The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[Ruthieofthesea]

4 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Yes, sorry Ruthie, I posted my snow comment simultaneously with your post, and it looks quite silly, now.  But I, too, have been where you are...

The snow comment was just what I needed. Now I don't feel bad that we had snow on Friday and it is sixty today.

 

The ladies name in my post is Claire, we still keep in touch. She remarried. I never will.

 

[SantaFe1]

Ruthie, I also remarried.  But, I hope to find you on some future trip in the real  Explorer’s Lounge!  Stay strong!!

[Ruthieofthesea]

20 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Ruthie, I also remarried.  But, I hope to find you on some future trip in the real  Explorer’s Lounge!  Stay strong!!

Thank you for your kind words. I don't think I can find what I had, so! I will keep my memories. I have wonderful children and grand children, a host of friends and I am blessed to travel. All is well. 

 

I would love to meet you in the Explorer's Lounge and have cocktails, maybe someday on a grand adventure. 

 

[hersheyhughes]

Today would have been the end of a 38 day trip, beginning with the March 15 Southern Atlantic Crossing.  Every day we imagined where we would have been and what excursion we would be experiencing.  

I just discovered this thread and it has been wonderful remembering our past cruise memories. The Homelands in 2016 and like someone mentioned getting up early cruising into port, especially through the fyords.

The Explorer's Lounge was one of my favorite spots to go to for sailing into port. I would go to to the bar, get one of my  many cappuccino coffees of the day and enjoy the scenery.

We hope to book the SA crossing for either Mar or Nov of next year. We have also booked a Mississippi cruise for Nov of 22. What a long way off. Not unusual for Viking. All of our ocean cruises have been booked with the same time frame. They have all been worth the wait. 

Thanks everyone. Reading all your posts have taken me down memory lane.

We will get through these times soon and hope to meet some of you on an upcoming voyage.

Kimberly

[deec]

[deec]

The picture showed up today as my Facebook Memory!!!  It was very 3 years ago when we crossed the Bay of Biscay!!  The great crew fixed this window quickly with little fuss.  Many of the dividers between balconies flew open too!

[stretchcruz]

7 hours ago, deec said:

The picture showed up today as my Facebook Memory!!!  It was very 3 years ago when we crossed the Bay of Biscay!!  The great crew fixed this window quickly with little fuss.  Many of the dividers between balconies flew open too!

A bunch of mine showed up today, too! Rough seas but fun!!!!

Edited April 21, 2020 by stretchcruz

[SantaFe1]

Well, I usually don’t drink anything but wine, but tonight I think I need one of those martinis everyone raves about.  I was supposed to be on a flight to Barcelona today.  No flight, no hotel, no Sagrada Familia, no Cruise from Barcelona to Lisbon. Barcelona to Lisbon.  Last year in April, I was on Safari in Africa.  I must remember that we are blessed.

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by SantaFe1

[Ruthieofthesea]

I changed my sail date for the Southern Atlantic Crossing to November of 2021. We were concerned with the affect of COVID 19 extending into early 2021. We were booked for March 2021. I feel better  with the new sail date. 

 

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

Last year in April, I was on Safari in Africa

 

WOW! What a picture!

[SantaFe1]

It took to the second day to see the elusive leopard.  My husband captured it with his telephoto.  The rest of us on our phones got nothing.  He shared with everyone on our vehicle.  Our rule was that if you saw it, but didn’t photograph it, it was “kosher” to accept and share the photo.  What a fun memory!

[Peregrina651]

3 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

It took to the second day to see the elusive leopard.  My husband captured it with his telephoto.  The rest of us on our phones got nothing.  He shared with everyone on our vehicle.  Our rule was that if you saw it, but didn’t photograph it, it was “kosher” to accept and share the photo.  What a fun memory!

 

Last time we did a group tour, we had wi-fi on our bus and since we all knew one another before we left home, we were all connected on WhatsApp. Every time we got back on the bus, you could here the ding-ding of all the phones as we all started sharing photos from the last stop.

[SantaFe1]

But on Safari, some people were sharing pictures of things they hadn’t seen.  So we thought if you had seen it but didn’t have a photo that was OK.  But if you hadn’t seen it on your vehicle, and posted someone else’s picture that was not.  We had some not so good lion pictures, but didn’t post those of,others who had great lion pics.  Oh, to do it again!!

[deec]

SantaFe1....we have been fortunate to do some wonderful trips and my ALL TIME FAVORITE has to be the safari we did in Tanzania!!! Such amazing memories.  None of our pictures match your leopard though!!  Amazing!  I love elephants!

