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[SashaTim]

June and I (Keith) are regular cruisers on Holland America but need a change so we chose Viking Ocean.

We have absolutely no knowledge of Viking ships and life onboard hence this posting.

We are booked on Viking Jupiter for a 21 night cruise this November (2019) Barcelona to Buenos Aires.

Does anyone have a couple of old daily activity sheets particularly for sea days so that we can get an idea of what, if anything, is organised by the cruise line which will allow us to  plan accordingly.

Not expecting Bingo, Trivia and other organised activities but we are expecting interesting lectures from knowledgeable speakers.

I would also expect there is live music but when and where.

Simply we want this to be a memorable cruise and having the right mindset beforehand is the secret to making this happen.

So any information, suggestions, advice would be great!

We emigrated from England in 1968 from Lancashire to a little town called Vermilion, Alberta, Canada and have live there ever since.

Cheers, June, Keith

 

 

[Clay Clayton]

Unfortunately I didn't keep the dailies from our spring transatlantics but will try to let you know what I remember.  

Every sea day there was a team Trivia session in the theatre.

 

Most days there were at two or three lectures in the morning.  We had four lecturers this year, last year there were three plus a naturalist who held watching sessions in the explorers' Lounge everyday. Most of the lecturers also held conversations with anyone who wanted to discuss their particular topic once or twice during our cruise. 

 

A number of afternoons they showed a recent movie in the theatre (with popcorn!). You could also see the same movie on your in stateroom TV at your leisure but some are just better on the big screen.  They may have also screened some of the TED talks in the theatre that are also found on the tv.

 

There was a bridge instructor aboard on our last TA and he had sessions every day and it appeared that the bridge players continued to play all day. On our 2017 TA I don't think there was an instructor. 

 

As I recall most of the music started mid afternoon, we had a string duo, a pianist and a guitar player and they rotated through the Living Room, the Explorer's Lounge and the Winter Garden (for the daily tea.)  FYI, you don't have to eat all three tiers of goodness at tea, we started going more often and just asking for tea and a scone...so good!

 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of activities but unlike mainstream lines they are a little more sedate though on this last cruise the crew did welcome us back to the ship with an aisle made of dancing crew members at one port. It was fun but surprising.

 

Have a great cruise!  We are looking at doing the reverse of yours next spring...hoping for a promo!

 

 

 

 

[lackcreativity]

From our spring sailing of Russia and the Baltic Seas (great cruise), here are the hightlights of our one day sailing the Stockholm Archipelago near the end of our cruise:

9:00 AM Office Hours with Resident Historian Dr. Robert Sutton - any topics of your choosing

9:30 AM Guest Lecture with Mr. David Stockwell " Women Artists - Why Are There So Few?"

10:30 AM Bean Bag Challenge against the Officers of Viking Sky

10:30 AM Guest Lecturer Steve on Lacquer, one of the traditional Russia Arts (not sure if this was a 

            sales pitch?)

11:30 AM Resident Historian Dr. Sutton  "The Bayeux Tapestry"

2:00 PM Red Wine Tasting (Additional Charge )

3:00 PM Grand Trivia

4:00 PM  Scenic Stockholm Sail in Event  - with guitarist Mathew and snacks and drinks

6:30 PM  The Abba Songbook  with the Viking singers

9:15 PM Viking Farewell Reception  followed by repeat performance of the Abba Songbook

 

I did not include the scheduled performances around the ship with the pianist, the classical duo, and the guitarist which occur several times each the evening. There is also Afternoon Tea served every day in the Wintergarden at 4:00. There is also dancing to the Viking Band  in Torshavn ( the nightclub). There was also a second Guest Lecturer, on this cruise, who did not have a presentation this day.

 

Welcome to Viking. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

 

[vnb2003]

Plus you have gym and Nordic spa available. If lectures are good for your brain, Nordic spa is good for your soul 😉. Please note Nordic spa includes sauna, steam room, different temperature pools, snow grotto ( ahhhh 🙂 ), salt water pool, etc - all these free of charge 🥂

[Jammy Bun]

Nothing much to add to the above, but just wanted to send greetings from Lancashire! 

 

We've done three Viking Ocean cruises now, including the last leg of the recent World cruise on which we had about 8 consecutive days at sea, plus many more sea days in between ports.  There was a craft tutor on our last cruise, but I'm not sure if that's a regular thing.   We were never bored.  We liked HAL, but love Viking. 

