Search for the Northern Lights on the Viking Venus

1/31/23 to 2/12/23

Click on the above link buttons that will take you directly to a particular page or area of the review; or you can just click through to the next page at the bottom of each page.
Page 1 – Preface, Pre-trip in Bergen, Ship
Page 2 – Ship (continued)
Page 3 - Entertainment, Activities, Ports of Call: Bergen, Sea Days
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Alta, Norway
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Tromso, Norway, Sea Days, Tilbury, England

Entertainment

For a small ship, the entertainment was quite good. I wish that we had more guest entertainers, but we still enjoyed the shows we did have. Our cruise director was Rosanna Yeo. It was her first cruise as a CD. We never would have known it if she hadn’t told us. She did an excellent job, especially with the itinerary issues we experienced, which will be discussed later in the review.

Performers –

Tor Jaran Apold – On the first night of the cruise we had an absolutely amazing performance by this violinist. He played his deeply personal arrangements of Norwegian music from his childhood. He played this music on his priceless violin made in 1760. He put so much emotion into each piece he played. It was truly breathtaking. He also had a pianist accompany him on some of the pieces. He has played this type of music on every new Viking Ocean ship’s naming ceremony. With it being the first night of the cruise, it was a very small audience to see this outstanding show. They will never know what they missed.

Adam Pritchard – Along the Way - Adam is one of the production show performers. He did his first solo show ever for us. He did OK for his first time.

Elmer del Fierro - Timeless - Elmer was the Assistant Cruise Director. With us having some extra sea days, he was called on to do a show for us. He has a very good voice and was well received.

Rosanna Yeo – Lost in Music - Rosanna, our Cruise Director did a solo show of her own. She is a very talented performer and we thoroughly enjoyed her show.

Tom Wright – Tom is a very good magician who mixes in lots of humor into his performance. The audience loved him and kept laughing during the show as they were amazed by his magic.

He also did a second performance due to our being in Tromso an additional night. For one of his tricks, he said he needed a sexy assistant. Sure enough, he picked Cathy. She did great! A while later he picked me to assist with the act. It was fun and we enjoyed being a part of this very good magicians act.

The Viking Band and Singers - The band and two singers performed most nights in Torshavn. The band and singers also backed up the Star Theater vocal performers and production shows.

Production Shows –

They weren’t really production shows. There were two men and one woman singer who did different genres of music for the three shows. As has been the case with recent cruises I have been on, there are no sets and the scenery is all digitally produced. This isn’t a negative, since the graphics are quite pretty and add to the performances. The singers did change outfits periodically to fit the songs.

Viking Welcome Reception - The welcome reception introduced us to the ship's leadership team. It was right before the Abba Songbook show.

The Abba Songbook – This was a most enjoyable group of Abba songs. The singers did a good job while at times videos of Abba performing were shown on the background.

The Beatles Songbook – This show was all Beatle's songs. Once again there were videos of the Beatles on the background. The singers put on outfits similar to those worn by the Beatles in their performances.

The Sounds of the Sixties – This was a collection of songs from the sixties. They sang a whole bunch of shortened versions of the popular sixties’ songs. It was a fun show.

Activities

Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle (www.cruisecritic.com) – Our Cruise Critic rollcall group with whom we had been communicating for many months wanted to have a get together early in the cruise similar to the pre-Covid Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle that the cruise lines supported. This was a way for us to be able to meet face to face the folks we had been chatting with on the forum. Normally the cruise director and other members of the staff would also be in attendance and talk with us. Sometimes the captain would even join us. So, we decided to just have an unofficial meeting on the second level of the Explorer’s Lounge on the first sea day. It worked out very well and it was so nice to match faces with names.

The Kitchen Table –
This is where the cooking classes take place. It is located behind Manfredi’s and the Chef’s Table restaurants on deck 1. To attend classes, reservations needed to be made in advance for the extra cost activity. I believe that they were all sold out prior to the start of the cruise. Cooking classes are always a very popular activity.

Afternoon Tea -
Each day from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, afternoon tea was served in the Wintergarden. It was a very well attended activity and seats were at a premium many days. A three-tiered tray with small sandwiches and treats were delivered first. Then a pot of tea was brought next. A crumpet with clotted cream and jelly came next. It was quite an enjoyable break in the day. I only did it once, since I didn’t want to fill up before our early dinner. There wasn't much room on the small table I was sitting next to, but hopefully you get an idea of what was served.

