Day 1: London
Today was our travel day and with our arrival at 6:30 am in London, it seemed - for the most part - like we had a full day here on board the Viking Neptune. Kim and I had our ride pick us up at 10 am and we were at Fort Lauderdale International airport by 10:30. The flight left on time and during the three hour flight to Newark I watched an excellent movie starring Russel Crow, "A Good Year." He inherited a farm & vineyard in Provence, France and ended up falling in love and moving there from his real job as a broker in London. Highly recommend.
We arrived in Newark at a little before 4pm, took the shuttle to the international terminal and had an hour before boarding began. Our flight left about 6:30 pm and within an hour and a half we were served a full meal for dinner. Lights went out and I slept for more than four hours of the remaining five and a half hours of the flight! Made the flight go rather quickly for me! Kim didn't sleep but she said it wasn't too bad for her.
We got through customs without any delay and our bags were among the first ones out. Left the baggage claim area and were immediately met by the Viking staff who escorted us to a waiting porter who took our bags and made sure they arrived in our stateroom onboard the Viking Neptune. The trip from London Heathrow airport to Greenwich where the ship was docked was nearly two hours and we both were in and out throughout the trip. Arrived and were escorted to the crypts below a palace built in the 1600's for coffee and pastries while we awaited our turn to board the ship. When we were escorted to the check-in we were immediately cleared (thanks to the Viking "Comfort Check-In" I'd completed last week online), and then boarded a small boat to ferry to the ship in the middle of the harbor. By now it was approaching noon and our rooms were not going to be ready until about 2pm. So we went immediately to the excursion desk and tried to get our final two excursions - we were wait listed on both (they'd been sold out online). As we were finishing my two Viking TV pals saw us and came over to greet us. It was meaningful for me because they sought us out and were genuinely happy and excited to see us. Kim and I headed upstairs to the World Café and had a light lunch outdoors on the Aquavit Terrace while we awaited our friends Pam & Bob Murray and Claudia & Gary Wanlin who were about to board (they both had flown to London a couple days early). The six of us enjoyed a glass of wine and chatted until our rooms were ready.
As we were finishing a Viking staff member found us and let us know our rooms were ready - and our luggage was waiting for us. I unpacked while Kim had a workout in the gym. When I turned on the TV in our stateroom and navigated to the "Viking TV" channel, what appeared on the screen?
YES - my first episode is right there for everyone to watch! She returned and unpacked while I did some work on these photos to post. We both got about a half an hour of rest before we showered and got ready for pre-dinner drinks with our friends at 5pm in the Explorer's Lounge on the top deck. At about 6pm we headed down to Deck 1 for our dinner with the Viking TV staff that had been set up by the head of the department, James and his right-hand woman, Ciara, in a private dining room at the specialty restaurant Manfredi's. We had THE most delightful time as all eleven of us had a steady flow of conversation. By about 8:30 we were all ready to turn in. Kim and I made arrangements to meet with James & Ciara tomorrow morning at 10am to start the filming. We talked about several different ideas for the program, all of which sound pretty cool....but the specifics we will wait and work out as we work through the episode as they want to capture what it's like for a guest to explore a Viking Oceans vessel - and they want me to tell some stories that are brought to mind from our Viking experiences! More photos and stories tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment