Iceland's Natural Beauty General - 2022

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, id4elizabeth said:

Embarkation Musings

 

(These questions would not apply to the first sailing but would apply to all the subsequent sailings.)

 

So let's say we get in very early in the morning (6:40am) on embarkation day, along with coincidentally other Viking passengers.  We all get our Covid swabs at KEF.  Let's say we have Viking transfers.  They round us all up, gather all those red tagged pieces of luggage and we're on our way by 8:00am.  Do they take us directly to the ship?  If so we'd arrive no later than 9:00am, just as the passengers on the previous voyage are getting off.  Very few cabins will have been thoroughly cleaned yet. 

 

They process us through the boarding and Covid testing protocols and now it's 10:00 am.  Now more cabins have been cleaned but not all.  Does Viking now let us get on the ship and if so where?  Have they had time to thoroughly clean that area, let's say the "Living Room" area?  Will there be any food/beverage service available?  How long do we have to wait before we can get to our rooms?  If it's afternoon, will we get lunch?

 

On my past Viking Oceans trips embarkation has been by cabin category.  If you got to the ship early you could drop off your bags and then toodle around the port till it was your embarkation time.  My assumption (always a dangerous thing) is that cabin category is going to have nothing to do with boarding and that once we check in at the dock we cannot leave the ship.

 

I'm not complaining here, just trying to figure out how all this is going to work.

 

We actually don't have Viking transfers and in fact are arriving a day early.  But I am trying to figure out what would be the best time to arrive at the ship, without adding to any chaos with all the early morning flights.

We land on embarkation day at 6:20 am and theoretically could arrive via Viking at the ship before passengers disembark.  This is exactly what I was wondering.  Usually embarkation is at 11 am and one must wait until cabin is ready.  If it is true that cruises were sold at half capacity, are the unused cabins from previous cruise ready for us?  Guess we 7-17 people will learn from the 7-10 people.

[TayanaLorna]

2 hours ago, Doc who loves to travel said:

We have these poles.  We are very fit and active and we bought them after hiking in Norway!  It was tough and I wonder if it will be similar in Iceland. https://amzn.to/3vG3UBC

My guess is it will be equally tough if not more.  It's a glacier and lava landscape, hard scrabble, rocky although I did see some wooden boardwalk paths, staircases with railings in some waterfall photos.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

12 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The guide(s) may not decide exactly where you will be going until closer to the tour. Between the weather and nesting periods and whatever else, they may not want to promise a certain location and then not be able to get there or find that it will be socked in or whatever else would prevent optimal conditions for photography.

 

 

11 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

We have interest in the photography one also.  I agree with Peregrina that it will be day, light and weather specific.  It may be a phenominal opportunity to take a smaller excursion to off the beaten track locations.

I'll probably sign up for that excursion, too.  But as to where the photographer takes us, who knows?  It's a long enough excursion to get out of the city a little bit, and I hope we do.  And for inside the city, I'd love to photograph the church again, which apparently has no scaffolding now, which is good. There's a nice view of it from one of the adjacent streets, plus a nice straight on view, plus view of city from up top. In the city, perhaps we'll be taken inside Harpa Hall -- inside sounds good for photography.  And nosing around the harbor area (not port, but old harbor area) might be decent, though not exactly astounding.  Part of the Golden Circle is less than an hour away by car, so I suppose that might possibly be one place we could go if there aren't whole coach loads of us going.  Or we could take the little ferry over to Videy Island.  I'm not expecting to see much wildlife, and no puffins, as I read that because the seas have warmed up so much, the number of puffins has been decreasing.  But who knows where we'll end up going?  We'll see what happens.     

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, id4elizabeth said:

Dress / Fashion Musings

 

It's dinner time and we have reservations at Manfredi's let's say.  The dress is "resort casual".  It's around 45 F degrees out, but it's the end of July.  Do I wear long pants and wool sweater in navy blue according to the temperature outside (winter)?  Or do I go with turquoise Capri pants, sleeveless tank top with sheer floral overblouse (summer)?  (I only want to pack one of these ensembles.)

We think summer dress is bright colors and white or light.  On Midnight Sun in Norway when it was cold, the flannels and dark colors were out.  It wasn't really warm until the heat wave in London.  In SA it was warm in northern cities and cold at the horn.  Clothing colors and style changed with location.  But it really doesn't matter.  There are no fashion police.

[id4elizabeth]

21 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

We land on embarkation day at 6:20 am and theoretically could arrive via Viking at the ship before passengers disembark.  This is exactly what I was wondering.  Usually embarkation is at 11 am and one must wait until cabin is ready.  If it is true that cruises were sold at half capacity, are the unused cabins from previous cruise ready for us?  Guess we 7-17 people will learn from the 7-10 people.

Except I was told by a tellus@Viking rep that our sailing (7/17) was 928 passengers out of a possible 930 which is pretty much bursting at the gills - not anywhere near half capacity.  If the sailing before us was that full, it would mean that they had to clean all the cabins - not just half of them.  Here's hoping what I was told about # of passengers was wrong!  And that your theory is the correct one - for lots of different reasons! 

