KristiZ

I am onboard right now She’s a great ship. If the price is right and the itinerary is interesting, go for it!

Day 10 - Haugesund This was the port stop that got added fairly last minute, and shore excursions took over a week to populate. Even after they were up in the Cruise Planner, there were no descriptions. So I picked the Akrafjord and Langford Waterfall excursion a bit randomly, with pretty much no research. Not like me at all! Turned out to be a great day, with lovely weather. No regrets! Sailing in to port: Driving through town, and the very pink town hall: Monument to the Viking warlord that united Norway: Farmhouse restaurant for lunch, plus a photo stop at said farmhouse: Boat cruise on the fjord to the gorgeous Langfoss: A campsite you can rent, with a view of the falls: 11pm:

If the ship docks at 5pm, you can expect to be able to get off about 530p. If you’re actually docked, not tendering, you can probably be off within 10 minutes after the ship is cleared by port authorities. Tendering takes longer. You will probably have to be back onboard by 930pm.

Welcome to the boards! It will depend on your specific cruise. If your cruise itinerary shows the time you will be in port, expect all aboard to be 30 minutes prior to the stated departure time.

They are accepted.

Day 9 - Flam Flam is the first port on this trip where tourism is actually the main industry, catering to both internal and external tourists. A gorgeous, long sail in through the second largest fjord in the world, and then a tiny village of 500 people. And our weather today was phenomenal! We chose the Aurland, Laerdal, and Borgund Stave Church tour. It was excellent. We drove through the longest car tunnel in the world, which was fun but not very photogenic We saw arguably the oldest stave church in the world. Then fantastic scenery along a very narrow mountain road, with a stop at Stegastein overlook. Our guide was very good too. Coming in to Flam: The stave church: The “new” church from the late 1800s, currently under restoration: View from Stegastein overlook: Scenery:

I know, right?! Always learning new things! I love it!

I think you’ll be happy with your choice. Some folks on our tour today did that one yesterday and enjoyed it!

I am behind on food pictures again, so here’s a bunch!

Day 8 - Alesund This is a very picturesque town, much more what you think of when you think of Norway. Our weather was not as good as it had been, but still decent. We got sprinkled on a bit and there were more clouds. We did the Stranda Mountain Explorer excursion. Our guide was a French woman, again excellent. This tour is more bus and less active than we like, but still enjoyable. Alesund on arrival. The port where we docked is tucked inside a little inlet, so there were some interesting gyrations getting us in. While this was a bus tour, we had to take two ferries to get around. They just put the whole bus on the ferry, which was fun. Also, some of the ferries are electric and get charged for a few minutes each time durning unloading and loading. See the white shed on the right, that’s the charging station. Stranda Mountain is a ski resort that tries to have year round activities. They can ski here until the beginning of June usually. We took the gondola to the top and got some nice views. There was also a waffle, of course! The church from the 1800s in the town a Stranda. The older church was destroyed by a tsunami caused by an avalanche into the fjord: Various scenes from the trip:

My husband just wears a short sleeve dress shirt and he has not been underdressed.

I suspect this has to do with the increasing number of countries requiring “up to date” — can’t have a crew member that needs extra testing and restrictions every time the ship comes into port.

Sadly it’s still only two.

Different ships will load schedules at different times. If the sailings were both on Harmony you might worry, but as it is just keep checking back. Our Enchantment sailing back in March didn’t load in the app until January.

Day 7 - At Sea I thought I’d use today to talk about the stray observations I’ve had so far. I usually wait until the end, but we’re going to be so busy the next few days I’ll probably forget everything from the beginning of the cruise! - We have passengers from 52 different countries onboard. I love it! Americans are less than half the group, which is rare on Royal outside of China. So many languages! - This cabin (9656) is listed on the Royal site as holding 8 people. NOPE. There’s no way. Maybe 6, if four of them were tiny humans. Better 4 or even 2. It is perfect for the three of us. - There are a lot of new staff in training, in all areas. Also, a number of the crew have had their contracts extended or are expecting an extension shortly. The ship doesn’t feel particularly understaffed, but it does feel a bit stretched. No complaints about service so far though! - This is a great itinerary, but if I had a choice I would take one that included Longyearbyen. If I’m going this far north I might as well go all the way! - Our weather so far has been absolutely phenomenal. It may not hold, but I’m so grateful for what we’ve had so far. - Shows have been a bit limited so far, at least on the production side. Supposedly we’ll have one later in the week, but so far everything has been magicians or guest singers. Not sure if that is covid related, or due to the large number of languages to accommodate, or what. - Food has so far been quite good overall. MDR service has been not quite as good a pre-pandemic (same as the other two cruises I’ve been on since the restart). I think the dining room staff is less experienced than they were before. - While I’m certain the answer to my walrus question is going to be no, we have seen Minke whales a couple of times, which I wasn’t expecting (not sure why I wasn’t expecting it, but there you go). - We have been exiting the ship on deck 2. This is because all the ports we’ve been to lack a long enough gangway ramp; our choice has been deck 2 or stairs to deck 5 that no wheelchair passengers could navigate. In order to accommodate the tidal flux, we’ve had to shift ballast in the ship to lift our dock side up so we could exit on deck 2. This has meant almost crawling out of the ship at times, the clearance was so low. Apparently the ports have been unwilling to buy new gangways due to pandemic related cash flow problems. Half way through!

