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Live From: Under the Midnight Sun!


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On my just-completed London to Bergen cruise, there was a good deal of grumbling about the excursions, waiting for excursions to go off (after people arrived early for them, for example (!), and occasional congestion around the Star Theater. However, I'm glad to hear someone thought the same thing I did about Viking's excursion folks: They are very knowledgeable about the ports, even the new ones Viking went to this year, very helpful, and very "together" when it comes to dispatching tours. I haven't seen any better excursion folks on any cruise line I've used, and Viking's have an extra hard job in arranging, organizing and implementing included tours for up to 930 passengers, which makes their job harder than most. Trust me, these folks were great.

 

The included tours were really quite good. Of course you will get a bus tour in many places, with only a few short stops, but at least everyone has a chance to see a bit of the city or country - regardless of your mobility status or how much you want to spend for a tour or how much time you want when you come back to explore the port on your own. A cruise line cannot offer a comprehensive tour to 930 people in most cities, especially some of the smaller ones that Viking goes to. If you want to have a nice overview of a port, take the included excursion. If you don't want to be on a bus with up to 40 people, and only see part of what's available, arrange a private or shared tour, or pick one of Viking's optional excursion. It's wonderful to have those included excursions, but there are other options out there. We did a combination of included and optional tours, plus a few shared tours or car rental DIY tours.

 

I agree that tendering was a piece of cake and well done. If you watched the Geiranger webcam a few weeks when a big cruise liner was sharing Geiranger harbor with Viking Star, you'll see what difficult tendering looked like with its endless lines. If you've ever been lucky (or unlucky?) enough to tender to Easter Island, you'll particularly appreciate the tendering we did on Star (not long, not bumpy, easy access onto pier).

 

Off my soap box now. Still have some unpacking to do - as usual, I took too much stuff.

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Alright, I've got one more question for those of you just wrapping up this trip and experienced cruisers. We're usually "plan it all ourselves and rent a car" travelers but decided a ship would be the best way to see Norway. We HATE crowds; we usually run and hide from bus crowds and do all we can to go places at off-times (a la Rick Steves). So, should we still do the included Viking bus tours in each port? In some ports, we've rented cars already - plan to see Shetland and Orkney independently - and in London we're prepared to take the tube to get around. We are used to walking 4-6 miles a day when traveling, too. That said, I love the history and culture lessons that the group tours provide. Are there any included tours that are walking tours that are a must do? Any included tours that are bus tours that we should avoid? We booked the included tours in most ports with the understanding that any can be cancelled if we change our minds. Thanks for the advice!

 

We sound like you. We frequently rent cars. We wanted to rent a car in Kirkwall, but due to a huge festival that week, there were no cars to rent a couple months pre-cruise and again right before the cruise. We ended up joining another couple on a half day shared excursion so that we could see most of the neolithic stone places.

 

Renting a car in Lerwick is great, as the roads are good and easy to navigate, and things are somewhat spaced out. Just be careful of the left-side driving. Later, if you want, I can give you tips on where to look for ponies. They are NOT all over the place as tourism sites imply, and I hear their numbers are dwindling. For puffins, head to Sumburgh Head by the lighthouse.

 

We rented a car in Molde to go to the Atlantic Road, Varden (Molde Panorama) and Romsdal Open Air Museum but changed our minds and ended up taking an optional excursion. The excursion ended up going all 3 places we had planned to see, even though I think only one was promised in the tour description. In hindsight, taking the $99 excursion was a better choice - less time to stop for photos on the Atlantic Road, but that drive up to Varden was on narrow, curvy, unpaved roads - not ideal. The museum was nice, though not a showstopper. While I can't guarantee you'll also get to see Romsdal (20 min. walk uphill from port) or Varden on the "Molde Highlights" tour as we did, I do think it was better than renting a car. Besides, at least the day and times we were there, renting a car required getting to the airport on a bus on taxi, so not the easiest/quickest car rental in the world. If you're there a whole day, though, you could possibly take the "Eide" bus that goes there and back at 10:15 AM (stop is near port, assuming you dock at same dock location we did - Storkaia I think). The Molde cathedral is nice, and if you're there in July, the many roses near there should be blooming. I really liked Molde - had a bit of time to walk along the waterfront, plus see the cathedral.

 

We wanted to rent a car in the Lofoten Islands, but our itinerary only called for us being there 9 to 1, and car rental was extremely limited on the day we were scheduled to be there, and also expensive. We chose an optional Viking tour instead. However, if we had had a whole day there, I would have rented a car to drive to A and other towns south of Leknes.

 

Yes, the guides on the included and optional tours will tell you a LOT about what you're seeing and the UK and Norway in general. Whether this is important to you or not, only you can decide! I do a lot of researching myself, so for me, the info is great but not essential. What I CAN recommend, whatever you do, is to attend the port talks (ours were at 6:45 PM) or watch them after 9 PM the same night (or next morning) on your room TV. They are excellent.

