Into the Midnight Sun—a live voyage blog from Viking Venus 6/14/24

[DrKoob]

Good day Viking Ocean Fans,

Over the last few years, I have been blogging about my cruises on Viking, HAL and Oceania. Yesterday, we embarked on Viking Venus for a 14-night cruise from Greenwich, UK, to Bergen, Norway. If I stick to my usual MO, I will post daily, so come back and check it out from time to time. Especially if you are planning on taking this cruise in the future. Also, please feel free to ask me any questions, and I will do my best to answer them or find out from someone with Viking and get the answer back to you.

 

A little bit about us: We are two cruisers in our early 70s from the Seattle area (Redmond Seattle suburb). We have taken 35+ cruises. This is our fourth Viking Ocean cruise. Our last cruise was a Viking River cruise, so we are big fans. We did a great deal of our cruises (20 or so) with Celebrity but we have outgrown them or they have left us behind. Not sure which. We now sail predominately with Viking but slip in an Oceania and a HAL with friends who like those lines from time to time. 

 

Lastly (before I start), I take photos. They are pretty decent photos, IMHO 😁. I can't post them all on Cruise Critic. There are too many and they are too big. But I post them on my personal blog (where I am not selling anything, and there are no ads) at www.jimbellomoDOTcom. If you go over there, you will see the same text with many photos. For instance, my wife and I have been traveling already for two weeks on this trip. We visited friends in Leeds and then took a road trip through Scotland and two days here in London. There is a full report about all of that if it interests you along with hundreds of photos of incredible Scotland.

 

So, without further ado, the next post will start this voyage.

 

Jim

[DrKoob]

Embarkation

Yesterday was our embarkation day on Viking Venus. This 14-night cruise will take us to three additional ports in Great Britain and five ports in Norway, including the one way up north on the map (that I can't spell and would take 20 minutes to try and get right) deep inside the Arctic circle. You can see it on the map above.

 

Embarkation was a piece of cake. If you are taking a cruise with Viking from Greenwich, you tell the driver to take you to "the Cutty Sark." This ship (which is on dry land) is directly in front of where you want to be dropped off. If you are coming on a coach, you will be about half a block from where you are if you are dropped by a car. You will be right at the spot you see in the photo above as soon as you are out of your car. Two or three Viking people will take your luggage and send you to the next Viking person, who will be about halfway to the Cutty Sark. From there, you turn right and head into the back of the building directly next to the Cutty Sark. Inside, you get your sea pass card, and they send you to the "tender" that takes you to the ship. All along the way (about every 10 feet), there is a Viking person in red telling you where to go next. It is impossible to get lost.

Thankfully, Viking does not use their own lifeboats at Greenwich as tenders. Instead, it hires the same type of boat we took yesterday—the Uber Boats (aka The Thames Clippers). Each boat holds about 200 people in decent seats. The best part is that the entire trip from dock to ship takes about five minutes. From the time we got out of our taxis until we were onboard, it was less than 20 minutes. Impressive.

 

Before I tell you the next step in embarkation, I would like to mention taxis and Ubers. We had been using Uber for everything on this trip until we checked out of the hotel to head to the ship. Because we needed room for our luggage we decided to take two cars, so we thought, why not ask the hotel to get us a taxi. Not a great plan. The day before, when we headed to the Ted Lasso Tour, we left the hotel and took an Uber to the Cutty Sark, where we boarded the Uber Boat. The total charge by Uber for four of us (UberXL) was $6.43, or about £5. When we took the taxis at the same exact distance later in the day, the charge was £13 for Kathleen and me and £20 for Steve and Jamie! *****??? (Please excuse my French.) And we thought we would get one of those nice London Black Cabs you see everywhere, but I am pretty sure the hotel desk person called his relatives because two guys showed up who barely spoke English and had VERY ratty cars. Our driver even had a hard time finding the Cutty Sark/cruise terminal, even though it is less than a mile away as well as being the biggest taxi destination in Greenwich. So beware! Take an Uber. Download and learn the app before you go.

