Norwaylady

You are in for a treat❤️ We did a Milli Japan cruise just before she went into the big dry dock for renovation in April 2018👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 She was very worn and ready for service then. But the cruise and crew was really 10/10👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 It’s one of our favourites! We are very ready for a new cruise in Japan/Asia. It just needs to be the correct ports of call for us😉🤓

it would be fun to continue down under🇳🇿🦘🌏 And meet you in live🥰 I have a confession to make for NZ…. What I can say is that we ❤️ NZ❤️ Kiwis are great! Well you know we have cruised for a longer time then I have posted live from…. In 2020 we were supposed to sail 14-nights from Auckland to pacific islands. Fiji etc. Sailing 1.April 2020 on Solstice. Due to moving last year and a search in a box, these tags showed up during the weekend🥹 We had sailed on Solstice from Sydney to New Caledonia, Vanuatu etc and loved it a few years earlier. We had planned it as a land and sea adventure⚓️🚙✈️ So we were booked to be away for 7 weeks. And the cruise was the last post before departure home. We left from home, Norway 🇳🇴 before covid was a big concern… So we were in NZ when everything was locked down in the world… as far away from home as possible! We were outside in Fjordland national park when we received the push alarm notification from the NZ government that everyone was quarantined…. And all international flights was cancelled. Well, you have 2 choices in this situation. Have a panic attack and lay down to die…. OR make the best of it and try to get a plan you can survive… We decided to go for number 2…. So we decided rapidly that we couldn’t stay at current location and that we had to make a quick move to be able to travel to final destination for a longer stay at the South Island and to find a okey house to stay in until we were able to take the next step in the situation. We did find a beautiful cottage close to Motueka (Tasman) But that’s a decent car drive from Te Anau…. So it was a good drive in the car. We had a great time during lockdown at our location. Walking in the neighbourhood by the ocean, picking fruit from the farm and just enjoying life in the sun. We were “stuck” in NZ until mid August. The Norwegian government didn’t attend the digital meeting in Nz for agreement that said we were allowed to travel home. So when international air was open for return flights, we were not allowed to book our new return flight…. It was space and our ticket was valid on the SQ flights. But they were not allowed to book and confirm the seats for us. But we had over holiday of a lifetime! When Nz opened up inside, we could travel around, visit sites that usually was super crowded alone and we had extremely good time to travel around. So we have traveled and tested almost everything in NZ❤️ We were lucky 🍀 our job can be done from remote. Just need internet and a laptop. And due to the time difference NZ are 12 or 10h different than Norway winter/summer. So that means you have the daytime to explore and you go to work at 18.00 if you need to be real-time. Did we suffer in any way? NO We had a great time and don’t regret anything🤩👍🏻❤️ We drove our rental car 20.000km during our stay😂😂😂🚙 We just notified the Norwegian embassy in Canberra, Australia (they cover Aus and NZ) of our location. Other than that, we were on our own. Since we had our incomes as usual we managed fine. It was a very happy family waiting in Norway when we arrived back home after a very long time away! They had a minor hear attack when we called in March and said all international flights are cancelled for a unknown time and we are “stuck” until further notice… But we are all good, don’t worry about us😘 Mr was saying repetitive the cats won’t remember you😂😂 Well guess what! The second I arrived home and the cats saw me they were purring loudly and miau for mom🐈🐈‍⬛ I could not move for week, I had cat pants on🥰🥰🥰 Do we still dream about the 14-nights pacific island cruise? YES We want to travel back to NZ and do a cruise to the islands⚓️ NZ is a fantastic place if you like to hike, be outdoor and drink wine 🍷

