We recently completed a Viking Cruise in China in October 2024. While we were on that cruise, we decided to check into taking an Expedition Cruise to the Arctic. There are incentives with Viking Cruises for booking another future cruise while on a cruise, there is a discount for the future cruise based on the duration of that cruise, as well as $100.00 per person in shipboard credits that are applied to the cruise that we were currently on, in this case, the China Cruise.
Since the only obligation we had under the current promotion is a $25.00 per person deposit for the future cruise, it was an easy economic decision to make, even if we don’t go on that cruise, we receive the $200.00 in shipboard credits at the time of booking, so at worst case, we still are ahead $150.00 if we cancel and loose our $50.00 in deposits.
Had there been a higher non-refundable deposit, it might not have made economic sense to book now since the deposit was due at the time of booking.
We have never planned any trip we have taken that far in advance, and we really did not want to wait until 2026 to take this cruise. However, there were good reasons to wait, and the most significant reason was the difference in the cost of going in the Summer of 2025 versus 2026. The current pricing for 2025 was about $8000.00 higher than for 2026 because of the current demand. In addition, 2025 is the first season for Viking in the Arctic, and there will inevitably be some kinks to work out in the first season.
Also, this is a new Expedition Destination for Viking, they have not previously offered Expedition Cruises in the Arctic, the two Expedition ships are normlly sailing in the Great Lakes during the summer, and then they return to the Antarctic in the winter months, which is summertime in the Southern Hemisphere.
Only one of the two expedition ships will sail the Arctic during the summers of 2025 and 2026, the other will remain in the Great Lakes region.
We will continue to monitor the pricing for 2025 in case there are any reductions, we can move our 2026 reservation over to another cruise if need be.
We will not make many updates to the blog for this trip unless our plans change. However, we will add an Itinerary based on the information Viking has provided to us. We currently do not have any plans to extend this trip before or after the cruise, but that could change as we find out more information. One thing that we do not know much about is the airfare, specifically, how we get to Nuuk, Greenland and back. There are not any current flights from the USA directly to Nuuk, most flights route through Iceland. We are using Viking for our airfare, mostly because of the uncertainty in flights. We do not know if Viking will charter any planes to fly there from the US, or just use commercial flights to get people to Iceland, and then maybe use charter flights from there to Nuuk.
This is all for now.
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