 

Once we finished our short tender/ferry ride, we were on the ship, which was still moored in the center of the Thames. I need to mention here...keep your sea pass cards in your hands. We had to show the at least six times between the pier, the tender and the ship. It was crazy. Not bad, just crazy. Once onboard, they sent us to deck two forward to the Star Theater for our quick life jacket demonstration. One of the young entertainers showed us how our life jackets worked and then told us that once we were in our rooms, we should watch the video on our TV and then answer a question at the end of the video. By the time we finished that, it was 11:45. We had left the hotel at 10:50, so we were at lunch in the World Cafe (buffet) by noon. That's what I call a great embarkation. We finished our lunch (the food was excellent) and headed forward to our favorite place on the ship, The Explorer's Lounge. We sat down and had a single drink, and they announced that all staterooms were ready at 1:00 pm. Exactly as promised.

 

We have precisely the same stateroom as we had on Viking Sky two years ago in the Mediterranean—5030. It was like coming home. It's a Penthouse Verandah, which is slightly bigger than your standard verandah stateroom—338 square feet as opposed to 270 square feet. Besides our one-time upgrade to a Neptune Suite on HAL and our stateroom on Celebrity's Flora in the Galapagos, this is the nicest stateroom we have ever been in. After three weeks in the Med in this room, we feel we are back home again. BTW: we weren't actually in this room because we were on Viking Sky, and now we are on Viking Venus. But Viking builds all their ocean ships to be pretty much exactly the same, so if you have been in one of their staterooms, you can be very confident that you will have the same one on another of their ships.

 

We were in the stateroom for a very short time when our luggage arrived. This, too, was pretty impressive since it had to come over by barge. It was not far, but still, it had to be put on and taken off a barge. When the luggage got there, we quickly unpacked, took all our dirty laundry and headed to the deck 5 laundry! YEAH! Clean clothes. We were the first ones there and started two loads immediately. After two weeks on the road, it was great to have 99% of all the clothes I had with me, clean and dry. If you have not used Viking's laundry before, There is one on pretty much every deck with staterooms. The washing and drying are free, as is detergent. So you pop them in, set a timer on your watch, go back to your stateroom and then return to change them or bring them back. We were sure glad we got there first because there were a lot of people like us who had been in the country for a few days or, in our case, weeks and needed clean clothes.

 

After laundry, Kathleen took a quick nap, and I headed to the Promenade deck to do a little walking. The Promenade Deck on a Viking ship is deck 2. And four times around, it is a mile. I did a quick three so I could shower and be up in the World Cafe for dinner by 6:15. It felt great to get out and walk for exercise. We have been walking a lot, but you saunter when you walk on a tour. When I walk on the  Promenade Deck, I walk for speed. And I love that the Viking Ocean ships have a deck that goes completely around the ship.

 

We had dinner at the World Cafe (buffet), and the food was excellent. Contributing to my happiness was finding an entire seafood section of the buffet, where they had mussels, seafood salads, poke, halibut ceviche and more. All of it was delicious. Throw in a roll and two breadsticks, and I was all set. So far, through two lunches, a dinner and a breakfast, the food has been delicious.

 

After dinner, I got kind of Victor Mildrew again because, by this point, it was 8:00 p.m., and our room wasn't made up; we had not met our stateroom attendant(s). To top it off, Steve texted and told me that our excursion for the morning (today) was at 8:00 a.m., but my excursion ticket said 8:30. The ticket also said to check the meeting place in the Viking Daily. The only problem was that since our room had not been changed over, we didn't have a Viking Daily yet. But never fear; there is one in the Viking app. So we go our phones and look up the excursion to see where we were supposed to meet, and it said, "Check your ticket for the time and place of the tour." We went back to the ticket, and it said, "Check the Viking Daily." *****? (Again, please excuse my French). So I called the Explorer Desk that handles shore excursions, and she told me that "you can find the time and meeting place in the Viking Daily." I explained to her that we don't have a printed copy yet, but we had checked the Viking Daily on the Viking app. She tells me, "Oh, don't bother with that. The app is hardly ever correct." Seriously? Then why have it? We finally got it all figured out, and we went on the excursion. More about that tomorrow. Today I just want to get this online.

 

Tonight, we sail for Edinburgh at around 7:00. This should be a great sail out as we are pretty far up the Thames. Our guide told us today that when she does big ship tours, the closest they can dock to London is Tilbury, a 90-minute drive to Greenwich. That's three hours total in both directions. YIKES! I don't care if it is on a "luxury motor coach;" no thanks!

 

We start our cruise with an overnight here in London/Greenwich, so that means later, I will have some port info for you as well. I just wanted this one to be about our embarkation.

