World Cruise Day 22/152 - another sea day, art, a new record, and tomahawks

Cruise day: 22/152
Ports days: 8
Sea days: 14
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 6

I don't want to brag, but I just set a new personal record for most consecutive days alive.  Woo!  Tomorrow, I'm aiming to break that record.  Wish me luck!

Speaking of records, today sets a record for us - most consecutive days cruising.  We established our benchmark back in 2013 with a 15-day Vancouver - Hawaii - Long Beach reposition on the Carnival Miracle.  That record should have tumbled in 2020 when we had back-to-back 10 & 12-day cruises on the Celebrity Soltice in New Zealand & Australia booked, plus a 21-day transpacific shortly after that. That 22-day record never happened as COVID interrupted the trip and we flew home from Sydney after the 10-day.  A few months ago, we completed a 12 & 9-day back-to-back on the Celebrity Equinox in the Caribbean, setting our new record at 21-days.  Today is day 22 of the World Cruise, so that record is officially broken and will continue to be from here on. 

On this record-breaking day, we attended another bridge lesson and continue to feel like more and more things are clicking.

In the Captain's noon report, he said that three passengers and two crew are isolated, but then said 5 & 4 and I didn't catch the context.  Either way, there were zero new cases for the last two days and that's the prime takeaway.

Trivia was to be in the Star Theater as usual but got moved last-minute to the Explorer's Bar.  More on why in a minute.  We once again established dominance and won trivia today, missing only two questions.  Che Guevara's actual first name? Ernesto.  What horror movie featured the lead bad guy, Leatherface? The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Doh. The important thing is that it earned us ten coveted points as they are doing an accumulating trivia for some part of this cruise.  Now, we just need to keep winning!

We ate a hurried lunch because everyone staying on our floor had to be in the Star Theater at 1:30 PM.  Folks on different floors had to be there at different times throughout the day, hence trivia moving.  Why?  We're going to Chile.  It turns out Chile requires a mobility pass and has to verify vaccination information.  

Can we all agree that the Viking passenger demographic is about as far away from millennial tech-savvy as you can get?  Well, watching a frustrated set of crew members trying to lead a theater full of mostly 70+ age folks though using their smart devices to:

• Photograph your passport
• Photograph yourself holding your passport under your chin
• Photograph your vaccine card
• Use your phone camera to scan a QR code
• Go to the website (that is in Spanish) from the QR code
• Click on a link to set up an account with your email and a password
• Receive an email (in Spanish) and click on the link (in Spanish) to validate your account
• Upload your passport photo
• Upload the photo of you holding your passport under your chin
• Enter all your vaccine injection dates, provider location, vaccine type, and vaccine lot code
• Upload the photo of your vaccine card
• Click send to send the request to the Chilean government for approval and a mobility pass

As you can imagine, it wasn't going well.  There were lots of frustrated people.  Let me say that this is in no way Viking's fault.  Chile's requirements are Chile's requirements and Viking can't change that.  Still, you can't get away from the fact that there was a lot of grumbling in the room and I expect a bunch of Viking folks that will need a stiff drink tonight.

Arlona headed to an art class after that.  She made a scene by layering collage paper mixed with glue.

I think it turned out pretty nice.  Arlona liked it enough that she booked an acrylic painting session for tomorrow.  Unfortunately, when she returned to the room, she realized that she left her black Yeti 30-ounce cup with the purple handle and black steel straw in the Star Theater.  She went back down, but they didn't have it, the bar didn't have it, and lost & found didn't have it.  We're hoping that some honest passenger or crew member is trying to locate her and it will turn up.

What else do you do on a sea day?  We spot ships.  Here's a commercial vessel that we spotted this morning.

You can then use a website called marinetraffic.com to locate the ship.

Here we are.

And here is the ship, the MSC Yashi, that was passing us.  They are heading from the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico to the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles.

Later on, we spotted not one but two cruise ships heading north.

Using cuisemapper.com, we found out that they are the Carnival Panorama and Majestic Princess. I didn't look at their itineraries.

I always find it interesting seeing ships.  Yes, I understand there are shipping channels and such, but still, the ocean is a big place.

If you've read my blog, I'm not big on posting food photos.  I mean, food is food, right?  Well, tonight, I stand corrected.

Tomahawk steak, you say.  What's that?  According to Ruth's Chris steakhouse:

The tomahawk steak is essentially a ribeye beef steak specifically cut with at least five inches of rib bone left intact. The extra-long, french trimmed bone utilizes the same culinary technique that shapes a rack of lamb. “Frenching” means trimming the bone of meat and fat to the point where it looks like a handle.

So, it's just a ribeye with a big old bone in it. OK, I'll bite and try it.  Here is it before cooking/

Let's see how it's prepared.  The chef was grilling the steaks over an open fire at high temperatures, searing and charring the outside of the meat while preserving the beefy goodness inside the steak.

While that hot cooking action was unfolding, we enjoyed a deconstructed Caesar salad.

When the dinner silverware was unveiled, all I could hear in my head was the line from Crocodile Dundee, "That's not a knife...that's a knife!"

As we waited for the main course, they closed and then reopened the retractable roof over the pool area, where we were dining.

We opted to split a steak, and wow, were we glad we did.  This thing was *huge*.  It was cooked perfectly - pink (for me) to red (for Arlona) on the inside, charred and crispy edges with rock salt clinging to the crust. We both agree that this ranks in the top three to five of steaks we have ever had.

The truffled fries were yummy.  Arlona said the spinach was OK.  The Mac & cheese was also good.  The sauces were a waste as we didn't want to cover up the taste of the amazing steak with anything.

We sipped some lovely Moscato d'Asti with dinner. Dessert was a passion fruit and guava cheesecake in a glass and was light, fluffy, and tasty.

We both rank this as the best meal so far by a very long margin.

We took a little walk up on deck 8 - walk/waddle - whatever.

Guitarist, King, had started playing for the diners at the pool as well as folks that had finished but stayed to enjoy the music.

Out back, the water was trailing away behind the ship as we make our leisurely 10 knots or so on the way to Cabo in two days.

Tomorrow will be another record-breaking day, but we're done talking about that.