It was partly cloudy when I woke up at about 8:30 AM this morning. I got dressed and headed to the World Cafe for some breakfast, letting Stephanie sleep in again.
We did not have a lot planned for today other than to go to the Future Cruise presentation at 2:00 PM which is all about the Viking trips to China. We were asked by the Future Cruise representative to give a short speech on our experiences. Michael and Suzie will also be there to add their thoughts.
I came back to the room after breakfast with the usual plate of food for Stephanie.
I worked on yesterday’s blog post until Stephanie woke up. We wanted to get the room cleaned, so I grabbed the laptop and we headed to Deck 2 to sit and process some photos from the trip. Stephanie went outside for a short walk, it was too cold and windy for the clothes she had on.
After about an hour, we headed back to the room, but it was just now getting cleaned, so we dropped off our gear and headed back out.
It was near to lunchtime, so we headed to the World Cafe buffet for a bite to eat.
After lunch, we went back to the cabin, took showers, and then got ready for the China Presentation that we were attending at 2:00 PM.
We headed down to the Star Theatre at 2:00 PM and got seats in the front row. The Future Cruise Rep. Joeffery started the presentation and then handed the mic to the four of us down on the front row. Michael went first, then Suzie, then Stephanie and finally it was my turn. The problem was that they had already covered most of the items that I had thought about discussing, so I had to come up with something new on the fly.
It was not hard to do, there were not that many people in the theatre. After we all finished, they continued the presentation, showing all of the different itineraries for China, and now including some for China and Japan combined since Viking has added several cruises that also include stops in Japan. There was no trip this season that was exactly like ours. They have added some cruise port stops, but have not increased the duration, so there is less time spent on the land portion. We could not tell where they had reduced it, but we had a nine-day cruise and the same trip now has at least 12 days cruising, so three days of land trip had to be deleted somewhere.
On a side note, late back at the room, we figured out that there was no time sent in Beijing before the cruise starts It appeared that now everyone flies into Beijing and then immediately are taken to the ship at a port near Beijing. That is a shame, now the three days we spent exploring Beijing are now covered through an additional cost pre-cruise extension and they are very expensive through Viking.
For our participation in the presentation, the four of us received a specially made cake that was covered with red frosting, with a special chocolate-filled gold leaf-covered snake on top for the decoration to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which is the Year of the Snake this year.
After the presentation concluded, Stephanie and I headed back to the room for a bit of rest.
We received a text from Suzie and Michael, they were in the Winter Garden area on the pool deck, so we headed up there to sit with them. They were actually sitting at a table for four, and the staff were setting up for the Afternoon Tea that is done there every afternoon we are at sea. Stephanie and I have never done that, so we stayed and participated. It was nice, they served a tall multi-layer tray of finger foods, and we ordered our tea from their tea menu. We do not know a lot about tea, so Stephanie just ordered a Green tea and I ordered an Earl Grey.
Some of the food items were good, some were not, and there were some ingredients that we do not normally like to eat. It was interesting, but not “our cup of tea” so to speak.
For some reason, my stomach started to ache, so I headed back to the room, Stehanie followed a short time later and we just relaxed. I think I had too much coffee this morning, and it is a much stronger coffee than I normally drink at home.
I felt better not long after, and we coordinated with Suzie and Michale to meet them at the World Cafe for dinner. They were serving a surf-n-turf tonight, and it was good. They served the grilled lobster tails again with a cut of beef, it was not a steak, more like a prime rib.
After dinner, we each headed our separate ways, Stephanie and I went to the Explorer’s Bar for a nightcap, and Suzie and Michale headed back to their cabin for the evening.
We did not stay long, we have an early morning tomorrow, we have to be up around 7:00 AM to eat breakfast and then be ready for our tour of Amsterdam that starts at 9:00 AM
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