CalTrojan

I just got the e-mail below from Viking…. It understates the impact, since Malta was an overnight, and now adds three sea days to existing four sea days, which is just too much. Given that the North African ports can also be unreliable, this is extremely disappointing. I’m likely going to cancel, just not worth the fare for a cruise where half of the days will be sea days 😕

I have been on Viking Cruises for the past two Christmases, 2022 in the Mediterranean and 2023 in the Caribbean. In 2022 they did a nice caroling singalong in the Atrium on Christmas Eve, and in 2023 had a special Christmas Eve show called “A very Viking Christmas”, featuring all the various vocalists and musicians performing Christmas classics. It was a hit with the passengers, so I think they’ll carry it over to this year. I too will be on the Dec 19 cruise, so I sure hope they do so!

Good to know. Thanks for the tip.

Yikes, sorry to hear that. You might check cruisemapper.com to see if another ship is in port in Tromso and Svalbard. Another ship could be taking up some of the tour capacity. Good luck with you continued excursion hunt.

No problem at all, Ethan. You can find the tour operator I used in Tromso for the husky hike at this link: https://www.villmarkssenter.no/. They’re well reviewed on TripAdvisor, and they include transport to and from their dog yard about 30 minutes outside of Tromso. Although the terrain is fairly flat, it is mushy tundra basically off trail (they’ll provide boots and gear), and it can get moderately strenuous depending on the strength of your dog. Unlike the Viking tour, everyone had their own dog, and there were eight of us. As for the Walrus Safari, the craft was basically an enclosed speed boat. There’s not a lot of lateral movement, but lots of vertical cutting quickly through the waves on the way when to the walrus colony. I used Hurtigurten, and both guide and captain were excellent. Again also a smaller tour complement than the Viking excursion norm, nine total if I recall. - Joe

I was on the Saturn last July for the Bergen to Reykjavik cruise, exactly the same as your last leg. It was a fantastic trip, and I heartily agree with Sailor Sam, pricing is very much on the high side for the Viking excursions, so I would recommend using TripAdvisor / Viator to do it on your own where possible. An advantage of booking independently is that you'll likely get a significantly smaller group. Whereas I saw Viking groups usually in the 20 person range, my groups were usually 8 or smaller. Here's my long diatribe with my personal favorites: Geiranger: Unfortunately there are not a lot of tour operators in Geiranger, and Viking will book up the best quality ones, so I ended up doing two Viking tours. The included one, the requisite bus tour up the fjord for panoramic photos, is just nice to get to the photo spots, although you'll be jostling for pictures with many others. The other was an electric bike ride up the winding hillside to the old highway "knot". I enjoyed this tremendously, but despite the electric bikes, it still is a fairly rigorous ride. Narvik: I love wildlife, so I ended up renting my own car to drive to the Polar Park Wildlife Reserve. Viking offers the same, but the cost for two people was equivalent to renting the car fot the day, and you could go at your own pace. It was a great journey, and being independent allowed for seeing the various animals at my own pace. I also got to explore a bit more and get a local feel. On the way back I stopped at Narvikfjellet, an aerial tram that takes you up to the highest peak. It offers great views and a nice are to hike around. Lofoten / Leknes: I took the Viking shuttle into Leknes town, and from there took the local bus to see the Lofotr Viking Museum, a recreation of a Viking long house. I thought it was excellent, and it is situated in a beautiful location. You can also hike down to a replica Viking ship, so definitely good outdoor time. Viking also offers their own tour of the museum, but it will literally cost 5x as much than doing it yourself for the benefit of having a guide take 20 or so Viking guests around. The included bus tour was pretty worthless, three photo stops to take scenic pictures, and that's about it. Tromso: I booked a Husky Hike independently, met with a group in front of the Radisson which is a block from the dock. Very similar to what others experienced, dog tied to your waist literally dragging your through the tundra. I love dogs, huskies in particular, so I really enjoyed it. Also got back in time to take the included scenic bus tour. Again, one of those on / off tours with a good overview and some interesting areas, but otherwise not memorable. Honningsvag: There were not many independent operators in the area, so I just took the included bus tour to NordKapp. Interesting site, unfortunately it was a hot day (in the low 80s) and the bus did not have good air conditioning, as one would expect when north of the arctic circle. Svalbaard: Lots to see and do depending on you interests and time. I booked a couple of independent tours, one for a "Walrus Safari" to see the Walrus colony on the far side of the bay (1 hour boat ride to and from), as well as get up close to the glaciers. I thought it was totally worth it, especially seeing a large iceberg flip over in the water (a gentleman who had been on 3 Antarctica journeys had never seen that before and recorded the whole event). Then in the afternoon I took husky sled ride on wheels, the nice thing being getting the opportunity to travel further into the interior of Svalbaard. Hope this helps. Happy to share my tour operators, I think all of them did a fine job.

I was on the Iconic Western Med voyage in late December 2022, and weather was extremely pleasant. No rain, daytime highs of 16-18 and nothing lower than 6 at night. Albeit a friend from Rome said it was a warmer year than usual, but that anything near freezing would also be considered out of the ordinary. I am booked on the Malta, Morocco and Med voyage for late Dec this year. To me the winter low season is so much better than the hot, sticky, overtouristed summer season.

No problem at all. And I looked up the name online, and correct name is "Pfanner". I knew it started with a "Pfa", just couldn't remember the rest of it!

I know this is more of "what I prefer in my minibar", but I discovered a canned German brand of sweetened peach iced tea that they carry onboard called Pfaadt(?) during an Arctic cruise on the Saturn this past summer. I absolutely loved it, and on a cruise on the Sky this past December inquired if they carried it, and sure enough they did and stocked my minibar with it. Worth trying if anyone is a fan of fruit flavored teas.

So much for the promise of Starlink to make internet speeds reasonable on Viking. I’ll gird myself for a return to the age of dial-up speeds when I board the Saturn in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for sharing the experience so far. I look forward to reading your further adventures. How's the internet speed so far? Did the Saturn get an upgrade to Starlink?

I cruised in a Celebrity Suite on the Celebrity Equinox for a one week Mediterranean cruise a few years back and recently stayed in an Explore Suite on the Viking Sky for a one week cruise this past winter. I think like everyone said, it's all highly dependent on personal preference. I know the Celebrity Suites don't have as much inclusions as Royal Suites on Celebrity, but does include the butler service. My experience was that even without the butler like Celebrity, I found higher service standards on Viking. I assume this is because Viking ships are significantly smaller with higher passenger to crew staffing and more uniform service standards across the ship. Think of it like the entire ship is functionally Celebrity's Retreat. The inclusions for a Royal Suite on Celebrity are fairly similar to what you'd get as most non-suite passenger on Viking, like a fully stocked cabin mini-bar, wifi, free alternative dining, 24-hr room service, a shore excursion per port, all beverages at meal times, spa thermal suite access. And Viking Explore Suites get only peripheral perks because services are so inclusive across the ship (the suite perks were mainly a longer lead time to make reservations for services and complimentary unlimited laundry service). Also I used my butler on Celebrity to navigate mostly the big ship complexities, like making reservations at restaurants or arranging other services when competing with 2000+ other passengers. On Viking, because the passenger load is so much less, a lot of those complexities are gone, so the need for someone to facilitate those types of challenges is gone. The benefits of priority access are not needed on a smaller ship.