DragonOfTheSeas

I’m so glad you made it. Not surprised if there’s no line. Ha ha ha

John--I did a speed test this morning. I am using Surf Ping 940 Download 4.2 Mbps Upload 311.36 Kbps

I have passed by a fountain statue along the way at the Necka Stand ferry stop. It was created by Carl Milles and finished Buy one of his students. It was originally supposed to be put in front of the United Nations building and I don’t know why it wasn’t. The statue is “God our Father on the Rainbow.” On top of the arch is an angel putting stars in the sky.His house Millesgarden, is very close to the cruise ship stop. But it is closed on Mondays and today is Monday. Someone told me that the reason is located there is that that is the gateway to Stockholm. In other words that’s where Stockholm starts. It’s hard to figure that out when it’s a series of islands you don’t know where it starts and stops.

I wanted to comment on my SL card for transportation. I think it has been a really good help for us. At about US$30 for the seven day ticket, it paid for itself. Today alone I took two ferry rides and a tram ride. it is very convenient to just tap your card and go.

The Abba museum is a lot of fun. There is even a hotel that’s attached. Every nook and cranny you go to play the different song. You could probably run through it in a half an hour or 40 minutes if you wanted to. However, it takes a good hour or so to see everything not including the movie, which takes a little longer. I did not do that. There are also several things that you can participate in and they will add a little time. I only did this one. You picked the song—either Mamma Mia or Dancing Queen and then got on stage and sang and danced with the hologram. (The music was loud so no one can hear you) This is not my best look but I thought this was an interesting picture. Ha ha ha ha The museum opens at 10 o’clock and you are supposed to buy your tickets online. But I wasn’t the only one there who bought a ticket at the gift shop before we went out. $28 for adults and $25 for seniors. In one room they had a whole selection of the original costumes they wore. It’s so funny now to look at those. This famous photo of the group was taken on a bench right here in Dijurgarden. They suggest you go out and take your own picture of the same post.

Here are a few more random things I took a picture of. this is the antique car that is right beside the Promenade Café here are the steps leading down to the casino from the promenade this is the seating area by the sky bar i’ve never seen one of these water fountains on the ship before. It’s on deck 12 and it’s probably the only place you can get anything to drink on that deck

Here are several of the papers from the cabin. The first two are from the cruise compass this is the list of benefits for the diamond plus. this is one of the two sheets of benefits for the suite guests. I must’ve forgotten to take a picture of the other one I’ll get it for you later.

For those of you who have children here are a few pictures of the adventure ocean area. I took these before open so I wasn’t able to show any inside but I wouldn’t of been able to walk in these areas anyway.

The plan today is to take ferry # 80 to the Stop at Allmanna Gran [Djurgarden] to go to the Abba Museum. The museum is just across the parking lot from the ferry. You know traveling in a foreign country does not always go as planned. 😊 Rick Steves does not give The Abba Museum high marks, buts acknowledges that Abba fans love it. I have always liked Abba so we are going to give it a try.

Yes, the weather here in Stockholm has been glorious since we arrived. It looks like today will be nice, too. I am going to ask what the final number of guests is and post it tomorrow after we sail. However, it is a noticeably empty ship.

There is staff at the door 24 hours a day I’ve walked down there a couple times just to check to make sure before I posted that it was available. Actually last night when I walked down there they were crewmembers who were arriving with their luggage and they checked them in. So you should be good whatever time i’m so sorry you have such a stressful beginning to your cruise

It is an owner’s suite-1308

I’ll get pictures of those for you tomorrow. An hour or two and it will be bedtime for all of us here in Stockholm.

This is our suite . The balcony has Two chairs and table and one larger. It’s all very awkward. There is a metal area to one side of the balcony. He blocks the view. I’m not sure exactly how we can use that table and chairs and actually see out. But that’s OK we can use the two chairs

Here are some more pictures. this is the Rock wall Here is the Promenade This is the R bar. I had the best lemon rock martini there. They are going to become my friend. Here is the mini golf. There is a lot for families and children to do on the ship.

That’ll be at the end of the cruise but will be sure and include information.

The elevator right by the platform was broken.

