Voyage of the Vikings Cruise - Cruise Day 9 - Cruising Prince Christian Sund

Today we are cruising Prince Christian Sund which has been called one of the most scenic cruises in the world.  The Prince Christian Sund is a narrow passage between the mainland of Greenland and a series of islands.  There are numerous fijords and inlets and it is a very isolated, mountainous area.

Val was up early as we entered the sound, but unfortunately not me.  I have had a light cold since we got on the ship which hasn’t really slowed me down, but now I am in the coughing phase.  I woke up in the night and couldn’t stop coughing so I got up and had some cough syrup (the good kind with codeine).  It did the trick and I slept the rest of the night, but I woke up very groggy and lethargic and just didn't want to get out of bed; I had no energy at all.  I don’t know why I was affected so badly, but I just had to sleep it off.

Meanwhile Val was out on the balcony taking pictures of the incredible scenery passing by.  The weather was incredibly good – it was cool but sunny and amazingly clear.  Val decided to go up to the bow of the ship which they had opened up for the scenic cruising.  I was still in bed, but as much as I wanted to join her, I just didn’t have the energy; it was weird.  Finally it was like a switch was flipped and I felt my normal self and got dressed and headed up to the bow to join Val.  After spending some time on the bow, we decided to go to the stern of the ship and to the open Lido Deck.

The scenery was just unbelievable.  There was the blue sky, dark blue water, reflections, icebergs, glaciers, waterfalls, snow capped mountains and even some Minke whales, all within a narrow channel.  It was warm in the sun, but the temperatures were in the high 40’s and when the breeze picked up it was pretty cool so we were really glad we had brought our winter coats.  It’s pretty useless to try and describe everything we saw so I will just show our day through some of the many pictures we took.

The first of many iceberg pictures.

 

These icebergs may not look very big, but remember that we are taking these pictures standing on the equivalent of the tenth floor of a building.  They are much larger than they appear.

 

The bow of the ship was opened for the day of scenic cruising.

 

We also saw quite a few glaciers as we made our way through the sound.

 

It's a little odd being on a cruise ship with all the amenities in the middle of this wild,
isolated and pristine area.

This tiny patch of flowers were the only ones we saw.

Val takes a break for taking pictures and just enjoys the scenery.

 

We spent almost the whole day out on deck until around 5:00 when we could see the end of the sound.  It was marked by a bank of fog and some very large icebergs.  As we headed out in the open sea and fog, we left the sunshine behind.  

Out of the sound and into the fog.

As we exited the sound we caught site of this lonely weather station.

A large iceberg off in the distance.

 

Not a very high quality picture, but this iceberg was huge.

It was a near perfect day; the location guide, Barbara said she had been doing this cruise for 17 years and had never seen better weather – we are so lucky.  The pictures above are only a few of the hundreds of photos we took today.  Looking around the deck at all the cameras, there must have been tens of thousands of photos taken today.  The photos can’t really convey just how beautiful this area was. We were in Glacier Bay in Alaska a couple of years ago and it doesn’t come close to the beauty of Prince Christian Sund.  Many travel experts call Prince Christian Sund one of the most beautiful cruise experiences in the world and although I haven’t been on too many cruises, I can’t imagine an area more pristine and beautiful. 

We were glad to get back inside as the weather had gotten very cold when we left the sound.  I had many pictures to download to my computer so that took most of my time until dinner.  Dinner tonight was another Gala Night so it was a dress-up night.  We got ready for dinner and headed up to the Crow’s Nest for our evening drinks and while we were there we saw what everyone thought were porpoises.  We thought they were seals at first, but those that had a closer view, said definitely not seals.  Dinner was very good tonight and after our trip to the casino, we called it a night.  We lose another hour of sleep tonight, but tomorrow is a sea day so we can sleep in.