[SantaFe1]

2 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

at the top of the hand hold there is a wooden ball that screws off and can become a mono pod for a camera. 

Oh boy, my husband would love this.  He took both a monopod and tripod on the WC.  He seemed to think the animals were going to pose for him.  I think he was actually surprised when they told him he couldn’t jump off the vehicle and set up his tripod on Safari.  These guys!!

[id4elizabeth]

13 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

We think summer dress is bright colors and white or light.  On Midnight Sun in Norway when it was cold, the flannels and dark colors were out.  It wasn't really warm until the heat wave in London.  In SA it was warm in northern cities and cold at the horn.  Clothing colors and style changed with location.  But it really doesn't matter.  There are no fashion police.

I'm not worried about it as far as fashion police - just kind of wondering what people were thinking.   I'll no doubt go with something in between.   Just curious

[SantaFe1]

23 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I think he was actually surprised when they told him he couldn’t jump off the vehicle and set up his tripod on Safari.

Well, he did get this:

[JeriGail]

20 minutes ago, id4elizabeth said:

I'm not worried about it as far as fashion police - just kind of wondering what people were thinking.   I'll no doubt go with something in between.   Just curious

I asked the question about the onboard temperature and heard from many that it runs a little warm, except for being colder in the theater.  Of course everyone's comfortable temperature is a little different.  I've watched many Viking videos on You Tube and usually see short sleeves with some people wearing a light sweater.

[SantaFe1]

Oh dear, I am always cold on the ship.  But a Southern California girl.

[EJLobster]

2 hours ago, id4elizabeth said:

Embarkation Musings

 

(These questions would not apply to the first sailing but would apply to all the subsequent sailings.)

 

So let's say we get in very early in the morning (6:40am) on embarkation day, along with coincidentally other Viking passengers.  We all get our Covid swabs at KEF.  Let's say we have Viking transfers.  They round us all up, gather all those red tagged pieces of luggage and we're on our way by 8:00am.  Do they take us directly to the ship?  If so we'd arrive no later than 9:00am, just as the passengers on the previous voyage are getting off.  Very few cabins will have been thoroughly cleaned yet. 

 

They process us through the boarding and Covid testing protocols and now it's 10:00 am.  Now more cabins have been cleaned but not all.  Does Viking now let us get on the ship and if so where?  Have they had time to thoroughly clean that area, let's say the "Living Room" area?  Will there be any food/beverage service available?  How long do we have to wait before we can get to our rooms?  If it's afternoon, will we get lunch?

 

On my past Viking Oceans trips embarkation has been by cabin category.  If you got to the ship early you could drop off your bags and then toodle around the port till it was your embarkation time.  My assumption (always a dangerous thing) is that cabin category is going to have nothing to do with boarding and that once we check in at the dock we cannot leave the ship.

 

I'm not complaining here, just trying to figure out how all this is going to work.

 

We actually don't have Viking transfers and in fact are arriving a day early.  But I am trying to figure out what would be the best time to arrive at the ship, without adding to any chaos with all the early morning flights.

Yesterday, I watched the viking TV broadcast- and this week it was about Iceland- given by a Viking official- sorry, can't remember his name. He talked about all the logistics, and new problems that had to be solved- including this.  He speculated about a place nearby the ship where people can space out (I am thinking- socially distance), sit, drink, eat something and be comfortable.  Sounds like they are working out these details.   You can watch the broadcast, too!  These comments were at the end - in the Q and A section.

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, id4elizabeth said:

Embarkation Musings

 

(These questions would not apply to the first sailing but would apply to all the subsequent sailings.)

 

So let's say we get in very early in the morning (6:40am) on embarkation day, along with coincidentally other Viking passengers.  We all get our Covid swabs at KEF.  Let's say we have Viking transfers.  They round us all up, gather all those red tagged pieces of luggage and we're on our way by 8:00am.  Do they take us directly to the ship?  If so we'd arrive no later than 9:00am, just as the passengers on the previous voyage are getting off.  Very few cabins will have been thoroughly cleaned yet. 

 

They process us through the boarding and Covid testing protocols and now it's 10:00 am.  Now more cabins have been cleaned but not all.  Does Viking now let us get on the ship and if so where?  Have they had time to thoroughly clean that area, let's say the "Living Room" area?  Will there be any food/beverage service available?  How long do we have to wait before we can get to our rooms?  If it's afternoon, will we get lunch?

 

On my past Viking Oceans trips embarkation has been by cabin category.  If you got to the ship early you could drop off your bags and then toodle around the port till it was your embarkation time.  My assumption (always a dangerous thing) is that cabin category is going to have nothing to do with boarding and that once we check in at the dock we cannot leave the ship.

 

I'm not complaining here, just trying to figure out how all this is going to work.

 

We actually don't have Viking transfers and in fact are arriving a day early.  But I am trying to figure out what would be the best time to arrive at the ship, without adding to any chaos with all the early morning flights.

Oops, I see EJ Lobster beat me too it. That will teach me to start at the first new post rather than the last one. 
 

