GregD

11 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Very patriotic of you to not be in England on July 4th, acceptable for Sabrina since she is Canadian. 

I'm scheduled to work on the 4th, Im not giving up my double-time paycheck 

11 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

There will still be some 270 noise even on deck 10 but not nearly the disturbance that there is on deck 8.

Good to know, though I doubt I will mind

Post cruise antics:

As I mentioned earlier, we are staying in London for 5 days after the cruise to do all of the touristy things. We ended up booking a Premier Inn as our hotel. This one is super convenient because its right near Paddington Station. This gives us easy access to the tube, and when it's time for our journey to end, we can take the Heathrow Express to get to the airport. 

While in London we have plans to try to see many of the sights. On the list is the hop on hop off bus tours, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, We have tickets to go up into The Shard, we will probably also do the London Eye. We too are big Harry Potter fans, so we have a walking tour booked. We would also like to see Windsor Castle, and we have a Palaces and Parliament tour booked that will take us through Westminster, and see changing of the guard etc.

Our final day in England we have rented a car and I get to practice driving on the other side of the road. The Boss is a huge Downton Abbey fan, so we are going to spend the day at Highclere Castle where the show and many other movies etc were filmed.

Stateroom: As we all know, we are star class neighbours (neighbors?) After Sabrina sent me that message and I had the “STAR CLASS IS A REQUIREMENT” ultimatum from The Boss I quickly pulled up the cruise online, and sent the TA an email to move the 2021 Norway cruise to 2022. We specifically wanted Grand Loft Suite 10324. The whole time I was waiting for the response I was panicking because we were quite specific on the room we wanted because;

1) being neighbors (neighbours?) To the OG suite snob allows me to check that off the bucket list. 

2) Not have to worry about noise from 270, 

3) have a better room layout than the corner suites. I can’t think of a better way to view the fjords while sipping on a cocktail with those aft views.

After two days of

We got the confirmation and we were officially moved. I’m super excited for this stateroom. This will be our first foray into the loft category. Normally my sister is with us, so we are limited in our choices with 5 passengers, but this will just be the 4 of us. The wow factor of these rooms will be awesome too with surprising the kids.

25 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Leory is the Genie for both our suites.

This poor genie has no idea what's in store for him......

Pre-cruise travel for us:

We booked our flights a while ago. I spent many hours looking over many websites and different departure airports. We live near Albany, NY so getting to major airports is not a big deal for us, so we looked at flights from NYC, Newark, Boston, Bradley and found that it was actually easier and more cost effective to fly from Albany. We ended up booking flights directly through British Airways, though the flights are operated by American Airlines. The cost difference to fly from Albany vs JFK for the same flight was $300 total round trip. Factoring my time driving to JFK which is about 3 1/2 hours each way and parking fees etc Flying from Albany is a no brainer. The airport is 20 minutes from my house, and we can get a ride from family.

We were originally going to leave July 5th, but the OG flight got cancelled and moved to earlier in the day, but we couldn’t make that work with The Boss’s case schedule, so now we leave on July 6th at 4pm EST. We arrive in London on Thursday at 0800am London time. That gives us plenty of time if there are travel delays.

Once we arrive in Heathrow, we have a car service booked to take us directly to Southampton. Hopefully we can get at least a little sleep on the flight to we aren’t completely exhausted. We plan to drop the luggage at the hotel and will try to stay busy as long as we can, and then crash. We booked a Novotel that is right across from the port, so getting to the ship the next morning will be super easy. The hotel is also not far from The cultural quarter and city center, so there will be plenty to keep us busy.

We will also be going to London for a few days, but we are doing that after getting off the ship...more on that to come!

40 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 

Hubby is still disappointed that we are not doing the Pulpit Rock hike. Not that I was even entertaining that option to begin with. Last year we took a trip out to the Rockies and did a few "easy" hikes. My feet are still, almost a year later, recovering from that. I told him then that I was done with hiking. Definitely not my scene lol, especially not some 8km uphill hike!

