Hello and we hope you had a very Merry Christmas. We were one of the lucky ones when flying out of CLE on Friday as our flight left on time and arrived in Miami 40 minutes early. Our Viking Representative was waiting at the baggage check area and our bags were one of the first ones off the plane. We then were taken to the ship terminal in Ft. Lauderdale. There we had to wait until they opened at 10 am. We then began the process of checking in via Florida rules and Viking protocol. Newly added that morning was another PCR test which had to be negative prior to boarding the Viking Star. Crazy as it was a last minute rule change and everyone was trying to figure out a process. All our pre-shipped luggage arrived as well. By 12:15 we were ready to have lunch.


After the safety video was viewed we walked around the ship to see the beautiful Christmas decorations and to catch our breath after being up at 3 am to catch our flight. We went to the Seafood Buffet for dinner and I watched a movie on TV, The Jungle Cruise.





Christmas Day

Went to Fitness Center then cleaned up for Interdenominational Service. Later we went to a history lecture on Pre-Columbian Civilizations. In afternoon we walked the deck and attended another history lecture followed by Christmas sing-a-long. Wonderful dinner in the evening and a great Christmas musical show in the evening. Great day and nice people.











 


Comments

  1. Jody EckDecember 26, 2021 at 6:48 AM

    Aaannnddd.... You're Off!! Lots of extra hoops to jump through but now you are on your way!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 13 Corfu, Greece Kotor, Montenegro Split, Croatia

Image
 Since this week is so busy with ports of call, I have decided to make two separate blogs. This will entail March 12 to March 15. The next blog will cover Venice, Italy  Zadar and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Corfu, Greece is an island located on the northwestern side of Greece close to the Albanian border. The old town and fortress were mostly constructed by the powerful Venetian Republic and is a UNESCO site today. The city is the birthplace of Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth II's late husband. There is also a strong British influence found in the city. Since we have been here previously, we opted to go tour the rest of this island. We visited the beautiful Monastery of Paleokastritsa high in the mountains. It is still a working monastery with 16 monks. The church is still an active Greek Orthodox facility. The history of this island goes back to Greek Mythology with Ulysses getting shipwrecked off its shoreline to the islands shape and beginnings associated with Persephone trying to save
Read more

Week 16 Jordan and Egypt

Image
 What a busy past 6 days! We left Saudi Arabia and sailed up the Red Sea to the port city of Aqaba, Jordan. It is here that we had two days of touring the city and visiting Magnificent Petra.  We found out that there was a single bus going to Petra on Monday when 12 were going on Sunday. So, Kathy and I went to Guest Services and at that time only Kathy and Mike were able to exchange their tickets. Mike has a hard time on buses and we said it didn't matter to us. Around 5 o'clock I decided to go and see if anyone had cancelled and VOILA I was able to exchange our tickets as well.  On Sunday, Jeff and I took the included tour of the city of Aqaba. The city has a long history of trade and is often called the Crossroads of Africa and Asia.  The city was made famous when Laurence of Arabia coordinated a camel charge on its fortifications when it was held by the Ottoman army in 1916. The charge was successful and the Arabs earned their independence from the Ottoman empire. Their pre
Read more

Week 17 1/2 Rhodes and Athens, Greece with Ephesus and Istanbul, Turkey

Image
 We were back to Greece for three days in this set of photographs as well as three days in Turkey. In actuality Greece was split up with Rhodes, then the three days in Turkey, followed by two days in Athens. If you are now confused think how I feel after this bouncing back and forth! The cruise continues to amaze me with all the wonders of the ancient world to the middle ages and to modern times. The people in all these places were friendly and so glad to share their country with us. We also get to sample the various foods and customs in each of the ports. We found that we liked the foods of Greece better than that of Turkey with the exception of my Turkish Salad (tomato variety) that I wrote about under Israel.  Rhodes, Greece is a beautiful island with a long history. The Palace of the Grand Masters is a sprawling fortification and the historic quarter is Europe's largest active medieval town. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem conquered the island in the 14th Century A.D. brin
Read more