We won trivia today with a score of 13/15 after teaming up with Greg and Carol from Tasmania, and Dan and Mona from Houston. Nobody knew that the paperclip was invented in Norway, and we missed which company was oldest- Google, YouTube or Facebook. We advocated for Google, but the Tasmanians and Mona felt confident with YouTube. The answer was Google. So we won a round of Mimosas. At least you don’t have to worry about how to pack up trivia prizes at the end of the cruise.
We had lunch in the Restaurant, seated adjacent a couple from Florida (Originally from Canada and Chicago), and a couple from southern California who had transplanted from Florida. The food was good, but the service still seems to be a little less attentive than on Princess, and the dining room is much louder than the Princess main dining rooms. The wife of the California couple works as a travel agent, and they cruised a fair amount, including a recent Oceania cruise to Havana last year. She likes Princess best, of the cruise lines they have been on.
Janet hit the thermal spa while Ben hit the ellipticals, and we ended up in the snow grotto together.
There was a Viking Explorer Society reception with complimentary wine and music by the Viking Band and Viking Vocalists. The most traveled couple claimed 15 journeys on Viking, including river and ocean cruises.
An interesting aside regarding the entertainers on board. Unlike on Princess and Norwegian cruise lines, the Cruise Director’s staff and entertainers are one in the same. The cruise director and assistant cruise director have done lead vocals in programs, and the Viking Vocalists do the dance classes and trivia programs. The band, which is all Filipino, is 4 piece Piano, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and percussion ensemble. There are no woodwind or brass instruments, so those instruments are provided with canned pre-recorded tracks when necessary to accompany the vocalist programs. Instead of separate acts for magician, mentalist and comedian, they have a humorous magician who throws in a few mentalist tricks. It appears that there is a single production engineer who has to work the lights and sound board, so the spotlights aren’t always where they need to be when they need to be, but the work is certainly adequate for most purposes.
The Chef’s Table is a premium dining venue that offers nouvelle cuisine with a fixed menu and wine pairings. We had our first reservation at the Chef’s Table tonight. They serve a 5 course meal, featuring 5 wines. For an additional $25, you can upgrade the wine list pairings. This was an interesting and fun experience. Each meal has a theme, and the menu changes every 2 days. Tonight’s theme was “Sweet and Salty” with a spotlight on Hawaiian black salt, which is Hawaiian sea salt infused with coconut husk charcoal. The appetizer and intermezzo both featured frothed elements (tomato goat cream foam on the gazpacho and cantaloupe foam above the melon snow and prosciutto ham granita), which was a new texture for us. The melon snow was also very unusual and light. The first course was grilled scallops with beets. This was attractively presented, but not particularly unusual in taste or texture. The main course was veal tenderloin served on pumpkin mash with red onion marmalade. This was elegantly presented, and very delicious. The Brise Marine Rouge French table wine paired with the veal was perhaps a bit overwhelming, while the other pairings were complimentary.
Greg Moreland had his second “Magic” show, which was equal parts stand-up comic, magic and mentalist. His second show was every bit as entertaining as his first. Although we had seen most of the tricks presented before by other magicians and mentalists, Greg was able to keep it all high energy, hilarious and entertaining. Janet looked him up on the internet and he does gigs on many cruise lines including Princess, Viking, Azamara, Regent and Oceania.
As we were filing out of the theater after the magic show, a random gentleman came up to us and congratulated us on winning the morning’s trivia. We explained that it helped that we had Aussies and a high school teacher on our team. He replied “Well, we have retards on our team”. That was good for a laugh.
Our evening was closed out by watching an enrichment lecture “Latin America- A Vast, Rich Continent” by Rob Warne, former diplomat. This was informative, and helpful in preventing insomnia, as only academic lectures can. Tomorrow, we continue towards Cartagena Columbia, where we should arrive in the afternoon. The ship was really rocking throughout the evening and night.
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