DogSaysStayHome

Carnivorous might be ok if you played with $4 and gave them one. They need their cut. Actually maybe $5 ;o)

Oh wireless charging on Expedition ships? That's great. Solves all the fuss with wires, power bricks, ports, etc. Recently bought a small stand that charges my phone and ipods and have been considering brining it on the WC and possibly our Expedition great lakes trip. So much easier than constantly plugging and unplugging things. Wish my ipad had wireless charing.

Penspack, your spreadsheet of excursions will long live on and be held in gratitude by many of us. Having spent my entire career using Excel extensively, I for one am amazed and grateful for this document. My own feeble attempts were quickly set aside to use yours as a base for our 2025 WC. The time and effort saved thanks to you were better spent going to lunch with neighbors and walking the dog instead of wondering which of many ways to organize things. Viking should pay you a stipend and post them for long journeys. Of course the more you investigate the various excursions, the better the intel, so maybe there's an even better opportunity. Cheers

Wife and I can second this notion. We wandered the town ourselves and serendipitously came across the tram. We took it to the top of the gardens and had a lovely walk down. No need for an excursion to do this. Bonus was we bought some crackers and cheese to have with wine when back onboard. The ship we were on (wasn't Viking) did not have cheese and crackers to go with our pre-dinner wine bar gathering with other passengers to whine and wine about the day's events.

Well, based on this roll cal posts, it's only Jim on board. 🤣

Think that special place should be just aft of the infinity pool 😉

Using TV magic, we can enhance, enhance, enhance the reflection off the glasses and determine the plans. Now to sell them to the highest bidder...😉🤣

Regarding stars, my experience has been it is hard to see them because of all the lights onboard. Took 2 south of the equator cruises (Antartica and New Zealand/Aus) and hardly saw any stars. Partly due to it being light so much of the day, but mostly because the ships are lit up like a Christmas store, both for passenger safety and navigation safety. Was hoping that since we were on both Viking ships with planetariums that we would have some start gazing opportunities, but that ended up mostly being in a comfy warm chair looking at the overhead screen. On land after dark it can be amazing. There are some non-Viking options for this in Aukland where we overnight, and one could always set up something on your own out of Sydney too. If you really want stars, Viking has the Northern Lights cruise, which is really tempting us. Not often ships sail to cold climates in winter when it's dark.

Thanks for the information. Kinda figured this might be the case regarding the accessible ports. Many hotels TV's can be used with external inputs, but I can understand not having that onboard. She might consider streaming the audio-only which is low bandwidth.

TV question for someone onboard: would it be possible to connect a HDMI cable to the TV and switch inputs? Would mean an accessible HDMI port on the TV itself, and the option to change the source on the TV remote. Asking because somewhere on either on the roll calls or blogs someone wrote that there are no American Football games, and my wife loves to watch those. Not sure it's feasible given bandwidth limitations but we have been able to stream from our iPads to the TV sometimes when she's paid for a NFL app subscription. Also it would be a way to watch things we download prior to coming onboard or show things to people on the big screen. Not a big deal for us, just wondering if it's possible.

The way things are going, I doubt you will be able to transit the Red Sea. That's unfortunate given what everyone had hoped to see and experience. It is perhaps an opportunity to see other ports, given that it looks like you would have at least some days to go ashore given the mileage and time it takes to get there. Waaaay down the list of things that would change, I'd be sorry to not see your shore excursion experiences in order to plan for our own WC trip next year. I think of you on this trip when making my bed, cleaning the house, going grocery shopping and all sorts of normal daily activities, thinking wow, next year at this time, I won't have to do these things. Instead, it would come to: do I walk the stairs, go to the gym, spa, go on a fun shore excursion or just sit in the Winter Garden and read my book while someone brings me bourbon. Instead of dealing with LA traffic and Costco, would I want World Cafe, Restaurant, Chef's Table or Manfredi's for dinner? And oh, those magical elves that come to my room and tidy everything up, sigh, I want them at home. Enjoy your time!

Glad to see that Tom and Joanne posted on their blog, was worried they fell off after Cabo 😅 Now, did Eddie and Denise make it back after Santa Barbara? Steve & Debbie are in transit to Hawaii. Love to see what's happening and having a hard time waiting 11 months for our turn.

To those of you on this cruise, thank you for your blog posts, pictures and commentary. Those are very helpful for my wife and i to chose our excursions for next year. Glad to see you were having fun in my hometown of LA and Santa Barbara. The courthouse is lovely, and the Arlington is fun to visit too. Our daughters grew up frequently visiting the Mission gardens. Also recommend Alice Keck Park park as a fun place to stroll. We are living vicariously through your shared experiences and can't wait to be there ourselves in a few months.

Curious to know the time of arrival/departure for LA. Our 24/25 itinerary has us in port for 4 hours, which is clearly wrong. We live 30 min from the San Pedro port, so are wondering how much time we have to visit friends and family.

Mexican train sounds like a game that can easily go off the rails 🤣