Almost Live - Iconic Iceland, Greenland, & Canada - Aug. 30 - Sep. 13 - Viking Saturn

[Mich3554]

On 9/10/2023 at 5:07 PM, BluebonnetTexan said:

Yikes! I never thought I'd have so much trouble keeping up-to-date blogging daily! I have to admit getting the pictures selected and inserted takes the majority of my time. I'm all caught up now - thanks to a Snow Day in Seyðisfjörður. This has been an incredible trip even with the minor setbacks of which we expected there would be some. As was our experience in the past, Viking onboard staff will bend over backwards to meet as many customer expectations as they possibly can - when made aware of situations. When they ask how your day is going or how the food is, whatever, they sincerely want your feedback and take action when they can. 

You can find the details of our past few days at: https://notesbynancy.com. I can't believe we only have a couple of more days until they kick us off! 

I started off our world cruise with the intent of blogging it.  We got on in FL and I lasted as far as Cartagena.  So much for good intentions!  So I have tremendous respect for those that do this.  
I really wish I had been more persistent because we did so much, so fast that it all seems like a blur now.

[Lizofwisconsin]

Thanks for these posts.  We just signed up to the September 2024 tour- it is fun reading what you liked last year.

[OUBaylor1]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:14 PM, BluebonnetTexan said:

Almost time to head to NYC to depart on this itinerary. I feel like we've had it booked forever and can't wait to meet everyone from the great Roll Call we've had.

 

I'm starting this thread for everyone on our cruise to add their experiences as we go - when we have decent internet anyway! 

 

I'll also be blogging the trip at: http://notesbynancy.com. 

 

Safe travels everyone and see you onboard!

 

 I have been searching Cruise Critic for information on Viking's Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada cruise because we are taking this itinerary in August 2024 departing Reykjavik.  This is our first Viking cruise.  We have been Celebrity cruisers for the past 27 years and decided to try a different line.  Thanks so much for your review.  I am still not quite convinced that I did the right thing by choosing Viking over Celebrity who has a similar but not quite as extensive itinerary.  Have you ever cruised Celebrity?  If so, how does Viking compare toBy the way, my husband and I are both Baylor alumni.  My husband did a Ph.d while I finished my undergraduate work at Hankamer School of Business.  Sec 'em Bears!  Ah, yes, I did my graduate degree at OU.  I am always walking a fine line when it comes to sports!

[BluebonnetTexan]

13 hours ago, OUBaylor1 said:

 I have been searching Cruise Critic for information on Viking's Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada cruise because we are taking this itinerary in August 2024 departing Reykjavik.  This is our first Viking cruise.  We have been Celebrity cruisers for the past 27 years and decided to try a different line.  Thanks so much for your review.  I am still not quite convinced that I did the right thing by choosing Viking over Celebrity who has a similar but not quite as extensive itinerary.  Have you ever cruised Celebrity?  If so, how does Viking compare toBy the way, my husband and I are both Baylor alumni.  My husband did a Ph.d while I finished my undergraduate work at Hankamer School of Business.  Sec 'em Bears!  Ah, yes, I did my graduate degree at OU.  I am always walking a fine line when it comes to sports!

I wondered if you might be a fellow Bear when I responded to your earlier post! It’ll be easier for you to root for both teams once OU is in the SEC! Sic ‘Em! 
To answer your current question, we have not traveled with Celebrity. However, there are quite a few threads, I think, on both the Celebrity and Viking boards comparing the two. For us, we aren’t ardent cruisers. It has been about the itineraries allowing us to get either overviews of places we might like to return for more in depth travel later (river cruises, Mediterranean) or seeing places we couldn’t easily without a cruise ship (Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Baltic) in a reasonable timeframe. As for Viking, we love the no kids, no casinos, no photographers, and low-key atmosphere. The service has always been fabulous from room stewards to the top officers. 
The IGC itinerary is challenging due to the geography, number of tender ports, and potential for bad weather. We had never been to any of the locations on the itinerary and decided to roll the dice and roll with whatever itinerary changes occurred and enjoy the trip! You won’t know if Viking is the right fit for you until you try it. Hopefully you’ll pick up some useful information from my blog of our trip and from others who have posted here about that route and Viking in general. 

[rmalbers]

15 hours ago, OUBaylor1 said:

 I have been searching Cruise Critic for information on Viking's Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada cruise because we are taking this itinerary in August 2024 departing Reykjavik.  This is our first Viking cruise.  We have been Celebrity cruisers for the past 27 years and decided to try a different line.  Thanks so much for your review.  I am still not quite convinced that I did the right thing by choosing Viking over Celebrity who has a similar but not quite as extensive itinerary.  Have you ever cruised Celebrity?  If so, how does Viking compare toBy the way, my husband and I are both Baylor alumni.  My husband did a Ph.d while I finished my undergraduate work at Hankamer School of Business.  Sec 'em Bears!  Ah, yes, I did my graduate degree at OU.  I am always walking a fine line when it comes to sports!

We have done a lot of X cruises and did this VO cruise last summer (end of summer).  The differences are more due to the size of ship than anything.  Less lines to no lines, getting on off the ship, etc.  Tendering is easier, stuff like that.  They do a similar thing to X with respect to tendering and excursions, you meet at the theater and they announce your group, you're guided to the tender, that type of thing.  The downside with small ships is the nightly entertainment, stuff like that.  One thing about VO that I don't see mentioned much is the retractable roof over the center pool area, that makes that area very usable even when the weather isn't nice.  They (supposedly) don't allow scooters and people in wheel chairs are supposed to have their own helper so there is not as much of that on VO as there is on X.  Anyway, the only real downside to VO is the cost and once you've been on VO you can kind of see why it costs more.  I really like the small ships, it's so easy to get around the ship and you really don't even need to use the elevators.  There is also the self serve laundry on almost every deck.

Edited January 31 by rmalbers

[OUBaylor1]

22 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

We have done a lot of X cruises and did this VO cruise last summer (end of summer).  The differences are more due to the size of ship than anything.  Less lines to no lines, getting on off the ship, etc.  Tendering is easier, stuff like that.  They do a similar thing to X with respect to tendering and excursions, you meet at the theater and they announce your group, you're guided to the tender, that type of thing.  The downside with small ships is the nightly entertainment, stuff like that.  One thing about VO that I don't see mentioned much is the retractable roof over the center pool area, that makes that area very usable even when the weather isn't nice.  They (supposedly) don't allow scooters and people in wheel chairs are supposed to have their own helper so there is not as much of that on VO as there is on X.  Anyway, the only real downside to VO is the cost and once you've been on VO you can kind of see why it costs more.  I really like the small ships, it's so easy to get around the ship and you really don't even need to use the elevators.  There is also the self serve laundry on almost every deck.

Thanks for responding.  I really appreciate you taking the time to give me some insight of the differences between Viking and Celebrity.