twangster

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

Elevator upgrades are underway.  They are manufactured by Kone, a big name in the elevator industry.  They have Kone employees on board doing the upgrades.  I saw this on Mariner a few weeks ago as well.
Old elevator signs are being replaced.

New indicators are bigger and easier to read.  My guess is that there is more to this upgrade than just signage.  I'm betting old control systems are being modernized and newer controls will allow intelligent adaptations to respond to peak times and other such things. 

Spotted a ship in the distance.  It's the Oceania Insignia out of New York.  

There is also some work being done on the ping pong tables.

Slides and flowrider are closed despite the cruise compass times listing them as open.  It is pretty cold out there.


Despite the cool temperature it's a beautiful day.

 

Elevator upgrades are underway.  They are manufactured by Kone, a big name in the elevator industry.  They have Kone employees on board doing the upgrades.  I saw this on Mariner a few weeks ago as well.
Old elevator signs are being replaced.

New indicators are bigger and easier to read.  My guess is that there is more to this upgrade than just signage.  I'm betting old control systems are being modernized and newer controls will allow intelligent adaptations to respond to peak times and other such things. 

Spotted a ship in the distance.  It's the Oceania Insignia out of New York.  

There is also some work being done on the ping pong tables.

Slides and flowrider are closed despite the cruise compass times listing them as open.  It is pretty cold out there.


Despite the cool temperature it's a beautiful day.

 

Day 3 - Sea Day 
Our progress so far has us entering the Gulf of St Lawrence and beginning to make the turn South-East.  



At 22.5 knots we have to be pretty near full speed ahead.  The ship is very smooth though.

I noticed on the card left with the D+ Champagne the voyage number is 888.  I wonder if this is the 888th sailing of Adventure?

We changed times last night, we are now on Atlantic time.

The Northern shore of the Gaspe Bay Peninsula.

Voom is non-existent.  I've ventured up to the Viking Crown Lounge to eek out a small 3G signal from the tip of Quebec to write this.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

The issue is that the ship might not cross the line of the time zone boundary at 2am exactly.  In this case the Province of Quebec which extends East above parts of Newfoundland is in the Eastern time zone while Nova Scotia (somewhat South and partly West of our position) is in the Atlantic time zone.  Time zones do not follow absolute North-South lines.   
If I let technology figure this out my phone would think Eastern time is appropriate based on cell signal from Quebec.  Yet the ship is on Atlantic time.  For this reason I manually put my phone onto the ship time.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

As a business traveler who often spends weeks on the road, I can tell that travel expenses adds up fast and a week on the road even at a modest hotel with a corporate limiting meal plan, the cost to be in a hotel and eat 3 meals a day is way up there.  I'm not talking lavish take clients to dinner so eat great for free business trips, I'm talking places that are 'meh' but you have to go anyways. Companies today don't tolerate that 'anything goes' travel plan anymore.  
With that always in my mind I find great value in cruising.  Is it what it was 10 or 20 years ago?  No, but neither is airline travel when I could lie down in a empty row of seats on plane and sleep.  That just doesn't happen anymore.  
While you may see it a room 'up-charge' I work the system to find great deals on rooms to cruise even cheaper.  I still enjoy the same amenities and outside of the room no one knows I am in a 4D balcony compared to the big shots who paid more for a 6D balcony.  
Yes, times have changed but once you get back into the flow I think you'll find it's still a great vacation experience.  Choose to pay more for certain items like drink packages or photo packages or just cruise like you used 10 years ago before they existed.  

Day 2 - Dinner
Here is the MDR menu

I had an overseas work call so I missed my MTD reservation (again).  To the Windjammer!  British Night.  

I went with Fish and Chips and a Cottage Pie (I skipped lunch).  The Sheppard's Pie looked good and tempting but I resisted.  Bangers and Mash also available as well as several other British style items.  
In other news the whole Viking Crown Lounge was the Diamond Lounge.  Oddly they were still asking to see cards to enter the Diamond Lounge while the temporary bar on the dance floor of the VCL was open for anyone to walk up to.  I guess they figured there are so many D/D+ why not?
Seating was hard to come by so off to the pub.

Entertainment was not inspiring me tonight.    The pub was about to become karaoke.  Viking Crown was still recovering from the Diamond Crush game.  Trivia in the Schooner Bar.  Comedian is my mother's age and last night targeted my mother's age group with her jokes.  I'm sure in 20 years I'll be rolling on the floor, but not tonight.

