Viking Neptune Cruise Adventure: New York To Greenland And Iceland
Contributors John and Sandra Nowlan, veteran cruisers, discovered their voyage on Viking Neptune from New York to Greenland and Iceland offered the best of two worlds: the pleasures of an ocean cruise with an expedition component.
Over the years, we’ve enjoyed several dozen ocean cruises and perhaps a half dozen expedition cruises. But we didn’t expect our voyage on Viking Neptune to combine so many of the best features of each in one cruise experience.
Viking Neptune was launched in 2022. It is one of a series of almost identical ocean ships in the Norwegian-owned Viking fleet.
Our 12-day itinerary was atypical for an ocean cruise. The route for the 930-passenger Viking Neptune started in New York, then took us north to Halifax and Newfoundland before continuing east to Greenland. To our delight, the ship circumnavigated Iceland, allowing us to visit several remote communities and its dramatic volcanic landscapes.
Viking: Understated Luxury
The ship’s tasteful, practical interior design in subdued shades of cream and brown reflects its Scandinavian heritage. There are no interior cabins, and all suites have private balconies.
All public areas evoke comfort and convenience with plenty of sofas and loungers, usually with cozy cushions and often with a reindeer hide covering. There’s an extensive library in the main Explorers’ Lounge, but smaller lounges are found throughout the ship, usually with their own library shelves featuring many science, history and exploration books.
Viking Neptune’s main swimming pool is in the middle of Deck 7, covered with a sliding glass roof. There’s a smaller infinity pool at the rear of Deck 7 and an excellent thalassotherapy pool in the extensive Nordic Spa. The spa offers an array of extra-cost treatments, but the pool, steam room, sauna, and ice room are complimentary for all guests. Unlike most cruise lines, Viking has no casinos.
Our Comfortable Stateroom on Viking Neptune
Our stateroom was the typical 270 square feet with a king bed, excellent lighting, accurate temperature control, several power/ USB ports, good Wi-Fi, robes and slippers, a coffee maker, mini-bar, and a 42” TV with many movie and channel choices. Suites can be up to 1448 square feet.
The bathroom had heated floors (a delight), lots of space for toiletries, and one of the best shower stalls we’ve ever had at sea. However, we were disappointed with the poor quality of the binoculars provided and the limited storage space for clothing. Having to slide open floor-to-ceiling doors next to the bed to access drawers seemed like a design flaw.
We loved the twice-a-day room cleanup and received daily, printed schedules (increasingly rare but welcomed by many guests) and the excellent Viking app for electronic devices.
Enjoyable Entertainment
The Star Theatre, the main entertainment area, had no design flaws and could accommodate all 930 guests. Modern ocean cruise ships always feature high-tech lighting effects and fine musical performances.
Viking Neptune had an excellent four-piece band and an ensemble of four young British singers who performed three complex, highly choreographed shows on our cruise.
Dining Options with a Scandinavian Twist
Viking is known for its fine cuisine with a Scandinavian influence.
The main dining room, The Restaurant, always had a wide variety of daily choices and everyday standards. The extensive buffet, World Café, had the same choices in the evening but with a more casual approach.
Nordic specialities can always be found at Mamsen’s, a small area near the Explorers’ Lounge. For lunch, we enjoyed Smorbrod, open-faced sandwiches with shrimp, salmon or beef, followed by Fyrstekake (prince’s cake) or Suksessterte (success cake).
Viking Neptune has two specialty restaurants, but there is no extra charge for either. Reservations are required for both Manfredi’s with its Italian specialities and The Chef’s Table featuring a five-course fixed menu with wine pairings. Manfredi’s was the only restaurant with less-than-tender beef, although they were very good about substituting a replacement.
However, unique aspects of The Chef’s Table make it stand out. Every three days, a new culinary theme emerges – Korean BBQ (with an amazing smoked eel amuse bouche), California Coastal (with outstanding crab cake and smoked halibut), even British (with, of course, beer battered fish& chips and slow braised brisket with Yorkshire pudding).
