Budapest To Bucharest 2014
May 9 - Boarding The Viking Rinda
We spent the morning killing time until we could board our ship. Coffee and cake were the order of business at Cafe Anna. We caught the bus from our hotel to the ship at 1:30 and discovered that the ship was docked two blocks away from the hotel. We could have walked. Once on the ship, we had a "light" buffet lunch of sandwiches and salads. We got into our very nice stateroom after lunch.
The Viking Rinda is a new ship so our stateroom has all of the convenient features built in. One of the things that I really like are the doors, drawers and toilet seats that close slowly and do not slam. No cursing our neighbors in the middle of the night. We have a king sized bed and a veranda with a door that we can open for ventilation. We do not have to use the air conditioning.
We had a reception at 6:00 where the captain and main crew members were introduced. The welcome toast was champagne. An orientation talk came next and then it was time for dinner. We ate with a couple from Park City/Ft Lauderdale and another from the Canadian Rockies. Canadian Philippe was a touring cyclist in his past so we had a lot to talk about. He had a French accent so I had trouble understanding some of the things he said. The dinner was good. Ann had Chateaubriand with a real nice bernaisse sauce. I had a light lobster salad and prawns. Wine flowed freely.
Entertainment was a folk group which played, sang and danced. We did not last very long.