Live From: Under the Midnight Sun!

We are heading out on quite a unique Norwegian fjords itinerary on Viking Ocean’s new Viking Sky this weekend. The itinerary, “Into the Midnight Sun,” means just that: We’re spending the better part of a week (the cruise is two weeks long) up in the northernmost part of northern Europe, i.e. the Arctic Circle. And indeed, there’s very, very little darkness up here – the “midnight sun” is a real thing.

What also adds to an intriguing cruise is that in the midst of the voyage, in the port of Tromso, we’ll all be treated to the ship’s actual christening ceremony. It’s a very personal occasion for Viking chief Torstein Hagen who is of course a Norway native: His sister, Marit Barstad, will serve as Viking Sky’s godmother.

Our time in the Norwegian fjords includes embarkation in Bergen, where we overnight (and we’re flying in a day early – Bergen’s absolutely delightful), and then on to ports such as Geiranger, Molde, Tromso, Honnigsvag (for the North Cape), and Lofoten. The second part of our journey takes us to Scotland – I’m over the moon about this itinerary – where our calls after Norway are at Kirkwall, Lerwick and Edinburgh before winding up with an overnight at London’s Greenwich.

What would you like to know about our cruise? Happy to dish on what’s going on onboard and also, especially and particularly, what we’re experiencing on-shore. As you may know, Viking offers at least one complimentary shore excursion in each port. We love that on many of the included tours there are a variety of departures within the day, which both makes more manageable the size of each group – and gives passengers the option to sleep in and take an afternoon tour if that’s preferred.

What surprised us (as Viking Ocean veterans) was that the extra-fee tour menu has really been jazzed up with active-oriented tours (kayaking, cycling, hiking), which really appeals to us. The good news? They seem to resonate with our fellow passengers. The bad? We didn’t get around to choosing them before they sold out. Our tip: Book those ahead of time, via Viking Oceans’ website. We could have :)

We board on Saturday, June 17 and will be reporting all along the way. Please check back often, ask tons of questions, and offer advice based on your own travels!

See you there….

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Carolyn, as soon as you board check at the excursion desk to see if any spots have opened up on those shorex that you were unable to book. CC wisdom says that after the first flood of bookings there are also cancellations and that if you keep an eye on things or check when you board, you might be able to get a spot on a tour that was previously sold out.

Otherwise, looking forward to following your adventure, especially the naming ceremony for the Viking Sky.

FYI, I will be producing an itinerary-centric photo album for Cruise Critic's Facebook page (likely it will debut at the end of the trip so we can give time to all ports) so stay tuned. In the meantime, I'm passionate about Instagram and do plan to post, thanks to Viking Oceans' complimentary WiFi for all pax -- on my own Instagram feed on a daily (if not more often) basis, if possible. You are more than welcome to join us there!

On Instagram go to Instragram.com/CarolynSpencerBrown

Carolyn

Was thinking the same thing, Peregrina651!

Carolyn

Carolyn, as soon as you board check at the excursion desk to see if any spots have opened up on those shorex that you were unable to book. CC wisdom says that after the first flood of bookings there are also cancellations and that if you keep an eye on things or check when you board, you might be able to get a spot on a tour that was previously sold out.

 

Otherwise, looking forward to following your adventure, especially the naming ceremony for the Viking Sky.

I'm certain YOU can make those excursions, not so certain of us mortals.

We were on the Sky for 3 weeks April/May...Barcelona the Baltic and Beyond. Loved loved loved the ship and the itinerary. Not so thrilled about some of the included excursions that were "bus" trips. Curious about if they are going to be offering more options for included excursions...say a "bus" for those that want that...and more walking/active tours for those of us that don't. On the ports with the walking tours we were pretty satisfied. However, several of the "bus" ones were not good. I don't think that I have experienced a port if I am just sitting on a bus. So will be interested if they are upping the included tours to include a few choices. Enjoy!!! Tell Florin, the maitre'd at Manfredis, that the Vasas say hi! We ate there 7 times.

