World Cruise Day 39 - Sea Day - Whoa..., Cronuts, and Chinese New Year

Cruise day: 39/152
Ports days: 12
Sea days: 27
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 8

Whoa.  Yesterday, I mentioned that Arlona was feeling a little stomach distress, most likely from the constant motion of the ship.  Nothing bad - just a little acidy feeling.  Well, dear readers, Viking is reading as well as we got a call from the ship's nurse last night checking in. She said an officer read my blog and asked her to check in on Arlona. "It is stomach issues or upper GI?  Does she have diarrhea?"  Viking is overly cautious on this cruise because the ongoing success of this cruise is directly related to ensuring that nothing spreads through the ship.  Think COVID, norovirus, or other crazy-contagious diseases.  I assured the nurse that it was just stomach distress related to being at sea for five days straight with essentially continuous movement.  Once we hit land for a day, all will be well.  She was satisfied and ended the call.  The takeaway here is twofold.  1) Viking is listening, and; 2) Viking is responsive to concerns.  Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

On that note, we have been COVID-free for many days now.  Let's face it - those of us on this ship are in the safest place on this entire planet right now, at least in terms of COVID.  That's a pretty amazing thing.  I have a friend on the Viking Octantis right now as it makes its inaugural sailing to Antarctica.  They were so excited about their excursion today, they forgot to leave their COVID salvia sample before they left the ship.  When they returned, they were immediately confined to their room until they completed the test.  Viking is serious!

This is the person responsible for all this, Dr. Raquel C. Bono.

Dr. Bono is a retired Vice Admiral of the United States Navy Medical Corps and Viking’s Chief Health Officer.  Under her direction, Viking installed full-scale PCR testing labs on all Viking Ocean ships and partnered with local labs in ports for their riverboat sailings.  Viking is serious about passenger safety and being able to return to sailing and we see evidence of that daily here on the Viking Star.

We did manage to stay up last night as I had the start time for the second football game wrong.  We enjoyed seeing Matthew Stafford and the Rams punching their ticket to the Superbowl.  It's amazing how well so many players do once they get away from the Detroit Lions.

 We did the usual sea day stuff - bridge and trivia.  In bridge, the instructor, Agnes, congratulated everyone as we should no longer consider ourselves as newbie beginners.  I'm not sure what we are, but I'd say, regular beginners.  There is so much to learn about the game of bridge.  I now understand how some people study bridge their entire lives.

Trivia was hard today.  The winners only got 10/15 correct.  We rang in with a lowly 7/15 - should have been 8.  John Lennon's middle name?  Winston. Which three states have statutes that prohibit walking backward while eating specific foods.  Ohio (donuts), New York (peanuts), and Oklahoma (hamburger). What is Johnny Depp afraid of?  Clowns. What country has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan?  Brazil.  What do camels store in their humps?  Fat. (knew that but got talked out of it)

Cronuts.  

Ever hear of them?  In 2013, cronuts became a thing and people went nuts.  There were news stories of people waiting an hour or more in line to shell out $5 each for a cronut.  So what are they?  Basically, a cronut is a donut.  It is round and has a hole in the center.  But rather than being made out of typical dough, they are made with croissant dough.  It is essentially a croissant in the shape of a donut.  That shape lends itself well to having fillings injected or toppings added.  So what?  Who cares?  Viking cares!  They treated us to a wonderful selection of cronuts this morning.

This was our first cronut experience and I have to say that we were impressed.  Arlona isn't really a donut person and she enjoyed it.  Flaky, tasty, and I'm sure, 100% calorie-free. OK - not sure about that last part...

Lunch had a wide selection, including tacos, king salmon, shrimp, scallops, and more.  

We were both in a calm mood.  I wound up with two slices of a tasty Hawaiian pizza and Arlona had half a tuna sandwich and tomato soup.  The weather today is much like the last couple of days - overcast and temps in the mid-60s.  With the protection of the overhang, we enjoyed lunch on deck #7's Aquavit terrace out back and got to spend a little outdoor time.

