Hotel General Manager Ronald Schweighardt occasionally offers below decks tours on sea days, so Ted and I signed up a few days ago for the “onboard excursion”.

But first, breakfast of champions: one of Tabeth’s lovely creamy lattes and a Linzer wreath – the delicious walnut, cinnamon, clove and apricot flavours of a Linzertorte in a cookie.

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I went looking for the scale in the fitness centre this morning. It’s probably telling that I wasn’t looking for – or at – all the equipment, nor joining Ted on his morning 12 lap/3 mile fast walk. At any rate, using the scale on a sea day is interesting, since the electronics register the ocean’s movement, resulting in a fluctuating number within about a 5 pound range. Since that’s “close enough”, I at least got a baseline range to maintain over our 138 days on board. I may try again – if I remember – on a port day when the ship is stationary.

While sitting in the atrium with my book, I got the chance for a lovely long conversation with Ernie and Helene, and made arrangements to meet again over dinner so that they could also meet Ted.

Unfortunately, when it was time for our below decks tour, Ted was incapacitated by a nasty migraine, so I had to do it on my own – and take my own photos.

Ronald began our introduction to areas normally only accessed by crew by telling us that there are 465 crew on the Viking Sky, of which 401 report to him in the hotel department, and the other 64 report to the Captain and Chief Engineer.  

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For a ship with a maximum of just over 900 passengers, that’s an astonishing crew:passenger ratio that explains a lot about how pampered we feel on board.

We began our actual tour by cutting through The Chef’s Table into the kitchen galley. This part of the galley was relatively quiet, since The Chef’s Table only opens for dinner. We could see from the screens on the wall that tonight they are prepping their  5-course tasting menu for 64 guests.

In total there are 100 cooks working to feed passengers with the incredible range of tastes that tempt us daily, in contrast to just 10 that cook for the crew mess. It was interesting to know that the CDC ratings of cruise ships are mostly based on food prep areas. The CDC randomly inspects and scores cruise ships to prevent the spread of stomach viruses. (CDC Cruise Ship Ratings)The average score of vessels in 2024 was 95.9 out of 100. 85 or less is considered failing. It doesn’t take much to lose points; food found stored at the incorrect temperature, or left out for more than 4 hours after preparation, can cost 5 points. That’s why the World Cafe has red, yellow, and green dots on their display trays tracking how many hours food has been  out. 

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After 4 hours food must be discarded.  On most modern cruise-ships, including all of Viking’s, that food gets finely pulped to become fish food, which is allowed to be released in specific places and at specific water depths. All meat and fish bones are crushed separately. Metal detectors used to ensure no cutlery goes into the food pulper. 

Glass bottles are crushed finely and recycled in specific ports that have the needed facilities; plastic is recycled although there is a backup process for burning it.

The galleys are all stainless steel, which ensures no mold and no bacteria. Additionally, all surfaces get sanitized with 200ppm chlorine, in cold water since hot would vaporize some of the chlorine and affect the concentration of the cleaning solution. Steam vapour is also sometimes used, but no “wiping”, which can spread germs. 

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Ronald did have a couple of stories about “pest” infestations during his decades long career.  In both cases, the culprits were crickets – once in Saudi Arabia and once in Australia. Neither involved the crickets getting into those ships’ galleys, but the chirping was detected in the walls! In both cases, the problem was quickly solved. Ronald explained that the risk point for pests getting onto a ship is almost always during provisioning, which is why barriers are placed on the mooring ropes to prevent rodents from climbing on board.

He also shared a story of how in Cabo San Lucas in 2023 a sea lion jumped “into” the ship during tender operations, and had to be lured out with fish – but then enjoyed its new food source so much that it didn’t want to leave. Before finally being left behind that sea lion ate 18 pounds of salmon, generating a “Gordon Ramsey moment” from the chef! Later in the day Ronald showed me the video. Hilarious!!

Next came the provisioning area, where all the things we see loaded on board in port are stored: from fresh and frozen food in giant walk-in refrigerators and freezers to non-perishable food items to liquor to dish-ware to toilet paper.

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The ship does bring bottled water on board, but in an effort to use less plastic it is only to be handed out for excursions and provided in small quantities on the deck 2 jogging track. The ship produces their own potable water in an on-board desalination plant and reverse osmosis purification, and delivers 1 litre carafes of fresh water to each stateroom twice daily. 

If the ship runs out of something before a scheduled provisioning port, or a shipment goes wrong, they buy locally. Beverage manager Andrej once spent 40K USD on liquor at a Costco in Los Angeles because the scheduled shipment didn’t arrive, but at the checkout realized he didn’t have a Costco card!!! Luckily the truck driver had a Costco card – and got all the bonus points! Lesson learned. Viking now has corporate cards. 

