05 Jul Home to Louisville, KY

 

This post is based primarily on Don's notes, occasionally supplemented with MT's notes from our cruise in July 2025. When information from other sources is added—for further explanation to readers or to satisfy our own curiosity—that is set off in a text box (as this one).
Most of the photos that accompany this post are from Don’s camera (with a caption indicating the time it was taken); those from MT’s iPhone are indicated by “MT” placed at the beginning of the photo caption. Photos from any other source (such as the public domain Wikimedia Commons), occasionally used for clarification, indicate that source in the caption.

The Viking Daily newsletter showed today's weather forecast as "Sunny 94° F" and "Sunrise: 6:24 AM | Sunset: 9:09 PM."

We both woke, for the last  time, around 2:30 am, and we ate our normal breakfast.

The shuttle to KCI (aka MCI) airport in Kansas City, MO picked us up at 5:45 (scheduled for 6:00).

Delta flight 3110 departed KCI at 8:10 for Atlanta, GA, where we set our clocks ahead 1 hour for Eastern time zone.

Delta flight 2451 departed Atlanta, GA at 1:13 PM for Louisville, KY.

MT Saturday, July 5, ‎2025, 1:21 PM - Delta flight 2451: view from MT's window seat.

MT 1:21 PM - Delta flight 2451: selfie of MT and Don.

MT 2:13 PM - Delta flight 2451: first view of Mississippi River as we approached Louisville.

Louisville, Kentucky (pop. 622,981) is Kentucky’s largest city. It sits on the Ohio River along the Indiana border. The history of the city has been influenced by its proximity to the Falls of the Ohio River. Since the Falls created a barrier to river ravel, settlements grew at this portage point. The first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark, who is credited as the founder of Louisville. In 1780, the Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter of Louisville. The town was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France, whose soldiers were then aiding the Americans in the Revolutionary War. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (brother of George Rogers Clark) organized their expedition across the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase in the town of Clarksville, Indiana at the Falls of Ohio opposite Louisville
Early Louisville was a major shipping port where river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the Falls. Enslaved African Americans worked in a variety of associated trades. The city was often a point of escape for fugitive slaves, since Indiana was a free state. During the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces and was not attacked, although skirmishes and battles took place nearby. After the war, returning Confederate veterans largely took political control of the city, leading to the jibe that Louisville joined the Confederacy after the war was over.
The first locks on the Ohio River, the Louisville and Portland Canal completed in 1830, were built within a bypass canal constructed to provide year-round navigation of the river. The Falls were later largely covered by the McAlpine Locks and Dam, built at Louisville by the Army Corps of Engineers and completed in 1929.

MT 2:39 PM - Louisville: Don and MT by Welcome to Louisville sign in airport.

A Viking bus picked us up at the Louisville airport and took us to the Viking Mississippi ship, where we arrived around 2:30 pm.

MT 3:16 PM - Louisville: Viking Mississippi at dock.

From 2:00 to 3:00, there was a Champagne Welcome Reception in the Living Room (Deck 1).

Since our stateroom was supposed to be ready for us by 3:00, we got our key cards for stateroom 229.

Viking Mississippi: white side of MT's key card, which we had to use to get into our stateroom and get scanned by security whenever we left or returned to the ship, and other side of Don's key card with a photo of our ship.

At 4:00, we went to the Explorers' Lounge (Deck 2) for a Shore Excursions Presentation by Cruise Director Travis Turnbough. Due to Viking's frantic scramble to find new excursions for our revised itinerary, we had not been able to reserve any excursions for the new part of the itinerary before St. Louis prior to boarding. However, we would receive paperwork for requesting reservations in our stateroom that evening.

At 5:00, the Viking Dily newsletter said to return to our staterooms and listen to the announcements for the Safety Drill.

At 5:15, we went to the Living Room (Deck 1) for a Welcome Briefing by Cruise Director Travis.

At 6:00, we stayed in the Living Room (Deck 1) to listen to part of a Destination Performance of the Ella Fitzgerald Songbook of timeless jazz classics.

Around 6:30, we went to The Restaurant (Deck 1) for Dinner. From the Classic page of the menu, available every day, Don got Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail for a Starter (Appetizer),  Beer Marinated Chicken Breast for Main Course, and Fromagerie (cheese plate) for Desert.

We tried wines from the Silver Spirits package we had got as a special offer with our original booking. Normally, our waiter would show us a choice of one red wine and one white, and one could order other wines only if paying for them and only during the meal. With the Silver Spirits package, we could get wine or cocktails listed at no more that $10 any time of day. Normally the package cost $30 per day per guest.

Back in our stateroom, we filled out our requests for shore excursions on 6-10 July.

The Viking Mississippi stayed overnight in Louisville.