January 17, 2026

Weather mostly sunny 70’s – 80’s

Seas – mild, swells at 1.8 meters

Good morning! We have a sea day and that means we can do as much or as little as we want. There are opportunities to engage, like line dancing, BYOC (bring your own craft), lectures and more.  And there are many opportunities to eat as well.  We refer to the Viking Daily and plan out our day in broad terms leaving space for serendipity.  The seas are a bit roly-poly so promenades might be a challenge.  I have the Ventusky app that tells me all sorts of stats about the weather and so I can more or less record the sea’s behavior.

So, yesterday, Bob, Anna, Shirley and I met with the travel consultant aboard the Mars.  We signed up for a Northern Lights cruise in late February 2027.  We had booked this cruise before, but the pandemic got in the way.  We get a nice price break by booking aboard the ship. And his advice about when to go and which cabins to book was very helpful!

After a leisurely wake – up, we ate the iconic Norwegian waffle at Mamson’s and chilled in the Explorer’s Lounge reading and thinking. Then, at 9, Bob called and we were off to the unadvertised Bridge Tour! We entered on deck 6 and were treated to an in-depth explanation of how the ship worked and was controlled from this room. 






Third officer Andrew said the swells were 2.5 meters and would classify the sea as being moderate. He answered many questions like there is no sea-traffic-control, 2 pilots and 22 support people come on board to help us through the Gatun Locks, the ship has 4 diesel generators that power the whole ship including the 2 rear propeller systems. Three are online while one is on standby.  They were currently running at 87% capacity.

The rest of the day we spent dancing at the only line dancing class they will have this cruise, resting, eating and going to lectures.  It was Lobster night at the World café and so there was a line.  We got there early and so Shirley was able to load up easily. After dinner we went to the Explorer’s Lounge to hear Michael the guitarist.  He was on the Crossing cruise we did several years ago!  Then to bed as tomorrow the commentary for the canal starts at 6:30.


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