We set back our clocks again last night and we are now only three hours later than home. We got to sleep in an extra hour and still got up the same time as yesterday. That is why we really prefer transatlantic cruises in this direction!
I got up a little earlier than Stephanie and headed to the coffee bar on Deck 1. It was fairly busy, but I still did not see a lot of people up and about.
Stephanie joined me about 45 minutes later and we sat there for a while trying to figure out some information on our flights for an Alaska trip we have planned for the summer of 2023. Apparently one of our flights from Seattle to Anchorage has been changed, and from what I could see online, it was not makable, we only have 17 minutes for the connection in Seattle. The email from American Airlines, where we booked the trip, wants us to call them because it indicated they could not automatically rebook the flight. Unfortunately, we are just about in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and calling is impossible.
We will either have to wait until we get home or try to call once we get to St. Martin, and where our Spain SIM cards should still work, at least we hope so. In the meantime, we sent an email to our travelling companions for that trip to see if they knew anything, but it just too early for them to be awake to respond.
We went up for breakfast in the World Cafe, and it was pretty crowded. Tomorrow we are planning to go to the Restaurant for a sit down made to order breakfast.
Today’s weather is partly cloudy and not rough at all. The wind is now from the stern quarter, so it is nice and calm on most of the decks. We happened to be walking right by the main pool and the roof was being retracted, so we watched that until it was fully open. It makes a nice area to sit, open now to the natural sunlight and air, but protected from the wind by glass on the outside walls.
Our cabin steward, Irene was still finishing our cabin, so we headed back to Deck 1 to sit and work on this post. Internet connection for outside of the ship is getting really erratic, apparently, there is not much coverage by the satellites in the location we are in the Atlantic Ocean. I am having to write the blog on my local version on my laptop, and will have to copy and paste it later on when we get better internet reception.
We watched the morning session of Corn Hole, which is not what they call it on the ship, it is a much less controversial name, Baggo. The game pits the crew against passengers and it was fun to watch. The first round is normal, not too distant of a throw and both the people and the Baggo boards are on the same level. Then the participants start going up some of the main stairway steps, while the boards stay on the original floor level. Finally, the participants go all the way to the top of the steps for the last round, and making it into the “hole” is worth a lot more points. The passengers won, but only by a small margin.
We headed to the World Cafe Bar at the stern of the ship on Deck 7 and got a late morning beverage, a Peach Bellini for Stephanie and a Vodka with cranberry for me. We sat outside at some tables for a while enjoying the warmer weather and periodic sunshine. It was nice to not have a lot of wind blowing and adding a chill to the air, which was about 75 degrees today.
After a bit we headed back to the room to drop off my laptop since we were planning to go to l Main Restaurant today and check it out for lunch. We were not sure of the dress code for lunch, so we sat in some chairs nearby to the entrance trying to see if my shorts were acceptable. Several men entered with shorts on, so we knew we were good to go.
We got a table near to the same couple we met last night from the UK, and then another lady traveling by herself sat at a table for two right next to ours. We initially talked with the UK couple first, but soon struck up a conversation with the single traveler since she was closer. She was from Rock Hill SC, so we had a lot in common since it is close to Lexington.
We ordered our lunch, I ordered a flounder dish for the main course, a Caesar Salad to go with it and Minestrone soup for an appetizer. Stephanie order the flank steak entrée and also got a Caesar Salad. Both were good, but I was not thrilled with some type of concoction that was served under the flounder. Stephanie’s flank steak was really good, cooked to order and very tender.
We both got a chocolate peanut butter dessert which was the highlight of the meal. They were serving a Pinot Grigio with the lunch today and it was also very good.
We ended up staying well past 2:00 PM talking with Becky from Rock Hill. It was fun, but they were trying to close the restaurant, and we felt we were imposing. Stephanie and I headed back to the room to rest for a bit before heading back out to wander around, eventually winding up at the putt putt course for another round. We then called mom on her Alexa Device, but had difficulty getting her camera turned on for some reason, probably something she has done with the settings on her Alexa by accident.
We had to go and pick up our passports at The Restaurant today at 4:15 PM. they have been keeping them for immigration since we initially boarded in Barcelona.
