Viking Sun World Cruise 2019

[Wendy The Wanderer]

How exciting!  Bon Voyage everyone!

[Jim Avery]

Ok all you world cruisers, time to check in.  Someone post a picture of the Mythical World Cruise Jacket..😎

[Bridget2010]

Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle # 1 January 7, 2019 at 5:30 in the Wintergarden Deck 7.  See you there.

[SantaFe1]

21 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Ok all you world cruisers, time to check in.  Someone post a picture of the Mythical World Cruise Jacket..😎

Just got back from Old San Juan walking tour. The town used to be called Puerto Rico and the Island San Juan. Go figure. Walled town with Fortress, and a picture of the Sun from up above.  Today is Three King’s Day or Christmas Sunday!

Edited January 6, 2019 by SantaFe1
Typo

[pask]

On 1/3/2019 at 7:40 PM, 2rinnh said:

 

I was so hoping you were correct! We will be boarding in Durban as well and I would love not to have to wait so long.

We are boarding in Durban also!   

[premaasi]

Came across this colorful art installation as I wandered about after the walking tour of Old San Juan. On the street leading to the Governor's mansion. He is apparently a patron of the arts.

[vnb2003]

3 minutes ago, premaasi said:

Came across this colorful art installation as I wandered about after the walking tour of Old San Juan. On the street leading to the Governor's mansion. He is apparently a patron of the arts.

According to our guide this was First Lady’s decorations for the Christmas festivities that last this year from Nov 1st to 3rd weekend of January. 

[Jim Avery]

4 minutes ago, vnb2003 said:

According to our guide this was First Lady’s decorations for the Christmas festivities that last this year from Nov 1st to 3rd weekend of January. 

Thanks for the great pictures.  Old San Juan is a favorite spot.  Lots of fun stuff there.

[premaasi]

36 minutes ago, vnb2003 said:

According to our guide this was First Lady’s decorations for the Christmas festivities that last this year from Nov 1st to 3rd weekend of January. 

Good to know. Thanks for the info! Here's one more - scenes of the Old City. 

[kfran]

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

 

[2rinnh]

6 hours ago, pask said:

We are boarding in Durban also!   

 

We will likely be boarding quite late as our flight doesn't get into Durban until 10:20 PM on the 13th. We tried to move it up a day but Viking Air would only do that if we made a hotel reservation for the night of the 12th. We won't see much of Durban I'm afraid. I believe we should have a "meet and mingle" on board so perhaps we'll meet you there! 

[premaasi]

Went on a pnaoramic drive on St. Georges's island Grenada. It's a lovely, small island country with 110,000 people and the second largest producer of nutmeg after Indonesia. It's the island of spice where everything's nice! Our guide was funny. He took us to the "dead center" of town where there was - ready for this? - a cemetery. Haha.

 

It is really a nice little island with lush vegetation, pastel-colored buildings and a world-famous medical school. 

 

Some pictures below. That's the Sun I believe in the distance in the third image. The picture was taken from a lookout point on the island. The second one is from the campus of St. George's University med school. The first image is from Deck 7 of the Sun while in port just before we left the island.

 

Did anyone go on the walking tour? Would love to see pics of you have them.

[SantaFe1]

Grenada is indeed a fabulous, exotic island.  We did a trip to the Grand Etang rain forest whose lake is a volcano crater.  Also visited a cocoa plantation, sugar mill, and rum distillery. The national flower is the bougainvillea, which is everywhere!

Edited January 8, 2019 by SantaFe1
Typo

[RockyWeim]

Heartbreak Ridge....The aged Rum is great!  Thanks for sharing.  I’m looking forward to joining you in Sydney.  Right Now,  I’m on the Nieuw Statendam off the south coast of Cuba heading for Montego Bay.

Edited January 8, 2019 by RockyWeim

[premaasi]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

Grenada is indeed a fabulous, exotic island.  We did a trip to the Grand Etang rain forest whose lake is a volcano crater.  Also visited a cocoa plantation, sugar mill, and rum distillery. The national flower is the bougainvillea, which is everywhere!

Beautiful! Sounds like a fun trip

Thanks for sharing!

 

[pask]

On 1/6/2019 at 7:32 PM, 2rinnh said:

 

We will likely be boarding quite late as our flight doesn't get into Durban until 10:20 PM on the 13th. We tried to move it up a day but Viking Air would only do that if we made a hotel reservation for the night of the 12th. We won't see much of Durban I'm afraid. I believe we should have a "meet and mingle" on board so perhaps we'll meet you there! 

 

[pask]

We are doing the pre trip to Krueger National Park and we have no idea when we will arrive in Durban and I can’t seem to find that information so we won’t be able to see much either.  

 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I would love to hear about the ship's activities on a typical sea day.

[Jammy Bun]

2 hours ago, pask said:

 

Although we arrive in Durban before 11am on a flight from Johannesburg, I don't think we'll be doing much exploring that day, as we'll have been travelling since noon the previous day!  I've not checked the timings, but am hoping that we won't sail until late on the 14th so that we'll at least be able to see some of the city.

Can hardly wait - am so glad that Susan is blogging and others are posting photos on here (Thank You folks!)

 

[loge23]

1 hour ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

I would love to hear about the ship's activities on a typical sea day.

Besides the dining options, lectures and workshops (today for example, yoga, writers workshop, bridge lessons, history lecture with excellent resident historian, documentaries in the cinema, trivia, wildlife lectures, game tables in the living room, the spa, the gym, sunning, swimming, reading, resting. Dining options include room service, buffet, and DR. Also pool grill and a revolving special offering wbich today was a Caribbean bbq at the Aft pool (other days featured a lobster salad made to order and shrimp with pasta and olive oil - both were superb as all the food service is.)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

16 minutes ago, loge23 said:

Besides the dining options, lectures and workshops (today for example, yoga, writers workshop, bridge lessons, history lecture with excellent resident historian, documentaries in the cinema, trivia, wildlife lectures, game tables in the living room, the spa, the gym, sunning, swimming, reading, resting. Dining options include room service, buffet, and DR. Also pool grill and a revolving special offering wbich today was a Caribbean bbq at the Aft pool (other days featured a lobster salad made to order and shrimp with pasta and olive oil - both were superb as all the food service is.)

 

Thanks.  I asked about the activities because we were very disappointed in the ones we had on an Oceania TA a few years back.  I attribute part of that to a bad cruise director, but partly to Oceania.  Lectures I expect although all are not equally interesting, and dining I take for granted, nice about the bbq.   It's the extras like the writer's workshop, trivia, game tables, stuff like that.  Shuffleboard isn't enough for me.  

[eylarson]

One improvement made after our Barcelona to Stockholm cruise two years ago is a music menu on the room TVs and no music in the main dining room.  It is still a noisy place, but at least without starting with a piped in music base, it doesn't get so loud so fast.  

 

 

[Conni Gi]

I think we have all been too busy thus far to post much! Here are pics from St. George’s, Granada! 

[vslparis]

We are joining you on the Santiago to Sydney segment next month . This will be our third Viking Ocean trip and I’m hoping with all those days at sea we might actually get to experience Afternoon Tea  😉 Our transatlantic crossing last March had 6 days at sea and we never got there .

[Redwarrior68]

Just informed mechanical issue has reduced our transit speed to the degree that we will not stop in Recife.  Each person receiving $250 ship board credit as well as credit back on any excursions booked for Recife.  Crossing the Equator ceremony this afternoon but hope engine issue is resolved soon.