Thursday, November 22, 2018: Miami Embarkation and Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 22, 2018.  Miami Embarkation and Thanksgiving Flying a red-eye certainly leaves one feeling a bit foggy and disoriented.  The flight was also pretty bumpy, and Ben had to resort to taking motion sickness meds and deep breathing exercises periodically to avoid rolfing during the flight. We arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth just before dawn.  A full moon was reflecting of a long lake just east of the airport on our final approach. This was our first time to Miami’s International Airport.  They had unique decorations in our arrival terminal consisting of rosettes of various salt water game fish.

There was no drama with picking up our baggage, and Viking representatives were waiting right there at the baggage carousel.  They picked up about 30 passengers and took us to the cruise ship pier, which was not the main cruise ship terminal in Miami.  The driver said that on a Saturday or Sunday, there were usually 10 cruise ships tied up to the main cruise ship terminal at the Port of Miami.  If we had taken a cab, Uber, or Lyft, there’s a significant chance that they would have taken us to the wrong wharf.  That’s a potent argument for sticking with Viking for the air and transfer arrangements. The Embarkation process was very smooth and efficient.  Since the ship only takes on 930 passengers, there’s not the huge anxious and pushy crowd.  Our room key cards have no magnetic stripe, but appear to have an embedded RFID chip and a printed bar code.  The bar code is scanned for embarkation and disembarkation, while the RFID chip allows door locks to work like tap to pay terminals.  This also means the room cards are immune to getting erased by the magnets on devices like iPads and Apple Watches.   The Viking Star is a beautiful and elegant ship.  Walking around, it seems much more like a 4 or 5 star hotel, rather than a cruise ship.  The furnishings are Scandinavian in design with blond woods with modern hardware.  The public bathrooms outside the main theater are a prime example of the high end elegance.  

There are nicely starched cotton towels for drying your hands, and by the door, there is also a paper towel dispenser so that you can open the door with a paper towel for hygenic purposes.  The toilet stalls are floor to ceiling European styled.  And if you wander into the bathroom when nobody else is in there, you can hear birds chirping like you are out in a Norwegian wood taking care of business. No Musak being pumped out of the ambiance speakers. Our first stop was the World Cafe, which is the main ship’s buffet.  It is kept very clean and tidy, and the quality of the food is generally excellent.  I would say it was on par with what is served on Princess in terms of quality and maybe a slight tic up on the elegance of presentation.  The selection is more limited than would be typical on a 2700 passenger Princess ship, and certainly inferior to the selection we encountered in the buffet of the 3500 passenger Regal Princess.  But there were local items and items for any diet, including vegan, Kosher and Muslim. What also separates Viking from Princess is the fact that soda, espresso, beer and wine are all complementary and unlimited.  You can even take cans out of the dining room.  They also have a selection of beers and wines that are pretty good. For example, you can choose from a few lagers, ales including IPA’s, and dark beer.  Oh, and you can get Miller Lite, if that is what you prefer.  We were happy to indulge in Coke Zero and an IPA over lunch.   After lunch, we did some exploring of the ship.  You can walk all the way around the Promenade on Deck 2.  4 laps is a tidy mile.  You can also walk around the top decks, although with some stairs.  There are some pieces of outdoor exercise equipment stationed around the aft of the ship, as well as a nice miniature putting golf course, shuffle board, and lawn bowling.  The ship is just 3 years old, so everything still looks and feels new and well maintained.  There is a small infinite pool on the stern with a glass wall, so you can look out over the ship’s wake from underwater if you are so inclined.  The main swimming pool is a bit smaller than the ones on Princess and Norwegian ships- about 20’ long, instead of 30’.  This main pool area is covered by a retractable roof, like a stadium roof.  It was wide open when we boarded and during the day, but in the evening, when thunder showers were predicted, they did close the top.  

The Spa, which is free to use, has a huge warm swim spa, as hot tubs, a cool lake temperature lake plunge tank, steam sauna, and unique “Snow Grotto”, where you can sit as snow falls around you.  There is also a DIY ice bucket challenge. The changing rooms are very fancy, and the lockers are locked and locked with a tap of your room card.   The fitness center seems to have an ample supply of cardio equipment of very high quality.  The treadmills and elipticals have a motivational display that let you select real world courses to follow.  It’s funny to see cars driving by, and try to chase fit people, while trying to beat the fat ones.   Our first official activity was the mandatory muster station drill.  We were assigned to the main theater.  Nobody had to carry or don life jackets except the staff on the stage.  Viking keeps its life jackets stored at the muster stations and on the life boats, rather than in passenger staterooms.  It was nice not to have life jackets taking up vital storage space in the closet.  The muster drill was quick and painless. The Theater is nice and is equipped with a variety of seating options including individual swivel chairs, standard theater seats, and plush benches.  The main backdrop is a huge LED wall, and there does appear to be a round cut out in the center of the stage, but the stage is certainly smaller and more limited than what the Princess Cruise ships have.  

We had dinner in the World Cafe because we wanted to see the Enrichment Lecture, given by a local Florida college professor on the history of Florida.  He was a dynamic speaker and gave a pretty good talk, but we had a hard time not resting our eyes from time to time due to our jetlag.  

There was a beautifully roasted turkey at the carving station, and all the fixings, but we were distracted by the seafood and sushi counter, which featured all you can eat King crab legs, prawns, mini-lobsters, and calamari and shrimp salad.  They also had quite a selection of sushi rolls and sashimi, which were all very fresh and very tasty!  

  We wound up our evening with a showing of Tom Cruise’s latest Mission Impossible Movie, Fallout.  As would be expected, it was full of non-stop far fetched action and entertainment.

 

After returning to our room, we could see an amazing cloud lightning storm on the horizon that lit up the clouds like a fireworks display.  That’s certainly not something you see everyday.  

 

Tomorrow is a day at sea to enjoy all the ship has to offer.  We’ll be looking forward to afternoon tea, and perhaps some time in the spa. And there will be the first Team Trivia game at noon.