The Sea dominates a Sea Day…and random thoughts

by | Jun 21, 2024 | Uncategorized

[videopress 1VQTwaBs]

Yesterday was a sea day, and the sea took over. Just after we left Lerwick, the weather and the seas changed. The winds picked up (the captain announced 50-60 knot winds yesterday at noon), and the seas were fairly high. The video above is a good example of what we were into. Today (which is also a sea day) is much calmer. The worst part for me is that on sea days, I like to walk on the Promenade Deck (Deck 2). Due to the extreme seas yesterday, the outside of that deck was closed off. It is back open today, and I truly enjoyed a six-mile walk this morning.

You knew it was bad because beautiful leather barf bag holders were placed all around the ship. We had someone lose it just down the hall from our stateroom, and the crew got that carpet cleaned up quickly. It also made for both a very quiet breakfast and lunch for us. The World Cafe (buffet) was practically empty for breakfast, and when we went back for lunch, they kept having dishes fall over and glasses breaking, so we went down and had lunch in the dining room. Pretty empty there as well. The captain was right when he predicted things would get better around midnight. We weren’t up then, but when I woke up around that time because it had become too quiet, I looked out the window, and the seas were much calmer. Thankfully, they still are.

Random Thoughts

Since I have few photos to show you (other than the video above), I wanted to comment on a few things around the ship.

Let’s start with the interior of the ship itself. I think Viking truly has the most beautifully decorated ships at sea. At least they appeal to my taste in design much more than any other line I have ever cruised on—the furnishings, carpets, and floors in every venue work for me.

And if I am looking for a place to sit…I also think that after 35-plus cruises, there are more awesome places to sit and look out at the ocean on a Viking ship than on any other ship we have sailed on. Right now, I am sitting in my favorite place on the ship, the upstairs gallery of the Explorer’s Lounge. On deck eight forward, long-time cruisers will know it as the Crow’s Nest or Sky Lounge on other lines. It has numerous couches and chairs, a fantastic view and tons of books and artifacts. Right now (because it is a sea day), it is a little louder than normal, but most of the time, it is the quietest place on the ship. We sailed on Oceania’s Vista last fall, and my biggest complaint was that there was no place below the top two decks where I could sit and look out at the sea unless I were on my verandah.

There is no deck on Viking ships with a public area where you can’t look out at the sea in every direction. On Deck 7, starting in the Explorer Lounge at the bow and walking aft to the stern, you can see almost every step of the way. And all along that walk, there are a lot of places to sit. Whoever designed these ships did it right. The same is true for Deck 2. You can see outside from The Restaurant aft until you reach the Star Theater in the bow. And there is seating everywhere if you are looking for a quiet place to sit and read…or post on a blog.

I have only taken a few photos around the ship (other than in our stateroom), but I will try to do a few more so I can show you what I mean. Here are some quick shots I took just now to give you an idea. Feel free to look at them on your phone; I took them with mine.

I love the Promenade Deck, but I wish it went one way. This is a tiny complaint, and I will write it up as a suggestion to Viking. When we are at home, I walk a lot—more than 120 miles every month. In good weather, I do that outside. In lousy weather (we have a lot of that in the Seattle area), I walk indoors on the track above our pool at Trilogy (the 55+ community where we live).

On that track, we have a wonderful sign that says, “Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, walk clockwise. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, walk counter-clockwise.” Viking needs that on the Promenade Deck. When I go out to walk, I try to wait to see which way the majority of people are going and go with the flow. But since I will walk for more than an hour, eventually, people will start walking in the other direction, and pretty soon, there will be more coming towards me than going away from me. This wouldn’t be a problem on the track at Trilogy, but here on the ship, it is a HUGE problem. There are spaces on that deck where you can’t pass anyone. One of you (like on a Scottish country road) has to pull over and stop walking. (see the hallway above. It’s about as wide as I am.) If I am behind someone in these tight places, it’s easy to slow down until I can pass them. But when I am in a tight, metal tunnel at the bow of the ship, and I come around the corner, and there is someone coming full tilt directly at me, it’s tough to find a way to get around them or move over. Near collisions are rampant, and I have to believe there are a few that actually happen. All this could be solved with a sign like we have at Trilogy. Then everyone would walk one way, and there would never be a problem in those tight spaces. No surprises—that’s the ticket.

