The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[photopro2]

Thanks for the responses. I still have not the slightest idea how I managed to do that, I must have "mis-clicked' twice at least so did feel a bit of an idiot.

 

However I am going to leave it for 3 reasons:

1/ I agree that it is not worth troubling the monitors about.

2/ It will serve as a warning to others 🙂

3/ The info that was posted in response is really useful and might help someone with a more significant mistake in the future.

 

While you are there Peregrina would you like to grab a coffee and maybe something from Mamsen's with me? I know that you were one of the early travellers with Viking Ocean and it would be good to hear something about your past cruising experience and how you discovered Viking?

 

Maybe Jim could bring his Bloody Mary over and join us if he has recovered a little by now?

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

While you are there Peregrina would you like to grab a coffee

 

@photopro2, I would love to. My mug is full and the view from the bow window is bright sunshine over whatever port we are docked in. Jim, pleased to meet you!

 

I did not find Viking; they found me. We were victims of their unrelenting advertising campaign. Somehow we must have fit the demographic they were advertising to and for years before we even actually sailed, I had my eye on "China's Cultural Delights" in the brochures that appeared in our mailbox on a very regular basis. I knew I wanted to take this cruise. I just had to convince DH that we had to --and he can be very slow to convince. It was also a lot more expensive that what we were currently spending on cruises.

 

Finally, in 2009 my brother did one of the Viking China itineraries. We happened to be with them just a day or two after they returned and quite uncharacteristically my brother was floating 2 feet off the ground -- and it wasn't jet-lag. That is what it took to convince my husband. If my brother was that enthusiastic about an adventure, then it must be good. We booked the cruise for the following year as our quinquennial* anniversary celebration trip with DH's brother. This year, is the 10th anniversary of that trip.  The trip itself was amazing and as far as I am concerned, it is the gold standard by which I measure all of our Viking adventures.

 

In 2014, at about the time when we started to give some thought to the next quinquennial trip, "Into the Midnight Sun" appeared in the latest VO brochure. In no time, we were booked for one of the only two sailings in 2016, the maiden season. Good thing we did not dawdle. By the end of the summer, it was sold out and by December we were paid in full for a cruise on a cruise line that not only had not sailed its first season but that had not even built its first ship. We were that confident that Viking could move the hallmarks of its river cruises to a comparable ocean model and that we would be happy with the result. We had no issue with paying that far out because it was what we had come to expect from Viking: payment in full due at the end of the month in which we booked. The thing is, up until that time it was only river cruises and we were booking less than a year in advance. Now we were booking two years out.

 

We loved "Midnight Sun" as well.  Viking delivered and as far as I am concerned Viking Ocean is Viking River writ large. All of the Viking NOs work for us along with the graciousness and the tranquility on board.

 

So, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

 

Now, let me turn the tables on you gentlemen.  What is your Viking "meet-cute"?

 

--------------------------

* -- that is the SAT word for "every five years" -- I'm tired of typing out the long phrase when one word will do. I had to look it up so I got it right; but don't worry not even spellcheck recognizes it. DH and his brother have wedding anniversaries 5 years and  week apart. A number of years ago we started the tradition of celebrating the "round" years together on some sort of trip --because it will always be a round number for one or the other of us.

 

[photopro2]

On 5/23/2020 at 5:23 PM, Jim Avery said:

A little too much Torshavn last night.🥃😎

It's OK Jim, I know the feeling..... you have another doze, while I answer @Peregrina 😉

 

I must start by explaining that for most of my life the concept of cruising never appealed to me in the slightest. 

 

During the end part of the last century my work took me all around the world as part of the “media circus” covering motorsport events, primarily the World Rally Championship. 

 

Vacations tended to be similar to my work travel, mainly fly-drive road trips, and I must admit these might have grown a little out of hand. For example, the latest one in the USA involved 6 flights (one from the East to the West Coast) 5 Trains, 21 nights in 15 different hotels and over 2,500 miles in a Hertz 4Runner!

