Highlights Cruise Day 3-Monaco
I generated my own shore excursion to see the Monaco highlights (I skipped the casino). Back aboard ship, I saw an animated explanation of the Bayeux Tapestry (not actually a tapestry, but we call it that because …?, stumps me). The animation of Harold taking an arrow to the eye was gruesome (great aim!), but more entertaining than the static image. We were underway at 2115 for Livorno, Italy. Technically, it’s in central Italy, but anything north of Rome feels northern to me.
Cathedral of our Lady of Immaculate Conception
A very cool name
Monaco at night
Notable Items
In this section of the daily posts, I won’t be describing the Viking service model. I’ll be giving my reactions to the things I thought were interesting while I saw it executed. This means no (or perhaps a limited number) “and then I ate soup” updates. I don’t claim that my reactions are part of an epic journey description, only that I won’t be reacting to the soup.
Like every business in the hospitality industry, Viking has a service model. The chief attribute is organization, organization, and execution. Its two attributes are organization and execution and ruthless efficiency. Its three attributes are … Amongst the things they do well are: housekeeping, meals, entertainment, enrichment, 24-hr guest services, and between meal services (bars, lounge snacks, afternoon tea), debarking from the ship in port (signage, water, tap off), tours (“excursions”), and nice uniforms.
Guides and Viking reps take muster frequently on tours. If you wander off to do your own thing, guides emphasize that you need to tell them.
As I watched the Viking model practiced by the staff, I thought about an article I had read about “low-skilled” workers. Most of the performance I noticed on the ship looked skilled to me. In the room, for example. I’m a low impact, Naval-Academy-trained-to-abhor-room-clutter person, so I don’t give hotel housekeeping staff much to do besides making beds (I make my own bed daily in an AirBnB). As neat as I try to be, James still found things to do: adjusting toiletry positions in the bathroom (did I mention heated floors? Oooh), towel straightening, bathmat positioning, bed and sofa pillow arrangement, tidying “whisper box” (the audio device you take on excursions) cords, putting the whisper box in the charger when I forgot, arranging items in the mini-bar fridge, etc. I saw him working in a few rooms (no peeking in other people’s rooms). He was fast!
Attempting to notice the fine details might detract from the 'wonder' for some, but not me. I was nuclear qualified in the Navy so noticing “small stuff” well executed was an important aspect of high performance.
My self-guided excursion around Monaco was an experiment. Before the cruise, I purchased the Rick Steves guide to Mediterranean cruise ports and watched two free videos about doing your own thing in ports. I was ready. Monaco wasn’t a big challenge because it is so tiny, and I wasn’t interested in going further afield. I used chatGPT to generate a route with guidance based on my preferences. I skipped the vegetable market (how many turnips can you look at?) and the aquarium (impressive building, lots of fish in tanks). I don’t dislike turnips or fish, but I thought my time was better spent seeing the changing of the guards at the palace and visiting the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-Immaculée. I judged my self-guided wandering was a success. I’m biased, however.
I ate at the eponymous Restaurant on the ship. That reads like a vaudeville routine:
Where did you eat?
The Restaurant.
What’s the name of the restaurant?
What’s not the name.
Name of what?
The Restaurant.
Which restaurant?
There aren’t any witches at The Restaurant.
One of several people interacting with me was from Mexico City, so I spoke Spanish with him. We got stuck on the correct word for lobster (bogavante), which aren’t common in Mexico City.
I tried to order Salmon Tiradito and King Prawn Risotto.
“You can’t have it.”
“Excuse me. Why?”
“You have a seafood allergy.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“How do you know?”
“It says here that you have a seafood allergy.” (pointing to the universal communicator and guest details device)
“But, I don’t.”
“Are you sure?”
I paused. In the Navy, “Are you sure?” was almost always a trap. That lesson ran deep.
“I don’t remember having a seafood allergy. It doesn’t seem like something I would forget.”
I thought I might have to sign a waiver, but the server took my word for it and updated the record. Attention to detail is good, but for it to work, they have to be the correct details. I couldn’t fault the motivation for preventing a medical emergency in the dining room.
The ship was underway at 9:15pm. What I noticed about this was that I didn’t notice it until I saw port structures and buildings moving past the stateroom window. Where are those things going? The propulsion engine vibrations I was used to were absent. I went to the main deck to watch the lights.