Off to Iceland, Day 1, 08/03/26 Boarding Day

With our plan set last night we slept in, finally rousing ourselves at 10:00 (eastern time, 8:00 according to our bodies).

After the normal morning ablutions it was off (in the rain) to the neighborhood bodega for a crepe (Cheryl) and an acai bowl (me).

Back at the hotel we ate in the (vacant) breakfast area while chatting with two women who are on this cruise.
Following breakfast it was back to the room for an hour or so of relaxing before we checked out and met our Uber driver who drove us to the port.
We arrived there just as two busloads of fellow passengers arrived from the airport, so we joined the throng to wait in line to get our key cards (having already checked-in on-line).

Once on board we accepted the glass of champaign and reported to our muster station where the bass player from the jazz combo demonstrated putting on the life vest.

Then it was up to the World Cafe for lunch

While we were finishing up lunch they announced that all cabins were ready so we grabbed cookies to go and headed to our room.
It should be noted that our stateroom this trip is not in our normal place – it’s at the very front of the ship. That may become significant in future posts.

We were unpacking our backpacks when our stateroom attendant, Grace arrived with the first of our three suitcases.
Grace is a charming young woman from Kenya and we had a nice chat before she moved on to continue her work.
Thru the afternoon the other two suitcases arrived and eventually we had the room organized.

After all that effort we were both feeling a bit peckish, so we headed downstairs to the Living Room Bar for Reke (open-faced shrimp sandwiches – one of our favorite treats on these ships) We enjoyed chatting with a couple from British Columbia until it was time to head up to the Explorer’s Lounge for sail-away. This was delayed by an hour for some reason (the common understanding is that we were waiting for the last passengers. If Viking had arranged the flights they would hold the ship as long as possible. Otherwise Viking would be on the hook to get the passengers to the next port and put them up until the ship arrived on Wednesday).

Anyway, eventually…

As we sailed away we were informed by a running commentary by none other than Russell Lee!
He and his wife Gail are on the ship as lecturers. They were with us on the World Cruise and his lectures were always a hit. His first one, tomorrow, is titled ‘Jaws; The Movie that Devoured Hollywood’ – can’t wait.

While we were waiting to cast off, I ran into Lee and we chatted. He pointed out that this is one of the ‘new’ Viking Ocean ships. It has a capacity of 68 more passengers than the older ones and is 39 feet longer. This is to accommodate a future fuel cell propulsion system upgrade. The only thing we’ve noticed so far is that the World Cafe now has 2 asian stations and an expanded ice cream selection.(what’s not to love?)

Anwyay Back to sail away…

Sorry about the quality of those shots – we were shooting into the sun (worst possible light).

Lee’s narration was cut short before we crossed under the varazano Narrows bridge and left New York Harbor. Because of the delay in leaving we ran out of time before the scheduled lecture on the Causes and History behind the American Revolution.

Following the lecture it was time for dinner, and some time on deck –

…and chatting with the resident historian and his wife.
At one point in his lecture he talked about the Land Ordinance of 1785 – and the development of a uniform grid system that was a key to westward expansion. I mentioned that when I tell people where in Boise I live I refer to the intersection of two streets that are the boundaries of major grid blocks.

So that’s Day 1.
Tomorrow is a sea day, and in typical Viking style we’ll spend a bunch of it haunting the theatre/lecture hall.

Till then…
R