Viking Iceland & Norway Arctic Explorer Cruise (August 2025)

In August 2025, Becki and I decided to break our cruise boycot and embark on a trip with Viking Cruise Lines. Our last cruise (not counting a Windjammer to the West Indies a few years after we were married) was in 1985 so this trip was going to be a bit out of our comfort zone. We chose Viking Cruises since they had an itinerary to a country we both wanted to visit - Norway. The cruise started in Reykjavik, Iceland, a place we had visit several times before, travelled way above the Arctic Circle (78.223° N Latitude or ~1500 KM from the North Pole) to the Spitzbergen Islands and then down the West coast of Norway.

Another reason we chose Viking was because the ship, the Viking Neptune, carried right around 900 passsengers (versus several thousand on other cruise lines), so we didn't think it would be too crowded. Turned out we were right. For most of the trip it was almost as if we were on a much smaller ship.

Day 1 - Reykjavik, Iceland

After an overnight flight from Orlando to Reykjavik, we were met at the airport by Viking representatives, who had arranged our transportation from the airport to the ship (about a 45 minute bus ride). Unfortunately, for us, the volcano wasn't erupting so all we could see was the smoke drifting upwards from a hidden caldera. After arriving at the cruise terminal, we went through security, got checked in and then boarded the Neptune. It was lunch time, so we took advantage of the buffet in the World Cafe while we waited for our cabin to be ready. Once we dropped off our backpacks in the cabin, which was ready almost an hour earlier than we had expected, we jumped ship and took the shuttle bus into Reykavik (about 4KM away). Since we had visited the city multiple times before, we just wanted to wander around a bit before we had to be back onboard the ship.

Day 2 - Isafjordur, Iceland

We sailed out of Reykjavik last night and made our way around the Western coast of Iceland overnight to the small town of Isafjordur in the Westfjords area of the country. We had never visited this part of Iceland so we were looking forward to it. We took a small independent tour out to Djandi Waterfall as the highlight of the day. Unfortunately, the time of day sucked for photography (mid-day photography is seldom great) plus I didn't bring the tripod along, but we took a lot of mental images of the beautiful landscape.

Days 3 and 4 - At Sea

Days three and four were sea days as we sailed our way toward the Spitzbergen Islands, approximately 1500 KM from the North Pole. The seas were as calm as could be which was a bit of a surprise. I had expected a bit rougher ride as we made our way North. The view off the cabin lanai was nothing but smooth, calm ocean. Except for when we passed the Jan Mayen Islands about three-quarters of a day out of Isafjordur the only view was a wide expanse of open ocean.

Day 5 - Longyearbyen, Norway

The next two days were spent in Longyearbyen on Svalbard Island (the main settlement of the Spitzbergen archepelago). Svalbard was known for its abundant and extremely high quality coal. Nations from all over the world descended on the island when the coal was discovered but soon discovered it was very expensive to mine and transport back to their home countries. Russia was the last country to have an active mine on the island, but that has since been abandoned now as well.Now, tourism is the main industry of the islands. Spitzbergen is known for its abundance of polar bears. Bears have been known to traverse through town at times. There are signs up at the town limits informing you that once you leave the town limits, you are responsible for your own safety when it comes to the bears. In town, the government is supposed to take care of that, but outside of town you are on your own (hence, why everyone carries rifles on their ATVs/Snowmobiles). Unfortunately, we didn't see any polar bears.

An interesting fact we learned was that it is actually against the law to die in Svalbard (or anywhere in the islands. If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, you are forced to leave for the mainland. This is because of the permafrost making it near impossible to bury anything. Not sure what the penalty is for dying there, but I supposed you wouldn't care.

On day one, we took an ATV tour to one of the coal mine entrances (didn't go inside the mine) and to visit a sled dog camp. The weather was overcast and raining, so there weren't many photo opportunities. That day was also the 100th anniversay of Norway being given guardianship of Spitzbergen. The Crown Prince of Norway was in town for the ceremonies, though we missed it since we were out ATVing.