The art instructor will be disembarking tomorrow in Chile.  She sponsored a showing for all her students today in the atrium.  Each student chose their two favorite pieces and had them displayed all over the atrium on deck #1.

Arlona's two pieces are in the photo below in the center of the piano.

Quite a few guests took the time to come by and admire the other guest's artwork.

Viking had their classical string duo playing at the top of the grand staircase to add a little ambiance to the event.

The atrium is an interesting place.  The General Manager's office is just off the atrium.  There is a rug outside his office that has a representation of the original Viking longships.

Carpets in the atrium all have a similar theme.

All the windows have rope coverings that are meant to mimic a ship's rigging.

The cladding and bar top at the Viking Bar is designed to evoke a ship's hull.

Even the Living Room bar menu has a longship design on its metal face.

If you stand at the bottom of the staircase and look up, you can see that the ceiling has been finished to resemble the ribs on the inside of the hull of a longship.

There are more hidden things all around the ship.  If you take the glass elevators off the atrium, as you ascend, you will see a mural of trees.  If you look closely from both of the elevators, you will see trolls hiding in the trees, looking back at you.

These trolls represent the owners of Viking Cruises.  There are lots of hidden design features on Viking ships.  It's fun to explore and learn about them all.

Yesterday, I mentioned reading.  I am not what you'd call a reader.  Since graduating college, I think I could count the number of novels I've read on one hand.  I read Presumed Innocent because I had a hand in laying out a computer screen that was used in the movie.  I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy four-book trilogy (yes, you read that correctly).  That's about all I can come up with.  After we retired, a neighbor got Arlona reading novels.  Based on that, our daughter got Arlona a Kindle, specifically thinking about this cruise.  You don't want to carry a suitcase full of books on a 152-day cruise.  She liked it so much, I decided to get one as well.  Well, I started reading.  Not all the time, but mainly on cruises.  I've read more books this year than in the 38 years since I've been out of college.  On this cruise, I completed the last three of a four-book series by Douglas Phillips, Quantum Space, Quantum Void, Quantum Time, Quantum Incident.  Then, after I had zero clue on a couple trivia questions about To Kill a Mockingbird, I downloaded and read that as well.  Never in a million years would I have believed it if you told me that I would be reading, and even more unlikely, writing!

This isn't my only writing endeavor.  After retiring from a career in I.T., I started writing for a gadget review blog called The Gadgeteer (www.the-gadgeteer.com).  I get samples of cool consumer gadgets, get to play with them for a month, and then write my honest, real-life opinion about the product. After that, I get to keep the item.  I love it.  I've written over 200 articles and reviewed over 100 items since retiring.  Did I mention that I love it? I have at least ten review items with me on this cruise that I use all the time. I actually miss it, so writing this blog is giving me an outlet. 

Dinner tonight had a distinctive Chinese flavor as tomorrow marks the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the year of the tiger. Featured items included potstickers, stir fry, Asian lobster, plus many more items to choose from.

After dinner with our bridge partners, Steve & Kathy, we heard music coming from the pool deck.  The entire entertainment team was practicing for tonight's Chinese New Year celebration from 10:30-midnight.  They were rehearsing a very traditional Chinese song - Proud Mary.  Who knew? :-)

Given that it sounds like it won't be a typical Chinese New Year celebration, we decided to retire for the night and rest up for our first time on terra firma in almost a week. We watched the port talk on Santiago and got the multitude of documents needed for disembarkation into Chile.  I suspect that the Chilean government has stock in a paper company and is hedging its investment. We each have no fewer than five separate documents that we have to carry to be allowed to get off the ship. Amazing.  Again, kudos to the Viking team for coordinating what has been a mess of a situation, ensuring that every single passenger has the requisite documents and can enjoy their time in Chile.

We will be docking in Valparaiso, Chile tomorrow morning around 8AM.   We have a couple of days in Santiago/Valparaiso and then four more sea days and a stop in Punta Arenas, Chile. Five more sea days will get us to Uraguay and two port days.  Then nine sea days over to Africa.  Finally, our sea-day heavy portion of the itinerary will end and we'll be pounding ports and hoping for a sea day.

