Some schedule rearranging and invisible excursions for our visit to La Crosse

That which is loved is always beautiful - Norwegian Proverb

Our port visit to La Crosse, Wisconsin was originally scheduled for an arrival of 9:30AM. Early this morning, our Captain had to defer to other river traffic that delayed our arrival. When the announcement was made about the later arrival time, it was also announced that we would have to be leaving the port of La Crosse earlier than planned. We later learned during the evening disembarkation briefing from Cruise Director Tim that Viking had known about the political rally happening in La Crosse today since earlier in the week but they'd only been told today that they would need to either vacate the waterway early or risk being unable to sail away for several hours after our originally planned departure of 5PM. 

Dad and I decided to split up for excursions today. He booked the included option of River Town Discovery, a three hour easy activity level tour. Initially there was a 9:45AM tour and a 1PM tour but due to the time constraints, they lumped everyone onto the morning session. The other included option was La Crosse by Foot which was a two hour moderate activity level tour with a snack offered. When we were getting ready this morning, I was browsing our account section on the cabin's interactive TV system to look up something about today's tour. I discovered that there suddenly was a lot more excursion options showing to choose from for today, including one that Dad would have definitely chosen to do, the Dahl Auto Museum Experience. This extra cost excursion lasts for 3 hours and 15 minutes and is an easy activity level. The description talks about being driven around the town's historic downtown neighborhoods in a classic car before returning to the museum with free time to explore their collection of Ford Motor Company's automobiles. 

Dad ran right down to Guest Services to see if he could switch to this tour but they told him that no one had booked the tour so they didn't arrange any transportation for it. Dad told them about how it wasn't showing pre-cruise to book so he doubted anyone even knew this tour existed. Guest Services claimed that they believed all of these suddenly appearing tour options had been showing to book all along and that no one had been interested in booking. He asked about being able to arrange some sort of transportation now whether it be Viking's own busses, a shuttle, taxi, or rideshare and they refused. Dad took it upon himself to walk up the street next to where we docked and call for his own rideshare to visit the museum. Once there he chatted with the museum manager who revealed that they've offered this tour for a while but Viking keeps telling them no one booked it! He enjoyed the experience on his own and made it back to the ship in time to board the included River Town Discovery tour.

Here are the other tour options that didn't show up until we arrived in port and our TV/app systems updated with the new day's schedule:

The bulk of the other tour options was centered around the Vesterheim Museum in nearby Decorah, Iowa. There were three options to book, all at differing extra costs, that all featured privileged access. The main tour, a moderate activity level lasting 6 1/2 hours, includes lunch. This long tour would cover a bus ride to Decorah, a guided tour of the museum, privileged access to the museum's education center which houses items not available to the public, a tour of the Norwegian Lutheran Bethania Church, and the museum's Heritage Park. The museum charges $12 admission for adults and $10 admission for seniors 65+. This fee was included with our tour charge.

The other two options offered a morning guided museum tour, lunch, and then an afternoon class where you either signed up to make Solje Earrings or completed a Kroting woodworking project. Due to the time constraints, everyone signed up for any of those three tours (the museum one initially had two time slots) now all went at the same time. I appreciated that Viking chose rather than cancel the classes, they instead pulled the small group of us off the bus when we arrived at the museum so we could be escorted straight to the classroom while everyone else did the guided museum tour. In the end, it was also the most financially beneficial to Viking since they didn't have to refund the extra cost ($129 per person) of the crafting tours. Honestly, though I would have been more disappointed in missing the class than the museum tour. I do however, feel that there should have been some sort of discount or refund given that those of us in the class only got half the tour experience. And yes, we did discuss all of the excursion issues thus far mentioned through our Viking surveys and post cruise with Viking over the phone when they called to follow up.

Our Kroting class was a small group of five held in a back workshop style classroom adjacent to the gift shop that connected it to the museum. Our kind teacher was a former elementary school teacher and we had a wonderful chat while working on our projects. Our teacher had pre-painted these wooden round trivets in blue, red, and green colors before sketching out two different Nordic designs with white colored pencil on each color option. We each were given the momentary use of a kit that included an eraser, a small blade knife to clear away any stubborn edges, and the thick handled curved blade known as a kroting tool. She showed us how to safely use the kroting tool and had us practice on scraps of wood before doing anything to the painted trivets. 

