In May of 2025 we embarked on the Viking Neptune cruise ship at Manhattan’s Cruise terminal to travel up the coast of the USA and Canada, on to Greenland and finally take an extended tour around the magical island of Iceland. As I have done many times before now, I have gathered my best photographs of the cruise to create an extended personal review of this cruise to help future passengers anticipate and plan for their excursions and to give past passengers a chance to relive their cruise through my adventures. I’ll write articles about each of the ports we visited on our way from New York to Reykjavik. I’ve also created a narration in case you wish to listen to the article and just browse the photos:
Looking for something other than Iceland? You will find the index to all the Viking cruises I have reviewed on this page as well as details of a very useful extra discount we discovered.
Getting to New York City
We often use the included Viking Air options with our cruises, especially when the port of departure is a long way from the airport. Having someone from Viking meeting you after a long international flight and making sure you are transported to the ship with your luggage can be very comforting. This particular cruise was different, however. We were flying into Newark the evening before our departure and planned to go on from Reykjavik to London to continue our vacation in England, and so we booked our own air flights. The Newark connection was easy – we booked a car with Blacklane to meet us on arrival and had booked an overnight stay in the La Quinta near Times Square. Pretty interesting choice, you might think – but I do have Wyndham Reward points, and this hotel has a fantastic rating from previous guests. It was small – fitting into the space of one original home I think and so you only had four rooms on each floor, but each room was perfect for one night. Clean, comfortable and not too far from the Manhattan cruise terminal. The choice of a private car worked out so much better than we expected. There was extensive road works near the tunnels to New York and so the journey probably took twice the time we expected, but it was all prepaid and very comfortable.
Just one warning about booking your own flights though. I booked a flight from Reykjavik to London for 7:40am with Icelandair thinking that it just meant getting up early and leaving the ship in enough time to get to the airport. There was a mid-morning flight with British Airways, but it was a few hundred dollars more expensive. A couple of days before the cruise ended, I asked what time the ship was going to dock – 6am! Zero chance of getting to the airport for our flight. So, I had to book with British Airways at a higher cost and throw away my Icelandair tickets. We did make it to the airport using an Uber. Penny wise, pound foolish is the English saying that comes to mind!
A morning in Hudson Yards NY
The day of departure was sunny and warm but pretty gusty, and so we decided to stroll from the hotel to Hudson Yards and the start of the High Line pedestrian walkway toward Manhattan. This area of New York City has been changed enormously with new modern office and apartment buildings plus interesting sights like the Vessel and the Edge observation deck high up in one of the new skyscrapers. We stayed close to the ground and thoroughly enjoyed the sights and the abstract photo opportunities they presented.
This next unusual building is the outside shell of the Shed. It is a retractable cover for the art and entertainment space here in Hudson Yards.
This next one is the Vessel. You can climb all these sloping pathways and get great views of the city from the various balconies. The tall buildings behind remind me a little of the Vessel taking a quick cigarette break!
Did I creep up on an unsuspecting pigeon on the High Line pedestrian walkway? Not really. This art installation is about 12 feet tall!
Departing from New York on the Viking Neptune headed north towards Canada
With a late check-out from the La Quinta hotel, we simply needed to organize an Uber to go from there to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. I carefully entered the address provided by Viking and our ride arrived pretty quickly. The journey to the terminal was not far – it could almost have been walked, although not with two suitcases! But the docks here are pretty extensive, and our driver was not too sure where to go. We kept driving north as dock after dock passed by and he kept wanting to turn round, but we stuck with the address and eventually arrived in the right place to deposit our luggage and check in. For some reason, we had not received the room tags and so we left our luggage with nothing but our red Viking name tags attached. There was a lot of confusion about whether we needed to check in and then return with a room tag, but we were assured our luggage would be fine. And it was! The check in process was pretty smooth as usual, and we were on the ship having a late lunch in no time at all.
It had been cloudy all afternoon which was pretty disappointing, but as 5pm got closer, the clouds got thinner and soon the conditions for photos of the departure from New York were perfect.
It turned out to be a lovely afternoon for watching the skyline of Manhattan drift by. We always try to get one of the cabins on the stern of the ship if we can. There are two cabins in the center of the stern on each deck, 3, 4, and 5. Deck 5 is immediately below the small swimming pool, but we have never had any issues with that. You tend to leave each port in the late afternoon, and it is always a great view sitting on your balcony and watching the port disappear! I put that to good use on this trip by filming the receding skyline of New York from the comfort of our own balcony.
The clouds continued to disappear as we sailed south down the Hudson River to give us a great view of the Financial District of the city.
Finally, we started to leave the city behind as we sailed down the estuary. Here we see Manhattan with the wake from the ships propellors directly under our balcony.
And, finally, a very wide panoramic view of Manhattan and Brooklyn as we sailed away and our thoughts moved towards our first dinner on board the Viking Neptune.
The next day was spent at sea sailing up the coast of the USA towards Halifax in Nova Scotia and our excursion to Peggy’s Cove.
