Aug 16

Aug 16 Day 12 Day At Sea

Rickee Talks With One Of The Submarine Pilots In The Hangar

Today is our last full day aboard Viking Polaris and our twelfth Viking cruise is quickly coming to an end. We have been covering Viking Cruises on CruiseReport since our first Viking River cruise back in 2003 aboard Viking Danube in Europe. This was our first cruise aboard one of Viking’s two Expedition ships, and it has been a real eye-opening experience to see just how far this company has progressed over the years.

The highlight of today is when guests are invited to tour the ship’s onboard laboratory and The Hangar. The Lab is relatively small and includes a variety of microscopes, computers and other equipment that the science team uses to collect a wide myriad of samples for research.

Dr. Brandi Revels is the Chief Scientist onboard Viking Polaris and she takes time to explain many of the tools they use to collect samples and how they analyze the results. Viking is in a working collaboration with a variety of internationally recognized scientific research organization (see photo on right below).

High-powered microscopes allow scientists to see microplastics and plankton from collected sea water samples.

The Hangar is where Viking Polaris stores all of the “toys” and watercraft on board. It is an impressive collection including kayaks, Zodiacs, Special Operations Boats (2) and two submarines!

These Zodiacs can each carry up to eighteen guests, however, one driver told us they rarely put more than ten guests at a time per Zodiac.

The Special Operations Boats (or, SOBs) can each carry up to twelve guests at speeds of up to 40 knots. These are built for military operations around the world (hence the term, Special Operations), but these have been converted for tourism use.

Massive cranes are used to launch the two onboard submarines.

Each submarine has two “bubbles”, one on each end of the sub. Each “bubble” can seat three guests.

Below, you can see how the two guest-seating pods are configured, with the pilot sitting in the middle. The seating pods can rotate to change the passenger’s view.

Submarines are boarded after the sub is in the water (see below). Guests step from a Zodiac onto the flat roof of the sub, then enter the sub through a hatch in the middle of the roof.

We were so excited to have the opportunity to ride in the one of the subs, but unfortunately, our experience was cancelled due to rough seas. Viking puts the emphasis on guest safety and, if they determine that a guest might have difficulty entering the sub, they cancel the operation, which is what happened in our case.

We spent the rest of the day packing for the trip home and playing one more game of trivia, This evening, we had dinner at Manfredi’s for the third time this cruise. Like always, the meal was excellent, and our waitress, Jane, was amazing.

Tomorrow, we will dock in New York City, Pier 90, and disembark Viking Polaris. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on Notifications so you won’t miss our video review of Viking Polaris.