December 30, 2023 Day 3 Sea Day

 Just another day at sea. We are trying to get back to our usual routine, so we are up and out of the room in record time. We hit the gym first, and did weights and sit ups. This is our first time to go into the gym, so we had to orient ourselves to which weights we wanted to use, and what spot we wanted to claim as our exercise spot. We had a window view, so watching the waves and birds helps pass the time. We were not alone, but the gym was not crowded. They have wipes to clean everything, so you feel safe. Here is the reception desk.

Next we walked on the track. I did a mile, and Mike did two miles. The heat was getting to me, so note to self, use the cooling cloths we brought.

They recommend that you walk clockwise as there are some narrow areas. There is always someone on the track, unless closed due to strong winds.
After breakfast we played 4 games of Farkle. Thankfully we are tied, but if you added up the scores, Mike would be ahead. He trounced me the two games he won. 

They have trivia twice a day on sea days. We met John and Iris, and joined with them to improve our chances of a win. We did much better with a score of 9 of 15 questions. This was not a win, but much better. We are in the explorer lounge, so drinks are served while you play. John and Iris are doing the World cruise also, so we will team up with them for the long haul.

We enjoyed a light lunch at the World Cafe, which is the buffet. We have several options, a Pool grill, Mamsen's up in the Explorer Lounge, and The Restaurant which for lunch is the most formal. It is a beautiful day, so we hit the pool deck for some sun. I always take a dip in the pool, which is my happy place. I do some exercises in the pool, and usually have it to myself. Today the pool was full of fun loving fellow cruisers. They saw one of the waiters with some slushy drinks on the deck above and waved him down. He delivered the drinks to the pool, and went back for refills and delivered them.  Can you say spoiled? As you can see from the picture above, I don't even look like I am catching up with Mike in tanning. In reality for me I am slowly getting a golden glow to my skin.

My very active, always busy husband said he is enjoying the cruise, and even the sea days. Shock face, I know.

Tonight following dinner we went to trivia. We joined another team of 4, and we tied for first place. Here is a picture of the winning team. We all are doing the world cruise, and the other two couples are from Kansas City Missouri. Yeah team!

On a side note, We want to thank Don and Lynda for going above and beyond. We received a picture of Don reading our blog to our friend Dort Holmlund. They made and took her custard to help her keep her weight up, and shared our words. I am sure that visit meant the world to Dort, and brought tears to our eyes. We are thankful to everyone who are assisting us to allow us this time to travel.

December 29, 2023 Sea Day

 Happy Birthday to our nieces Stephanie Ewing, and Wendy Hughes.

We woke to a cloudy morning, so no possibility of a sunrise picture. I was sitting at my desk when we both heard thunder. Mike saw lighting, so walking will have to wait. We ate breakfast to thunder and lighting. It is raining off and on.

I thought we could take pictures around the ship, but we really didn't get it done, so I will save it for another day.

We played 10 games of Sequence. I was the winner today, but not by much, it ended up 4 to 6.

Mike took the last picture. You can see we were almost down to our last chips. He was green, and I am blue. He did not skunk me, but it was close. We are still talking, but most of it is trash talk. Lol

Dinner was in the Restaurant. We both had the New York strip steak with apple strudel. Look at the pour of wine I had. They did a mix of ginger ale and wine. It was perfect.

Now for the second night in a row, we are attending a showcase of the ship musicians. Date night!

The music was great, lots of energy, and fun to hear their background. No pictures were allowed tonight, so I can't share, but we have the memory.

Thanks for reading our blog.

December 28, 2023 Sea Day

 Happy Anniversary Joe and Kathy Schaecher

Well we have had another oops! We were supposed to have left Panama yesterday after 5 pm. They were doing a hull cleaning before we sailed much more in the Pacific Ocean. There have been some ships not allowed into ports due to something found on their hulls. As a precaution a planned cleaning was scheduled. The divers were experiencing difficulty due to poor visibility. Our departure time was pushed back several times, and when we woke up, we were still in Panama. This meant that we did not leave until after noon today, and that means we miss our Costa Rica stop on December 2. Mike and I were really looking forward to this stop, and are disappointed, but life goes on, and now we have to see when we can get back here.

Let us show you our room and how we have set it up.

Here I am sitting at the desk writing the blog. The desk has a hidden spot for the binoculars, and odds and ends.

Mike is checking out our world map. It is magnetic and has a magnetic pin to track our location. You can see we have our magnet hooks holding up Mike's speaker, our coats and hats. We also use them to hang my suit to dry on the balcony, and other items. They have come in very handy.

 Above is our bed with our Viking World Cruise 2023-2024 items they have been leaving in our room at random times. Tonight we got our tote bags. The chairs are usually set to look out our sliding glass door. The balcony has a table and two chairs. The luggage sits under our bed.

We didn't like the shoe tree hanging in the bathroom, so we have it hanging beside our closet. The magnets did not hold it up, so it came with hangers and they work well here. Our closet has two sides and 2 drawers, which I use these drawers, and around the corner is Mike's 3 drawers.

