Seeing the Northern Lights was on our bucket list. This was the first cruise we noticed that offered that opportunity. We have sailed Viking before so we were aware of the restaurants, food, etc. so we snapped at the chance and signed up. Obviously, sailing the north Atlantic in JANUARY is probably not the smartest thing to do if you get sea sick easily, and there are no guarantees that the northern lights will even be out. But, no "pain", no gain!

The weather was not cooperating right out of the gate. We left Tilbury and headed to Stavenger in moderate seas. Leaving Stavenger, we were almost immediately notified that we would skip Bodo because of the heavy weather. We sailed the largest fjord in the area to pass time...…….it was gorgeous scenery. Further, the captain sailed inside passage routes as much as possible. After Narvik, we sailed to Bergen for a two night stay. However, the seas were very rough and we were very late into Bergen, like so late all excursions were cancelled\ in Bergen. Viking was very open in keeping us up on the (lack of) progress and was very quick to refund all cancelled excursion costs. So, if you take this cruise, do not be surprised if the weather causes problems and modifications to the schedule are made.

As we were there for the lights, we took an optional excursion that went out and searched for the lights. Well, we saw them on the excursion but the lights were very unimpressive. We were also told that to take pictures of the lights you needed to take a 5-6 second exposure. So, the next night, while on board the ship, the announced that the lights were out and could be seen right from the ship, in port. We went out and WOW, were blown away by the display. I said that I was going to try and get a picture with my cell phone camera...…....easy to delete bad pictures so no real effort...……..but to my amazement, I got several really god pictures of the lights!!!!!!!!!!! We were tickled pink! (Just remember to turn off the flash on your cell phone). Read more