World Cruise Day 38/152 - Sea Day - Fooood...and football

Cruise day: 38/152
Ports days: 12
Sea days: 26
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 8

Day 38 was an overcast, gray, mid-60s kind of day.

In yesterday's blog, I lamented the fact that Viking couldn't get the equator crossing certificate correct.  Yes, it's a small and generally insignificant thing, but still, details matter.  Anyway, about two minutes after I published the blog last night - *buzz* - our doorbell buzzed.  There stood Mohammed, our excellent cabin steward, holding a replacement certificate.  A quick examination showed that finally, the date was corrected to January 27, 2022.  Woo!  Further examination showed that they had also printed our names on the certificate: "Gary & Arlona Kolb".  Astute readers should realize why this was an issue - my name is "Garry", not "Gary".  Still, I applauded the effort, but a third swing and a miss.  Oh well.

Today, this showed up on our bed:

We finally have an equator crossing certificate with the correct date and correct names!  Yea!  I will certainly give the team credit for the effort.  They do aim to please.  Part of the issue seems to come down to communication.  Here's a case in point.

Our next stop is Chile.  I described the fiasco that was the process of applying for a Chilean Mobility Passport.  Held in the Star Theater, it was everything you would think would happen as Viking officers tried to lead tech-averse senior citizens through opening websites and filling in Spanish-language forms on their mobile devices.  While we can come up with several process suggestions for Viking that would have helped, to be fair, Viking was caught a little by this as it was a result of our last-minute itinerary change to salvage this cruise.  Anyway, lots of people were frustrated and struggled to get the process completed.  On our end, one of our mobility passports came back approved without issue.  The other did not.  First, it was a matter of mistyped vaccine dates that generated the rejection.  After that was corrected, it was rejected again as the wrong vaccine photo was attached.  After giving it a third try...hmm...perhaps I was a little too hard on Viking for the equator crossing certificate...we finally got our second approved pass.  Yea!  All good to go, or so we thought.

Today, we both got an additional email from Chile with a different approval certificate.  Ok, we're approved and that's good.  We have them stored on our mobile devices, so that's good.  But, we have paper documents supplied by Viking that we need to carry.  And, in our experience, sometimes, when going through government inspection/approval processes, it is much easier to have it on paper.  Knowing that, I went down to the public PCs on deck #1 to print out our certificates.  Two other cruisers were there doing the same thing.  The printer was being its usual problematic self, and the other guests were frustrated.  I had figured out that one of them tried to print an oversized document and the printer was asking for larger paper in the bypass tray, but they had already asked the desk for help.  The helpful Viking crew member came over and got the printer printing.  When she saw that we were printing our Chile documents, she told everyone there that they were going to take care of printing everyone's documents and they would be delivered to our rooms.  Gosh, that would have been a terrific piece of information to communicate to everyone to prevent guests from taking that task upon themselves.  Curing these little communication issues would go a long way to soothing the ire of the more excitable passengers.  The reason I point these things out is that I know Viking is listening, and, as a responsible partner, Viking is working on improving wherever they have shortcomings.  The fact that Viking is taking on the responsibility of printing 500+ mobility passes is incredible.  If they let us know that, it would have made it perfect.

On to better things...

No bridge today as our instructor was under the weather.  We took the opportunity to meet our regular partners from class and play a little social bridge.  I don't know that we bid every hand correctly, but we all were learning, and playing out the hands was also a learning experience.

We once again hit our sweet spot at trivia, one correct answer short of being in the points.  And...we talked ourselves out of it! What battle took place Sunday, June 18, 1815?  We said Waterloo and changed it to The Alamo.  It was Waterloo.  Dang.  What did Bartolomeo Cristofori invent?  The piano.  What mountain overlooks Cape Town, South Africa? Table Mountain.

Arlona hit the art scene again today with acrylics and techniques with a knife to add texture. Inspiration up top - original art below.

She's working on embracing abstraction - not a native skill for her.  It's fun to see her stretch.

In a previous blog, a reader asked for a photo of Chef Thomas.  Lucky for us, he was out and about as is his usual, examining the World Cafe to be sure it is up to standards.

