Norwaylady

So, I was awake around 07.00. I started the day by the newspaper on the bed. Around 08.00 I went up to go for a walk. Then Mr jumped out of bed🤗 HELLO 👋🏻 are you up??? 🤭 Well, now you just have to wait, I will go for a walk. You can walk together by me or relax in bed….. Mr choose bed🤭😅 So I went out and did my walking tour. It was not a full speed walk. My leg and back only allowed 75% of speed. So not complaining🙃 I can at least go for a full walk session😇 So today was breakfast outside on the OceanView terrace. (My own fault… had I known he was early up, I had walked earlier🤪) Mr had his usual omelette, herring and bread…. Today it’s lots of options of entertainment, events on. Something tells me it will be a packed theatre 15.00 for Captain Matt & CD Giuseppe😁 I did some work things before I headed up for the sun deck. Mr ran off before me. I was up around 11.30 and plenty of seating available around the ship. Now it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy the day🥰😎⚓️

CruiseCompass Day 9 Sea Day

Tonight’s dinner was in Tuscan. We where seated and served by table: The menu tonight is rather limited for those wanting fish or don’t fancy pork… This is partially the same for yesterdays menu. it’s very boring and limited. So 2 weak dinner sets after each other…. Hopefully the new sets will be better😇 We hade the best neighbours on the table next to us😂😂😂😂 Mr & Mrs Bucket…. Or as Hyacinth would say: Bouquet! Mr & I almost said it synchronised after we where seated😂😂 “Mr Richard “ was on the phone clicking the entire dinner, saying 3 words during the entire time…. And Hyacinth was sitting there just clicking, shooting in some questions. Back to dinner service🤓 Mr wanted Caesar salad, shrimp soup and the duo pork. I went for arugula salad and shrimp soup. Salad was good and arrived quickly on the table. Our soup was delayed. A supervisor came by and said they needed to make a new batch… it will arrive… What supervisor didn’t understand/get was that I had soup as main course and Mr as a starter…. 2.minutes later, the soup arrived. After eating the soup, Mr had his main course. Mr said the main course of pork duo was good. It was juicy and tasty. For dessert, we had some ice cream. We ordered coffee, Mr had a cappuccino and I had a espresso macchiato (you know that petite cup…😝) Mr’s cappuccino was perfect! Really perfect, fluffy foam and soft. Really good. But mine was not an espresso macchiato in any ways…. 🇮🇹 Guiseppe🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 You need to do a show, how to make Italian coffee☕️ After dinner we ended the evening🥱😴

Tonight’s show is illusionist/magic/comedy Vinny Grosso. Shoe emergency 👡👡👡🚨 😅😱😵‍💫🚨 Guiseppe!!! This is made in Italy 🇮🇹🤌🏻 I was walking in the staircase from deck 12 to 11 and what happened🙈🙈🙈 Mamma Mia😩 Captain Matt, you need to speed up! We need to go shopping in Dubai😩🤩💸👠 So Mr continued onward downstairs and I went upstairs to get another pair of shoes… The black ones🩷 We started our evening in Al Bacio. Charlie was playing in Grand Foyer😊 He is really talented and gets the mood up a notch or two🥰 Around 20.minutes before the show, we moved to the theatre. The show was magic comedy🤣🤩 Mr Grosso did a great job. Hands up 🙌🏻 for he’s “volunteering” guests on stage. They had to “work” for their evening😝

It’s a fun movie🤣🤣🤣 Really enjoyed it! Mr & a lot of other men was laughing loud during the movie😂😂😂 🩷 Go Barbie🩷

