Sea Days - Santa Barbara to Hawaii
1/8/24-1/12/24 - We keep busy on sea days walking the deck, swimming, playing cards, reading and attending some of the many lectures, musical performances, art classes and photography workshops they provide everyday. We also did a few tours on the ship, which are detailed below. We wouldn’t say it was smooth sailing with the first day and the last two being particularly rough. The stabilizers were in use everyday - which slowed us down quite a bit. The swells were particularly bad Thursday and Friday. On Friday there were a lot of dishes broken in the dining room & kitchen during dinner as they went sliding off tables and kitchen counters. A couple of passengers also fell in the dining room, but thankfully it was some stitches and bruises vs. broken bones from what we heard. So, thankfully, no serious injuries for passengers or crew. To say everyone was happy to arrive in Hawaii on Saturday, even if it was a few hours late, would be an understatement!
Behind the Scene’s Tour - January 11th - We signed up for this tour , as we thought it would be interesting, and it was. It was fascinating to see the the Laundry area where all the linens and staff uniforms are cleaned every day in huge washers and dryers. They have one machine where two staff feed in the sheets that have been washed and they come out the other side dried, pressed and folded, We also toured the engine room, with computer models of how the thrusters and stabilizers work on the ship. The food prep area has its own bakery where bread is made fresh ever day and also the creative desserts. Each specialty restaurant has its own kitchen, as does the main dining room and the World Cafe (aka buffet). We walked through some of those, the cold storage area, the staff cafeteria, etc. More to come on that after our “Galley Tour” scheduled for January 16th. In addition to food prep and laundry areas, we also saw the garbage center. We saw how all the garbage, cardboard, paper and glass is separated, sorted and recycled and then off loaded at next port. They even have to separate eggshells and bones from other food waste, as that is crushed differently than the rest of the food. Viking also produces most its own drinking water on their ships through condensation with equipment onboard, which is amazing . They also recycle water from sinks, hand washing stations and showers to flush toilets. The staff all welcomed us to their work areas and were thanking us for coming. They all seemed happy and so proud of their work areas. We applauded them as we heard that they had several inspectors (health and safety) come onboard in LA and they scored 100 percent on each one. All areas we visited were neat and clean and not one inch of space is wasted. There is a crew of about 460 onboard and they all work incredibly hard —we are very well taken care of.
Bridge Tour - January 12th - We didn’t sign up for this tour but somehow our name was on the list so when the called to say our name was pulled from the waiting list, we jumped at the chance. The Captain spent over 45 minutes with us. Gave us a tour of the bridge —- and it’s incredible views. He introduced us to the “on duty” officers that included the staff captain who monitored the course of the ship and the second officer who monitored the tanks and stabilizers - coordinating as needed with the engineers we met in the behind the scenes tour. The third on-duty person is the “spotter” who just watches out the front window to spot any obstructions (floating containers, etc). He then showed us the “side controls” and lookout towers that are used when docking the boat and leaving port. They jut out to the side of the boat, and even have a small section of glass floor to see directly below. (Cathy didn’t like that part as it was a bit too much like the glass lookout at the Chicago skyscraper we visited with Ryan, Conor and Sean years ago). He then took us into the “command center” where all the safety, fire and flood systems are monitored, and he talked about system redundancies and safety drill scenarios. It was all quite impressive.
