LIVE from Viking Sky - Greek Odyssey cruise - Nov 26-Dec 6

[Mike981]

Your pictures are wonderful, thank you for such a fantastic review.

[Australia08]

14 hours ago, JM0115 said:

No Woodford Reserve?

I just checked at Explorers’. They have Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. They don’t have Woodford at all. Definitely didn’t have it at Living Room Bar last night or at Torshavn last night. The bartender at Torshavn said Viking was changing their Bourbon menu and that items were just running out. Slim pickings for Bourbon drinkers. My husband was very disappointed that no Knob Creek Rye was available at Torshavn last night because that had been his “go to” on the last few cruises. I’ll verify the Bourbon situation when we go to Torshavn tonight. 

[Australia08]

13 hours ago, BaxCruiser said:

Which desks need to be visited to sign up for specialty events? Is it just guest services? TIA

After missing out on attending specialty events like Single Malt tastings or Premium wine tastings on past cruises, we’ve learned to stop at guest services, find out which events are being held during the cruise, and  immediately booking the ones that fit into our schedule.  Otherwise, by the time they are posted in the Viking Daily, they are already full. We also stop by the specialty restaurant locations to change times (if we prebooked a time we didn’t like) or sign up for an additional Chef’s Table. 

[Australia08]

12 hours ago, millybess said:

What is the Viking Royale?

 

Following your travels with great interest. Thanks much. 

Viking Aquavit, sparking wine, and lime. Most bartenders add a twist of lemon or lime. 

[FetaCheese]

15 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

I just checked at Explorers’. They have Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. They don’t have Woodford at all. Definitely didn’t have it at Living Room Bar last night or at Torshavn last night. The bartender at Torshavn said Viking was changing their Bourbon menu and that items were just running out. Slim pickings for Bourbon drinkers. My husband was very disappointed that no Knob Creek Rye was available at Torshavn last night because that had been his “go to” on the last few cruises. I’ll verify the Bourbon situation when we go to Torshavn tonight. 

Bourbon drinker here.  Knob Creek -- pictured in description of SS pkg.  Hope they have it on my upcoming cruise.  I like Wild Turkey also.  Is it 101 ?

[BaxCruiser]

15 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

After missing out on attending specialty events like Single Malt tastings or Premium wine tastings on past cruises, we’ve learned to stop at guest services, find out which events are being held during the cruise, and  immediately booking the ones that fit into our schedule.  Otherwise, by the time they are posted in the Viking Daily, they are already full. We also stop by the specialty restaurant locations to change times (if we prebooked a time we didn’t like) or sign up for an additional Chef’s Table. 

Thank you!

[JM0115]

1 hour ago, Australia08 said:

I just checked at Explorers’. They have Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. They don’t have Woodford at all. Definitely didn’t have it at Living Room Bar last night or at Torshavn last night. The bartender at Torshavn said Viking was changing their Bourbon menu and that items were just running out. Slim pickings for Bourbon drinkers. My husband was very disappointed that no Knob Creek Rye was available at Torshavn last night because that had been his “go to” on the last few cruises. I’ll verify the Bourbon situation when we go to Torshavn tonight. 

We must have drunk all of it in our world cruise this past year. Sorry! Hope they buy more before my next Viking Cruise. Was only in Torshavn by the way.

[snookie1]

Where does one go to sign up for dinner at Manfreddi's?  To the restaurant itself, or is there a desk set up somewhere on embarkation day?  We've been on several Viking cruises (ocean and river), and I don't remember anything about "special events".  Some of those tastings sound interesting...  How do you find out what events are happening on your cruise, and where exactly is the place to sign up for them?  Just want to be sure I hit all the important places that first day!!😋

[JM0115]

3 minutes ago, snookie1 said:

Where does one go to sign up for dinner at Manfreddi's?  To the restaurant itself, or is there a desk set up somewhere on embarkation day?  We've been on several Viking cruises (ocean and river), and I don't remember anything about "special events".  Some of those tastings sound interesting...  How do you find out what events are happening on your cruise, and where exactly is the place to sign up for them?  Just want to be sure I hit all the important places that first day!!😋

There typically is a dinner reservation desk located in the Atrium (Living Room) near guest services or you can go to Guest Services or to Manfredi's to get a dinner reservation. For tastings etc talk to Guest Services and ask them if there are any wine tastings or anything else you are interested in.

[PasadenaDave]

I really enjoy your daily updates especially since we were in Athens for two nights with Viking last May.

 

 We are oddball cruisers as we dislike the large ships and we are not big drinkers on a cruise Viking or not.  We do enjoy Bourbon, but we generally pick up a bottle of gin in port and keep it in the fridge.  Clay turned us on to that idea.

 

Enjoy the rest of your journey and thanks for taking us along.