Enrichment Lecturers –
We had four lecturers on board. This provided for interesting and educational sessions several times during the day. Each one of the lecturers focused on their area of expertise and they did a nice job. Since I didn't have my camera with me at all lectures I attended, I wasn't able to get photos of all of them.

Michael Hick – He is a historian that covered many different subjects about the different countries and geopolitics.

Douglas L. Field – Most of his lectures focused on fauna of Norway and science subjects.

Paul Riley – His lectures also focused on science, particularly astronomy.

Steven Noble – He is a professional wildlife and nature photographer. His talks were all about photography, especially photographing the northern lights.

Blue Nose Ceremony – When the ship crossed the Arctic Circle, the ship conducted a Blue Nose ceremony. The hot tub next to the main pool was filled with ice.

Those that wanted to join the order of the Blue Nose waited in line to get into the ice-cold water. It was fun to watch the different ways people went into the cold water. Some just went in and got out. Others jumped up and went in stomach or back first. Some completely went under the water and others just wanted to get out quickly. There was a video camera set up to show the people going in the water on the big screen. It was entertaining.

After they did their dunk, they walked over to the presenter and received some blue frosting on their nose. We got to see our friends, Stephanie and Alan from Australia, get their blue noses. I was very surprised at how many people were in line to do this. We watched it for over a half hour and there was still a long line of participants waiting do it. We settled for the certificate that was left in everyone’s cabins certifying that they crossed the Arctic Circle.

Baggo – This is what the ship called Corn Hole, where you attempt to throw bean bags into a hole on a board. They had tournaments several days between the guests and the crew. I believe the guests won the tournament.

Ports of Call

Bergen, Norway – Day 2

Once on the ship, Cathy and I walked around looking at and taking photos of the public rooms while few people were onboard. The ship was quite beautiful and laid out nicely. We did this for a while and then went to lunch in the World Café buffet. After lunch, I continued taking photos of the ship and various menus. I also took some photos of the beautiful city from the higher elevation of the ship.

That evening we went to the first show in the Star Theater. We were blown away by the amazing violinist. After the show, we went to Torshavn to see the ship band and the two singers who were so good. We were enjoying the ships entertainment and looking forward to eleven more evenings on the ship.

Bergen, Norway – Day 3

This would be a short port day with the ship leaving for Alta at 1:30 PM. Unlike most cruise lines I have been on, Viking wants everyone on board an hour before the ship leaves, rather than a half hour. So, there was even less time to tour the city. With sunrise at 8:59 AM, it was dark when we woke up, as it would be for the whole trip. We had booked the included 2-hour Panoramic Bergen tour for 10:00 AM. We were looking forward to seeing area of Bergen that we hadn’t been able to walk to. In order to get everyone to be able to do the tour, they had some groups going on a 7:30 AM tour. I was glad that we didn’t have to do a panoramic city tour in the dark.

We were pleased to see that the sun was shining when we left the ship for the tour. We had a very good guide, Brunhilda. She was the first of many excellent guides that we had on the included ship tours. Viking was impressing us in many ways.

Bergen is known for its many wooden houses throughout the city. Since this was a panoramic tour, I had to take photos through our bus window. Bergen is just a gorgeous city, that I wish I could have spent more time in.

They also had some beautiful wall art in the city.

We saw the entrance to the Floibanen funicular that goes to the top of Mount Floyen. The line is 2,769 feet long and climbs 991 feet of elevation to the top of the mountain. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Bergen. On my first visit in the summer of 2004, we took the funicular and thoroughly enjoyed visiting the top of the mountain. With us only having such little time in Bergen and the cold rapidly changing weather, we couldn’t do it on this trip. I certainly will do it again if we are back in Bergen.

While driving along the other side of the harbor, we stopped at a good spot to take photos. It was a much better location to take the front-page photo of the ship. So, I was thrilled about that. The view of the Bryggen area from there was very nice but would have been better if a ship hadn’t been obstructing the view.

We could also see the top of the Rosenkrantz Tower from a different angle.

We got back on the bus to continue our drive to our next stop on the tour. We saw some parts of the city we hadn’t previously seen.

We stopped at Grieg Hall, where the national opera performs. The modern building comes to a point at one end.