Dinner in the My Time Dining room.  
I'm not sure I'll do this for all 13 nights, but here is the day one menu.

Caesar Salad:

Prime Rib

I got the evil eye from a Pinnacle (proudly wearing his pin) who apparently didn't like me taking pictures of my food.  He raised his arms in the air for at least a minute and glared at me.  Oh well...
No dessert.  I can't do 13 nights of desserts.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

Day 2 - Dinner
Here is the MDR menu

I had an overseas work call so I missed my MTD reservation (again).  To the Windjammer!  British Night.  

I went with Fish and Chips and a Cottage Pie (I skipped lunch).  The Sheppard's Pie looked good and tempting but I resisted.  Bangers and Mash also available as well as several other British style items.  
In other news the whole Viking Crown Lounge was the Diamond Lounge.  Oddly they were still asking to see cards to enter the Diamond Lounge while the temporary bar on the dance floor of the VCL was open for anyone to walk up to.  I guess they figured there are so many D/D+ why not?
Seating was hard to come by so off to the pub.

Entertainment was not inspiring me tonight.    The pub was about to become karaoke.  Viking Crown was still recovering from the Diamond Crush game.  Trivia in the Schooner Bar.  Comedian is my mother's age and last night targeted my mother's age group with her jokes.  I'm sure in 20 years I'll be rolling on the floor, but not tonight.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

As a business traveler who often spends weeks on the road, I can tell that travel expenses adds up fast and a week on the road even at a modest hotel with a corporate limiting meal plan, the cost to be in a hotel and eat 3 meals a day is way up there.  I'm not talking lavish take clients to dinner so eat great for free business trips, I'm talking places that are 'meh' but you have to go anyways. Companies today don't tolerate that 'anything goes' travel plan anymore.  
With that always in my mind I find great value in cruising.  Is it what it was 10 or 20 years ago?  No, but neither is airline travel when I could lie down in a empty row of seats on plane and sleep.  That just doesn't happen anymore.  
While you may see it a room 'up-charge' I work the system to find great deals on rooms to cruise even cheaper.  I still enjoy the same amenities and outside of the room no one knows I am in a 4D balcony compared to the big shots who paid more for a 6D balcony.  
Yes, times have changed but once you get back into the flow I think you'll find it's still a great vacation experience.  Choose to pay more for certain items like drink packages or photo packages or just cruise like you used 10 years ago before they existed.  

As a business traveler who often spends weeks on the road, I can tell that travel expenses adds up fast and a week on the road even at a modest hotel with a corporate limiting meal plan, the cost to be in a hotel and eat 3 meals a day is way up there.  I'm not talking lavish take clients to dinner so eat great for free business trips, I'm talking places that are 'meh' but you have to go anyways. Companies today don't tolerate that 'anything goes' travel plan anymore.  
With that always in my mind I find great value in cruising.  Is it what it was 10 or 20 years ago?  No, but neither is airline travel when I could lie down in a empty row of seats on plane and sleep.  That just doesn't happen anymore.  
While you may see it a room 'up-charge' I work the system to find great deals on rooms to cruise even cheaper.  I still enjoy the same amenities and outside of the room no one knows I am in a 4D balcony compared to the big shots who paid more for a 6D balcony.  
Yes, times have changed but once you get back into the flow I think you'll find it's still a great vacation experience.  Choose to pay more for certain items like drink packages or photo packages or just cruise like you used 10 years ago before they existed.  

Day 2 - Dinner
Here is the MDR menu

I had an overseas work call so I missed my MTD reservation (again).  To the Windjammer!  British Night.  

I went with Fish and Chips and a Cottage Pie (I skipped lunch).  The Sheppard's Pie looked good and tempting but I resisted.  Bangers and Mash also available as well as several other British style items.  
In other news the whole Viking Crown Lounge was the Diamond Lounge.  Oddly they were still asking to see cards to enter the Diamond Lounge while the temporary bar on the dance floor of the VCL was open for anyone to walk up to.  I guess they figured there are so many D/D+ why not?
Seating was hard to come by so off to the pub.

Entertainment was not inspiring me tonight.    The pub was about to become karaoke.  Viking Crown was still recovering from the Diamond Crush game.  Trivia in the Schooner Bar.  Comedian is my mother's age and last night targeted my mother's age group with her jokes.  I'm sure in 20 years I'll be rolling on the floor, but not tonight.

