Venture - Iceland & Greenland - July 2-16

[markandjie]

When we were planning for this trip I found https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2870804-venture-svalbard-greenland-iceland-aug-7-21-as-live-as-we-can-be/?do=getNewComment by @highplainsdrifter to be invaluable to our prep so thought I'd try to pay it forward and do something similar.

 

But first off, the subject is not quite accurate for us. While the cruise did indeed start on July 2nd, we did not board until July 3rd thanks to a United Airlines and two faulty 757s...one with a non-functional APU and another with no AC in the cockpit (and apparently no, they can't just crack a window). After a last minute scramble to find open seats on an Icelandic flight out of Minneapolis, a 5 hour drive from O'Hare to MSP, then 2.5 hours from Reykjavik to Grundarfjörður we finally made it on board, only about 20 hours late. Note we didn't book airfare through Seabourn so we had to do all this on our own. It was also difficult to get in touch with the ship to confirm we could board at the next port (they didn't allow it during COVID so we wanted to verify).

 

Once we arrived at the port it did feel like they were ready for us. We left our bags on the pier and were escorted straight to the Square for a quick and easy check-in before heading to our rooms. Icelandair had been sticklers for tagging each bag with the right persons name on it, which worked out well as it meant every bag was in right room for our party of six. So far so good on post-COVID Seabourn service levels returning!

 

Overall thoughts thus far on the ship:

 - Bow lounge is definitely our favorite spot on the ship, though I like all of the new expedition spaces. We've only had a single humpback sighting thus far so it's mostly been empty, but the monitors are nice and the boys have figured out which tables are close enough for them to plug in their laptops and play video games.

 - The Colonnade feels very cramped compared to the other ships, at least in terms of the food serving area. I can imagine it must get crazy at busy times given the ship and flow of the buffet. 

 - On the other hand, the MDR feels substantially more spacious than on the Encore. The tables are spaced further apart and it makes for a vastly improved experience for us and quite obviously for our servers as well, as they aren't constantly squeezing between tables.

 - Finally, the sushi in The Club has been excellent thus far, and I think the experience is also much improved vs the sushi restaurant as there are many more tables and so while the sushi chefs get quite busy, it feels a bit better as an overall experience.

 

And on Seabourn service:

Overall we've had a great experience, our best one in quite a while. Our room stewards are fantastic and always seem to be easy to find. The staff in the Square has been highly competent and responsive to our needs. When they've promised to get back to us on things they have followed through. Feels like they are back to pre-COVID levels of expertise. Our server in the restaurant has been wonderful, and thus far I'm 2 for 2 in terms of a delicious soufflé that rises properly when they pour in the sauce! (It's the little things... 😉)

 

On the agenda:

I obviously can't speak for the first night in Reykjavik, but we had amazing weather in Grundarfjörður. The expedition team led an adventurous 2.5 hour hike around a nearby mountain through wet and boggy conditions. Only a couple of folks turned back and it was one of those fun little experiments I hope the Ventures...er...Expeditions team keeps doing.

 

Last night we learned that our itinerary has shifted! Apparently the ice around Greenland is still unusually thick, so they have rearranged the itinerary to make all Iceland stops first before heading to Greenland, in the hopes that an extra 5 days or so will make a difference. Only one Iceland stop couldn't accommodate the change and thus had to be dropped, and they added a good looking destination in its place. I'll reply to this with some photos to show the change.

 

Then this morning we arrived at Vigor and unfortunately found 30+ knot winds. The Expedition staff took a few zodiacs out but it was clear the conditions were too rough to take guests out. They waited until 10a to see if conditions would change but unfortunately they did not, and so on we went to our next destination, Husavik.

 

The seas have been rough today, and folks around the ship are looking increasingly green. According to Windy.com, we're sailing through 3 meter seas with a period of 9 seconds. I've heard you want the period to be 2x the height in feet...so at a 1:1 ratio the ship is moving quite a bit. Glad those stabilizers are fixed, as I'm sure they're working overtime!

[markandjie]

Our original itinerary:

 

Has now been swapped out with the following:

Edited July 4, 2023 by markandjie

[j_anandu]

Thanks so much for this, on the venture in November for Antarctica trip and this is adding to my excitement. If you’re able to post pics of the food and ship would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy your cruise !

[Hobar]

2 hours ago, j_anandu said:

Thanks so much for this, on the venture in November for Antarctica trip and this is adding to my excitement. If you’re able to post pics of the food and ship would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy your cruise !

We’ll be on Venture this November in Antarctica, too.  Either before or same as you as we leave end of Oct.  If you want to see pics/video, YouTube has several, many posted by SB cruisers so real, not marketing. I try not to watch as I want to be surprised, but I have given in to temptation and the ship looks amazing. 