Christmas Decorations in the Atrium
After that we just relaxed some more. I went out with my camera and took pictures of the ship and of some of the Christmas Decorations that are all around the ship. I also took some pictures and videos of the seas with the setting sun from Deck 2. Stephanie stayed in the cabin and took a nap.
Tonight is lobster night in The Restaurant, so we got showered and dressed to go out and have a glass of wine before dinner.
We had a glass of Coppola Zinfandel, which we had some of last night with our dinner in Manfredi’s, and had really liked. The bartender, Ritz, suggested we try just a taste of a French Wine called Villa Santera, which was also made with Zinfandel Grapes.
Sun Setting Over The Bow
It was good also, and now we have some alternatives since Zinfandel’s are our favorite wine varietal.
After the glass of wine, we headed up to Deck 2 to go to The Restaurant, which is the sit down dining venue.
It was quite surprising that we were arbitrarily seated, and wound up next to our recently met acquaintance from lunch today, Becky from Rock Hill. She was almost finished with her dinner, so she was getting ready to leave, which was good because our waiter, Dominick, was having trouble getting Stephanie to select her dinner items, she was conversing with Becky and not choosing her selections.
Stephanie was finally ready to read the menu, and she chose the Cod as her main course, and I chose the Lobster. We both also ordered a Barramundi Fish cake for an appetizer. We also ordered a gnocchi dish to split. For dessert, Stephine ordered the New York style cheesecake with strawberry topping and I ordered the chocolate lava cake.
We ordered the French Villa Santera wine with our dinners.
The appetizer was really good, it was served with a nice sauce and had great flavor. My lobster was cooked well, it was served grilled. However, the baked potato side was not very warm. There was also a broccoli vegetable medley which was also not that warm. Stephanie liked her cod also, but neither of us liked the gnocchi. We had expected a cream sauce dish, but it was served with red and yellow bell peppers, and that overwhelmed the gnocchi, which was also a little hard to find buried in all of the peppers.
I ordered a second lobster tail, which was served as a complete full dinner. Long gone are the days where you would get just a lobster tail without a complete plate of all of the sides. This lobster tail was much better than the first, it was really warm, it had apparently not sat out in the kitchen long before it was brought to the table. None of the lobsters served on ships today are the large warm water lobster tails, these are all smaller cold water lobster tails, but the one’s served tonight on Viking were a bit larger and better than we have eaten on recent Princess Cruises.
The desserts were next, and for some reason Stephanie’s cheesecake came out with blueberry topping instead of Strawberry, which was served incorrectly by the assistant waiter. Our waiter seemed a little perturbed with that and he went back and got the correct cheesecake. My lava cake was really good, it was very chocolaty, and was served warm with vanilla ice cream in the center,
Stephanie ordered a hot chocolate with Bailys and I drank my Zinfandel wine with the chocolate dessert, a perfect pairing. I also ordered a Limoncello for a digestivo, and I requested the same brand as I had last night in Manfredi’s, which was very good.
Our first dining experience in The Restaurant was good, but not spectacular. The service was good, other than the cheesecake incident. On the plus side, the service was very prompt, and we did not feel like we spent an excessive amount of time in the dining room.
After dinner we headed back to the cabin to pick up our 6 mini bottles of Seagram’s VO and headed up to the Explorer’s Bar. There was just a small amount left in the last bottle of VO on the ship and so we got one more drink each from that bottle before it was completely gone and we had to resort to using our own stash of VO in the mini bottles.
Viking does not care, you are allowed to bring on any alcohol you want and drink it in the public spaces without breaking any rules. We just poured the mini bottle contents into a glass of ice, and the bartender Goiko added the ginger ale and the lime. The couple we met last night from the UK, Angie and Tony, showed up a little later and sat next to us at the bar. We had a good time talking with them as well as some other people that came in later. With the VO now only available in the six mini bottles, we are constrained to only having three drinks each, which is good. Angie and Tony were having issues with their airline flight back to the UK from Miami, apparently all of the immigration services will be on strike for a week in the UK and no one will be able to enter the UK between Christmas and New Years, at least as it was described to them by the airlines. Luckily, they are not scheduled to leave Miami for a few days after we all arrive in Ft. Lauderdale to disembark.
We wondered how they could just completely shut that down immigration for a week, it will be interesting to see if we can follow what really happens after we get home.
At about 11:30 PM, we called it a night and headed back to the cabin.