Home in Nevada, tired and jet lagged ... I've been up and dressed for 27 hours, got a little sleep along the way but, honestly, not much. The alarm went off in Oslo at 3 a.m. and we left for the airport at 4 a.m. Oslo's airport isn't at all near the city center where our hotel was, our driver estimated the distance as 49 kilometers, which is 30 miles but it seemed longer.
The flight from Oslo to Heathrow was bearable, as we were in first class and had a row of 3 seats between the two of us. The knee room was execrable, the breakfast was blah, and there was no entertainment. At Heathrow the club room for business class pax was good, if quite busy.
The British Air flight from Heathrow to Las Vegas was direct, lasted ca. 9 hours, and the movie selection leaned heavily on Disney and Paramount - not much to love. I did rewatch the Second Dune film made by Villeneuve and will have more to say about it in a separate post.
The plane was too cold, I spent the time wrapped in a blanket from chin to toes. The food was indifferent, Brits not known for their culinary skills. The entertainment package had many films and TV shows with no English subtitles. Then the drive home, done by a professional, took probably 90 minutes but we're finally home.
Looking back how do I rate the cruise? Viking does good food, we had lobster twice, prime rib once, steak any night we didn't like the four entrees: one regional, one fish, one meat, and one vegetarian.
Their ice cream 'vendor' carried gelato and sorbet, their cookies were good. The entertainment wasn't outstanding but was pleasant enough.
Their onscreen stateroom entertainment package was excellent. We watched 2-3 films, Fox News when we wanted to, and it was good. Their wifi worked very well for our purposes.
We both said Scandinavian furniture didn't often fit our bodies, The other DrC is convinced Viking beds are terrible, a view I don't share. The crew were multicultural, but uniformly cheerful and nice.
We had one day of rough seas, the rest were darned smooth sailing. So ... not a bad trip, once we arrived there and got going. Getting there and getting home were long, tiring, and intermittently a hassle.
I’m not certain the cruise game is still worth the pain and disorientation involved in intercontinental travel. Maybe it is time to get realistic about sticking somewhat closer to home.