[j_anandu]

2 hours ago, Hobar said:

We’ll be on Venture this November in Antarctica, too.  Either before or same as you as we leave end of Oct.  If you want to see pics/video, YouTube has several, many posted by SB cruisers so real, not marketing. I try not to watch as I want to be surprised, but I have given in to temptation and the ship looks amazing. 

Thank you so much, will check out YouTube. I leave end of November, need to arrive BA on the 27th but we are arriving a day early. 

[markandjie]

1 hour ago, j_anandu said:

Thank you so much, will check out YouTube. I leave end of November, need to arrive BA on the 27th but we are arriving a day early. 

I definitely endorse the idea of arriving early!!!

[markandjie]

6 hours ago, j_anandu said:

If you’re able to post pics of the food and ship would be greatly appreciated.

Let me know if somewhere on the ship in particular and I'm happy to focus on it.

[Khareef]

2 hours ago, markandjie said:

Let me know if somewhere on the ship in particular and I'm happy to focus on it.

Thanks for your post.

 

One thing: Do you have to wear a layer of waterproof pants on the zodiac for all landings? O just normal trekking pants are ok for dry landings?

 

In out crossing in Antartica we had 8-10 meters waves, the ship was absolutely empty that day..most people just stayed in bed I guess. I was told stabilizers were a great help...dunno know about it, but it was a pretty wild crossing for us passengers not used to that kinda of movement.

[Hobar]

5 hours ago, j_anandu said:

Thank you so much, will check out YouTube. I leave end of November, need to arrive BA on the 27th but we are arriving a day early. 

If you’ve never been, enjoy BA.  On the other end, you might want to spend a day or three in Santiago (great city) or Valparaiso (we’re doing Valpo this time as it looks like a really cool, colorful and artsy city).  

Edited July 5, 2023 by Hobar

[markandjie]

Today we arrived in Husavik to more rainy and cold conditions. You can see the state of the ocean from the tug that brought the pilot out:

 

Due to the conditions they had to cancel both the whale watching and kayak tours. They said they'll try to reschedule kayaking to another day so we'll see if that works out.

 

The town itself is pretty enough and has a great whale museum with a blue whale skeleton.

 

There was also a pretty church though it wasn't open to the public.

 

After a nice little walk we headed back to the ship for lunch, and then this afternoon we're going to try to walk to the thermal spa above the town.

[Khareef]

9 minutes ago, markandjie said:

Today we arrived in Husavik to more rainy and cold conditions. You can see the state of the ocean from the tug that brought the pilot out:

 

Due to the conditions they had to cancel both the whale watching and kayak tours. They said they'll try to reschedule kayaking to another day so we'll see if that works out.

 

The town itself is pretty enough and has a great whale museum with a blue whale skeleton.

 

There was also a pretty church though it wasn't open to the public.

 

After a nice little walk we headed back to the ship for lunch, and then this afternoon we're going to try to walk to the thermal spa above the town.

 

Uhm you are all wearing those wet landing rain proof pants...I was hoping there would be no need for them this time around, I find them pretty uncomfortable for walking

[markandjie]

4 hours ago, Khareef said:

: Do you have to wear a layer of waterproof pants on the zodiac for all landings? O just normal trekking pants are ok for dry landings?

We haven't done any zodiac landings yet so couldn't tell you, but I'll say we were very happy to have rain gear on for the walk into town. The provided parka is excellent, but highly recommend pants as well. 

[j_anandu]

7 hours ago, markandjie said:

Let me know if somewhere on the ship in particular and I'm happy to focus on it.

Thank you so much, would love to please see the colonnade area to better understand the layout. Thanks in advance 

[j_anandu]

4 hours ago, Hobar said:

If you’ve never been, enjoy BA.  On the other end, you might want to spend a day or three in Santiago (great city) or Valparaiso (we’re doing Valpo this time as it looks like a really cool, colorful and artsy city).  

I have actually been to both places before but the rest of the party in my group haven’t. I wish I had found a way to include a visit to Machu Picchu since we will be transiting through Lima Peru. 

[highplanesdrifters]

On 7/4/2023 at 3:36 PM, markandjie said:

When we were planning for this trip I found https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2870804-venture-svalbard-greenland-iceland-aug-7-21-as-live-as-we-can-be/?do=getNewComment by @highplainsdrifter to be invaluable to our prep so thought I'd try to pay it forward and do something similar.

You are so very kind!  Looking forward to your reporting and hope your weather improves.  I see you're going to Ittiqquormitt.  Is Scorsby on the agenda?

 

Those must have been some very stressful times getting to the ship. Yikes.