Ronald quipped  that there are some exceptions to buying local, for instance: don’t load tons of flour in Colombia! (Customs security can be a nightmare.)

On a prior cruise we also toured the galley (Episode 206 )but didn’t get to the laundry room, so this time I was excited to see those operations. 

We headed down the long corridor nicknamed the “I-95” because it stretches from one end of the to the other.

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The linens’ laundry is hot and humid, everything being washed at temperatures that sanitize and would definitely shrink and ruin delicate fabrics.

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That’s why there is a separate laundry for passengers’ clothes and crew uniforms.  Crew has their own self-serve laundry for personal items. 

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The “magic machine” that takes the freshly washed but soaking wet king-sized sheets and dries, presses, and folds them was the envy of all – until Ronald mentioned that it costs about $2million USD. 

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Further down the I-95 (and able to feel the vibrations from the 4 engine blocks below us) we got a glimpse into the ECR (Engine Control Room), where taking photos is prohibited. 

This engine control room is a backup up to the one upstairs behind the bridge.  Both are manned 24/7, in 4-hour shifts which are the maximum for technical and engineering. 

We learned that there are 20,000 sensors on the ship, each capable of alerting the. ECR of a potential problem. Cameras monitor the engine rooms and secured areas, but Norwegian law specifies that video can only be watched live and not in replay. Ronald did say that video footage would be turned over to police if required. 

This seemed like a good time for Ronald to talk a bit about the crew.

Every Viking crew member has a safety duty on the ship, and must have full STCW certification (Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping),which includes personal survival technique, fire prevention and fire fighting, first aid, personal safety and social responsibilities, crowd management, and security awareness). In addition, a weekly safety drill is required by maritime law.

Fire is the greatest hazard for a ship.  Viking has 4 fire teams on board.  

Additionally , everything on board – including paint – must be fire resistant and designed not to release toxins. The two highest risk areas are the engine room, due to heat, and the laundry, due to flammable lint. 

Crew works 10 hours per day 7 days per week, which is a gruelling schedule.  In order to keep them happy, Viking arranges crew parties, crew appreciation events, tournaments, video games, etc. There is a “crew bar”, but within strict limits. Officers and engine crew may not consume any alcohol at all; all other crew may drink to a maximum 0.05% blood alcohol level. Viking are clearly not “party ships” for passengers or crew.

We found out that  crew are members of the Norwegian Seafarers Union and have access to an escalating assistance process from HR to the captain to the union. Crew are almost never “fired”, although they may not all be rehired to subsequent contracts. Instead of disciplining or firing staff, there is a performance improvement plan (PIP) intended to help them retain their jobs. And no, there is no “brig” (jail) on the ship, although (completely unrelated to this tour) there is a morgue.

Viking has an almost 96% crew retention/contract repetition rate, so their hiring and  training processes, and treatment of their staff, clearly work!

To end the tour we returned back up to deck 1 and the area behind Guest Services which houses offices for the IT staff, HR, pursers, the Assistant Cruise Director, and the Shore Excursions Department.

Shore Excursions is where most of the problems occur on any cruise, because so much of what happens off the ship is out of Viking control: buses, tour guide language levels, changes in local political situations, weather conditions, etc. On board, there always seems to be a quick response to any concern.

This was a very different tour to what we’d done before, and VERY interesting. A rainy afternoon here in the Pacific, being accompanied by several soaring and diving brown-footed boobies, made for lots of quiet time to turn the notes I took on the tour into a proper diary entry.

At 4:30 p.m., even though we’ve been to Puntarenas Costa Rica before, I headed to the theatre for Cruise Director Matt and Shore Excursion Manager Chantelle’s port talk. There’s always useful information that helps prepare us for our time in port.

Ted was not feeling any better by dinnertime, which meant that plans to have dinner with Helene and Ernie fell through. Instead I brought him a couple of slices of pizza from the World Café, and then I returned there to have sushi, a Pisco Sour, and a scoop of chocolate gelato.

The evening’s Star Theater entertainment was guest entertainer Carl Wishneusky, who we last saw in February of 2022 on our first Viking World Cruise. His piano stylings presenting an updated Great American Songbook are especially fun because in addition to his piano playing being stellar, he clearly enjoys performing. His finale was an incredibly emotionally nuanced unabridged Rhapsody In Blue, but my favourite piece was his encore: Edvard Grieg’s Opus 35 for Four Hands, performed with Enrico, with both Carl and Enrico exuding absolute joy.

A low key day in Puntarenas Costa Rica is in the cards tomorrow.