We have visited several of the ports on the first part of the cruise several times. Time will tell if we will keep our original itinerary…. Let’s just say the speculations has run wild…. The situation in Israel and Palestine has my condolences. On the 20 of October, Jordan and Aqaba was taken away from the cruise planner in the App and on my page online the ports listed was missing Aqaba and the background picture was changed from Petra to a mainstream mediterranean picture. But next day Aqaba was back in the app, but not in the banner of my listed cruises online…. So they are thinking heavy at X about this stop…… The only new port is Aqaba, Jordan. We will not do Petra. It’s very tempting, but we prefer to visit on a land tour. So we would have more time to visit Petra. We have a mixture of private and ship tours. Tours booked before departure Rome to Dubai. DAY 2 Catania: Taormina on your own, X ship tour DAY 4 Athens: Enjoy ourselves in Pireus or take the metro to the city centre😎 DAY 7 Aqaba: Wadi Rum, private tour DAY 14 Abu Dhabi: Emirate’s palace guided tour & out for a walk, on our own DAY 15 Dubai: The View, on our own (Turnaround day) Tours booked before departure Dubai to Singapore. DAY 4 Mumbai: Private tour Lijo, by roll call DAY 6 Cochin: Private tour Lijo, by roll call DAY 7 Colombo: Destination Highlight Exploring Old Colombo on foot, X Ship tour DAY 8 Colombo : Ultimate Beach Experience Negombo Beach Escape, X Ship tour DAY 11 Phuket: Destination Highlight Island Hopping and snorkelling at Phi Phi Island, X ship tour We really looking forward to tours and ports of call on the second part of our b2b. Since all of them will be new to us. Airfare Open Jaw tickets are very costly, so we hoped for award fares tickets. Special on the segment SIN/NORWAY We have searched and checked, it did not look to promising… But the day after my return home from Infinity. Thai airways/TG had 2 tickets in economy (I dont always travel on Biz) from Singapore/Bangkok/Copenhagen leaving Singapore late in the evening on the 25.11. So that was perfect! The fare was 120.000 eurobonus points for both and 1800NOK in taxes. So really happy for this! SAVED A LOT of money, the ticket from SIN-OSL would be at least 30.000NOK for us in eco one way. I tried to book it as a roundtrip on LH, TG etc, but the price was never less than 35.000NOK for both of us roundtrip in eco. Ticket from OSL to FCO in SAS Plus was 2200NOK for both of us. And since we only could get an award fare ticket SIN-CPH, we needed to book a ticket CPH-OSL. This ticket needed to be semi flex, so it was 4000NOK for us. So all in all, the account department was happy for this. I have travelled a lot on TG economy OSL-BKK-OSL, so this will be fine. It’s really not an emergency not to travel biz. It’s comfy in biz, can’t say no that. But I prefer to spend some money on my holiday also….. Visa This cruise requires visa to several ports of call. We need to obtain visa to India and Sri Lanka before departure. The process for both is online. One thing we are not surprised of is the lack of Celebrity Cruises to tell us, what visa do we need to obtain before departure. We had the same situation before our Japan cruise in 2018 on Milli. We didn’t hear a thing and some people needed to get a visa to China before departure (we were aware the minute we booked the cruise that we needed a visa for China). Some guests were able to use the 144/h visa waiver program and others, like us could not. So we needed to get a visa before leaving home from the Chinese embassy. Not a quick fix….. We had 1 day in Shanghai. Otherwise you were denied bording in Hong Kong….. The Sri Lankan visa can be obtained 4months before your arrival. They have a transit visa for free 48H but this is not valid for cruise guests on overnight. I contacted the Sri Lankan embassy to get a clear answer, since the web page of applications did not state clear if it was only for long layovers on the airport or if on a cruise was just a transit. They stated that we needed to apply for a full visa. So we needed to apply for a visitor visa and pay the full fee. The online application took 10 minutes to fill out, pay and receive the visa approval. Price 50USD. The Indian visa can only be obtained 30 days before arrival for Norwegian passport holders for singel entry 30/days. So we could not apply far in advance for this. Or you can apply for multiple visa 1 year. This can be applied 4 months in advance. It’s very strict how the picture is sized and how big the file can be. Price 1 year visa 40USD. We 🐓 out and went for the 1 year visa. The Indian visa is a bit of a puzzle to get the correct format on the picture and passport upload. So it makes a lot of grey hairs on the applicant… But we survived! Vaccines This cruise is not a standard Caribbean adventure. So the majority of the sailors should have taken a consultant by their GP or asked a travel vaccine centre in decent time before departure. We have travelled a lot to different areas, so we were good to go for travel🙌🏻 We do have the basic necessary for travel that are not in the normal vaccine regime for Norwegians: Hep A&B, Yellow fever and Typhoid fever. We decided after consulting our GP that it was vise to update our Covid vaccine. Since last dose was from January 2022. I always take the influensa vaccine due to my not fully functional immunsystem. So we should be good to go for this cruise now❤️⚓️😅

