SarahHben

Flam: We woke up to see a very pretty Flam! After breakfast in the MDR we headed out for our excursions. Mr B was taking the train and cycling part of the way down, I was taking the train both ways. We went outside early but I was still a long way back in the train queue, I would definitely recommend getting in the queue sooner for the best seats on the train. It was a very pretty train ride, Mr B was in a different carriage as he was on his excursion but we bumped into each other when we stopped at the Kjodfossen waterfall. We saw and heard the Huldra, the mythical lady who lures men into the woods to seduce them. Judging by the comments from the men on the train, she wasn't likely to seduce them any time soon 🤣 Mr B really enjoyed his bike ride, I think he had his go-pro attached to his bag strap and videod the ride down, I expect that will appear on YouTube at some point. The weather stayed dry until after lunch, but we put on our waterproofs and went out for a wet walk. Flam was lovely and hopefully one day we'll get there with the sun out. Considering the forecast was bad for the whole week before we left home, this was the only time we got wet other than a passing shower the next day, we were very fortunate. I think tiredness must have caught up with me the day before and this day because I didn't particularly enjoy dinner in the Beach House that night. The fish basket would normally be just my thing but I barely touched it, I didn't even have dessert! I ended up just going back to the cabin and had an early night.

Olden: I intended to get up early to watch the sail in but I was very tired this holiday and woke up to find we were already in Olden. We had originally booked to do an excursion that drove to Hellesylt then a boat trip down Geirangerfjord but it was quite expensive and the forecast before we left said heavy rain so we cancelled it and got a refund. Instead we decided to just wander around Olden and we were so glad we did. We had been once before but hadn’t explored properly. The weather was mixed but mostly good and we took lots of photos and video. We went into the little co-op and bought some Norwegian sweets to take home and some gifts for our Grandchildren, our 4 year old loves proudly wearing T shirts from our travels, I’m sure that won’t last too many years 😂 Once back on board we had a cup of tea & ice cream in The Market Cafe. For dinner we ate in the Glass House, we’d never eaten there in any of our cruises and this won’t be a popular opinion, but I was really disappointed with the food. We shared some tapas, squid, scallops & Iberico ham, I did not like the squid but Mr B did, the scallops & ham were nice. I then had the sliders which were ok but nothing special, not overly flavourful. Then I had the retro dessert trio which I had been really looking forward to, the baileys chocolate tea cake was delicious but the artic roll didn’t taste of anything and I couldn’t eat the jammy dodger cornflake tart because it was so solid it could have broken a tooth. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’ll know (I hope) that I’m generally a positive person who doesn’t moan about much but I was so disappointed. Maybe I was just too tired 🤷‍♀️ Phil Hitchcock, a magician who we had seen on a previous cruise, was performing in the theatre. He was excellent, very clever! We found ourselves sitting next to the actor whose talk we’d been to and had a chat with him and his wife. We finished the evening watch some tennis. I must remember not to book another cruise during a main tennis tournament 🥴

Stavanger: On our first cruise, back in 2022, the weather was too windy for Iona to dock in Stavanger, so it was a relief to see we’d actually made it to Stavanger this time 😊 We had booked the same excursion we were due to do two years ago, the Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock cruise. It was a great excursion, we had a fabulous time. We started off sitting inside but after the waffles & jam stop, we sat upstairs and outside, it was a little blowy to say the least, but definitely worth it! The waffles & jam were delicious btw. The boat slowed right down and took us up close to various waterfalls and to a place where we could look up to Pulpit Rock and envisage where Tom Cruise was hanging off while filming one of the Mission Impossible films. One of the nice things about doing a smaller boat trip from the cruise port was getting a good view of the ship as we came back into port. I would recommend that excursion, I know it can be done independently at a lower cost, but I’m a worrier and much prefer to do the ship’s excursions, it’s better for my peace of mind and in turn my husband’s sanity 🥴 The sun was coming out as we got back so we went back onboard, dumped our backpacks and waterproofs and headed off back into town for a wander. Stavanger is so pretty with its white wooden buildings and the nice harbour area, everywhere looked so clean and well looked after. We made the most of the sunshine and sat on our balcony for a while before sail away. We had pre-booked a table in Sindhu for dinner, we both love eating there, haven’t had a bad Sindhu meal yet! I had beef flatbread for starter, then duck for main followed by the dark chocolate sphere for dessert, all delicious 😊 It was 70’s night in the Live Lounge with Pulse, another fun set with great music. After that we wandered through the atrium, saw the silent disco, the lower atrium seemed an odd place for it but those participating seemed to be enjoying it 😄 We passed through the Crystal Room where they were doing karaoke so sat down for a while to enjoy a few very enthusiastic performances, then went to the theatre to watch ‘Astonishing’ we’ve seen it once before but it was still very good 2nd time around!