Irene is our attendant. She seems very nice. We are in the Corsica suite. I never knew they were named 🤣

Welcome aboard Viking Crown lounge

We got to the terminal around 11:30 and boarded the ship around noon. I had to stop for luggage tags [for the upgrade] or it would have been faster. Our plan today was to take the bus and then the ferry to Frihammen. We did that—but, not quite as planned. We took the 10:09 bus to get to the ferry to arrive by my noon check in. At Nybroplan a ferry arrived just after we got there. I asked if it went to Frihammen and the attendant said yes. The sign over the door said Necka Strand, which is on the route and two stops before the pier. So, we boarded --but I asked again if this ferry went to Frihammen. He said yes again. After we sat down I noticed the itinerary board on the inside of the ferry ended at Necka Strand.😲 No worries. We got off there and boarded the next ferry that did go all the way to the pier. I guess he did give me a correct answer. You could get to the pier with that ferry, but that was not exactly how I planned it. [remember that plan B] HaHaHa One interesting note. On the second ferry we met Stuart Suss. He had been researching our cruise itinerary on my Baltic port thread. It was good to put a face to the cruise critic name.

This morning we are doing the "bag drag." There is a stop for bus 76 two blocks [uphill] from the hotel. We take the bus for two stops to Nybroplan and take the #80 ferry from there to the Frihammen port. It seems silly to get off the bus since it goes all the way to Frihammen in half the time. However the bus stops before the pier and it is a long walk dragging luggage to get to the terminal. The ferry stops directly next to the ship. Woo Hoo! We took the same bus and ferry combination yesterday to get to Djurgarden. So, we know what we are doing--or most of the time. When we get to Nybroplan the ferry stop is just across the street. Yesterday we had planned to take the same ferry back to Nybroplan and have a late lunch in one of the outdoor cafes there. It is a very scenic area. However, when we got to the ferry stop we realized they were on a lunch break until 2:08. Ugh! There are two ferries that operate out of this stop. The other goes directly back to Slussen, but has a ~.5 mile walk uphill across a bridge to get to the hotel. We made it 😀 Avoiding the walk was exactly the reason we had taken the bus/ferry combo yesterday. It was a last minute decision and I had not checked the return ferry times. I assumed they would run all day. Always a mistake. 😊

No worries. That is all you need. We took a cruise in March and I noticed that the people that had printed copies of things made the lines go faster. There were a few people that had to switch between the test results, their sea pass cards and some had their vaccine information on the phone. It took longer. We had an early check in and got through quickly. But, enough passengers took that extra couple of minutes and that slowed the line down and the ship was 1.5 hours late leaving because the line had really bogged down. We do not need to worry about that. The ship leaves tomorrow night and I feel the embarkation will be very spread out today. Congrats on the negative test!

After we finished the boat tour we walked back up the hill to the palace and caught the second half of the Changing of the Guard Ceremony. Here is a picture of the courtyard I took earlier in the day. Here it is during the ceremony. I was surprised they let people circle around so close to the front and behind the guards. You would need to get there very early for those spots. The whole process had started as a parade near Nybroplan--complete with the marching band. You can catch the parade anywhere on the route. They arrive at the palace at around 12:15 [Sunday 1:15]. Here is a picture of the band. You can see how far back we were. It was a huge crowd. Where I was it was 6 deep. After that we walked back to the pharmacy, got a written copy of our test results and took the T-bana back to the hotel.

Here is a picture of Embassy Row. And this blue gate is at the bridge entrance to Djurgaden. The crown used to charge people to visit the island. This amusement park is also on Djurgarden. The people were laughing and screaming today when we passed.

OK, the server seems to be working tonight so I will go back and post some pictures from the boat tour. There were lots of other boats of all sizes in the harbor and the canals. I thought they sometimes came pretty close to one another. You had 2 cruise lines: Viking and Mein Schiff. Then you had all the ferries going back and forth all day. There were also canal boats for "under the bridge" tours. There were even little zodiac boats. Look at these bare chested guys. It was a noce day, but not that warm. LOL Then there was this boat. It is permanently tied to a dock. It is a hostel. 😮 That would be an experience. Our guide said some of the boats you see along the side are being used as house boats. Getting a rental in the city involves years on a wait list. Or enough money to buy an apartment or house. She said a house was very expensive. Students get to have student housing at a reasonable price. edit: I am not sure why I can not edit out this second picture of this boats. I have tried twice. I am sure it is operator error. 🤪