The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[Jim Avery]

Ok Andy (and anyone else), what do you hear about Viking Mississippi River cruises?  I ask, while we are sitting here sipping and enjoying the great views, sort of because of the thread complaining about no support in MVJ for the river cruises.  I cannot find anywhere in my sources any Edison Chouest Offshore new build info for such ships.  There is a Viking press release from last year referring to them  "now under construction"  but I find no steel on the ground.  Usually see a keel laying picture at least.  Interesting as the Venus is just delivered and the Octanis is nearing completion.  A question.  Wouldn't you think there is a money limit somewhere even for Mr. Hagen given the massive outflows of the last year+ ?  If you were going to pull back or cancel something which would you pick?  🍺

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Ok Andy (and anyone else), what do you hear about Viking Mississippi River cruises?  I ask, while we are sitting here sipping and enjoying the great views, sort of because of the thread complaining about no support in MVJ for the river cruises.  I cannot find anywhere in my sources any Edison Chouest Offshore new build info for such ships.  There is a Viking press release from last year referring to them  "now under construction"  but I find no steel on the ground.  Usually see a keel laying picture at least.  Interesting as the Venus is just delivered and the Octanis is nearing completion.  A question.  Wouldn't you think there is a money limit somewhere even for Mr. Hagen given the massive outflows of the last year+ ?  If you were going to pull back or cancel something which would you pick?  🍺

 

Jim - never really interested us, so haven't really paid any attention to this one. However, a quick google shows nothing since about April 20. Should debut in Aug 22, so you would expect construction to be underway by now.

 

Apparently the first year is booked out, so looks like it will be popular. 

[dottythecat]

Our good friends booked the Grand European Tour for October, 2017, and called to ask if we wanted to join them. Not being crazy about large cruise ships, this sounded great. On embarkation day we met a couple from Houston and enjoyed cocktails and dinner with them every day. We all decided then to buy the travel voucher for a future cruise. We booked France's Finest for travel in May 2019. What a great trip this was. That fall our Houston friends invited us to visit them. We had a great time we had. We all decided then to book Viking Homelands for May, 2021. You all know what happened to that. Before they even canceled us, we moved our sailing to May, 2022. Then we said, what the heck, and booked Portugal's River of Gold for May, 2023. I guess you could say we like Viking!

[Azulann]

BTW, the Viking  Miss. River Boat is being build in Louisiana currently .  It will  look like their longships, not a retro to the paddlewheel type currrently  on the River. A ancestor in our family tree was born on  the Riverboat" Canada" , between Galena and Fulton IL in  1865. His father and family  was returning from  serving in the Civil War from Indiana. to MN. 

Sitting here in the Explorer lounge , have a lovely gin martini with three olives. Waiting for my  steak  fillet broiled to perfection  in an hour.

Then will watch Atlantic Crossing on Masterpiece Theatre. I am am learning lots of new  history about Norway and FDR during WWII. I want to  go to Norway and of course Denmark  on a Viking Ocean Cruise in 2022.

Meanwhile, I will think about sitting on my balcony  in an aft cabin on Viking Orion in 79 days,  in Bermuda,  waiting for dinner in Restaurant , after my maritin in the Explorer Lounge earlier . .I like to eat at 8pm when on vacation.

Cheers,

 

Patti

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Azulann

[Jim Avery]

Hi Patti,

Love martinis in Explorers.  Have you seen any pictures of actual steel on the ground at Edison Chouest?  I can't find anything solid saying the Mississippi boats ( all river boats are boats, not ships) are actually under construction.  Not all that interested as used to use Edison Chouest products, among others, in the Mississippi as well as the "oil patch" many years ago.  Sea stories for a couple of martinis...🍸

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

18 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Hi Patti,

Love martinis in Explorers.  Have you seen any pictures of actual steel on the ground at Edison Chouest?  I can't find anything solid saying the Mississippi boats ( all river boats are boats, not ships) are actually under construction.  Not all that interested as used to use Edison Chouest products, among others, in the Mississippi as well as the "oil patch" many years ago.  Sea stories for a couple of martinis...🍸

Not trying to offend (much), but what is the attraction of a Mississippi river cruise?  To me the Mississippi is just a drainage ditch for flyover country, that floods a lot...

 

[Jim Avery]

12 minutes ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Not trying to offend (much), but what is the attraction of a Mississippi river cruise?  To me the Mississippi is just a drainage ditch for flyover country, that floods a lot...

 

Haha, nobody says it like a Californio.......

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

1 minute ago, Jim Avery said:

Haha, nobody says it like a Californio.......

Here’s how I see the US:

 

- The west coast creates everything.  And makes wine.

- The northeast helps finance the west coast.

- Colorado and Utah provide nice skiing.

- The mid-west grows steaks for the west coast and east coast.

- Florida launches rockets and provides hub airports for Caribbean access.

- Texas makes fuel for everybody.

- Not sure what the rest of the country is good for.

 

 

[Jim Avery]

Haha, besides wine, what good is the West Coast?  😎 They really still make stuff?  Maybe design it then have the Chinese make it.....

