Mountain Traveler

My wife and I travelled with another couple on Viking's "In Search of the Northern Lights" cruise in Feb/March of 2020.  It was the last cruise before COVID shutdowns.  I looked up the websites of the tour providers we used and both appear to be up and running now.

In Tromso, we booked a northern Lights tour with Tromsø Friluftsenter, (info@tromso-friluftsenter.no).  We were very fortunate to have a clear sky with lots of aurora activity.  It was, however, bitterly cold.  We met their bus by the hotel right outside where the ship was docked.  They take a maximum of 16 people.  Although they will drive all over to get a clear view of the sky, this night did not require that and we drove to their "base camp".  Inside the lavvu (a round, native Sami shelter) we sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows waiting for the light to appear.  They provided tripods for the photographers in the group, warm snowsuits to go over your clothes.  An outhouse was available for those needing it.   The location is along a small lake with a small community on the other side.  It made for wonderful northern lights photographs, as I think having some foreground in the photo is preferable to just green lights up in the sky.  Their web site provides an accurate description of the tour.  They were very good to work with and I recommend them highly.

In Alta we booked with Luuso Northern Lights Tours.  Unfortunately, the lights did not cooperate.  Here is my Trip Advisor review:

"We boarded the beautiful Lusso bus on a cold and overcast night. Per greeted us in his Sami costume. He said things did not look good. He showed us sky cams from all over the area and also the Aurora forecast. He volunteered to go, but told us we had a very slim chance of seeing any lights. We agreed that cancelling was the best choice (especially since the previous night in Tromso had been so wonderful).  We did not pay anything.

They have several 4 minute films about the northern lights and Sami reindeer herding, which he showed us on the bus. He answered questions and gave us a sample of reindeer jerky and then a small package of jerky to take home. Luuso is Per's family name and the reindeer film was shot by his uncle. After a very enjoyable 45 minutes on the bus in the parking lot, we got off and took a photo with Per."

You can read all about the tour inclusions, etc. on their website.  As the actual tour was cancelled, Per did not charge us anything that night.

The Viking sponsored busses did depart the city and drove around for a few hours but never saw anything.  

We did see the lights from the ship on two evenings, but as the deck lights are not completely turned off it was not optimal.

Good luck with your Northern Lights chase!

So is their newest ship to be known as the "Ikea of the Seas"?

Another consideration ... with Viking Air Plus you can secure flights up to 310 days before departure.  For really, really long flights we have recently been upgrading to Business Class.  I do not want to wait until 120 days before the cruise to confirm flights and seats.  Often, the business class seats on the most desirable routes will be full by then.  Of course, once you have the flights and seats you want, you must ask Viking Air Plus to "ticket" the reservation so you lock in the choices.

We were in the Panorama Lounge on Silver Cloud a few months ago and after enjoying our afternoon cocktails were run off by trivia players who wanted "their" table for the upcoming trivia contest.  We were about ready to leave anyway, but they were borderline rude about it.

Here is a new suggestion - instead of traveling all the way to Tillbury and then back into London/Greenwich why not arrange a private transfer from the airport to Tillbury with a stop at the Royal Observatory?  The driver will wait with your luggage safely in his car while you visit the observatory. 

We did something similar a few years ago and it worked out very well.  The observatory is very much worth visiting and once you get to the ship you can board and relax.

I can send you the contact info for the person we used for the transfer if you'd like.

We have used "excess" OBC to purchase Maui Jim sunglasses in the boutique.  A pair for me and additional pairs that we used as gifts for family.

I changed cabins on my Equinox sailing on July 30.  I booked a balcony guarantee in early June directly with Celebrity.   Within a few days a concierge cabin almost at the very end of the ship was assigned.  I called and was able to move to another concierge cabin a few doors closer to mid-ship.

In my limited experience, the included tours are often a "panoramic bus tour"with a couple of stops or a walking tour.  The experience varies greatly depending upon the quality of the guide.  The extra cost excursions have always been good and in one case excellent. 

In my opinion, the extra cost ones are very reasonably priced.  On other cruise lines, I always book independent excursions, but I found Viking's offerings to be price competitive.  I suppose one reason is that since you are on an extra cost excursion you therefore are not taking up a seat on the included excursion.

Notices say the Elite breakfast ends at 10 am.  For those who have been there, do they just stop admitting people at 10 or do they take away all the food?  Thanks!

I did receive a MoveUp offer on my upcoming July 30th Equinox sailing.  I booked a guarantee balcony on June 12.  On June 15 I was assigned a Concierge level cabin and on June 27 received a MoveUp email, however, I did not place a bid.

Good luck.

Update - I left a fairly detailed message for my Silversea travel consultant this morning regarding my concerns about the pre-cruise hotel charge.  He called back this afternoon and said it took him some digging around and speaking with his manager, but they determined the charge was in error.  He is removing the charge from my invoice.

