Saturday, December 23, 2017

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. Mattie was four years old and clearly got the art of smiling for the camera. In all of our Christmas card photos, Mattie featured an adorable sweater! In addition, you can see Mattie's Christmas train riding around the tree on its track. Mattie loved that train and from that year moving forward, Mattie's train always surrounded our tree. It became a tradition.
 
Quote of the day: The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood. ~ Richard Paul Evans

Today was a day at sea, and tomorrow we dock in Miami. Amazing how fast a week goes by. Peter and I had a chance to sit in the stern of the ship for about an hour, watching the water, the birds, and even flying fish!!!

In recap, this was our cruise on the Viking Sky:

• Miami
• Key West (tour town and Hemmingway's home; tour guide was Lora)
• At Sea
• Belize (tour to Altun Ha; tour guide: Ken and on-site: Esther)
• Cozumel (tour of the ruins at San Gervasio and tequila distillery... Regalo De Dios; tour guide: Gustavo)
• Merida (tour of Chichen Itza; tour guides: Alesanjdra and Ricardo)
• At Sea
• Miami

Favorite people we worked with on the Viking Sky:

• Johann (Restaurant Manager)
• Ramanito (Cabin Steward)
• Jeffery, Marie, Ariel (Waiter, Assistant Waiter, Captain)
• Steven (Shore Excursion Manager)

This was the beauty of the stern today! The Viking Sky is a very peaceful ship to traverse on..... as you can see, passengers do not crowd in public spaces and there is a place for everyone to talk, read, play cards, etc! Very different from previous Princess Cruises we have been on..... with constant noise, congestion, lines, and non-stop marketing of items to passengers. NONE of this exists on Viking. 

This was the view we had on the deck tonight. We have seen some amazing sun rises and sunsets on this trip!

The beauty of the atrium! The ship is very high tech. The blue photo you see at the top of the staircase, is not a photo or a painting. But an LCD screen, which changes the image periodically. 

Though there are over 900 passengers on this ship, the atrium space is never congested or crowded.

The primary colors on the ship are blue and beige. This is what the Restaurant on the ship looks like. 

The one disappointment to me on the ship was the quality of food. Portions are very small and the foods typically have a lot of cream. I prefer more Mediterranean based foods. On top of that issue, the cruise is advertised at "any time dining." Meaning that you can be seated to eat dinner at any time between 6 and 9pm. Sounds too good to be true and that is definitely the case. Literally the restaurant manager advised us to eat at 8pm, in order to avoid terrible crowds. The problem with this is while we are eating, people are leaving the restaurant, typically leaving us eating alone and worse with the staff cleaning tables all around us. Which doesn't make for a lovely dining environment. 

This is the explorer's lounge on the ship. I think it is a beautiful space, filled with light. 

The photo of our spacious cabin. I would say the Viking really thinks about their cabins, and makes it user friendly for guests. Every passenger cabin has a balcony!







My overall likes and dislikes of a Viking Cruise:

LIKES:

1. No crowds
2. No loud noises and music
3. More mature passengers, and no children (which for us around the holidays is a blessing)
4. No marketing materials, no constant promotions of drinks, photos, shopping items, etc
5. No charges for bottled water and house wines for example
6. A very clean ship
7. Very accommodating staff

DISLIKES:

1. The quality and lack of food variety
2. Timing of shore excursions (too tight, and no free time to experience the port after a tour)
3. No handrails in common spaces (which are a recipe for disaster, given the demographics attracted to Viking)
4. Heated floors in the bathroom (You can't shut the heat off. Probably great for a cold weather cruise, but it's like a sauna in the bathroom)
5. Can't attend any evening shows given the timing of dinner
6. The stores on the ship need to be better provisioned. The main focus in the shops are Nordic items. I don't know many people on a Caribbean cruise who want to buy Nordic sweaters.