Edited by roothy123
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As a P.S. to the previous post, for independent travelers: From Greenwich, it's simple to take a Thames Clipper (same pier area as where they come to get Viking passengers to Westminster or other places in London. Also, you can walk through the tunnel that goes under the Thames, easily find the Dockland Light Railways station, and take it to a central London place to connect to the Tube. I took the tunnel/DLR/tube TO London and a Clipper back. The Clipper is easier, although I don't know if there's a place to buy tickets at Greenwich Pier, though some Oyster cards can be used, I think. I only took it back, since I wanted to walk through the tunnel and see the ship from Island Gardens, which made DLR a good choice TO London. There, somewhere along the waterfront, I found a booth for purchasing a Clipper ticket. (I didn't have an Oyster; too complicated for my aging brain!) There's also a DLR station in Greenwich (same line, just cuts out the tunnel, which is spooky but fun). The included tour in London showed us quite a bit, but if there's anything in particular you want to see in London, you might want to skip it and just spend the whole day in London. Greenwich is also very nice to explore, so don't count it out. I have a little more info here on what I did on our recent London to Bergen cruise: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2316729 Hopefully, in a few weeks I'll have photos to share as well.

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Love all your posts, roothy123, about your on-shore wanderings. Thanks for sharing --

 

Carolyn

 

As a P.S. to the previous post, for independent travelers: From Greenwich, it's simple to take a Thames Clipper (same pier area as where they come to get Viking passengers to Westminster or other places in London. Also, you can walk through the tunnel that goes under the Thames, easily find the Dockland Light Railways station, and take it to a central London place to connect to the Tube. I took the tunnel/DLR/tube TO London and a Clipper back. The Clipper is easier, although I don't know if there's a place to buy tickets at Greenwich Pier, though some Oyster cards can be used, I think. I only took it back, since I wanted to walk through the tunnel and see the ship from Island Gardens, which made DLR a good choice TO London. There, somewhere along the waterfront, I found a booth for purchasing a Clipper ticket. (I didn't have an Oyster; too complicated for my aging brain!) There's also a DLR station in Greenwich (same line, just cuts out the tunnel, which is spooky but fun). The included tour in London showed us quite a bit, but if there's anything in particular you want to see in London, you might want to skip it and just spend the whole day in London. Greenwich is also very nice to explore, so don't count it out. I have a little more info here on what I did on our recent London to Bergen cruise: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2316729 Hopefully, in a few weeks I'll have photos to share as well.
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For future Midnight Sun cruisers, if you'd like to look at the photos I took while on the cruise, here they are:

 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/london__greenwich_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/scotland_edinburgh_kirkwall_lerwick

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/lofoten_islands_and_honningsvag

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/tromso_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/midnight_sun__molde_geiranger_bergen

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/iceland__into_the_midnight_sun (note we did NOT do Viking's extension, but rather did Iceland on our own, using an Icelandair stopover)

 

You don't have to sign in or anything to view them, just go. You can double click to enlarge one, or run a slideshow, or just look at the "thumbnails" if your vision is great and your time ample. (I take a lot of pictures.)

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For future Midnight Sun cruisers, if you'd like to look at the photos I took while on the cruise, here they are:

 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/london__greenwich_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/scotland_edinburgh_kirkwall_lerwick

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/lofoten_islands_and_honningsvag

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/tromso_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/midnight_sun__molde_geiranger_bergen

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/iceland__into_the_midnight_sun (note we did NOT do Viking's extension, but rather did Iceland on our own, using an Icelandair stopover)

 

You don't have to sign in or anything to view them, just go. You can double click to enlarge one, or run a slideshow, or just look at the "thumbnails" if your vision is great and your time ample. (I take a lot of pictures.)

Roothy--

Thanks for sharing your photos and commentary. They were wonderful! It gives me so much to look forward to next summer.

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For future Midnight Sun cruisers, if you'd like to look at the photos I took while on the cruise, here they are:

 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/london__greenwich_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/scotland_edinburgh_kirkwall_lerwick

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/lofoten_islands_and_honningsvag

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/tromso_

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/midnight_sun__molde_geiranger_bergen

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/iceland__into_the_midnight_sun (note we did NOT do Viking's extension, but rather did Iceland on our own, using an Icelandair stopover)

 

You don't have to sign in or anything to view them, just go. You can double click to enlarge one, or run a slideshow, or just look at the "thumbnails" if your vision is great and your time ample. (I take a lot of pictures.)

 

Roothy, Your photos are always amazing. We seem to be a year after you on our adventures. Norway next summer. Hopefully our paths will cross.

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