isbclarin

We are on Into the Midnight Sun July 1 cruise on the Viking Sky from Greenwich to Bergen. Being Yankees by birth but living in Texas for 40 years we have become acclimated to Texas weather such that we now feel chilly in temperatures below 65 deg or so. Looking at the weather for the cruise ports it appears that the average temperatures will range from the mid 40's to mid 60's and low 70's. Our plans are to take only long sleeve shirts, blouses, etc. No shorts. Fall weight coat, hat, and gloves. We figure we can always discard the coats, gloves, hats, sweatshirts, and sweaters if the weather becomes unseasonably warm. It also appears that the wind is always strongly blowing where we are going and, of course, on deck while the ship is underway. Can anyone who's been there and done that provide any further guidance as to the rationale for our wardrobe choices?

My wife is a celiac diagnosed 20 to 25 years ago. We have done a lot of international travel in the ensuing years. We have been on at least 10 river cruises between Uniworld and Viking, and a similar number of ocean cruises between Celebrity, Princess, NCL, and Holland America. She has never been "glutenized" on board a ship. We make sure the cruise line knows about her gluten free requirements ahead of time, then talk to the maitre'd upon embarkation, and, if necessary, ask a lot of questions at meals. (If our table companions are put off by our questions they should experience at least one bout of being "glutenized" and they will understand the issue.) We are expecting a similarly good experience on our upcoming Viking Sky Into the Midnight Sun itinerary. On a recent Celebrity cruise we were pleased to see that on the restaurant menus gluten free selections were marked "GF" which saved a lot of questions. It also avoided having to make your meal choice the day before. We hope more cruise lines take the bait. When we eat on shore we carry our gluten free restaurant cards in the native language with similar success at avoiding being "glutenized."

Can anyone tell me how easy it is to have a gluten free diet on Viking? Do you have to order the previous night for dinner and do they provide gf bread and cakes? Many thanks

My wife is a celiac and she has never had any trouble eating gluten free on river or big ship cruises. The only difference we've found is that the big ships bring you the next day menu the night before and you select what you want. On the river cruises it's more on an in situ basis. Just identify yourself to the maitre d' and you will be well taken care of. When we travel on land on our own we take restaurant cards in the native languages and have never had any trouble either.

We paid the extra $50 pp for Viking Custom Air and selected the flights we wanted without a problem...Bergen to Heathrow, then onto Phoenix direct...what also impressed us was in the Bergen terminal, once we located our luggage, a couple of kids, working for Viking, carried our luggage to the bus. The thing about Bergen...even tho it's a small airport, we had to wait a very long time on line at the check in counter...only two were open...we were afraid we'd miss our flight...but didn't.

We called Viking a number of times to see if we could get Custom Air on our cruise which ends in Bergen and were told each time that it was not available. How did you manage to get the Custom Air? We finally gave up and booked our own flight itinerary and post cruise extension in Oslo. We'll take the scenic train ride from Bergen to Oslo.

Barbara and Bob

We have been to Berlin a couple of times and a 6 or 7 hour visit sandwiched between two train rides doesn't do it justice. The Checkpoint Charlie museum is worth 2 or 3 hours alone. Think about a 2 or 3 day pre or post cruise extension. Besides there are a number of interesting things to do and see in the Warnemunde area to fill your day in port.