The lecturer yesterday mentioned that they were trying to put something interesting together for the first day.  It was an offhand remark in response to a question about the early early arrival but it ran through my head that it might be a delay tactic to slow down all the early morning arrivals. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Clay Clayton

[SantaFe1]

He said they might put,us on a bus to drive around Reykjavik whil we awaited results!?!

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

If it is true that cruises were sold at half capacity,

 

Too much conflicting information at this point to support this assumption.

 

1 hour ago, JeriGail said:

heard from many that it runs a little warm, except for being colder in the theater.  Of course everyone's comfortable temperature is a little different. 

 

Temperature is subjective. It can say  70 on the thermometer and half the people are going to be yelling that it is too warm and the other half will complain that it is too cold.  It's a lose-lose situation.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Peregrina651

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

He said they might put,us on a bus to drive around Reykjavik whil we awaited results!?!

 

Isn't that what the included tour is supposed to do on Day 2???

[DaveSJ711]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

Well, he did get this:

This reminds me of a picture I took in South Africa in 2007. The leopard was up in a tree, munching on a deer or some other animal further down the food chain. Fortunately the leopard was focused on his lunch, rather than on me for lunch. (BTW, I took the picture with a simple point-and-shoot setup.)

[bardstowntraveller]

10 hours ago, bardstowntraveller said:

Has anyone done the Husavik baths?  They look great but I hate to miss the Northern Landscapes. Appreciate any input

[FLORIDA FLOUNDER]

9 hours ago, id4elizabeth said:

Except I was told by a tellus@Viking rep that our sailing (7/17) was 928 passengers out of a possible 930 which is pretty much bursting at the gills - not anywhere near half capacity.  If the sailing before us was that full, it would mean that they had to clean all the cabins - not just half of them.  Here's hoping what I was told about # of passengers was wrong!  And that your theory is the correct one - for lots of different reasons! 

When I booked the 7/3 cruise the agent said the ship will sail at half capacity. Whether or not that's true...Who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️

[TayanaLorna]

9 hours ago, JeriGail said:

I asked the question about the onboard temperature and heard from many that it runs a little warm, except for being colder in the theater.  Of course everyone's comfortable temperature is a little different.  I've watched many Viking videos on You Tube and usually see short sleeves with some people wearing a light sweater.

Yes, everyone has a different internal thermometer.  The only location I thought was warm and sometimes Hot was the pool area.  Hot if the sun was out and the cover closed.  And everyone has a different dress code.  When we were sailing up to the glacier in Patagonia, two guys were wearing shorts.  Maybe they had only been on a Caribbean cruise before.  

[TayanaLorna]

On the July 17 sailing and woke up to an email from Viking today.  Got all excited.  Thought it might be about excursions.  Nope.  It was about the required Health Questionnaire - exciting also cuz it is getting real.

[shipster60]

28 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

On the July 17 sailing and woke up to an email from Viking today.  Got all excited.  Thought it might be about excursions.  Nope.  It was about the required Health Questionnaire - exciting also cuz it is getting real.

Ha! I experienced the same excitement when I saw the email! I thought they were going to tell me shore excursions would be posted soon. We’re on the July 10 sailing. 

[Clay Clayton]

6 minutes ago, shipster60 said:

Ha! I experienced the same excitement when I saw the email! I thought they were going to tell me shore excursions would be posted soon. We’re on the July 10 sailing. 

Excursions for July 10th have been posted for several weeks. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Clay Clayton

[Peregrina651]

41 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Maybe they had only been on a Caribbean cruise before.  

 

 

Or were from Canada. We did a May cruise in the Ukraine and they were the only ones in shorts most of the time.

 

1 hour ago, FLORIDA FLOUNDER said:

When I booked the 7/3 cruise the agent said the ship will sail at half capacity. Whether or not that's true...Who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️

 

We have heard all sorts of reports as to what the numbers will be, anywhere from 50% of cabins to 100% of cabins. No way of knowing which is right.

 

39 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

On the July 17 sailing and woke up to an email from Viking today.  Got all excited.  Thought it might be about excursions.  Nope.  It was about the required Health Questionnaire - exciting also cuz it is getting real.

 

Hmm. Not in my mailbox. I have not gotten anything from Viking since we booked except ads and responses to my e-mails to TellUs -- not even the standard welcome e-mail.

 

8 minutes ago, shipster60 said:

Ha! I experienced the same excitement when I saw the email! I thought they were going to tell me shore excursions would be posted soon. We’re on the July 10 sailing. 

 

Confused. Booking for shorex has been available for the July 10 cruise since May 7.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Peregrina651

[Doc who loves to travel]

39 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

On the July 17 sailing and woke up to an email from Viking today.  Got all excited.  Thought it might be about excursions.  Nope.  It was about the required Health Questionnaire - exciting also cuz it is getting real.

I haven't received a single email from Viking. We're on July 13.

Wonder if they're going to my TA? I double checked my account and the email for me is correct. I hate to have to call them again...

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Doc who loves to travel

[SantaFe1]

Comfort checkin just opened for us.  We fly 28 days from today!  I’d better start packing!?!

 

 

I did it.  I checked in and have my boarding pass.  Took less than a minute!

Edited May 28, 2021 by SantaFe1