He is quite affable and down-to-earth and really takes pride in the fare he and his incredible team prepare to increase our circumferences.  Today, the World Cafe featured a brunch from 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM.  I didn't get photos of everything as there was just too much.  But, there were some incredible bread selections and bread artistry that shouldn't be missed.

Eggs, waffles, hash browns, multiple varieties of fish, poultry, beef, pork, sushi - there was so much selection, I couldn't possibly list it all.  Of course, the desserts were awesome as well.

Suffice it to say that we enjoyed breakfast and lunch in the World Cafe.

Overall, we are enjoying ourselves.  Arlona has been struggling a little with the ship's movement, and that's not like her.  She's been battling a slightly upset stomach.  One thing to note with Viking Ocean ships is that even in modestly moving seas, you feel it.  These are much smaller ships than the huge ships you find on other lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and such.  Larger ships are smoother, smaller ones, not so much.  Don't get me wrong, we're not rockin' and rollin' all over the place, but there is pretty much constant movement of some kind.  It doesn't phase me in the least, and generally, Arlona has never been bothered.  But, with extended time at sea - we're currently five days into a six-day stretch - there's never a break from the movement.  We have a couple more extended stretches coming up before we get to the Mediterranean.  Once there, we'll be good as other than one four-day stretch, I don't think we'll have more than at most two or three sea days in a row until the end of our cruise.

Arlona was feeling restless after not feeling great for a couple of days and went for a two-mile walk.  I stayed in the room reading.  More on that tomorrow.

If you're a football fan, then you know that today features both the AFC and NFC championship games to determine who plays in the Superbowl.  Viking is showing both games on the big screen by the pool on deck #7 as well as streaming the games on the stateroom TVs.  We caught the first half of the AFC game in the room and then went up to the World Cafe for chow.

Dinner tonight was a rare event - unthemed.  They had the usual fare - sushi, steaks, a variety of fish, crab legs, and so on.  The main event tonight was a huge pineapple roasted ham that looked delicious.  But what caught our eye was spaghetti carbonara.  

They had the pasta pre-cooked and waiting.  When you ordered, they dropped a serving into a strainer in the hot water for a minute or so to heat it without cooking it further.  Then, they strained it and dropped it into a hot pan.  They can't do the traditional method of using raw eggs in the sauce for food safety reasons.  They had a thick, clingy sauce at the ready and spooned it over the pasta.  Then they sprinkled in a little parsley for color and the pancetta until you said "stop".  Stir, toss, flip until everything was perfectly coated, and then spiraled it out onto the plate.  Parmesean until you stop them and parsley for color and you're good to go.  It was delicious.  The pasta was coated without being soupy.  It was warm, tasty, and a perfect meal for us today.

Back in the room for the end of the AFC game, we relaxed and reset for tomorrow's final sea day before Chile.  Given that we are two time zones east of US eastern time, and the NFC kickoff isn't until 8:30 PM EST (10:30 here), I doubt I'll make the entire NFC game.  Bengals & ???  I'm pulling for Stafford and the Rams - he did his time in Detroit and deserves it.

World Cruise Day 37/152 - Sea Day - It's "go" time!

Cruise day: 37/152
Ports days: 12
Sea days: 25
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 8

Today, we awoke to a partial overcast, moderate breezes, and low to mid-70-degree temperatures for the day.  The Captain has been working hard to scuttle rain in the area and so far, has been doing well.

Let's get the daily stuff out of the way first today - beginning bidding wrapped up in bridge lessons today - we'll see what mysteries tomorrow holds.  In trivia, we seem to have found our place - just out of the running for points.  Dick Tracy's wife's maiden name?  Tess Trueheart.  I had the "Tess" part but couldn't remember her last name.  What world leader convinced his two sons to steal over a billion dollars from their country's national bank?  Saddam Hussein. Where is the longest fence in the world? The dingo fence in Australia at over 3,400 miles.  But, if you look at the definition, a fence is: "a barrier intended to prevent escape or intrusion or to mark a boundary" I would argue that the Great Wall of China at 13,170 miles both qualifies as a fence and trumps the dingo fence.  Of course, arguments fall on deaf ears as the trivia master has the final say.  And, it's just a game. :-)

Viking took another shot at the equator crossing certificates.

