Twitchly

We disembarked in Bergen, and I can vouch that Viking leaves you to handle your own transportation once you’re off the ship UNLESS you booked a transfer to the airport with them. I believe that’s included with Viking Air but others will have to verify since we book our own flights. We are staying for a few days in Bergen and found our own way to our hotel. If you are staying in London after your cruise, I suggest either setting up a pickup ahead of time (through Blackberry or one of the many car service companies) or take the Thames Clipper (now owned by Uber) into London. I highly recommend the latter if you don’t have a ton of luggage and are comfortable getting a taxi to your hotel from one of the Clipper stops. It’s a wonderful ride up the Thames and much cheaper than hiring a car.

We took an assortment, and we had to make some changes after I sprained my knee. In general, we prefer walking tours and time off the bus. But that was no longer an option for me after Liverpool. Our tours: Included: -Greenwich walking tour (fine, allowed free time) -Canterbury walking tour (fine, allowed free time) -Highlights of Historic Orkney (very good, allowed free time) Visited two towns and walked up to the standing stones circle. -Edinburgh Highlights (very good, according to DH) We had booked a full day tour that included Royal Britannia, but Viking had to cancel it due to the period of mourning for the Queen. -Inverness Scenic Drive (fine, allowed free time) We had booked a Viator tour to get us out of Inverness and into the Highlands proper, but we sadly had to cancel. This tour was OK but I would try to get out and see the countryside. Optional: -Holyhead: Ffestiniog Railway (great; you get to see spectacular scenery in Snowdonia Park and enjoy a good fish and chips meal in Betys y Coed) This one was sold out before we could nab it so we got on a waiting list as soon as we boarded, and Viking ended up adding a second group. -Dublin: Historic Dublin on Foot (good; had a great guide) The Trinity College library is a must-see. Wish we could’ve seen some Irish countryside, though. Viking didn’t offer any excursions for that. -Liverpool: Roman City of Chester (very good, until I fell) Quaint town. Nearly everything was closed for the Queen’s funeral. -Belfast: A Day in St. Patrick’s County (great, according to DH) -Bergen: Dale of Norway (good) Mostly a shopping trip, but we enjoyed seeing the beautiful scenery outside Bergen. Did our own thing: Stavanger: This stop was added last minute when Shetland was canceled. Viking offered an included walking tour, but I would’ve just held everybody up. You can just walk off the ship into town, so that’s what we did.

Same here. And we added days at the beginning, too, which let us see some of London. We’re still in Bergen until tomorrow, enjoying wandering (hobbling) around and seeing more of this lovely town at our own (pathetic) pace.

You had the pistachio raisin buns?? What ship were you on? There were none to be had on Mars, and nobody had heard of them. I would’ve enjoyed the Nat King Cole covers. We had a talented guy named Paolo doing James Taylor and Jim Croce covers in the Explorer’s Lounge. He was fine, but I would’ve preferred something jazzier or Nat King Cole stuff. The classical performers in the Living Room were mixed; some were fine, others seemed weak. The evening shows were Abba, the Beatles, and show tunes. We skipped those. In general, we felt the music to be a bit of a weak spot for Viking. But I realize this is highly subjective. We missed Ullapool (nearly everybody misses Ullapool, apparently) and the Shetlands. For the latter, Viking substituted Stavanger in Norway. I admit, I was pretty crushed; the Shetlands were a major draw for us. But we were grateful to have at least seen the Orkneys. They were a big highlight.

Yes, the package covered the whiskey-tasting. We learned a few things and had a great time.