 

After so many years of independent international travel the idea of letting a cruise company set out an itinerary and decide for me exactly where I should go and for how long was not very attractive. Then there was the matter of travelling with hundreds if not thousands of people together all on one ship. That struck me as just being mass transit taken to a ridiculous level with all the loss of privacy and other compromises that public transport entails. 

 

In 2016 I stumbled across the new and rapidly growing Viking Ocean Cruise line. I discovered the company while investigating options for a “big birthday” trip for DW who had said that she would like to visit Norway to experience the midnight sun. The idea of travelling from the UK by sea to Northern Norway had a certain appeal and, for once, a cruise was going exactly where we wanted and when we wanted.

 

As I researched the Viking company’s ships and its ethos it became clear that their target customers are more interested in history, art and culture than casinos and waterslides. In fact it seemed they had developed a product aimed fairly and squarely at people like DW and I. However I still had my doubts. Before committing to a long and not inexpensive voyage to the Arctic Circle I wanted to find out if Viking lived up to their promises and could provide a travel experience that we really would enjoy. A mailing with the offer of a discounted seven nights “Romantic Mediterranean” cruise in early 2017 provided the opportunity to sample the Viking product first hand.

 

You will gather from all this background that I arrived on board the Viking Sea in Barcelona ready to take quite a sceptical and hard-nosed view of what was on offer. So what did I find?.......

 

I can only say that the whole experience met (and more often far exceeded) my expectations in every single area. The ship itself was every bit as spacious and comfortable as it appeared in the brochures. What really surprised me was the lack of people in any of the public areas at any one time, despite the ship being almost fully booked. It really did feel more like a wonderfully spacious hotel or even private home than a form of “public” transport!

 

As well as the loss of control over our itinerary my other main worry was that we might be travelling with snooty passengers lording it over a subservient and maybe even downtrodden crew. In the event it turned out that I could not have been more wrong. As you know, though it is always possible to find a quiet and private area in the public spaces, it is equally easy to strike up a casual conversation with fellow passengers if you wish. It was through these conversations that I quickly realised that most were not so different to ourselves. The ship was generally filled with polite, well-educated people who often had an interesting life story to tell. The same applies to the crew. Far from being subservient they come across as genuine friendly individuals who are either at the top of their game or striving hard to get there.

 

Although passengers and crew have different roles to play I really love the feeling with Viking that we are all (literally) in the same boat. And when it is such a wonderful boat (ship!) it is not surprising that passengers and crew can all, to some degree, share an enjoyable experience while showing genuine mutual respect.

 

Cruising “The Viking Way” turned out to be just the thing for us with 3 under our belts now and 2 more booked. I have found a form of vacation where I can get the element of constant travel that I enjoy but relax and go with the flow rather than having to make everything happen myself! Maybe more importantly though, DW now only has to unpack/pack once rather than 15 times on a single trip 💼💼😎

 

So...... if you have revived a bit now Jim, when/how did you discover Viking?

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, photopro2 said:

It's OK Jim, I know the feeling..... you have another doze, while I answer @Peregrina 😉

 

✂️SNIP, SNIP✂️

 

 

Cruising “The Viking Way” turned out to be just the thing for us with 3 under our belts now and 2 more booked. I have found a form of vacation where I can get the element of constant travel that I enjoy but relax and go with the flow rather than having to make everything happen myself! Maybe more importantly though, DW now only has to unpack/pack once rather than 15 times on a single trip 💼💼😎

 

So...... if you have revived a bit now Jim, when/how did you discover Viking?

 

Great story!

 

Viking, it seems, has hit the right button for many cruisers. Just look at the number of repeat cruisers. Just look at how quickly ships fill up, especially new itineraries and ventures like the Expeditions. Two months after the first World Cruise was announced, it was 60% sold out -- and there were no segments offered.

 

Okay! Who else is going to share their story!

 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Peregrina651

[Jim Avery]

1 hour ago, photopro2 said:

It's OK Jim, I know the feeling..... you have another doze, while I answer @Peregrina 😉

 

 

 

So...... if you have revived a bit now Jim, when/how did you discover Viking?