BTW: we did finally meet our stateroom attendant and his assistant, and as Kathleen and I both believe, their tardiness in getting to meet us and turn our room over has much less to do with them than it does that they have more than 30 staterooms to take care of. When we started cruising, most stateroom attendants handled 10 or 12. I am not sure how Viking (or any cruise line) expects them to be able to meet that many guests between boarding and bed that night. Another case of staff shrinkage.

 

One last thing. On our previous Viking cruise (21 nights in the Med), I had a real problem with the beds on Viking Sky. Well, I am VERY happy to report that the beds on Viking Venus are wonderful. I slept like a baby last night. I didn't wake up until 6:15, which is late for me. YEAH!

 

Edited June 15 by DrKoob

[fruitmachine]

13 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

And we thought we would get one of those nice London Black Cabs you see everywhere, but I am pretty sure the hotel desk person called his relatives because two guys showed up who barely spoke English and had VERY ratty cars. Our driver even had a hard time finding the Cutty Sark/cruise terminal, even though it is less than a mile away as well as being the biggest taxi destination in Greenwich.

You're right.  You've been sold a pup!

If you want a black taxi (usually more expensive than Uber, but not necessarily if Uber is on surge pricing, and the drivers have to pass an extensive test - 'The Knowledge') ask for a "Black Taxi" or a "hackney cab".

[DrKoob]

3 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

You're right.  You've been sold a pup!

If you want a black taxi (usually more expensive than Uber, but not necessarily if Uber is on surge pricing, and the drivers have to pass an extensive test - 'The Knowledge') ask for a "Black Taxi" or a "hackney cab".

That's good to know. Thanks. 

[TayanaLorna]

Midnight Sun was our first cruise ever in 2018.  Loved it and had great weather.  Hope yours is just as enjoyable.

 

Following along for your awesome photos and interesting commentary.

[TayanaLorna]

Gerainger- don't know what you have planned for this port but there is a waterfall walk folks can take right from the port.  The walk is along a metal staircase with steps, ramps and platforms right along all the different waterfall levels.  At the top and along the walk are fantastic views. At the top is a quirky museum that can be visited.

 

We did this walk around 9 am, visited the museum, returned to the town, had lunch and hopped on an afternoon included excursion.  Not many folks know about the waterfall walk.

 

If you are interested, I can describe how to reach the trail.  

[DrKoob]

Just now, TayanaLorna said:

Gerainger- don't know what you have planned for this port but there is a waterfall walk folks can take right from the port.  The walk is along a metal staircase with steps, ramps and platforms right along all the different waterfall levels.  At the top and along the walk are fantastic views. At the top is a quirky museum that can be visited.

 

We did this walk around 9 am, visited the museum, returned to the town, had lunch and hopped on an afternoon included excursion.  Not many folks know about the waterfall walk.

 

If you are interested, I can describe how to reach the trail.  

Thanks so much for this great tip. 

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

Thanks so much for this great tip. 

DrKoob -

Thank you as well for doing this Live Blog.  We just got off the Mars in room 5028, so I know where you are - nice location in our opinion.

We also did this Into the Midnight Sun in July 2022 from Greenwich to Bergen - it was one of our favorite cruises of the several we've done with Viking.  I sincerely hope you enjoy your trip.  Your blogging is always appreciated, and we'll look forward to your commentary and pictures.  Your website is so well organized!

 

I concur with Lorna (friends of ours) re: Geiranger.   We were just there and also did the hike to the waterfalls and the Norsk Fjordsenter Museum.  Easy walk from town and was mostly lots of stairs (maybe 400-500 of them?) with wonderful spray from the river/falls as you went up.  Another recommendation is to get up early (like at least 5 AM) to watch the sailing in the Fjords to Geiranger.  Absolutely breathtaking!   Also, we took the included Panorama Tour, which was one of the best includeds we've done - spectacular scenery.  

Pics from a couple weeks ago. In the view pic, the arrow shaped roof in bottom left is the museum.

 

 

[rjp50]

I'll be following this.  We leave a week from now on the same itinerary on the Saturn.  Would love to hear your opinions/recommendations on the excursions (both Viking as well as third party) as well as any on your own touring that you do.  Glad to hear that the beds are good on the Venus.  Hope the same holds true for the Saturn.

[Clay Clayton]

Second everyone’s recommendation for Geiranger, especially being up on deck for the sail in.  The sail out is also beautiful, we enjoyed it from the Aquavit. Below are pictures from last summer.

