February 3, 2022. 61°F/16°C

#myvikingstory

The advantage to huge cruise ships is that their sheer size mitigates some of the motion from waves and swells in the ocean. We love the smaller Viking ships for their ambience and lack of crowds (we’re really not interested in travelling with 2000+ passengers), but … even in slightly rough seas the ship definitely rolls and sways.

Today’s 10 feet/3m of sea swells are what Captain Olaf calls “smooth” and my head and stomach call “nope”. To put it in perspective, line dancing classes were cancelled today “for the safety of passengers”, so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Our Cruise Director Aaron’s mantra is “keep it low and wide”, referring to the kind of sailor’s’ walk needed to stay securely balanced. Sometimes I think he just likes to watch the passengers waddle around the ship like casually dressed penguins, although watching our captain stroll the deck the other day I did notice a real “roll” to his stride, so maybe there’s something in Aaron’s advice.

The movement of our ship made me both dizzy and nauseous, despite sea bands on both wrists and an early morning Gravol. There was a special Italian-themed brunch laid on today (which Ted, unaffected by the ship’s motion, was able to fully enjoy), but no amount of wonderfully prepared food could tempt me to eat more than a Granny Smith apple; no amount of carefully selected wine could entice me beyond ginger ale or tea. Luckily, room service efficiently delivers both apples and tea!

By early afternoon, not even my morning apple having stayed with me, I was SOOOO hungry! Ted asked the restaurant supervisor if they could send me a small plate of cold items from today’s brunch. What room service delivered was a feast: fresh buffalo mozzarella, cool melon, sweet tomato wedges, salty olives and prosciutto, and TWO baskets with a selection of Italian breads. It was thoroughly enjoyable, although way too much for one person.

My goal was to be on my feet, makeup applied, and dressed by dinner time in order to enjoy tonight’s curry theme – one of my very favourite spice combinations.

In the interim, lots of hot tea and a good book: Dressed for Death, #3 in Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series set in Venice. I wonder if bingeing these books on this cruise will make me wary of Venice in the way that watching CSI:LasVegas made me rethink the advisability of our visits to that city. Honestly, though, nowhere could be as dangerous as those cute little English villages depicted in Midsomer Murders!

Success! I was sufficiently “balanced” to make it to dinner, which was a vast selection of Indian dishes. Ted and I enjoyed warm parathas, basmati rice, and beef vindaloo, and then we both had cooked-to-order spicy vegetable kahti wraps with mint chutney, plus I tried the goat biryani and dal makhani (Punjabi black lentils cooked in cream and spices) while Ted had a slice of tandoori lamb. With the exception of the kahti (top photo below) nothing was nearly as spicy as we’ve become used to from Indian takeout food in Ontario, but everything was tasty. We finished with a trio of desserts: rice Kheer with slivered almonds and dried fruits (bottom left), sweet carrot halva (bottom right), and freshly made jalebi (not pictured).

Yup, stomach pretty much back to normal.

Tonight’s entertainment was a solo performance by our Assistant Cruise Director Damian Sollesse, an incredibly talented singer and musical theatre actor, backed by our own outstanding Viking Band. Damian’s voice is a knock-out reprising the role of Franki Valli in Jersey Boys (and dancing the entire time!), singing both Javert’s Stars and Jean Valjean’s Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, and performing The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin in Italian…. but my favourite number of the evening was Too Much Heaven on Their Minds from Jesus Christ Superstar. Just WOW!!!