SLSD

We landed at DFW airport after midnight last night and the heat, even at that hour, was stifling! The itinerary was wonderful--even without Flam.... One of our guides told us what the issue was in Flam. He said that Flam will only allow a certain number of cruise passengers a day. Evidently, they are counted for each ship and Seabourn must have booked the port AFTER others---and was not able to go there as the limit had already been reached.

We did not receive a Seabourn tote bag on this cruise. Next time, I will take the one I have at home as they do come in handy. The hair dryer was adequate. It gets VERY hot, but does not blow with the force of the dryer I have at home. Here's something else about the towels. Toward the end of the cruise, we were brought a combination of fluffy towels and the thin scratchy ones. Believe it or not, the fluffy towels were less absorbent than the thin towels. I think this is because fabric softener is being used on the fluffy towels which is a sure way to reduce their absorbency. As a final comment--we LOVED our cruise of Norway. What a fabulous country. There was so much to see. We cruise to go places, not for the ship. Seabourn provides a very comfortable base for travel to new places. But, when I think back about a cruise, it is the places we have been that I think about--not the ship. This doesn't mean we don't appreciate Seabourn. We do!

A few other comments. I consider most of the food served on Seabourn to be high quality hotel catering, not fine dining. With the exception of one meal, all the food I ate tasted good, but generally did not wow me. When I say this, I am mostly talking about The Restaurant. I DID enjoy having lunch in The Restaurant and thought the food was quite good. It was probably related in some cases to what was being served in The Colonnade. With the exception of lunch (from the menu) on the first day of the cruise on the veranda of The Colonnade, we did not eat there. I am well aware that it is not a buffet in the evenings (as we have dined there on previous cruises). I don't like the ambience of the insdie of the Colonnade, but do enjoy the Veranda. We probably should have gone there on a couple of evenings. We did not try the Sushi restaurant, but had intended to. Our favorite restaurant was Earth and Ocean and we dined there four evenings. I like the creativity of the menus and the execution. It is also a very comfortable place to dine in good weather which we had a lot of on this cruise. We dined at the TK Grill two times. I had the Dover Sole one evening and the Ribeye Steak the other evening. Both were well executed along with side dishes (which are smaller than pre-pandemic). We especially enjoyed the whipped potatoes, glazed carrots, and mushrooms. I was not a fan of the lemon tart, but enjoyed the multi-layered coconut cake. We took the cookies with us when we left the ship the next day and they came in handy on our day long trip home. We found the wait service in the TK Grill to be less professional than in The Restaurant and somewhat intrusive. We enjoyed room service breakfast quite a few mornings as well as breakfast in The Restaurant on other mornings. We did not go to the Colonnade for breakfast. All food comments are extremely subjective and I'm sure that most may not agree with my assessment.

