I am currently on Viking Sky, sailing a week long cruise around Iceland. This is the Viking’s third cruise in the region since resuming cruises and I am here with a group of media experiencing first hand the cruise line’s “Welcome Back to the World” cruises.
This seven night cruise that sails roundtrip out of Reykjavik visits six ports around Iceland. It is a new itinerary for Viking as Iceland was one of the first countries to open to foreign tourists.
This morning’s edition of #MyVikingStory started off with spectacular views through a fjord as we sail on @Viking Sky to Akureyri, Iceland. #Sponsored #VikingCruises pic.twitter.com/n1H7dOtPn2
— Cruise Fever (@CruiseFever) July 13, 2021
We will cover this incredible itinerary in depth after we return. We will also look at all of the different health protocols that Viking has added to keep guests safe. But for now, here are our first impressions of sailing with Viking now that cruises have resumed.
Embarkation – Since we embarked in Reykjavik and there isn’t a cruise terminal there, we used local conference center in town. Viking served us breakfast until it was time to hop on a bus and take the short 7 minute ride to the ship. It went very smoothly considering we checked in for our cruise 3 miles away from the ship. Viking made it as seamless as possible.
Health Protocols – As I just stated, we will soon have an entire article going into depth on all of the health protocols that Viking has implemented. In short, Viking is using daily testing, contact tracing, daily health surveys, daily temperature checks, masks required on board, and everyone on the ship including all crew members have been vaccinated.
Service – It’s just like the staff on board the ship didn’t even miss a beat during the 15 month cruise shutdown. I was expecting the staff to be a little rusty but they picked up right where they left off in March 2020.
Service has been phenomenal all over the ship. We went to The Restaurant (Main Dining Room) for dinner tonight and it took right around one hour, the perfect dinner time. Our servers were right on top of things.
Everywhere we go on the ship we are met with a friendly smile and hello, everyone is so happy to be back on board.
Our room stewards have been awesome and they took the time to explain to us the change in protocols from previous cruises.
Itinerary – We are in port every single day and so far it has been spectacular. Today we did an excursion to Northern Iceland’s National Treasures and it was incredible. The highlight of the seven hour tour was a stop at the Goðafoss Waterfall.
Iceland continues to blow us away as we visited the Goðafoss Waterfall today. #Sponsored #MyVikingStory #VikingCruises pic.twitter.com/pTh7UFmru4
— Cruise Fever (@CruiseFever) July 13, 2021
Ship – One of the many things that I love about Viking ocean ships is that they are all alike. When you step aboard, you feel like you are home. Viking Sky is completely spotless, it could pass as a brand new ship.
For the most part, the cruise feels just like it did in 2019. During the shutdown, I was worried about what the onboard experience would be like when cruises started back up. I am happy to report that the onboard experience very closely resembles that of the pre-covid era.
Stay tuned for more articles that will go in depth on the health protocols on board and about this fantastic new itinerary around Iceland that we are sailing.
