The Viking Sun docked in Dubai at 01:00, where the 2019/20 World Cruise is coming to a premature end. With termination of the World Cruise promulgated yesterday, life continued on board with the farewell performance from the ship’s crew and entertainment team.

Check out the photos for an unexpected Senior Officer on the guitar, as Beven sings during the Farewell Performance.

Temperature: 28C/82F

Wind/Weather: Clear by day with thunderstorms in the evening

Sunrise/Sunset: 06:23/18:31

Clox: No change (Z+4)

Navigation

We picked up the local pilot at Midnight, with the ship docked alongside by 01:00. We are docked with 8 other cruise ships, all empty except for minimal crew.

Weather

Reasonably clear by day, with thunderstorms in the evening.

Meals

No special meals today

We enjoyed dinner at a 6-top with Alison, Ron, Munro and Deb. Since the port side, where our usual table is located, was closed, for dessert we arranged for them to open table # 151. Our usual waiters Erald, Andrian, Zharko and Teyfun came over to serve desserts and also join us at the table.

Activities

Today’s activities included:

• 11:00 Workshop – repeat of iPhone photography basics
• 12:00 Trivia
• 14:00 Premium Italian Wine Tasting
• 14:30 Downtown Abbey Book Club
• 14:30 Water colour gathering
• 15:00 Film – Midway
• 16:00 Baggo
• 20:00 Gin tasting
• 21:00 Crew Farewell & Variety Performance

After breakfast we checked with Guest Services regarding any update on flights, receiving confirmation for the following flights:

• Emirates – Dubai to Dublin, departing 07:05 March 23rd
• Aer Lingus – Dublin to LHR
• British Airways – LHR to Vancouver, arriving about 20:00 on the same day

They advised we would receive a notice in the cabin with luggage tags and disembarkation instruction that evening. Happy campers, we headed to the cabin to collect the laptop and kindles, then down to the Living Room for a pot of tea.

At Noon, it was our final trivia, but Tobias had really ramped up the difficulty level, with some really obscure questions, that were the epitome of trivia. We scored 7/15, while not a winning score it was at least respectable.

After lunch, we headed to Manfredi’s for the Premium Italian Wine Tasting. Again with a small group, it was very informative and after the presentation we sat and chatted for a couple of hours.

Farewell Show & Variety Performance

As the World Cruise was officially ending in Dubai and all passengers were disembarking, Beven presented the Farewell Show and Variety Performance.

The evening’s entertainment started with the Viking Band and singers Paula & Sammy, followed by individual performances by the Viking Vocalists, then we enjoyed a song from Beven, who was supported by a special guest on stage.

Beven singing with the Captain playing the guitar

Next on the agenda was the farewell messages and the crew parade.

Crew Parade on Stage

Once the crew departed, with some of them taking any of the vacant seats, the Entertainment Team started the excellent Variety Performance, that was created onboard.

After the show we headed to the cabin to put the tags on our bags and place them outside the cabin. Only problem, is we had no tags, or disembarkation letter. After a quick call, we determined our flights were confirmed after the daily disembarkation list was sent ashore to the local authorities. Not being on the disembarkation list means that although we have flights, we can’t actually leave the terminal to head to the airport.

Oh well!! we get to enjoy at least another day aboard the magnificent Viking Sun, while Viking Air endeavour to book us new flights.