Mr.Cruiser

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! 😠 😑
I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …  😞 

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! 😠 😑
I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …  😞 

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! 😠 😑
I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …  😞 

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! 😠 😑
I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …  😞 

You‘re luckier than me. Yesterday I received another one of those emails starting with “About Your Upcoming Travels“ and the subject “Select a New Sail Date“. And this is already the replacement cruise I chose instead of this canceled one. I can‘t believe it! 😠 😑
I‘m getting tired of organizing everything over and over again …  😞 

"We didn't send any emails out about having to change your password, but watch this!"

There was a post on Facebook claiming to be an interaction with RC customer support that noted the password change was required due to changes in their login system.  Having been involved in implementing a similar upgrade years ago, that makes total sense.

But jeez at least send out an email blast letting people know.

So there is still no fix and no info which change has caused this issue?
Is there someone who did not have any login issues at all? I guess everyone who tried had this problem… 🤔
I hope Royal does not expect every customer has to change the account‘s password so hoping there will be a fix yet…
This all looks like changing password policy gone wrong … 🙈  Just hoping there was no data breach…

So there is still no fix and no info which change has caused this issue?
Is there someone who did not have any login issues at all? I guess everyone who tried had this problem… 🤔
I hope Royal does not expect every customer has to change the account‘s password so hoping there will be a fix yet…
This all looks like changing password policy gone wrong … 🙈  Just hoping there was no data breach…

Would you believe my bad luck?!: I was supposed to spend 4 days driving around Romania  (he drives, i do not) with my best friend from today to sunday, but he got stomach flu so we had to cancel, so long story short I lost another 500$... and thats 2 of 4 trips this year cancelled... i am apparently not supposed to travel without my kids this year (luckily the 2 trips I am doing with them, Cruise in July and Cyprus in october is still on...) 
*crawling under a rock to hibernate*

Hello! Just wanted to update on this.
When it got cancelled I sent them one email, and Later when I did not hear anything I sent a new one. 
About a month after cancellation i got a final NO from RC Norwegian customer service on refund for my flight, even if KLM and travel insurance said RC should refund me. I was not happy but I put it away, however 2 weeks ago the US customer service replied to my 2nd email, and confirmed that they had talked to KLM and that RC would refund me 3900kr (380$) for my flight, and today I got the refund. I must say (sorry If I am prejudiced) that I never thought US customer service would be more pro customer than the Norwegian one, taking in regard we have one of the worlds strictest customer protection acts, however they proved me wrong. And this has definitely made me view RC in a totally different light, and made me look forward to my upcoming cruise with Oasis a lot more than I did, and I am sure I will spend way more than what it cost them to refund me in the future, and ofcourse talk good of them to followers, customers etc. so It will definitely be worth it for them. So a happy ending to a sad story! 

Hi guys! First of all: I LOVE this community! I know many of you are going on a RC blog cruise that will visit my country Norway next year (I am also British/Welsh, but Norway is where I am born,raised and currently live). So I wanted to give you all some general advice and tips for Norway whether you are going on the group event or another cruise that passes by here.
 
 
1. Tipping - Norwegians dont really give or receive tip. It is not frowned upon, but our wages are high and Tipping is not necessary (but ofcourse should you receive excellent service you could definitely tip them, however a good review on tripadvisor or Google f.i. would make a stronger impact) 
2. Asking for directions and so on. You will mostly get help from us Norwegians, but it is not only our country that is perceived as cold by foreigners. Many Norwegians are reserved, but when we warm up to you you got a friend for life. So try not to take it to hard if a Norwegian person avoids you.. 
3. Food. First of all Norway is definitely a Potato country.
We have 3 "national dishes" all contain potatoes 
 Kjøttkaker (mince meat pattys served with potatoes,brown sauce,mashed peas and lingonb3rry jam)
Fårikål (mutton,kale, and whole black peppers) served with potatoes and rutabaga
Kompe/Komle/Raspeball (potato balls) served with rutabaga, salt meat and melted butter
(If you go to Oslo "Bondeheimen/Kaffistova" is the place to go for traditional food)
Our most curious food for foreigners is probably brown cheese which is sweet with a caramelly taste (made from biproduct of cheese production). Also our chocolate is world famous, people usually bring with them Freia milk chocolate abroad, I however prefer Stratos (tell me if you like it!)
Also ofcourse Norway is the biggest exporter of Salmon, so if you like Sushi you will get the real deal in Norway (yes in Japan you get Norwegian salmon at the best Sushi restaurants!)
4. Culture. We have a lot of traditional culture in music, clothes and agriculture. You can see some of it on national holidays,otherwise in museums. Norway is also a liberal country and for instance same sex marriages are allowed, we even have a ordinated priest who is non-binary
5. Religion - which brings me to this. We have around 48% Christians, 40% Atheists/Agnostics and 12% other religions. 
 
