Curious

[mllewis48]

My wife and I have come to the conclusion that we are not "cool weather" sailors. We have done many many Caribbean cruises, Hawaii RT San Diego, Panama Canal and Hawaii/So. Pacific. Were were thinking about the Voyage of the Vikings but it's cold brrrrrrr. The other night I watched a show about cruising the Norwegian Coast and crossing the Artic Circle but I was suprized to see that the weather appeared comfortable and folks were in light jackets. So I checked the weather on the internet finding that in July and August the temps are around 70 degrees. HAL has several choices in the area so my question is simple................ Has anyone taken any of these cruises and if so can you share your experience? The ship choices appear to be the Rotterdam, which we love and the Ryndam, which we have never been on, we have sailed the Maasdam and Veendam.

 

Nothing planned for 2014 so we are curious.

 

Thanks

Mike

[sail7seas]

Maasdam used to do the Voyage of the Vikings but it is now Veendam that does it.

 

[RuthC]

I have done the Voyage of the Vikings three times, the west-bound trans-At on the northern route once, and sailed the coast of Norway, including to North Cape and to the Polar Ice Cap, more times than I can count.

Yes, it can get somewhat cold, but it can also be quite warm, and with a strong sun, almost hot. I have walked around in sun dresses on just about all these cruises. I have also seen it snow high in the mountains above Flam.

I would definitely suggest bringing a sweatshirt, windbreaker, and gloves. But don't forget the warm weather clothes, either.

On one of the cruises that went to North Cape I had a balcony. I was out there for at least a portion of every single day, except embarkation day in Amsterdam.

[Lady Chew]

This is something I've wondered about too ... Mr Chew & I are definitely not cold-weather people. We don't like anything about winter, not the snow, not the temperature, not the clothes, not the Olympics, nothing! If we could spend Christmas in Hawaii we'd be very happy! We're not even too happy in the fall, either, because that means winter is coming! Crisp autumn air, with leaves turning all different colors ... no thanks.

Most of our cruises have been in warm weather locations, but we realized that we'd be missing out on a lot of places by sticking only to those cruises. So we did Alaska this summer, and it was great! We did a cruise tour, in the interior (land tour) the weather was up into the 80s!, and it dipped down into the 50s/60s for the cruise itself, with a few rainy/overcast skies. So we bundled up in our layers so that we wouldn't miss anything.

We also plan to do a northern Europe cruise in the future, and we'll hope for the warmer weather, but be prepared for cold.

So my advice would be to go ahead and risk it - it will be worth it, and then some!!

[CruiserBruce]

Just did part of the Norway coast this July. Oslo and Bergen were experiencing record or near record high temps. Further north was cooler, but wore shorts every day until we sailed from Aalesund into a fog bank that lasted two full days, followed by rain as we got to Scotland.

[sapper1]

In Iceland toward the end of August we were quite comfortable in sweaters under quilted jackets. For Greenland we added toques and gloves and were happy with that.

[feathersandnananose]

In July, we went all the way to Honningsvag (sp?), which is well above the Arctic circle. I wore a light long-sleeved shirt and a cotton cardigan. We did use the raincoats on a couple of days, but without the extra lining. Never touched the gloves or woolen hat (toque?).

 

But I will say that we're pretty active and walk around alot, which helps keep us warm.

[silvercruiser]

I did VOV this past summer and it was one of the best cruises ever! Yes, the weather was cold some places, but the only really bad day was in Reykjavik, where the temperature was about 50 I think, with 40mph winds (even stronger gusts)and it was raining very hard. Most places were sunny and pleasant, even when it was chilly.

The Veendam is a good ship and our Captain Peter Bos was one of the best captains I've sailed with. He shared information so freely. The passengers were a very well traveled, well educated, interesting group of people.

[durangoscots]

Did Voyage of the Vikings a couple years ago ..... generally the weather was mild .... like others we hit one really chilly day in Iceland, but otherwise I wore light jackets over shirts or long sleeve T's. And it is a great cruise to interesting and lovely places.

 

Susan