[BelleEpoque]

6 hours ago, Australia08 said:

I just checked at Explorers’. They have Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. They don’t have Woodford at all. Definitely didn’t have it at Living Room Bar last night or at Torshavn last night. The bartender at Torshavn said Viking was changing their Bourbon menu and that items were just running out. Slim pickings for Bourbon drinkers. My husband was very disappointed that no Knob Creek Rye was available at Torshavn last night because that had been his “go to” on the last few cruises. I’ll verify the Bourbon situation when we go to Torshavn tonight. 

Enjoying following along! Thanks for posting. 
 

I’m quite surprised by the lack of choice for bourbons and the paucity of premium options. Curious if you’ve looked at the cognac offerings and if there is still a good selection?

[Australia08]

A bit late to report tonight but it has been a busy day.  This morning we were up early for our Corinth Canal and Ancient Corinth tour.  We had a very good tour guide, extremely entertaining and knowledgeable.  It takes a bit over an hour to get to the Corinth Canal where we had a 25 minute stop for photos.  Then it was on to the remains of Ancient Corinth.  We visited the museum first that had some wonderful displays.  Of particular interest were some burial remains that had two Kouroi which had sat atop the ancient burial vaults.  While the Kouroi had been damaged by the smugglers who had looted the graves, they were still in amazing condition.  Other items in the museum displayed artifacts which revealed information about daily life for men, women, and children who lived in Ancient Corinth.

 

Outside of the museum are the remains of one of the largest cities of Ancient Greece.

The most dramatic ruins are those of the Temple of Apollo, built in the Doric style about 550 BC.  Corinth was prosperous due to its trading with control over two main ports, Lechaion on the Corinthian Gulf and Kenchreai on the Saronic Gulf

 

Corinth, of course, is most well known for St. Paul’s visits. The remnants of a church are situated at the area where Paul had been placed on trial and defended himself. Paul was there during the Roman era and most of the remains of the city are from this era.  One can view many shops, the forum, and a former fountain.

 

After our tour of Corinth, we returned to the ship, enjoyed a nice lunch, and spent some time enjoying some backgammon on the electronic game tables near the atrium.  We watched the livestream of the port lecture for Volos, then headed out for a drink at Explorers, followed by a nice slow dinner at the Restaurant.  The Restaurant was packed tonight and extremely noisy.  The servers were rushing like crazy.  We were in no hurry, so it was not a problem for us.  On past cruises, we have been blessed by having one of the Viking wine stewards make great wine selections to accompany our meal.  We decided with everything so busy tonight we’d just make our own selections.  This worked out fine for our first course, but while Mike was contemplating what to have for his main course, the server suggested that she’d send the wine steward over.  He came made great selections for both of us and had the wines sent to the table.  He apologized that he couldn’t spend more time, but his responsibilities also included tending the Restaurant bar.  He said that he’d be happy to help us select wines each evening, but his time might be split between his bar duties and the floor of the Restaurant.  We certainly understand that and told him we’d be happy to think about our dinner selections in advance and stop by the bar to get his suggestion.   He seemed appreciative of this.  This does seem a bit different from our previous cruises when a dedicated wine steward was on the floor, but who knows that current staffing issues are occurring.  

 

We spent time talking with nearby diners and enjoyed our meal.  We ended the evening at Torshavn, enjoying a nightcap and dancing.  The band seemed to be judging dance styles  tonight - they played a waltz, several cha chas, a couple of rumbas, and mostly swing.  I think they are really trying to appeal to our dancing styles.  We like their enthusiasm and sound.

[Australia08]

The top picture shows what the Temple of Apollo at Ancient Corinth probably looked like originally.  The following photo is of the present day remains of the Temple of Apollo at Ancient Corinth.

[Australia08]

The Corinth Canal

[Mich3554]

9 hours ago, snookie1 said:

Where does one go to sign up for dinner at Manfreddi's?  To the restaurant itself, or is there a desk set up somewhere on embarkation day?  We've been on several Viking cruises (ocean and river), and I don't remember anything about "special events".  Some of those tastings sound interesting...  How do you find out what events are happening on your cruise, and where exactly is the place to sign up for them?  Just want to be sure I hit all the important places that first day!!😋

I have always found it easiest to get reservations for either Manfredi’s or CT on the TV.  
Events are usually announced in the Viking Daily, especially for tastings.

[Australia08]

Today our arrival in Volos, Greece met with cloudy skies and some light rain.  By the time our bus reached Meteora, the skies were still overcast, but the rain had stopped.  Our tour guide talked pretty much nonstop from the port to Meteora, but I must confess that I napped most of the time.  Once we started walking toward our first monastery visit, I was very alert.  The views of the rocks and the monasteries perched on the rock edges were stunning!  We had a fairly strenuous, climb to the first monastery - The Monastery at Varlaam - All Saints.  Our tour guide was well-versed in religious art of that era so we learned a lot.  Most of the monastery was rebuilt on the site of an earlier church in the 16th century.  The iconographer who completed the decoration of the nave reflected the Cretan School of painting.  There was a tremendous use of golden-plated relief ornamentation.  The narthex was decorated about 20 years later.  One impressive mural depicts the skeleton of Alexander the Great in his tomb, a pictorial representation of one’s inability to escape the fate of death, no matter how powerful the person might have been in life.  The screen separating the altar area from the narthex brought a sense of light into the room since it used so much gold embellishment.  