Aww man, had I known this I would have gone hiking with him, while you ladies went on the Lysefjord cruise

Itinerary:

The original group cruise visited, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Alesund, and Bergen. At the time, I had nearly all the excursions planned out so when we switched to this one things were easy, we just now had to account on what the kids could tolerate.

This cruise visits Kristiansand, Alesund, Flam, and Stavanger. The itinerary originally had Geriengerfjord which is so picturesque and had a really cool excursion to a glacier etc, but that got swapped for Flam. Still deep into a Fjord, and opens up other opportunities for exploring.

Kristiansand: We opted for the Old Town Walking tour. This was on our choice on the original cruise. This will give ease us into Norway. Us adults get to see the cultural stuff without completely boring the kids, since it isn’t that long. Sabrina and her family are booked on this one too. Our tour ends around lunch time, and if the kids have run out of fun, we can send them back to the ship, and us adults can adventure some more.

Alesund: Bring on the waffles!! This was also on our original cruise. This one just sounds so cool. Experience Norway’s dramatic scenery on a five-hour, fully-guided adventure that includes a ferry boat ride to Sykkylven, a cable car ride to the top of Stranda Mountain, and a picturesque bus ride along Storfjord. The epic journey and Norwegian landscapes begin on a 20-minute ferry cruise from Magerholm across icy-blue waters to the tiny community of Sykkylven, where a fishing and furniture-making industry flourishes. You’ll then hop in a glass-enclosed cable car for a sky-high trip dangling overtop thick pine forest and the snow-ski slopes of Strandafjellet Skisenter. At the mountain summit you’ll enjoy coffee, tea and waffles while overlooking the Sunnmore Alps’ plunging cliffsides and bright-green pastures. A ferry then transports you to Liabygda village, where you’ll relax on a coach drive that leads you along Storfjord. This breathtaking stretch of coastline is home to Europe’s largest glacier and deepest lake — and the surrounding fjord scenery will leave you in awe, as well.

I’m hoping this still happens. It no longer appears in the cruise planner, but it has been sold out for a while. Also, when our cruise docs arrived, we dock in Alesund after this tour was supposed to depart.

Flam: This will be a cool day. We will ride the Flam Railway, which is a short, but steep line up into the mountains. The stretch of railway is the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe. The change in elevation is 2841 feet, and there are 20 tunnels and one bridge. Our tickets are in the morning. In the afternoon we are also going to the Stegastein viewing platform which extends out from the mountain into the fjord. Flam itself is mainly a tourist destination, and there are some shops etc right there including a bakery that looks amazing.

Stavanger: This stop our plans changed. The original cruise had two days in Stavanger followed by a sea day, The first day, we were going to do a walking tour and the second day I was going to hike pulpit rock while The Boss enjoyed the spa. There was a sea day after so I could spend the next day allowing my legs to recover. The new itinerary has one day, and with the kids in tow, we needed to make adjustments. We still kept the walking tour for Heather and the kids, and I was going to do the hike, and hope I don’t die. After some messaging with Sabrina, I found out that they were doing the Lysefjord cruise. We ended up switching Heather and the kids to that so they would have some familiar faces. Later on while checking my travel insurance documentation, one of the exclusions is “injuries obtained while mountain climbing.” Another trip to the cruise planner and now we are all on that cruise. I’ll just get to see pulpit rock from the bottom, and I don’t have to worry about my legs being jello for the rest of the cruise. Oh, did I mention there were waffles on this one too?

Perspective from the other neighbour (neighbor?) It seems so long ago when COVID wasn’t a thing, but our story started out on Empress. The Boss (Heather) and I were looking for an adults only cruise. There was an 8(9?) night Eastern Caribbean BVI cruise that we had booked. The week we booked happened to include Heathers birthday. I remember reading a @twangster blog that got me interested in that Itinerary. We had one of the aft owners suites booked I think. As time went on Heather was nervous about being on a little ship (she is prone to motion sickness) but we liked the idea of going to places that the bigger ships couldn’t get into

I remember when @Matt announced the 2021 group cruise in Norway, and I thought this sounds like a great experience. I brought it up to The Boss who much to my surprise thought the same thing. As she tells it, she never thought about going there, but now that the idea was in her head, why not. We decided that Empress was out and Norway was in, so we jumped ship and the group cruise was booked. That cruise was also our Anniversary, so why not celebrate with friends.

We booked one of the short lived spa balcony rooms, because suite prices were stupid money at the time. The Boss figured if she couldn’t get her suite, the spa bonus was a consolation prize and we didn’t need all that space since it was just us adults. At the time, we had a GS Odyssey Inaugural, a GS2BR on Liberty, plus an A2 on Oasis booked, so something had to give.

Boy did it give. COVID happened and things started getting cancelled. We were so excited to be on those group cruises so that we could finally meet some of these people that we interact with online. The Boss was fully ready to learn from the Suite Snob master herself. As things were going from bad to worse, I remember getting that message from Sabrina about shifting the Norway cruise to the following summer.  I told The Boss about it, and she demanded Star Class.  You all have seen how that conversation went. After messaging my TA, and what seemed like eternity later, the switch was made again, and we all became Star Class neighbors, and the chronicles began.

We couldn’t just stop there though. We also decided to make this an even bigger vacation. The plan was to do two days in Southampton pre cruise, then 5 days in London after the cruise. If you have read my previous Navigator blog, you saw how we like to surprise our kids. Well, we are at it again. The kids are now coming with us, and they have no idea. They think that they are staying at the grandparents while The Boss and I are on the cruise. They still think we are in a balcony room, so the star class room will also be a surprise to them. The plan of attack for letting them in on this is that my dad will drop us off at the airport. The kids will ride along, since they are going to his house after, and they will get the first surprise in the parking lot when we get there. We will still tell them we are in a standard balcony room until we get to the terminal and find the star class banner with an “oops…did we forget to mention we were star class too?"

As we have gotten closer we have been teasing the kids about the things that we are doing. One of the booked excursions ends at the top of a mountain with a snack of waffles. Johnny lamented “but I like waffles.” Lydia was also whining about not going. We told her that she wouldn’t have any fun. The cruise will be mostly scenery and mountains, to which she replied tearfully “I love mountains….” Will the kids end up in therapy from their parents lying to them all the time? Maybe. Is it worth it for the surprises? Definitely.

I can't wait to follow along with this one. It will help me get through the next couple weeks till we and @Lovetocruise2002 take over Anthem!

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I told you those days are long gone!

@GregDand I were just discussing how much we should tempt fate and when we should start our Fjords blog lol

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Sorry, I just caught up on all this now, it's be a super crazy week at work.

I am so glad you posted this as I have always wondered if this would be good for us and the girls on a non-OA class ship. We have LB booked for next August with the girls for a 9 nighter and I passed on this room for the 2 bedroom aft suite. I was actually contemplating changing it so it would be cheaper, but after reading this, I don't think I will.

Stick with the aft suite, way better.

@rjac I think they are assigned just like the other cabana areas and you will find out where you are when you get your ticket on the ship.

@Ampurp85 and @FSUFAN Keep an eye out. There is a big Norway cruise live blog coming.......

@Gabrielbeblo first off, welcome to the blogs. You will find lots of info here and on the main page. I'll do my best to give you some insight/answers.

Drink package question : I personally always get the deluxe drink package. I find that I easily drink enough between cocktails, wine, water, coffee, soda to make the price worth it for me. So you should ask yourself the same question. How much do you plan on drinking each day etc, and figure out if the value is worth it to you. There is no hard and fast answer. While its easy to run to the windjammer to grab a juice during the day, its also much easier to be at one of the many bars and order a great cocktail etc.

Dinner question: The main dining room is included in your cruise fair and they have three options. Set timed dining which is either early (5:30pm) or late seating (8pm) or my time dining which you go when you want during their operating time. Many people like the set time because you can get the same wait staff for the duration of the cruise and build a relationship with them. With mytime, that option(same waitstaff) may not be there depending on the time you go. You also are encouraged to make reservations early for your time slots so you don't have a wait for a table. 