Expedition Cruising On An Ocean Cruise
Our ship became a first-rate expedition cruise experience whenever one of the five enrichment lecturers took the stage. Granted, Neptune does not have the submarines, special operation boats, or fleet of zodiacs of its Viking expedition cousins, but it has the support teams, expertise, and creative, flexible itinerary that made this cruise more like an adventure.
First-Class Enrichment on Viking Neptune
The enrichment team provided insightful programs under the guidance of Viking’s onboard historian, Commander Michael Cheshire. Every day, especially on sea days, we learned about the myths and realities of Viking explorers and their often dangerous exploits in the northern waters we were sailing through.
Several fascinating lectures focused on Iceland’s culture, geography, volcanic geology, and unique flora and fauna. Other topics included Inuit traditions, northern rivers like the Yukon, skiing across the Greenland ice cap (one lecturer was the first British woman to ski to the magnetic North Pole), and diverse subjects like Darwin, Ian Fleming’s James Bond, and car racing.
The five lecturers comprised the best enrichment team we’ve ever experienced on a cruise voyage. Their local geography and history talks as we approached each port were especially enlightening.
Our Adventurous Itinerary
As with any expedition cruise, we expected the unexpected…and got it. Our planned stop in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (site of the first confirmed Viking settlement in North America), was canceled because of high winds. Our second and third stops in small, southern Greenland communities were also canceled, not by high winds but by ice-choked harbors.
Fortunately, the Greenland capital, Nuuk, farther north on the west coast, was ice-free, and we spent a delightful day there. On a walking tour, we even got a chance to sample some mukluk, a traditional dish of humpback whale skin and blubber. It was delicious…but chewy.
We were fully in expedition mode as we began our clockwise circumnavigation of Iceland. The country is full of rugged lava fields and glorious fjords. We sailed up two of them to reach the first two northern Iceland ports, Isafjordur and Akureyri. Fortunately, both communities had docks available for a smaller ship like Viking Neptune, unlike the next three ports, where tendering was required.
In Isafjordur, a guide offered us a refreshing drink from a fast-moving mountain stream. Local legend claims it will add ten years to your life!
In Isafjordur, John Nowlan hopes for an extra ten years as he enjoys water from a mountain stream (credit: John and Sandra Nowlan)
One doesn’t think of botanical gardens in Iceland but Akureyri, just 60 miles from the Arctic Circle, boasts a remarkable collection of 7,000 sub-Arctic plant species, 430 of which are native to Iceland.
Djupivogur, farther south with a population of just 500, has not one but two remarkable attractions. A huge, former fish oil tank (well-cleaned) is now used for concerts with extraordinary acoustics. A local soprano gave us a haunting, reverberating sample. The same remote community startles visitors with 34 giant eggs made from polished granite, placed on cement blocks and positioned along the waterfront. Each slightly different egg represents one of the 34 bird species found in this area of Iceland.
In Heimaey, in the southern Westman Islands, a 1973 lava flow destroyed half the town and threatened the harbor entrance. Viking Neptune positioned itself near that narrow channel using GPS and bow and stern thrusters to stay in place. In this volcanic town of 4,000 residents, about five miles off the Iceland coast, a museum has been built around one of the houses demolished by lava but excavated to show the damage. We walked back to the ship over a lava field, marked occasionally with signs indicating the address of a home buried underneath.
In Greenland and in all the Icelandic towns we visited, we had to admire the resiliency of the citizens. Isolation, extreme temperatures and darkness for much of the winter have become second nature for residents of these remarkable islands. Our cruise on Viking Neptune was an ideal way to visit this beautiful part of the planet. It combined the comfort, cuisine, and entertainment of an ocean ship with the flexibility, learning, and adventure of an expedition ship.
Also on MoreTimeToTravel.com
The Ultimate Viking Ocean Cruise Packing List
Disclosure: The Nowlans were guests of Viking, but any opinions expressed in this post are their own.
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