OK... one more thing...if Aaron is still the cruise director (and I imagine he is) make sure to listen to him sing. There is a show in the atrium one night..I think it was Broadway songs (I could be wrong) with some of the singers. The atrium was so full that people were sitting on the floor and on the stairs. He sang a song but then later in the cruise he had his own show and wow does he have a voice! It was great.

Looking forward to following your posts and pictures! We've registered for the first Northern Lights cruise in 2019, so are very curious to learn from you. Thank you for sharing.

We're on the Iceland pre-excursion just now. Arrived yesterday pretty jet-lagged. There was a wait to get rooms at the hotel as most of us seemed to arrive in the morning and check in time wasn't until two. There was a place to store our luggage, so we did that and walked into town and back. Pretty punchy from lack of sleep so we didn't really sightsee or shop. But the exercise felt good and it's interesting looking for the familiar and unfamiliar as we strolled through what what was a fairly workaday part of the city.

If you're like me and too jet lagged to make decisions your first night, a Caesar salad at the hotel lounge is not a bad option. We noticed on our after dinner stroll that just up the hill from the Hilton there were a variety of casual food places that might also have been options (and a bit less expensive) if you wanted heartier fare but didn't want a "full meal deal" at the hotel or elsewhere. I hate to do anything too fancy when I have to fight the urge to nap betweeen courses!

Up early today after a sound sleep (ear plugs help, especially if you're headed to bed before the traffic dies down). Looking forward to strong coffee and a good breakfast before the Golden Circle tour. More later.

Would love to read about Viking Sky! Looking forward to your posts.

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The first day is always hard, agree, Shipwren. Love your point about simple being best when you're trying not to nap between courses :)

Carolyn

We're on the Iceland pre-excursion just now. Arrived yesterday pretty jet-lagged. There was a wait to get rooms at the hotel as most of us seemed to arrive in the morning and check in time wasn't until two. There was a place to store our luggage, so we did that and walked into town and back. Pretty punchy from lack of sleep so we didn't really sightsee or shop. But the exercise felt good and it's interesting looking for the familiar and unfamiliar as we strolled through what what was a fairly workaday part of the city.

 

If you're like me and too jet lagged to make decisions your first night, a Caesar salad at the hotel lounge is not a bad option. We noticed on our after dinner stroll that just up the hill from the Hilton there were a variety of casual food places that might also have been options (and a bit less expensive) if you wanted heartier fare but didn't want a "full meal deal" at the hotel or elsewhere. I hate to do anything too fancy when I have to fight the urge to nap betweeen courses!

 

Up early today after a sound sleep (ear plugs help, especially if you're headed to bed before the traffic dies down). Looking forward to strong coffee and a good breakfast before the Golden Circle tour. More later.

Just beginning to think about a Midnight Sun trip for 2019, so very much looking forward to following your adventures this year - thanks for posting!

Thanks for posting along your trip. It is exciting and helpful for those of us planning ahead. We will be heading the same direction in about a year, so I will follow closely.

As I've started to do my research, an item that seems to come up somewhat frequently is about how to get into town from the docking position - is a shuttle provided, can you walk, available taxis, etc? I have been reading some critical posts about Viking's docking location at Rosyth for Edinburgh and would be particularly interested in hearing about your experience there?

Have a wonderful trip. We'll hope for lovely weather.

Great advice, stretchcruz, thanks -- and we will. Aaron's a great guy, we've sailed with him before.

Carolyn

OK... one more thing...if Aaron is still the cruise director (and I imagine he is) make sure to listen to him sing. There is a show in the atrium one night..I think it was Broadway songs (I could be wrong) with some of the singers. The atrium was so full that people were sitting on the floor and on the stairs. He sang a song but then later in the cruise he had his own show and wow does he have a voice! It was great.

