Into the Midnight Sun with Viking Cruise

[hermitchness]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has done the "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise with Viking and has any suggestions regarding excursions as well as insights on things to maybe avoid? This is only my 3rd cruise and first with Viking cruise line. Thanks in advance

[Peregrina651]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has done the "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise with Viking and has any suggestions regarding excursions as well as insights on things to maybe avoid? This is only my 3rd cruise and first with Viking cruise line. Thanks in advance

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

This past summer, 2016, Viking did its first two sailings of "Midnight Sun." There is a lot of information about the cruise on the 2016 combined roll call including some post-cruise feedback at the end of the roll call. There is more feedback on some of the roll calls for this year and there is at least one thread going in this forum dedicated to the itinerary. As you read the 2016 roll call, check the member signatures for links to Midnight Sun photos, reviews and blogs.

 

The 2017 itinerary is slightly different from the 2016. The 2017 includes an overnight in London, eliminates four ports from 2016 (Alesund, Bodo, Bronnoysund and Kristiansund) and adds two new ones (Solvaer and Molde) plus an addition two days at sea.

 

Join the roll call for your sail date and at least subscribe to the roll calls for all of the other sailings of Midnight Sun. You never know what you will learn from your fellow passengers, even if they aren't on the same sailing as you. Get the sail dates and name of the ship (because roll calls are segregated by ship) on the Viking website and then use the roll call tool at the top of any page to find each individual roll call, visit the roll call and use "Thread Tool" drop down menu to subscribe to the thread/roll call. When asked, choose "daily digest" and an e-mail will be delivered to your e-mail inbox each morning with the past 24 hours worth of e-mails (no e-mail means no new posts). Don't worry about being swamped with e-mails; most roll calls are not that busy.

 

Finally, I did the cruise this past summer and there is a link to my travel blog and photos in my signature below. Also, I posted at least one review of the tours that we took (post#528/page 27 of the 2016 roll call).

[hermitchness]

Really appreciate the response, thank you. Also looking at your photos helps me to keep in mind to bring some rain gear :)

[Peregrina651]

Really appreciate the response, thank you. Also looking at your photos helps me to keep in mind to bring some rain gear :)

 

Golf umbrellas available on the ship. In your closet and on the gangway.

[roothy123]

I'm doing Midnight Sun - June 17, 2017 cruise from Greenwich (London) to Bergen. Someone posted copies of excursions that were, I think, offered last year. It was for the Bergen to London cruise, and not all prices were included, but at least it gave me a good idea of what might be offered in 2017.

 

If it's only your third cruise, you may not be interested in doing anything other than taking Viking's included excursion in each port, or choosing one of the optional excursions they offer. However, if you'd like some information on independent things to do (small group tours, hop on hop off buses, etc.) email me at howardruthalliejoey at gmail dot com. (Run that all together, and replace the "at" and "dot" with the @ symbol and a period.) I've been to London, Edinburgh, Lerwick and Geiranger so have some info, or at least opinions, for those ports. I'm starting to research the others. Someone with a screen name of CMaas and someone with a screen name of NJGirl or something like that also have good info, and hopefully you'll run across it if you look at the places Peregrina suggested. Oh, and look at this from Jazzbeau (not on a Viking cruise, but helpful info):http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jazzbeaux/2/1471115468/tpod.html

 

Peregrina has given great advice. In addition to the changes from last year that she (or he??) mentioned, I think we may also have a second day in Greenwich/London that wasn't on the itinerary last year, but I'm not positive about that. We'll probably have an included tour in both London and Bergen, since we're there 2 days for each city.

Edited December 15, 2016 by roothy123

[Peregrina651]

I'm doing Midnight Sun - June 17, 2017 cruise from Greenwich (London) to Bergen. Someone posted copies of excursions that were, I think, offered last year. It was for the Bergen to London cruise, and not all prices were included, but at least it gave me a good idea of what might be offered in 2017.

