uktog

I didn’t but I might tonight as we are heading for Manfredis

Yes very impressed by Corey Sandy and heading to hear a second speaker Joseph Shaeffer shortly.

I will be interested in seeing what happens on our sea day as we’ve technically one more Canada stop after then First todays daily papers We have been to Halifax and Peggy’s Cove before but on that trip apart from the Titanic graves we missed the town. So we booked the included hop on hop off bus tour. Great tour on old fashioned London route master buses. A 90 minute circuit without getting off or as in our case we got off once at the beautiful public gardens. (I plan, I had a wet weather itinerary involving the Maritime museum.). Loved the live bus commentaries from local guides no wonky ear pieces to battle with The main gates of the garden are only unlocked if a member of the UK Royal family visits. I had my Charles it’s his birthday but no he still has to go through the side gate 😂 The gardens are traditional Victorian so has to have an iron fence, a bandstand and paths wide enough for two ladies in crinoline dresses to walk together. They must also plant traditional flowers - the bees love the dahlias And how cute to see a red squirrel not the nasty greys. This one was very tame We got off the bus the stop before the end enjoyed the Boardwalk, stopped for local beer and lobster rolls and just soaked in the wonderful weather. Now back relaxing onboard we love this part of the ship. The bar staff are attentive but not hassling you all the time shouting Bar Service. A note of caution despite all the times we were told yesterday about the hop on route taking 90 minutes without stops people thought they could do stops and museums at some stops and missed their afternoon excursions. We stopped once for 30 min at the park and would have been back at the ship by about 1215 if that helps next years planners. We were on the first batch leaving the ship at 10 there were four buses then and we were bus 4.

Be careful we still can’t get confirmation of that re the inaugural they cancelled with only 7-10 day’s warning. They’re absolutely intransigent in recognising the negative impact of that one for non travel agent guests

I did too but no mention yet. We’ve had lovely bubbles on the balcony this morning which I brought on as it’s Charles birthday. Planned ahead! So far Viking especially their food is knocking the socks off Azamara

A couple of little touches we liked. (It’s the little things that matter they say) On embarkation, we discovered in our room, a kettle and some teabags as well as the coffee maker. We are actually not tea drinkers so had the attendant take them away, but we thought it was a nice touch that they seemed to have identified the guests from the UK and put kettles and teabags into the rooms. Some people may not like this, but the second thing we like is that they do not issue paper maps for each port , rather they place a QR code to the relevant section of Google Maps on the back page of the daily. I really like this because our experience on Azamara has been dreadfully printed maps out of date and not very clear. I know you can get to Google Maps yourself but this is just a very helpful little touch but also contributed to see if the environment by not putting lots of paper into the room

The rule is they can only have one bar open on each level whilst in Canadian waters. From the daily I can see no impact except on Deck 7 where they are using all the bats but at different times

Day 2 dinner. Food excellent served at the right temperature and tasted so good. The service is still a little slow and tonight we never even met the waiter for our table which was weird. But as we had a lovely dinner we forgive this one more time. Our choices DH - the beet salad The wellington medium well as he asked The Apple crumble (hint always check out the vegetarian menu he’d have mist this otherwise Me Escargo (can’t get the picture to upload) The tempura medley The panna cotta- what an intense strawberry flavour

It’s not been mentioned yet…..

So far our experience is that it compares very favourably and the food choices and quality is superior

The Daily for our first sea day We were also impressed that feedback is taken as they go along in such a proactive way. Here is the first form, we received one each

Lovely review glad you had a great time.

Excellent dinner tonight though perhaps a little slow service - just like the wifi this morning! It was due to everyone arriving at the same time. We had a short 5 minutes or so wait for a table Scallops - quite a kick Calfs liver so good, big portion Mango burst. Maybe too creamy for me but very nice DH had a steak, medium well cooked to perfection. Unfortunately his cheesecake dessert was still frozen in the middle- oops. They were very apologetic and offered an alternative immediately. We found delightful music everywhere- there is much more music in the Atrium than before - really good classical background music and Leonard the guitar player was in Explorer - very easy listening and a nice personality. A comfortable night albeit a little motion. For us it rocked us nicely to sleep.

Such a beautiful sail out

As we are at the Manhattan terminal we have the lovely sail down past everything soon. Love all the sports on this deck (putting skittles shuffle etc) and lots of people here for the view. This area was closed off on our Northern lights cruise understandably

We only had one option before boarding. This cruise is full too but we went to the Chefs Table restaurant and they were helping everyone make new reservations

I would certainly not get to the port before noon. After that you might well be ok, they do not seem to pay too much notice of allocated times these days

Todays dailies

Thanks for your support. On the Facebook group I was accused of being a malcontent who worked for a competitor and sworn at (well a word was use we in the UK consider to be a profanity) by someone who claims to be closely connected to Explora senior management and continues to post about how managers are spoiling them onboard so I believe their might be a connection. They refused to apologise when I corrected them about my relationship or rather lack thereof to competitors. It’s really hurt me if that’s the type of person that holds sway with Explora. Ive still no refund of my airfare or hotel costs I trusted Explora’s initial promises and now it’s too late to file an insurance claim. Explora could still put so much right for me, the ball is firmly in their court here 😀

We are in a DV. It’s more spacious than an Azamara verandah much more drawer space and of course the bathroom is a dream. We had a penthouse veranda last time. Identical bathroom but even more space akin to an Azamara club continental. The four chef’s table are Scandinavian Asian Indochine and California- we did all 4 last time. We want to try the main dining room more this time so have opted for Scandinavian and California but we might change plans. We also have one night in the Italian Manfredi - could easily have had more just for now going for one. Lots of time options offered including 1930 something we can’t get on Azamara without calling in a favour which we don’t like doing

Exactly - and you lose the will to live to fight!

Rooms ready at 1330 for everyone!

Thanks we’ve two more booked for 2024. Our hope is they sort themselves out but they seem to have an ability to push a self destruct button too often. They’ve moved from line of choice to one we will consider. It all seemed to change when Larry Pimintel moved away

Thank you. We are safely onboard despite traffic chaos en route. Staff all very engaged and enthusiastic and about to enjoy our first glass of package wine. Zero problems getting an extra chefs table slot with a perfect menu and time for us. DH allergies correctly were on the system Small group life jacket explanation in the theatre with a glass of bubbles in hand. Very civilised 😀😀

Yes two bookings onboard I have the paperwork issued on booking that outlines the one free move terms