Live from Viking Saturn June 7-21 NYC-Canada-Greenland-Iceland

[Meander Ingwa]

On 6/11/2023 at 4:46 PM, CCWineLover said:

It will be taking the place of Venus in the Norway and Mediterranean itineraries and Venus will join the Jupiter and Orion as the Southern Hemisphere ships

Hummm I wonder if they will offer a repositioning cruise

[Clay Clayton]

17 minutes ago, Meander Ingwa said:

Hummm I wonder if they will offer a repositioning cruise

We can hope!

[Mpc524]

On 6/12/2023 at 2:59 PM, katlew said:

Oh! Laurence was the guitar player on our NZ/Aus cruise over Christmas. We really enjoyed listening to him.

Laurence, Harry and Steph were all on our Vancouver to Honolulu cruise last fall. All of them are so talented!

[CCWineLover]

On 6/13/2023 at 6:09 PM, CurlerRob said:

 

Thanks for posting this Kent!

 

People need to be aware that Starlink is not a magic answer to internet capability on board ships. One issue is that the Starlink satellite grid is not complete - coverage at higher lattitudes is still sparse to zero. See https://satellitemap.space/?constellation=starlink 

 

The other major factor is how much bandwidth any given cruise line chooses to buy and how the usage by pax changes when they realized that more is available.

 

There are reports on various boards of great service and of poor service - it will certainly get better over time, but will be a mixed experience for some time to come yet. Enjoy the trip! 🍺🥌

You are absolutely correct.

I do think latitude still has a lot to do with it.  Just now did a speed test and got all time low of 0.61 mpbs download speed at 9:00 pm tonight, heading into Reykjavik tomorrow.  Worst I've ever seen on a Viking Ship.  It HAS to be that we are so far north - but then, we were on Venus last summer to North Cape, Norway and didn't have this problem.  So maybe it is also the number of people who ignore Viking's request, and do streaming and face time calls, and videos.  I've seen a lot of that being done (or attempted).  It is what it is!  Hope this posts sometime tonight!

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by CCWineLover

[CurlerRob]

3 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

You are absolutely correct.

I do think latitude still has a lot to do with it.  Just now did a speed test and got all time low of 0.61 mpbs download speed at 9:00 pm tonight, heading into Reykjavik tomorrow.  Worst I've ever seen on a Viking Ship.  It HAS to be that we are so far north - but then, we were on Venus last summer to North Cape, Norway and didn't have this problem.  So maybe it is also the number of people who ignore Viking's request, and do streaming and face time calls, and videos.  I've seen a lot of that being done (or attempted).  It is what it is!  Hope this posts sometime tonight!

 

 

Venus may have been using the high-earth orbit satellites (the "old" system). Their performance degrades at higher latitudes due to the angle caused by ship location, but there will still be some coverage. If you look at the satellite chart I posted earlier, you'll see that the Starlink coverage over Iceland/ / Greenland / Norway is effectively zero - likely the major reason for the almost total lack of service. High volume usage just makes that bad situation worse.

 

Perhaps Tors will message Elon and get some more birds launched for the north! 🍺🥌

[CCWineLover]

We made it to Reykjavik this morning, docking at 10:00 AM.  Wonderful sail in - docking at the far east harbor.  We have 2 other ships next to us in port - huge NCL and Fred Olson (which is smaller). We dock about an hour walk from the town.  But there are shuttle buses that serve all three ships.

 

We had several buses for people to do Golden Circle trip and a very large number to go see the Whale Museum.  We did the latter, which was much better than expected.  We had a wonderful bus guide and a good guide in the Whale Museum.

After that we went out on our own with a couple we met on Cruise Critic, while most went back to the ship.  We had a great time walking around compact Reykjavik, and saw many of the sights we wanted.  We stopped and had the infamous Iceland Hot Dog at the place behind the Hilton Curio.  It was REALLY good, I hate to say!!  I almost went and had another.  690 krone or about $4.82.  Not bad.

 

Really nice town to wander through, see some shops, and then head up the rainbow road to the church and Leif Erickson statue.  Then saw a wonderful little sculpture garden - reminded me of a combination of the Rodin garden in Paris and the Oslo Vigeland gardens.   Got the shuttle back to the ship and now putting the feet up to a nice Norwegian IPA!

 

[Peregrina651]

Would you talk a little about the weather that you have encountered on this trip and a bit about wardrobe? Did you bring the right shoes/boots? Sailing at this time of year, did you need warm boots? Waterproof boots?  Are there any wardrobe items that you regret not having brought? Are there wardrobe items that you highly recommend for this trip (as in don't leave home without them)? Thanks in advance.

[Mariastreby]

Kent, sounds like a great day finally! Wandering any foreign city on your own is almost always more rewarding than tours. So what are the ingredients in these infamous hot dogs?
 

Here in “my” SC sculpture garden, we recently had a 3 month exhibit of Rodin sculptures. So many people came to see that, during our normal dead winter months. You and Pam would have enjoyed it. 

[SJD117]

2 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

We stopped and had the infamous Iceland Hot Dog at the place behind the Hilton Curio.  It was REALLY good, I hate to say!!  I almost went and had another.  690 krone or about $4.82.  Not bad.

 

Heads-up: You can get great hot dogs everywhere in Iceland! A good place to sample this culinary delight is at an N1 service station. These stations are ubiquitous in Iceland, they’re clean and well-stocked, and best of all, they serve pretty nice dogs. Bon appetit!

[Meander Ingwa]

those hot dogs are almost a national dish and a great bargain, price wise.  Vikinga Pylsur near the Hallgrimskirkja has a real interesting menu.  I think the best thing is the snap of the quality casing.  You can also get a vegan dog or a pulled pork or pulled lamb in a bun.  

