Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/21/24 (Sea Day #3)

 

The day started off by bright sunlight coming in from our balcony doors, waking us up hours before our normal wake-up time.  The ship had crossed the Arctic Circle, and both of us were awarded certificates for this event.  It's a nice and inexpensive way to give cruisers a keepsake to remember the cruise by.

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The first thing we planned to do was attend an enrichment presentation on the port after next, Trondheim.  However, we ended up missing it because we were relaxing in our cabin.  So, at 1 pm, we went to the outdoor pizza venue for some slices and were greeted by some frigid air.  BRRRR!   We grabbed our slices and went indoors to eat.  On our way back to the buffet area, we saw several people in the pool and in the hot tubs.  I wouldn't do that in this weather.  Shortly after our pizza run, it was time for afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea was pleasant.  We struck up conversations with several people at our table.  One couple was from Oklahoma, and we were able to maintain a civil conversation that referenced politics without trying to defend positions of either major political party.  (My statements focused on the commonality of opinions shared by most Americans, as the leaders of each party have gone to the extremes.)  RQS was having her conversations with people on the other side of our table as well.  After tea was over, a couple  came up to us and mentioned that they visit NYC from time to time.  Of course, I gave them tourist advice that most people wouldn't get from guidebooks - to venture into the outer boroughs to see functioning ethnic neighborhoods such as Arthur Avenue (a real Little Italy) and Flushing (Asian enclaves for Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Koreans).

Later on, we had a specialty meal scheduled at the steakhouse.  As much as we tried, there was no way we could finish our meals.  We started with a sea scallop appetizer. The onion soup came next, and it was fantastic, as was the steak.  Instead of ordering a 16 oz. beef chop, I should have ordered the 7 oz. filet. RQS couldn't finish her smaller main course, and I had to leave most of my steak uneaten.  Neither of us could complain about our desserts, but they weren't exactly what would sate our cravings for the evening.

And now, thoroughly loaded up with carbs to digest, it was off to our room and off to sleep.  

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/20/24 (Sea Day #2)

 

The day started at 6:00 am, with the sun having been out for an hour or two.  We had gone through choppy seas last night, and the motion of the ship (thanks to the ship's stabilizers) helped rock us to sleep.  This allowed us to wake up fully refreshed for the day....

After a hearty breakfast, we decided to go to Princess's pop up seafood restaurant, "Crab Shack" for lunch.  So, we called the reservations desk and found that the "nominal fee" for this meal would be $39/pp. + 18% Svc. Chg,  We registered ourselves for lunch and proceeded to kill time until for our feast.  And feast we did!  Each of us ordered a bowl of clam chowder and a seafood bucket which contained mussels, craw fish, shrimp, snow crab legs, and small clams of various types.  Both buckets contained enough food to feed two people, and I even had to give up with food left in the bucket.  Before leaving, we changed our next specialty dinner reservation to the middle of next week.  This way, we wouldn't have to eat two large meals in a single day.

A little bit later, RQS went out to exercise and I had some quiet time to myself.  It was nice to be able to rest and let my stomach do its thing for a while.  When RQS returned, we put a load of laundry into the washer, and moved it into the dryer when it was done.  This will give us another 5-6 days worth of clothing we can wear, but will force us to do another load sometime next week.

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/19/24 (Hellesylt & Geiranger, Norway)

 

We awoke early to see Geiranger Fjord before a short port at Hellesylt to drop off cruisers who had ship arranged shore excursions.  While stopped at port, we went to the main dining room for breakfast to start our day with a good meal.  And then the ship headed for Geiranger.

Shortly after breakfast, the ship started heading for Geiranger.  Unfortunately, we were told that the winds were too strong for the "sea walk" (read: a gangway to the pier).  Instead, this became a tender port, something both of us dislike due to the time it takes to get on and off the tender boat.  You can imagine how RQS felt when she heard that we would need to use a tender boat to reach dry land.  (Three guesses, the first two don't count.)

We got our tender coupons and found that there would be a 1 hour wait to get off the ship.  So we headed to the pizzeria to kill some time and have a light lunch.  By the time we were finished, I had some GI Tract issues which forced us to go back to our cabin for a while.  When I was done, they no longer were using tender tickets to manage capacity on the boats taking us to shore.  So, it was on to the tenders, and then on to shore.

After walking around a bit, we went back to the ship.  Geiranger may be a beautiful place to live, but it must also be a little bit boring after the tourist season ends.  One thing I noticed about reboarding procedures is that no one is asking for personal id.  I think the reason they tell us to carry a government issued ID is that people might have to be flown to the next port to meet the ship if they miss reboarding the ship in port.  