The bathroom is compact, but very functional. We both can store things on the shelves, and each have a drawer we can use. The shower is larger than on the river cruise long boats, so it fits two nicely. 😉I even have a seat to use to shave my legs. If this is too much info, it is ok to speed past. Haha

The Pacific Ocean so far is very flat.  It has gentle rolling swells. We are doing great, no sea sicknesses.

Our Assistant Cruise Director Patricia is doing an hour show tonight at 9 pm, so we are staying up to see her. She plays multiple instruments, her singing voice is beautiful, and she has a stage presence.

She rocked the boat! She put on a great show, we enjoyed our evening, and look forward to her next show.

December 27, 2023 Panama City, Panama

 Oh what a day! You know when you travel there will be some hiccups. We arrived at the staging point for our Gamboa Aerial Tram. The Viking staff were there to let us know what bus to take to get everyone going the right direction. They called our bus, and we went out with the group and were loaded into our bus. We had a wonderful guide who gave us interesting facts about her city.

. 

Our view this morning, that is Panama City in the distance.

This is the Panama Canal Port Authority building. To honor the achievement. the building was built 85 feet above the road bed to signify the distance ships are moved up in the locks. The stairs leading up to the back of the building are a set of 3, that signify the levels of the locks.

Half way to our excursion our guide starts talking about loading us up into boats. I wave at the guide, and let her know we were suppose to be on the excursion for the Gamboa Aerial Tram. Oops! We were on the wrong bus. Luckily the two excursions were close together, and this bus was ahead of the correct bus. We were let off at the Gamboa hotel. This is a picture of the lobby. It was very nice. Our bus arrived and we were back on track WHEW!

Our aerial tram was suppose to be a tree top view of the birds, monkeys, sloths, and butterflies in the rainforest. We were about 125 feet above ground. The rain forest was beautiful, we saw butterflies, Mike saw one Sloth, I can't confirm. Going back down we could hear some birds. The early morning bird watchers said they saw a good number of birds, so maybe we were just to late for the show.

At the upper end of the tram, there is a ten story tower, which was an amazing view of the lakes around the canal. During the tram ride we did see some platforms, which we decided were for zipline. This was confirmed when we heard the howling monkeys who were the tourists on the zipline.

The zipline in action.

Here you can see several of the ariel trams. Each held up to 6 people.

This is a termite nest. We saw these and then brown ones which were ant nests. They said don't touch any part of the tree, as the ants protect the tree and will track you down. Enough ants biting you can cause harm up to death if enough of them get on you. Yikes!

Our next stop was amazing it was a sloth sanctuary, but had a butterfly area, I have shown some of the ones we saw.

Do you see the cross on the shell?

Some of the frogs in Panama are poisonous. There are two green and black frogs in the top picture. The second picture, one frog and a lizard.  They also had red frogs, some were the size of a large fingernail clipping and up to the size of my thumbnail.

The captain and a Viking rep who is enticing us with additional cruises.

Tonight was a night to cut loose. Viking has a sense of humor as their band is called Seasix. Get it? This is the pool deck, notice the retractable roof? They pulled it back just aways as it was threatening rain. The pool and hot tub really warm and humidify this area up, so thankful for the fresh air. As you can see from these pictures, we are traveling with fun loving people. We sail out later tonight.

December 26, 2023 Panama Canal

 I seem to remember pictures of my Grandma Blanche in the 1960's taking a Panama Canal cruise. In my memory she was wearing a suit and nylons standing outside on the ship watching her ship travel through the canal. Today many people were standing out on the deck, and on the balconies watching our ship, and the other ships going past making the Panama Canal crossing. Our day started out beautiful but cloudy in the 80's with high humidity. This afternoon we had a crack of thunder, and rain. They really need rain, so we are not complaining.

 First a Gramma and Papa proud moment. Eric and Katie sent us a family Christmas PJ picture. We love the smiles, and miss them terribly.

This is the Atlantico Bridge, all ships go under this bridge on their way to the canal. All ships waiting their turn are further out in the ocean. Someone counted, and thought there were about 27 waiting their turn. There is another bridge at the Pacific end, called the American Bridge, that we missed getting a picture of as it was dark by the time we got there.

Here is our view as we wait our turn to enter the lock. Ships are going both ways, so watch the progression.

Gates are opening for us on the right. The ship on the left is already down and ready to move out of the canal. See the blue and cream ship on the left in the background?

Here it is passing us. It is a car carrier, and we learned that fully loaded they have to much draft to go through the canal, so they unload some of the cars at one end, and the cars are driven the 48 miles across and reloaded after they are through the canal. An interesting fact, they have a lawyer at the other end that watches as the oedometers are turned back to zero. 

We are through the Gatun Locks, and moving into Gatun lake. Our tug boat following us through the Culebra Cut, the narrowest and most unstable part of the canal. We were traveling very slow, it is a no wake zone.

These are the mules, there are 8 of them, 4 in front and 4 in back. When we move from lock to lock, they pull the ships through, and keep us centered in the lock. 

This building is the lock control center for the Miraflores Locks. It was built in 1913.

Our ship as it is preparing to enter the last Miraflores Lock before we enter into the Pacific. The ship has been raised and lowered 85 feet in 48 miles. It has been a full day.

This is the extent our restaurant staff goes to to feed us, Roasted suckling pig anyone? We think our friend Dave will think it is a large squirrel. LOL