A few random thoughts before I forget them as we conclude our September 2022 British Isles Explorer cruise on Viking Mars … The passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The floral tributes. The processions and funeral. The end of an era. And now, the new King. Like the rest of Britain, we watched it all unfold, wrapt and honored to be here for it. Unforgettable. Overall, we have been very lucky with the weather, given this was the British Isles. Rain in Liverpool/Chester for our walking tour (which is where I fell on those slick cobblestones and sprained my knee) and two port cancellations. Other than that, we had a mix of sun and clouds everywhere (except, of course, Norway, where we arrived in rain). Temps have run in the 70s (London), 60s (rest of Britain/Ireland), and 50s (Orkneys, Norway). We even got to eat outside on deck a few times, which was a welcome surprise. Our tour guides were uniformly excellent. Not a dud in the bunch. The buses were not terribly comfortable, some better than others but none that I enjoyed riding in. Staff have also been outstanding. Mostly from Philippines or Bali, with a scattering from Zimbabwe, Peru, India, South Africa, and Eastern Europe. Friendly, personable, helpful, and capable. Again, not a dud in the bunch. They really are the strength of Viking Ocean cruises. The food is better than I remembered it. They had a number of slightly spicier options, including many dishes from India that were quite good. (I still don’t think they have figured out Thai food, however.) Lots of salads. We ate more often at the main restaurant and at Manfredi’s than last time, both of which were better than we remembered. No pistachio raisin buns available anywhere on the ship. No one knew what we were talking about. Sorry, Clay. I cannot imagine how much weight I’ve gained on this trip. Good heavens. Bringing just a carryon turned out to work just fine. We did laundry twice in a 3-week trip. We’ll definitely do that again. This cruise had a lot of groups traveling together. The average age appears to be mid-70s. We have met exactly one other passenger who, like DH, is not retired. I’m sure there must be more, but we haven’t come across them. Nearly everyone is American. More Brits on our previous cruise, but then I suppose you wouldn’t expect many of them on a cruise of their own country. The Explorer Lounge ran pretty cold most days, and I say that as someone who prefers a cooler room. We discovered the warm delights of those beautiful reindeer pelts that I thought were fake but aren’t. (They’re also for sale in the shop; if I’d brought a bigger suitcase I would’ve been sorely tempted.) I still prefer the Explorer’s Lounge to the Living Room. Even after dark. The piped-in music has VASTLY improved from our 2018 cruise, so much so that I sent a note to Viking about it. No more banal pop cover tunes (that’s saved for the evening entertainment 😉). Now they play interesting, atmospheric instrumental music by people like Max Richter. Lovely. Do not miss Norwegian violinist Tor Jaran Apold if he plays a concert for you when the ship is docked in Bergen. Glorious. The Silver Spirits package turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be. We mostly used it on various wines for lunch and dinner, and occasionally for a cocktail in the evening. I tried all 3 grappa options in one memorable night at Manfredi’s. Also enjoyed an informative single malt tasting. Neither of us drink much at home, and that won’t change. I don’t need this much alcohol, and I don’t feel that great when I drink it! I doubt we’ll purchase it in the future unless we end up in a similar voucher spend-it-or-lose-it situation. But it sure has been fun trying different things, especially with the unwanted sea days after I sprained my knee. The sprained knee opened my eyes to a few other things as well: * We had a PV room with the door/window combination, and I was grateful for the ability to see outside easily while propping my leg up on the couch, something the slider configuration would not have been quite as good for. I was also very grateful for that couch! * I love being on the ship when everyone else is gone. * I now see the attraction of the included “panoramic” bus tours. On our previous cruise — and on this one until I sprained my knee — we felt like we had to run around and do as much as possible in order to take full advantage of the situation. After I fell, we really appreciated having the overview tours. Otherwise I would’ve just been stuck seeing the closest things to the ship. Also, they’re more relaxing, and because they tend to be short you get more time on the ship or just wandering on your own, something we enjoy. We’ll definitely consider doing more included tours if we cruise again. * People have been extremely kind, and we’ve met more folks (and heard more stories about similar disasters) than we otherwise would have. Various people told us about a woman who fell on the first day and dislocated her shoulder. Eventually we ended up sitting next to her and her son at dinner and had a great time comparing notes about the care we received from the medical staff (her, excellent; me, minimal to nonexistent). The only thing we won’t miss: the bed. Our stateroom bed was on the hard side of firm. Woke up sore each morning. Oh, and the pillows. We probably should’ve asked our steward for some alternatives but I guess we weren’t miserable enough. Well, we have just disembarked this morning and and have made our way to our hotel in Bergen. Of note: Uber is apparently new here, and they were short on drivers this morning. We were unable to get one. One of the helpful port staff (a charming high school senior named Hedda) called a taxi for us. We’ll spend a couple of days here before flying home and facing some sobering realities. This has been a welcome escape and we will treasure its memory in the months to come. Thanks, Viking.

I wondered how they would handle really late cancellations, since they close the shops a day or so before the end of the cruise. We squeaked in just under the wire and bought a couple of things before they closed. Glad they did the right thing and refunded your money.

Yes, Viking will refund your excursions in the manner in which you paid for them. Ours were purchased with money from our voucher, so we were refunded as shipboard credit for this cruise. You have to spend it before the cruise ends. We have been making a few trips to the onboard shops, and DH has gotten a couple massages. Alternatively, you could roll the credit onto a new excursion. Or some fancy drinks or bottles of wine. The weather at the Shetlands was given as the reason for cancellation. I assume high winds and rough seas.

On our cruise, all the non-included wines are running $8 a glass. Bottle prices vary.

On our cruise, the non-included wine list currently offers about 2 pages of white wines by the glass and another 2 pages of reds. I didn’t count the actual number of each, but there are plenty of options, including the usual varieties. You can also select from another page or so of bottles. That said, we’ve also had wines that weren’t on the list. For example, when they ran out of a South African Cabernet I quite liked, the wine steward offered a glass from a bottle of a red blend that wasn’t listed. I ended up ordering that wine frequently afterward, even though it never showed up on the menu. Also, if you have a wine you like at the Chef’s Table (which has its own wines, also not on the wine list), you can order it elsewhere, too. All of the above should be viewed through the lens of the Silver Spirits package, which we have. While you can order non-included wines (and pay for them separately) without the package, I don’t know how things work beyond that.