Once we rested, we made it down to the sushi bar.  This was a disappointment for us, as they were slow in bussing the tables, greeting us as we arrived, and delivering all of what we ordered.  At least, the food was good.  Both of us will be writing Princess after the cruise to comment on our experience at this restaurant.

 

 

 

PS: We later saw videos of excursions from this port which made me wish we had taken the coach tour to the top of the mountains surrounding Geiranger.  After seeing the view from the top of the mountain, snow on both sides of the road, and the fjord 3000 feet below, I wish we had taken the bus excursion at this port.

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/18/24 (Flam, Norway)

 

Flam and its railway were the main reasons we decided to take this specific cruise, and not the other 14 day cruise which had 3 Norwegian ports and 3 Icelandic ports.  I'm a little bit of a railroad nut, and I love taking scenic train journeys,

But first....

After getting a restful, but short sleep, RQS and I woke up at 4:00 am to see one side of the Fjord passing by our balcony window.  Although I kept her awake, she was happy to see the landscape passing by, with water falls, snow tipped peaks, and silky smooth waters as we cruised through the Fjord leading to Flam.

Neither of us had enough sleep.  But we knew that the Flam railway was a must.  This railway has the steepest incline (up to a 1 in 18 gradient) on a standard gauge railroad in Europe.  And the scenic views from the train are breathtaking.  So, after a hearty breakfast, we were off to the railway station for the Flam Railway: Waterfalls and Waffles excursion.  We were not disappointed.  Instead, we were stunned by the beauty of glacier fed streams, water falls, and the route leading to Vatnahalsen and its namesake hotel.

In Vatnahalsen, we stopped for Waffles and Tea before returning to Flam.  This is where I struck up a conversation with another railroad fanatic who previously rode the White Pass and Yukon Railway from Skagway to White Pass.  Both of us swapped stories about railroads, steam locomotives, and the routes we have yet to travel.   All too soon, we were back in Flam and on to the ship.

According to several cruise bloggers, Flam is a must visit stop on any Norway cruise.  On this I must concur.  The railway can be the highlight of one's visit to the fjords because of its spectacular views, and the railway shore excursion is in the same league as the White Pass and Yukon Railroad excursion in Alaska.

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/17/24 (Haugesund, Norway)

 

I awoke to an overcast day, knowing that we were not on a fixed schedule.  Our ship was due to make port in Haugesund around 9:00 am, and RQS had planned to take an exercise class at 10:00 am.  So RQS joined me for an early breakfast (not eating anything) while I feasted again.  (Reminder to self: Aim to have breakfast in the main dining room next time.)  

Around 10:00 am, RQS went to exercise, while I went to the atrium to relax and catch up on reading the daily news.  (She found that no one but her was at the exercise class, so she had the leader to herself - a private lesson.)  RQS texted me to tell me that she made it up to our cabin when the power went out.  First, it was the lights in the stores (closed for the time in port), followed by everything else for a few seconds.  Then, the emergency power and lights kicked in.  We were told NOT to take the elevators at this time, so I told RQS that I'd come up when it was safe.  Once I heard the ultra low pitched sound of the ships engines kicking in, I went up to the room to meet RQS before having a light lunch.

Shortly after lunch, we took the shuttle bus into Haugesund.  $8/pp (approx.) isn't an unreasonable price to be shuttled into town and back, given the price of gas (or electric) in this neck of the world.

Later on in the day, we went to the main dining room for dinner.  Compared to what we've had in the past on NCL, Princess's MDR now shows itself to be better than what we have been finding on our NCL trips.  Hopefully, our Autumn Bermuda trip will show that NCL has rectified the problems we've seen on previous cruises....

One thing of note:  We chose an all-inclusive package (Princess Premier) which gives us 4 devices of unlimited internet use on this cruise. This is a much better deal than I could have gotten on any other cruise line that I've sailed on.  However, there is a minor glitch.  When we sailed out of the US, we were connected to a United States based IP address, and the ads presented to us were geared to the US market.  However, on this cruise, the IP assigned to us was either UK based or German based.  This means that we've been getting ads geared for the UK and EU markets, some of them in German.  In the Google search results for Linens and Things above, I got responses from European stores with prices listed in Euros.  There are also some sites that I cannot reach due to EU restrictions.  I guess that I'll have to wait until we return to the US to order a new dress from Lane Bryant, or to order a new wig from Wig Outlet.  But what I find most interesting is that I keep getting forced to German sites of international businesses based in the USA.  Even my high school German has proven to be no use here....

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/16/24 (Sea Day #1)

What can I say about sea days, save for that the most important thing one can do is relax.  We were glad that we had this day to rest, as our bodies were on New York time, and we were now sailing in Central European time.