Looking forward to following along, this is one of the cruises we're looking at for the future. I can't believe it's already been two years since the Star inaugural, and we haven't been back onboard Viking since. We will be in October though.

Have a wonderful cruise - can't wait for the pictures.

Thanks, Amyr, I'll post once a day on Instagram -- just posted a couple of hours ago.

Carolyn

Looking forward to following along, this is one of the cruises we're looking at for the future. I can't believe it's already been two years since the Star inaugural, and we haven't been back onboard Viking since. We will be in October though.

 

Have a wonderful cruise - can't wait for the pictures.

Hello from Dulles, where we're heading straight to Bergen (with a hotel night before boarding the ship). All sorts of travel mishaps today, so made it by the skin-skin-skin-of-our-very-fine-chin, but we made it! This part of travel is not the glamorous part :)

Very cool -- got a heads up about trip reports from Cruise Critic members currently onboard the Viking Star cruise, our same itinerary, that's winding up soon. Tomorrow, I think, as my colleague Adam Coulter, our UK bureau chief, is visiting the ship then. Anyway, big thanks to Cruise Critic member mhb1757 for sharing -- the trip reports start at page 20. If you read a few pages before 20 you'll appreciate the relative lack of travel chaos that's impacting our trips (there's began just as the British Airways snafu was unraveling).

Carolyn

Link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2346766&page=20

[quote=mhb1757;53314157

Looking forward to your posts as we will be running the reverse cruise on the Viking Sky on July 9th.

As I've started to do my research, an item that seems to come up somewhat frequently is about how to get into town from the docking position - is a shuttle provided, can you walk, available taxis, etc? I have been reading some critical posts about Viking's docking location at Rosyth for Edinburgh and would be particularly interested in hearing about your experience there?

 

The Star has already made it's call there, Viking's first call in Rosyth, and there are comments about it on the June 3 roll call. We did Midnight Sun last summer and I think I would have preferred the hassles with the ground transportation over the experience we had tendering back to the ship from Newhaven (getting back on the ship in rough waters was not fun)--not that either is any fun.

Still on the Iceland extension for Into the Midnight Sun. Lovely tour yesterday of the Golden Circle, relaxing soak in the blue lagoon this morning and meeting for the city tour this afternoon. 4:30 am departure for the airport and flight to Bergen will have us all a little bleary but looking forward to joining the ship tomorrow!

You are welcome, photopro2! Is there anything in particular you're most interested to learn before considering?

Carolyn

Just beginning to think about a Midnight Sun trip for 2019, so very much looking forward to following your adventures this year - thanks for posting!

Hello from Bergen, where we arrived yesterday morning (around 11 a.m.) after drama-free flights from Washington Dulles to Copenhagen with a quick ride from there to Bergen. Viking Sky was already in port, on its last day of the cruise for the folks who’ve been onboard from London. Did you get a chance to read that thread? Fascinating and helpful, both.

Bergen is crazy-busy, it not just being mid-summer, the highlight of the season – when days are longest – but also the week of BergenFest, a music festival that stretches throughout the city and which explains why almost every hotel we tried was booked.

Now I know you all are much better organized than we are, laughing, but if you’re staying over, pre- or post-cruise, do try to book your hotel well ahead of time. This is not a city with a lot of big properties and actually there are very few chains you might recognize (the major ones are Clarion, Radisson Blu and Thon). The two with the best harbor location, IMHO, are the Clarion and the Radisson Blu (have stayed at the latter, it’s just fine). There’s a Thon here, too.

We wound up at the 3-plus star Thon Bristol, in the heart of the city center, and we loved the location (save for the fact that our room fronted the pedestrian square and people parties, sang and played music all-night-long). It was clean and comfortable, and there was a bountiful breakfast buffet, included in the room rate. Had a great time walking around the city.

