Aug 20

Aug 20 Day 1 - Embarkation in Hamilton, Bermuda

THE FLIGHT TO BERMUDA

My first Viking Ocean cruise in nearly three years starts off with a very stressful flight from DFW to Charlotte, NC. After only three hours of sleep, I am up at 2am to finish getting packed. My driver picks me up at 2:45am for the drive to the airport. When we arrived at the DFW airport, I was surprised at how many people were in line to check-in for flights at 3:00am. My flight is scheduled to depart at 5am. Operative word: scheduled.

I only checked one small roll-aboard bag on this flight and was charged $30 for the privilege. It’s the first time I have ever had to pay to check luggage. I showed the agent my Executive AAdvantage CitiBank Mastercard (which is supposed to always provide one checked bag free), and was told that it only applied to domestic flights.

We boarded the plane on time by 4:30am. At 5am, the cabin doors are closed and the Captain tells us that our plane was originally scheduled for a flight to San Francisco and when it was serviced last night, they put too much fuel on board and some of the fuel would need to be removed. Okay, here we go.

I am not going to bore you with all of the details, but we did not take off until 6:30am. At that point, everyone on the plane is wondering if they are going to make their connecting flights in Charlotte, myself included. Now, the good news is that I did make the connecting flight. The bad news is, I had to stress about it for five hours. We got to Charlotte about ten minutes before my flight to Bermuda was scheduled to begin boarding. And, by some miracle, our flight from DFW parked at gate D2 and my flight to Bermuda was at gate D4.

Because of the tight connection, I did not have time to get anything to eat in Charlotte, so I have not eaten since lunch yesterday. This is American Airlines and, currently, you get virtually nothing to eat on any flight. On the flight to Bermuda, they did give us a Biscoff cookie and a Diet Dr. Pepper. That will have to hold me until dinner onboard Viking Orion.

EMBARKATION IN HAMILTON, BERMUDA

Our flight landed on time and, in spite of all of the paperwork and Covid testing required by Bermuda prior to the flight, getting through immigration was pretty smooth. They had workers every few feet to collect various forms. Even after going tthrough the process of getting the Bermuda travel authorization form before the trip, I still had to fill out two more forms on the airplane!

After collecting checked luggage, everyone had to get in line to get a Covid-19 PCR test administered by the Bermuda government. This was not the gentle, front of the nose swab. This was the medieval, go deep, almost to your brain, swab. It will bring tears to your eyes for sure.

Once that was out of the way, I exited the airport and boarded one of the small shuttle vans for the ride to the ship. The drive took about 30 minutes, and our driver was a good tour guide along the way. The ship is docked on Front Street in Hamilton.

Shuttles transfer us from the airport to the ship

Once the shuttle pulled up next to Viking Orion, I think everyone felt a sense of relief that the hard part of the trip was over and the fun and relaxation was about to begin. Everyone enters the terminal building on a red carpet.

Once inside the terminal, our photos are taken and we are given our contact tracing devices. The small round plastic disc can be worn around the neck, or placed in your pocket, but you must keep them on your person for the entire cruise.

After exiting the terminal, it is time to board Viking Orion.

Once onboard, we were escorted to the Star Theater where we were briefly greeted by Cruise Director, Brian Rodriguez, at the entrance to the theater. A small group of us were seated and a crew member gave us a short demonstration on how to put on the life vests. Viking does not place life vests in the staterooms. They are kept at muster stations, which really makes more sense. Instead of having to go back to your stateroom to get your life vest should the need arise, no matter where you are on the ship you just go to your muster station and they will provide you with a vest.

After the demonstration, we are escorted to our staterooms. I am in 6015, a , Penthouse Veranda. The stateroom is very spacious and I cannot wait to explore all of the features. However, my stateroom attendant, Jerrick, arrives shortly thereafter and told me some of the features of the Penthouse Veranda.

Jerrick pointed out the Covid testing tubes in the stateroom for the daily saliva tests, one of which needed to be completed within the next 15 minutes. He also explained that I needed to watch the safety video on the stateroom television, which I did. At the end of the video, you must click OK on the TV remote indicating that you watched the video. The life vest demo plus this video replaces the traditional muster drill and it is a welcome change.

After watching the video, I took a quick look at my balcony, which overlooks Front Street in Hamilton. The balcony is not too deep, but is very wide and should be a nice place to spend some time while at sea.

It is 6:00 in the evening and I have not had anything to eat (notwithstanding the Biscoff on American Airlines) since 11am yesterday. I am hungry! Even though I have dinner reservations at The Restaurant this evening, I feel compelled to take a quick pre-dinner snack at World Cafe on Deck 7 aft. This ship has a new stir-fry station at the back of the buffet line and I could not resist the turkey stir-fry. It was very good!

I showed up early for my dinner reservation at The Restaurant on Deck 2 aft. I ordered the White Bean Soup, which was delicious and the filet. The filet was cooked perfectly to order and was very tender. It was served atop white beans. A side of creamed spinach complemented the steak well. A glass of Fronterra Cabernet from Chile was the perfect wine. This was an excellent first (or second) meal aboard Viking Orion.

After dinner, I am exhausted and head straight for my stateroom for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow evening, Viking Orion departs Hamilton for Kings Wharf, Bermuda.