Excursion ideas:
Whether you find a rc excursion, third party or organize yourself, here are some ideas.  
Stavanger:
Kongeparken (Theme park with a farm theme).
Lysefjorden/Prekestolen (beautiful scenery)
Jæren (Beautiful landscape and farms, also the homeplace of Erling Haaland the world famous footballer) 
Sandnes garn - a Greta place to buy yarn and knitting equipment
Figgjo - Porcelaine of all sorts
 
 
Kristiansand:
 
Dyreparken (Norways biggest zoo)
Aquarama (aquapark in case you go on a ship without it)
Bystranda/Hamresanden/Høllesanden - 3 great beaches (Kristiansand is the best summer spot in Norway, and it is like a mini Barcelona, disclaimer: I am from Kristiansand city.) 
Odderøya - small Island comnected to city centre (right by cruise terminal) 
Kilden - theatre and opera house (right by cruise terminal)
kunstsilo (opens may 2024!) - art museum with the largest european collection of contemporary art! (Right by cruise terminal)
fiskebrygga - fish market (right by cruise terminal)
Ravnedalen - Beautiful park
Myren Gaard - Another beautiful park
Kristiansand Festning - fortress that was crucial during ww2
Kanonmuseet - ww2 canon museum
Arendal/Arendelle - if you travel with kids the city from the Frozen movies (yes they sre set in Norway) is 45 minute drive from Kristiansand.
Vennesla bibliotek - world famous Library
( if you are going to Kristiansand, msg me, I could give you SO many more ideas 😅) 
 
Bergen:
Akvariet (aquarium),
Bergen Urban zoo (reptiles) - urban zoo is right next to cruise terminal
 
 
Oslo:
Freia (chocolate factory where you get to make and taste loads of lovely chocolate). Feel free to ask mote about specific ports and so on when you know your ports of call. 
Munch museum art museum
The castle - we have a King and he has a castle! 
The Opera - amazing building
 
Trondheim:
Nidarosdomen - (world famous Church)
Rockheim - (rock museum)
 
North Norway:
I have not been here much, but Lofoten is well worth a visit, so is the Polar circle
 
Other places:
General the west coast is great, I always reccomend western or northern Norway as opposed to eastern Norway (in the summer the south is amazing!) 
 
I have probably forgot LOADS! Feel free to comment with your ports of call in Norway and I will give you nore ideas.
 
-Chris-

Interesting. I thought they just cancelled my booking of 12 Oct. So it seems to affect all October 2024 sailings of the Explorer... 🤔
I was curious and also checked my cabin: It is also shown as available although I have not yet contacted them. 😄
I wonder what happens if someone else books the cabin and you decide to stay? Who then has to change their cabin? 🤨
 
They turned my cruise into the "8-Night Greece, Italy & Cyprus" cruise with completely different itineraries. I have not booked this route so I will have to cancel the cruise. A lot of planning time went into it and unfortunately there is no mention of what happened or why none of the originally planned ports can be visited. Has anyone heard any more information about this? 🙄
Another thing to bear in mind is that even if I change my booking to another comparable cruise it will definitely be more expensive because I had booked shore excursions and other things in the cruise planner with significant discounts during the Black Friday deal.
Now these things are much more expensive and I can't book them again with the same discounts, which is very annoying. 😡
 

This has been cancelled, just my luck... moderator feel free to deletes this roll call... 

Stolen from same post... 😆

I find the new European cruises for 2025 disappointing in several respects.
No more cruises along the west coast of Norway and therefore no more Arctic Circle Cruise. Luckily I'm doing mine next year. 😅
With the removal of Anthem in Europe some cruises have unfortunately been completely discontinued.
For 2025 I wanted to book a cruise to the Canary Islands but instead of 4 dates there is only one cruise in early May - but it's not warm enough for me at that time.
Also the 14-day Mediterranean Cities and Med Beaches & Cities no longer seem to be offered.
Do you think there will be more dates released this week for summer 2025 cruises in Europe or is that it? 🙄

Norway Excursions: Best Tours, Acitivities & Things To Do In Norway
Olden Cruise | Olden Norway Shore Excursions

I am from Norway (Kristiansand) feel free ro ask me any questions about where to go and what to see (personsally i would always reccommend western and Northern norway, as opposed to southern (where I live) and especially eastern Norway. 
Lysefjorden,Sognefjorden,Jæren and Lofoten are perhaps my "must see" places in Norway. Good trip to all of you visiting my country! 
 