Great description Photopro.  Haha, Viking had us at "No Kids".  Actually there was a bit more involved but that was a big reason we noticed Viking.  My TA had sent me info on Viking before and we received the description of the Inaugural WC when it was released.  We never traveled longer than a couple of weeks as we were parents to the best little dog ever.  I know, everyone says that about their dog but with ours it was true.  Unfortunately she became ill and we lost her.  The forgotten Viking Inaugural came back to the front.  Like Andy we had really done our homework as I have been a lifetime Cunard passenger, going back to the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth days as a child and the Cunard World Cruise was listed approximately half the cost of Viking.  Really checking all the plusses of Viking made it a wash financially.  QE2 was, and still is, my favorite ship ever but ships, like us, have a sell by date🍸.  What a feeling to be doing 30+knots in the North Atlantic.  Back to Viking.  The ship appealed to our tastes as to design and decor.  Under 1,000 passengers also a big draw though 500 or so onboard would be perfect.😳 So, after losing our special dog, we just had to get out of the house.  As luck would have it, we booked one of the very few remaining cabins on the Inaugural World Cruise about 5 months out.  That voyage was so unbelievably spectacular with everyone onboard doing the full WC that two weeks after arriving home 4+ months later we called "our guy" at Viking and started working toward the 2019 WC that ended (for us) in LA this past January.  That cruise went on to be the famous Magical Mystery Tour.  Part of us regrets getting off in LA but after two WCs in two years we had lots of maintenance type stuff to schedule.  So, we have sailed Viking Oceans twice.  Almost 9 months on Viking Sun.  We sit here missing our pals, the ship, and most of all the crew.  We have a Viking River cruise booked in 2021 on the Nile but, as with all of us, we shall see what happens.  

[lackcreativity]

Our international travel experience began in our mid 50's on a bus, with a guide. Yes, we were rather timid travelers back then, and we liked having someone hold our hands. We did have  great times and met nice people on those trips. A cruise was the farthest thing from our minds. My siblings described their Caribbean cruises on huge ships in such a way that I began to wonder if I wasn't switched at birth. 

 

As we got a little older and grew tired of moving to a new hotel almost daily, we saw the famous (or is it infamous?) Viking river cruise commercials on Downton Abbey. That led us down the path that so many other Viking cruisers have taken. We loved the first river cruise, and on board our trip down the Danube we learned about the new ocean ships Viking was building. The expectation that the experience of an ocean cruise with Viking would feel similar to their river cruise convinced us to give it a try. We have not been without a Viking cruise on the books since that time! We missed out on our April cruise from this year, and moved our October one to April of 2021, so we are definitely missing all the things we love about Viking. 

[Heidi13]

Wow, some great stories about finding Viking.

 

My interest in cruising dates back to 1976, when as a 2nd trip cadet, I was assigned to the school ship SS Uganda. Very few P&O Cadets are assigned a passengers ship, so I was even more surprised the following year when I was assigned to SS Oriana for 5 amazing months. This was my favourite ship of all time and not only because this is where Judi & I met. Yes, romance upon the high seas wasn't limited to the Love Boat. Working mostly the Princess ships in N/America, Judi and I were married a couple of years later, with me only surviving 1 more contract, before heading to local ferries.

 

Since both of us were experienced cruisers, it was no surprise when the kids were a little older, we resumed cruising, opting for Princess, since I still knew many of the British Captains & Senior Officers. When our son joined Princess, we cruised with him extensively, but they had already been purchased by Carnival and the size of ship and quality were diverging rapidly - bigger ships and poorer service. Our last Princess cruise was the 2015 World Cruise, when the standards dropped below our minimum expectations. The Elite benefits just weren't worth it.

 

I normally keep abreast of the industry, so was well aware of the impending new kids on the block - Viking Ocean, noting their CEO was involved with Royal Viking Line back in the 80's. They had the nicest ships afloat, at the time. After our 2015 WC, we embarked on a project to select a new cruise line, researching all Premium & Luxury Lines + HAL & Celebrity. We narrowed it down to Viking & Oceania, with the inaugural WC being of great interest, but it was too early for us, as we look for major holidays every 5-years.