 

 

 

in Bergen, after Viking canceled the expensive excursion to Greig’s House and the 1pm concert, we walked through town to the Kode Museum where we took their shuttle to the house.  It was a great day! https://www.kodebergen.no/en/whats-happening/concerts/summer-concerts-at-troldhaugen

 

 

 

Have a great cruise!

[Michael219]

We did this itinerary last year on the Mars and had an absolutely wonderful time.  The ports are great and we totally loved Norway.  I agree with TayanaLorna about getting up "early" to watch the sailing into the Fjord, ending at the dead-end which is Geiranger!!  The crew had the observation lounge set up with coffee, tea, juices and some muffins etc.  They did an awesome job and this added to the overall experience.

Our two favorite excursions were:

- The North Cape & King Crab

- Geirangerfjord by RIB Boat and the included bus tour (both were excellent)

 

Enjoy your trip and we look forward to your posts!!

Edited June 15 by Michael219

[zzookiemookiw]

We will be taking this cruise in June 2025. Looking forward to your take on this.

[DrKoob]

I want to thank everyone for your ideas. I had most of these from earlier posts on these boards. 

[uktog]

I hope the sun shines for you in Edinburgh - our weather has been constant rain for almost a month but the scenery and buildings take on a beauty in the rain. Same applies throughout Scotland - no parched look this year rather lush and green 

[LindaS272]

Geiranger Map of town—pathway to falls shown in upper right—something like 390 steps.

 

 

 

[janetcbl]

19 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Gerainger- don't know what you have planned for this port but there is a waterfall walk folks can take right from the port.  The walk is along a metal staircase with steps, ramps and platforms right along all the different waterfall levels.  At the top and along the walk are fantastic views. At the top is a quirky museum that can be visited.

 

We did this walk around 9 am, visited the museum, returned to the town, had lunch and hopped on an afternoon included excursion.  Not many folks know about the waterfall walk.

 

If you are interested, I can describe how to reach the trail.  

This has been a highlight of our trip. On our way up we almost ran into a couple where the man had just proposed to his girlfriend! We were the first to offer congratulations! Made the walk up even more special.

[mac_tlc]

While people are adding their suggestions, when we were in Honningsvag last year we did a third party tour by Blue Puffin. It was wonderful. Run by Monika and her husband. It was a great day! Luckily we had a great weather day with temps around 65 and no rain during the tour.

 

Looking forward to following along,

 

 

mac_tlc

[DrKoob]

First, thanks to all of you for the recommendations but please stop now. We did a ton of research on the topic before we left. This is supposed to be a report on the current cruise. 

 

Day 2-Overnight and second day in Greenwich, London, England

When we first found out we were embarking from Greenwich, I thought it was kind of cool—almost right in the heart of London. When we arrived in our Welcome Pickups car, our driver got there the fastest way he knew, but sadly, that was by driving through the worst parts of Greenwich. Neighborhoods that were crumbling, covered with graffiti and about every other shop looked vacant.

 

But once we arrived at the hotel, the rest of the village was spread out in front of us. Behind the hotel were the parts we had driven through; in front of the hotel was the section most visitors would tour, and they kept that in very nice condition. I don't think I have mentioned what hotel we stayed in pre-cruise. We had chosen the DoubleTree by Hilton at London Greenwich. Why this hotel? Decent-looking rooms, decent reviews and about half the price of a downtown London hotel. Plus, I prefer being near the port so we can get there on the embarkation day without too much trouble. The hotel turned out to be very nice and a good value. We got our rooms with breakfast, which was a buffet and very good. The shower in our room left much to be desired. It was much too short for the rain shower head above, and the hand-held shower head hit me directly in the face and could not be moved to another position. Poor marks for that, but otherwise, it is very nice, and I would recommend it. I did mention not renting the room to tall people (because my brother had no problem in his room, and he is six inches taller than me), and they got back to me and said that was a great idea. Kudo for the response as well.

 

Back to our Viking Day in Greenwich. We were up early because our excursion needed to meet in the Star Theater at 8:00 am. And we weren't even on the earliest excursion. We had chosen to do the included Viking excursion, just because it was included. For those of you who have not cruised with Viking, they include a shore excursion in every port. On our Med cruise in 2022, we weren't impressed with any of the included tours we took. They are almost always one of two types—either a walking tour of a place close to the ship or tender port or a "panoramic" tour of the countryside. When you read a Viking description that says "panoramic," you should immediately know that much of our tour will be by bus...or, in Viking speak, a "luxury motor coach."