Day 6 - Longyearbyen, Norway

Our second day in Longyearbyen, we took a powered catamaran tour across the inlet to one of the largest glaciers in the archepelago. The weather was again mostly overcast and breezy, but the trip wasn't too rough. Our tour guide was Ukranian and he had to be one of the most humorous guides we had ever had. He was non-stop with the jokes, even those that were a bit corny, which made the trip that much more enjoyable. We also stopped by the abandoned Russian coal mine town, now a ghost town, on the way back to port.

Day 7 - At Sea

Another sea day - On our way to Honningvag, Norway. While these were relaxing, they were our least favorite part of the trip. We are used to almost always being on the go, doing something or seeing the sights. You can only walk around the ship so many times during a day. We fully understand the need for them since the itinerary reached such far-flung places, but I guess we're not cut out for so much down time.

Day 8 - Honningsvag, Norway

Honningsvag (population of around 2000) is a small town in the far North of Norway. I believe the only reason we ported here was for the excursion to the North Cape (the most Northern point of mainland Europe). After our excursion, where we encountered a lot of rain and winds that rivaled a small tropical storm, we did walk around the town some but other than a fair amount of sculptures spread throughout the town, there wasn't much to see. But the stop of worth it for the excursion.

Day 9 - Tromso, Norway

Tromso is the home of Roald Amundsen, a hero of Norway. Amundsen led the first exploration of the famed Northwest Passage, setting out on the sloop Gjoa in 1903 and finishing the trip in Alaska in 1906. In January 1911, he boarded the ship Fram for Antartica, where his team was the first to successfully reach the South Pole in December 1911. In May 1926, he and 15 other men boarded the airship Norge (a derigible) and became the first explorers verified to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen disappeared in June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission for the airship Italia in teh Artic. His remains have never been found.

We visited the Tromso University's planetarium for a feature on the Aurora Borealis (which we did not see on this trip due to the near 24 hours of daylight in August). We have seen the aurora in Iceland and it is something every person whould experience. From the planetarium, we visited the Arctic Chapel and then took a bus tour around town (not a big fan of bus tours). But we got the layout of the city, so after lunch, we headed back out on our own. Weather intervened too soon with heavy rain and winds, so we returned to the ship early. We wouldn't mind visiting Tromso again with better weather and maybe even darkness to witness the Northern Lights.

Day 10 - Narvik, Norway

Our next port was Narvik, a town of around 21000. The primary focus of this port was on Norway's role in World War 2. We took a bus excursion around town which included a stop at their military cemetary. In the chapel there, we were treated to a short choir performance of traditional Norwegian folk songs. We stopped by the Narvik train station as one of the final stops. We left the tour at that point, since we wanted to take the Arctic Train up to the Sweedish border.

Viking had an excursion that included the train trip, but by booking it ourselves, we managed to sit in the First Class section of the train which gave us only four seats across versus the five across back in the cattle class with others from the ship. The scenery on the ride was spectacular, though it was quite difficult to get any good photos. At least we took a lot of mental photos. We walked back to the ship from the Train Station, stopping by the Narvik World War 2 Museum, which was well worth the couple of hours we spent there.

Day 11 - Lofoten Islands, Norway

We had two tours planned for Lofoten: the first was the included excursion for an overview of the islands and fjords while the second was a RIB tour in search of Sea Eagles. Unfortunately, the time for the Sea Eagle tour changed to overlap with the included tour so we had to choose. We chose the Sea Eagle tour. The RIB ride was bumpy, wet (it rained off and on) and thoroughly enjoyable - though we did get more than a little cold. Our guide threw out frozen herring to lure the eagles closer which didn't work for the first several we saw. Finally, one took the bait, swoop in and I managed to get one of the photos I had envisioned when booking to tour.

We learned a lot about fishing in the islands (a lot of it done in farms) and about the life of the locals. A very enjoyable tour, though we would have liked to have been able to go on the included tour as well. A friend that was on the cruise with us, went of the included tour and said it was one of the best ones of the trip. Guess, we'll just have to try again.

Day 12 - At Sea

Another sea day!!

Day 13 - Geiranger, Norway

This was the port that we had been looking forward to - the epitome of Norwegian Fjords. The fjord is a lot narrower than others, with the mountains rising steeply on either side and waterfalls cascading the steep slopes. Geiranger is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is well worth a visit. The town is tiny but the sights are majestic. We took a bus tour up into the mountains above the fjord where we encountered snow for the first time (it was raining in the town). The views down the length of the fjord were amazing.