Brunhilda told us about the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, for whom the hall is named. The statue in the plaza is a life size statue of the man. Although a small man, he made a significant contribution to Norway’s cultural reputation and created some great music.

After the short stop, we drove back to the ship and our last stop on the tour, seeing some more sights in the city.

We stopped at Bryggen. Brunhilda told us about the history of the area and then gave us some free time to explore. Since we had thoroughly explored the area previously, we decided to search for a hot dog restaurant that Dennis and Trudy had told us about during dinner on our first night in Bergen. They said that they had a reindeer hot dog. That sounded like just the type of local food we needed to try. Apparently, there are a lot of hot dog stands around Bergen, since it is a very popular item. The one we were going to, Trekroneren, was supposed to be best and is even number one on TripAdvisor. Dennis had given us great directions on where to find it. It is very close to where we were stopped at Bryggen.

They had so many types of sausages and hot dogs. We both ordered the reindeer dog but could easily have split one of them. We were able to add any or all the condiments they had on the dog. It was a tasty treat and so glad we were able to get one. We both took our first bites before remembering to take a photo, so pardon the incomplete image.

On the way back to the tour bus, Cathy decided to look at the hat she had previously seen in the fur shop on the first day. She had to have it. It is a beautiful hat, but won't see much action in Florida. I took some more photos of the beautiful area before boarding the bus for the short ride to the ship.

The fire hydrant was quite unique looking.

Once on the ship, I took some last photos of beautiful Bergen. We sure enjoyed being there.

We left for Alta, Norway at 1:30 PM as scheduled, but we didn’t get very far out of the harbor. We had to do what the captain called swinging the compass, or a compass reset. The ship goes to an open area and moves around for a couple hours, which apparently resets the compass. I believe he said they do this once a year to make sure the compass is accurate.

Once we left the Bergen fjord, the seas became quite rough, but it only lasted for about an hour. At 6:30 PM, the captain made an announcement that there was a medical emergency that would require us to go back to Bergen. That could mean a 6–7-hour delay getting to Alta. An hour later, he announced that the ship was stopping to allow a helicopter to drop a basket to pick up the passenger. That was great news for everyone, especially the patient and family.

The only thing the delay caused was that the planned welcome show was moved to the next day. The seas were a little rough but we only had mild rocking during the night.

Sea Day 1

At breakfast we heard that there was a northern lights sighting during the night at 12:30 AM. I was so disappointed that we missed it. In order to hear announcements during the night in your room, you need to leave your TV on the bridge cam channel. We had planned to do that every night but didn’t on the first night. The captain apparently made a general announcement through the whole ship since they hadn’t put the info regarding the bridge cam channel in the Viking Daily. Somehow, we slept through the announcement.

With the ship having four guest lecturers on board, there was normally one available if looking for something to do. My favorite thing to do was to watch the beautiful snow-covered mountains and small villages pass by. We were cruising inside passages much of the time, which provided smoother cruising and lots to see. When the sun came out it was time to get photos, but there wasn’t much sun on our first sea day. It was still beautiful.

Sea Day 2

We didn’t have any northern lights announcements during the night. So, we were a little disappointed, but what we did have was a beautiful sunny day for our inside passage cruising. The landscape was so gorgeous! Explorer’s Lounge was jam packed with passengers enjoying the views. Since we were on the starboard side, we were able to see the closer side from our balcony. It was such a treat.

Whenever we would see a small village along the water, we would wonder why it was there and how people made a living in what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.

We saw some type of fish farming in one area.

We saw some lighthouses and homes on the small islands. They don’t have any neighbor issues.

With the sun going down at around 3:00 PM, the scenic viewing ended early. But it had been a glorious cruising day.

At 5:30 PM while we were at happy hour, a northern lights viewing announcement came over the speaker system. The ship emptied while people tried to take elevators and stairs to the upper decks to see them. It was jammed up at the door to get out to the decks. By the time I got there, there was just a faint area of green. It hadn’t been worth the climb up.

An hour later at 6:30 PM while we were in the restaurant, another announcement was made. We left the restaurant to the same type of crowd situation, but this time the lights were a little brighter. Still not great. The iPhone actually makes them look more vivid than they were.

After dinner, we were in our cabin waiting to go the evening show, when an announcement that a fantastic northern lights display was going on. With our cabin on deck 5, we could get up to deck 8 much faster. This was a nice display. It stretched across the whole sky. We had now seen a decent aurora and were much happier.