Moonlion

None of the winter 2022 Northern Lights cruises made it to the Shetland Islands either. I thought it was due to winter weather, but your BIE cruise was in September. Does anyone know if any of the BIE cruises made it to Lerwick this year? We're on a BIE cruise next May and want to know whether to take a chance booking a private excursion on the Shetland Islands. Thanks!

Dear ColonyGirl2, We are planning the BIE cruise next spring and are planning a DIY trip from Bergen to Oslo (either NiN or just the train - haven't decided yet). I regularly use TripAdvisor for planning and tried to find your posts on the TA Norway forum. Can you please provide the dates of your posts? Thanks!

That's true, we were charged in euros for our river cruises but US $ for ocean.

Be aware that the coastal areas in the artic areas of Norway (e.g., Alta and Tromso) tend to be a bit warmer than the inland areas. When we did our Sami/Reindeer excursion located in Maze, about 70 km inland from Alta, the temps were about minus 20 F that afternoon - it was cold! My husband wore his winter hiking boots with two pairs of heavy wool socks and he complained that his feet were cold. My feet were OK in my -60 F rated snow boots but my hands were cold. I think the hand/feet warmers would have helped

We've been to Greece and her islands many times and try to avoid the peak summer months - much too hot for anything except going to the beach! We almost always go in early June or mid September when the weather is lovely. The one time we traveled to Greece in July to attend a family wedding outside of Athens, we combined it with a visit to Skopelos (one of the most northern islands of Greece and very green) and the Pelion peninsula. It was warm but bearable.

We were on the January '22 Northern Lights cruise and it can get cold, especially in the more internal regions of Norway. When we went on the Sami Camp & Reindeer Sledding excursion in Alta, some people were not dressed warm enough and they were freezing! This is what I brought: Merino wool base layer set (aka "long underwear") that I got from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZPFQPRW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1 Waterproof fleece lined snow pants (worn over the base layer) Fleece jacket (worn over the base layer) Outer waterproof ski jacket (worn over the fleece jacket) snow boots rated for -60 (mine are sheepskin lined) several pairs of heavy winter wool socks waterproof winter gloves and glove liners warm winter wool hat and balaclava not a bad idea to bring hand/feet warmers

I would probably do this independently even if the Barcelona pre-extension were available. For ~$1200 for the two of you, you get 2 nights at the Nobu Hotel Barcelona hotel which includes breakfast, transfers and one "panoramic" bus tour on the day of checkout... you also get an included panoramic bus tour of Barcelona on your second day of the cruise. The rest of the time, you are "on you own" to tour Barcelona. Independently, you can book 2 nights at the Nobu Hotel Barcelona including breakfast for a total of about $560 which covers both of you (Booking.com, May 2023 rates). That leaves over $600 to cover the transfers. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see much advantage or value to book the Viking pre-excursion.

No foreign transactions fees for us either using Visa card for onboard purchases.

The Igloo hotel offers private events and tours (see: https://www.sorrisniva.no/hotels/igloo-hotel). You could call or email them to see what they offer and transportation options to the hotel.

We’ve experienced many examples of outstanding service on Viking river or ocean cruises. Here are two that stand out for us. On our Viking River cruise in 2019 (Cities of Lights, Prague to Paris), we used Viking Air and my luggage did not arrive upon landing in Prague. The Cruise Director personally took it upon himself to call the airline to track my bag and arrange for it to be delivered to our next port. It took 3 days for the airline to track down my bag and deliver it to the ship, and the Cruise Director stayed on top of it the entire time. Fortunately, I brought a change of clothes in my carryon bag. The Cruise Director worked with the Guest Services Manager to have my clothes laundered each night (returned early the next morning clean and ironed), and locate other essential travel items I needed. I was very impressed! On the first night of our Northern Lights cruise (January 2022), we dined at the Restaurant and were assigned a table by the window at the back, portside of the Restaurant. Our server that night, Junar, and his assistant, Martin, were so friendly, engaging, and personable (not to mention providing outstanding service) that we asked to sit at the same table or in their section the rest of the cruise. By the third night or so, we began to consider Junar and Martin our new “best friends” on the cruise, and had a lot of fun laughing and joking around with them. We learned about their home countries, travels and professional goals (Martin was studying to be a sommelier), and we shared with them stories about our lives and family in the US. We enjoyed our dinners in the Restaurant so much that we cancelled several nights at the Specialty Restaurants. At the end of the cruise, Junar and Martin gave us a signed package that included the menus of all the nights we dined at the Restaurant, highlighting what we ordered each night...their memory was much better than ours!

