Shanghai, China - Christening of The Viking Sun (Day 1 - Thursday, March 8)

Some weeks ago we were informed that during our visit to Shanghai our ship would be formally christened and that all passengers would be invited.  Turns out that there is a tradition that all ships have a ceremonial godmother for good fortune and safe sailing.  In a prominent area of the ship there is a digital poster that lists, with photos, the names of the captain and all department heads.  Included in that display is a photo of a Chinese lady named Yi Lou who is noted to be the ship's godmother.  Mrs. Yi Lou also turns out to be Vice-President of China Merchant Bank Financial Leasing (CMBFL), the bank that has provided the financing for the Viking Sun.  No cruise ship has ever before been christened on the Bund in Shanghai.  Whether CMBFL insisted that the christening event for this ship take place in Shanghai, we probably will never know.  The three earlier launched Viking ships in this ocean-going class have all been christened in Norway, the home of Viking and its principal, Torstein Hagen.

In any event, in due course we all received the formal invitation that appears above.  A banquet hall located just a few feet away from the ship's docking position was reserved for the occasion and all cruise passengers (that is to say, all who elected to attend) were taken there to celebrate this gala event.  In addition to this accommodation, a special facility was built on the dock itself, right next to the ship.  This is where a large contingent of Chinese and foreign dignitaries, including godmother Yi, and other non-passenger guests participated in and witnessed the christening event.  The entire program was broadcast into the banquet hall where we all were gathered and displayed on giant screens throughout the space.  Most of the program was conducted in Chinese with a provided simultaneous English translation.

Here is a photo of the red carpet entrance dockside for the attending dignitaries and other guests.

And this is the banquet hall space we passengers were in.  As you can see, it was all gussied up, much like a fancy wedding or bar or bat mitzvah.  We even had our own live band.

    

It was open seating and buffet-style eating.  At each place setting there was this booklet explaining, in several pages, that there were eight different food stations set up around the room, each representing food from different regions of China.  Each station, in turn, included five or so different dishes.

The ship was visible out the window of this banquet facility.

As I mentioned, the actual program was playing out at the special dockside facility constructed for this event and was beamed into the banquet hall.  Photographic reproduction of what appeared on the big digital screens is unavoidably poor, but you can at least get an idea of what was going on.  First, remarks by the designated ceremonial godmother, who seemed to be emceeing the event, and by Mr. Hagen and his daughter.  Then someone introduced as an authentic "Viking" walked on the stage, followed by a few others, and finally the ceremonial smashing of a bottle of something took place.

        

All of this was followed by a rather exquisite live dance performance.

 

And that, in turn, was followed by a live performance of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

 

Finally, not unlike that fancy wedding or bar mitzvah I mentioned, all guests were invited to have their pictures taken in this setting.

Post mortem:  It was a happening, and in that sense it was nice to be a part of it.  On the other hand, the banquet hall part, where we were, became quite chaotic.  I'll spare you the details.  Suffice it to say that the usual meticulous Viking planning, organization and execution were simply missing.   All I can make of it is that Viking's priority focus was on the festivities at dockside and on its special invited guests who were accommodated there.  Not the end of the world, but not the memorable event it might have been.  In talking the next day with a few of our fellow travelers who opted for the evening Chinese acrobatic show elsewhere in the city instead of this gala, we realized that that would have been a better choice for us.  The clarity of hindsight.

My next blog post will be on how Janis and I spent our second day in Shanghai, on our own.