JDincalif

The Shelter is on Deck 3 behind the bow. It's an outdoor seating area about 3/4 enclosed by windows and a nice place to enjoy the view unbuffeted by wind.

We were in 6090 on Viking Sky and noticed no noise issues from the World Cafe above. The 'wings' reduced visibility a bit but we were still able to see the Northern Lights from the balcony

Just realized that we were with you on that same August 2016 Azamara voyage. The weather was splendid, showcasing the spectacular scenery, for the entire two weeks. And the "White Nights" party outside on deck in Trollfjord was unforgettable.

J definitely needed insect repellent for several days in and around Denali on a Memorial Day weekend. The mosquitoes were out for blood. Didn't need it for briefer shore excursions during a similar time period.

Escarole🥬or escargot🐌? 😉 Regardless, O usually accommodates most reasonable cravings and dietary requirements.

Seven time Oceania cruiser, celiac here, who on every voyage has been provided with a large and creative selection of delicious gluten free options.

We like it 😉

Viking Sky, March 2019. Passengers and crew that we observed were calm and orderly during the report to muster stations.

According to this table the path of totality around Isafjordur will be roughly 300km/186 miles wide.

Thanks for starting it! ☺️

Looking forward to sharing the excitement and to meeting you in 2026.

No worries...it will be, sky conditions permitting

Lots of good information out there https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/iceland/isafjordur?iso=20260812

Eclipse data shows totality around 5:44pm, ship is scheduled to depart at 7:00pm

It's the Viking Vela. Initially we didn't see it on desktop computer but in mobile, but it's on both now.

Wow - thanks so much! We have just booked that cruise.

We've also been eyeing the 2027 eclipse with its trajectory over the ports of southern Spain with totality in the morning rather than closer to sunset. That would seem to be a perfect opportunity for a cruise line to feature eclipse-related activities.

Fewer passengers is its own pleasure. Smaller ships can have a cozier feel. Specific ship allocation of public space is a big determinant in whether venues felt crowded. On the Windstar ships, we found the main dining rooms to have comfortable spacing between tables, but even with smaller capacity than larger ships the main dining room volume could get pretty loud at peak times. In the buffet areas there seemed to be less space between tables, so even at less busy times it had a more crowded feel.

We will give Windstar one specific point: the open bridge and the friendliness and willingness of the officers who offered to take photos of us there and at the ship's bow.

We didn't 'leave' Viking; we choose cruises based on interesting itineraries rather than limiting our selections to specific cruise lines. Our most recent Viking cruise was in May 2022 when Viking faced the same post-COVID industrywide challenges affecting all cruise lines, yet continued to provide us with a better overall experience.

We've had two recent Windstar voyages and two previous Viking Ocean voyages. Windstar was adequate but in our experience Viking has provided a superior product across the board.

We've found that our 28" Briggs&Riley cases have been slightly too large/deep, even unzipped and opened, to fit under beds in Oceania R class OV cabins. Cabin attendants will such store bags at your request until you need them again.

Our NZ-SYD cruise out of Auckland had to skip something like four out of seven ports due to severe weather. So if seeing NZ is a high priority, it's best to consider more of a land tour than a cruise

The best part of our unexpected cruise extension was dinner with you and M. Warm wishes to you both

At the very least, we appreciated his 'timestamp' chronology, since in all the chaos we really lost track of elapsed time - it seemed endless, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. We also discovered that we and the author were in the same small atrium group under the protective wing of the cabaret singer, although we didn't meet him at the time because we were too traumatized and exhausted to do much more than cling to each other. So his account of those hours, particularly, gave more specific structure to the memory of our experience.