This style of crafting requires focus and precision as you have to follow the drawn lines with your kroting tool. The nice thing about working on a smaller piece is that you can move it around to fit the direction of the line you're carving. Using the tool does create a deeper and wider line in the pattern but the contrast it makes seeing the natural wood grain versus the dark painted color makes for a pretty visual. 

Our small group worked so well getting all the lines done in our designs in this shortened class time that our teacher gave us the extra step of painting on a layer of clear coating to seal the wood. We all helped to clean up and enjoyed taking our new creations on a brief few minute tour of the gift shop before it was time to return to the bus. All but one couple from all three tours then boarded the bus to head over to a local restaurant T-Bock's Sports Bar & Grill for an included lunch with a pre-set menu. Thankfully the menu had a variety of options and all was made on the spot so no confusion about who ordered what. The other couple worked it out with the tour guide that they would forgo lunch in order to spend more time at the museum. We picked them up again on the way back from lunch.

I shared a booth with another couple who had done just the museum tour and we had a delightful conversation with our lunch.

The French Dip Au Jus with a chosen side of potato salad:

The homemade vanilla cheesecake with whipped cream and fresh berries that was offered for dessert.

All of the food, service, and dining company were great! This sign in front of a nearby shop made me laugh.

I'm pretty sure several of us fell asleep for the ride back to La Crosse. I commend our Viking bus drivers for maneuvering through the lines of people and parked cars on both sides of the narrow streets there to attend the political rally as they brought us back to the port. We were the last buses to arrive and Viking pulled up the lines as soon as we got back onboard. 

Due to the time constraints, Viking had to cancel a planned talk and performance on the Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle by Eden Ehm scheduled for 4PM. The disembarkation talk was combined with the Daily Briefing about our next day's visit to Red Wing and they made announcements prior alluding to the fact that everyone needed to attend. The Viking Daily describes it as "We encourage one guest from each stateroom to attend" but pushing for everyone to attend made for a hugely crowded Living Room and a lot of annoyed passengers looking for seats. They eventually directed passengers to sitting in the nearby lower level of the Explorer's Lounge and piped in Tim's talk. Probably could have saved a lot more hassle if they'd told everyone about being able to tune in from their cabin TVs since this was the one working live feed location.

We stopped for a surf and turf dinner at the Aquavit Terrace. We ran into Chef Aaron who remembered promising me a club sandwich for lunch back on night 1 of the cruise. We'd only spotted him working at the grill once during the cruise and the grill was too mobbed to bother asking him to make something extra. Most of the time it was only one gentleman working the grill despite the crowd. He told me to come back for our last afternoon on board and he would make it for me. Unfortunately, he was once again not on duty at the grill the next day either.

We finished out our evening with another Big Quiz session with Cruise Director Tim.

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.

Today's port stop brings us to the town of Dubuque, Iowa. Our excursion for today took us by bus to the town of Dyersville, IA most known for being where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. This excursion cost us $99 per person. The venue is fairly handicap accessible and was an easy activity level. 

This port offered two included tour options; National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (this also was offered as an optional guided excursion for a cost), and Historic Dubuque (a shuttle service to explore the town at your leisure). For an extra cost, you could choose to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, the Stonefield Historic Site: Rural Wisconsin Farm Life, Galena On Your Own, or Art in Dubuque (a privileged access excursion). The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is literally right across from where the ship docks. We had hoped to visit there on our own after the Field of Dreams tour but Cruise Director Tim warned us that there wasn't enough time between when our excursion returned and the ship needed to leave. 

Viking Cruises starts off each cruise by giving you a sheet of paper summarizing your pre-cruise booked excursions for the voyage, their prices, start times, and coach numbers. Sometimes different coach numbers leave at different times and tours are called by coach number so it's important to have all of that information correct. During the cruise, your individual excursion tickets to be turned in to the local guide as you board the coach, will be delivered to your cabin the night before that port day. As schedules and circumstances can change, make sure to check both the first day's summary and your newly received excursion tickets when you receive them the night before. Today's tour tickets noted a start time of 8:30AM but our summary said the excursion started at 9AM. We would have been 30 minutes late if we hadn't noticed the difference. 