 

Viking met the greatest majority of our preferences, so we figured it would be the best fit:

• smaller ships, but still with enough pax to provide a variety of entertainment
• no kids - while longer cruises tend to have less kids, we like the guarantee of none
• no casinos - many will say you don't have to attend, with my response being, I prefer the space for the casino being available for other uses, which provides a less crowded ship
• focus on ports, culture, learning, which should provide many like minded pax, rather than a younger party crowd
• no formal nights - in the old days every night was formal and everyone was dressed to the nines. We enjoyed those days, but the plethora of new cruisers caused a gradual reduction to the standards, to where I've seen tank tops in the MDR on formal nights. It was no longer fun, so we wanted something more casual, where everyone could comply and feel comfortable
• Nickle & diming - cruise lines have always been experts at separating pax from their money, but in the 70's & 80's it was more subtle. Mass market ships these days are blatant in promoting spend, spend spend. Viking seemed more all-inclusive, which was appealing
• Meals - While Oceania rated highest for meals, Viking were rated very highly, which is what we were looking for. We aren't serious foodies, we just want well prepared and presented meals made from quality ingredients.

Once we selected Viking, since we were considering a World Cruise, we participated in CC to get the feel from previous passengers. We found the people on the Viking Board very gracious and open to sharing their experiences. The feedback confirmed our 3 years of research, so we booked the 2nd half of the Ultimate 245-day WC.

 

Yes, we missed most of the ports, and it was cut short by 3 weeks, but the cruise was everything we expected and more. Shortly after joining we had a Q/A with the Captain, C/Engineer & GM. Since the ship's GM was on emergency leave, the replacement was actually a Senior Manager from the Basle Head Office. He explained their extensive hiring practices and advised their crew retention rate is about 96%. Crew want to return, as they are well treated with industry best terms & conditions. The old adage is certainly true - when the company looks after the crew, the crew looks after the pax. In almost 100 days we got to know many of the crew extremely well, especially when we were provided "Honorary Crew" name badges. When we were down to only 8 pax, we had officers and crew members dine with us every dinner and even a few lunches. We were invited to the Pool Deck, which was the Crew Disco most nights after dinner, to enjoy a couple of beverages. We were always made welcome. We even received invites to their Dk 9 crew space, but graciously declined those.

 

The other huge positive on Viking is the performance of the Senior & Junior Officers, as if they see something, they fix it. On many evenings, when the MDR had a queue, the Restaurant Manager was their showing pax to tables and assisting busing tables to speed up the turnaround of the table. Just can't imagine a Princess Maitre'D busing a table!

 

We are definitely Viking converts and have booked a river/ocean combo in 2021.

[knoxclone]

After I retirement, I still wanted to travel, but doing so with my DH was painful, as we have very very different travel styles.  Cruising was suggested many times, but thought of being on a large ship with thousands of people without the sight of land for days totally freaked me out …I even hated travelling on the Chesapeake Bay ferry each summer. 

 

But, like many, I was captivated by the Viking commercials during Downton Abbey and figured I would be able to swim to shore if necessary 😀  I appreciated the fact that during the muster drill, a crew member helpfully said  “if we start sinking, head up to the lounge because with the water this low, even if we sink to the bottom of the river, the bar will still be above water and drinks are on the house!” 

 

I am not sure at what point during our Rhine river cruise the Viking magic dust was sprinkled, but it was the best vacation we had every shared.  

 

After two more river cruises, I was persuaded to try “big water” and we embarked on the Viking Homelands cruise with two weeks of beautiful blue skies and glass flat calm water on the Baltic.  While my next big water adventure has been cancelled for 2020, next year we are scheduled to travel through the Bay of Biscay, and, I am looking (albeit tentatively) towards the challenge and have faith in Viking.