The year has been corrected to "2022", but the crossing date is still a day off and no names are on the certificate.  Plus, as another guest pointed out, the area of the world where we crossed is covered.  Oh well, in the grand scheme of things, this is a little thing. Still, it seems like one that Viking would get right, especially after two tries.

On a more positive note, the privacy partition on our balcony has been rattling in the breeze and it is a little annoying.  We kept forgetting about it, but today, I mentioned it to Mohammed, our cabin steward.  As I was typing this blog - *buzz* - our doorbell buzzed.  Maintenence was here to fix it.  Three minutes later, the issue was resolved and all was good.  The entire team here at Viking is very responsive and really strives to provide a quality experience for the guests.

Arlona's art endeavor this afternoon was palm trees at sunset. The inspiration is on the right and the outcome is on the left.

I'd call that yet another success.  To recognize how important this is, you have to realize that Arlona is an engineer.  That means symmetry, concrete ideas, process, and no abstraction.  For her to produce quality work like this is incredible.  I think she might have a new calling.

Now for the "go time" discussion. Of course, this means...the bathroom.  But before we go there (pun intended), let's talk about Viking Ocean ships and room types.

All Viking Ocean ships have 465 staterooms divided into six categories:

• Veranda - 270 sq ft
• Deluxe veranda - 270 sq ft
• Penthouse veranda - 338 sq ft
• Penthouse junior suite - 405 sq ft
• Explorer's suite - 757-1,163 sq ft
• Owner's suite - 1,448 sq ft

Besides room size, each jump in category adds some perks like wine, guaranteed dining reservations, earlier access to shore excursions, laundry, and so on.  I want to talk about the bathrooms, but I will only be talking about the first three - veranda, deluxe veranda, and penthouse veranda rooms as they all have the same bathroom design.  I have not been in the next three types of rooms, so I can't speak to those.  I do know that in the Penthouse junior suites and up, the bathroom size increases. Since the vast majority of Viking cruisers will be in the first three cabin types, it seems to make sense to focus there.

If you're a cruiser, you know how the bathrooms are - cramped.  Viking realizes that part of your cruise experience is spent in the bathroom and they designed the room to be livable, dare I say, luxurious.

The first thing you notice is that the room itself isn't cramped.  There is room to move around.  The second thing is the finishes.  The floor and walls are covered in a heavy tile with a textured finish.  It looks like something I'd expect to see in someone's home.

The countertop appears to be made from polished stone or quartz.  The sink is a heavy composite material in gleaming white.

On each side of the sink, there are shelves with a protective bar to prevent items from falling.

The shelves are deep enough to hold larger items.

On the wall closest to the door, we find a mysterious switch with a red "on" indicator.  This switch turns on the heated floor.  I had mentioned that in an earlier blog, but I'll mention it again.  You can turn on the floor and walk in to a lovely warm feeling under your toes.  It's awesome, especially for those middle-of-the-night visits. The red LED also doubles as a dim night light. Some people never figure this out because they flip the switch and nothing happens.  It takes a while - an hour or more - for the tile to warm from underneath.  I flip it on when I brush my teeth before bed and turn it back off in the morning when I wake up.

The toilet isn't your typical cruise toilet.  Well, yes it has that push-button flush on the wall, and yes, it makes a huge sucking sound that sounds like it could inhale whatever you happened to be wearing at the time.  But, there's more.

If you lift the soft-close lid, you'll see two button-like additions at the top of the back of the bowl.  These are water jets that shoot water out into the bowl when you flush.  This helps send everything down the drain, keeping the bowl nice and clean.  It is a little thing, but still a nice touch.

Like most cruise ship toilets, there is a warning label affixed to the inside of the lid.  I find this one pretty amusing. Is anyone regularly flushing rings, syringes, pill bottles, coins, bolts, screws, bottle caps, entire bottles, and wine corks?  That one must be a big issue because they put it on there twice!