 

If it's only your third cruise, you may not be interested in doing anything other than taking Viking's included excursion in each port, or choosing one of the optional excursions they offer. However, if you'd like some information on independent things to do (small group tours, hop on hop off buses, etc.) email me at howardruthalliejoey at gmail dot com. (Run that all together, and replace the "at" and "dot" with the @ symbol and a period.) I've been to London, Edinburgh, Lerwick and Geiranger so have some info, or at least opinions, for those ports. I'm starting to research the others. Someone with a screen name of CMaas and someone with a screen name of NJGirl or something like that also have good info, and hopefully you'll run across it if you look at the places Peregrina suggested. Oh, and look at this from Jazzbeau (not on a Viking cruise, but helpful info):http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jazzbeaux/2/1471115468/tpod.html

 

Peregrina has given great advice. In addition to the changes from last year that she (or he??) mentioned, I think we may also have a second day in Greenwich/London that wasn't on the itinerary last year, but I'm not positive about that. We'll probably have an included tour in both London and Bergen, since we're there 2 days for each city.

 

 

 

Yes, you have an almost full day in London--either the day after embarkation or the day before disembarkation. The tentative shorex for that day are shown here. It lists a couple of evening tours and my guess is that if you are starting your tour in London, the evening tours will be offered on Day 1 of the cruise (which is also your arrival day). In 2016, they were docked in Harwich, a two hour drive into London and therefore opted not to stay overnight.

 

The included tour in Bergen is a walking tour of the Bryggen, the historic port/mercantile old town.

[Newey3]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has done the "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise with Viking and has any suggestions regarding excursions as well as insights on things to maybe avoid? This is only my 3rd cruise and first with Viking cruise line. Thanks in advance

 

HI I am pretty new to using cruise critic and can't find my way around too well. I have been on about 6 cruises no n with VIking and wonder if you found any information -- I know there are tours included for each port and wonder which ones I should upgrade to a paid excursion.. Any information? Did you find out anything in your research that you can share or direct me to where I can find out -- difficult I guess cos this year's cruise in slightly different?? I am particularly wondering about The Orkneys and Shetlands and Norwegian Ports. I have been to London, Edinburgh and Bergen before Thanks, Newey

[roothy123]

I haven't been on the Midnight Sun cruise yet, but I've been to Lerwick before and after reading the descriptions of the excursions Viking is offering, I can tell you that the included one is a very nice one. The landscape on the mainland island is great, and seeing ponies is quite fun. After or before, you could easily wander around the town of Lerwick, which is nice in its own right. I believe a shuttle to a more central part of town will be offered, making it easy to see some of the town on your own.

 

The included excursion for Geiranger is almost exactly what we did when we were there before, except that we had to pay for it. Personally I would just take that excursion and not pay extra for the others unless you have a special interest. After the excursion (or before) you could spend a little time in Geiranger - although there really isn't a whole lot there!

 

The excursion for Kirkwall seems a little light, perhaps because it's hard to take 900 people around to the Neolithic stone attractions, particularly since one of them doesn't have parking for more than a few cars! I would probably book one of V's excursions, or find a private small group one. Book as early as you can for the optional excursions that go to the stone sites - they've been getting full on one or more cruises, so obviously they're popular. On my cruise, however, there were some openings when I booked. Be aware that, if full, there's a chance that people will cancel and/or more spaces can be made available at a later date if interest is high, so it may be possible to still get on the excursion you want. Ask when you board the ship.

 

When you go on My Viking Journey to view the excursions, be aware that there are drop down boxes for some excursions which give different times for the excursions. This is particularly true for the included excursions. Also, there's a place to click each excursion to read about what steps, walking, etc. is involved. I missed that when I booked, although luckily I didn't really need the information.

[Peregrina651]

HI I am pretty new to using cruise critic and can't find my way around too well. I have been on about 6 cruises no n with VIking and wonder if you found any information -- I know there are tours included for each port and wonder which ones I should upgrade to a paid excursion.. Any information? Did you find out anything in your research that you can share or direct me to where I can find out -- difficult I guess cos this year's cruise in slightly different?? I am particularly wondering about The Orkneys and Shetlands and Norwegian Ports. I have been to London, Edinburgh and Bergen before Thanks, Newey

 

Which tours to upgrade is a personal choice. Some people did nothing but the included tours and never even considered upgrading. We did a combination of included, optional tours, on our own and local providers. Where the included tour looked interesting and included things we thought we wanted to see, we took it. If something else looked more interesting, we did that. Here is my summary of the tours we took from the roll call but you should read the roll call starting on page 21 to the end; there is plenty of information and feed back. There is a link to my photos+blog in my signature below; hit expand to see the entire signature. Start by reading the description of the shorex to get an idea of what each port has to offer. (If you are sailing in 2017, heads up, some of the shorex are already sold out and if you are sailing in 2018 the shorex have not yet been posted on MyViking Journey and you will have to go to the Viking website to read about them).

