An Unexpected Day at Sea

 Saturday, September 13, 2024

We are once again having a Sea Day since our itinerary needed to be changed, due to storms on the East side of Iceland.

The morning view from our balcony on this sea day:

I guess it's an option to laze the day away on sea days - but you really don't do that. We did have a leisurely breakfast but then went to the 11:00AM lecture on Icy Worlds of the Solar System. This particular lecturer, Dr. Raymond Arvidson, is fascinating. He gets excited about his topics, always has a fun "pop quiz" at the end - he makes you want to be smarter. Because of this extra sea day he was able to add this chat about the solar system. It was fascinating.

We were going to head to lunch after that but folks sitting around us encouraged us to stay and be part of their trivia team. We did - and didn't do too bad - I think 15 out of 20. Then we went to lunch.

Also, this is when we got additional news from the captain that we would now not be going to Heimaey in the Westman Islands (on the southern area of Iceland). It seems the storm was now moving into that area with very rough seas. Since we would anchor out and be tendered in, this was not a good idea. Pronunciation for Heimay (hey-my). So now we will have two full days in Rejkavik.

Meanwhile they were hosting a Blue Nose ceremony as we crossed the Arctic Circle. They did this on our Norway cruise - it involves them filling the hot tub near the indoor pool with ICE and you must climb in, completely, and then take a shot of Aquivet. No Thanks! We got our certificate anyway for crossing the arctic circle.

Later in the day we listened to the port talk for Rejkavik. They were working on setting up excursions for our extra days in port. We had been credited for all the excursions we did not take. 

We did start checking the weather for the beginning of the week - mainly Monday - when we planned to do a whale watching trip on our own before heading to the airport. Weather didn't look good; however, we were able to switch that trip to Sunday afternoon. I booked it through the company, Get Your Guide - very easy to work with this company through an app on your phone. More on whale watching in another blog.

Think it was time for drinks and dinner - it comes around fast. Here's a picture of just one of the amazing desserts you can get - it's hard to say no, but we did a few nights.

Then we planned to attend the show that evening: The Viking Start Variety Performance. It was fantastic. The talent on this ship from the musicians to the singers, to the dancers - I was very impressed. I may have said this before, but one of the entertainers (a piano player who worked with a violinist all week) has taken up the "Nose Flute" - it is amazing and hysterical. He is from Bulgaria and is so quiet and composed and then he takes out this nose flute and it's just so funny; yet really good.

I did take a short video of him playing it again at this variety show - I hope it's viewable...

I may have mentioned earlier that the cruise director was quite an entertainer, having played on the West End in London at one point. He was involved with this show as well - one of the gigs was the "Jersey Boys" along with 3 other singers on the ship. It was just incredible - you would have through you were at the Broadway show. 

His name is Damian Sollesse. I had looked him up but need to read about him further - he certainly has endless energy. Being the cruise director is a very busy job. (if you look him up and see some pictures of this crazy person with long hair - he doesn't look like that anymore - very clean cut and about 47 years of age).

And of course, in a separate blog, I told you about us seeing the Northerns Lights again this Friday evening - out on deck.

Tomorrow we signed up for a new included tour - a 2 hour tour of Rejkavik.

Betsy