TravelSmith24

We did a Nothern Lights cruise in February 2012, with the Fred Olsen cruise line (British based). It was absolutely amazing. If there are any specific questions, I might be able to help.

Thanks for joining the conversation. How rough was the water during your sailing?

We have not been lucky to see the Northern Lights on a cruise, in spite of having done several very northerly cruises. None of the cruises was during summer months. However we fell in love with Iceland, and now visit Iceland by air, and that is when we get to see the Northern Lights. Seeing the lights cannot be guaranteed, and we felt that flying to Iceland and staying a while would improve our chances. It worked, and we can’t wait to go again.

 

There is a website on which you can monitor your chances of seeing the lights, and we find it quite helpful. Try www.spaceweather.com. Good luck. Scroll down towards the bottom on the left hand side, and the map image will be helpful.

What a great web site! I will be spending lots of time exploring there. Thanks for recommending it.

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Oh, I was under the impression they had started them this year. Yes, I had reviewed all the earlier posts and saw one thread from someone else like me who was curious about this itinerary. But I was hoping to hear from someone who had actually done it already. Guess I will have to wait till next year. I didn’t see any rollcalls yet but will keep an eye out. Thanks.

We are considering a 2020 In Search Of the Northern Lights cruise up the coast of Norway and would love to hear about your experiences if you have done this with Viking. Specifically, did you get to see the Northern Lights? Which sailing did you take (Jan/Feb/March)? How rough was the water while at sea? Any issues with icebergs or other safety issues? Would you do it again? We are experienced ocean cruisers and have managed our fair share of rough water, but have never done a winter cruise into a cold weather area before. But Aurora Borealis is on my bucket list...Any insights would be appreciated now that Viking has completed its first “season” of these cruises.

We have not arrived on the day of a cruise departure since almost missing our ship in Rome several years ago due to a delayed flight that caused us to miss a connection. We eventually made it to Rome and then had a hair-raising ride with a van driver who must have trained with Mario Andretti. We still would have missed our ship but for an entire plane full of folks on a charter flight through the cruise line who were later than we were so they held the ship for them and we made it onboard gasping for breath. Never again.

We were on a Princess cruise a few years back and artist Wyland (famous for his undersea paintings and murals) was on board. There was no previous announcement that he was going to be on the cruise but he ended up doing a demo of his painting techniques one day, hosted by the art gallery staff, which was interesting. He answered questions from the audience while painting.

Only other famous people were three Angels baseball players (Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos and Hank Conger) on a fan cruise, but that's why we took it. All are still in the Majors but none are still with the Angels. This was a Carnival Cruise.