Questions on Voyage of the Vikings

[AncientWanderer]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

teacherman, I'm now looking at this route and ship for 2020. How did things go on Zuiderdam at the ports? As she's relatively large for some of them, was tendering so many people ever an issue?  Is she a good ship for cool (and potentially inclement) weather cruising? 

 

Did you find there were a lot of lectures and/or information on the nature, wildlife, ports?

 

 

Not teacherman, but..isn't VOV on Zaandam in 2020?  Like you, I'm suddenly realizing I need to do this route.  

[cruisemom42]

14 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

Not teacherman, but..isn't VOV on Zaandam in 2020?  Like you, I'm suddenly realizing I need to do this route.  

 

Not sure if it is part of the VOV, but I was looking at a Zuiderdam voyage departing Copenhagen August 19 2020 with 4 days in Iceland, 2 Greenland ports and cruising Prince Christian Sound, which sounded like the one teacherman was on....

 

Actually, the best itinerary I have seen (that is affordable without selling bodily organs) is on MSC Poesia departing August 9:  21 days R/T from Warnemunde (or R/T from Copenhagen departing on Aug 8th), great itinerary that includes 3 Iceland ports (one of which is an overnight in Reykjavik), 3 Greenland ports (including an overnight in Illulissat), cruising the Sound, and Kirkwall Scotland for good measure...   But not sure I would be willing to cruise with MSC. 

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by cruisemom42

[teacherman]

We had private tours at several ports.  Tendering was never a problem.  I thought the staff member who gave the port lectures was very informative and also very entertaining.  There were a couple of "guest" lecturers who were also enjoyable.   Most lectures were full and had people sitting and standing in the aisles.

 

We are from Michigan😁.  I never thought it was COLD, but only very cool.  We wore the same things we wear in Alaska and will take on our Zaandam Antarctic visit this winter (summer down there):  jeans, long sleeve thin t-shirt, sweater or thin fleece, thin wind breaker, thin rain jacket with hood, and a scarf.  Worn in layers and sometimes a bit warm when walking around in the ports.  In Halifax, it was warmer.  We rented a car and drove to the Bay of Fundy and wine country.  Great day.

 

We had a balcony cabin and did use it sometimes, especially when cruising through the Greenland passage.

 

A "personal" thought.  My brother spent his whole life in Michigan, but moved to Florida when he was 65.  When ever I speak with him he asks me how cold it is.  I never ask him how hot it is.🤔😞

[knittinggirl]

On 11/7/2019 at 10:53 PM, SeaDog-46 said:

Roz - please be aware of the Polar Code that comes into full force on 1st January 2022.

This will effect all of the large cruise ships & make them non compliant to do sail past cruises in Antarctica & calls at Greenland as all ports are north of 60 deg. north.  This also effects all of the older expedition ships doing Polar cruises.

Also these ships will be effected when they drydock & are issued with new certificates from 1st January 2017.

There maybe some ships able to do VOV including Greenland in 2021 - but do not count on it.

Certainly NO HAL, Princess or Celebrity cruise ships will be able to go to Greenland in 2022 onwards.

Some new Hurtigruten, Silver Cloud & new expedition ships will be able to go to Greenland.

I  during our cruise up to Greenland this past summer, we had some fog and ice flow, and the captain, over an abundance of caution, cut one port stay short.  We were only there a few hours when he came over the speaker telling us he had stopped all tender rides to the port.   Some time later, he put additional crew on the tenders to look out for ice, and managed to get the passengers that had gone ashore back to the ship. 

 

On the return through Prince Christian Sund, our ship donated a bunch of supplies to an Inuit tribe there.  I wonder why, because they didn't do this in 2016.  After the polar class goes into effect, if Prince Christian Sund is also affected, no more donations.   Our captain said that Prince Christian Sund has its own weather system.

Edited November 10, 2019 by knittinggirl

[Lyndihop]

Should I be concerned for safety issues on our upcoming VOV on the Zuiderdam??

[dawei]

Lyndihop, not sure what type of safety issues have you concerned. DW and I were on the Zuiderdam for this summer's VOV.

Safety of the passengers was certainly the top priority for the captain. So, I had no problem with his decisions to skip two ports and leave another early. The deteriorating weather conditions at those ports were obvious. At times, the ship's whistle was used as a fog horn while the atmosphere looked like soup. 

As far as safety in the various ports, we had no reason for concern. We walked the villages in Greenland and Iceland including a two hour walk each way from the ship to downtown Reykjavik. There are a few port differences for 2020. Our only Norwegian port was Bergen (again no safety problem). Instead of Amsterdam, our Dutch port was Rotterdam where longtime Dutch friends met us and commented how Amsterdam has become overcrowded with tourists in their view.

Am I addressing your thoughts? I hope so.

Davi