In the afternoon, we took a boat trip from the town up through the fjord for a couple of miles to get a closer look at the waterfalls. We could have spent a lot more time in Geiranger, especially if the weather would have been a bit better. But August in Norway is part of the rainy season, so we were fornutate that things weren't worse. As you can see, there were a lot of waterfalls to photograph.

Day 14 - Bergen, Norway

Today, we docked in Bergen, Norway's second largest city after Oslo. Quite a bit of difference from the ports we had visited so far. We took the included Viking bus tour of the town but jumped shipped before it was over because our guide wasn't that interesting and there were other things we wanted to do. We wandered around town, visiting the Bryggen Waterfront, the oldest wooden waterfront in Norway, and many of the small parks throughout the city. After lunch, we headed to the Bergen Tram for a trip to the top of the mountains surrounding the city for a panoramic view. Fortunately, the rain had lessened and the weather was quite nice for the day.

Day 15 - Travel to Oslo, Norway

Today was disembarkation day. We left the Neptune behind taking a bus to the train station for our trip to Oslo. This was arranged through Viking so we had a guide with us for the entire trip who handled everything needed. This was a typical train ride; started out traveling through the industrial outskirts of Bergen before climbing the mountain to the more scenic portion of the trip. We stopped a several small stations to drop off/pick up passengers, none of which were very photogenic. At one about half way through the trip, we sat on the tracks for around an hour due to a problem with the electrical lines that run the train (its all electric). Fortunately, they resolved the problem so we didn't have to wait for a bus from Beregen to make the rest of the trip to Oslo. It made for a long day, but with the Norwegian scenery passing outside the window, it wasn't a bad trip, just not as scenic as we had expected (hence only the one photo of Norway's largest glacier at the highest elevation of the route).

We arrived in Oslo without any further problems and walked from the Central Station to the Radisson Blue Hotel just a short walked away. After sorting through getting our room assignments, we cleaned up and went out for dinner; One of the best pizzas we had ever had from one of the hotel restaurants.. Tomorrow, we'd take the tour around Oslo and then wander around on our own.

Day 16 - Oslo, Norway

Our day in Oslo started with a bus tour (arranged by Viking) around the city. We passed through the district known as the Bar Code since the building profiles look like a retail bar code. We also drove through downtown Oslo, passing the Nobel Prize Headquarters. One of the things I hate about bus tours is that is damn near impossible to take a good photo (hence the lack of photos of these sights). We went to the outskirts of town to the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

One of the reason I wanted to visit Oslo was to see the 9th centry Viking longship that has been preserved. But our luck ran out and the exhibit was closed since they are building a new, more enviromentally controlled building for it. Apparently, the ship survived intact for eleven centuries buried in the blue clay where it was found. A couple of decades exposed to the elements and the ship is already deteriorating. In the basement of the museum, they are building a smaller longship using the methods and tools the original Vikings used. It was quite impressive to witness though it still was a bit of a disappointment about the 9th century ship.

From the museum, we made our way back through town to Oslo's most popular tourist attraction, Vigelandsparken. This is a tribute to one of Norway's more celebrated artists, Gustav Vigeland. It contains over 200 sculptures in granite, bronze and wrought iron that Vigeland created over 40 years of being the official Oslo sculpture. The sculptures were installed into the park beginning in 1940 and finishing in 1949 when Vigeland passed away.

This was our last full day on the trip. The next day we took the bus to the airport and made our way home via JFK International. The SAS flight was comfortable and enjoyable. This was our first and hopefully last transit through JFK. It is an extremely unorganized and chaotic airport that should be avoided at all cost. Despite, that aggravation, the entire trip was enjoyable. Viking did a great job at taking care of us and providing almost everything we needed. Our only complaint is that we would like to have had more time in the ports. We are a get-out-and-see-things couple so being restricted to such a short time frame in each locale was a bit frustrating. But then, that's to be expected on any cruise. This was our first cruise in over 40 years and we're still considering whether to take another. Only time will tell.