Tuesday, December 11, 2018- At Sea from Cabo San Lucas to San Diego Day 2

Tuesday, December 11, 2018- At Sea between Cabo San Lucas and San Diego Day 2   We awoke to find the ship oddly stopped off some islands.  A check on the GPS revealed that we were between Islas de San Benito and Isla de Cedros, about halfway up the Baja peninsula.  Ben went up to the Explorer’s Lounge to investigate, and discovered that a medical evacuation was underway.  A small Mexican Coast Guard boat had come alongside our ship’s starboard side.  Their crew was having some difficulty with keeping their boat alongside the tender embarkation door on the starboard side of the Viking Star.  Eventually, a medical bag and two passengers were transferred, and the Mexican Coast Guard boat shoved off.  It then headed off towards Islas de San Benito, which was the opposite direction from the mainland, but a closer inspection of Islas de San Benito revealed a small Mexican naval vessel off the shore of the island.  The Viking Star’s crew had cleared off the tables and lounge chairs from the Aquavit Terrace to prepare for a helicopter medical evacuation, but that was canceled when the transfer by boat plan came to fruition.  They must have figured out that the safest approach would be to take the passengers to the navy ship, which has a helicopter pad on the stern, and then transfer by helicopter to the Baja peninsula.  

After the rescue, We saw a small pod of dolphin swim up to our ship and through our bow wake from our balcony.  Ben then took a walk around the promenade deck, discovering a couple of stowaways on the deck.

     

 

 

Our trivia team was all geared up for the last trivia of the cruise.  We made a decent showing but ended up bridesmaids with 11/15, while a single winning team managed 12/15.  The winning team had been sitting at the bar and knew the London department store established by an American in 1909 was Selfridge’s.  We had incorrectly guessed Harrod’s.  Nobody knew how many months it took for a cashmere goat to produce enough wool to knit one sweater (48 months), and none of us could come up with the name of the collar style named after a fantasy character that was flat with rounded corners and was popular through the late 19th to 20th centuries (Peter Pan).  Ben had guessed Madeline, who happens to sport a classic Peter Pan collar, but came on the scene in 1938, while the Maude Adams’ Peter Pan costume, for which the fashion craze began, dates to 1904.  But that pretty much excludes the 19th century altogether.  But we had an excellent trivia team.  Had there been a progressive team trivia over the course of the cruise, we would have easily won since we won 4, and tied for 2nd by only 1 point on all the games we didn’t win.  It was just as well that the team by the bar had won, because there were certainly some sore losers in the Explorer lounge that resented our winning streak. 

 

 

We wanted to see what kind of discounts were offered for booking a future cruise on board so we called the future cruise desk to see what their hours were.  We learned that they are only seen by appointment, and were nearly completely booked, but they did have a cancelation open up, so we were able to get in today. With Viking, they did offer $200pp off the cruise fare and $100pp OBC if you booked your next cruise onboard.  They also offered $500 off airfare if you booked before December 31.  We were hoping to find free airfare and $1000 off, but there was nothing close to that.  We were initially interested in details on the Mekong Delta River cruise.  We learned that you had to be very physically fit and adventurous to do this cruise because the heat and humidity can be particularly oppressive, and some of the shore excursions require negotiating your way through mud and razor grass lined jungle paths.  The future cruise consultant warned that it was very 3rd world.  We learned that upgrading from their discounted economy air fare to premium economy or business class pretty much eliminated any discounts on airfare.  Princess EZ Air seems to be a better deal for premium economy and business class upgrades. So we may be crossing the Mekong Delta river cruise off our bucket list of destinations.  We got a quote on the Mekong Delta river cruise, but didn’t end up booking it. We’ll budget those funds for the Indian Ocean Odessey Princess cruise that we are still on the waiting list for in January 2020.

 

 

We binged our way through the last of the port talks and enrichment lectures on the video on demand system.  The enrichment lectures were good for inducing an early afternoon nap.  We also watched the movie “The Catcher is a Spy” with Paul Rudd playing the spy.  It was quite a contrast to having just seen him playing Ant Man- another movie we watched this week on the video on demand system.  We didn’t realize what a versatile actor he has developed into since he started in rom-com’s.  

 

 

Free champagne was served at the Captain’s Farewell reception in the Star Theater.  Interestingly enough, the Captain was really bidding farewell as he as at the end of this contract, and will be leaving the ship in Los Angeles to return home for a few months vacation and rest.  Then he will take over the new Viking Jupiter.  They did parade many of the ship’s staff through the theater and onto the stage, probably testing the maximum capacity of the stage.  This was then followed by the final stage show by the Viking Vocalists and band.  The lounge band and singers did a few numbers as an opening act before the Captain’s Farewell reception, and it is notable that both of the Filippino vocalists inthe lounge band are better vocalists than the featured Viking Vocalists.  The main show was an ABBA song book.  While the Viking Vocalists put on an entertaining show, they just didn’t really manage to hit the vocal harmonies that ABBA is notable for.  The two female leads sang too much in slightly off unison instead of harmonizing, and one of the female lead vocalists has nasal and indistinctly weak vocals.  It was a better show than the usual Norwegian Cruise lines show, but paled in comparison to the usual Princess production stage shows that we have become accustomed to.  

 

 

Dinner tonight was particularly enjoyable as we had a farewell dinner with our fellow trivia partners.  We dined kind of late, so the crowd had thinned a bit.  This made it possible to actually have a conversation across the table because it was less noisy.  The wine flowed freely, and the menu featured real broiled New England lobster.  No lobster bibs, but the lobster in drawn butter was delicious.

 

 

We arrive in San Diego at 7AM, and have to clear customs by excursion groups onboard.  Our group is scheduled for interviews at 7:45AM, but it sounds like it should go pretty quickly.  We are scheduled to do the included tour, which will include stops at Old Town, the Waterfront and Balboa Park.  After lunch, we plan on meeting Ben’s brother Carl, who a snowbirds in San Diego, to head to the Zoo for a quick visit to say hello to the Pandas and leopard cubs again.