20260609 Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Scenic Cruising Norway Inside Passage

20260609 Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Scenic Cruising Norway Inside Passage

Scenic cruising through the inside of Norway’s Inside Passage has provided a full day, as in 24 hours, worth of scenic viewing.  The ship spent the entire day and night navigating narrow channels between hundreds of islands.  There are a lot of very wild and remote islands and headlands extending thousands of feet up into the sky amongst all the fjords and beyond.

Despite the wildness of the geology, there are a surprising number of villages and cities along today’s route.  Some are not much more than a few buildings on a green pasture at the base of a narrow valley flattening onto the sea.  Others are sizable cities with industrial waterfronts.  

Norway has lots of ferries of various sizes, including some that might qualify as small cruise ships. 

 
Another surprise has been how mild the weather has been.  While we were in sight of ice fields and glaciers the whole day, the air temperature outside has been in the mid to upper 60’s for much of the day.  We are told that prevailing ocean currents bring warm Atlantic waters along this part of Norway’s coastline, allowing it to have many ice-free winter ports despite the cold winter air temperatures. 

 
Our day started off with a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant followed by lectures and port talks.  There was a trivia at noon.  Ben and Janet ended up by themselves and missed winning by one point on questions that others in our traveling group would have known the answers to, but winning too frequently at trivia can bring on what the Aussies refer to as Tall Poppy syndrome.  It’s good to stay humble.  

There have been lectures on Viking history and culture which have slowly been filling in our knowledge gaps regarding the Scandinavian peoples and how they came to be Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

The World Cafe featured Norwegian hot dogs, which start with a reindeer sausage served on a crepe-like tortilla-sized round flatbread seasoned with mustard and crispy fried onions.  The reindeer sausage had a decent casing snap, a very fine texture, and seasoning not unlike American ballpark franks.  

The ship had a reception for the Explorer’s Society featuring canapes, champagne and a brief performance by the vocalists in the atrium.  We got to say hello to the captain and figured out that the woman who had been escorting the VIP’s from Eidsdal was in fact Captain Knutsen’s wife. 

At 6 p.m., the ship crossed the Arctic Circle, passing a sculpture on a tiny island while the ship blew its horn for all to hear.  It was certainly easier to spot this monument than the one marking Cape Horn at the southern end of South America.  And the weather has been remarkably pleasant on the outside decks despite crossing over the Arctic Circle.

We were able to get our Manfredi’s reservation moved up to 6 p.m.  Having had prior experiences with overeating at Manfredi’s, we showed restraint and didn’t have to waddle out of there afterwards.  We had opted for the chef’s special pasta of the day which was a shell pasta filled with butternut squash, and fish of the day, which was sea bass on a seafood stew.

Getting the dinner moved up allowed us to catch the production singer’s Motown tribute, which was a decent and energetic show.  

In our experience, Viking Ocean usually has an ensemble of two female and two male vocalists who do their production shows in conjunction with the ship’s 4 piece live band.  The Cruise director and assistant cruise directors usually also bring vocal talent aboard in addition to guest performers.  This ensemble of vocalists were from the UK and all quite talented.  

Tomorrow we arrive at Narvik, which served as a critically important iron ore transshipment site for iron ore mined in Sweden during WWII.  It was occupied by Nazis for 5 years after bloody naval and land battles.