 The wonderful Cosette...or if you didn't like the tour, Sue.

Our Greenwich tour was a walking tour. Kathleen was still worn out and suffering from our Ted Lasso tour, so she decided to stay on the ship. Steve, Jamie & I went along. My plan was to take off on my own if the guide was anything like the ones we had had in the Med—talked so much it was like they were paid by the word. As our Med cruise went on, I started doing that. I would walk with the group until I was bored and then walk off on my own to take photos. I had usually researched the port enough to know what I wanted to see. This one was different. Our tour guide's name was Cosette (like in Les Mis), and she was excellent. Just the right amount of comments, just the right amount of humor and moved at the right speed. When it was over, I told her I thought it was the best "included" Viking excursion I had ever been on. She walked us all over two miles worth of Greenwich, and we learned a lot. And I got lots of photos. She was also very good about telling us where you could go after the tour (due to time limitations, these were places she couldn't take us), and that really helped me pick out places I wanted to shoot. So, I did the entire tour and then walked back to see the places she couldn't take us and got the other shots I wanted. Sadly, I can only add one photo here but if you drop by my blog (no ads/no sales) you can see almost 100 I took yesterday including this one at www.jimbellomoDOTcom.

 

 

Then it was back on the ship, and Steve and Jamie met friends from Norwich for lunch at the local brewery. Kathleen and I grabbed lunch and I spent the afternoon writing the post you got yesterday and processing photos.

We had dinner in the World Cafe. They were doing a "English Dinner" featuring many dishes we had eaten at the Wensleydale Heifer and enjoyed at Paul and Gail's. There was roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, trifle, treacle and lots more. It was good but nowhere near as good as the Howard's B&B or the Heifer.

 

After dinner, it was time to sail out. The ship was scheduled to sail down the Thames to the sea starting at 7:45. While we were eating dinner, the Captain and three pilots sat down at the table next to us. We knew it was time to go when they stood up from dinner.

 

Leaving Greenwich differs from any sail away we have done in 35+ cruises. Usually, the seamen will slip the ropes and pull them in, and off you go. In Greenwich, because there is no pier and the ship is anchored in the middle of the river, it is moored to five huge buoys that are anchored to the river bottom. To bring in the ropes and untie the ship, a crew has to get onto each mooring buoy and untie the ropes. That became a long and entertaining process for those of us taking photos. I have a few shots to show you what I am talking about. (Again, to see them head over to www.jimbellomoDOTcom.)

 

After they finally got the lines off the ship, we were underway, and the sail out was very different. We were led out by both a pilot boat and a big tug. The best part of the sail out was getting to photograph the entire trip on the Thames. We went through the Thames Barrier (used to control the tides), passed another cruise ship , and went past the 02 tent and lots of parts of eastern London. I will let my pics give you the rest of the story on the sail out. They are over at www.jimbellomoDOTcom.

 

That concluded last night. By the time we were down the river, it was close to 10:00 p.m., and that was way past my bedtime. So it was off to bed. I needed to rest up to do everything I wanted to do today on the first sea day we had ever experienced on a Viking ship. Our previous cruises haven't had a single sea day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DrKoob]

7 hours ago, uktog said:

I hope the sun shines for you in Edinburgh - our weather has been constant rain for almost a month but the scenery and buildings take on a beauty in the rain. Same applies throughout Scotland - no parched look this year rather lush and green 

We have just spent two weeks in your beautiful country. Take a look at my blog (www.jimbellomoDOTcom) for my photos of your beautiful country in rain or in sun.

[DrKoob]

Someone on my blog commented as to why we were eating dinner in The World Cafe instead of The Restaurant. Here's what I told them: 

 

We have switched to the buffet for our dinners for a couple of reasons. The Restaurant on Viking ships seems really LOUD to us! I think it's the low ceilings. We also find we eat a lot more when we go to the MDR. They bring bread, we eat it. They take our order, and we wait. We eat more bread, and they bring the appetizer. We eat it, and we wait for the entrée and eat more bread. And of course, we have to eat what they bring. So we eat more or less of something because we do or not not like because we don't want to waste it.

 

At the buffet (which on a Viking ship serves pretty much the same food as the MDR) we can take a little of this and a little of that.

 

And to be honest, I am past the dressing-up stage. If we were still on a ship that REALLY dressed up, I might be into that. It would be fun to get my tux out again. But here people just put on hard-soled shoes (which I hardly ever wear anymore) and better pants and shirts (I live in shorts and tee shirts) I will take a pass. We will still put on that stuff for the specialty restaurants but that's about it.