 

Links show up in blue; just click on them.

 

 

There are six sailing of Midnight sun in 2017 and four in 2018. Check out all of the roll calls for each of the ships (go to the Viking website to make a list of the sail dates). Go here to start looking for them ship by ship (Much easier/more accurate to do than with the Find Roll Call tool). Two of the roll calls have been very active and have had a lot of discussion about tours.

 

Subscribe to each of the roll calls so that you can keep up to date with the conversation on a daily basis. Daily digests are delivered to your inbox every 24 hours and take about 10 minutes to read skim though (more if you are taking notes). Go to the User Control Panel (accessible through the drop down menu connected to your name at the top of this page) select Edit Options and scroll down the Default Thread notification to select Daily Digest).

 

 

There is a section of Cruise Critic called Ports of Call/Europe where you can learn more about the ports themselves, what is to see there and discussion of the various tour providers.

 

 

Finally, you can check out TripAdvisor.com for names of and reviews for tour providers.

[perlgirlnj]

Someone with a screen name of CMaas and someone with a screen name of NJGirl or something like that also have good info, and hopefully you'll run across it if you look at the places

 

Perlgirlnj reporting for duty. (Funnily, we used to live in NJ but now live in OH so the name doesn't even match any more.)

 

Here is the link to cruise excursions that were posted on the generic itinerary. The real ones turned out to be a little bit different.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11BY_vMnUk1FHkNK3Njn-fUxtBMaYC0SHmDYTrF_DLNE/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

If you mentioned whether you're scheduled for 2017 or 2018, I missed it. I'm on the June 25, 2017 Bergen to London Viking Sea sailing so my document is geared that way. When the real excursions went up, there were some variations, but this gave me an idea of what to expect. (I didn't re-do it with real excursions and prices, so take it with a grain of salt.)

 

We haven't been to any of these locations except London but I did do extensive research on ports and mostly posted it in my sailing's roll-call. If you search on my name, you can find some of the info I gathered. We're doing a few included excursions, a few paid excursions, a few independent excursions, and few on-our-own activities. If you want more info, I'd be happy to come back here and tell you what we're doing port-by-port.

 

I echo what Roothy and Peregrina have said about following the other Roll Calls. I thought I was following all the 2017 ones and recently found one that I hadn't followed. Wouldn't you know that when I read through it, I found an excellent alternative to what I'd planned in Leknes/Lofoten. It now looks like we're going to switch our plans for that port, and I wouldn't have even known about this option if I hadn't read someone else's Roll Call thread.

[Peregrina651]

Here is the link to cruise excursions that were posted on the generic itinerary. The real ones turned out to be a little bit different.

 

Yes, because the generic pages were created a while ago and never updated. Meanwhile, they continue to negotiate with the tour providers, tweaking the tours, listening to feedback until it is time to post the final selection of tours on MyVikingJourney.

[Luv2Cruise1016]

Am currently booked on Crystal Serenity to do a similar itinerary in June 2019. Thinking about cruising with Viking instead as it is their part of the globe. Awaiting 2019 schedule to become available. I have not sailed with either Crystal or Viking before so looking for some advise from those that have. Last 2 cruises were with Silversea all inclusive and were fabulous. All feedback appreciated.

[Peregrina651]

Am currently booked on Crystal Serenity to do a similar itinerary in June 2019. Thinking about cruising with Viking instead as it is their part of the globe. Awaiting 2019 schedule to become available. I have not sailed with either Crystal or Viking before so looking for some advise from those that have. Last 2 cruises were with Silversea all inclusive and were fabulous. All feedback appreciated.

 

There have been a number of threads in this forum that have answers to your question. For a start try the following and then "Search this Forum" for the names of the cruise lines you are trying to compare against (one search for each cruise line) to find even more info. If you still want more feedback comparing the various cruise lines, it would be best to start a new thread as only people who are interested in this itinerary are reading this thread at this point and you really do want as many people as possible to your question.

 

 

 

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