Clay Clayton

According to the Restaurant Manager, there are currently 557 guests and 20 contract (lecturers? guest entertainers? repair workers) folks on board. I know there are at least two people leaving tomorrow in Walvis Bay so I guess our numbers will be reduced further as we head towards London.

The information we received prior to the cruise required their be 6 or 7 blank pages. To date, I think we have only had stamps in three or four countries

No need to apologize, your English is much better than my spanish! Welcome to Viking-hope you will enjoy your first cruise. If between you both you will have at least 6 drinks a day you will break even. We typically don’t buy the package on port intensive cruises as we find the wine or beer at meals is typically sufficient. Our travel agent provides onboard credit which typically will cover our gratuities with enough left over for our small bar tab. On cruises that have few ports, we find we drink more and therefore either buy the package or at the first duty free port we will buy a bottle of liquor and make our own. If you haven’t discovered it yet, you might want to check out this thread which provides lots of advice and tips to make the most of your first Viking cruise: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

Our Trivia Team had our first perfect match today and won the tiebreaker for our third win! Once we left Cape Town the sun came out but the temperature dropped-we could see our breath-quite a welcome change at least for us from the heat of Asia! While sitting on the balcony this afternoon, a friend texted that there were whales off the starboard side-too far to really see well. About them I heard a splash and realized I could see whales blowing off the port. They were too far from the ship to see them but their blows and the occasional breech were visible. We also had a beautiful sunset on our side since we are heading north again😁 Our assistant cruise director, Rosanna had her solo show tonight-she is quite the musical theatre performer! She is newly married to the sommelier onboard so it was fun to watch his reaction to her show too! Sea day tomorrow

We had a wonderful time in Cape Town. The included tour to Stellenbach was enjoyable although unbeknownst to anyone the museum there was closed-likely due to the many downed trees. But the town is artsy and enjoyable and the winery beautiful. Our tour finished near the ship at a beach club (think twenty year olds in Miami Beach) and some sparkling wine and really great musicians. Afterwards, Mike and I took an Uber to a Cape Malay restaurant for a delicious traditional supper. Affer we got back onboard we went to hear the University of Cape Town Choir. Really great performance! Our plan for today was to go to Table Mountain if the clouds lifted or to the V&A Waterfront if that wasn’t the case. Unfortunately, we had a more when we got to the room that the port authority was not going to allow anyone to go out in order to address the many ships waiting to enter due to the delays of the last few days. So after our 20 minutes ashore at 8:30 to “exit” immigration we have been back onboard enjoying the sunshine and wonderful weather. We presumed that as soon as all had cleared immigration we would be leaving, but that isn’t the case, didn’t leave until 1pm….seems like we could have had time to explore a bit this morning afterall. #nexttime Neptune-enjoy the beautiful weather hereafter missing Richard’s Bay y’all deserve it!

as Cory said, 4 hours late but currently on our included tour to Stellenbosch. Unfortunately the tablecloth is fully covering the mountain. #clearskystomorrow🤞

Almost to Capetown aboard @vikingcruises Sky. It’s 8am which was our original posted docking time but we are currently on a one hour delay due to winds. Hoping the pilot boards at 8:30 so that delay doesn’t get longer🤞

How about sharing with all of us!

Two stops??? #NeptuneGetsEverything. We only get Walvis Bay-where else are y’all going? did yall miss Reunion due to weather or was that the plan all along? If so, that’s too bad-it was beautiful.

Can’t speak to doing it in a regular 3 meal a day basis but on our Ocean’s cruise in the before times from Bejing (Tian) to Hong Kong Viking did a great job of feeding four or five busloads of folks on our excursions. China had an abundance of event halls which is what we experienced, so I could imagine them contracting with several to handle all 900 guests?

That is awful. So what’s the revised itinerary? Are we both gonna end up in Capetown at the same time? speaking of which, when/how did Neptune go from being three days after Sky to only two?

So sad that they’ve missed both ports. Hopefully they will be able to make it up in Port Elizabeth with an overnight? Or two? Though our guide said it looked like they were gonna have four days of rain😢 Nice fixed course meal on the pool deck this evening. Made for a nice end to this great day!

Great day onnour Sibuya excursion. The 1.5 hour trip there was well worth it! Lunch was good too. Lots more pics (and videos) on Instagram

Thought y'all might like to hear Patricia! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5a6BjrqFCLCd8sPDBM82iPuU0HsS2HYbhjsBo0/?igsh=MXZlODg4ZjF4ZGg1Zw==

Let’s hope the wind dies down before we get to Port Elizabeth tomorrow and Capetown on Monday! https://www.ttgmedia.com/cruise/ambassador-ship-collides-with-cargo-vessel-during-world-cruise-45674

Noon update from Sky as we make our way to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. According to the Captain, winds are now up to 40 knots, with 50-55 knots gusts (gale force), waves are 15-16 feet and it’s rainy. The good news (again according to the Captain) is that it is going to get better overnight. The bad news is that it is going to get worse before it does😳. #washingmachine IMG_4777.mov

We’ve gotten to the promised rough seas! IMG_4748.mov

WOW!

Uh-oh. Never seen this announcement before😳

My new favorite dessert-exotic wave! Perfect combination of tart & creamy passion fruit curd, sweet, crunchy & sweet meringue, smooth whipped cream and fresh fruit. Yummy!!!

Big (6’-6” and 320 lbs) and it’s “funny money” onboard credit that we have to use!

Our optional excursion today from was a game drive to Bonamanzi Game Preserve. This park doesn’t have lions so our eyes were peeled for the other four of the “Big Five”-elephant, rhinos, buffalo, and leopard. Given it was a daytime drive we knew the chance of seeing a leopard were pretty slim. Unfortunately our vehicle was driven by a very knowledgeable guide who wasn’t familiar with the park and his vehicle had issues. I was really hoping to see giraffe and we also knew there were nyala, impala, warthogs, wildebeast and zebra in the preserve. Nobody saw elephants or rhinos but everybody including us saw all of the those. But our group didn’t see any giraffes or buffalo unlike everybody else. Lunch was tasty but was Very disappointed🤬 when everyone else was sharing their giraffe and buffalo photos. All due to a bad driver. But on the way back to the ship in the big tour bus, we saw giraffe! #daysaved Africa exceeds anything you’ve ever heard.

Thanks! I hope I’m wrong and we don’t end up there but if we do. Your recommendations are most appreciated. Am I understanding correctly, the included tour is on school buses? Given we have a heap (and will have more if we don’t get to Dakar) would you think the 4x4 might be a good use of our “funny money?”

Since I remain dubious that we will actually go to Senegal (Viking hasn’t actually called there in several years) so I asked someone onboard the South Atlantic crossing to share the excursions for Cape Verde. Sharing incase anyone else wants to do some research ahead of time.

Unfortunately we weren’t out back when it happened but Robin and Sam were and captured the most amazing pilot delivery I’ve ever encountered! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5U6gbGophv/?igsh=aDI1cDNpOHQ2bnpw I think I will be outback for sailaway!