We went for Barbie🩷 I sent Mr off to Rooftop Garden to get us a good seat. Cleaver choice of me🤩 Before we moved to movie viewing, the walked around giving out raspberry sorbet 🍧 (I have seen them daily walking ice cream;) The garden was packed and people where laying on the floor on towels and seated on the loose chairs belong to the restaurant. Before Barbie it was Pool deck entertainment, Tug of War. Crew representing their department/team… Let’s just say you know who onboard that do lots of heavy lifting😂😂😂 After Barbie we wanted a little snack, I was to hungry to go all the way until dinner… (since we hadn’t had lunch) We took some pizza on the terrace. As we sat outside, we suddenly had at least 15 dolphins straight out from us. Really happy for seeing them jumping around🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬 After the snack stop we headed downstairs. Today’s canapés:

2 happy campers on Edge 15. April 2019 Key West. Crossing fingers for luggage arrival during our first port of call😇 (the bags arrived 15.minutes before departure of the ship😅) Wearing our new outfit from the super quick shopping stop before boarding day😂😂

You should seen his face last time on Edge🤣🤣🤣 When we did Edge in 2019 I had booked b2b (this lady is not flying halfway around the world to sail 7-days on a cruise after a long 🥶 winter… it’s just to short) Mr didn’t know we where doing b2b. He tough we had a cruise and a week in Miami area. I booked Edge the second it was open for booking, so I just booked online what I could get b2b during the Easter and for once, I didn’t look 👀 on the price🫣💸it was way over my price point.🐣. But we wanted to try the new ship, since it was completely different from S/M-class. So that’s why we ended up in a porthole balcony…. It’s was possible to stay in the same location for both sailings. On this sailing we lost our luggage on the way… we had a short connection in Vienna and the bags didn’t make it to MIA😵‍💫 So we had to do a detour to Dolphin Mall on the way to our hotel before our cruise the next day🤪🤪🤪 The ship did an excellent job to get our bags to the ship at first port of call. (only hilarious thing was that Mr had to go to customs together by the port agent to pick up the bags and they did a visual inspection of them… so he needed to lift up all my underwear, everything😂😂) I allied by our stateroom attendant, so the letter of b2b meeting was delivered straight to me and I asked him to please put a set of usual tags and departure letter on the bed. Mr had no clue…. The evening before departure, Mr was a bit stressed…. Seriously 😐 are you not going to pack the suitcases??? We need to prepare them…. That look on his face when I said we are staying for another week 🙂🥹🤣🤣🤣 it was just 🤣🤣🤣 I gave him the envelope of transit cards and said don’t worry! We have plenty of time to pack😂😂😂 So a very happy camper was leaving for dinner and a show that evening🥰

So Day 8 onboard…. I was sleeping a bit longer💙💤 Needed to get some princess sleep💙 I woke up around 07.45. I was not fit-for-running as I walked out of bed. ( I have a Pseudo-sciatica that comes and goes from time to time) it has pinched me on/off for a longer time… So this morning it was just to much to walke it off…. (It normally calms down, so fingers crossed for a walk later) At 09.45 we went for breakfast, OceanView🫠 Mr had his usual things and milk, apricot and cereal. (Aka cat food pellets🐈 according to Mr😜) After breakfast we went downstairs to change into pool deck outfits and deliver our passports. Mr got ready and I waited in line to deliver the passports. (Typically they couldn’t find our paper pieces to give out and putting into the passports… So they need to make 2 manually papers handwritten) They had pre printed for all staterooms, it contained nationality, name and stateroom number. They did not put on a sticker to the backside containing stateroom number, only the paperwork on photo page containing no glue/paper clips. They have done this on all other ships where we have delivered passports (X, RCL, MSC) So fingers crossed they don’t loose that box onto the floor or it tilts to the side🫣 It took 20.minutes to deliver. After the drop off, I went to get ready for outside. It was a turtle 🐢 in the water swimming next to us. It’s a bit windy today, but temperature is warm😎 They are showing Barbie outside in the Rooftop Garden today. I have a plan to watch the second showing 14.00✔️ (haven’t had time to see it in the cinema at home🤪)

So we are arriving to day nr 8 of our first part of our b2b. So I wanted to say some words about our experience so far… The infinity balcony This is a hate or love object. You either love it or list it ( see the tv-show reference?) For me, it’s list it! It’s not a real balcony in anyway🤔🤔 For warmer climates: It’s not a real balcony, it’s like having a big window. And since it has a blind and no curtains, it’s not a great deal for us, since I’m awake early and Mr likes to sleep 💤 So I can not sneak outside to read or just enjoying the sea view. If you open the blind, the entire stateroom is lighted up. The glass doors are not that dark. And since the blind is electric, you make noise that you can hear and all other nearby cabins. So I will stick to my porthole veranda or sunset verandas✔️ (you know el cheapo me will not book suites unless we get a great deal😜😅🤓) I will seriously consider booking a window stateroom on Edge class in the front instead of an infinity veranda. (We did see one on a stateroom tour we had during our first Edge cruise, great window) It do not appeal in any way to have breakfast on my “balcony” since it’s not a proper balcony. (This is where I get a little sad 😢 That’s my Number 1 ❤️ on a ⚓️) One place I can see it be a much better fit, is on colder cruises. I think this will work better on Norwegian Fjords/Alaska/Icelandic itineraries. Then you can enjoy the viewing from a big window in warm location. ( I don’t count, we are used to 💙🥶🥶🥶🤣💙) I will be thinking twice about booking further cruises on Edge class ships…. Can’t help it, we love the “golden oldie” millennium class🥰💙👌🏻⚓️ As mentioned before from others, the Edge class do not have a Sky Lounge. The retreat “occupies” the “Sky lounge” view. So you miss an area of front view. (You can go to the gym) but it’s very limited options for front view. This was something that personally was a bummer for taking pictures from our Suez transit. (I needed to work on the curves👌🏻😂) The ship itself is beautiful💙⚓️👌🏻 Crew is working very hard and they have so far delivered excellent service (some hiccups, but not as in ruined holiday🤪). We can see it’s work in progress in some areas, so it’s slowly getting into rhythm onboard for the crew🤓 Some specific details (my inner geek/ attention to details is coming out🧐) -What I can’t understand is why they didn’t change the locks and doorknobs in public toilets during dry dock. When we did our b2b in April 2019 it was impossible for people to understand if it’s occupied or available, due to the solution of locked/unlocked on doors(not the usual 🔴/🟢). And already then, some of the doorknobs were loosely in fit and needed to be tightened up. What I see all over is that several doorknobs are hanging loose. They are not tight/hanging correctly. I have in 2 occasions had 2 ladies in minor panic 😱 knocking on the door saying I can’t get out! Because the doorknob are so loose, so they put it down to open, but you need to push further down ( way more then normal) so the mechanism for opening the door is broken/used up. This specifically apply to toilets on deck 14 and deck 4 . Since they are very close to crowded areas. OceanView (yes, you know my hate object Nr 1) The food selection and presentation is good. (I do have a visual 👀 look) I just hate to hunt down my own food, it’s lots of people and it’s not a peaceful thing for me… So personally it’s 🫠🤪😵‍💫 to have meals her…. But what not to sacrifice for your loved ☝🏿 one🥰😘 Mr! He loves buffet💙 He finds the options and quality good and it’s always lots of things to eat. Mr says the bread selection is very decent for cruise standards (also compared to other X sailings) So he is very happy to have breakfast or lunch here. Senior Officers is out and about. They are visible around the ship. We have seen several of them before…💙 NextCruise has sent some offers to our room in the CruiseCompass. We know it’s a “sale” coming up. Black Friday etc. And its new deployment schedule for 25/26. They have stayed awfully quiet… So fingers crossed they will be more active and bring out the “good” sailings on next part of our b2b. As the development season is starting to roll out🙌🏻 Entertainment has delivered and live music is good. No problem to find live music around the ship. CD Guiseppe is 👌🏻💙 ( love his shoe selection by the way….) WiFi is working fine✔️ Other than this, we are all good 👍🏻 We are happy for our sailing⚓️💙👌🏻 For those who follow from onboard, feel free to say hello 👋🏻 I do not bite and we think it’s nice to meet fellow passengers. (Just don’t tell Mr that we move into The retreat on next part of our journey🤫 he still doesn’t know. He thinks we just move to another location in an infinity veranda as planned from the beginning🤫)