On most of the winter 2022 Northern Lights cruises, including ours, Stavanger was replaced with Lerwick, Shetland Islands. We were notified of this change shortly before our cruise departed. However, I don't think any of the '22 NL cruises actually made it to Lerwick because of rough seas - we got an extra sea day instead. We also didn't make it to Bodo because of weather conditions. Our our cruise, Bodo was replaced at the last minutes with a stop at Trondheim instead. I'm not sure why Viking's website hasn't made the switch to Lerwick yet since this seems to be a permanent change for the NL cruise.

The menus for the Restaurant are not available until they are posted in the morning of that day. I asked our server in the Restaurant if he could get the menu for the following days and he was only able to find out one of the main courses for the next day. Manfredi's menu does not change, and you can get the menu "rotation" for Chef's Table when you board.

3057 is above Torshavn and some posts have complained of noise in the evenings. We were in 3039 and LOVED our cabin: no noise whatsoever, adjacent to the forward lifts and stairs, near the Theater (and excursion departures) and two flights down to the spa. We would not hesitate to book this cabin again. 3063 is aft and above the Restaurant. I haven't read of complaints of noise from this location.

On our January 2022 NL cruise, we saw the lights on 3-4 occasions with one time being spectacular (our first night in Alta where we did an overnight at the Igloo Hotel). In following the other CC roll calls, I believe that all or at least most of the other NL cruises in winter 2022 also experienced the aurora at some point on their cruise. No guarantees of course but you can increase your chances if you book the NL hunt/chase tours while in Tromso and Alta. As the above posters noted, you need dark, clear skies along with decent aurora activity in area. The aurora activity doesn't have to be super high to see the lights in the high northern latitudes (e.g., Alta and Tromso).

We have used Viking Air three times and and it has always included at least one checked bag/person for international flights. Here is a pdf that includes Viking's luggage allowance: https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/2022_US_AIR_AirLuggageFee_210404.pdf

Historic Chania and the Old Port are very charming and definitely worth exploring, including on your own if you can after the included tour. Lots of picturesque back alleys behind the harbor with cobblestone streets and charming Venetian buildings. There are some very nice Greek tavernas at the Old Port and surrounding area which would make for a lovely lunch. The Palace of Knossos will involve a 2 hour bus ride to Heraklion from Chania. If you are very interested in Minoan ruins, then the 4 hour round trip bus ride may be worth it to you, especially if it includes the Archeological Museum in Heraklion. However, there is quite a bit of debate whether the restoration of the Palace by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans is all that accurate; see: https://www.livescience.com/27955-knossos-palace-of-the-minoans.html. Heraklion itself is more of a modern, industrial city. We've been to Crete many times. If it were me, I would spend the limited time you have in Chania exploring the Old Port and historic areas of Chania.

We're on the May 9, 2023 BIE cruise and would also love to have a list of Viking's excursion along with prices for budgeting purposes. Thanks in advance! Laura

We booked two cruises while onboard our January 2022 Northern Lights cruise, and got lots of perks: $400/person Past Guest Level 1 Discount on both cruises (they were offering a double past guest discount), plus an additional $200/person discount for the British Isles Explorer cruise and $300/person discount for the South American & Chilean Fjords cruise (the discount was based on the length of cruise). Our final payment was extended to 6 months before departure, and our deposit was reduced to $250/person per cruise. We also got $400 OBC for the NL cruise.

Our experience exactly! We book with the same large on-line cruise agency, and do 99.9% of the work in booking and researching our cruise, flights, etc. We booked two Viking cruises while onboard our January 2022 cruise, and Viking automatically transferred the cruise to our cruise agency, which was basically assigned to an "available" TA since there is turnover. We contact Viking directly for air or other information (NEVER had Viking refuse to interact with us). Our TA, if we're lucky, forwards Viking updates to us. I feel *0* guilt taking the OBC offered by the agency. @DrKoob, your comments are completely out of line with our experiences.

Our experience was that the spa was clearly warm (100 degrees or so) but not hot.

This is my experience exactly. I've NEVER had a Viking agent refuse to talk to me because I had a TA.

I don't understand this. We've been on 2 river and 1 ocean cruise - all 3 using a TA - and were able to interact directly with Viking Air Plus to arrange our flights. Have things with VAP changed since last January?

Based on some research we did on the best time to visit Scotland, we decided to book one of the May (2023) BIE cruises. To add to Queenie 1603's comments, the number of rainy days is statistically lower in May. Also, the midges are less of a nuisance in May and don't start to come out in full force until the peak summer months. In addition to lush greenery and flowers, spring is a great time to visit if you want to see puffins - they begin to retreat in August.

Thanks for this information! Do you know whether the facility is open earlier for check in? Can we check in and drop off our luggage before 11 AM?

On our Northern Lights cruise last January (Bergen to London Tilbury), we used Viking Air and they had us fly home from Heathrow (LHR).