The crew on this ship is awesome…and very happy. We have had great crew members over the years who we have loved and sometimes sailed with numerous times and developed relationships with. But I have never seen an overall crew as happy in their work as this one. With the exception of one or two that we have run into, every single one is always smiling. And not just at us. One of my favorite things this week is to see the people in the World Cafe (buffet) interacting with one another. They are constantly smiling and laughing while they do their excellent job.

The new Asian station. At least new to us. It was not on Viking Sky.

And they are fun to talk to. There is a new station at the back of the buffet that does Asian food. Every time I would come by and look at what they had, the assistant chef who works there would entice me to try it. Finally, I did, and it was awesome, but now, if he sees me walking past, he will call me out and ask why I am not eating from this station today ?. When I do, he always encourages me to try new things that I am not sure of. When I do, he always checks later to see if I liked it. That’s amazing service. That’s above and beyond.

The attitude of this crew tells me two things. They have a great boss at the top who sets the tone, and he gives his supervisors leeway in hiring and they are hiring the right people. I have yet to meet the Hotel Manager here on Venus, but I know he is the one who lets his managers in the kitchens, the dining rooms and housekeeping set the tone. And those supervisors seem to have the same attitude as their workers.

I have seen head servers, managers and the like helping to set up tables, serve food or bus dishes that I have never seen on other ships. Yesterday afternoon, they were doing a salmon lunch set up on the aft deck, and the executive chef of the entire ship was there helping to set up. When one of the assistant cooks suggested a change to the setup, he stood back and said, “You’re right. That would be better. Let’s change it.” And he jumped right in to help her change it. And while they were changing it, he thanked her for the idea. (Then he stopped to talk to us—nice guy.) That’s what real management is all about—giving the crew ownership and listening. Whoever is running this part of the ship is doing it right.

Tomorrow, we are back in port again, and it’s a long excursion, so I am not sure if I will have a report for you. It’s the first of three consecutive port days starting with Honningsvåg, Norway.

Sweet it is, when on the high seas the winds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the land on another’s struggles.  —Lucretius

Unusual Doings in Lerwick

by | Jun 20, 2024 | Uncategorized

Yesterday was a strange day, cruise-wise. We visited the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Let me describe what happened. About three days ago (when we were in Edinburgh), we received a notification that our 2.5-hour shore excursion to tour the island and stop to see Shetland ponies had been cut to one hour due to a shortage of buses in Lerwick. It became a one-hour panoramic tour on a “luxury motor coach.”

We were okay with that because, having been to Lerwick before, we knew that it was an easy town to walk around in, and if they were still taking us to the Shetland ponies, we would be happy. We had done a private tour the last time we were here and saw most of the island. Later, we heard from some crew that the reason there were so few buses was that there would be four ships in. That’s a lot of ships for tiny Lerwick.

Then, early yesterday morning (around 7:30), there was a general announcement that they not only made in the ship’s public areas but into staterooms as well. You know that is highly unusual if you are a regular Viking cruiser. It is usually only used for emergency announcements. The cruise director (a very fine fellow) came on and told us that our schedule had changed and that Venus was now docked at the pier but would not be moored there all day. We would only be there until noon. After that, we would move to the center of the harbor and use tenders to return to the ship. Until then, the morning shore excursions would leave from the pier, and there would be a shuttle bus that would go into the town until 11:00 a.m. After that, if you were in town, you would have to wait until 1:00 p.m. to take a tender back to the ship.

