Cruise day: 68/152Ports days: 20
Sea days: 48
Countries: 8
Continents: 3
Ports: 13
When we woke up this morning, it was March. It seems like January and February flew by. It might be because we were a little groggy since we lost another hour last night as we shifted time again. We are now are on UTC +1 or six hours ahead of the U.S. east coast.
Since it is March, I decided to take a look at our cruise progress. Holy moly - tomorrow marks our halfway point! Wow. I decided to take a look from all perspectives and here's what I found.
First, let's talk about this cruise. The entire cruise runs from 12/24/2021 in Ft. Lauderdale until 5/9/2022 in London. Alternatively, you could extend for two days as the ship moves to Bergen, Norway with a new end date of 5/11/2022. In addition to that, some guests embarked in Los Angeles on January 10, 2022, and have the same ending options. Finally, many folks on this cruise, including us, have opted to extend the cruise with the Viking Homelands cruise from Bergen to Stockholm, ending on 5/25/2022.
Ft. Lauderdale to London
Start: 12/24/2021
End: 5/9/2022
Days: 136
Half: 68
Halfway date: 3/1/2022
My blog day number: 68 (TODAY)
Ft. Lauderdale to Bergen
Start: 12/24/2021
End: 5/1/2022
Days: 138
Half: 69
Halfway date: 3/2/2022
My blog day number: 69
Ft. Lauderdale to Stockholm (this is our itinerary)
Start: 12/24/2021
End: 5/25/2022
Days: 152
Half: 76
Halfway date: 3/9/2022
My blog day number: 76
Los Angeles to London
Start: 1/10/2022
End: 5/9/2022
Days: 119
Half: 60
Halfway date: 3/10/2022
My blog day number: 77
Los Angeles to Bergen
Start: 1/10/2022
End: 5/11/2022
Days: 121
Half: 61
Halfway date: 3/11/2022
My blog day number: 78
Los Angeles to Stockholm
Start: 1/10/2022
End: 5/25/2022
Days: 135
Half: 68
Halfway date: 3/18/2022
My blog day number: 85
As you can see, depending on the itinerary each passenger is on, we will all hit our halfway point starting today for the LA-London folks and then every few days for the next 17 days for all passengers. Sad, but true - time marches on.
Arlona's art adventure today was a view from above, done in acrylic. Here is a shot of her inspiration and her interpretation.
She has adopted birds in the sky as her signature element in her paintings. She's really becoming quite an artist.
Trivia today was structured like Trivial Pursuit with all questions coming from the traditional Trivial Pursuit categories. Cruise Consultant, Hamed, was the guest trivia master today and it was fun, albeit much more difficult as our 7/15 result showed. The failures:
- What country has the longest coastline?
- We guess the USA, but it is Canada - Arlona knew this but didn't push her answer
- In what city and gallery can you find Michelangelo's David?
- We got Florence but missed on Accademia Gallery
- What is a group of camels called?
- We tried herd, but caravan is the right answer
- What were the names of the three wise men (Magi)?
- Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar (or Casper) - we missed Melchior
- What are the only three countries that start with the letter J?
- We got Jordan and Japan but forgot Jamaica
- Which ear did Van Gogh cut off?
- 50/50 and we guessed wrong - the answer is his left ear
- What color is a sunset on Mars?
- Turns out the red planet has blue sunsets
- What is the name of the soccer team that has won more World Cups than any others?
- Brazil
For dinner tonight, we joined our bridge partners, Steve & Kathy, and bridge mentors, Steve and Ellie, at Manfredi's. Steve and Ellie are the folks that are originally from Jackson, Michigan, about 25 miles south of where we used to live. They now live in sunny Arizona. It was a very nice evening with lots of laughter. Some of that laughter arose because Kathy drank the Viking Star out of wine, specifically Madeira wine. This is the last Madeira on the ship. And yes, Georgia, Lorna, and Keith, this is your sister. :-)
Tomorrow, Cádiz, Spain - a new port, new country, and new continent.
I continue to enjoy your posts! I have a question. You mentioned a while back you were hoping to get your choice of shore excursions. Are they first-come, first-served? Are they included in the fare? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteViking always includes one shore excursion in each port, typically a walking or bus tour. You don't usually have a choice of what it is. If you do not want to do the included tour, then you have a choice of multiple, optional tours at a cost. They typically run from $60 to $500 based on their duration and complexity, with most falling in the $100-$150 range per person. The expensive ones are helicopter rides and such. Overall, their excursions seem to be slightly less expensive than other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean or Celebrity, in our opinion.
DeleteViking allows access to excursions based on room category. The owner's suite gets first crack. The explorer suites get them next, then every ten days, the next categories get them - penthouse suites, premier verandas, deluxe verandas, and finally verandas. Basically, the more money you spend, the sooner you get to choose your excursions. On this world cruise, it is working a little differently as the itinerary completely changed once we were all onboard. They have been announcing excursions in port batches. Everyone gets a form, choose excursions, and turns it in. I have no idea how they are prioritizing who gets what excursion, but so far, most people seem to be getting what they want. Hope this helps.
Interesting, thanks! Enjoy the rest of your voyage!
ReplyDelete