Never Would I Ever...

May 18, 2026 

Home for over a year now...

“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”

― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

We had some outstanding times on our 2025 WC with Viking. The staff was incredible. Our room stewards spoiled us rotten and our wait staff in the Restaurant made every meal feel like a family event with their attentive and friendly demeanor. Patricia, the assistant cruise director, ran a mean passenger choir rehearsal. In fact, it was the first time I've felt like we made some real music on board instead of just fooling around. We were blessed to have the fellowship of over 20 other Christians throughout the voyage for Bible studies every sea day and Sunday evening church services. The itinerary was amazing, touching exotic ports like Komodo Island, Bali, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and several African countries where we took multiple game drives and saw 4 of the Big Five! Our overnight in Sydney allowed us to go to a fabulous performance of La Traviata at the iconic Opera House. 

By any measure, this was a world class voyage. And yet...

There were differences between our 2022 and 2025 that left us a bit unsettled. With the exception of Patricia, the on board entertainment team didn't begin to match the 2022 staff for talent. Perhaps it was a case of one head chef to another, but the food quality seemed to have slipped a bit. Many of the on board enrichment speakers were excellent--informative, thought-provoking, and often entertaining. But there was one who made it his mission in life to denigrate Christianity each time he took the stage. He had been a seminarian studying to be a Catholic priest, and for some unnamed reason, abandoned the church to wander throughout Polynesia emersing himself in every ancient rite and tribal belief. Because I've always enjoyed comparative religious studies, his descriptions of those practices were interesting. However, he never missed an opportuntity to denounce Christianity. Fiercely. 

Clearly, he had suffered a wound at the hands of the church, but I couldn't help ask myself if Viking would have allowed a speaker to denounce Islam, or Buddhism, or Hinduism with the same vitriol. 

If that was the end of it, I wouldn't feel as if we were a particularly unwelcome demographic. However, we had to beg for a place and time to hold Bible studies. And even then, we never knew when the location would be suddenly appropriated for another event or even a crew training activity. Though meeting times for Rotary and other service clubs, Friends of Bill W, and Friends of Dorothy appeared in the daily ship's printed schedule, we couldn't even get them to post the two Easter services (both of which were very well attended by passengers and crew alike.)

In 2022, our church services were started and led by Aaron, our cruise director, until passengers started taking more of a planning role. One of the assistant cruise directors sang a special for one of our services. One of the talented pianists had his schedule altered so he could play for the hymns. 

In 2025, a gifted pianist asked to have her schedule altered so she could attend and play the hymns. She was denied. 

I wonder if the difference is that Viking is now a publicly held company instead of family owned.    

I won't lie. It left a sour taste in my mouth. 

But "never would I ever" say I won't consider another Viking voyage. There's more good than bad to tip the scales in Viking's favor.  

And by good, I mean the people.

******

Quick update on our last year---

When we picked my mom up at my sister Linda's in May 2025, she had decided she enjoyed living with family instead of alone at her house. So she moved in with us! (Something I'd been trying to convince her to do since we lost Dad.) We helped her sell her house and all my sisters came and helped us empty its contents. This was a huge blessing for us, and for mom as well. She'd have been devastated by a sale of all her "treasures," but seeing them go off to my sisters was much easier.   

We have loved having Mom with us and my sister Jennifer admitted she was jealous of the time we were enjoying with her. So when Jenn came back to visit in March 2026, she took mom home with her for a visit. It worked out well because she'd already agreed to take care of mom while we celebrate our 50th anniversary in May 2026, so Mom will have a nice long time with Jenn.

Because the DH and I are leaving tomorrow to begin our trip to Seattle so we can board Cunard's Queen Elizabeth for a 12 night Alaska cruise! This is our 4th voyage to the 49th state, once with my parents, once with friends, and once with all our kids & my parents, but this is the first one we'll be making alone. 

Seems fitting since 50 years ago it was just the two of us heading out together, doesn't it? 

More later...