Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Ready to Go

Monday, July 17, 2023

One of our favorite cruises was the Voyage of the Vikings Cruise back in 2016.  We always thought we’d like to do it again, but there was always something new that we wanted to do first.  That changed this February when we received an offer from Holland America for the 2023 Voyage of the Vikings Cruise at a very good price.  We didn’t have anything planned for this summer, so we decided to go ahead and book it.  It won’t be exactly the same itinerary as 2016 as there will be some new ports replacing some of the ports we visited in 2016.

The cruise is 35 days long, which seems short compared to what we have been doing, but it is exactly what we are looking for this summer.  The reason it is called the Voyage of the Vikings is because it follows the route the Vikings took when the sailed west to find new lands to conquer and settle.  We go up the East coast of Canada then visit Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland before visiting the Netherlands where we turn around and do the same route back adding Ireland on the way.  You can see the route on the cruise map below.

This cruise is heavy on ports so there won’t be so many days at sea to relax, and many of the ports are tendering ports which always adds a little stress.  We have most of our port days planned although, since we signed up late, many of the ship's tours and privately organized tours were already full.  We are still on a waitlist for several of the ship excursions, but we have managed to find something to do in most places. 

The cruise is a round trip out of Boston and the last time we took this cruise we arrived a couple of days early and really enjoyed our time exploring Boston, so we are doing that again.  We have shipped our main luggage again and our other bags are packed except for the last-minute items so we are ready to go.  Today is Monday and we are flying out of San Luis Obispo on Wednesday morning at 6:00 AM.  That early hour means we will have to be up at 3:00 AM, which we are not looking forward to.  Val and I will both be glad to get it over with and be in our hotel rooms in Boston on Wednesday night.  Once again Val’s friend Marsha is picking us up at 4:00 AM so thanks to her for doing that.  It takes a true friend to get up that early.

As is always the case now, when you read this the cruise will be over and we will be home.  Hopefully it won’t take me as long to get this published as it did the Grand Africa Cruise blog.