Right?! But I’m just happy we’re getting the leftover pies from the British Isles cruise before this — I love a little regional food focus but I’m not very interested in salt cod and lutefisk

The Midnight Sun: The sun did not get any lower than this. It just circled around until it was in the east and then rose again. Super interesting!

We were not the only tourists today in Honningsvag. The Viking Venus arrived ahead of us: Also, these two characters were in the protected bird sanctuary. Perhaps on their honeymoon?? MDR dinner was pretty good. Asparagus soup, Cottage Pie, and strip steak: Ribbbbittt!

Day 6 - Honningsvag Seems like in just one day we went to a completely different planet. Honningsvag is at the 71st parallel, which is above the tree line. The landscape is very desolate and windswept. We did the Bird Safari excursion and chose to go as early as possible in hopes of seeing the maximum amount of wildlife. We were not disappointed! Reindeer, puffins, razorbills, golden eagles, white tailed eagles, kittiwakes, oyster catchers, cormorants, gannets, guillemots, shags, and seals. The drive from the ship was about 45 minutes and the guide was excellent about describing what we were seeing.

@Curt From CanadaPinnacles are allowed in the Concierge Club but not Diamond Plus. Hope that helps!

The route will make a difference too — if the captain can keep more “inside” you’ll have no issue at all. Our trip from Tromso to Honningsvag was smooth as glass! And you’re later in the season, so more likely to be better weather!

We ate dinner at Chops as we sailed out of Tromso. I have to say this Chops experience was just decent. Not bad, but not excellent — either in food or in service.

Day 5 - Tromso This is one of the larger cities in northern Norway, about 80,000 people. They are also going from 50 cruise ships docking in 2019 to nearly 500 expected in 2022. Crazy! A lot is due to uncertainty in the Baltics, so many lines are looking for alternate ports. Also, Norway opened up a bit faster than many other countries in the region. They have a huge tunnel system for getting between the sections of town scattered on different island. I’ve never been in a tunnel system so expansive that it needed traffic circles We did the Highlights of Tromso tour. We saw part of the Tromso Museum, specifically the portion dedicated to the Sami people who were the indigenous reindeer herders that occupied northern Scandinavia starting about 2000 years ago. Our guide did an excellent job of talking us through this section. Next we took a cable car to the top of the hill outside of town. A four minute ride and then some amazing views. The weather was excellent again today! We also had a tasty local waffle with jam and brown cheese. Last we visited the Arctic Cathedral. There was a concert going on at the time so we didn’t get too many pictures on the inside. Here’s a decent shot of the Cathedral as we were sailing away: One of the other tour buses broke down, so we got to see what a heavy duty Norwegian tow truck looks like: Shots of town during arrival and sailaway, in no particular order: And some scenery as we headed north:

Welcome to the boards! I have not been on Odyssey myself, but as far as I know the skating rinks are all ice skating, not roller skating. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

Day 4 - At Sea I will say that if you tend toward seasickness, an itinerary in the North Sea might not be for you. Last night we had 30 foot swells most of the night. Several passengers actually switched rooms in the middle of the night because their cabins were “too loud, with lots of creaking and popping”, including the one directly below us. Personally I feel it just sounded like a ship at sea, but maybe they were more used to larger ships. Dunno. Morning saw much smoother sailing. There was a Blue Nose ceremony at 10:30am, a champagne toast at 5pm, and a balloon drop at 5:15pm. We also got certificates for crossing the Arctic Circle. There have been lots of activities, including various trivia, bingo, art auctions, and the like. I will send in the Cruise Compasses at the end. I’ve gotten behind already in posting food pictures, so here’s a bunch, in no particular order, to catch up! Lunch at Izumi, but we mostly failed at getting photos. Here’s karaage and potstickers: From the MDR or room service: Pepper Steak Pie: Classic Cheesecake: Seafood cake: Braised Short Ribs: Chicken Schnitzel: Classic chocolate cake: Steak Oscar: Jaffa cake: And here’s a jaunty hippo!