 

I spent almost two decades doing event planning and congressional delegation travel conferences around the world – not as a principal, but as the “lady with the clipboard”.  After spending a career ensuring that my delegations were well taken care of during their travel, I can’t help but to continually mentally critique hotels, restaurants, transportation modes, tours and guides, appreciating things well done, or how they might be improved.   Regardless of having no previous cruising experience to draw on, Viking has consistently impressed me with their attention to detail and the overall quality of their crew. 

 

Coincidentally, our first Viking river cruise was on the Viking Sun, (one of their older ships, not a long boat) on her last sailing and our first VO was on the Viking Sun.  

 

Can’t wait to enjoy Viking again. 

[photopro2]

On 5/25/2020 at 12:26 AM, Peregrina651 said:

"Into the Midnight Sun" appeared in the latest VO brochure. In no time, we were booked for one of the only two sailings in 2016, the maiden season.

I think that I recall that was the sailing that featured on TV? If so where you aware of the filming going on?

[photopro2]

On 5/25/2020 at 5:49 PM, Jim Avery said:

What a feeling to be doing 30+knots in the North Atlantic.

That must have been fantastic. I love the concept of "liner travel" as opposed to "holiday cruising" We very much enjoyed the "Ocean Liners - Speed and Style" exhibition that Viking sponsored at the V&A in London back in 2018. https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/ocean-liners-speed-style 

It was a daydream of mine to take a one of the packages that went TA on the QE2 one way and Concord the other, but sadly those came to an end long before I was in any position to afford that sort of thing. 😢

[photopro2]

On 5/25/2020 at 10:14 PM, Heidi13 said:

Wow, some great stories about finding Viking.

And a great story from you too Andy!!

I was hoping to bump into you here in the Explorers' at some point so I could say what a fantastic job you did on the "magical mystery tour" blog. I think your summaries are the best general descriptions of the Viking Ocean experience anywhere on the web. I must also say the photos are excellent too, I note that you use the same camera as I do - Canon 5D III 👍 Maybe that helps? 😎

Could I ask something though?..... you say at the end of your April 30th Blog post that "The final summary will be published within a week." but try as I might I can't seem to locate that final summary - am I just being dim?

Did I read somewhere that you have a further trip planned? - Midnight Sun?

[photopro2]

17 hours ago, knoxclone said:

not as a principal, but as the “lady with the clipboard”

Well, after working as a photographer on hundreds of those sorts of event over the years I must say that it is usually a "lady with the clipboard" that really makes it all happen 📋😄

You might have noticed that we came to Viking almost by chance and it is always nice to hear that we "hit lucky" from people like you and Andy (see above) who can cast a professional eye on the operation. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by photopro2
Typo

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

I think that I recall that was the sailing that featured on TV? If so where you aware of the filming going on?

 

Yes, we were quite aware but never bothered by it. We saw the crew and we knew they were documenting our cruise (photo and video) but it rarely involved the passengers per se. They worked around us -- not vice versa.

 

Our sailing got to sail into Trollfjord and it was only permitted because the atmospheric conditions were perfect. This was a big deal as it involved sailing the ship into a small dead-end fjord with barely enough room to turn around. It happened at dinner time; dinner service stopped completely as pax and crew alike lined the decks. Of course, it was all caught on film. Here is a photo as we are about to sail out of the fjord. The film crew is on the tender; you can see them standing on top of the tender. And, yes, we are going to sail through that small opening.

 

 

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

That must have been fantastic. I love the concept of "liner travel" as opposed to "holiday cruising" We very much enjoyed the "Ocean Liners - Speed and Style" exhibition that Viking sponsored at the V&A in London back in 2018. https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/ocean-liners-speed-style 

It was a daydream of mine to take a one of the packages that went TA on the QE2 one way and Concord the other, but sadly those came to an end long before I was in any position to afford that sort of thing. 😢

 

We saw this exhibit when it was at the Peabody-Essex Museum, outside of Boston in 2017. The two museums worked together to organize the exhibit. P-E-M was founded by seafarers to house the artifacts that they collected on their voyages and you will see Eskimo art, scrimshaw, Chinese export porcelain and even an entire Chinese house all under one roof.

