used to be...at least on these smaller ships. I wouldn't bother again...took away our onion soup, flaming lamb kabobs, and creme brûlée in the Pinnacle. Poor menu (IMO) in the Caneletto. Service was better than usual in the MDR, but we continue to prefer the Lido for dinner.

We did a mix of HAL tours and privately arranged tours and all were good.

Lecturers were a mix of good and poor.

Babs did a great job as Port Lecturer giving us useful info and a wonderful talk on the Great Explosion in Halifax.

If you haven't done this cruise and can arrange for it, I highly recommend it!

I'll post photos to my Travel section in my Smugmug account as soon as I recover from the usual "Cruise Crud" that I came down with yesterday.

Glad you had a good cruise.

Looking forward to reading all about it!

Thanks for the report!

Sounds like you had a great time.

Thanks for taking the time to share and welcome home :)

Looking forward to hearing about it. This is on my to do list as soon as I can travel overseas again and can otherwise swing it with work.

Happy for you that you were able to scratch it from your list. It's still on ours, but when and if the Loonie regains strength we'll be taking a very close look at it again.

IMO an itinerary that should be on almost everyone's list. I've done it twice, one way each time. The first in 2001 before it was called Voyage of the Vikings, Copenhagen to NYC on Amsterdam; the second was in 2004 from NYC on Rotterdam. The ports of call vary each season but the 2004 trip included a run up the coast of Norway to Tromso and Honningsveg and then an overnight in Hamburg where the fast trains allowed for a good, long visit to Berlin. Two wonderful cruises on two lovely ships, both fortunately still with us for a while.

Great report and endorsement for this classic cruise. Thanks for the early report.

Thank you for your report.

Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise.

Glad you and Chris loved VotV, Jan. We missed L'Anse aux Meadows when we did Voyage of the Vikings in 2012, which just means we'll have to try again someday. VotV is a wonderful cruise, and we wouldn't mind a repeat in the future.

Bill and I will raise a glass in a salute to our 2011 meeting on the Prinsendam when we return to Bordeaux in a few weeks on her. No Belgium for us this time, though.

IMO an itinerary that should be on almost everyone's list. I've done it twice, one way each time. The first in 2001 before it was called Voyage of the Vikings, Copenhagen to NYC on Amsterdam; the second was in 2004 from NYC on Rotterdam. The ports of call vary each season but the 2004 trip included a run up the coast of Norway to Tromso and Honningsveg and then an overnight in Hamburg where the fast trains allowed for a good, long visit to Berlin. Two wonderful cruises on two lovely ships, both fortunately still with us for a while.

I was on both those cruises! :) Sorry that I don't recall meeting you on either of them.

The first one you mentioned was a Big Band cruise with the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, and was otherwise comparable to what is now called the Viking Passage cruise. I danced until my legs burned. Wow, that was fun.

The second one I remember as being 34 consecutive days of fog. I'm sure there were a few clear moments during that cruise, but the fog was so persistent.

It's true, every one of these Voyage of the Vikings cruises is a little different, and worth taking.

Thanks so much for your good report of VOV.

I really enjoyed reading it.

Who is 'Babs' that did such a good job with the lectures? :confused:

Welcome Back and thanks for sharing.

Who is 'Babs' that did such a good job with the lectures? :confused:

I presume she means Barbara. She does longer cruises, and an excellent job.

Knows her stuff.

Looking forward to hearing more about this fabulous voyage.

Thanks for your excellent report. The Voyage of the Vikings cruise is on our bucket list, unfortunately not for a few years off. One can dream though, that's why I love Cruise Critic!

So sorry we did not meet you OP! I agree that this is one for the bucket list. I'd watched and wanted it for years before finally getting to go this year.

I agree that the ice fields were the highlight of the trip and not something every VOV gets to do.

The captain was fabulous and the crew was great.

I also agree that the Canaletto was not worth it. We'd eaten there when it was free and it was BETTER then! Not a good menu, billing error (took guests and they were billed despite me telling person who took reservation and the person at the podium it was to be billed to me.) Food was not as good as the MDR or even the Lido, IMO. Better pasta in the Lido and better fish in both the Lido and the MDR.

We were on the Veendam in 2007. It is much BETTER now! This is amazing. I hope HAL keeps the Veendam and its sister ship the Maasdam as they can get into smaller ports and have guest laundries which are so important to me on a long cruise. I've been on several long trips on multiple lines without guest laundries. I did not have to wash in the sink every night....only once for things that had to be hand washed. I could wash in the machines everything I can do so at home. This is a tremendous help on a long cruise.

Thank you for your report.

Hope you are soon rid of the "Cruise Crud".

Thank you for your report. I'm glad you had a good cruise and enjoyed the Veendam. We did V of V 2 years ago and DH just told me last week that, of all our cruises, that was his all time favorite. Guess we'll have to do it again.:D

Thanks for your report.

Keith

I presume she means Barbara. She does longer cruises, and an excellent job.

Knows her stuff.

"Babs" aka Barbara is the location lecturer that is usually on the World Cruise. She was called Babs on the VOV to differentiate here from Barbara the Culinary Arts Host. I heard both of them say that some guests thought they were just one person doing lectures about locations and giving cooking and craft lessons.

I presume she means Barbara. She does longer cruises, and an excellent job.

Knows her stuff.

Thanks. :) Seeing my late DH never got to retire, we were not able to do a very long cruise. Though we traveled many times a year, we could only be away about 17 days at a time. This is the first I ever heard of "Babs".

Good to hear of your VOV experience. My DH has said that this is on his bucket list.

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Having "Babs" as the port lecturer and Barbara as the culinary center hostess left me with the impression that HAL had staffed the VOV with thier A team. We solo travelers had plenty of lunches, dinners, and receptions due to the work of Barbara. From my standpoint this cruise exceeded my expectations in all areas.

Having "Babs" as the port lecturer and Barbara as the culinary center hostess left me with the impression that HAL had staffed the VOV with thier A team. We solo travelers had plenty of lunches, dinners, and receptions due to the work of Barbara. From my standpoint this cruise exceeded my expectations in all areas.

Mine, too. Babs was great. Unlike some other lines we've cruised (read RCCL), HAL gives port information and helps folks know what to do if not on a shore excursion. Only went to one of the culinary events, but glad to know that it was Barbara who arranged the singles events and helped make it a memorable cruise for all. Show Host Jeremy also did a fantastic job...not sure when the man ever got a rest. And I'm thinking the Veendam captain must be one of the best.

I presume she means Barbara. She does longer cruises, and an excellent job.

Knows her stuff.

Yes. Since there were two Barbaras, the location expert went by Babs and the culinary hostess, Barbara.

Got to spend a little time with Barbara and her husband....wonderful, interesting people... Carol:)