First sea day: We started the day with a very nice relaxed breakfast in the Peninsula MDR. The clocks had gone forward an hour and goodness, the amount of people who hadn’t read it in the Horizon newsletter or listened to the announcement, and couldn’t understand why they had missed breakfast in the MDR’s, it was unbelievable. A lady near us was exclaiming that surely we were close to U.K. so how could the time be different! We walked past the buffet soon after our breakfast and the queue for the buffet was ENORMOUS. I know we’ve only done a few cruises but we had never seen a queue that long for anything on a ship before. Lots of people in the queue were moaning about the clock change. We had a browse around the shops next. I had managed to pack an empty pot of moisturiser so had to browse the shops and buy emergency supplies. Next up was a talk in the theatre by an actor called Jim Whelan, he had had small parts in Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Last of the Summer Wine and various other things. He was really interesting and my husband bought his book. He was a really nice chap, we ended up sitting next to him and his wife several times in the evening theatre shows. On our previous cruises we had always had lunch in the buffet or Retreat but we ate lunch in the MDR most days on this cruise. Portion sizes were quite small but just right for a light lunch. I had a salmon tart, followed by a lovely chilled peach Melba dessert. We had a really lazy afternoon in our cabin watching the tennis, I even had a snooze for a few hours which I never normally do during the day 😳 It was Gala night and we booked ourself into the virtual queue for MDR, we were 75th in the queue so went to have our photos taken. There was only a small queue for photos so we thought we’d have plenty of time, unfortunately the photographer was very enthusiastic and took ages with each couple, and then a family of 6 joined a couple a few in front of us so then there was a group of 8 all needing group/pairs/individuals photos taken in what seemed like endless poses. I’m pretty easy going and not much riles me but I was getting a little agitated.The people in front of us got called for their table and had to leave the photo queue and then 10 minutes later so did we 🙄 Anyway we had a lovely dinner in the Peninsula restaurant and then as we came out we saw that the Captain was available for photos so we had a pic taken with him. It was a rubbish photo but it was nice to chat with him briefly and he said how rough the seas were but that Britannia was handling it well, it hadn’t seemed rough to us at all! There was a football match on TV that evening so my husband watched that in Brodies so I went to the theatre on my own to see a band called ‘Women in Rock’ who were pretty good. Apologies about the waffling 🥴

I have wonderful childhood memories of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight but we visited a couple of years ago and it was indeed very neglected, such a shame,

Good afternoon all. It's been so long since I've been on here that there's way too much for me to catch up on but I hope that you're all well! I've realised I hadn't done a report from our cruise but had made some notes so I will enjoy writing a report now,

Hi everyone, it’s a while since our cruise, life has been hectic, but it’s now the school holidays and I have some free time, so I thought I would write a belated cruise report. Embarkation Day: We had a boarding time of 1:30 and decided to drop our cases off just before 12 before wandering off for some lunch. We could see quite a crowd of people queuing to board at that time, seemed to be lots of people with priority boarding. After lunch in nearby Starbucks we arrived back to the terminal at 1pm and there was no queue at all, it was deserted, so we went straight through and were on the ship within 10 minutes. We loved Britannia’s atrium, a good first impression of the ship! As the cabins weren’t ready we grabbed a drink from Java and sat on the outside deck by The Glass House. Once the cabins were ready we went to find ours, our cases were there waiting for us. The cabin was fantastic, lovely and clean, the sofa and carpets looked new. It was a superior deluxe balcony cabin and the extra seating/living space was great! Plenty of space for all our things and yes I packed for a month not a week 🥴 The balcony was much smaller than our previous ones on Iona and Ventura, but we knew that would be the case. After unpacking it was time to explore the ship, finishing up with a cocktail outside overlooking the pool. We found the ship quite easy to navigate and quickly found our bearings. Before sailing on Britannia I saw lots of comments on here about no mid stair case from the cabin decks upwards and wasn’t sure if it would actually make much difference, but, you were all correct, it was frustrating when the lifts were on a go slow and you couldn’t use the stairs. After the first day or so we just avoided the mid lifts and walked forward, our cabin was mid forward, to use the stairs regardless of where we were going. We had pre-booked a table in The Beach House and very much enjoyed our dinner there, the lava rock steak is our favourite. We then headed off to The Live Lounge to watch Pulse, my niece’s friend was the male singer who as it turned out had actually left the ship that day 🤷‍♀️ The singer who was there was very good & we had a very good evening 😊

