For all the negative things there are to say about Facebook – and there are many – it has been a wonderful resource for our nomadic lifestyle.

Our kids and grandkids would say it’s become a place for old folks; they’ve all migrated to Instagram and Snapchat.

We oldsters, on the other hand, cling to the easy and familiar, and – despite our frustration with having to wade through the massive amount of advertising content that funds the program and lines Mark Zuckerberg’s pockets – are still on the platform.

In addition to staying in touch with friends and family via both Facebook posts and Facebook Messenger, I use Facebook – cautiously – for travel advice, using several groups. It’s definitely NOT the place to get medical advice (that would be an actual doctor), or visa/passport/Schengen rules (that would be official government websites and consulates), but it’s great for aggregating travel photos, blogs, and real-life experiences, finding honest accommodation reviews and connecting with fellow travellers around the world. When you find a group that is genuinely helpful, active, and carefully administered to keep out fake accounts and on-line nastiness (like “Senior Nomads”), it’s a real joy.

Anyone with the desire can create a Facebook group or page, but it is time-consuming and actual work to maintain it so that it stays relevant and useful.

Here’s where our fellow passenger (and hopefully new friend) Andrea Stone comes in. In October 2023, more than a year before the first leg of this world cruise would sail from Fort Lauderdale, she created a private Facebook group aimed at connecting the 930 potential passengers on this journey. As those of us booked on the cruise began to search for Viking cruise groups, hers started to grow organically. Eventually about half of the world cruise passengers had connected in this forum, posting photos, asking questions, sharing advice, and just generally getting to know each other.

A few “star” contributors started to emerge, including Barb who shared Andrea’s Herculean (or perhaps more gender-appropriately “Amazonian”) task of administering the group, and Don Winter (back to the Herculean analogy) who came up with a unique idea: a private World Cruise Directory.

Whether Don, who always seems to have at least 99 irons in the fire at one time, just needed an even 100 projects, or whether when he gets a good idea just can’t help following through, he began collecting names of people who had joined Andrea’s group and adding to those the names of people in other Viking groups who were referencing the 24/25 World Cruise.

Don began with Andrea and Allan, and eventually fellow passengers Barb, Judi, and I were pulled into the project and given roles, the names of which tended to change at Don’s whim, as you can see from the two pages below. Don jokes that my role was to be the “voice of reason” when things got too ambitious (or too silly). There’s a first time for everything, I guess!

---

---

In the months following Don’s brainwave and preceding our departure from Fort Lauderdale, over 400 world cruise passengers had agreed to confidentially share their home town and contact information, which would ONLY be distributed by direct email, and never revealed on Facebook or via any other public medium.

The result? People who discovered fellow passengers living near them got together before the cruise. New friends were made. Interests were shared. Barb began creating lists of folks with hobbies and experiences in common, and book clubs, knitting groups, card games, and more were planned.

Don got even more ambitious and started a photo directory to supplement the files. That part of the project pulled Ted in, and he spent many happy hours puzzling through mail merge functions as he and Don “bonded”. (Miss Kate and I may come to regret the closer connection of two men with slightly warped senses of humour.)

The result of that side project meant that for those of us who had chosen to submit a photo, we now instantly recognized each other on the ship! That we’d be able to connect a name to each face might be a bit much to ask for our age group, but still…

When everyone realized how truly amazing this electronic directory was going to be, Don had one more embellishment in mind: a “cover”. To that end, he contacted fellow passenger (and fellow 21/22 World Cruise alumnus) Iok-Hou Pang – a multi-award winning water-colourist – to create a design for us. Below is the incredible result!

---

Iok-Hou’s original piece of art will be auctioned off to World Cruise passengers, with the proceeds going to the Viking Sky crew, who make every day on board an amazing experience.

And THAT is how the unimaginable legendary Viking Sky 24/25 Passenger Directory came to be!

So far, 6 editions have been “published”, with a 7th coming out soon and the 8th and final version set for London England in May, as the lucky New York City cohort continue on without us for another 7 weeks.

The Directory Team and spouses got together for a wonderful dinner last night to celebrate their achievements. Speeches were made, awards were given, memories were shared, and laughs were abundant.

---

---

Andrea, the “Mother of Dragons” was presented with an award designed by Allan, and featuring an engraving of Iok-Hou’s beautiful watercolour directory cover. Jim Medalie was Andrea’s equivalent social media organizer on the 21/22 cruise.

---

---

---

Aside: with the exception of our “host” (“Mother of Dragons”) Andrea, everyone involved in this project was a 21/22 Viking Star World Cruise passenger. We’ve always maintained that there was something special about that half-capacity much-rerouted post-Covid cruise that could never be duplicated. Clearly, we’re all going to try.