Days 11&12: Bay of Bengal
A couple of sea days in a row, whee! That sounded sarcastic, but we actually really like sea days. Got up and headed to the World Café for some coffee and to look at emails and check Facebook and see if there are any pressing matters I need to address before I start the day.
Due to the time zone difference, my morning New York Times crossword doesn’t get to me until noon, so that part of my morning routine gets put on hold for a few hours. Lazed around a bit until lunch. The culinary crew had a spread of sandwiches from around the world at the back of the ship, which looked tasty.
We opted instead for the main restaurant, which is normally closed for lunch unless it’s a sea day. Rob had fish & chips and I had a reuben sandwich preceded by an amazing cashew chicken salad. I opted for the fromagerie for dessert, a go-to on previous cruises, but one that I hadn’t had yet on this cruise. It was good as always.
Right after lunch, there was another new thing - at least new to us. Choir rehearsal (!) How much fun is that? I had never seen this on a Viking cruise before, but considering how popular it is, I doubt this will be the last time I see it. The picture only shows about 2/3 of the people that came.
Keep in mind that this is actually a World Cruise and we’re only here for one segment of that. Some of these folks have been doing this since last fall, when they got on the ship. They have already performed some Paul Simon, Elton John, Leonard Cohen, and others. For this leg, it’s “The Wellerman”, a sea shanty from New Zealand. Fun song, and if you’re familiar with Home Free’s “Sea Shanty Medley”, it’s the song that opens that one.
Decided to try the bar on the ground floor tonight instead of our usual 8th floor spot. We had a reservation at Manfredi’s and this bar was closer. It was nice enough, but we really like our favourite spot at the top of the ship. Anyway, we went to Manfredi’s and I tried a new appy, gnocco fritto which are basically fried Timbits filled with gorgonzola and topped with prosciutto. They were really good!
But for me, the main reason to book Manfredi’s is the Viking Bistecca - it’s a steak rubbed with brown sugar, porcini mushroom powder, and chilli flakes, then blackened. It’s the best steak I’ve ever had outside of Longview.
There was a movie on the big screen tonight: “Life of Pi”. We made a note of that, not because we cared about seeing the movie, but because we knew there would be bags of popcorn sitting outside the Star Theatre. We did the stealth raid and returned to the room with about a dozen bags of popcorn. Score! Had to reset our clocks back again, but this time only a half hour. YES, there is a place in the world besides Newfoundland that does the half hour time zone offset. Weird.
Anyway, got up early and went up for coffee, enjoying being the only one up there for almost an hour. Spent most of the day doing one of three things: napping, swimming, or reading. Finished my book today. Loved the first half, but thought the ending was kinda silly.
Lunch began with a bizarre, but tasty chilled cream of apricot soup, followed by lasagna and a coconut panna cotta. None of those were particularly photo-worthy, so here’s the spread they did for International Women's Day.
Choir rehearsal came after that and the altos were struggling. There aren’t enough of them and they sing timidly. I offered to switch over, and they took me up on it. I’m fairly comfortable in the alto range until it gets above 2nd Line G, then I have to switch to falsetto, which I haven’t used in years.
Had dinner at the buffet, which means I had a LOT of sushi. It’s really good - as good or better than the sushi we get a Ke, our fave sushi place in Calgary.
FYI, the thing in the little dish in the middle is a ravioli stuffed with BBQ brisket. It was seriously good.
Tonight is a repeat performance of singer Jennifer Gray. We enjoyed her last show and we’re looking forward to this one.
Back on land tomorrow!