 

Unfortunately, we only had time to visit the church at the Monastery at Varlaam.  We missed the sacristy, the wine cellar, and the library - this was necessary so that we could visit at least one more monastery with the limited time with had with our one day tour.  I’ll write about the second monastery visit later.  It’s time to head off for a drink before dinner.  I will also post a few photos from our tour today then.

[BaxCruiser]

1 hour ago, Australia08 said:

  We had a fairly strenuous, climb to the first monastery - The Monastery at Varlaam - All Saints.  

Hi Australia08, would you mind elaborating a bit more on this? In your view, would someone who is in ok-not-fantastic shape be able to handle the climb? 

[Australia08]

2 hours ago, BaxCruiser said:

Hi Australia08, would you mind elaborating a bit more on this? In your view, would someone who is in ok-not-fantastic shape be able to handle the climb? 

Oh yes, it is quite doable. All steps. Not that I wasn’t winded at the top, but I was taking lots of photos so kind of double-stepped to catch up with the group. If you took your time and steadily climbed, must people would not have s problem. 

[Australia08]

The last monastery we visited was actually a convent.  It was the Roussannou Monastery.  I loved our entrance to this monastery because our tour guide had the driver drop us above the monastery so that we walked down through a forest to the monastery.  I thought this walk through the autumn leaves along the misty path was wonderful!

 

The first photo below shows the monastery we were walking to taken from the first monastery we visited.

 

The second photo shows the forest path we took to the monastery.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Australia08

[Australia08]

By the way, I will continue to refer to the second monastery as a monastery because it did not become a convent until the 1980s so, historically, it was a monastery.  When one arrives at the monastery, there is a beautiful flower garden.  Up the stairs, one encounters the old weathered wooden door of the monastery.  From here, one enters the bell tower with a nearby terrace with a marvelous view of other monasteries.  Down a few stairs and the visitor enters the church with its marvelous iconography, quite different in style from the first monastery we visited.  The frescos were completed in November 1560, according to the inscription over the entrance to the nave.  

 

Our visit here was too brief.  Soon we were heading to the bus to enjoy a nice lunch at Bacchus Restaurant before   Following lunch, it was a two hour drive back to the port.

 

[Australia08]

The Monastery of Varlaam, taken from the area near the Monastery of Roussanou.

 

[Australia08]

Scenes from the Monastery of Varlaam.  By the way, we were not allowed to take pictures from inside the churches, so you are missing views of all of the impressive iconography.

[Australia08]

The flower garden as once enters the Roussanou Monastery

[BaxCruiser]

41 minutes ago, Australia08 said:

Oh yes, it is quite doable. All steps. Not that I wasn’t winded at the top, but I was taking lots of photos so kind of double-stepped to catch up with the group. If you took your time and steadily climbed, must people would not have s problem. 

Thanks - gives me confidence my 14 flights a day ARE going to benefit me 🤪

[Australia08]

After arriving back at the ship, we changed for dinner, had a quick drink at the living room bar and then headed to the Restaurant for dinner.  The Restaurant wasn’t as loud tonight, but our servers still seemed rushed.  It appears that they just have too many tables to deal with.  We didn’t care.  We like to linger over dinner and we are not interested in the repetitive shows on Viking.  As usual, the servers were extremely apologetic for having us wait so long, but we knew that they were working as hard as they could.  I think there are just too few servers dealing with too many tables.  Another disappointment for us is that on our first Viking cruise in 2019, we had a wine steward who was fantastic.  He helped guide our selection of wines to complement out dinner selections.  His name was Omega - the best wine steward ever!  Since then, we have sporadically found a wine steward who will assist us in the same way.  On this cruise, there is a very nice wine steward who assisted us last night - the problem is that he has to be wine steward and run the restaurant bar mixing cocktails.  So, he said he’d assist us tonight, which he did, but we felt guilty pulling him away from his bar duties.  Seems to me that Viking should have a dedicated wine steward.  Again, he is trying to do everything, but it just seems that Viking is not providing a dedicated service that passengers like us appreciate.

 

One last glitch that we noticed tonight - we like to dance.  We did dance, along with two other couples in Torshavn last night.  Tonight we went to Torshavn and the dance floor was covered with chairs.  Nice dance band - no dance floor.  By the way, there were lots of empty chairs for patrons of Torshavn so it’s not like they needed more seats for patrons.  We had one drink and left.  I understand that most Viking passengers aren’t interested in dancing, but it seems to me that if you are going to have a dance band, you should provide a dance floor.  We mentioned it to guest services so we’ll see if anything changes tomorrow.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Australia08