Cruise Compass Day 8, sea day

After some downtime watching CD Guiseppes talk about Italy 🇮🇹 (fun as always😂) it was time to get ready for evening chic✨ We went downstairs around 18.00. Tonight’s show is The Barricade Boys. They delivered a great performance and the theatre was I good mood. Todays dinner was Normandie. Service by: Todays menu: Mr had the beet salad, carrot salad and jerk chicken. I had the carrot salad and saint jacques. For dessert I had ice cream and Mr went for cherry trifle All tasted good and service was good 👍🏻 After dinner we moved for coffee in Al Bacio. Gitarrist Charlie was playing in Grand Foyer. He is really good and everyone was singing along and having a great time🥰🎶 Tonight the ship is buzzing🙂💙🎶

I was up and awake around 06.30 Saudi time. Mr was snoring 💤 next to me, all dead🙈 I read the newspaper and took it slow. I went out around 8.00, not particularly busy… have a feeling lots of people was sleeping late…. After my walking it was time to wake up Mr💤💤 He was SO slow this morning…😝 “My phone is just 08.45 no need to stress, we have plenty of time for breakfast options😝” Hello Darling🧐 You know it’s +1 from what you phone says??? So YES that meant one more breakfast in the buffet😩 It was busy when we arrived… I went for my yoghurt and apricot… And Mr was lining up for omelette😋 Mr reports that they have a great selection of toppings to put on your omelette to order🙌🏻 Super happy camper there🤣 We found a large table outside, we had a lady asking to be seated by us. She traveled solo. We had a pleasant chat, so we were seated for a long time. After finishing up breakfast chatting, we went downstairs to change into pool deck clothes. On the bed it was a notification of passport collection tomorrow… Why didn’t they just collect them in Athen on the destination gangway? Everyone had to clear immigration and had it in hand when you pinged onto the ship🤓 Well, well…. We will drop them off tomorrow. At 13.00 it was time for pool volleyball. Marines vs interior. Interior had a less good start…. The Marines and Captain Matt did well. They played for winning 🥇 At 14.25 it was last call for lunch. So off we went to OceanView. Today’s specials was kebabs, Libanese food and everything of the usual… Mr went for kebabs and salad. He said the kebabs was tasty and good bites of meat. I took the easy option of tex mex nachos… We had some coffee and just enjoying the terrace lunch. Around 15.20 we called it for today upstairs… Our canapés had arrived:

It has been posted twice together by the daily newspaper. It’s OBC according to the list. if a new offer is on the table, I will post it together by the daily newspaper. (What’s delivered to my bed)

It’s my favourite sun hat😩😩😩 it has a large shade and it’s packing safe. I had it for ages…. But it’s still very nice and soft. And it fits my head perfectly❤️ I shopped it in Key West in 2013 and it has traveled around the world a few times….. Mr on the other hand is literally eating hats for breakfast🙈

Cruise Compass Day 7 Sea Day +1H time change. (We are now in Saudi Arabia time)