I've booked a tour with Blue Puffin (https://www.blue-puffin.com/en/) for Honningsvåg and in their T&C they mention they'll adjust the tour for late cruise ship arrivals or early cruise ship departures. However, they also keep 10% of the tour cost if the ship can't make port to cover their expenses instead of a full refund.

There are still cruises on Jewel starting in Amsterdam next summer so I hope they can stick to the plan.

The bus shuttle out of the port will take you to Drassanes/colom.
1- metro line 3 (Drassanas/Vallcarca) then a small effort on foot (10+15/20 mn)... 3€ 
2- bus 116 (45 min) 3€
3- metro 3 and bus 116
Or direct to the descent of the cruise, the taxi 11/15 mn: 15/20€ 
Or... on foot : 1h10 ! but it's free 🙂

Day 14 .. last day at La Spezia.  This is the stop where you could go get on a train and head over to see the leaning tower of piza.  But, honestly after we looked at the whole trip we couldn't really find much else to see our do after that.  Thus, we decided on doing something else.   Our diamond lounge host, JJ, had highly recommended taking a ferry over to see the little villages of Chique Terre.  Or something like that.   
The idea was to take the ferry around to see each little village then around the 5th stop hop of and then take the train back.   I was expecting about 100euro for the four of us, but guess prices went up and it was more like 160.  All good though.   I have to say it was hard getting going.   Especially getting the kids up and moving.   There were a few conversations about how nice it would be to end on an at sea, instead of rushing to do an excursion then back to pack. 
The ferry leaves around the 15 minute mark of every hour, we aimed for the 1215.  Yeah it was a little later than planned but I think most of that planning was stuck in my head and didn't make it past that.  Off we went to get a ticket and jump on the ferry.   Plenty of time ... yeah, no.   It's like a 15m walk from where you get the ticket down to the ferry.   After getting the tickets we had like 15m.  When we realized just how far down we had to go, we had to pick up the pace.  Think we made it on board just before the shoved off.  The boat is nothing special but if it's crowded you have to sit inside.   There is a balcony where those in the know sit ... we weren't in that knowing group.   All good though.   
It was challenging for a bit .. I mean trying to motivate a sleepy kid and a hangry kid.  The ferry was slow and enjoyable from a relaxable stand point.  There were some really nice views, pictures to come in a bit.   We made it down to the second stop before opting to jump off and go see the little town.  Mainly, it was decided to hunt food then head back for the sanity of everyone. 
Bring your hiking legs and hill climbing legs.  Yeah, so this stop at least has quite a few stairs and a sorta steep hill in the middle of town.   Fair warning for stop 2.  🙂
The first stop isn't that bad and no clue on the other stops.   The little city was cool and the wife and I talked about staying there but then we started to think after a day or two for us it would get boring.
We found some fried crab and fries and something else but it was just ok ... nothing to make us go wow.  Probably just touristy cooking. Heh.  The girls shopped for a minute as there really wasn't that much that stood out to go look into.   After milling about wasting time till the next ferry, we made our way back to wait for the next one.  It was probably a good thing we took the ferry back towards the ship as there were dark storm clouds over the further stops, so it could have gotten us all wet and made for an even funner trip - lol.  #sarcasm.  Once back at La Spezia, off to get back on the ship we went.  The kids were anxious to go find their new friends to hang out one last time, while the wife and I hunted coffee and snacks.
The packing had started the night before.  I usually like to start packing back up a little before the last day, just makes it a little less stressful on me.  It's not much, just getting the suitcase back out and rolling up the dirty clothes.  Speaking of clothes ... we packed way too much.  I think there were like an extra 4 pairs of pants I packed for some reason that I never wore.  Better to have a little more than not enough.
We thought about hitting up the main dining room to see if the meal would be a good one for our last night, but nothing on the menu stood out to us to make us want to get dressed up to sit through it.  Thus, we opted to find something in the jammer.  I have to say, the food on this cruise didn't wow us.  Our last Anthem cruise, the food was outstanding and even on the Oasis and Allure, the food was fairly rememberable.  This one - I guess I have to say forgettable.  But that's just us  🙂  
The evening brought on our last casino day.  We had made some slot playing friends over the week that we laughed and cheered with.  It's fun to meet other people who enjoy chatting and cheering for a couple dollars on a slot machine.  By the end of the night, we went to talk to the casino host to see if we qualified for a free cruise ... 36 points short.  Yeah, so we stayed a little longer to get those points and get our free cruise.  Now comes figuring out when/where/what ship that'll be on.  Back to room to finished packing and get the kids packed up then off to bed before getting up early.  We had to disembark about 8:30 and just walked off with our luggage.  Each of us had one backpack and one large suitcase, so it was easy.  It was the smoothest disembarking experience we've had thus far.  I'm thinking it was not as crowded as a Caribbean cruise, where everyone has to get off and everyone has to get on.  This one, seemed like about half get off in Rome, since the other half had gotten on midway through the cruise.