 

https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/ocean-liners-glamour-speed-and-style

 

 

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, photopro2 said:

And a great story from you too Andy!!

I was hoping to bump into you here in the Explorers' at some point so I could say what a fantastic job you did on the "magical mystery tour" blog. I think your summaries are the best general descriptions of the Viking Ocean experience anywhere on the web. I must also say the photos are excellent too, I note that you use the same camera as I do - Canon 5D III 👍 Maybe that helps? 😎

Could I ask something though?..... you say at the end of your April 30th Blog post that "The final summary will be published within a week." but try as I might I can't seem to locate that final summary - am I just being dim?

Did I read somewhere that you have a further trip planned? - Midnight Sun?

Thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed it, as it was a considerable daily task.

 

Apologies for the last note. I originally planned to separate the ship & meals into 2 posts, but ended up combining them into 1 lengthy post. Figured that I had covered most of the ship & Viking experience, so decided Vol III is the final installment.

 

Very happy with the 5D Mk III, even if it is starting to get a bit long in the tooth. With the investment in lenses, going mirrorless isn't an option unless they have an adapter for the lenses, which I haven't bothered to investigate.

 

Back in the days of steam, the liner ships were amazing. Never got aboard the QE2 like Jim, but my 5 months on Oriana were amazing. We went from Southampton (after drydock) to Sydney, then an entire season of Pacific cruising. Those ships sure could handle the weather, as we stuck the bow into the Pacific on departure Vancouver (early December) and pounded through a major winter storm. One cruise, we had to dock in Sydney about 8 hrs early to beat the wharfies strike, so lit up all the boilers & fire, doing about 32 kts. When navigating in traffic you can almost consider all other ships as being stationary. When doing rounds, it was amazing back aft with the prop rumble caused by 80,000 SHP.

 

Concord was another of my favourites, as I recall seeing her at the gate prior to her first flight at LHR, as I took off for Malta to join SS Uganda. The Scottish Museum of Flight just outside Edinburgh has a Concord, which we visited the last time we were in UK.

 

Believe I recall reading you used to follow rally racing, which was another of my interests from school days. Had I stayed in UK, I was saving to buy one of the Ford Escort RS1600's from the special vehicle plant. Great wee motor.

 

Our next cruise is a combined river/ocean, starting in Budapest and going to Amsterdam. We then have 9 days before boarding the Star in Bergen, bound for London. I've never really bought into the names for the cruises, but Midnight Sun is plausible, as we head North. Embark in Bergen June 16th, so right at the summer solstice.

 

 

[photopro2]

On 5/27/2020 at 1:51 PM, Peregrina651 said:

Our sailing got to sail into Trollfjord

We still have a recording of that documentary saved on our cable box so we can "revisit" the ship from time to time - It must be a fantastic memento for those of you on the trip.

[photopro2]

On 5/27/2020 at 3:42 PM, Heidi13 said:

Believe I recall reading you used to follow rally racing, which was another of my interests from school days. Had I stayed in UK, I was saving to buy one of the Ford Escort RS1600's from the special vehicle plant. Great wee motor.

I am going to flatter you by assuming that you must have been looking at a MK II 😁

That was very much my era, Roger Clark was coming to the end of his "glory days" Hannu Mikkola was in his prime and Ari Vatanen was just starting out. I frequently covered the Scottish round of the British Rally Championship in the late 70's and 80's so if you ever got out as a spectator we might even have been on the same corner at some point.  As a Ford fan you will also remember Malcolm Wilson as a driver before he went on to be a team boss. I was lucky to be around for the 4WD Group B cars too and saw the RS200, Lancia S4, S1 Quattro, Metro 6R4 and all the others come and go.