So, dinner…. It’s a fun fact. 5 years ago, when we did our b2b on Edge, we found cosmopolitan restaurant to be the weakest link of the 4 MDR…. Well, today we had a little flash back😝 (Remember in day 2 we had dinner and the fish was10/10 and everything 👌🏻) Tonight seating was not super. Place of table (location) was nothing to say yeah for😜 Todays service: Today’s menu: We both had the green leaf salad. Mr had the clam chowder and pot pie. I went for the cod again… The good: the salad was crispy and fresh. No problem👍🏻 Mr Pie was satisfied. The bad and the ugly…. Our waiter team was not the original ones working together. So a miss/match In rhythm. Assistant waiter was a temporary substitute. Not their fault and not a huge problem, but you notice. Our main server was a bit “off”. My cod was overcooked and not close to the 2 perfect pieces we had on day 2. It was not pan fried, just heated by oven, skin had not touch a frying pan tonight. The fish was dry and not shiny, so it wasn’t something to say 😋😋😋 about🧐 Today dessert: Mr wanted the eclair and some orange 🍊 sorbet I went for the apple blueberry turnover. Mr said the eclair itself in bread was very fresh and good, but the cream was a bit strange… cheesecake and Eclair was strange😆 Sorbet was very good, tasted just like Solo ice cream from home🥰 The turnover was good 👍🏻 We ordered coffee and her it didn’t go to well…..😜 Mr wanted a cafe mocha and I had a espresso macchiato….. (espresso macchiato is a tiny coffee ☕️) Two coffee cups arrived, but they are not correct…. It was 2 café lattes to be correct. It’s not the underground of the world… Someone have to take the 5/10 score days…. Hopefully they get back on “track” again😇🥰 After dinner it was time for bed😴😴

We went up to Sunset Bar around 18.20 to follow the last part before we left Suez. It was lots of people. We had escort from an armed vessel when the pilot left us and we started to speed up. At 18.55 we ran down to tonight’s show: Standup Wayne Cotter. It was fun and not on the edge in any way. Even grandma could come😆👌🏻 Tonight’s show was “early” finished 19.45. So lots of time to kill before dinner😝 So we went to grand foyer to watch the martini flair and listen to the live music🎶🎶 Today’s dinner is in Cosmopolitan.

Timelapse Suez Canal starboard 💚 IMG_9958.mov

Ladies & Gentlemen I have not forgotten you! It’s been super busy today😂😂👀🙌🏻 I made a Timelapse from our stateroom, starboard side💚 I set up the camera 07.35. So it covers from we started the process to get in line and almost Suez, stopping 17.35. Back to our day! After setting up the Timelapse, we went downstairs to Eden. They served breakfast from 08.00 and we could hear the OceanView buzzing…. Downstairs it was empty, not a single guest inside… And only a few out on deck in Eden area. Perfect! Great view to follow the progress of getting on the pilots and other crew members. CD Guiseppe is the “voice” from above during the transit. We have USS Eisenhower-Silver Spirit in front of us and Queen Elisabeth behind us in our transit. And cargo vessels. We sat downstairs outside from 07.40 to 10.30. Then it was time for our concierge gathering. Guiseppe was toastmaster and hotel manager etc was attending. They had 2 ships models and 4 bottles of wine in a raffle. They served drinks similar to the captain’s club party. After attending the concierge meeting, we decided to change into pool deck outfits. I went for my walk, walking on Suez! The outside was packed by guests and crew. Mr was sitting in the sun and walked a bit around to see the difference’s in the landscape. (I need a new sun hat… might need to burn it😂😂) (Do I know this guy😝?) Around lunchtime it started to get less crowded. We had lunch in AquaSpa café today around 13.30. It’s very fascinating how different port and starboard side is during the crossing. Starboard is more green/vegetation. Port is sand, sand…. At 16.00 we called it the day on deck. Then it was time to relax and watch the view from the bed for some downtime. Today’s canapés:

Queen Elisabeth Silver Spirit

She has not. It’s very quiet and no horns in the area.

For the curious: Our new estimate of access to the canal is 08.00. So it will be a day sailing ⛵️

Well, a very good morning to everyone! as @Jim_Iain has discovered, we are still waiting to start our process into the canal! I was armed an ready before I went to bed. Rigged for a Timelapse and binoculars by the bed. Well what did I discover when I opened my 👀???? We have not moved. And the first I see next to us are Qunard and SilverSea😝 So her is a Timelapse of our movement from 23.30 to 06.00 this morning: IMG_9954.mov Guiseppe! Did you forget to pay the Egyptian guide? 😂😂 ( or did you spend it on a new pair of shoes????)

Today’s Cruise compass Suez Day 6.