New things to experience on a Viking expedition ship

In this post, I will cover three other experiences you can have while sailing on the Viking Octantis on this Great Lakes cruise itinerary. These will include our evening spent traveling through the Welland Canal, our launching a weather balloon from the ship and tracking it online as we sailed, and touring the bridge onboard. All are free events and included for all interested regardless of loyalty status or cabin category.

The Welland Canal first started construction in 1817 and eventually evolved into a channel dug deep enough for boats to travel into the Welland River and on to Lake Erie via the Niagara River. The series of eight locks that took us from Lake Ontario and Toronto where we boarded the ship to Port Colborne where Ontario borders Lake Erie was slated to take all night and some of the early morning. Our first daily schedule called the Viking Daily listed the approximate times that we'd enter each lock. The times ranged from 8:30PM for lock one to 6:45AM for lock eight. Everyone was invited to gather on the bow (bring your bug spray) and enjoy the view this first evening. The bridge cam channel on your cabin TV looks down at this bow so it was fun lying comfy in bed watching the late night passengers who ventured out to watch after dark. We missed the very beginning of the passage due to slow service in The Restaurant but it made for an interesting view as our lower vantage point allowed us to see the venue's windows go from showing sun and water to showing concrete, rivets, and momentary darkness. 

We made it up to the bow after a quick stop back to the cabin for our vox boxes just in time to hear the officers and expedition team members be introduced. Drinks were offered while Osian serenaded the crowd to kick things off. Expedition team member Chris Croxson used a headset with microphone to give some history on the canal and routine updates as we moved into the first lock. It was nice to have the vox box to listen as the evening went on because you could move around the bow looking at different areas while still hearing the lecture. Chris offered to stick around answering questions and many passengers stopped to ask questions. He continued to wear the headset so those of us across the bow listening through the boxes could also hear the answer. It was fun to watch all the people stop on the street level and wave up to us shouting their own questions about the ship. We hung out on the bow until around 10PM before deciding that we needed to surrender and give the space back to the mosquitoes. I was surprised to wake up early the next morning and find that we'd made it through all eight locks hours ahead of schedule. 

A couple days later, we had printed certificates with our names certifying that we'd transited the Welland Canal left in our cabin. They are signed by General Manager Sujith Mohan and Captain Hakan Gustavsson. 

Normally a cruise ship will frown upon throwing anything overboard but Viking's expedition ships have approval to launch a helium filled biodegradable weather balloon from onboard. The balloon is attached to a transmitter and when it reaches a certain height in the atmosphere, it naturally pops and descends back to Earth. Every passenger who is interested can witness the send off and then head back down inside the ship to Expedition Central where Chief Scientist Dr. Kimberly Galvez pulled up the transmitter's info showing location, weather, and many different measurements. Dr. Galvez also showed us how our released balloon was one of thousands all over the world and how we could view the same info from the website on our own devices. 

Dr. Galvez is demonstrating how small the transmitter is by showing us one they'd previously used and recovered.

The deflated weather balloon

The last experience I will cover is getting to tour the bridge onboard. While on most cruise ships, a passenger is only allowed this experience if they are invited (such as an occasional perk for suite guests) or any passenger who is able to book and pay for the Behind the Scenes onboard excursion, we learned while onboard Viking Octantis that they welcome any passenger who wishes to tour the bridge. However, just showing up and knocking on the door expecting a welcome hug with tea and cookies will not work out in your favor. Due to the controlled environment, those who wish to tour the bridge need to let Guest Services know. They will put your names and cabin number on a list and if there is space available during an approved and scheduled small group visit, they will call your cabin to let you know. 

The only time we've actually met the Captain during one of these tours is when we paid for the Behind the Scenes tour on Carnival. Getting a photo with the Captain was part of the experience. That of course was over a decade ago so your mileage may vary if you choose to book that tour. In this day and age given the importance of the bridge officers' duties, guest services did hand out masks at the start of the tour and ask us to wear them for our time on the bridge. Moments into our visit however, the officer told us that we could feel free to take off the masks because "we've all been together on this ship all week already!" I have heard from cruisers who have been invited to the bridge tour on other lines post COVID that they were required to wear the mask the entire time. Keep that in mind as a possibility if you want to pursue this experience. 

Usually, your tour is led by one of the officers on board who is not currently on duty. Having had the privilege to be on several of these tours, I've seen some variation in how much the officer covers in their explanations and how quickly they finish with the tour. I was impressed with how much Wilcliff, 2nd Officer Safety, in this visit took us around showing more than the average spiel. He seemed to thrive on answering our group's questions and took great effort in showing us how and where on the bridge they handle whatever was asked about. 

In case anyone is curious, the bridge officers' drinks of choice are regular Coke and Fanta:

We were welcome to wander around looking at whatever we wanted and pose for pictures. Several took advantage of that classic "I'm the Captain now!" photo at the helm. 

Pretend like you're driving the ship in a storm and just hit a rogue wave:

An extra special part of the experience was that our visit coincided with the time that the local harbor pilot was on board. He helped answer tons of questions about his duties and told jokes and stories along with the officer about their past experiences. During the visit, a boat appeared on the radar system and we got to watch the harbor pilot in action communicating with the boat.