Thank you to all who replied.  As mchell810 stated, it does appear that currently Silversea's Door-to-Door fare may or may not include a pre-cruise hotel night.   

I am booked on a Silver Cloud Expedition in October departing from Ft. Lauderdale and final payment is here.  My Silversea travel consultant has informed me that although I booked the "Door-to-Door" fare for the cruise, the pre-cruise hotel is an extra charge - at $310 per person and has been added to my invoice.  Silversea Air department picked the flights to arrive the day before the cruise departs and the cruise confirmation document lists the "Silversea Simply Hotel" as being booked for the one night pre-cruise.  Coming back to me at this point to charge extra for the pre-cruise hotel does not seem right, but before I argued with them, I thought I'd check here to see if this is something others have experienced.

Thanks.

We just booked the Silver Wind Arctic cruise for July 2024 and the hotels are already listed in our confirmation. We are in Oslo post-cruise and the hotel listed is the RADISSON BLU HOTEL AIRPORT.

My group of 8 had a wonderful 3 days in Israel with Nedal Abdo a few years ago.  He is a licensed private guide who arranged everything.  Appropriate vehicle, separate driver, admission to the sites, etc.  We were in Haifa one day and the moved to Ashdod for another two days.  He met us at the port each morning for a full day of adventure.  He can customize your trip to cover whatever you want, but he also knows Israel extremely well, so can provide guidance.  He can be reached at nedala@netvision.net.il.

A small group is definitely the way to go.

I am booked on a November Viking Oceans cruise from Barcelona and have signed up for the Madrid Extension.  I understand they use the InterContinental Madrid, an IHG hotel.  Has anyone earned IHG points for their stay as part of a Viking extension?

Thanks!

We usually travel with another couple, so we always book a car service. 

I can give a strong endorsement of Adam Sparkes of licensedblacktaxi.com.  I have used him for four transports - London Heathrow to London City Center (twice) and also from the City Center to either Southampton or Tilbury.  Due to the timing of the flights/ship departure or arrival times and hotel check-in times, we always included a stop along the way - Windsor Castle is a great stop going from Heathrow to London; Stonehenge is a good stop between London and Southampton.  

Our most recent cruise departed from Tilbury (pre-COVID Feb/Mar 2020) and Adam picked us up in London at 10:00 am, drove to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian), waited for us to visit the observatory and then took us to Tilbury for our 1:00 boarding.  I'm sure a reverse route would work well.

The cost at that time was £165 for the 4 of us.

We have also used Adam for 

Many of the independent "northern lights tours" include a thermal suit you can use over the top of your coat.  They are very worthwhile.  Also, don't overlook your feet.  You will be standing outside doing nothing but looking up for periods of time.  Often you are on snow or ice.  Your feet can get very cold.  We took ankle high heavily insulated boots.

Thanks.  I was hoping there was a way to do it on MVJ.

We did not tender in Tromso nor Alta.  In Tromso, we docked right in town.  In Alta, we were a bit further out, but a Viking shuttle ran to the city center where you can walk around.

Both nights we overnighted in port and there was no issue getting back on the ship very late at night.

We are all in the same category cabin, so I suppose I'll be calling Viking next week.  Thanks!

Hello, and thanks in advance for any guidance.  In November my wife and I will embark on our second Viking Ocean cruise, this time with two other couples.  We will be able to make specialty dining reservations next week.  We would like to make reservations for all 6 of us.  How do we go about making and linking the reservations?  Thanks!

I have used this new feature a couple of times over the past month to alter my flights for a cruise in November.

There are a few issues, however ... myvikingjourney will only show you flights that are contracted with Viking.  Some of the potential changes are at no additional cost, but they do show others that have additional fees, sometimes significant fees.  Also, the flights shown are always paired outbound and return.  It is very possible (because it happened to me) that the outbound you want is only connected to a return you don't want.

Ultimately I also resolved this by calling Viking Air Plus.  With a short wait (I ignored the message about 60 days) I spoke with a very helpful agent who made the changes I needed to my air flights.  I never found out why MVJ would not make the changes.

I will say, however, that the agent offered flights that were not listed on MVJ.

I am using Windows 10 and receive the same error on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.  It also fails on my Android tablet.

I also tried selecting a different set of flights and still get the same error.

Still trying to figure out if it is an issue with my flights/reservation or if the Viking system is not working today. 

FetaCheese - thanks for the reply. 

I tried multiple times yesterday and once this morning and always get the same result when I confirm my new flight choices - it works on it for a minute than gives an error: "Booking Failed  !  There was an issue booking your flights.  Please try again."  Very frustrating as there are limited Premium Economy seats available for one leg of the return flight.