The other option is the windjammer for dinner, or any of the other complimentary places ie sorentos for pizza etc. I personally have not had a bad experience in the main dining room for dinner and have always done the early seating, mainly because I have younger kids, so making them wait until late for dinner makes for grumpy kids. 

Deck 7 - I personally have not sailed in that area of the ship and you will have thousands of opinions on those locations. Some will say they are great, others will say you will feel tons of motion, only you can decide after sailing in that room if you made a good choice or not. 

Other tips, read many of the articles @Matt has written on the main page about all of the options for drink packages, internet, dining, and on an on. Don't sweat the small stuff, relax and have a good time on your cruise. Hopefully this will be the first of many for you. Each time you sail you will learn something new, as I do with each cruise, and take that information into the next one. 

18 hours ago, Simon Bolivar said:

@GregD I just checked with RC and I got mixed feelings more or less they said "if you meet the destination requirements then you should be OK to board". From what I see from visacentral. I just need a "valid passport or national id card" not specified the validity period of it. Fingers crossed, cause its just matter of 3 days literally. I am also heading on the 8th July from Southampton.

good luck, see you on board in 3 weeks!!

Only thing I can think of is to make sure the app is the latest version, or try reinstalling the app.

Per the US homeland security site, minors can arrive with a birth certificate. Adults can use an enhanced drivers license. Hopefully their passports arrive, and it’s a moot point, but you should be fine.

@Simon Bolivar Welcome to the blogs! You should be okay. Per the US state department, Norway is party to the Schengen Agreement. This means US citizens may enter Norway for up to 90 days for tourist or business purposes without a visa. (The UK is also in this agreement) Your passport should be valid for at least three months beyond the period of stay. RC uses the 6 month window as a blanket statement since other countries that they visit do require 6 months (mainly Asian countries and some in South America). I have never seen a port agent scrutinize any of our expiration dates on our passports. 

What Norway Sailing are you on? I'm headed there July 8th this year.

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I’m hesitant to display my ignorance of French cuisine, but honestly, I thought crepes were just for dessert.  It never occurred to me that there anyone would put chorizo and potato (and I love both !) into a crepe !  

I've had crepes so many ways while in France, its amazing. What is also shocking, is what they put on pizza there. Some of the pizzas I have seen while visiting were actually revolting. Some even had a pile of tuna, plopped right in the center, with a raw egg on top........ gross, and I like weird food.....

I'm late to the party on this one, but I'm having major nostalgia moments right now. I have family that live in Luxembourg and have been to Paris and Brussels a few times. Its always funny when someone sees Mannequin Pis for the first time, and realize how small he is. Your pictures bring back such fond memories. Have a great time in the catacombs, its one of my favorite places to visit, as macabre as it is. Its also nice in the summer because its a great break from the heat. 

I have not eaten at The Jules Verne, but did eat at Altitude 95, which I don't believe is in operation any more. The meal I had was outstanding, so you will be in for a treat at The Jules Verne. 

I also can relate to your first meal in Paris, at a nice cafe. Those were some of my most favorite meals in my life. There is just something to be said about eating French cuisine outside, with a great glass of wine, and some good cheese, and watching the world go by.

Maybe the intern was back at it again and they caught it sooner?

@Chuck586 when we were on Oasis in February, we were only able to get to portside for dinner.

7 hours ago, Pattycruise said:

@Matt  it feels so long ago since the old reprice rules.  Can you explain what they are?

If I remember correctly, you could reprice up to final payment date, at which point you are locked in.

4 hours ago, Johnny Johns said:

 

I'd like to hear peoples' experience with these eMed tests? Easy? Could this be just done on the day of cruising while we are waiting to board?

I have used them. All you need is an internet connection, so you could do them in the hotel before you check out. The test is easy to do, and results are in your email very quickly. I typically buy them from the Emed store, and not from RC, they are more cost effective right from emed.