We thought, “WOW! There must be another ship coming to take our place. They must be really important to be able to kick us off the dock. And sure enough, when we went up for breakfast and could see the other side of the harbor, there was a ship anchored there, tendering passengers into the center of the town. But imagine our surprise when we discovered the other ship was the Viking Sky (thus, the photo above). The problems with coaches, piers, and docks were caused by Viking scheduling two of their ships here on the same day. And yes, there were two other ships in the harbor, both docked, but they were small Ponant ships (a French cruise line) with less than 200 passengers, so they docked at piers that neither Viking ship could fit on.

It was just weird. It became even stranger when, later in the day, our ship (Viking Venus) moved off the pier, and Viking Sky didn’t move; they just kept on tendering. When we left yesterday afternoon, there was no one on the pier and never had been. It was just strange.

What about our day? It was pretty good. The weather cooperated (not bright and sunny, but no rain), the tour was nice, if short, and our guide was a good one. We were toured through the town and then up into the hills, where we stopped by Carol’s Ponies, a Shetland pony ranch where we could get off and take photos of them. Which, of course, I did. I don’t like to put people (other than those I know) into my photos, so when we go someplace like this where there are about 25 yards of fence for four busloads of people to stand next to, it can be very tough to take photos of just what I want to take pictures of…like ponies…or stones…or pretty much anything. But I did my best. Here are the results. I think the only person I got in the photos was my lovely bride Kathleen. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the ponies, we headed back to the ship (remember, the excursion had been shortened to an hour). When back, Kathleen headed up to our stateroom and Steve and Jamie went off to town on the shuttle bus. I walked Kathleen back to our room to get my heavier sweatshirt because the wind was blowing so hard that my windbreaker was not breaking. Then I went back down to the shuttle and took the last one into downtown Lerwick.

As I mentioned, we had been there before, and it is a photogenic town. Lots of color and history to shoot. Plus, one of our favorite British TV shows is Shetland, which is…you’ll never guess…shot here in Shetland. In fact we drove by the show setting up shots for next season. And I love to take photos of places we have seen in TV and movies. Remember, we just did a Ted Lasso tour. I probably walked around Lerwick for an hour or so before I got in line for the first tender back on the ship to meet everyone for lunch. In the meantime, Venus had moved around, Sky and the two Ponant ships were right where we had left them, and we were back on board for an early sail-away. We were only staying until 3:00 p.m. because we now need the full  57 hours of sailing time to get to our next port…Honningsvåg, Norway.

Here are my photos from my walk around the town. You know the drill… (is that better?)

Lastly, on the way out of port at 3:00 p.m. I shot a few last shots as a farewell. We were thrilled to come back here but doubt it could happen again. In case you missed it, there were two blog posts today. That’s because it’s a sea day…in the North Sea. More about that tomorrow, but suffice it to say we are having some ROUGH seas. No fun for many people (not us; Kathleen has her SeaBand, and I never get seasick—this is not the case for the majority of the ship—barf bags are everywhere.)

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.  —Lou Reed

 

Orkney in the Rain…and the Wind…and the Fog and our Stateroom

by | Jun 19, 2024 | Uncategorized

Yesterday, we were in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. To find us on a map, just look directly north of the mainland of Scotland, and there it is. So far, this was the worst weather on the trip. It wasn’t that it was pouring rain all day; it came and went periodically, just like we had experienced in the rest of Scotland. It was just that the skies never cleared. It was flat and ugly all day long.

This is our guide Derrick. Nice man but spoke quietly with a deep Scottish brogue. It took a lot of work to get his photo. I shot five photos of him and never smiled or looked up.

We did the Viking “included” shore excursion, which was a “panoramic” tour of the island. And you all know by now, this means a ride on a “luxury motor coach.” YEAH! At least today, we didn’t need the air at the back of the bus because the temps were low, and when we got out to take photos, we were happy to get back on to get warm. The tour around the island (done by our Kirkwall guide, Derrick-at right) was very nice, but it basically featured two stops. Both of these were to look at stones sticking out of the ground. We were told that the ancient runes were older than Stonehenge. Well, they may have been older, but not anywhere near as big or as awe-inspiring. When we visited Stonehenge a few years ago, I was amazed at how any men could have lifted those stones into position. Here on the Orkney Island, the stones were small enough for a couple of guys to have placed them.