[JM0115]

20 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

Someone on my blog commented as to why we were eating dinner in The World Cafe instead of The Restaurant. Here's what I told them: 

 

We have switched to the buffet for our dinners for a couple of reasons. The Restaurant on Viking ships seems really LOUD to us! I think it's the low ceilings. We also find we eat a lot more when we go to the MDR. They bring bread, we eat it. They take our order, and we wait. We eat more bread, and they bring the appetizer. We eat it, and we wait for the entrée and eat more bread. And of course, we have to eat what they bring. So we eat more or less of something because we do or not not like because we don't want to waste it.

 

At the buffet (which on a Viking ship serves pretty much the same food as the MDR) we can take a little of this and a little of that.

 

And to be honest, I am past the dressing-up stage. If we were still on a ship that REALLY dressed up, I might be into that. It would be fun to get my tux out again. But here people just put on hard-soled shoes (which I hardly ever wear anymore) and better pants and shirts (I live in shorts and tee shirts) I will take a pass. We will still put on that stuff for the specialty restaurants but that's about it.

I agree 100%. On our World Cruise we literally ate over 400 meals in the World Cafe! I think we ate in The Restaurant only 4 or 5 times over the 150 days! We were in the minority though.

[SantaFe1]

19 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

I agree 100%. On our World Cruise we literally ate over 400 meals in the World Cafe! I think we ate in The Restaurant only 4 or 5 times over the 150 days! We were in the minority though.

Exactly the same with us on our WC.  Every time we take a VO cruise we go to the restaurant once, just to give it another chance.  And every single time we have such a disappointing experience that we never go back,  but we do enjoying trying each new menu at Chefs table, and we always eat at Manfredis once or twice.  

Edited June 16 by SantaFe1

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, DrKoob said:

Someone on my blog commented as to why we were eating dinner in The World Cafe instead of The Restaurant. Here's what I told them: 

 

We have switched to the buffet for our dinners for a couple of reasons. The Restaurant on Viking ships seems really LOUD to us! I think it's the low ceilings. We also find we eat a lot more when we go to the MDR. They bring bread, we eat it. They take our order, and we wait. We eat more bread, and they bring the appetizer. We eat it, and we wait for the entrée and eat more bread. And of course, we have to eat what they bring. So we eat more or less of something because we do or not not like because we don't want to waste it.

 

At the buffet (which on a Viking ship serves pretty much the same food as the MDR) we can take a little of this and a little of that.

 

And to be honest, I am past the dressing-up stage. If we were still on a ship that REALLY dressed up, I might be into that. It would be fun to get my tux out again. But here people just put on hard-soled shoes (which I hardly ever wear anymore) and better pants and shirts (I live in shorts and tee shirts) I will take a pass. We will still put on that stuff for the specialty restaurants but that's about it.

 

Also agree exactly with your points - we do the World Cafe for dinner almost exclusively per your points:

1.  Restaurants are way too loud

2.  we eat more at MDR and restaurants, less at WC (since we can sample small portions)

3.  Don't have to dress up much at all

 

plus

-If we order something at MDR that sounded good and for some reason doesn't look or taste good, we'd have to get the waiter and put in a new order.  and then more delays.  So MDR is less flexible for us.

[Islander500]

18 hours ago, zzookiemookiw said:

We will be taking this cruise in June 2025. Looking forward to your take on this.

Same here on both counts.  We'll be on Jupiter leaving Greenwich on June 9th.  Are you on that same cruise? Last time I checked there was no Roll Call started as of yet, but let's connect there.

[Breckski]

On 6/15/2024 at 10:16 AM, TayanaLorna said:

Gerainger- don't know what you have planned for this port but there is a waterfall walk folks can take right from the port.  The walk is along a metal staircase with steps, ramps and platforms right along all the different waterfall levels.  At the top and along the walk are fantastic views. At the top is a quirky museum that can be visited.

 

We did this walk around 9 am, visited the museum, returned to the town, had lunch and hopped on an afternoon included excursion.  Not many folks know about the waterfall walk.

 

If you are interested, I can describe how to reach the trail.  

We were there a couple weeks ago.  Went to Storsaeterfossen Falls which is a couple miles above the falls you speak of.  If you have time go up there - you can actually hike behind the waterfall which is pretty unique for Norway.