Sea Days – Jan 17-20
We welcome sea days as a chance to catch up on laundry, culling pictures and of course blogging. Steve gets a break this time while I share our typical life on sea days:
After two weeks of cruising we’ve finally found our rhythm and routine. It took us a while to get used to not making our bed, cooking, washing dishes, going to the store or planning our next hike. While Steve thinks about Betsy often, we’re grateful that John and Pam are keeping an eye on her in Tucson for a few weeks.
Our eyes still grow big each time we see the food offerings for the next meal, but I’ve learned to tone down my portions. Steve continues to eat everything in sight, mostly healthy but large portions. The choices each day seem endless.
Our routine begins with a 6am walk on deck 2, completing up to 18 laps around the ship to achieve our daily baseline of 10,000 steps. We add many more throughout the day as we take the stairs up and down between deck 7 and deck 2 for various activities (we never use the elevators). On some days I use the treadmill at the gym while Steve works out. The treadmill has a video that simulates hiking, and with the incline set at a steep angle I get an excellent workout.
Next we hit the Nordic Spa and follow a Nordic bathing/detox routine – soak in the hot tub for a while, douse ourselves with a bucket of cold water, hit the steam room for as long as we can stand it, then enter the snow grotto where we rub ourselves down with snow. Finally, we soak in the hot seawater thermal pool until we tingle all over. We repeat these cycles until we’ve had enough, then a hot shower in the locker rooms to finish up. We’ve never felt so relaxed and my skin is smooth and silky!
Throughout the ship are pieces of artwork that we can learn about using a Viking app that offers a guided audio tour. The ship is a floating gallery, housing some of the world’s finest and most coveted Nordic works – some by Edward Munch, Norway’s most celebrated artist. We still have over three months to do our own tours one deck at a time, but we’ve already checked out the onboard Viking Heritage Museum to learn about the rich history and inspiring legacy of the Vikings:
Lining the stairwells are replicas of Bohuslan Petroglyphs on Italian Cardoso stone:
Every day has several activities on board, including enrichment lectures, playing bridge or mahjong, completing a huge zigsaw puzzle, line dancing, trivia and more. We often hang out at the Explorer’s Lounge to read, work on the blog or just gaze out at the ocean.
In the evenings before or after dinner we listen to the excellent resident entertainers, including the Viking Classical Duo and pianist Andras who is absolutely amazing. They alternate playing in the ship’s atrium while Edward Munch works are displayed on a large digital display..
A video clip of the resident pianist and his magical fingers, notice him looking all around but not at the keyboard:
When weather permits we watch movies under the stars on the pool deck. We just saw the movie “Yesterday”, an interesting film that Beatles fans might enjoy.
The night we left Bora Bora there was a French Polynesian celebration, where we were encouraged to dress up in Polynesian attire. The executive chef had set up a wonderful spread of culinary delights, and the ship’s officers and staff were grilling and handing out tons of delicious food. But the star of the party was displayed at the center, a huge Moonfish! We had never seen one before, and the best part was that we got to taste it, too. It was yummy!
As we departed Bora Bora after a fun-filled day, we were disappointed to learn that our next stop at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands would be canceled due to cyclone Tino, which was ravaging the area. We re-routed north of it to avoid the worst of the weather, and it’s a good thing we did because even then we were rockin’ and rollin’ in high waves for two days. When I was feeling queasy I stayed in the living room area located midship, where the movement was not as bad. In short, we had two pretty rough sea days. The good news is that we saw flying fish for the first time ever as we were cruising along, unfortunately they were gone before I could grab my camera 😦
Take a look at my video showing waves that banged into the ship and made it tremble:.
The setting sun gave us a fabulous show at the end of our sea days:
Lowes Travels 
Ahhhh!!! loving this journey with y’all! lots of yin/yang going on there too!
Hi, following your blog……love your photos. What gear do you use? We are future WC’s and Viking is in our top three line choices, will depend on itinerary when we are ready.
Thanks for cruising with us. All the pictures above are iPhone 11 photos. When on an excursion I sometimes use my Panasonic Zs100 or Lumix G9.
What an amazing trip you are having…look forward to each update!!!
Thank you for taking us along and showing us a day at sea. Love your spa routine. I felt relaxed just reading about it … and then you showed me the sea and I turned green 🤢
That is why I hang out midship, it was a bad day on the ship!
Sounds like a great routine you’ve established. It’s nice that you can continue to “hike” on the treadmill. With all your workouts, you enjoy more of the the fabulous food. The lobster tails look wonderful!! Love the photo of Steve at the end. A real keeper! Sorry you missed one of the islands but we are at the mercy of the weather and who wants to be anywhere near the cyclone!
Thanks, Pam, life is good aboard the Viking Sun. We make a conscious effort to work out every day or else you won’t recognize us after four months 🙂There is an abundant supply of lobsters on board.
Wow, what a luxurious life!! So fun to follow you around for a day. The food looks delicious (and beautiful!) and that spa is amazing. You both look so healthy and relaxed. Here’s hoping you don’t have any more rough days at sea (that looked kinda scary).
Definitely! After 4 months of this, we wondered if we will know how to make our beds, cook or even go to a grocery store, It is not a bad life and we can actually live healthier here too!
As I write this response, we skipped another port in NZ, it is too windy and not safe for the ship to dock. But the ship rocking is not making me sea sick at all.
Haha, you’re going to have to hire a housekeeper and gourmet chef when you finish your cruise! I wonder where they will stay in your motorhome?? 🙂 Bummer that you had to skip another port, but glad you’re not seasick.
The spa treatment looks so luxurious, except that “rub ourselves with snow” business. LOL Steve looks menacing in the snow cave! What sort of songs did the Viking performers sing? It is amazing to see the variety of places to hang out and things to do. The food continues to look too pretty to eat — almost! ML you look lovely in your cruise wear, by the way.
Those rolling seas were frightening! Better than a cyclone, but still…!
Well that happens to be part of the ritual, rubbing with snow 🙂 The truth is my skin has never been smoother 🙂 Even my skin irritation has not flared up!
At this gathering, the band was playing my favorite rock and roll sounds from Queen!
I’ve never been on a cruise, and every time you guys list even more amenities that are on this ship I find myself having a harder and harder time grasping how enormous it must be. It’s like a mini civilization… sounds like a really interesting experience!
It definitely is pampered living. We wondered if we will know how to cook or go to a store after four months of being served and catered to.
Wait… they have snow?????
Yep, there is snow! And very refreshing too 🙂
What a fascinating way to travel! And one I will probably only ever do “virtually” with you on the blog! I’m curious. The decks & lounges all look quite empty in your pics. Is that just camera angles? Or is the boat actually quite empty? Loving this blog series!
Nina
There are about 900+ guests on Viking Sun and we are so spread out and lots of areas to hang out that we don’t feel crowded. We see most of them when there are big events on the pool deck or on theaters. Besides we are early risers so there are fewer people on some of my photos.
You’ve established a great routine. It’s funny how easily the ship becomes “home” when you’re on an extended voyage. It’s one of the reasons we prefer longer journeys … though our next one will be just 10 days that we’re squeezing in at the end of May on our way back from Europe to the US.
Loving “riding along with you” on your wonderful adventure. Fantastic that there is so much art on the ship itself. Have fun!