Anchors’ Away!

Day 1

2022/2023 Viking Neptune World Cruise

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We were so excited last night to think that 25 months of waiting for our World Cruise to being was finally coming to fruition!

Last night as we were walking home after dinner, Richard found a shoe repair store and a place to get a pedicure, so while I was re-packing all of our suitcases with the toiletries we purchased from CVS this morning, Richard got some last minute things taken care of. It was very nice not to rush this morning with an 11am checkout, and only a 15 minute drive to the cruise port.

Our very large room and more packing nightmares!

We got all of that luggage down to the lobby as we awaited our Suburban Lyft to get us to the cruise terminal in Ft. Lauderdale.

We were so excited to finally glimpse the Viking Neptune in the port in Ft. Lauderdale.

And there she is! The brand, spanking new, Viking Neptune fresh off her first transatlantic cruise to Ft. Lauderdale.

A better view of the full Viking Neptune. Our ship only holds 930 passengers, so the ship was quite a bit smaller than some of the other cruise ships in port today. It was a beautiful 86F today when we boarded.

Luckily there were baggage handlers who immediately took about 4 of our bags from us for the cost of a small gratuity. The bags were labelled with our cabin number to arrive shortly in our cabin.

We beat the crowds today arriving at the cruise terminal around 11:45am this morning.

I have never cruised before, so I was not sure what to expect in terms of the check in process. Luckily it was pretty seamless and we were processed in about 3 minutes from start to finish and had our cabin keys, boarding pass and first excursion tickets.

A really easy check in process today.

The ship was undergoing an inspection by the U.S. Coast Guard so as a result, no one was allowed to board until the Coast Guard had cleared the ship for boarding. We waited with a lot of anxious people who just wanted to board the ship.

Finally the announcement was made that boarding would commence with Group 1. We had to wait until our boarding group was called.

We ended up boarding the Viking Neptune around 1pm.

A very festive helper to make sure we boarded the Viking Neptune.

Walking the ‘gang plank’ onto the Viking Neptune, where we immediately were directed to our muster station to learn how to put on our life jackets.

We were surprised that as soon as we went through the life jacket demonstration, we could go to our stateroom. My first impression of our stateroom was “How on earth are we going to live in this small space for the next 5 months!”

Shortly after we had arrived in our cabin, our luggage arrived! It was perfect timing for me to start the unpacking process, since I had packed everything, I knew where I wanted to put everything, to keep the cabin neat and tidy.

Before the luggage arrived.

Unpacking from hell….

We decided to go for lunch after getting most of the cabin organized. We were both starving and it was a nice day to go to the pool grill for a quick burger, fries, and salad bar.

Pool deck. The roof retracts.

The giant outdoor screen at the pool deck to watch movies. The pool grill and bar is to the right of the screen.

After lunch we did some outdoor exploring of the Viking Neptune.

Stern of the ship with the infinity pool and hot tub.

Deck 9 mini putt. I am going to bring my own putter to practise.

I think it will be difficult to get the right read on the greens as the ship lists from side to side!

We played a rousing game of shuffleboard. 1-0 for Ruth.

Richard was getting his bearings on the sports deck.

And he found a cozy spot to sit before we sailed away.

A lovely place to eat called the Aquavit Terrace, located outside the World Cafe (buffet restaurant).

Deck 4 leading to our Deluxe Veranda Suite.

I finished putting all of our stuff away just before 5pm because we wanted to head up to deck 8 for the sail away from the cruise terminal. We kept waiting and waiting and finally about 6pm we started the sail away. With the many storms across Canada and the USA this week, there were many flight delays and since we have a day at sea tomorrow, leaving 1 hour late won’t impact us at all.

Sunset from the Viking Neptune this evening.

We had a quick dinner in the World Cafe this evening which was a change of plans for us, but more on that another day. After dinner, we went to The Neptune Theater to watch “A Love Song” starring Dale Dickey and Wes Studi. The film premiered in 2022 at the Sundance Film Festival and was a nice, slow moving movie to enjoy with an adult beverage and some popcorn.

After the movie we headed over to the Atrium and the living room where the pastry chefs were proudly setting up their homemade gingerbread houses.

The Atrium with the beautiful Christmas trees and the gingerbread houses set up behind the grand piano.

All sorts of different takes on a gingerbread house.

The very proud pastry chefs with their beautiful, and creative gingerbread houses.

What a long first day on the Viking Neptune! We still are trying to figure out our way around the ship. I know after a few days it will probably be second nature, but right now we have to keep checking the electronic displays by the stairs and elevators to know should we be going up, or down to our destination!

Tomorrow we have room service breakfast coming! What a treat to be able to relax, enjoy a day at sea and be served breakfast in our cabin. I can’t wait to try the homemade croissants that I’ve ordered for us! Mmmmm. But first….I will be hitting the gym!

Anchors away….and now the real adventure begins. 137 more days of adventures!