[SashaTim]

Thanks for your prompt replies to my post. The collective information you all provided has helped to reassure us that our sea days will be relaxing yet have the opportunity to gently get involved. It’s all about options like the fellow who has a dollar in his pocket has options over the guy who has nothing, he may not spend the dollar but he has options. From your posts we now know that we have options, we were a little worried because we do have a total of eleven sea days. Great! Looking forward even more so to a wonderful Viking Ocean cruise on the Jupiter.

Oh! Jammy Bun, I was born in St. Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, your name reminded me of the jam butties we used have when we got home from school.Cheers!

[_alan_]

I’ve been meaning to scan some of these in. I’ll try to remember to do one tonight, focusing on a sea day. 

[CILCIANRQTS]

And do join the Roll Call so we can all swap ideas for both sea and port days!!

You’ll be pleased with the options you have with Viking!

[_alan_]

My experience has been that we were so exhausted from our many excursions we didn’t have energy for a whole lot of on board activities. 

[theduffys]

We are booked on that same cruise with you. We have done one other Viking Ocean cruise but it was port intensive, so we were happy to read these responses.  We will be thrilled if there is bridge instruction and games.  see you in Nov.

[Jammy Bun]

6 hours ago, SashaTim said:

 

Oh! Jammy Bun, I was born in St. Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, your name reminded me of the jam butties we used have when we got home from school.Cheers!

 

So were my two sons!  We lived in Cheadle Hulme at the time - are now on the coast.  Have a wonderful time on Jupiter.  I think you'll have Heather Clancy as your Cruise Director.  If so, you are in for a real treat.  Do not miss her show(s), she is an outstanding performer.

[_alan_]

3 hours ago, theduffys said:

We are booked on that same cruise with you. We have done one other Viking Ocean cruise but it was port intensive, so we were happy to read these responses.  We will be thrilled if there is bridge instruction and games.  see you in Nov.

 

Don't forget to sign up for the Meet and Mingle.  I got email confirmation that one will take place when we sail in November 2020.

[Kentishincanada]

We are also on the Southern Atlantic cruise in November.  We are misplaced Brits living in Ottawa.  We were a little concerned about the many sea days but a couple of years ago after disembarking Viking Sea, having had a port every day, we realized that we hadn’t had time to enjoy the beautiful ship and the wonderful spa, etc.  I was pleased to hear there is bridge and I saw an article in the Daily Telegraph about an astronomer on board Jupiter which sounds exciting. 

 

Hope to meet you on board.  We are doing the Madrid pre-cruise extension.

 

I signed up to meet and mingle for this cruise today.

[_alan_]

7 hours ago, flashfearless said:

I’ve been meaning to scan some of these in. I’ll try to remember to do one tonight, focusing on a sea day. 

 

I have attached an example Cruise daily document that I scan into a pdf document.  It has some of our scribble on it.  

Scan20190624182830-merged.pdf

[SashaTim]

Flashfear

 

thanks for the Viking Daily pdf file, it gave me a clear picture of the what’s and when’s during a sea day. 

[theduffys]

Already signed up.

[Vivi13]

On 25 June 2019 at 8:42 AM, flashfearless said:

 

I have attached an example Cruise daily document that I scan into a pdf document.  It has some of our scribble on it.  

Scan20190624182830-merged.pdf 17.98 MB · 47 downloads

Thank you for posting.  Do you happen to know if the Red wine and Martini tastings were free, instead of $30, if you had the drinks package? The Chefs Table quotes $25 for their paired wines without the drinks package. but free with drinks package, so wondered if the these events followed the same principle.  

[_alan_]

I’m not sure as I didn’t have a drink package. But I’m guessing the package has no bearing on the cost of the event. 

[mgounaris]

Have been on 3 Viking Ocean cruises and the lecturers on each were excellent - whether at-sea-days or excursion days.  Also, don't forget tea time in the Wintergarden almost every day!

[pacruise804]

On 6/24/2019 at 8:42 PM, flashfearless said:

 

I have attached an example Cruise daily document that I scan into a pdf document.  It has some of our scribble on it.  

Scan20190624182830-merged.pdf 17.98 MB · 81 downloads

Thank you for this.  I'm curious - what was "Operation Mincemeat?"

[_alan_]

17 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

Thank you for this.  I'm curious - what was "Operation Mincemeat?"

 

My wife’s handwriting. She said it was the title of a book mentioned in the history lecture she went to.  

[pacruise804]

Thanks 🙂