Indy - Norwegian Fjords cruise 18th-26th May review (lots of pics!!!)

A little bit of background...

My name's Dave, I'm 40 years old and play/teach drums for a living.

Jen is 38 and works at a local Martial Arts gym, teaching Muay-Thai Kickboxing (she's a European title holder - retired undefeated).

Jen and I have been together for just over 7 years and I planned to propose to her on this, our very first ever cruise! I chose Norway because her Mothers maiden name is Olsen and her family came over to the UK from Norway a few generations back (so there is Norwegian blood in her!).

We originally had a D1 balcony stateroom booked, but I paid extra and upgraded us to a Junior Suite......priority boarding on embarkation, larger room & balcony, bath robes, bathroom amenities, walk in wardrobe - I thought, what the hell, why not!!

When, finally the big day arrived, we were like excited school children!

We live in Bournemouth, so it only took us 40 minutes to get to Southampton and (thanks to our JS status) we were on the ship in no time....

WOW!!! What a ship......

So...let's get start with the photos already! (all my photo's were taken with my iPhone 5, for those interested in such things)

Indy waiting for us in Southampton (taken from my car whilst queuing for the car park).

MDR (we were on MTD, so King Leah restaurant on Deck 5)

Waiting for our rooms to become available (notice the new poolside screen added during Indy's revitalisation?)

Our room is ready...Room #9272!!!!

Looking in from the front door (notice I'd also bought some slippers and bottled water)

Looking in from the balcony door

Our bathroom

View from our balcony (we were on Starboard side)

For sailaway, I had pre-purchased some chocolate covered strawberries...so we went down to the Champagne Bar and got 2 glasses of bubbly and sat on our balcony....amazing!

Hope you're enjoying my review so far......will add some photo's from day 2 (sea day) when I can tomorrow :)

Ok....why aren't my pics showing :mad:

I'm looking forward to this review Dave as I was on the same sailing :-)

Hope you can get the photos to work

Ok....why aren't my pics showing :mad:

Click on the first photo - it opens in a Flickr album.

Ok....Cruise Critic forum isn't giving me the option to Edit my previous posts....now that I've finally worked out how to add the photos! :mad:

Anyway...let's continue

After we just boarded

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Waiting for our rooms to become available (notice the new poolside screen added during Indy's revitalisation?)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3679/8984881262_4c28e0a659_c.jpg' alt='8984881262_4c28e0a659_c.jpg'> Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Our room is ready...Room #9272!!!!

Looking in from the front door (notice I'd also bought some slippers and bottled water)

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Our bathroom

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

For sailaway, I had pre-purchased some chocolate covered strawberries...so we went down to the Champagne Bar and got 2 glasses of bubbly and sat on our balcony....amazing!

Hope you're enjoying my review so far......will add some photo's from day 2 (sea day) when I can tomorrow

Day 2......Sea day!!!!

Beautiful sunrise over the North Sea..

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Exploring the ship...

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

We loved the artwork onboard this ship!

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

More exploring....

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Time to check where abouts we are in the world.....Oh, that's right...in the middle of the North Sea somewhere!

Until tomorrow.....Night folks!

I'm enjoying the pictures. Can't wait to see more of Norway! This one is on my bucket list, and likely the first "overseas" cruise we'll take. I just don't know when that will be...

great review keep it coming!

We were on her the following week for the six night fjords cruise. I'm reliving it through your review! :D

Great photos, especially from an iPhone. Thanks for sharing. Very interesting destination to me because I spend a lot of time working in Norway, primarily Oslo that have connections with Stavanger.

Stavanger was a total surprise. I expected industrial, grey, not nice and, of course, what's there is completely the opposite. It's just charming with its little white wooden houses in the old part of town, and the little cobbled streets, and the fjord right there on the doorstep.

The Stavanger Tourist Board should run a campaign called:

Stavanger...who knew?!?

Thanks for review and photos.

Keith

Looking forward to your review! We are sailing to the fjords in September, can't wait to see your pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do this review.

Great pics! I've been debating in buying a camera or using my I phone! This helps!

Great pictures and review!!! :)

Cant wait for more - enjoying your review and photos.

I am looking forward to see what you were up in Alesund:-)

This is great! Indy is our new favorite ship since we sailed on her in April. Have a B2B booked in December and can't wait to get back on board. I find myself using my iPhone for pictures more and more. It makes better pictures than my Nikon most of the time! Can't wait for the proposal!

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys!

Before we start Day 3 off, I forgot to mention that we saw the excellent ice skating show (Freeze Frame) on Day 2, so here's a couple of photo's and others from that day...

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

P&O's Ventura (also going to Norway, but with a different itinerary) hot on our heels

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Day 3 - cruising up the Fjords and Flåm, our first port of call.

This was the day I had planned to propose to Jen (before dinner), I'd booked us a table at Giovanni's. However, unfortunately, Jen had been ill during the night (unknown to me - good thing really, being a self confessed emetophobic).

We put it down to too much rich food and alcohol (Jen has Crohn's disease and whilst she is in remission and hasn't had a proper flare up in a number of years, she still has to be careful).

Anyway, Jen woke up feeling much better (tired and starving, but otherwise fine).

Luckily, we'd ordered room service the night before of pastries and coffee to have on our balcony.....this was a life saver for Jen, and much appreciated by me too.

I decided that I would postpone the proposal until later in the cruise because Jen said she was going to take it easy on the alcohol today (very wise). I wanted us to go out around the ship and celebrate our engagement, and I sensed Jen wouldn't be in the partying mood tonight.

So...at around 8am we had breakfast on our balcony as we entered the fjords....and I think you'll agree the view was glorious!!

Good morning Norway!!

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

After breakfast (Round 2) we decided we should go up on deck to take in the views......the Fjords were spectacular!

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

We did a lot of looking up on this cruise!

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Docking in Flåm.....

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8408/8983736727_6182eec279_b.jpg' alt='8983736727_6182eec279_b.jpg'> Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

We had an excursion booked for this cruise....the famous train up through the mountains - great views, although we did feel a little bit herded like cattle....

Finally on Norwegian soil....queuing to get on the train

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

When we reached the top, we had some waffles and jam with coffee before the journey back down to Flåm and our floating Hotel :)

Oh look...here's a photo of me, with Indy looming over Flåm

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7324/8983745475_fc8d44f233_b.jpg' alt='8983745475_fc8d44f233_b.jpg'> Independence Of The Seas - Norway cruise 18th-26th May 2013 by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]