Maybe I should apologise to the 99% of readers for whom all the above will be gibberish but, on the other hand, this lounge is a great place to let our conversations wander 🙂

Nearly lunch time........ Tuna Steak from the Pool Grill or something from the World Cafe to eat on the rear deck? Decisions, decisions 🤔 

 

[Clay Clayton]

Why not have both?  We usually order a tuna steak and while it’s being seared, run in and make a salad upon which we have the tuna steak placed.  Makes us feel like we have been eating healthy!

 

While I wasn’t  asked To join y’all, I’m gonna take this free seat over here and tell you about us getting hooked on Viking.  
 

Our first experience was a river cruise from Passau to Budapest which while enjoyable didn’t sell me on doing another. I hated that our time spent planning our time ashore was for naught.  The only similarity between when the cruise description said we would visit a particular town and when we actually arrived and departed was the town.  I also didn’t find it a good value for my money. 
 

But when we began planning our retirement transatlantic to get us to Europe for several months, we started looking at Viking Oceans. I initially had budgeted  based on the very cheap fares I had seen for TAs in previous years. However,  I came to realize those were last minute fares and since we needed to book our accommodations in a Europe that we couldn’t wait until 80 days prior to book our ride. Because we were loyal Norwegian Cruise Line customers, we were looking at their cruises but came to realize that for this celebratory trip and our first TA we didn’t want to be in an inside stateroom (we don’t mind them for port intensive cruises), and since I am too tall for Epic’s (which had our preferred early spring dates) balcony beds, we looked at a suite. When we priced the least expensive suite it was over a $1000 pp more than Viking’s price.  We had been watching lots of YouTube videos of Viking and were intrigued. Decor we like, no kids, and a smaller ship all were pluses in our book.  So we took the leap and loved Viking. 
 

As others have mentioned, while the ship, decor, stateroom and food are all pluses-its really the crew that make Viking so special. We have now sailed three more Viking cruises (1 transatlantic, 1 Far East Discovery, 1 Covid shortened half transatlantic) and each time we have been so pleased to recognize crew members and vice versa. Sorta like coming home.
 

Speaking of which, we hope to be able to do that again sometime soon🤞

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Clay Clayton

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

I am going to flatter you by assuming that you must have been looking at a MK II 😁

That was very much my era, Roger Clark was coming to the end of his "glory days" Hannu Mikkola was in his prime and Ari Vatanen was just starting out. I frequently covered the Scottish round of the British Rally Championship in the late 70's and 80's so if you ever got out as a spectator we might even have been on the same corner at some point.  As a Ford fan you will also remember Malcolm Wilson as a driver before he went on to be a team boss. I was lucky to be around for the 4WD Group B cars too and saw the RS200, Lancia S4, S1 Quattro, Metro 6R4 and all the others come and go.

Maybe I should apologise to the 99% of readers for whom all the above will be gibberish but, on the other hand, this lounge is a great place to let our conversations wander 🙂

Nearly lunch time........ Tuna Steak from the Pool Grill or something from the World Cafe to eat on the rear deck? Decisions, decisions 🤔 

 

 

 

HaHa! sadly, my interest started with the Mk 1, although at that time I was still in school. In 1975, I ran off to sea as a cadet, making a measly 60 quid a month, so not able to save any money. By the time I was 3rd Officer at the end of 1978, the Mk 2's were out, as well as RS1800 & RS2000. While I was making good money, I was rarely back in UK before moving to Canada, so never had the opportunity to buy one. In Canada, only production Escorts were available. 

 

It's 07:00 out on the West Coast, so I'm just back from my walk, heading to the shower and then brekky in the MDR.😀

[Jim Avery]

Photopro, a great tale.  And it fits here as you would not believe the subjects I have overheard in Explorers.....😱  Open mic night in Explorers Lounge. 🍸

[Peregrina651]

5 hours ago, photopro2 said:

We still have a recording of that documentary saved on our cable box so we can "revisit" the ship from time to time - It must be a fantastic memento for those of you on the trip.

 

Oddly, I don't think I have ever seen it. I have no patience with trying to find these things.  My bad. I guess I should go looking for it one of these days.  Our June 3 cruise was to be one of those quinquennial anniversary cruises, sans in-laws, who were planning a cruise with their kids and grands to a location too hot for me to ever want to leave the ship, so maybe I will add watching it to our day's plans. 