We used Rome Cabs and had prebooked a specific time for 9am pickup.  The cabbie showed up and was holding a sign with my name and we were the only ones in the cab.  The hourish drive to the airport was kinda quiet.  We were all exhausted and sad to be leaving.  Funny how you have mixed feelings about leaving and wanting to have just a few more at sea days and at the same time feelings of being ready to get home.
If you haven't traveled internationally yet, you might want to add an extra hour or so to deal with the airport.  Especially ones you don't know how to navigate.  Plus, some of the going through customs can be really slow.  We thought we had like 3 hours to burn at the airport but by the time we got there and thru customs and actually found our gate, we only had like 30 minutes.
I won't go much into the flights, other than to say it was an hour late leaving to head to NY where we had a 2 1/2 hour layover - now 1 1/2 hours or little less.  Long 9ish hour flight was pretty painful.  Sleeping on the flight was difficult.  I let our daughter have the window seat so she could lay her head against the side - my head bobbled to and fro.  Thinking a massage soon will be needed.  
We landed last night in NY.  Uh, so what we didn't factor in was all the security and customs.  In a nutshell, you have to walk all the way back to baggage claim, go thru customs, go wait and get your bags.  Yes, you have to get your checked luggage.  But then you go around the corner and re-check it, so not to big a deal.  Then go back through the line at another customs and then towards another security checkpoint.  I think we had like 4 different checkpoint where we had to show our passports.  Keep those handy and if you can do paper ticket, that's advisable.  Some folks with tickets on their phones were holding up the line.  All this, and then about a 15-20 fast walk all the way to our gate.  Tic tok - the time showed they had started to board and we were still a long ways from the gate, so fast walking kicked in.  Guess what - we got to the gate and the plane was delayed an hour.  At least that gave the girls time to hit the bathroom and grab a coffee and some more snacks.
Finally, we boarded the plane home.  This was the last leg - another delay because they didn't get the freaking drink package correct.  After sitting in the plane for another 30 minutes, finally we taxied and headed home.
To summarize the whole trip.  It was good and I'm glad we did it.  However, next time we'll opt for a longer cruise and shorter days wandering around.  We'll still tack on a couple of days before a cruise, but probably not a full week.  For me, all cruises are great - I love just being on the ship, regardless of what ports we are doing.  It's the atmosphere that I enjoy.  Everyone is over the top friendly, with the exception of some of the other cruisers.  Ya'll know 'those' people.  
Back to work we go.  Now's time to plan for our daughter going to college in a few months.  Our next major cruise is slated for summer 2025 probably going out of Southhampton, England.  The ships/dates aren't out for that just yet, but right now seems it'll be a 12 to 14 night route somewhere.  If we schedule our free cruise, I'll be back to blog that one.  🙂
Thanks for joining us on our international trip and bearing with me through the good times and bad times - lol.  I have to say, blogging like this seems to be therapeutic and also help remember what all we did.  As you can tell from my blog, it turns out to just be a brain dump.  A little coffee in the mornings and a little blogging about the previous day and you'll be good.   I'll toss some additional pictures of places out in a little bit.  If there's any questions or want to see if I grabbed a picture of something, toss a reply.  Otherwise, happy cruising and enjoy!
John and Carrie Hobby
 

Glad you enjoyed the blog.
The app actually worked pretty good.  We did have to set our phones to roaming and in airplane mode while on the ship.  We were able to turn notifications on for the app in order for us to text each other.  The calendar was for the most part up to date.  There were a few cases where we had JJ in the DL make a reservation for us that didn't show, but we knew what time we had for dinner in the Solarium.  
The weeks leading up to the cruise, some of our bookings / shows / dinner would be in there but it seemed to only be one whoever reserved it.  So, there was a few where my wife booked stuff that I couldn't see on my linked calendar - but it seemed to work better than our last cruise in 2019.
The other thing to watch for ... since we had two balconies, we had to make Giovanni's reservation for both rooms at the same time.  However, because it was two rooms - they thought it would be two separate tables with two people each ... not a reservation for four.  Make sure to swing by the restaurant, if that's your case, and have them combine the reservations into a single with everyone at the same table.  It worked out for us, since we ate at like 5:30 before the big crowd of reservations kicked in.

Two balloons fly across the desert.
Says one to the other: " Watch out, a cactusssssssssss...."
"What wasssssssssssss…?“

Dinner options in the Solarium... what we had was good except the salmon was dry.  But much nicer than sitting in the WJ ... #spoiled