What Mr is drinking of beers I have no infiltration on... it all smells beer and really dont tempt me. What I have learned is that the IPA is one of the more smellier beers😵‍💫 I have tried to train him to be a better wine drinker, but I have failed..... aiaiaiaia😬 For the elite/ elite pluss status, we are not concerned... 4 bags of Landry is the golden award! The perfect thing for me🤩 aka the laundry keeper, chef and housekeeping...... And people still wonder why I like to go cruising??????🙈

Thank you🥰 Charla is wonderful in writing style and fun🙌

OPA @GenerationX! Sounds like your tour was a hit🙌 Love following😍 But that breakfast😵‍💫😳😩 OMG, for those that have followed me, they know I like my roomservice breakfast (even if we sail in kettle class🤣 my budget and taste for travel says I can't do suite life if we are traveling as we do now) That just looks so miserable! I would not be half full or half empty glass on that delivery, just very sad and not a happy camper🙄 Hopefully it can only go one way from here! To the better and perfection in service and delivery🙌

The Cruise Originally we booked this cruise itinerary on AZ in 2019 as an onboard booking on a X cruise. Rome to Dubai. We really wanted to sail Suez and it was a good itinerary (better route and timing then Edge) 🥳🙌🏻🕺🏻💃🏻 And a small vessel was really tempting. We knew what to expect. (we were ready to take the step “up” and we had sailed on several river cruises on small vessels) AND an important factor, it was in the royal family⚓️ (so we would receive some benefits) Few weeks after booking, we received a notification that our sailing was canceled due to change of plans. So we rebooked to a 26/n cruise to Antarctic from Chile to Buenos Aires in 2022 and we made a new booking to a Suez cruise. So 2 AZ⚓️⚓️🤩 Well, we all know what happened there…. It went down the drain by COVID, canceled. AND then AZ was sold out of the royal family……😔😑😳 So lets just say that AZ owns us some money in FCC…( I will not go collecting them😜) So when Edge was reviling that she would sail Suez, I was online booking it ASAP. First we could only book the first part, Rome to Dubai, but after making the puzzle for work, we were able to sail Dubai to Singapore. So we are very happy for this💙🥰💙 We are booked in concierge class infinity veranda on both segments⚓️. We dont have the same stateroom for both segments, we need to move one deck down in Dubai. Deck 12 and deck 11. We sailed a b2b in the Caribbean when Edge was new. We had a porthole veranda. We were very happy for this real balcony and truly enjoyed Edge. The only BIG drawback was the sound from the theatre. If you book a porthole balcony, don’t book deck 6 close to the theatre. Our room was vibrating when they did rehearsals and shows. We could listen to the entire set of the songs before we went to the evening show😑 So that was a bit 😵‍💫😮‍💨🫨😬 for us. But other then that, all good🥰 The bathroom was really huge (for cruise size) and the stateroom was okey planned. (Except the extremely low coffee table/tutu thing…🤨) The 4 dining rooms worked perfect and we really enjoyed all of them. We tried some of the speciality restaurants; Eden, Raw on 5, Fine cut and le petit chef. We had a great time. Shows and the theatre performances were excellent. So our biggest concern is if we will enjoy the window balcony….. Time will tell😅🤓 We were very lucky for the booking. (See it from the Norwegian perspective of OBC and what we usually get) For the first part of our B2B we received 100 OBC, not too bad for us. But on the second leg Dubai to Singapore, we had an onboard booking we changed, so we had some OBC on this booking and they had an offer, giving out more when we booked this sailing. So in total it gave us 600OBC. That’s very OKAY for us and not normal for us. So very happy for this! Accounting department was approving the final price and value for money feeling was okey. MoveUp has not been our friend… But on this cruise, we received an email about this 60 days before departure. That’s very unusual for us. We had the option to bid on all staterooms over Concierge class. We have made an offer for Aqua class for the first segment of the cruise. It’s most sea days and the thermal area is appealing😇 We did put in a little bit over the minimum bidding. Fingers crossed they will accept our bid on the segments. (From earlier experience, it will not be accepted) It would be great to try out AQ on Edge. The bidding for the suits was extremely expensive, so it was a NO from el cheapo accounting Norwaylady. We are Elite members, so according to MoveUp, they will give us a little boost on our bid. Time will tell if we are moved up. Back to the Elite status, we will board the ship at 738 points (YES, you all know what that means…. We are very close to elite pluss….) If we had lived in FL, we would have done a short cruise😂🤭😎. But you all know, we need to travel somewhere to sail… So we are not stressed or angry for this. (And NO, we can’t do power up points, it’s not for guest from the nordic countrys….) On the positive side, on the leg from Dubai to Singapore, we can do a lot of laundry. 4 bags for us!😂😂😂 I think and are very safe in saying that this cruise will be loaded heavily of Captain’s Club guests in the upper part of the club.🎖️🎖️🎖️