 

 

[photopro2]

On 5/29/2020 at 2:54 PM, Clay Clayton said:

Why not have both?  We usually order a tuna steak and while it’s being seared, run in and make a salad upon which we have the tuna steak placed.  Makes us feel like we have been eating healthy!

Good call on the food and thanks for adding to the conversation too. Do keep that comfortable spot and chip in whenever! Looks like the lounge waiter is on the way over...... What are you going to have to drink?

 

[photopro2]

On 5/27/2020 at 3:42 PM, Heidi13 said:

Very happy with the 5D Mk III, even if it is starting to get a bit long in the tooth. With the investment in lenses, going mirrorless isn't an option unless they have an adapter for the lenses, which I haven't bothered to investigate.

Forgot to comment on this before....... I am planning to retire at the end of the year so the MkIII will "see me out" as a pro. If I was staying in the business though I would certainly make the move to mirrorless. You could keep your current lenses as it seems that the adaptor is a simple one, really just a spacer to replace the mirror box area that the new cameras obviously don't have. A quick search showed that it is even included for free with some models at the moment.

While I will keep the 5D for as long as it lasts, my main travel camera recently has been a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7. Though it is a few years old now I could not be happier with it, it is so compact and yet fully controllable. My plan is to eventually upgrade to the LUMIX DC-LX100 MkII which is the latest version on the same camera. Well, I say that, but that might not be quite true... As a retirement gift to myself I am tempted to get the Leica D-Lux 7 which is exactly the same as the LUMIX but has the Leica name on it. It would be extra money just for "the brand" but it would be nice to be able to own at least one Leica product in my life! A bit like you yearning for one of the Rallysport Escorts 😀

As I said before you have a great eye for photography and I look forward to seeing more on the blog.

 

 

 

[Jim Avery]

Photopro, if you think Andy has a good eye for photography, you should see his eye for beer!🍺🍺🍺

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Forgot to comment on this before....... I am planning to retire at the end of the year so the MkIII will "see me out" as a pro. If I was staying in the business though I would certainly make the move to mirrorless. You could keep your current lenses as it seems that the adaptor is a simple one, really just a spacer to replace the mirror box area that the new cameras obviously don't have. A quick search showed that it is even included for free with some models at the moment.

While I will keep the 5D for as long as it lasts, my main travel camera recently has been a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7. Though it is a few years old now I could not be happier with it, it is so compact and yet fully controllable. My plan is to eventually upgrade to the LUMIX DC-LX100 MkII which is the latest version on the same camera. Well, I say that, but that might not be quite true... As a retirement gift to myself I am tempted to get the Leica D-Lux 7 which is exactly the same as the LUMIX but has the Leica name on it. It would be extra money just for "the brand" but it would be nice to be able to own at least one Leica product in my life! A bit like you yearning for one of the Rallysport Escorts 😀

As I said before you have a great eye for photography and I look forward to seeing more on the blog.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy retirement, it really is the best job ever. Been over 7 years now for us, best decision we ever made was retiring early.

 

OMG, just checked out the availability of RS Escorts and they certainly aren't cheap. While I never got an RS Escort, I had a Mustang GT Convertible for 6 yrs. Fun car to drive, especially when I did the off-road driving course. One of the first exercises was a crash stop. They suggested increasing to 30 mph then crash stop when they dropped a flag. Even in rain, I stopped in about a car length (boring). I had the only performance vehicle, as the others had mini-van and family sedans, so they let me push the limits of the car for the remainder of the day. Fun day! 

 

Enjoy the Leica. I've had Canons since the day I bought my first AE1, which I upgraded to the A-1, which I still have. Used it for a couple of years after buying my first DSLR, but it's just gathering dust now. Around the ship, rather than lugging the 5D around, I used DW's SX540HS. It was OK in normal situations, but not so good in low light, as the ISO couldn't be pushed  similar to the 5D.