 

Agree on Colonnade, thought it was a bit of a design miss.  Lunch was always a scrum. Surprisingly we often found it empty for dinner.

Edited July 5, 2023 by highplanesdrifters

[highplanesdrifters]

9 hours ago, Khareef said:

Uhm you are all wearing those wet landing rain proof pants...I was hoping there would be no need for them this time around, I find them pretty uncomfortable for walking

Just take them off and pop them in a backpack when shoreside. I can't imagine not wearing them on a trip like this. 

[Hobar]

Wou

4 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Just take them off and pop them in a backpack when shoreside. I can't imagine not wearing them on a trip like this. 

Would ski and snowboard pants suffice?

[markandjie]

9 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

I see you're going to Ittiqquormitt.  Is Scorsby on the agenda?

It is! Though the thick sea ice in Scoresby is what has driven the itinerary change. We booked this specifically to see Scoresby based on the recommendation of someone we cruised Alaska with in 2018. They had just done it on Silversea and just raved about it. But no matter, if we can't get in this trip it just means we'll have to come back one day!

[markandjie]

6 hours ago, Hobar said:

Wou

Would ski and snowboard pants suffice?

Yes. Fun fact: we bought our rain pants for Antarctica but never used them there as we exclusively used ski pants. Broke them out here for the first time as we didn't need the warmth.

[markandjie]

On 7/5/2023 at 2:54 PM, j_anandu said:

would love to please see the colonnade area to better understand the layout.

 

So here's the view as you enter. The hostess stand is out of frame to my right. The ice cream cart isn't normally in that spot but they have it secured for potentially rough seas tonight. First thing you do is enter to find a seat and then come back to get in line. This creates a traffic jam with people coming and going and coming again. 

 

The specials are listed above the first section and are very easy to miss and hard to read, as you can see (or not, as the case may be).

 

This is followed by the usual hot food serving area:

 

To the right of the above photo is where they put out the salads and such at lunch:

 

In the back left of the above photo you can see where the put juices and smoothies out at breakfast, and I think soup at lunch:

 

All in all it's perfectly functional, just a little cramped especially when you have a full ship trying to eat at once. No overflow to the patio like on the larger ships.

 

[j_anandu]

2 hours ago, markandjie said:

 

So here's the view as you enter. The hostess stand is out of frame to my right. The ice cream cart isn't normally in that spot but they have it secured for potentially rough seas tonight. First thing you do is enter to find a seat and then come back to get in line. This creates a traffic jam with people coming and going and coming again. 

 

The specials are listed above the first section and are very easy to miss and hard to read, as you can see (or not, as the case may be).

 

This is followed by the usual hot food serving area:

 

To the right of the above photo is where they put out the salads and such at lunch:

 

In the back left of the above photo you can see where the put juices and smoothies out at breakfast, and I think soup at lunch:

 

All in all it's perfectly functional, just a little cramped especially when you have a full ship trying to eat at once. No overflow to the patio like on the larger ships.

 

Thank you so so much !!! 

[Khareef]

11 hours ago, markandjie said:

 

So here's the view as you enter. The hostess stand is out of frame to my right. The ice cream cart isn't normally in that spot but they have it secured for potentially rough seas tonight. First thing you do is enter to find a seat and then come back to get in line. This creates a traffic jam with people coming and going and coming again. 

 

The specials are listed above the first section and are very easy to miss and hard to read, as you can see (or not, as the case may be).

 

This is followed by the usual hot food serving area:

 

To the right of the above photo is where they put out the salads and such at lunch:

 

In the back left of the above photo you can see where the put juices and smoothies out at breakfast, and I think soup at lunch:

 

All in all it's perfectly functional, just a little cramped especially when you have a full ship trying to eat at once. No overflow to the patio like on the larger ships.

 

You can always go on the Square on deck 6 and enjoy coffe and cakes or a sandwich with pretty much nobody around...Actually they make way better coffee and cappuccino there.

[markandjie]

I've fallen behind on updating on ports, but I will quickly note here that our itinerary change is now confirmed. Due to think sea ice we can't make it into Scoresby and will be going to Prince Christian Sound in south Greenland instead. Disappointing, as I believe many people on the ship booked specifically for Scoresby, us included, but all you can do is make the most of it. 

 

New itinerary:

 

Planned path:

[highplanesdrifters]

So sorry you will miss Scorsby.  Even in August there were issues. Although our trip on Venture made it through, SS Cloud which was there right before us had to turn around.

[markandjie]

Well, it may not be Scoresby but the entrance to Prince Christian Sound hasn't disappointed. Bow Lounge was the place to be as we crossed an ice field and pirouetted around a gorgeous iceberg. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by markandjie