There were two sets of them, and I got off the bus to take photos of the first ones we stopped at but then decided to skip the second because, by that time, it was really raining, they were much further from the bus, and they were out in what looked to be a very muddy field. Besides, we could see them from the bus, and they looked pretty much the same as the first group. And with the sky being totally gray, it was not a great photo-taking day. I will prove it to you and show you all my shots from that morning, and you tell me what you think. And please feel free to take a look at these on your phone. They just aren’t that good, proving my point that photography is all about light.

Orkney was pretty much a bust for me. Not their fault. The weather made the photography yucky, and the ship moored in an industrial port, which forced a shuttle ride into town. After our tour, we were back on board so I could try and make something out of the photos. Our sail-out was nice, though, and it got a little sunny, so I was lucky enough to get a few photos as we left from the aft deck of the World Cafe. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That about covers Kirkwall and Orkney Island. Since it was a short one, I want to take a couple of minutes to show you where Kathleen and I are living right now—our stateroom on Venus. In our cruising life (more than 35), we have had many different staterooms on many different ships. We consider the three best to be the verandah stateroom we had on Celebrity’s Flora yacht in the Galapagos, the Neptune Suite we got upgraded into on Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam and this Penthouse Verandah stateroom on Viking Ocean. This stateroom is larger than your standard verandah stateroom, and we love the extra room.

When we were in the Med on Viking Sky, we had the same type of stateroom but on the other side of the ship. Then we had 5029, and this time, 5030. The on-board cruise specialist who sold us our cruise told us that this side had better views for this particular cruise. I’m not sure if that is true, but since it is the same stateroom, we are happy with it. Here are the pictures that I took to send to www.cruisedeckplans.com. If you are not familiar with that website, they have deck plans for every ocean-going cruise ship, along with reader-submitted photos of the interiors of staterooms. Check them out before you pick your stateroom.

And that about covers it. If you have questions about the stateroom, please let me know. I can tell you that the difference in price between this and a regular verandah is about $500 for this cruise, and as far as we are concerned, it is worth every penny. Kathleen loves the space, the storage and the ability to have an “included” cocktail every night before dinner. I love that you get to reserve specialty dining and shore excursions about two weeks before about two-thirds of the rest of the passengers.

Tomorrow is a sea day. We are in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands today, and I have some great photos. I will be back with those tomorrow.

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.  —Anthony J. D’Angelo

A Tour, a Lunch and a Palace

by | Jun 17, 2024 | Uncategorized

It’s 3:26 a.m., and I am back on my usual schedule. My hope is that Kathleen is downstairs on deck five, sound asleep, and because I am sitting on the second floor of the Explorer’s Lounge (my favorite place on a Viking Ocean ship) with my shoes off and my feet up on a couch writing this post. At home, this is when I usually wake up, but on this entire trip, this is the first time this has happened. I probably should have gone back to sleep, but I have this nagging cough, the last remaining remnant of my cold, that will not go away.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about Edinburgh. This is the fourth time that Kathleen and I have been there. It is one of our favorite cities; some of my favorite travel memories come from there. We first visited on a whirlwind tour of Scotland back in 2003. The last time we were here was in 2019 when we rented an AirBnB right on the Royal Mile for a week. I think that was my favorite visit because it was in May, and the city was fairly empty. Not as much yesterday.

Our day started with a sail-in that featured some pretty great photographic opportunities for me. The last time we had been here on a cruise ship was in 2017 when we sailed on Celebrity’s Silhouette. We did an overnight here that included us seeing the Royal Military Tattoo (the best show I have ever seen). That time, the ship anchored way off the coast, and we had to tender into the very small port of Leith. Because of the tides and depths of the channel, the tender took about 45 minutes to get from the ship to the shore. Viking uses the port of Rosyth. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we don’t have to tender. Bad because to get into the city, you do have to drive for almost an hour to get into downtown. I guess it’s six of one and a half dozen of the other.

