Monday

20 December 2021

 

Up early to re-pack as we have a car service coming at 11:00 am to bring us to the Viking Orion docked in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles -- I’m on a roll with car services.

 

We have not been enamored with this Hyatt Hotel.  Instead of a restaurant there is something called The Market offering coffee (which is terrible), pastries and  sandwiches (pre-made cooked in the microwave), and various juices and alcoholic drinks in a can.   There is a bar but it’s not open very often.  This is not the Hyatt I remember.   I guess COVID has taken its toll.

 

Our driver, Daniel, arrived at 11:00 am for the short ride to San Pedro.  The first area he took us had two ships -- neither one was the Viking Orion.  The Viking Orion was docked a bit farther away at Berth 46.   Phil and I have never taken a ship from  Los Angeles so our amazement  at the size of this port was showing as we gawked at the number of containers on both sides of the bridge taking us to San Pedro.   How do they keep track of them all?

 

The nice thing about looking for a ship is that it is visible from afar so we found the Viking Orion without too much trouble.   We entered a large vacant parking lot with two tents in front of the ship.   We dropped the luggage at one tent and we walked into the other tent.   The boarding process was simpler than in years past without COVID.   First: we showed our vaccination cards and our negative test results;  Second:  we had our photos taken and an imprint of a credit card, then we were given our keycards and off we went to board the ship.  There was no waiting -- mainly because there were no people.

 

Once on board we were taken to our muster station and given a safety demonstration with a small group.   Then someone accompanied us to the elevator and we headed to our cabin.  Just as we arrived so did our luggage.  In days past one could wait hours for the luggage to be delivered.    

 

Clearly this was not a full ship.  The crew member conducting the safety demo told me there were 400 passengers onboard.   Later, Mira, at Guest Services said there were 340 passengers. The ship’s passenger capacity is 900.   

 

At our stateroom we met our stewardess, Rose, who explained the workings of the cabin and said that she and her colleague, Martin would be taking care of us.  And, most importantly, explained that every day we would be tested in the morning by spitting in a tube which she would be collect.  She gave us each a tube to test immediately -- she came back in ten minutes for our samples.

 

We spent the afternoon exploring the ship and unpacking.  We have been on two other Viking Ocean vessels and since they are all identical, we are somewhat familiar with the layout.  It is a lovely ship with lots of places to go to read or chat or play games.  There are four dining venues for major meals but lots of other places to have coffee, a snack, etc.

 

 

Gingerboard Village onboard Viking Orion!

 

 We picked up a couple of books for Phil in the library,  we confirmed dining reservations and got settled.

 

We had lunch in the World Café (buffet) and dinner in the main Dining Room -- both were excellent.

 

Most importantly, we are impressed with the way Viking is handling the Pandemic and how pleasant and efficient all crew members are.  

 

Our first three days are at sea until Christmas Eve where our first port is La Paz, Mexico.  We are scheduled on the overview excursion --

 

I’ll let you know how that goes --

 

Thanks for Reading and stay safe.

 

Pat