Cynthia’s Blog

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY – One aspect about sailing with Viking is that itineraries tend to be very heavy on time in port with most sailing done at night. This is convenient in some ways but it does tend to short-change you on time to appreciate the ship actually being on the water. Our last two days on board provided us an opportunity to enjoy being at sea. As we sailed from Boston toward New York at …

Read moreViking Sky: Owner Torstein Hagen reflects on 20 years of Viking

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY — Let’s talk again about this company, Viking Ocean Cruises. This new cruise line…brought to you by the folks who run Viking River Cruises…began sailing in April of 2015 and has been receiving rave reviews since. Most notably Viking was named the #1 Ocean Cruise Line (mid-size ships) by Travel & Leisure readers in its 2016 and 2017 World’s Best Awards, knocking out luxury-line Crystal Cruises from its 20-year run in that position. …

Read moreViking Sky: A look at this cruise company that is winning accolades…and why

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY – Today we are in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and because we have been here a couple of times we opted to sign on for an afternoon tour to the scenic Peggy’s Cove. This gave me the opportunity to slot in a massage this morning. And much to my surprise, my masseur was Joe from Sweden who was my therapist on the Viking Star last year. Familiar crew members are now commonplace on this …

Read moreViking Sky: The LiV Nordic spa is well worth experiencing

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY — Last year, just about the same time of year, we sailed for two weeks in the Baltic Sea aboard the Viking Star. So it was lovely that when we boarded the Viking Sky for this cruise that we saw so many familiar faces. There were our two favorite bartenders, Natasha and Igor. The restaurant manager Jon. The cruise director Aaron. Several of the entertainers. And others, whose names we did not recall …

Read moreViking Sky: Musings about crew, food, tours and wi-fi

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY – For two days we were busy exploring two great cities in Canada, Montreal and Quebec City. So, it was a nice break to sail into the Saguenay Fjord yesterday and to check out a more rural and quite beautiful part of Quebec. When you get to the region of Saguenay, it seems like you are in a very remote area but actually it is only a 2-1/2 drive from Quebec City. But …

Read moreViking Sky: After two days in cities, it was fun to explore the Quebec countryside

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY – After a tumultuous first two days, our next two were more normal. Thank goodness. On Tuesday, we were escorted around historic Quebec City by Caroline Tetu who works with the port promoting cruise tourism. Of the 5 million tourists who visit QC each year, only 200,000 are from cruise ships so this aspect of tourism has great growth potential for the city which will have over 130 cruise calls this season. However, …

Read moreViking Sky: Roaming around picturesque Quebec City and fixing a phone problem

ABOARD THE VIKING SKY – We are here. That seems like a simple statement but making it happen took a lot of trouble. So here is a recap of the past few days. Note in black italic some lessons learned during these misadventures. Our travel travails began Friday when we arrived at Traverse City airport in Michigan in the morning for our short flight to Chicago where we were to connect to a flight to Montreal. We …

Read moreViking Sky: Several crazy travel days, trying to reach the ship

In two days we will set off on another cruise adventure, and part of this trip visits a region that I haven’t visited by ship before: The Canadian Maritimes. We will be traveling on a 12-day itinerary called the “Eastern Seaboard Explorer” on the new Viking Sky. This will be our third trip this year with Viking. Last year at this time we spent two wonderful weeks venturing around the Baltic Sea on the line’s first ocean …

Read moreSomething different: A Viking Ocean cruise through Canada and the Northeastern U.S.