Norwaylady has been extremely occupied since the return from the Mediterranean adventure by the Queen on Infinity. (The Queen loved it❤️! We will be back on infinity ⚓️ May 2024) For those on the roll call, you have seen a small notification for why I have been away from CC and not active on the roll call. Sorry to everyone out sailing on the seven seas that I missed lives from and not payed full attention to❤️ But for the rest of the world, I can say it: Life has been hard since return from Infinity....❤️‍🩹 My younger brother is very ill, he is admitted to psychiatric ward. It's been a long summer and it's affecting me, Mr Norwaylady and my parents a lot. So it's only been work, helping out and supporting my parents in this situation. We hope and pray that he will clear up to his old him, but we all know this is very serious and it takes time to get better. So, back to the fun and great things in life! It’s time for a new cruise adventure🥳🤩⚓️💙 I will post live on CC and I will post on my IG account. It’s in private setting, so please send me a message, Hello from CC. I post from travel abroad and in Norway. Not private at all, just tired of sales add. https://instagram.com/al_be_ra_bo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= For those not familiar by me, we are Jarle and Alexandra from Norway🇳🇴 Mr and Mrs Norwaylady🇳🇴 We are JA in Norwegian, that means YES in English. For more information about us, you can look into earlier Live treads from our adventure. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2880218-norwaylady-goes-b2b-alaskahawaii-on-eclipse/#comment-63931944 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2925773-live—-norwaylady-goes-b2b-on-sil-27march-to-10april-in-the-caribbean/#comment-65062836 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2939286-norwaylady-goes-b2b-in-the-mediterranean-on-infinity-245-10623-live/#comment-65415622 So just to make it clear, it will be beers! 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻( keep in mind that I don’t drink beer 🍺😝 what not to do for your Darling🥰😘) Mr Norwaylady is looking forward to taste some local specialities on his way to Singapore…. As the good wife I try to be😇 I surprised Mr by a weekend trip to Bergen and Laksevaag Beer festival 30.September🍻🥰 Did you know Laksevaag is an old shipyard? So a very industrial site for a beer festival! One happy camper🤩🙌🏻🥳✔️ For those into beer, you can search him up on Untappd, Jarle Oddvang. https://untappd.com We are getting out of the celebration rhythm….. you know from last year….. We always try to sail on our wedding anniversary 16.10. This year it was impossible again…. (You know, when you want THIS itinerary, you just got to adjust…… BUT if anyone at X is listening, keep those special routes and sailings coming in mid October) We been a couple for 16 years now. So the smashing number 13 Lace (OMG times fly and we still haven’t killed each other) celebration as MR and MRS was celebrated by work and having a meeting by our neighbour in the afternoon. (The new renovation house we finally were able to secure in our neighbourhood last year needs some TLC. And it’s a duplex Townhouse. So we need to agree on the new roofing. The house will undergo a big renovation next year. So it will go from 1963 original to 2024) Can’t wait for those heating bills to get lower….. We will take the house from a G to B on the energy certification. So quick said, we are building a new house in the body of the original house. Did the meeting go well? Let’s just say it would probably be more fun and romantic eating dinner together on Burger King by Mr😝🙈 Our neighbour are renting out his part of the building and don’t want to spend a $$$$$$$$$$$$ So they prefer to delay the roofing until it’s a water leak😱😱🤯🥵😳 We know it’s very close to that point… our battens is rotten so our roof tile is moving down. (So we need to have a walk to put it back on place every now and then) We highly prefer to change the roof before we need buckets 🪣😖😩

Ladies and gentlemen it’s time to walk the gangway again! This time on Edge world cruise⚓️🗺️⚓️ We have time to do 2 out of 4 segments 26 nights. YES, that meant no holiday this summer😂🤭 🫶🏻❤️Fingers crossed that @Jim_Iain will take you onward on the journey in his own style and string when we walk off in 🇸🇬 Singapore. We will be sailing Rome to Singapore.🥂🥰⚓️🥳💙

Thank you for a great live @tigervixxxen great to follow your sailing🥰

Enjoy your flight! Can't wait for the rest🍹

So ready to follow your adventure! I will pack my suitcase and follow you along before I head out on the ocean🙌🥰 Bon Voyage

Safe travel! Looking forward to your sailing. Really want to sail this route. Small islands are tempting. We sailed last year from Vancouver to Hawaii🥰

I will take good care of Edge from Rome to Singapore😇 Really sad that we are walking off when you are walking on.....

Great pictures and a great pick of itinerary Jim! Mr Norwaylady would loved to sail this route🤩 He loves sailing thru locks, so we truly enjoy river cruises due to this. We really like the small vessels and the close up to land and action of the locks. We have sailed on a Christmas market cruise, 2times 7n sailing on Mosel, 7n Donau and 11n St Petersburg to Moscow. We can do all of them again..... The food and the entertainment looks promising for my cup of tea.... So we need so seek into this a little more🤓

Hello Fellow cruisers We have sailed a 11n cruise on X to Alaska. Vancouver/Vancouver. We did visit Hubbard and Dawn Glacier as scenic cruising. It was a taste of Alaska for us. And we enjoyed it! We want to go a little further north and stay for a while. Since we need to travel far from home. So we have decided that a 7/n cruise from Vancouver to Seward/Whittier northbound - a land based tour in Anchorage/Denali for 7/8.days- and 7/n cruise back to Vancouver is perfect. YES we have time off from work to do this! We dont want to book a cruise tour via the cruise line. We want to take control by our self. Our options for cruise lines are HAL to Whittier Noordam north, Glacier Bay & College Fjord and Nieuew Amsterdam south Hubbard & Glacier Bay Princess to Whittier Caribbien Princess north, Glacier Bay & College Fjord and Sapphire Princess south, Yakutat Bay & Glacier Bay mixed options will be X and Rcl to Seward Or NCL to or from Whittier, Hubbard and something. We maily sail X but are open of trying a new cruise line. We have never tried HAL, Princess or NCL. Recommendations of what to except? Why choose HAL or Princess over X and RCL? Are the ships okey? We prefer balcony.

So late to the party Jim😅 Really great to follow your adventure on this cruise! I think its great that you post from this adventure on the X forum🥰 The ship looks great, small but well appointed. Looking forward to the rest!

ohhh, I want to go back to Japan🤩 We had a great time during our 6/weeks trip and cruise on Milli in 2018..... Was supposed to celebrate 10years wedding anniversary in October 2020 on a new Japan & South Korea adventure 4 weeks cruise and land..... Looks like your having a great time! Really enjoying your review🥰 We are a bit split about our 2025 October plans.... Im really split about Galapagos or a new Japan adventure in October 2025.... Your not helping me out on this now😆🤭 So i will follow along on Galapagos also😁 I know it's comparing apples to oranges.... But I dont know exactly what we want yet....

Thank you Ken! I have been occupied both on work and private. So my days needed to be at least 30h. So I need to catch up😅

For those on IG🙃 If you want to follow on IG: https://instagram.com/al_be_ra_bo?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw== It’s in private settings. (So tired of light dressed ladies adding me) Just send a message: hey from Cc I’m posting from my travel in Norway and abroad.

As mentioned before, you can find a sweater tread if you search. Bergen has a Dale and Oleana store, also the usual tourist stores that sell other knitted sweaters and other things. They are located by Bryggen and on the corner of Torgallmeningen and the fish market. As mentioned, they are supreme quality and made in Norway. Inside Bryggen, you have several stores selling local knitted sweaters and local made patterns. Have a look on Dale and Oleana, so you have a clue of what they offer. https://eu.daleofnorway.com https://oleana.no In Flåm you have mall of Norway. They sell everything, including knitted wear. (I was in Flåm last weekend) Mr Norwaylady wanted to visit Ægirs beer garden🤭 In Oslo, Kristiansand and Stavanger you will find sweaters also. In Oslo, you have wider area to walk for the stores. Best of luck finding your favourite!

@kaisatsu and @bookbabe As Kaisatsu said.... it's a bit 🤔 about Viking Planet. Since it's not been very branded or visible for us as Norwegians. But I had to take a deeper look into it. First, they do receive a decent amount of money from Oslo Town. So that means that they are ticking off a lot of boxes to be able to receive money from the public. So its not a scam museum. Second, I had a look at the other Vikings museums in Norway. https://vestfoldmuseene.no/midgard-vikingsenter/en and https://osebergvikingarv.no/eng/ They do have a cooperation together and are licensed as a part of the Oslofjord Viking Trail. https://vestfoldmuseene.no/midgard-vikingsenter/oslofjord-viking-trail So happy visit! I will try to visit, so I can give a report;)

@bookbabe I have not visited the Viking Planet. it looks very good and are supported by the local council Oslo Kommune. The Vikingship museum is closed for renovation. So at Viking Planet you are digital able to “visit” and see ships and moves. Maybe I will bring Mr Norwaylady on a field trip during the weekend🤔🤭🤗

Thank you for taking everyone along your journey @mac_tlc🇳🇴❤️ You have delivered a perfect sale pitch of why a Norway cruise is worth the $$$. I can give you many more reasons! If you want more teasers, feel free to follow: https://instagram.com/al_be_ra_bo?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw== It’s in private settings. (So tired of light dressed ladies adding me) Just send a message: hey from Cc I’m posting from my travel in Norway and abroad. We don’t have holidays during the summer. (We normally travel in the spring or autumn….) But I had a crush of 🇳🇴🇳🇴 I love my country 😂😂 So I booked 2 weekend trips to Bergen😂😂😂 The only two weekends Mr is not on technical duty 24/7 home🤓🙃 Just need to get some fjords air🤩 So next weekend I’m off by Mr and another adventure in August. (Who says I don’t do travel and holidays in my own country😅) I have a part of me from Boge, close to Bergen. So I always feel home in Bergen region🥰 (I can’t help it) We will do Baroniet in Rosendal, Old travel style Bergen (steam train, ferry and bus) and my favourite, take the fast passenger ferry to Flåm (it travel all The way in Sognefjorden and call at differensiert stops) and The train back to Bergen. And I will do my morning trip up to Fløyen if it’s not pouring down☔️💪🏻 I really feel you for Beyond😔 It’s really a 🤯🤬 deal from X. Fingers crossed you find a solution you can accept and enjoy❤️ Safe travel’s home❤️

Thank you! We prefer the smaller vessels when we travel on Royal. That will be all good😉