It was also helpful to have these screens by the elevators that gave useful information specific to each day's port.

Once we arrived at the Field of Dreams home, we were split into two groups so that we didn't overwhelm the small farmhouse space inside. Those who didn't go into the house first got to sit in chairs lined up by the baseball diamond made in the yard specifically for the movie. As we sat we heard the firsthand story of what it was like filming the movie from the gentleman who played the catcher, Paul Scherrman. He also took the time to answer questions and pose for pictures. Our local guide offered to take photos for anyone who wanted to get a picture of themselves coming out of the corn with Paul.

The nearby full size Major League Baseball Park that was constructed to host the MLB Field of Dreams game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox was close enough to the baseball diamond created for the movie that we could see the tall spotlights for that field. MLB was not allowing anyone to visit that site however.

A plaque at the site is dedicated to Denise Stillman who worked to preserve the film site by creating a youth sports complex on the grounds to help fill a preservation fund.

And of course there is a gift shop. A lot of the merchandise inside is youth sports oriented like mitts, hats, and baseball themed shirts but there is a small amount of souvenirs from the movie itself. Another kind shopper gave me the tip that there is a QR code posted on the front wall by the door of the shop. If you scan it with your phone, it takes you to a virtual scratch off where you could win free items and/or discounts to use in the shop. She had just won a hat and I got a nice $5 off coupon. 

A common misquote from the movie is the line "If you build it, he will come." Most people quote it as "If you build it, THEY will come." The museum guide leading the house portion made a big point of explaining the correct line. I used my coupon to buy this otherwise $8 magnet featuring the quote. I also really liked how it has the feel of rawhide and stitched like a baseball glove. 

Next was our turn to tour inside the farmhouse. The museum guide encouraged us to sit on the front porch and take pictures. There was a step to get up here but a ramp was available for getting into the house.

Love the little extra themed touches like this baseball diamond shaped pile of stones marking the border of the walkway.

The house is preserved to look like it did in the movie. Several spots, also pointed out while the museum guide told the story of how this house came to be the Field of Dreams house, had framed movie stills sitting there so you could see screen captures of the scenes filmed in those same spots from the movie. 

There were a couple extra mementos scattered around like this statue from the iTIP Awards, a distinction given to The Field of Dreams House by the Iowa Travel Industry Partners in 2023.

The TV in the home was set up to show the movie:

Words to live by: Tipping - Bad for cows, good for us!

Our museum guide pointed out that a few items used as decor actually belonged to the family who owned the home at the time of filming. This yellow cake tin was positioned in several places throughout the movie becoming a sort of Where's Waldo experience for fans of the movie to rewatch so they can spot how many different places they see this cake tin.

This bay window was added to the house by the movie production team so they could film the scene where the cast looks out over the ballpark from their porch.

After we'd each had our group's turn at the ballfield and inside the house, we were given free time to take pictures, run the bases, or shop in the gift shop. I spent most of my time in the gift shop but I grabbed these few pictures back on the field.

The second stop of this tour took us to the Textile Brewing Company in Dyersville. We each got to sample a dark beer and a pale ale paired with soft pretzel bites and what else but beer cheese dipping sauce! Those who opted out of drinking could get water or pay for a soda. I did try a couple sips of each beer but it wasn't my cup of tea...err beer. 

With such an early back on board time of 12:45PM, there were several informative talks scheduled through the afternoon. Cruise Director Tim and Captain Cory Burke gave a presentation on the locks and dams we were passing through on this voyage. Captain Burke then joined Chief Engineer Brandon for a Q&A about the marine operations side of Viking Mississippi. Tonight's Destination lecture by Gabby covered European Influences on the Midwest.

After dinner at the River Cafe where I sampled lots of sushi among other random bites, we found ourselves sitting in rocking chairs on the bow watching the sunset and chatting with fellow passengers as we sailed through the next set of locks.

A fun aspect of river cruising is chatting with all the people who come out to watch our ship sail out.

After walking around on a Field of Dreams, this sunset meant it was time for us to stop being dinner for the mosquitos and head to bed ourselves.