We are home after a very full day of travel, and thinking back over the last two weeks on the cruise on the Norwegian coast. Here is a list of the ports we visited and what we enjoyed in each. We began in Copenhagen and, on our own, went to Tivoli Gardens in the evening. It was delightful and fun for people watching. There were many Danish families with children. Many restaurants that looked to be of good quality, sidewalk cafes, and lovely gardens. Alesund, Norway. We took a guided excursion which was valuable in terms of learning the history of the town and of the area. I especially found interesting our guide's comments about World War II and what happened to her family at at time. This is an EASY town to walk on your own. It is a very short walk from the ship to the old part of town. We especially enjoyed a sidewalk cafe on the sound and a family owned bakery. Svolvaer (Lofoten) Norway. We took a long excursion here with a very good guide (Dutch, who has lived in Norway for 12 years). It included a trip to the archaeological site where the largest ever Viking (long) house was discovered. A short distance from where the house was discovered, a replica has been built. If you like this kind of thing, it is well worth seeing. The area is also beautiful. We saw a number of villages as well as islands. We stopped at a charming restaurant for lunch. Because our tour was so lengthy, I'm not sure if the town of Svolvaer is easily walked or not. Perhaps Psahoy, Jon, or Bizinsider knows and can tell us. Tromso, Norway. This is another very walkable town with the most charming part of the town a very short walk from the ship. There is the Tromso Cathedral where we listened to an organ concert, a good restaurant for lunch, and plenty to see there. We also took the Cable Car in Tromso to see the view above the city. There is another famous (modern) church that we toured. I could have skipped that one. Tromso has an excellent museum which we enjoyed. Honningsvag, Norway. The excursion we took from this port was the transfer to the North Cape. This was one of the BIG highlights of our trip. While I am not a bucket list person and not a person who has to say "I've been there", there is a special feeling at this place--which is the farthest northern point of land in Europe. (The actual farthest northern point is close by--but not easily reachable without a five hour hike.). For us, taking the transfer to the North Cape is a MUST DO! Thank you to the person at this sight who told me that! While at the North Cape, be sure to take the time to watch the spectacular film that is shown in an auditorium there. The drone footage is beyond awe inspiring. We will talk about the North Cape for a long time to come. The bus trip (about 30+ minutes) has some great scenery. The evening of the day we visited the North Cape, there was scenic cruising --especially around 11pm until after midnight. We sailed around the North Cape. It was magical. We could have walked into the town of Honningsvag, but didn't. Perhaps someone here did and can report. Loen(Olden) Norway. We were actually anchored outside of the village of Olden which is a short distance from Loen. We did not walk into Olden, but talked to people who did walk into the village and enjoyed it. Instead, we took a long excursion that was supposed to include scenic ferrying on a fjord, but didn't due to an issue with the ferry. We did do an extensive tour of the mountains which was enjoyable. And this included the town of Geiranger with its rushing river and a lunch at a hotel. Skjolden, Norway. This was one of my favorite ports due to the excursion we took which took us over the mountains (coming and going) to the town of Lom where we saw (inside and out) the 12th century church which I discussed and provided photos of above. We also visited the Mountain Center which included the recently found artifacts dating to the 900s revealed by melting glaciers. We did not walk into Skjolden so I can't report on that. Stavanger, Norway is a big place! It is the center of the Norwegian oil industry. We took the Cruise to Pulpit Rock here. If you don't plan to hike to the Pulpit Rock or see it by helicopter, I would recommend the ferry cruise. It was very enjoyable and included a stop for a taste of Norwegian waffles. Farsun, Norway. We walked through this town. It is an easy walk and you can walk up to the cemetery which overlooks the entire area. We were in Farslund on a Friday morning and were surprised at how few people we saw. It is not a busy place. While it is a very charming town and fun to walk through, we didn't find a place we wanted to have lunch. There is a hotel which serves lunch, but we chose to return to the ship instead of just eating indoors in a hotel. Skagen, Denmark. This is a great city for walking and I do think SB will be providing a shuttle. Be sure to ask. We loved our tour which was the Legacy of the Skagen Painters and included a well curate art museum and two artists' homes which were delightful. We did not take any zodiacs even though we would have been quite capable of doing so. I heard a mixed report about an early zodiac trip to see puffins. Friends we met on the cruise were disappointed in this Ventures expedition--but perhaps it is because they are from Alaska and didn't find it very special. In fact, they did not find Norway to be nearly as beautiful as Alaska. I disagree. The two places are quite different. I hope this list of the ports helps in terms of which we were able to easily walk through. There were lots of excursions offered and of course we only know about what we did. I'm glad Psahoy gave a report on his favorite excursions. We were on a few of the same ones with him--which is how we met.

I saw many taxis waiting at the port this morning in Copenhagen when we disembarked.

At some point, I am going to go through each port and mention those that we know for sure were easy to walk into. We don't know about every port as we took a couple of long excursions and did not see the port at all. I also wanted to mention a great Seabourn service moment from yesterday. As we were reboarding the ship in Skagen, Denmark, Mr. SLSD's hat flew off of his head and into the water. He would have been content to just let the hat go--but the crew there at security assured him they would retrieve it. When we returned to our suite after lunch, the hat was at our suite. The crew does go beyond the call of dutry.

We are all packed, in our suite and just getting ready to disembark in Copenhagen. We packed light for this trip--just two carryons and one medium size bag. If there is some down time along the way, I'll post further as I have additional comments about our Seabourn cruise.

Yes, you. may call me Susan. I am so envious that you are going to be in Norway in August. We will return! I'm glad you have enjoyed my comments here. I always enjoy when others take us along on their cruises.

Mr. SLSD has corrected me. There WAS a bus labeled Seabourn Shuttle. It took us just a little way toward town to start our tour today. We walked back all the way ourselves. So--there was a shuttle and I am glad to know this as the town of Skagen is well worth exploration.

Today, we are in Skagen, Denmark. Sadly, it is our last full day of this cruise. We packed right after lunch--hoping to better enjoy the rest of the day and evening with that done. This morning, we took an excursion titled (more or less) The Legacy of the Skagen Painters. This tour revolved around a community of painters who lived in the (then) small fishing village of Skagen in the 1870s through the early 1900s. The excursion involved touring the excellent Skagen Museum to see paintings from that community. We also toured two different artists' homes from the community. The houses were filled with items belonging to the artists. They were a delight with many details that I loved. The tour was rated as Moderate and 2.5 miles of walking were involved. 2.5 miles is NOT a lot of walking for me, but our tour guide did it at a fast clip. We started out with eleven in our group and ended the tour with six. Two left to do further exploration when we were almost finished with the tour, but I think we may have lost a couple who found the walking to be too strenuous. I mention this just in case any of you are considering this tour. It is a lot of walking. I loved the tour as it included just the kind of thing I enjoy seeing. The paintings were wonderful and the houses were exceptional. And, while I am not a shopper, the museum shop at the Skagen Museum was the very best we have seen on the entire trip. The town of Skagen has a population of 8,000. The port where we are docked is a somewhat industrial area (maritime, not heavy industry) . You CAN walk into town (and should if you are able), but it is a hike. The town is quite picturesque. Our guide told us that there are only about two taxis in town and Seabourn did not provide a shuttle. This would have been a perfect town for a shuttle. If you do a bit of research and find the names of the artists' houses, (One is the Ancher House and the other is the Drachmann House)you will see where the most interesting areas of town are. The area around the Ancher House has a very nice and attractive shopping area with a number of shops and cafes. While I am not usually interested in shopping at all, this area appeared to have some charming shops with high quality and artistic items. I I'm including some photos here just to give a flavor of what we saw.

And we are just the opposite. We choose itineraries, but I'll write more about that later.

It was such a pleasure to me PSahoy as we shared several excursion experiences with him. And everything he says is true--Norway exceeded our expectations. This has been a wonderful cruise with a fabulous crew. They are exceptional people.

Yes, we generally like the ambience on Seabourn. We HAVE cruised with Silversea, but it was way back in 2005 and we haven't cruised with them since. I've told Mr. SLSD that we might try another line just based on itinerary. One things that bothers me about SB is all the 7 day itineraries in the Med and Adriatic. We would prefer 21 days and don't love a total passenger turnover every 7 days as the turnover day is not really a normal day.

I don't even go to the gym and would never eat such a thing!

You are so kind to say that galeforce. I post about our trip as I really enjoy reading when other people post. As soon as we get home, we'll start thinking about our next cruise and will probably book within a month or so. We find it a bit challenging to cruise as our "real life" keeps us busy as well--visiting family and traveling domestically with friends. But, another cruise IS a priority and we will book one. I would be game to try Silversea (we've cruised with them once before) or Regent, but Mr. SLSD is adamant about Seabourn as it is a known quantity.

We used a travel agent. Our flights were booked through Seabourn.

Cheesy Bacon Hot Dog? They must be trying to cater to a certain crowd with this one.

I think I do have photos of the said rock but from below and not recognizable as the Pulpit Rock from the angle I was photographing. I do appreciate the great photo you posted. And you are right--we have had outstanding weather on this cruise. We have experienced a bit of rain two afternoons--but not enough to affect anything we have done.

I had never had Wahoo and it was said to be close to tuna on the menu!! Perhaps Seabourn needs to make that correction. You can tell them though. I am not going to take them to school on it. I don't consider the cliff I posted as a near miss as I said I did not get a photo of the Pulpit Rock. I am sure I saw it. There were many majestic cliffs in the area.

My next favorite dining venue was The Restaurant at lunch. I know that might sound strange, but the combination of the white tablecloth serene place and a short menu of delicious offerings was very enticing. Today at lunch I had a fish which is similar to tuna called Wahoo. It is the first photo here. Mr. SLSD chose a tasty pasta with shrimp. A couple of days ago, I had a Mongolian wok made beef dish. I'm still thinking about it.

I've fallen behind in commenting about the cuisine on Ovation. Hands down, our favorite restaurant has been Earth and Ocean. We've dined at Earth and Ocean four times--the last time being tonight--the last night it will be open on this cruise. We like the innovation of the recipes, the freshness of the ingredients and the taste of the foods. Each meal starts with slices of bread with various spreads--a tapenade, a tomato based spread, butter, and, best of all, a smoked chicken spread. Bacon encrusted bread sticks are served alongside. Each night's offerings at Earth and Ocean include two main dishes (perhaps one is really considered an appetizer) to be chosen from three choices in each category. Then, there is a dessert.

It was lovely.

Today, we are in Farsund Norway. It's a town of 6,000 including the entire area, not just the city center. We walked through the town on this Friday morning and everything was surprising quiet. We walked up to the high point of the town which happens to be a cemetery planned by a Scottish designer. After searching in vain for a cozy spot for lunch, we settled on a snack from a bakery before returning to the ship for lunch. There were other excursions from Forsund--one to see lighthouses, another to see an WWII fort built by Hitler's Germany and some zodiac excursions.

I may have to do that in a separate thread so that people who do not want to read it can scroll by. It would be a shame to have this thread hijacked on such a topic. Stand by for more info in a separate thread.

Yesterday, we were in Stavanger which we have been told is the center of the oil industry in Norway. Among other things, Stavanger is known for its proximity to the famous Pulpit Rock. Some hiked to the Pulpit Rock, others viewed the Pulpit Rock by helicopter, but we chose to take the Lysefjord Cruise to Pulpit Rock. We cruised via a ferry which we boarded very close to where we the ship was docked. We had an expansive guide and we enjoyed the cruise very much--especially after having very long excursions on previous days. It was relaxing. There is only one thing which puzzled me. Our guide never publicly announced when we had reached the Pulpit Rock... Perhaps it was obvious to everyone but me (and I had previously looked at photos online), but I am not at all sure I got a photo of the famous rock! A friend from the cruise has promised to send me a photo. In addition to the rock, we saw caves where Sea Gypsies had plied their trade in the 1970s, lighthouses, beautiful waterfalls, sailing boats, and islands with weekend homes. We also made a stop at a charming shed where we were served traditional Norwegian waffles with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Coffee and tea were also served. I recommend this excursion in Stavanger--just make sure you ask the guide to announce the famous rock.