Christmas Decoration in the Atrium


Merry Christmas

Weather high in the low 80s with some rain showers. ​

There are many things to do on sea days. If you relax too much, you forget to do them. Besides reading, eating and playing Rummikubs, we went to several lectures. I passed the point where I kept following asleep in the middle of lectures and actually paid attention and got some value from them. On the 24th, Ellen and I went to a cooking demonstration by executive chef Pierpaolo Fadda who, along with his assistant, entertained us by explaining some Italian cooking techniques. Resident historian Dr Anna Kouremenos read her paper about the history of the Amazon. There was a lot of information in her talk but her presentation was pretty dull. On the 25th, Ann and I went to a lecture with Dr Sherry Hutt on "The Amazon - Theodore Roosevelt's River of Doubt". Her lecture was very animated and fun. We must have gone to other events but I cannot recall them. ​

The evening of the 24th was special. The Viking Sea Entertainers welcomed us home for the holidays in the Atrium by singing some of their favorite Christmas songs. (See the video below). We reserved our table for six at the Chef's Table. They had a Venice theme tonight with their course and wine presentations. We thoroughly enjoyed. Afterwards we went to the Atrium where the crew had set up a chocolate. Because we had just finished dinner, the thought of eating anything more was not good although the buffet was elegant. We eventually found our way up to the second deck on the balcony overlooking the Living Room and joined with the crew and the other passengers in singing Christmas carols. It was a fun evening that we will never forget.

This Christmas morning, we crossed the equator at 7:00 AM. We also crossed into the Amazon River and had a "technical stop" so that Brazil immigration could check our paperwork and allow us to continue up the river. It was a very quiet day. This allowed us to watch the facinating countryside roll by. We had an excellent dinner in The Restaurant seated at our special table for six. Service was getting much better.