Last Updated on July 8, 2025
Over the years, we’ve enjoyed more than fifty ocean cruises and at least half a dozen expedition cruises. We didn’t expect a single cruise to combine so many of the best features of each.
Our ship, Viking Neptune, started its 12-day cruise in New York, then took us north to Halifax and Newfoundland before continuing east to Greenland. To our delight, the ship then undertook a clockwise circumnavigation of Iceland, passing by its dramatic volcanic landscapes and visiting several remote communities.
The 930-passenger Viking Neptune was launched in 2022 as one in a series of almost identical ocean ships in the Norwegian-owned Viking fleet. It has a tasteful, practical interior design in subdued shades of cream and brown reflecting its Scandinavian heritage. There are no interior staterooms; all suites feature private balconies.
Comfort and Convenience
All public areas evoke comfort and convenience, featuring numerous sofas and loungers, often accompanied by cozy cushions and sometimes 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. Unlike most cruise ships, there’s no casino.
Viking Neptune’s main swimming pool is in the middle of Deck 7, covered with a sliding glass roof. A smaller infinity pool is located at the rear of Deck 7, as well as an excellent thalassotherapy pool within 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.
Comfortable Suites
Suites can run up to 1448 square feet. Still, our room 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 as well as a coffee maker, mini-bar, and 42” TV with many movie and channel choices.
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. We were disappointed by 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 the combination of daily, printed schedules (increasingly rare but welcomed by many older guests) and the excellent Viking app for electronic devices.
There was no design flaw in the Star Theatre, the main entertainment area, which could accommodate all 930 guests. Modern ocean cruise ships often feature high-tech lighting effects and fine musical performances. Viking Neptune featured an excellent four-piece band and an ensemble of four young British singers, who performed three complex, highly choreographed shows on our cruise.
Renowned for Fine Cuisine
Viking is renowned for its fine cuisine, which features a distinct 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. The waffles were delicious, and for lunch, we enjoyed Smorbrod, open-faced sandwiches with shrimp, salmon, or beef.
Viking Neptune features two specialty restaurants, and there is no additional charge for either. Reservations are required for Manfredi’s, featuring Italian specialties, and The Chef’s Table, which offers a five-course fixed menu with wine pairings. Manfredi’s was the only restaurant with beef that was less than tender (they were very good about a replacement), but the unique aspects of The Chef’s Table made 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).
Top-Rate Enrichment Lectures
Viking Neptune 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 operations boats, or fleet of Zodiacs of its Viking expedition cousins, but it had the support teams, expertise, and a creative, flexible itinerary that made this cruise more like an adventure.
The enrichment team was led by Viking’s resident historian, Commander Michael Cheshire. Every day, especially on sea days, we learned about the myths and reality of Viking explorers and their often dangerous exploits in the northern waters we were sailing through. Iceland’s culture, geography, volcanic geology, and unique flora and fauna were subjects of several fascinating lectures.
Other subjects included Inuit traditions, northern rivers such as the Yukon, skiing across the Greenland ice cap (one lecturer was the first British woman to ski to the North Magnetic Pole), as well as diverse topics like Charles Darwin, Ian Fleming’s James Bond, and car racing. Together, these five lecturers comprised the best enrichment team we’ve ever experienced on a cruise. Their local geography and history talks as we approached each port were especially enlightening.
Expecting the Unexpected
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 cancelled because of high winds. Our second and third stops in small, southern Greenland communities were also cancelled, 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 muktuk, a traditional dish of humpback whale skin and blubber. Delicious…but chewy.
We were fully in expedition mode as we began our clockwise circumnavigation of Iceland. The country is filled with rugged lava fields and glorious fjords. We sailed down two of them to reach the northern Iceland ports, Isafjordur and Akureyri. Fortunately, both communities had docks available for a smaller ship like Viking Neptune, unlike the following 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!
Intriguing Sights
One doesn’t think of botanical gardens in Iceland. Still, 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 volcanic eruption and lava flow destroyed half the town and threatened the harbor entrance.
In this remarkable town of 4,000 residents, located about five miles off the Icelandic coast, a museum has been built around one of the houses demolished by lava but now excavated to display the damage. We walked back to the ship over a lava field, marked occasionally with signs indicating the address of a home buried underneath.
On To Greenland
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 fascinating 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 a modern expedition ship.
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