It is disembarkation day on Viking Polaris and I am up even earlier than usual. It is completely dark outside when I arrive at World Cafe, but I can see the lights of New York City on the horizon as I begin my day.

We were instructed to have our checked luggage outside of our stateroom by 10pm last night. Actually, one document said before midnight, but an announcement from our Expedition Leader, Marc, said before 10pm. We go to bed early enough that having our large duffel back out before 10pm was not an issue. We placed the Group Blue 1 tag on the luggage and set it into the hallway.

By around 4:45am, I could see what I think is the Verrazano Bridge coming into view on the horizon. Forgive my lack of knowledge of the bridges in NYC and please correct me if I am wrong. I stepped outside to get some photos.

By 5:30am, many guests were on the outer decks and at the bow to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as we sail past on our way into New York City.

By 6am, Lady Liberty was coming into view and the Captain did sail close enough to allow us to get a good look. Those with good cameras and fast zoom lenses were probably able to get some decent photos. My somewhat grainy photos came from my iPhone 13 Pro with 3X zoom.

The New York City skyline passed right beside me at World Cafe as I continued to work on my previous day’s blog.

Our disembarkation instructions asked that we vacate our stateroom by 8am and that breakfast service in World Cafe would end at 8:30am. We have a transfer to the airport provided by Viking since we booked our air through Viking’s Air Department. We are keeping our fingers crossed that disembarkation goes more smoothly than embarkation. Read our Day 1 blog if you want more information on that.

We ended up leaving our stateroom about 8:05am and were shocked when we had no trouble getting a completely empty elevator to go from Deck 3 forward to Deck 5. On most cruise ship disembarkation days, you can wait painfully long periods of time for an elevator especially if you are waiting on one of the lower decks.

We leave our hand luggage in The Living Room and go to World Cafe for some coffee and a light breakfast. World Cafe has a full buffet breakfast on disembarkation day and we are surprised to see that it is not as crowded as we expected. In fact, we have never felt like any space on the ship was overcrowded during this entire cruise. We were told that there were 336 guests on this sailing and the ship’s capacity is 378. And, honestly, I don’t think another 42 guests would have made the ship feel any more crowded.

Announcements over the ship’s PA system began calling for groups holding various colored luggage tags to meet in The Living Room at about 8:30am, a little later than expected. Apparently, there were some delays in getting the ship cleared by US Customs which delayed disembarkation by about 30 minutes.

Our Blue 1 group was originally scheduled to meet in The Living Room at 9:00am for our coach transfer to the airport, but due to the delays, we ended up disembarking at about 9:20am. We swiped our room keys for the last time and walked to the cruise terminal to claim our checked luggage. As we walk to the terminal, I catch a parting shot of Viking Polaris docked at NYC Pier 90.

When we arrived in the terminal building, our luggage was very easy to spot. There were only about 15 pieces of luggage in the Blue 1 luggage tag area. This disembarkation is so much simpler and less stressful than the one we did with 5,000 other people less than a month ago on Carnival Venezia.

With all of our luggage in hand, we literally breezed through Immigration and Customs and were seated on the waiting motor coach within fifteen minutes after disembarking the ship. Viking crew members in red shirts were scattered throughout the cruise terminal to answer questions or provide directions for guests who needed help.

Disembarkation was the smoothest we have experienced in a very long time. Now, to be fair, it is much easier to disembark 336 guests than 5,000 but, nevertheless, the Viking Polaris disembarkation was extremely well organized and executed.

In spite of all the New York City traffic, we arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our 1:47pm return flight to Dallas-Ft. Worth. We even had some time to enjoy the newly refurbished Admiral’s Club at LaGuardia. Luckily, our flight was right on time. This is the second time in a month we have flown from NYC to DFW and we will be doing so, yet again, next month after disembarking our Crystal Serenity cruise.

Just in case you are flying from NYC to DFW on American, they are using a Boeing 737 aircraft and, on this flight, we were able to get a really good price on an upgrade to First Class. Even at the special rate, neither of us felt like the First Class experience was worth the cost. On our flight last month, we were able to get Main Cabin Extra seats in Exit Row 17 and the legroom was better than in First Class! The meal service was a fail. Rickee and I pre-ordered a chicken dish online and the chicken was tough and dry. The bread was served warm, but there was no butter! And, the only dessert offered was a raspberry sorbet. Neither Rickee nor I like raspberry. Also, there was no drink offered or served with the meal. No water and no wine! The service was so lacking that Rickee did something she had never ever done on a flight before: she rang the call bell! No, the upgrade was not worth the cost.

Dry chicken breast and no butter in first class

Our advice, save the money on First Class, grab an exit row seat in Main Cabin Extra and buy your own meal at the airport to bring onboard. Eventually you will be offered something to drink.

It has been another amazing cruise with Viking. Soon we will be posting a video review to our YouTube channel, so make sure you are subscribed and have Notifications turned on.

Rickee Richardson and Chris Dikmen are travel journalists from Dallas, Texas.

Viking Polaris

Day 13 - Disembarkation in NYC

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