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The first thing on our docket was a "Deluxe Balcony Breakfast for Two."  Although we could have had a table set up for us on our balcony, we chose to have this spread set up on a table in our cabin.  There was an Assortment of Pastries, a Melon dish, a Smoked Salmon dish, and Quiche Lorraine to eat, along with coffee, orange juice, and sparkling wine to wash it down.  We were stuffed to the gills before 10:30 came around, and there was no way we were going to have lunch at a normal time.

After a chance to rest, we went to afternoon tea.  Although this might not have been as fancy a presentation as is done on one of Princess's sister lines (Cunard), it was well worth the effort to enjoy this sea day activity.  Once done, we proceeded to Rudi's Catch (Princess's specialty seafood restaurant) to change our scheduled time for the first of our specialty dinners.  Princess's app forced us to choose an 8:30 pm dining time, while we wanted something earlier.  Luckily, the restaurant we chose had quite a few openings for 7:00 pm, and we jumped at that slot.  Then, we took another short nap, still dealing with our body clocks being out of sync with local time.

Around 6:15 pm, we started to get dressed for a formal night. I surprised RQS by wearing a tie with my male "casual formal" garb (read: blue blazer, dress grey slacks, and a button down shirt), while I'd have rather been presenting as Marian in a nice LBD with pearls.  (She joked that she'd help me practice with this, and I said - no thanks....)  Then, it was off to Rudi's.

Princess made a big mistake with the design of Rudi's Catch on this ship.  Both their Steakhouse and Italian restaurants are separated from places where people gather (and where music is performed) by a sound blocking partition or wall.  This is not the case with Rudi's Catch.  It is right off the main atrium, where a band playing loud music can make it impossible for anyone to have a conversation. Most importantly, the volume of this music makes it hard for restaurant staff to communicate with both its patrons and other staff members.  (Princess should fire the people who made this design decision, and find a way to separate this restaurant from the noise from the atrium as soon as possible.  But I digress.)

As much as I enjoyed my meal at Rudi's on my last cruise, I was wishing we were somewhere else for this meal.  We enjoyed an appetizer with a small lobster tail.  I had chosen the Three S (shrimp, scallops and salmon) main course, while RQS chose a dinner portion of lump crab cakes - a big mistake, as the crab cakes had no flavor.  (Later on, I said that RQS should have ordered one of the main courses and not eat everything.  But RQS hates to waste food without good reason.)  Neither of us were impressed by the Crepes Suzette we had for dessert.  In short, we could have skipped this dinner and had gone to the buffet for a better meal.  Hopefully, this restaurant will do better on our second visit later on in the cruise.

Once done with dinner, we called it a night.  

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If you've gotten this far.... HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/15/24 (Leaving for Southampton and starting our cruise)

 

This was one of the most uneventful parts of our trip so far, and yet I feel that there is something important to note....

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London traffic makes New York, Chicago and Los Angeles traffic look like their drivers are running in the Indianapolis 500.  Given the distance between Heathrow Airport and London's central district, it took 2+ hours to reach out hotel.  Going to Southampton was worse, as it took 3 hours to reach the cruise terminal - an hour of that inside metropolitan London itself.  This is one city in which I never will under any circumstances drive any motor vehicle, nor should any one else do so unless s/he is a bus driver.

Arriving at the cruise terminal, I was impressed at how quickly we were processed, given that Princess Cruises' computers were acting up and that they both had to find our Medallions and warn us that our security photos might have to be retaken onboard the ship.  (We were lucky - we scanned onto the ship without problems.)

Our first stop was to our cabin, where we found a plate of chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us.  Once we watched the muster video, it was off to the grill for burgers and dogs before checking in at our muster station.  But this was not the only thing we had to do.  RQS had bought an extra pair of specialty dinners that were not being recorded on the folio.  First, we had to nap, as we were still suffering from disruption to our sleep schedules.

After our nap, it was off to the main dining room (MDR) for dinner, where we had an enjoyable chat with two families residing in the UK.  Towards the end of dinner, I got on my soapbox a little and mentioned that the populist, right wing, authoritarian trends we're seeing in the west shouldn't be unfamiliar, as they are the same as what happened in Europe in the 1920's and 1930's.  (RQS said that I didn't go too far or too heavy on the topic.)  Luckily, I didn't offend the families, as I was feeling no pain after two glasses of wine and a double espresso with two shots of Sambuca.

Finally, we were off to Guest Services, where our claim of having 4 paid for specialty dinners was confirmed.  We could now rest easily for the evening. And, boy did I need to rest - this was the first time I could say that I wasn't sober enough to drive in years.  I'm glad I left that task to the ship's captain....