Cruise day: 1/152
Sea days: 0
Port days: 1
Ports: 1
Countries: 1
It's cruise day and it started out with a call from our driver - she was running about 30 minutes late. Doh! Not a big deal, really, as we had wiggle room in the schedule. And, I appreciated her proactive communication. We got the suitcases all lined up and ready to go.
Right before her arrival, we sealed up the remaining sinks and toilet, turned off the water to the house, the water heater, water softener, and ice maker. We also unplugged all the TVs and the bidet. We were ready!
Our driver, Dana, arrived in a Ford Edge. I was a little worried about the luggage fitting, but everything did fit in the back except my carry-on and that fit in the front seat footwell. We hit the road about 8:45 AM.
We had a comfortable ride to Port Everglades.
We arrived about 1pm, rested and ready to board the Viking Star. Or so we thought. Here's where the day kind of went off the rails.
This photo only shows a small part of the line, or more correctly lines that we had to endure to board the ship. With a theoretical maximum of 930 passengers, and with COVID, a subset of that number, we figured that the lines wouldn't be bad. We were wrong.
It all started with the two lines to go through the metal detector and carry-on baggage x-ray machines. It was slow, like really slow, but that was because the next line wasn't moving and there was nowhere to go, so they artificially slowed us down. Once through that line, we entered line #2.
Line #2 took us to the mandatory health screening questions and COVID test results review. We had to present a negative test result no more than two days before boarding. We did all that and moved to line #3.
Line #3 was a mandatory nasal PCR test. It took us well over an hour for this portion of the boarding fiasco. Once they stuck the swabs up our noses, we sat (the first time in two hours) for a little over 20 minutes, waiting for the test results. Our samples were all lined up sitting on a table.
Once cleared as COVID-free, we went to line #4.
Line #4 is where we were photographed, presented with our Bluetooth contract tracing disk, and room keys.
Finally, more than two-and-a-half hours later, we were allowed onto the ship. Woo! One benefit of the amazingly disorganized and slow boarding process was there was plenty of time to get our bags to our room before we got there. We did a basic unpacking and then headed to the Explorer's Lounge for a cocktail.
Even this was disappointed. The lounge was understaffed, and even with a modest group of customers, service was very slow and spotty. We decided to venture out and find another venue.
Along the way, we ran into other Central Florida cruisers, John & Bina. and wound up having a drink with them in the Viking Bar. We also connected with Jim, a great guy who has coordinated a lot of pre-cruise communication on Facebook and Cruise Critic. In an unusual coincidence, it turns out he was a college roommate of someone I went to high school with.
The ship was nicely decorated for Christmas.
So, day 1 was disappointing, and I trust not a harbinger of how this entire cruise is going to go. We are hopeful that these were just a few bumps in the road, and it will all get better from here. Of course, we were supposed to sail at 6 PM, updated to 8 PM. As I type this, it is approaching 9 PM and we're still docked.
With the long day, and it is Christmas Eve, after dinner, we returned to our room, turned on Elf, and relaxed.
Tomorrow is a sea day and we'll continue unpacking and organizing, finding places for our stuff in this 270 square foot mansion we will call home for the next 138 days until we reach Bergen. Then, we will move to a different 270 square foot mansion.
Tomorrow is Christmas and another day. We're expecting it to get better from here.
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