But one of the good things about Rosyth is the sail-in. There are some islands and three incredible bridges that you sail under to get to the pier. And you have to be a fairly small ship to get under them. We arrived to find Regal Princess heading into port but stopping just short of the bridges because she could not get under them. For those who aren’t cruisers or unfamiliar with Viking and Princess, all Viking ships have less than 1000 passengers and only nine decks. Regal Princess can hold up to 4,272 and has 19 decks—quite the size difference.

But back to the sail-in. We had beautiful weather. I took lots of photos. Here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I just stopped to see if I could find out more about the building we passed on the island just before we got to the bridges and discovered it is/was a monastery that was built in the early 1100s (it always blows me away to read something was built more than 300 years before North America was even discovered by Europeans). Inchcolm Abbey is on an island of the same name in the Firth of Forth. You can take a tour of the Abbey and the island.

Once we were docked, it was time for our “included” shore excursion—Panoramic Edinburgh. As you may recall from my Greenwich post, when it says “panoramic,” that translates to a “luxury motor coach” ride with a narrator and an hour or so at the end to shop or explore. This one was no exception.

Our guide for the day was Scott. He made a point to let us know that the country of Scotland was NOT named after him. He was a witty, verbose kind of guy (being one of those, I know from which I speak ?) who knew his stuff. He got us around Edinburgh with some great tales and anecdotes, and I would have really liked him except for one thing. He totally dismissed something I asked him to do for my comfort and the comfort of those around me.

As we were leaving the port on our “luxury motor coach,” we were in the back of a PACKED bus. I have never seen a Viking excursion so packed. Pretty much every seat was full. When Scott started his tour, he said, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know.” I piped up and asked him if he could request the bus driver give us a little fresh air in the back of the bus. Because we were so packed, it was quite warm and very stuffy. Scott’s answer to me was, “The air will come on once the engine is started.” And then he was off on his narration. Not a second to check in with the driver. Not a thought about the fact that since we were moving already, the engine was obviously turned on and no air was flowing from the vents. Nope, he basically told me he didn’t care about the people at the back of the bus and that his saying, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know,” was just the usual thing guides say to start a tour and he really didn’t give a damn. All he had to do was take two seconds to turn to the driver and say, “Could you put on the air in the back of the bus?” But he truly didn’t care and wanted to get on with his spiel.

Yes, I agree with what you are thinking. I am being petty. But it’s the little things that make a GREAT tour. I loved what he had to say; I laughed at his jokes, and the entire time I was doing that, I was very uncomfortable because it was so warm. And yes, I could have pressed the matter by speaking up again. But once you have been told to shut up (in so many words), if I were going to ask again, I would have to get up out of my seat and walk the length of the “luxury motor coach” to have a personal discussion with him. As it stands, my usual tip for a guide who makes me laugh and knows his stuff would have been £10 per person. Scott got exactly £0.

After we were off the bus, we had a choice; we could shop or explore for an hour, get back on the bus and head back to the ship for lunch, or we could go off on our own for the rest of the day and find our own way back to the ship later in the afternoon. We had already decided before we left the ship that we would spend the afternoon in the city. There were basically two things we wanted to do. One was lunch in the famous Tollbooth Tavern on The Royal Mile. Kathleen and I have eaten lunch there at least once on all four of our visits to Edinburgh. It’s not that the food is that great…it’s good pub grub. But the idea of eating in a pub that has been open continuously since 1851 and in a building that was built in the 16th century is just too cool.

The second thing we wanted to do was tour Holyrood Palace. We have toured the Castle, I have climbed Arthur’s Seat, and we have seen just about everything else in Edinburgh that people see when they come here, but we have never been able to get into Holyrood. It is the “official home of the Royal Family in Scotland,” and every time we have been here before, some royal has been in town. When a member of the royal family or their guests are in residence, all tours are canceled. That has happened to us every single time we have been there. But this time, I had checked in advance, and tickets were available for yesterday, and we could get in. And we did. A somewhat interesting palace (I got to see Mary, Queen of Scots bedroom) but they wouldn’t let me take photos inside and that always bothers me. I usually don’t visit those places. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t until one of the docents told me there were “no pictures allowed.” I had not seen a single sign (and I always look for them) telling me that, but I shut the Nikon off. I’m so sorry you won’t get to see the King’s bed, but there are a few photos I took on the way to the Palace and of the grounds. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

