20240922- Sunday, September 22, 2024- Moving Day and Enter the Time Machine

20240922- Sunday, September 22, 2024- Moving Day and Enter the Time Machine

A knock on the door woke us up this morning.  We had slept in and forgot that the ship’s engineers wanted to start work on replacing a cracked tile in the floor of our bathroom at 8am.  So we went to have breakfast while they started.  At first we thought that we could freely come and go between the two rooms so we really only moved our toiletries, but when we came back to our room, the steward was taking things out of cabinets and taping things over with tarp.  He said the engineers were going to remove the bathroom door and that he had to cover and put everything away to protect them from dust.  So it turned out we needed to move most of our clothes and everything else that wasn’t needed for bad weather land excursions out of the room and into the new room.  

The Penthouse suite turns out to be very spacious.  It is probably twice the size of our normal veranda room.  There are two sinks in the bathroom, an European style towel dryer and 2x sized shower (but no soaking tub like in Princess Suites).  There is a living room with sofa and two chairs in addition to a second TV and enough space between the bed and desk to roll a wheel chair through  even with the desk seat pushed back.  

It would sure be nice if we could just stay in this room for the balance of the journey, and after all the extra work we went through to get moved, we did ask Passenger Services if we might be able to just stay put and not have to move again in a day or two.  Unfortunately, this Penthouse suite is booked by someone boarding in Sapporo Japan, so we will get moved back to our original room.  But next time, we’ll have the room stewards help move our stuff back.  

We had breakfast in The Restaurant for the first time, and although the menu is basically the same as in the buffet, they did have a New York Strip steak and Lamb Chops on the menu.  So we had lamb chops for breakfast and boy were they tasty.  

Since we are beginning a long stretch of sea days heading to Japan from Alaska, there will be a progressive trivia.  Today was the first session. We kept our same team, consisting of an Australian couple- Dani and Wolfgang, and another American couple- Chris and Christie from N. Carolina, whom we had met on the Rocky Mountaineer pre-cruise excursion.  We got off to a pretty rough start, missing the first two questions out right, and a couple more.  Cruise director staff members did all the grading, and Arianna announced the results by announcing a tie for 2nd and 3rd place.  We were sunk when we didn’t hear our team’s name “Whateva” announced for that 2nd and 3rd place tie.  We thought we had bombed the quiz and would be lucky to get 2nd or 3rd.  But then when she announced first place as team Whateva, we were shocked and pleased.  It reminded us of one trivia on Egyptian mythology on Princess where we had only scored 3/20, and WON.  That was amusing.  

The ship has actually been plotting a course north of the Aleutian Islands through the Bering Sea. This is supposedly calmer sea conditions than if we were south of the Aleutians. 

In the afternoon, we zoomed our kids and were pleasantly surprised that the ship’s internet was able to handle the bandwidth.  Then we discovered that our upgraded room also included an audio upgrade because the TV set could set its volume much louder, so we could hear the dialog.  We won’t do any late night viewing, but it’s nice that during the day we can watch some movies and hear the soundtracks, at least during the next 2 days.  

Dinner featured Surf and Turf at the poolside grill, so we got lobster and tenderloin.  The buffet as also stocked with seafood including sushi, scallops, muscles, octopus and crab.  

The theater featured our Trivia host and Assistant Cruise Director Arianna Jeanette in a vocal performance of popular music songs backed by the Viking Orion Band.  Her background is interesting. She has been a performer in theme parks and master lighting electrician and tour master for multiple Broadway tour productions before working as Productions manager for Norwegian Cruise Lines and American Cruise lines before landing her current position as vocalist and assistant Cruise Director for Viking.  While we have seen other cruise director staff performances on Princess, Arianna put on a really entertaining show and does have a remarkable set of pipes on her.  It’s hard to appreciate that vocal and stage talent when she’s conducting the ship’s trivia quizzes.

We cross over the International date line so we will skip Monday September 23 altogether.  We wake up on Tuesday September 24, 2024.  We also get another hour back.