Viking's description of the plan for today:
Day 4 - Toronto
This morning, set out in a kayak to explore the striking beauty of Georgian Bay. Admire your pristine surroundings and learn about the area's history as you paddle across the crystal clear waters. Later, depending on the weather, you will enjoy lunch at the lodge or at a picnic in the beautiful Muskoka Lakes region. Then, continue to Toronto and board your awaiting ship to begin your cruise. (B, L)
Leading up to the trip, we reached out to Viking to ask about this description because at the time, neither of us felt comfortable using a kayak. We were concerned that this meant we'd not only be missing out on an included picnic lunch but also missing out on the transportation if the bus transport left from wherever the kayak trip ended. As silly as it may seem, we weren't even sure with the above description whether the kayak activity came back to the lodge or somehow met up with the bus who had been carting the luggage. Our only land tour experience was a cruise tour with Princess in Alaska where we had an experience riding a glass dome topped train while our luggage traveled to our next lodge via bus or truck/trailer. The Viking customer service rep advised to ask our guide once on the trip about an alternative bus tour for those who didn't or couldn't kayak.
As it turned out, other than the walking and boat tours we signed up for on day one with the intent to be held on day 2 of our lodge stay, no other formal tours for everyone as a group were offered. Kayaks were available for you to rent from the lodge if you so chose. Those in our group that chose to do so said they enjoyed it. Thanks to Tina taking our proposal to the lodge manager, we were able to reschedule the boat tour for this morning when the weather was better. We fit in a quick breakfast using our last voucher card. Almost everyone in our group chose to go on the boat ride and enjoyed viewing the scenery and wildlife.
While Dad was on the boat ride, I took the time to wander the lodge grounds and explore.
I was glad that one of us was on the boat ride because it was only there that group members learned about a change in plans for our departure. Originally, the plan announced to everyone was that the boat ride was an option this morning but everyone regardless of what activity you chose was to be ready to leave the lodge around noon. Dad found me after the boat ride and informed me that we needed to get back to our room and gather our things because we'd be heading out at 10:30AM instead. A few of our kind group members got the lodge employees' help to figure out which rooms the other people were staying in and alert them to the soon approaching new departure time. While we all were frantically repacking and wheeling our suitcases back to the bus, the lodge manager stopped everybody as they passed to collect our room keys and the clear pouch lanyard our vouchers had been in. As soon as we approached her, the lodge's activity director Amanda offered to take our suitcases the rest of the way to the bus. In my haste of packing in the room, I threw the lanyard in the front pocket of my suitcase which was now being led away to the bus. I explained this to the manager and she reluctantly agreed to let me keep the lanyard because she didn't want to have to come to the bus with me to retrieve it. Never had someone actually expect to get the lanyard pouch back. Felt like I got away with bringing home stolen contraband, split side from trying to force out the meal voucher cards and all! I did happily hand over the room key that I'd spent the last few days fighting to close my crossbody bag around the old fashioned real key and keychain.
The new plan to get us from the lodge to the ship was that we would make one bathroom stop and drive straight through while everyone partook of their box lunches chosen on the first day.
Our coach bus:
After the bathroom stop that was thankfully at a large rest stop with facilities that even got us ladies in and out quickly, we all reboarded the bus picking up our chosen boxed lunch as we headed back to our seats.
I was glad to see that the lodge had chosen to freeze the water bottles before adding them to the boxes. Our guide Tina told us how shocked she was picturing soggy sandwiches when the lodge told her they'd made the lunches last night to be sure they were ready. Then they explained that they meant they assembled everything but the sandwich which was made fresh this morning. Even a couple hours into the drive, the bottles were still physically cold but liquid and served as natural ice packs to keep everything else fresh. I'm sure whomever chose the tuna salad sandwich option appreciated this foresight.
My chosen box was the turkey sandwich option. The sandwich was on white bread with lettuce and tomato. Tons of turkey slices. Little packets of mustard and mayo were included leaving you to dress the sandwich as you wished. In addition to the cold water bottle, each box had a whole apple, an orange juice drink box, a pack of hummus dip and crackers, a snack sample of cheddar cheese to go with the snack pack of saltines, and a fresh baked cookie. We all got a good chuckle when group members started jokingly lobbying for anyone's "unwanted" cookies like elementary kids bargaining at the lunch table. Not even us big kids were interested in trading for apples or hummus. However, as far as boxed lunches go, this one was one of the top few I've experienced.