[Jim Avery]

10 minutes ago, deec said:

SantaFe1....we have been fortunate to do some wonderful trips and my ALL TIME FAVORITE has to be the safari we did in Tanzania!!! Such amazing memories.  None of our pictures match your leopard though!!  Amazing!  I love elephants!

One of my English cousins goes to a safari camp where they ride elephants, not Land Rovers, to see the animals.  Elephants don't scare the animals like diesel engines.  I don't have the name but it should be easy to find.  I love all this discussion of safaris and the pictures.  It is something we have always wanted to do but have not so far.  The ones off of cruises don't seem to be as good as just going overland for the safari camp alone.  More pictures please...🍸

[SantaFe1]

We had an elephant extravaganza!  Our bungalow was right on the watering hole.  One picture shows my husband on our porch so you can see how close.  These are fun memories.  I had waited all my life for this experience.

 

 

[deec]

Yep....we were in a "tree house". and they were right under us!!!  Unbelievable.

Jim, you should definitely think about a safari.

[jonthomas]

Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures. Sadly we have not done a safari but would love to. Hope that we are still able to do that in not too distant of a future. That is one trip you need to be really in good shape and health, not to mention the very long flights.   

[SantaFe1]

We did this on the WC last year, so no long flights.  We got off the ship in Mozambique and after the Safari flew back to pick up the ship again in Durban.  It was easy.  (And so was the Safari, nothing to do but sit in the truck.  You don’t get out and walk around.) Viking put together a nice Safari, although I have to say, some had nicer accommodations than others.  We lucked out!  And the OBC we got pretty much paid for the Safari, so a win win.  Here’s another favorite photo. These two guys were too lazy to get out of the road. They were only a couple of feet away from our vehicle.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by SantaFe1

[lackcreativity]

I got my love of travel from my daughter. Of course, her idea of up close and personal is a little different from mine! Sri Lanka, 2017. I hope to follow in her footsteps one day. (She gave me permission to share her photo.)

Edited April 23, 2020 by lackcreativity

[SantaFe1]

Well, this has been a fun morning in the Explorers Lounge.  I think I’ll head over to the Aquavit Terrace for some grilled shrimp and salad.  And a glass of wine, of course!

[CharTrav]

On 4/23/2020 at 2:09 PM, SantaFe1 said:

Well, this has been a fun morning in the Explorers Lounge.  I think I’ll head over to the Aquavit Terrace for some grilled shrimp and salad.  And a glass of wine, of course!

You rat! You're making me hungry .. trying to decide right not now how to use our future cruise vouchers...

[lackcreativity]

6 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

You rat! You're making me hungry .. trying to decide right not now how to use our future cruise vouchers...

We requested a refund to use that money to pay on an already booked cruise. However, I have my next one (after the two on the books) already planned: Mediterranean & Italian Sojourn. It's fifteen days, from Barcelona to Venice with a mix of many new ports and a handful of old favorites. Dreaming of early 2022.

 

I thought this was just the virtual Explorer's Lounge! Is the rest of the ship open? If so, I could really go for some of the sushi in the World Cafe right now.

[CharTrav]

1 hour ago, lackcreativity said:

We requested a refund to use that money to pay on an already booked cruise. However, I have my next one (after the two on the books) already planned: Mediterranean & Italian Sojourn. It's fifteen days, from Barcelona to Venice with a mix of many new ports and a handful of old favorites. Dreaming of early 2022.

 

I thought this was just the virtual Explorer's Lounge! Is the rest of the ship open? If so, I could really go for some of the sushi in the World Cafe right now.

As I learned yesterday talking with my Viking TA - you can indeed use the voucher to pay the balance of booked cruises. Not just for new bookings. Question I'm trying to get nailed down is what happens if your voucher value exceeds the balance? Can the remainder be carried over to apply to another cruise? I think the answer is no. If so, have two possible cruises that would burn up our vouchers. One is to do what we were going to do next month (Mediterran and Adriatic Sojourn) in May 2022 adding extensions on each end and flying premium economy. Maybe  bump up from PV2 to PV1. Like you, we have two trips already booked - Galápagos this December (will it happen?) and Midnight Sun in July 2021. Am also doing a choir tour for a week in May 2021 (Venice/Pisa/Florence). 

[photopro2]

17 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

I thought this was just the virtual Explorer's Lounge! Is the rest of the ship open? If so, I could really go for some of the sushi in the World Cafe right now.

I am pleased to say the whole Virtual Viking ship is 100% open and operating as usual. Although you might need to drop by this lounge again if you are hoping to find someone on the ship to chat to 😁 

I also wanted to mention that we are booked on the Italian Sojourn segment of the trip you are looking at for 2022. So if you do happen to be going through Civitavecchia (Rome) on 5th March 2022 we look forward to joining you!

Enjoy the sushi 🍣🍷