Hi everyone. Just popped on here briefly before heading down towards Southampton after lunch. Joining Britannia tomorrow 🙌 We have a boarding time of 1:30 but thinking of dropping off cases and car at midday and then grabbing lunch in town. I don’t think I’ll do a ‘live from’ this time, it’s been a busy time and I just need to switch off, but might do a report once back. Unless I feel inspired once onboard! Hayfever is bad this year and I’m nicely croaking even before the cabin air con 🙄

I've not been on Azura but was on Ventura last summer holidays. The main pool areas were very busy but we had a C deck balcony cabin which gave us a big balcony to use and we paid for The Retreat for the 2 weeks and it was the best decision we made, brilliant, peaceful, restful and you could forgot how busy the other areas were. In the evenings we didn't think the ship felt too busy.

I think for us it would be a close call between Cadiz and Geiranger for our favourite all of the ports we've been to. Mind you we've only done 2 cruises so far, have 3 more booked though 😁

We're back there next summer on a cruise with family and they're keen to go to Seville so we may well join them, but would happily just wander around Cadiz. In Cadiz we walked from the cathedral square to the promenade and kept walking along the sea front, out onto the little peninsula that goes to a fort, then further along sea front to some gardens and then lots of little streets back to the cruise ship, a perfect day exploring.

I love Cadiz, my favourite port from our cruise last summer

I hope you feel better soon Sue

That's good new Kalos, very worrying when babies are poorly.

Pauline always looks beautiful and so elegant.

Sorry, I've only just seen your reply. I'm sorry for you that you are left with issues because they didn't do the op quick enough Sounds a very similar experience to mum. We had to get her back to the hospital yesterday as the wound had started bleeding again. We said to the nurses that she feels much worse then she expected she would a week after the op but when they looked at her notes they told her that there had been extensive damage, it was basically 'a mess in there' so it's to be expected that recovery will take a while, it's a shame they didn't tell her that before discharging her. Traffic was horrendous so we spent almost 4 hours in the car which didn't help her pain, but it was worthwhile going, if only to get assurance about recovery speed.

We really enjoyed the Privateers on Ventura last summer. We saw them in the theatre the first night of the cruise and then they were in Havana Club a few nights later. Both great shows but the atmosphere when they played in Havana was excellent. We chatted to them briefly in La Palma when we were ashore, really nice guys. ☺️

Thanks Indiana. Mum's in more pain than she expected. She had it done on the NHS but they sent her to a private hospital in Crowborough to have it done, so not cheap. I get my eyebrows done at the stall at Hempstead Valley too. I used to have them threaded but it hurt so much I nearly swore at the lady. I find with the waxing it's less pain for less time 😂

Thanks Michelle. Yes, I think that's what she's had done, very similar anyway. She was only supposed to be in hospital for one night but her blood pressure was very low after the op so the kept her in. She's in a lot of pain but it's early days. It my niece's hen do tomorrow so mum will miss that, hopefully she'll make it to the wedding next weekend! Did it take you long to recover from the op?

I'm envious of those of you with sparse brows, I'm constantly trying to tame mine. I have mine waxed but my skin is sensitive and I have red lines above and below my brows for 24 hours after each waxing 😏 My mum was in hospital this week having a spine decompression and disc removal op and dad stayed near the hospital which was over an hour away so I stayed at theirs and looked after their pampered cats. Having nothing to do for 3 days was very strange but I actually managed to finish compiling a photo book of our Canaries Cruise last summer, just in time with only 4 weeks until our Norway cruise later this month ☺️

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise Andy. Four weeks until I try Britannia for the first time 😊

Thanks all. When we do eventually get to Rotterdam, it's the art gallery in the Hague that I particularly want to go to, I want to see the Vermeer paintings, especially The Girl With the Pearl Earring. A bit extreme to take a cruise especially for that but it's a good excuse for another cruise 😂

We've booked to go to Spain and France on Ventura in 2026 as well. We were on Ventura last summer to the Canaries and had a great time. The adult only pool just outside the Retreat was a good spot and we booked the Retreat for the fortnight. With the 2026 cruise being May half term I think we will book the Retreat again.