Aaaand you might want to moderate your hopes for docking on Shetland, too. We just missed that one as well, and a fellow passenger mentioned this was the third time they’d been on a cruise that had to drop it. (“Guess third time isn’t a charm after all.”) I admit I was quite disappointed about this one. But Viking has taken us to Stavanger instead today, which is a decent consolation prize, even though shops will apparently be closed since it’s Sunday. Time to go get my rain gear and see what we can see.

Viking is offering a Pulpit Rock cruise for a fee, but it sounds as though some hiking will be involved. Not sure. I’ll check it out, thanks.

Because you’ve been to Stavanger and found it boring? Or …?

No Shetland Islands for us tomorrow. The weather won’t cooperate. So the UK part of our British Isles cruise has now come to an end. I already want to return! Viking is taking us instead to Stavanger in Norway. There will be an included walking tour, which I won’t be able to do thanks to the sprained knee. So what suggestions might anyone have about things to do in Stavanger for a few hours? Assuming it’s easy enough to get into town …

According to Mr Twitchly, it didn’t turn out to be 45 minutes. About half that, he thought. Not sure why we were told it would be 45 minutes, unless one counted the time waiting at either end. We were not close to the bridges, though we could see them in the distance.

A couple of observations from our current cruise: At Edinburgh, you’ll likely have a long (45-minute) tender ride to the shore, then another half hour or so bus ride into the city. So there’s no hopping on and off the ship; you have to make a commitment to visit Edinburgh and be prepared for a long commute. (If you get seasick on tender rides, might want to take precautions for this lengthy one.) The Orkneys, on the other hand, required no tendering and had a handy 5-minute shuttle into Kirkwall. We did the included tour in the morning, which took us to stops at a neighboring town and to the standing stones, then in the afternoon hopped onto the shuttle to Kirkwall and wandered there for a bit. Both are well worth doing. (I overdid it with the knee, so I decided to pass on the marathon to Edinburgh today. Pity me having to spend more time on this gorgeous ship, being waited on.)

Thank you! That’s very thoughtful. We’ll keep an eye out for that show. The knee is a bit better today, so I’ve been hobbling around the ship and inadvertently whacking people with the cane Viking provided. (How do people use these things??) I’ve had more than enough to eat so will pass on your very kind offer. We just went to the very informative scotch tasting — that Silver Spirits package is coming in *very* handy — and we’re now in the Explorer Lounge waiting for that lovely guitarist to start. If you drop by, we’d love to meet you! I’m in a blue floral sweater with my feet up on a couch; DH is the handsome bearded guy across from me.

Here’s a tip for others who take this cruise: don’t get your hopes up about seeing Ullapool. I’m not sure what the success rate is for docking there, but based on posts here and elsewhere I suspect it’s pretty low. We were supposed to stop there today but unsurprisingly got a sea day instead. Too windy and unsettled to take the tenders in. This actually works fine for me because I had to cancel my seat on our excursion anyway due to a sprained knee. Now we have a credit to our shipboard account we would’ve otherwise lost since I couldn’t cancel in time. (I sprained the knee too late to meet the 48-hour deadline.) Time to go shopping!

The ship will be docked in Bergen overnight, so getting off early to make your train shouldn’t be an issue. We took the train from Bergen to Oslo a few years ago. I don’t think one side is better than the other. Early on, the scenery on the left was spectacular. Later, we had better views on the right. (We sat on the right.) You really can’t go wrong. I didn’t know there was a business class on the train. We did the Viking extension, and Viking rented two of the cars for us; a very good tour guide talked to us a bit as we traveled. It helped the time pass; it’s a very long ride. But I’m glad we did it.

Ditto. Also with a non-Viking insurance company. We have had better deals booking our own air, in part because we often have air miles we can use. I also prefer making our own flight arrangements and having closer control over them.

Same here. Except for my sprained knee …

I don’t know how many are currently aboard our BIE cruise, but it was sold out. Staffing seems like pre-Covid levels. No noticeable drop in service.

Here on Mars, our PV cabin has drawers in the closet.

The service is very good; the food is better than I remember it from our previous cruise in 2018. More interesting choices, including Indian curries and some spicy dishes. Very welcome.

We’re currently on the British Isles cruise. We really wanted a railway excursion in Wales, but it was sold out by the time we could sign up, and it never became available before we sailed. As soon as we embarked, we went to guest services and asked to be put on a waiting list — they told us there were 12 people in front of us. Within a day or two, we had tickets for the excursion delivered to our room. They had added a second, later excursion for everyone on the waiting list. Here’s the really fun part: because this was a railway tour, Viking had to work within the schedule and constraints of the railway company. In order to add a second group, they actually had to allow late boarding upon our return. The last tender to the ship was supposed to be at 5 pm, but ours went at 5:45, and the ship pulled out a few minutes later than intended. Impressive too that they managed to find a great tour guide on such short notice! Amanda Whitehead. Outstanding.