Ever dreamt of exploring untouched corners of the earth? Yeah, me too (like all day lengthy)! That’s why being onboard the Viking Octantis is topping my cruising bucket listing. Neglect large cruise ships with casinos and water slides – this expeditionary vessel is all about one factor: exploration.
Suppose zodiac landings, submarine dives, and lectures by consultants who actually know their sciency stuff. Plus, the Octantis is filled with cool onboard actions, from snow showers (critically!) to climate balloon launches.
Right here’s my picks for issues to not miss whereas onboard your Octantis, whether or not your Viking Cruise takes you to the Arctic or on the 8-Day Niagara & Nice Lakes cruise that I took.
Issues to Do Onboard the Viking Octantis
1. Expertise the Nordic Bathing Expertise
The beautiful onboard spa features a bathing expertise from the Nordic Tradition—which is all included for FREE! This custom alternates between heating up and cooling right down to detoxify, loosen up muscle mass and stimulate circulation. And despite the fact that I hate being chilly, there’s no approach I used to be lacking it.
The steps had been to first loosen up within the sauna, then refresh with a chilly bucket bathe (brr!), afterwards warmth up within the out of doors badestamp and at last step into the snow bathe. Then repeat.
P.S. The snow bathe that shoots precise snow down from the ceiling is additional bucket listing worthy. So, in case you skip every little thing else, not less than do that!
2. Order a Lobster Sushi Roll
It was a particular deal with that they served lobster EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. And I undoubtedly ate my share slathered in clarified butter.
However, right here’s an insider tip: in case you take that lobster from the World Cafe Grill over to the sushi part they may flip it right into a yummy sushi roll!
3. Discover The Disguise
A dimly lit speakeasy that options a number of the crew telling fascinating expedition tales? Signal me up! Viking Octantis has simply the place for like-minded individuals who have a way of journey and exploration: The Disguise.
This speakeasy is sort of tough to seek out, as a result of they deliberately preserve it under-the-radar. The thought is that, like several good explorer, you’ll discover it solely by exploring the ship and asking round. However as soon as you discover it, what awaits you is a gentle move of drinks and wonderful (and typically instructional) tales from its host/audio system.
Trace: you may solely get there from the bow aspect of the boat and solely from sure flooring. And being a speakeasy, you may’t get something however straight-up liquor inside (so, I introduced my very own wine, in fact).
4. Watch the Climate Balloon Launch
The Viking Octantis (in addition to its sister ship, Polaris) specialise in significant scientific work, so as soon as per week they launch and observe a climate balloon in distant areas like Antarctica and the Nice Lakes, and the visitors get to see it!
This often is introduced within the each day schedule and occurs on the highest deck, so remember to catch it if you wish to see science in motion! After they let the balloon off you may go to the expedition middle and watch the graphs of them reside monitoring it, to see how excessive and much it goes.
Enjoyable reality: The Viking Octantis is definitely the primary civilian ship to be designated as an official climate balloon launch station by the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
5. Take the Artwork Stroll
There’s art work displayed all through the ship (every space has a distinct theme!). Most of them are Norwegian, that are made by famend in addition to up-and-coming artists. Additionally they are available all kinds of mediums, like digital prints, pictures, and oil work.
One thing that I discovered cool is that subsequent to the art work there’s a small informational plaque displayed that has the artist’s info plus a quantity. When you go to the Viking Voyager app. you may key on this quantity and get much more details about that particular piece of artwork.
6. Eat Grandma’s Norwegian meals at Mamsen’s
All of the meals on this small eating part are conventional Norwegian recipes straight from “Mamsen”, the grandmother of Viking’s senior vp, Karine Hagen.
DON’T miss out on the Ertesuppe (Cut up Pea Soup), it was my favourite! Different must-tries embody Mamsen’s authentic recipe waffles and open-faced sandwiches. One thing that caught my eye too are billboards of her grandma’s recipes displayed all through.
