We had a reasonable first night sleep, our room was perfectly quiet at the back of the hotel, and the blackout curtains worked well. The day dawned bright and sunny, again!

We chose to skip breakfast at the hotel, in part because we’re pretty conservative travelers when it comes to Covid exposure and public places, but also because we figured we could easily wait until onboard!

We asked the front desk to arrange a cab for us, which they cheerfully agreed to. Re-packing was a little challenging simply because there wasn’t enough floor space in the room to have both suitcases easily open at the same time, but we managed! Soon enough it was time to check out and await the cab in front of the Hotel.

Once loaded in the cab there was some uncertainty on the part of the driver about precisely which port we were heading to, he seemed more concerned than I would have expected. Easy enough to address as the precise port information is on the email received from Viking.

Soon enough we were at the cabin on the dock where the first check of paperwork occurs, at about 11:10am, and very polite young Icelanders took our cases. There was one cab ahead of us and no line inside the cabin. We were handed an envelope with our cruise cards and excursion tickets, and invited onboard.

Onboarding was very quick, with a more formal check of paperwork and passports, and then we were directed to our muster station in The Restaurant where the safety drill was conducted, with sparkling wine 🙂

Having skipped breakfast we were ready for lunch, and so took ourselves to The World Cafe – we were seated there by 11:28am.

No surprise, World Cafe is busy on embarkation day! Our second seating choice facing the Aquavit Terrace was much calmer, and we didn’t know at this point that this would become our “go-to” spot throughout the trip

I started with an excellent bowl of noodle soup from the Asian station on the Port side of the area. Blue water glasses are still, green are sparkling water – that’s how the waiters keep them straight. The tables just to the side of the bar proved to be our absolute favorites, as you’re out of traffic but part of the banter of the staff at the back of the bar – you’ll get excellent wine service there as a result.

After lunch, and since rooms weren’t ready yet, we decided to take a quick tour of the decks.

What must be Reykjavik’s most photographed building – I believe a restaurant no longer open?

Fun to see some of Ecolab’s products in use, the first of many places we’d encounter them onboard – I work for Ecolab 🙂

We played Boules, poorly, but much to our own enjoyment.

By 2pm it really did look as if the suitcases were winning a Tolkienesque battle. Our cabin was ready but we’d nothing to unpack, so went back to enjoy the ship.

We visited Guest Services to book a Bridge Tour for a sea day. These are free, but you need to know to go and ask at Guest Services in order to be added to one. There’s a lovely seating area in a Library just forward of the Living Room Cafe/Bar.

We sat to read, and enjoy the Jaquard Brut Champagne, available by the glass as part of our Silver Spirits beverage package.

The elegant upper level of The Explorer’s Lounge:

You could visit Iceland a dozen times and not have weather as nice as our first evening onboard

Cocktails in The Explorers Lounge are a lovely moment in the evening, with sun late into the evening

8:15 in the evening and the glorious sunshine continues