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

We don’t sully our hands by making anything.  We use only our brains.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Ragnar Danneskjold

[CharTrav]

On 4/25/2021 at 8:39 PM, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Not trying to offend (much), but what is the attraction of a Mississippi river cruise?  To me the Mississippi is just a drainage ditch for flyover country, that floods a lot...

 

Awwwww. We actually added that to our list of potential future cruises. I've flown over the Mississippi many times. And remember the year when there was a terrible drought so bad the Mississippi looked like a teeny thin stream with wide banks of exposed riverbed. Anyway we think it would be fun. 🙃

[CCWineLover]

12 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Awwwww. We actually added that to our list of potential future cruises. I've flown over the Mississippi many times. And remember the year when there was a terrible drought so bad the Mississippi looked like a teeny thin stream with wide banks of exposed riverbed. Anyway we think it would be fun. 🙃

Also have flown over the Mississippi many times.  Just the opposite, remember the huge floods from the massive rains back in July 1993?  I had occasion to fly into St. Louis then for work and it was quite a sad sight to fly over so much flooded land.

[Jim Avery]

On 4/25/2021 at 6:05 PM, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

We don’t sully our hands by making anything.  We use only our brains.

 

 

 

 

Your brain on martinis?🍸

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Well, my imagination on martinis anyway. I’m sure folks can tell which of my posts are done “under the influence”....   My apologies for past, and future, such indiscretions.

.

 

[Clay Clayton]

I was taking a look at MVJ this evening and read something in the description of the Winter Garden that I hadn’t noticed before. Thinking maybe it was a change due to new post pandemic cruising, I used the WayBack machine and discovered the same text was used in August of 2019. 
 

Anybody ever attended (or heard of) a “calming tea ceremony” taking place on board? It’s never been offered on the TAs we’ve done. It sounds like it could be done on Japanese cruises. We did the Far Eastern Discovery Cruise (with several port calls in very southern Japan) and it wasn’t part of our schedule so not sure when else they might do it. 

[Peregrina651]

58 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Anybody ever attended (or heard of) a “calming tea ceremony” taking place on board?

 

In the marketing department's dreams perhaps?

 

 

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

I was taking a look at MVJ this evening and read something in the description of the Winter Garden that I hadn’t noticed before. Thinking maybe it was a change due to new post pandemic cruising, I used the WayBack machine and discovered the same text was used in August of 2019. 
 

Anybody ever attended (or heard of) a “calming tea ceremony” taking place on board? It’s never been offered on the TAs we’ve done. It sounds like it could be done on Japanese cruises. We did the Far Eastern Discovery Cruise (with several port calls in very southern Japan) and it wasn’t part of our schedule so not sure when else they might do it. 

Clay, I vaguely remember something about this on our Nov. 2019 SE Asia cruise on the Orion. I think somebody from the CC M&M said they were going to participate in one in the Wintergarden during tea time, but being an English tea lover, I didn’t pay much attention. I believe I saw them doing this during tea time later on—I think it may be “on request” or may depend on a staff member who knows an Asian tea ceremony.

[LindaS272]

Clay, I vaguely remember something about this on our Nov. 2019 SE Asia cruise on the Orion. I think somebody from the CC M&M said they were going to participate in one in the Wintergarden during tea time, but being an English tea lover, I didn’t pay much attention. I believe I saw them doing this during tea time later on—I think it may be “on request” or may depend on a staff member who knows an Asian tea ceremony.

[TayanaLorna]

10 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I was taking a look at MVJ this evening and read something in the description of the Winter Garden that I hadn’t noticed before. Thinking maybe it was a change due to new post pandemic cruising, I used the WayBack machine and discovered the same text was used in August of 2019. 
 

Anybody ever attended (or heard of) a “calming tea ceremony” taking place on board? It’s never been offered on the TAs we’ve done. It sounds like it could be done on Japanese cruises. We did the Far Eastern Discovery Cruise (with several port calls in very southern Japan) and it wasn’t part of our schedule so not sure when else they might do it. 

We have participated in the afternoon tea service which is depicted in the photo and it was calming with the resident pianist playing...

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, TayanaLorna said:

We have participated in the afternoon tea service which is depicted in the photo and it was calming with the resident pianist playing...

It’s one of my favorite things about Viking (at least based on the number of pictures I have of it)...but it’s the tea ceremony I was asking about. In the description it appears to be a separate event. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Clay Clayton

[Jim Avery]

Yum.  And which is your favorite tea, Clay?  I prefer the Oolong but sometimes switch it up.  The sweets and the scones are my downfall.  

[Clay Clayton]

I alternate between lapsang souchong and oolong. But like you scones are the best part...with “proper” clotted cream!  Cornish style for me!

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

I alternate between lapsang souchong and oolong. But like you scones are the best part...with “proper” clotted cream!  Cornish style for me!

 

Hi Clay - we also enjoy a proper afternoon tea, with real clotted cream. So the question of the day is - how do you apply the clotted cream & jam. Cornish or Devon method.

 

Personally, I prefer the "Cornish" method, with jam first.😀

[Jim Avery]

Me too.  Lots of jam....

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:

Me too.  Lots of jam....

 

Then a mountain of cream😁