7. Trip on a Zodiac
When you’re taking an expedition cruise, then it’s nearly a certain factor that one among your excursions will embody a Zodiac trip (climate allowing in fact). The ship has 17 of those Particular Operations Boats, so don’t miss taking a trip on one.
8. Play Video games on a Video Desk
Within the “Residing Room” on Deck 5, you will see an interactive video desk the place you may play video games like air hockey, checkers or blackjack. You may even flip the desk right into a digital canvas and decide to attract a masterpiece! If was a routine for my husband and I to play a couple of video games of blackjack each evening earlier than dinner.
9. Learn a Good E book
Additionally on Deck 5, there are numerous seating areas with loaded bookshelves which makes it simple to dive into a great e book. The books had been expertly curated by Heywood Hill Libraries in London and most are associated to particular locations, just like the Arctic and Antarctica.
10. Trip in a Submarine
If there’s a chance to trip within the submarine…DO IT! My itinerary didn’t embody it, however we did get to go inside and take a look. They’ve two 6-seater yellow submarines onboard, named Paul and John (from the Beatles).
Tip: You are able to do this as a part of their non-obligatory tour program on a few of their Antarctica, The Arctic, Nice Lakes, and Grand Journeys itineraries. If it’s one thing you actually need to do, be sure that to ask earlier than reserving.
11. Get a Signature Spa Service
There are a lot of distinctive spa companies provided onboard, however why not strive one among their signature ones? The Arctic Face Firming is one that’s particular for the ship, whereas the Nordic Facial is featured onboard all of the Viking Cruises. I had the latter of the 2, it was uber-relaxing and included the usage of cold and hot stones on my face.
12. Assist with a Puzzle
All through the cruise unfinished puzzles are randomly positioned across the ship. Cease and assist out with one! Each time I walked by one, somebody totally different was engaged on finishing one.
Halfway via the cruise most had been completed and the workers allow us to benefit from the masterpieces for a day after which changed them with recent puzzles.
13. Get the Viking Bistecca at Manfredi’s
A number of folks informed me that the Viking Bistecca on the Italian restaurant Manfredi’s was their absolute favourite dish on the boat. So, I needed to strive it—and so do you. It’s a thick-cut ribeye coated in garlic oil and rubbed with porcini mushroom powder, kosher salt, brown sugar and pink chili flakes. Want I say extra?
For the Antipasti dish don’t miss the parmigiana di melanzane di manfredi! The layered eggplant dish was so scrumptious I had it two nights in a row!
14. Witness A Lock
A lock in a canal is sort of a large elevator for boats. Canals aren’t all the time flat, so locks elevate or decrease boats between totally different water ranges. This fashion, boats can journey the complete size of the canal, even when there are modifications in elevation. It by no means ceases to amaze me to see this intelligent engineering feat at work!
Our cruise went via the Welland Canal (connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario) which had a whopping 8 locks and took about 12 hours to get via! It was fascinating to go to the bow to look at because the our ship went via one among these.
15. Order Room Service
Nothing says luxurious fairly like ordering room service — breakfast in mattress anybody? They’ve 24-hour room service, with a complimentary menu that options objects all through the day, from breakfast choices like oatmeal and pancakes to dinner selections like pasta, grilled salmon, and burgers.
What’s extra, you can too order from the menus of the ship’s specialty eating places throughout their open hours. Throughout lunch and dinner hours, they provide complimentary wine, alcohol, and gentle drinks.
16. Attend a Lecture or Discuss
Being an expedition/scientific kind of ship, Viking Octantis includes a staff of resident consultants on board. They provide lectures and shows all through the cruise on quite a lot of subjects associated to the itinerary. A few of these may embody a chat on climate balloons, a knots workshop, and even an explorer diary story telling (which generally occurs in The Disguise).
Many of those talks are held at The Aula, a wide ranging panoramic auditorium modeled after the famend ceremonial corridor of the College of Oslo.
From climate balloon launches to snow showers these distinctive moments onboard the Viking Octantis aren’t simply actions—they’re reminiscences within the making.