Again, if you're a cruiser, you probably have the same level of hatred as I do for cruise ship toilet paper. I can imagine the advertisements they run in cruise industry magazines and websites:

While Viking's toilet paper isn't Charmin or Quilted Northern, it is vastly better than the rebranded sandpaper that other cruise lines use.  Again, it's is a little thing, but it really makes a difference.

The gleaming chromed faucet is integrated into the wall and provides a good, splash-less flow of water.

The shower really stands out for me.  First, it is big enough to turn around. The outside walls are thick glass with a curved glass corner.  It looks very nice.

Second, it isn't designed for only short people.  At 5'10" for Arlona and 5'11" for me, we struggle in a lot of cruise and hotel showers.  They are designed for shorter people with no consideration for the taller ones. Here, the showerhead is on a long rail and can be adjusted for a huge range of heights. I can't imagine anyone not being able to find a good height for them.

The handle can be adjusted from nearly vertical to nearly horizontal, so if you like a direct shower, or you are more of a rain head shower person, this will work for you.

The head itself has its own volume control so you can vary from a surprisingly strong spray to more of a rain-like setting.

My only complaint about the showerhead is that the mount doesn't do a good job holding the head steady, so it can rotate a little.  This can be mitigated by sliding the head up to the ceiling and securing it there.  But, that only works if you like a tall shower.

The shower is controlled with a dual-control system.  The volume control on the left controls the speed of the water flow.  The temperature setting on the right controls the temperature.  The temperature control could have a wider range for me.  It jumps pretty quickly from cold to hot, but that's a minor quibble.

I've had a couple people as what the red button is used for on the temperature control.  That is a safety button designed to keep you from peeling your skin off.  If you turn it to full hot, it is designed to not get hot enough to scald.  If you need really, really hot water, if you push that button, it will allow you to turn the temperature control farther and I believe tap into the molten hot magma that rests below the Earth's crust.  OK, perhaps not quite that hot, but it does get hotter than most people find tolerable.

The shower also has the requisite drying string.  The string container resides on the wall closest to the door.

The receiver resides on the diagonally opposite wall.

Another cruiser pointed out that you can also request a shower chair that is designed to exactly fit and can be a lifesaver on rough sea days. Thanks, Susan, for the tip.

Because the bathroom isn't overly large, there was no good way to get a mirror photo without including myself in that photo, so sorry about that.  The mirror nearly fills the wall.  There is an overhead spot that illuminates the sink.  The rest of the lighting comes from two integrated frosted panels on either side of the sink.  This provides nice, soft indirect lighting.

Another cool (pun intended) aspect of the mirror is that it's hot!  When the lights are on, the mirror is also heated.  Turn on the lights, wait a few minutes and put your hand up to the mirror - it will be warm.  This is designed to prevent the mirror from fogging when the humidity is high, like after a shower.  One more nice touch.

Under the counter, we find towel, toilet paper, and tissue storage.  The trash can is concealed behind a door under the sink. There is a drawer on both sides of the sink as well.

The one curiosity that I can come up with is the grab handle.  There is a grab handle behind the toilet, right next to the shower glass.  I cannot come up with any scenario where this would do me any good.  But, hey - there's a grab handle.

The bottom line here is that the bathrooms in Viking staterooms are a notch above those that we have experienced on other cruise lines. And this bathroom is the same as you will find in the lowest-cost room on a Viking oceangoing ship. It is one more way that Viking invites you to explore the world in comfort.  Dang - I sound like an advertisement.  I might have to start charging for this!

The chef prepared a special German brunch in The Restaurant but our schedule didn't allow us to attend.  That was OK because the World Cafe also had German fare with bratwurst, Bavarian meatloaf, pretzels and such.

Dinner featured another noodle bar.  Arlona enjoyed a mushroom risotto and green beans.  I had a really tasty bowl of pork-fried rice.

Arlona has been dragging a bit for the last two days, so we decided to make it one more early evening. The ship's movement seems to be affecting her a little more than normal. We'll read and perhaps catch a movie on the TV.

Two more sea days until we reach Chile.