[CCWineLover]

15 minutes ago, Meander Ingwa said:

those hot dogs are almost a national dish and a great bargain, price wise.  Vikinga Pylsur near the Hallgrimskirkja has a real interesting menu.  I think the best thing is the snap of the quality casing.  You can also get a vegan dog or a pulled pork or pulled lamb in a bun.  

Yes! The “snap” was unique!  Long line of locals and non-tourists is a good indication.  690 krona or $4.80 or so US.  Great value.  Also we all had a bit of the rye bread ice cream at Cafe Loki near the church. Unusual and very different!! Good!!

loved Teykjavik. Back in 6 days.

Edited June 15, 2023 by CCWineLover

[Meander Ingwa]

I love a snappy dog.  To me that is a serious part of the pleasure.

[OneSixtyToOne]

18 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Yes! The “snap” was unique!  Long line of locals and non-tourists is a good indication.  690 krona or $4.80 or so US.  Great value.  Also we all had a bit of the rye bread ice cream at Cafe Loki near the church. Unusual and very different!! Good!!

loved Teykjavik. Back in 6 days.

I did not have Icelandic Hot Dogs on my 2023 BINGO card. Who knew?

[janetcbl]

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (Tryggvagata 1) is the most famous Iceland hotdog, but….I have never had a bad hotdog anywhere in Iceland.

[Meander Ingwa]

35 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (Tryggvagata 1) is the most famous Iceland hotdog, but….I have never had a bad hotdog anywhere in Iceland.

people argue that the dog at the church is better.  I think it becomes somewhat like BBQ or Pizza places in the US.  Fighting words  LOL

[CCWineLover]

52 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

I did not have Icelandic Hot Dogs on my 2023 BINGO card. Who knew?

😉😉😉

[SJD117]

51 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (Tryggvagata 1) is the most famous Iceland hotdog, but….I have never had a bad hotdog anywhere in Iceland.

Bill Clinton visited this place some years ago. I recall that Baejarins named a hot dog after him — the highest honor Iceland can bestow.  🤣

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, Mariastreby said:

Kent, sounds like a great day finally! Wandering any foreign city on your own is almost always more rewarding than tours. So what are the ingredients in these infamous hot dogs?
 

Here in “my” SC sculpture garden, we recently had a 3 month exhibit of Rodin sculptures. So many people came to see that, during our normal dead winter months. You and Pam would have enjoyed it. 

The hotdogs purportedly are made with lamb and other meats-it’s a hot dog so I for one don’t want to know too much about how it’s made. What makes them so tasty to me is the addition of fried onions (like those used onThanksgiving green bean casserole).  Yum!

[jkadventures]

8 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

buses for people to do Golden Circle trip and

We will be in Reykjavik for pre-cruise extension in August (14-16) and sadly Viking is not offering the Golden Circle excursion as an option the day we board. We were really looking forward to it, as it sounded wonderful. We will get to the Blue Lagoon, which looks so relaxing. We are counting down the days until the next adventure!

Thanks for all the information you are sharing. This will be our first Viking cruise!
Enjoy the rest of your trip. 

[RBF]

51 minutes ago, jkadventures said:

We will be in Reykjavik for pre-cruise extension in August (14-16) and sadly Viking is not offering the Golden Circle excursion as an option the day we board. We were really looking forward to it, as it sounded wonderful. We will get to the Blue Lagoon, which looks so relaxing. We are counting down the days until the next adventure!

Thanks for all the information you are sharing. This will be our first Viking cruise!
Enjoy the rest of your trip. 

We arrived early for the May 23rd Cruise and used Getyourguide.com app to book the Golden Circle Tour 8 hours.  Cost a lot less than the Viking offering.   $158.94 for 2 people.  Nice modern a/c coach and guide.

Edited June 16, 2023 by RBF
spelling

[Peregrina651]

23 minutes ago, RBF said:

We arrived early for the May 23rd Cruise and used Getyourguide.com app to book the Golden Circle Tour 8 hours.  Cost a lot less than the Viking offering.   $158.94 for 2 people.  Nice modern a/c coach and guide.

 

We booked with Grayline for their Golden Circle Tour in 2021. Pricing was similar, lunch not included. They picked us up at the ship (luggage and all) and dropped us near our hotel at the end of day.

[Twitchly]

If you like licorice, Iceland is licorice Mecca. I loved their licorice yogurt (found in grocery stores, which is where we sourced many of our meals due to the eye-watering price of restaurants). Sounds weird, but it’s marvelous!

 

Don’t let anyone talk you into trying the fermented shark. Just don’t.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Twitchly

[RBF]

Don't forget to buy the Viking socks at the souvenir shop at Gullfoss Falls or other shops around Iceland. 😂

[Hobson1754]

14 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We booked with Grayline for their Golden Circle Tour in 2021. Pricing was similar, lunch not included. They picked us up at the ship (luggage and all) and dropped us near our hotel at the end of day.

Yes, we’ve booked Grayline’s Golden Circle Tour the day we board our cruise in September - (we arrive day before) and booked it following your recommendation. It costs less than half the price of Viking.  They will pick us up from our hotel & I’ve been advised that they will drop us at the cruise terminal after tour 🤞

[CCWineLover]

20 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

The hotdogs purportedly are made with lamb and other meats-it’s a hot dog so I for one don’t want to know too much about how it’s made. What makes them so tasty to me is the addition of fried onions (like those used onThanksgiving green bean casserole).  Yum!

Clay -

this picture of you and Mike truly inspired us!  We hop to try several other hot dogs on the rest of our circumnavigation and back in Reykjavik!