After a bus ride totaling about 6 hours (a few took advantage of the working bathroom on the bus as well), we finally reached the port of Toronto and our waiting Viking Octantis around 4:30PM. Several luggage handlers came out to greet the bus refusing our attempt to tip the gentleman who collected our suitcases. At this point, we were long since past our cabin's priority embarkation and access of 11AM but we still asked about whether there was any sort of priority embarkation line for check in. Instead we were directed into the flow with the rest of our group and the crowds still arriving that weren't on the pre-cruise extension. The port employees working to check people in at each step were all kind and friendly. One asked if we were arriving so late because it was a long flight to get here. I explained that we were on the Georgian Bay pre-cruise extension and was glad to finally be off the bus. That prompted a politely toned reprimand on how I shouldn't be bothered by the effort since Ontario is such a big province.
We started out being directed to a table that checked our identification and boarding passes. She then told us to proceed to the next table in line. As we moved over to that next table, another woman who seemed to be more about keeping the flow of people moving along insisted that we follow her to another table further down the line. We mentioned the previous person's instruction but she insisted that our next stop was the table for adding payment. Since we were planning to use our Mastercard, yes that same one from the hotel and the lodge, Viking's website had not been able to store our onboard account payment source pre-cruise. We both held our breath when this port employee started off saying everything worked fine the first time and then said "whoop, hold on a minute." She stared intently at something on the screen of her card reader for 30 seconds and then pronounced, "No, it's all good!" The woman working on crowd control then quickly ushered us away from the tables to head up the gangway.
The final joke of our credit card saga came several days into the cruise when I received a call in the cabin from guest services insisting I come down and give them something to cover my onboard account. I explained that we had already given our credit card information at check-in but the guest services crew member would simply reply that they don't have anything on file. When we headed down to guest services to once again try to give them our Mastercard, the crew member couldn't get it to load to the system using their scanners. Unlike the lodge employees, when this crew member asked her colleague for help, she immediately received that assistance with instructions on how to enter the card information manually. Once everything was inputted by hand through the computer's keyboard, it finally saved to our account and stayed saved for the rest of the cruise.
Once we made it on board this first day, we were immediately directed to sit for a muster drill presentation. Several of us joked with our fellow group members as we gathered for this presentation "long time no see!" While we were all exhausted, I appreciate Viking's technique of forcing you into attending the muster drill upon boarding. It was also nice to sit for the duration inside with air conditioning. Muster drill post COVID winner still goes to Princess who not only picks up the signal of your personal medallion to show you've watched the video on your cabin TV (or registers when watched via your app account on your device), but then only requires you to scan the medallion at your assigned muster station to prove you know where it is located. No sitting and waiting for a presentation or the rest of the cruisers to show up. And then the even better aspect - no fighting an entire ship worth of crowds leaving at the same time dragging life jacket straps all wanting elevators to get back to their cabins to put away said life jackets.
After our presentation here on Viking, the crew member who had directed us to stop and sit in front of the screen, then tried to urge everyone to go get "lunch" in the World Cafe. We opted instead to head for our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. At this point, it was fast approaching our pre-cruise reserved time for dinner tonight of 6:30PM in The Restaurant. Thankfully our luggage had arrived. We barely put down our carry on bags when our steward stopped by offering to show us all the features of the cabin. Unfortunately, we felt rushed to get changed for dinner and turned down the offer. This resulted in spending a lot of time trying to figure out buttons and switches through trial and error throughout the week.
Disclaimer: While we did fill out the surveys both left in paper form in our cabin and on the app during the cruise, we along with several members of our pre-cruise extension group did share our frustrations and disappointments about this Georgian Bay itinerary with Viking upon returning home. Viking followed up promptly with personal conversations on a recorded phone line giving us the chance to relay our concerns. We made sure to also include mentions of all the good experiences that followed once onboard the ship and the few outstanding crew members we wanted to give special mention. To make up for the less than stellar pre-cruise time, we accepted Viking's gracious offer of a partial credit voucher for us to use on a future cruise on either the river, ocean, or expedition sailings they offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment