Tonight dinner menu is below and dinner is at 7pm.

They always have the standard choices of steak, chicken, some fish, creme brûlée, etc. Tonight I’m going with the farmer’s salad and the traditional chicken paprikash. It has spaetzel so it feels like I can’t go wrong.

A little more about dinner. It’s open seating and only one sitting. The smallest tables in the dining room have 6 chairs. There are some 8 and 10 top tables as well. That’s how we ended up sitting with Sherry and Gary Thursday evening.

On Thursday we overheard some people talking to one of the servers about where to sit. These were veteran Viking cruisers who seemed to know some of the staff. The server told them where his tables were and they decided to head down slightly early to stake claim on a table.

I like their strategy and why not learn from veterans. So on Thursday I busted down and claimed a table in that section as soon as the talk was over. I mean come on, I’m under the median age by a few years. I can outwalk these people!

We sat in Milo’s section (pronounced Me-lo) and to say I’m now obsessed with him is an understatement. He’s attentive, funny, asked about our dogs etc. He’s from the Philippines and has worked for Viking for ten years. He started first on ocean cruises because Viking wouldn’t hire Asians until 2012 which pisses me off but I digress.

Tonight my compadres were further behind than I liked and I hated running for an empty table alone so I waited a bit until they actually entered the dining room and then we asked another couple if we could join them at a table in Milo’s section.

Paul and Jane are from NY but now reside in Amelia Island. They were a lovely couple who were so funny and entertaining. Jane is also a die hard New York Times puzzle girl who does all the puzzles. She also told me about a card game called Sets that I think I need to look up. Sounds a little hard to learn but fun.

Tonight’s meal…

I tried to convince Milo into blocking that table for the 6 of us ongoing but he deflected and instead basically quoted the entire movie of Top Gun Maverick. So…is that a no?

It’s fine…I’m willing to run to you Milo.

After getting back to our room at 9:30pm Greg remembered that we had bought those cake pop things. He tried one but I decided to be healthy and pass on yet another dessert.