The rest of day 2 was pretty much the same.  Raining, overcast, gloomy.  I stayed on board and worked.  
Muster at 4:30pm.  

At least I was in the Imperial lounge.  Seating went quick so I was glad I got there early to beat all those old people to the seats.  Just kidding.

Soon after our sail away.




Typical escort out of port.



It's kind of weird.  Tomorrow is day 3 already yet we just sailed away.  Yikes!  Only 10 more days!.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

The rest of day 2 was pretty much the same.  Raining, overcast, gloomy.  I stayed on board and worked.  
Muster at 4:30pm.  

At least I was in the Imperial lounge.  Seating went quick so I was glad I got there early to beat all those old people to the seats.  Just kidding.

Soon after our sail away.




Typical escort out of port.



It's kind of weird.  Tomorrow is day 3 already yet we just sailed away.  Yikes!  Only 10 more days!.

Day 2 - Dinner
Here is the MDR menu

I had an overseas work call so I missed my MTD reservation (again).  To the Windjammer!  British Night.  

I went with Fish and Chips and a Cottage Pie (I skipped lunch).  The Sheppard's Pie looked good and tempting but I resisted.  Bangers and Mash also available as well as several other British style items.  
In other news the whole Viking Crown Lounge was the Diamond Lounge.  Oddly they were still asking to see cards to enter the Diamond Lounge while the temporary bar on the dance floor of the VCL was open for anyone to walk up to.  I guess they figured there are so many D/D+ why not?
Seating was hard to come by so off to the pub.

Entertainment was not inspiring me tonight.    The pub was about to become karaoke.  Viking Crown was still recovering from the Diamond Crush game.  Trivia in the Schooner Bar.  Comedian is my mother's age and last night targeted my mother's age group with her jokes.  I'm sure in 20 years I'll be rolling on the floor, but not tonight.

The rest of day 2 was pretty much the same.  Raining, overcast, gloomy.  I stayed on board and worked.  
Muster at 4:30pm.  

At least I was in the Imperial lounge.  Seating went quick so I was glad I got there early to beat all those old people to the seats.  Just kidding.

Soon after our sail away.




Typical escort out of port.



It's kind of weird.  Tomorrow is day 3 already yet we just sailed away.  Yikes!  Only 10 more days!.

Just when you thought strange creatures are the figments of imagination of the mad, I've been saved!  There is a child on board!  I'm guessing 10ish.  I'm not the youngest!  Woo-Hoo!  It was a M&Ms moment... "He does exist!"
Although this does mean I won't have the water slides to myself...
 

Day 2 - Quebec City
Still in place I woke and worked for a bit.  Around 9:30am I headed to the Windjammer.  My plan was to avoid the peak breakfast crowd. 
Outside was gloomy which resulted in everyone staying on the ship and all of my parent's friends had parked themselves in the Windjammer.  Playing cards, using laptops, talking, a few were eating.
The only seat was at the bar in the Windjammer where a few other's had resorted to eating.  
A scan of the room confirmed my earlier age observation.  I'm a baby on this cruise.  I think I saw some old ladies checking me out.  At least I know I can out run their husband's... walker.  Not sure about scooters, those things can go pretty fast!
I'm glad I spent as much time as I did exploring Quebec City yesterday.  Today wasn't nearly as nice. 

After dinner I used my 3 happy drinks at various bars.  The Diamond lounge was a zoo.  As I stood in line for a drink I overheard speculation there are 85 Pinnacles on board and something like 1,200 Diamonds.  I may attend the top tier event later in the cruise to confirm.
It was beginning to dawn on me why they call this the "Snowbird Migration" cruise.  In my fifties I am one of the youngest on board.  I realized I haven't seen one kid yet.  I'm basically cruising with all of my parents friends and they are all Diamond or higher.
A light rain had set in.  I headed up to deck 12 to see what I could capture.



Time to find a local bar with good local beer.


Calling @mpoole3...

Midnight approaching it was time to head to bed.

Dinner in the My Time Dining room.  
I'm not sure I'll do this for all 13 nights, but here is the day one menu.

Caesar Salad:

Prime Rib

I got the evil eye from a Pinnacle (proudly wearing his pin) who apparently didn't like me taking pictures of my food.  He raised his arms in the air for at least a minute and glared at me.  Oh well...
No dessert.  I can't do 13 nights of desserts.