Weather? So far in our 24 hours, we’ve had three seasons (just not cold enough for snow!). The day was gloomy but dry, the afternoon and evening were stunningly clear and beautiful, and perfectly just-warm-enough, and then today has been wet and dreary. None of it’s a problem if you’ve packed layers and a good raincoat, which we have, so it hasn’t slowed us down.

Viking Sky shimmers like a mirage on the other side of the harbor (last night we walked around the U-shaped harbor almost to the ship, it’s definitely got the most convenient docking spot in town. We board later today.

Carolyn

Hi again. Another bit of we-learned-the-hard-way advice if you’re planning to spend some extra time in Bergen (and hope that you are, it’s a darling city): If you’re planning to check out the restaurant scene, especially but not limited to weekends, you may want to book ahead. In fact, please aim to book ahead! We didn’t give it much thought and at 7 p.m. or so (it might have been 9 p.m. come to think of it, who can tell in the midnight sun season, laughing), on a Friday night with everyone in the city out to play, there weren’t any tables to be had. We were hunting for good restaurants with local specialties in the city center (as opposed to the harbor area).

By the way, while it’s tempting to spend all your time in the harbor area (with its waterfront, old town and funicular), don’t miss checking out the city center. Gorgeous gardens (any city with 220-plus days of rain will probably have lush gardens), fun boutiques, theaters, opera. Cafes.

Two restaurants that are on our “must try” list for the next visit – I always optimistically think about next visits when I'm in a city that I like – are Naboen and Boha, both located there and both offering sophisticated local cuisine. Just make a reservation! We did get lucky and snagged a table at a new Spanish-style tapas place around the corner, right on the Ove Bull promenade (beautiful); it’s called Acido and the food was delicious (the most incredible fried calamari that was delicate and laced with chorizo sausage, so just a bit spicy, along with ceviche and other treats).

Speaking of hotels, Acido is part of a boutique-styled hotel, with lots of style, called Oleana. Looked great, definitely a cut above some of the other places we’ve stayed at here, being a bit trendy (and it was nice to see passengers right off their Viking Sky cruise this morning checking in – the Viking luggage tags were a dead giveaway).

Have you visited Bergen? What’s your best advice for practically-minded stuff?

Carolyn

We took the tram up the mountain by ourselves but since it was cloudy, no wait. I walked down the 3Km trail to the city center and back to the ship 2 weeks ago. The Hanseatic Museum is nice.

Our transfer from Reykjavik to Bergen yesterday went very smoothly -though it started very early with a 4:30 am departure from the hotel. There were quite a few of us from the Iceland extension on the same flight and we were met right at baggage claim in Bergen by cheerful Viking reps. From then on there was always someone in sight to show you where to go next - one of the easiest international airport arrivals I've ever had. We walked to the bus, handed off our luggage (now sporting our stateroom tags) and were on the way to the ship in no time.

Arriving just before 2:00 pm, we were told all staterooms were ready. Our bags took a bit longer to arrive, so we were off to explore the ship. I will just echo what so many others have said - it's beautiful!!!! I'm actually looking forward to those at sea days so I can enjoy each of beautiful spaces!

If I have one piece of advice for folks as they begin their journey, it would be to relax. Yes, there will be minor glitches or worries - an excursion or dining reservation may have been difficult to book online or looked different than expected; a bag may be a bit later than the others in showing up; you forgot your stateroom number, which you need when making additional reservations okay, that last one was definitely me). But as I watched or heard some of these situations unfold, in every case a calm, collected Viking staff person was able to help.

Unless you're coming from a relatively close time zone, you're probably going to arrive tired, jet-lagged and/or not at your sharpest mentally. Know that once you're on the ship you'll encounter kind people who want you to have a great experience. You'll be able to make that special dining reservation. There will be lots of options for things to do. In the words of the Bobby McFerrin song, "Don't worry - be happy!"

I'm writing this after a good night's sleep (the curtains make the room nice and dark so your body doesn't get as confused by that midnight sun) and am looking forward to the next adventures!