British Isles Explorer Ocean Cruise
April 7, 2026 - April 29, 2026
Summary
With the exception of back-to-back cruises, this we had the shortest gap between taking two cruises - it was just four months.
One comment on this specific itinerary.
When we were approaching Norway (not in the water, but a couple days out still, but getting closer), we somehow / somewhere learned
that there was another cruise directly after this one called "Viking Homelands". We would have loved to do that one too, and had
I noticed that when I booked this one, I probably would have looked into booked that one too. IF we booked the second while on the
first, we would have lost the money from first cruise's extension - so that pretty much put an end to those thoughts...
Plus the only room that was available was the Explorer's Suite that cost more than $11K. So another no. (The ES would have been a
no-go by itself, but it does help sooth the pain knowing that even if we did get the extension money back, we wouldn't have paid
that much for a room anyway.)
Trip statistics:
- 10,206 [approximate] miles traveled not including all the walking, location / local shuttle / bus rides.
- 219,736 steps, or 83.23 miles [approximate] miles walked by Linda.
- 292,384 steps, or 110.75 miles [approximate] miles walked by Steve.
- 5,036 photos retained (yes, that's more than 200 pics per day... and "retained" because some images were deleted immediately after taking due to blurriness [probably] or a missed opportunity or whatever). This summary does not include all of them either, also because all phone pictures were taken twice due to the lack of preview, and some were combined to create stitches and or panoramic shots.
- 54 videos (though some were clips of the same event, then pieced together).
- 6 countries visited, all new ones to add to our list.
- A lot of exotic cars spotted: Porsche Carreras, a Cabriolet, and GT3s; Bentleys; Rolls-Royces; and Ferraris.
As with our previous Viking cruises, this trip was great. The weather was pretty good and there was only one day with some
brief drizzle. Temps were generally in the 50's F, with a couple days in the beginning in the 40s.
And we saw snow on the ground in the mountains in Norway.
Day 1 (04/07): Travel
including travel
Day 2 (04/08): London, England
including travel, Southwark Cathedral, and St. Paul's Cathedral
Day 3 (04/09): London, England
including British Museum, and the Top Hat
Day 4 (04/10): London, England
including Westminster Abby, Changing of the Guard, a Notting Hill tour with Tea and Scones at Kensington Palace, and the British Library
Day 5 (04/11): Tilbury, England
including embarkation on the Neptune
Day 6 (04/12): Tilbury, England
including fort tour
Day 7 (04/13): Dover, England
including Deal, Dover, and the Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery
Day 8 (04/14): Scenic Sailing, English Channel
including scenic sailing
Day 9 (04/15): Dublin, Ireland
including Powerscout House and Gardens, and The Chef's Table: Xiang
Day 10 (04/16): Liverpool, England
including Beatles experience and ship show "Beatles"
Day 11 (04/17): Holyhead, Wales
including Beaumaris On Foot
Day 12 (04/18): Belfast, Northern Ireland
including Historic Belfast City and ship show "Southern Sounds"
Day 13 (04/19): The Highlands, Scotland
including Picturesque Ullapool and ship show "Sounds of Motown"
Day 14 (04/20): Orkney Islands, Scotland
including Highlights of Historic Orkney
Day 15 (04/21): Edinburgh, Scotland
including Highlights tour, National Museum, The Chef's Table: Lotus, and ship show "And Evening with Simon"
Day 16 (04/22): Aberdeen, Scotland
including highlights tour, and Duthie Park
Day 17 (04/23): Shetland Islands, Scotland
including Shetland Panorama & Ponies, and ship show "The ABBA Songbook"
Day 18 (04/24): Bergen, Norway
including bus tour and foot tour
Day 19 (04/25): Bergen, Norway
including bus tour, Bergen Palace and Bergen Museum
Day 20 (04/26): Bergen, Norway
including a day on our own, visiting 4 Kode museums
Day 21 (04/27): Oslo, Norway
including scenic train ride from Voss to Oslo, and some city walking
Day 22 (04/28): Oslo, Norway
including bus tour, Vigeland Park, Kon-Tiki Museum, Fram Museum, Library, and Opera House
Day 23 (04/29): Travel
including travel home