A personal side note: My favorite “mountain” is in Edinburgh. It sits above the city. It is called Arthur’s Seat. I put the word “mountain” in quotes because the definition of mountain in the UK is not the same as in Washinton State. The highest mountain in the United Kingdom is Ben Nevis here in Scotland, which is a hair over 4,000 feet. In Washington, we call those hills. We have Mount Rainier, which is 14,000 plus feet. Arthur’s Seat is 823 feet…but still, it is a mountain in Scotland. And It’s my favorite because I climbed it…at 4:00 a.m. to take a picture of the sunrise (see the photo below). I did that on my visit in 2019. So it has a special place in my heart.

At any rate, I didn’t climb Arthur’s Seat this time, but I was really fascinated by its views and the people climbing all over it. So here are a couple of pictures if that interests you.

That was it for us. We finally got an Uber that would take us back to the ship, and we were off and back on board. I posted the Sea Day post from yesterday, and Kathleen took a short nap before dinner at the buffet. As a special bonus, while we were eating dinner, we were sailing out, and I was able to get some more photos of the things we had seen coming in, plus more that I had somehow missed. So here’s the final group of photos from yesterday. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

 

 

That covers yesterday. Thankfully. I say that because it seems the further north we go, the worse the internet connection gets. We were fairly speedy in London, a little slower in Edinburgh, and now we are crawling. I certainly hope this improves. If it doesn’t, just know that I will be writing this and may have to post it when we are back home or close enough to land to get better speed. For those of you who know what speed your internet is at home, ours is about 500 megabytes a second. Here’s what I am getting this morning. This means that the average photo takes about two minutes to upload…each one. So frustrating.

Today, we are going to visit Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. We have never been there before, so it should be interesting. We did receive a note from Viking last night that our “included” excursion for tomorrow in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands (our next port after Kirkwall) has been cut from 2.5 hours to one hour. The reason they gave us is a shortage of buses on the island and the fact that there are more than two cruise ships scheduled to be there. That’s just sad.

I hope to have a full report on Kirkwall and the Orkneys tomorrow…especially if I can’t sleep again.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Edinburgh a few times over the last few years, and I just loved the city. I find it one of the more beautiful cities in Europe.  —Joe Russo

Sea Day

by | Jun 17, 2024 | Photography

Good day, all! There’s not much to report today as yesterday was a sea day, and I gave my camera the day off except for this photo of a lonely, abandoned oil platform in the North Sea. That’s the only photo I took all day long. (The photo on the top of the page is a pano I took of the Observatory in Greenwich the day before.) But today, we were in Edinburgh, and we had a beautiful sail-in to the port of Rosyth early in the morning, so I hope to have some great pictures for tomorrow.

I want to write a short report about a sea day on Vikings. Yesterday was my 22nd day on a Viking Ocean ship, and it was my first sea day. You see, our cruises in the Med were all port days. So, I had no clue what would happen on a Viking sea day. Yesterday I found out, and the answer is…not a lot. The Daily was full of some lectures, trivia right at lunchtime, some entertainment around the ship, and that’s it. No waterslides, go-carts, ice skating, belly flop competitions, or fully-dressed water volleyball matches against the officers. We got none of that. And that’s why we sail Viking. We aren’t looking for that kind of thing. We wanted what we got. A day of rest (especially for Kathleen and I, who have been on the go for 16 days). It allowed me to work on all those photos I posted yesterday from Greenwich.

Ask me again how I like it in about a week when we have two full days at sea. But in the meantime, we have three straight port days, so I am not sure when you will get the next post about Edinburgh. I need to work on the photos now, so I will sign off and say that the weather here in Edinburgh has been good to us and that as many times as we have been here, we still love this city.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.  —Jacques Yves Cousteau