Cappers

They had a new CD the day we boarded,,Paul something from the Majesty. He was good fun. Very sociable.

Yes,,we had all the above little perks! I'm missing the ship,,I've still got the post cruise sway tho! It's hotter than hell here,,I don't know how you cope with it Campo

Lady:o I've had to keep going in the sea and pool to cool off;)

Ahoy shipmates:cool:. We've just got off the Disco2 this morning in sunny Malaga.,and are now at our hotel in benalmadena for a week. I've just got say how much we loved the ship! Cannot fault anything at all. The food was excellent,,the crew all brilliant,,the entertainment and show team brilliant. The Disco2 is a great ship,,I now understand why it's a vision class ship!! We had a junior suite on deck 8 (8566) towards the aft end,,quiet position,,I think the gym was directly above us but we were not disturbed in the time we were in the cabin having a siesta. Everything was quick and efficient from check in at the airport to arriving here at the hotel,,very speedy boarding last Sunday. Ports of call lovely,,the sea was a bit lively once or twice but nothing unpleasant. Captain Chris,,well what can I say:* I loved him,,tall handsome dashing charming funny,,everywhere you went onboard you could hear passengers coming out with his catchphrases! He's a right bobby dazzler,,boom,,and the sea is harry flatters! The dining room is stunning,,those huge floor to ceiling windows give you awesome views of the sunsets over the sea and the atrium is the heart of the ship,,and also very beautiful. We'll absolutely definitely be sailing on her again.

Packing dilemma folks! Do I pack my husbands dj or not? It's taking up precious space in the case,,I've had to juggle everything around and take out 2 of my new dresses,,I've recently lost 2 stones in weight and treated myself! We've got extra allowance as it is but I've struggled today with it all. It seems daft to be taking a suit on a summer holiday but we like to make the effort on that one night.,,but what percentage of folks also do the same? Does anyone know? I just don't know anymore:eek: I don't remember having this stress last summer when we were going on the Dream. Off on Sunday on the Disco2,,super excited apart from the dj dilemma! I should add he doesn't mind either way.

I didn't particularly like the Dream ,,the cruise was fabulous as was the week after in a hotel on Corfu but I agree with the previous post. The cabins seemed dark,,nice and clean but dark. I really didn't like the dining room because the windows were too high to see out of when you are seated for dinner and I find I really do need to be able to see the horizon, especially if there is any sway or my ears go funny! I loved the bar area at the aft end,,can't remember exactly what it was called,,maybe lido pool area,,nice open deck space with plenty of places to sit. Hated the main pool area and the sun deck area,,avoided it at all costs. Saying that though it was one of the best holidays we've ever had! Doing the Disco2 in about 10 days time so I'll soon see what she's like:cool: if there's one thing I've learned it's that I definitely prefer bigger modern ships.

Fantastic,,thank you Campolady;) I'm getting very excited now about it,,not long to go before holidoodles:cool:

I'm just wondering if there are sort of Zumba type classes on the disco 2? Has anyone who has recently been on her noticed anything in the daily paper thing? I do 4 sessions a week for mobility reasons and I don't want to seize up! I know there is a running track somewhere which I will march round for an hour a day but Zumba is much more fun:cool:

My Dad was from Glasgow so I can tune in pretty quickly ;)

Thank you very much Campolady:cool: I've had my eye on this cruise for a while now and finally got round to booking it last night,,with a week in benalmadena afterwards to lie on the beach and chill after what will be a busy week with new places to explore! Although I expect "chill" is the wrong word to use for Andalusia in August :o Did you like the Discovery 2?

Why do I never think about these things :o was there noise from the pool bar late into the night?

ahoy shipmates. Just booked a nice little summer holiday on the Disco 2:cool: not been to the 3 ports mentioned above so can anybody tell me if the ship docks in town or a way away and it's a shuttle bus job,,please. Are Lisbon,,Vigo and Porto easy diy ports or are they better done on a ships trip?

That's spooky,,,I've just booked Iberian treasures for this August on the Disco 2 and opted for a junior suite,,I was going to ask the same question about location. Funnily enough a junior suite was a little bit cheaper than a normal balcony cabin so I thought why not,,never had any kind of suite before on any ship!

Did you need kroner or did the sky lift and train accept credit cards?

Don't know about the train,,I just paid the man standing by it in cash.

I got my ticket from the tourist info office by the ship for the skylift ,,paid cash but you can pay by card there. At the actual skylift terminal office there is a ticket booth with staff and do it yourself ticket machines,,it's uber modern so I would say card payments are the norm. It's just my preference for cash on the hip;) I don't like the risk of cards not working!

Is the port shuttle bus wheelchair accessible?

It didn't look like it was to me. It was a fairly normal looking coach I'm afraid,,it did have an extra step so you didn't have such a big first step up. If you ( or whoever) could mange that then the lovely driver would definitely store a wheelchair for you. The buildings at both ends have good lifts and would be fully accessible but I didn't notice a suitable way out. The door I went out had a fairly big step out and down onto the paths. The cafe has an outside area that is the same level as inside and also a very large roof viewing area that someone in a wheelchair could get out onto via the lifts. The railings around it are sloping glass type things,,like very thick Perspex type stuff so when you stand at them you really are looking straight down:D I'll see if one of my kids can get a photo up for you,,I have no idea how to do that I'm afraid!

Thanks Cappers for a great and very informative report on the Sky Lift. When you bought your ticket do you know if it's possible to use a card?

Yes it was,,I paid cash but the man that served me assumed I would be paying by card.

Thanks for this, as I was thinking we may see if we have time to do this after Briksdal (or instead of Briksdal) in a couple of weeks time

My family went on the 9am glacier hike and they were back for 1.30pm. We didn't sail until 5pm so back on board time was 4.30pm,,I reckon you could fit both in if you didn't hang around,,you could get an hour up the top before going back down. The shuttle bus driver said that he waits for 5 minutes after the cars get back down before leaving for the port again.

Cappers : i hope you enjoy your stay in Olden,and i hope you will visit our village agein another time,never forget everyone is always welcome to Olden :)

Hellooo Galaxy :cool: I did indeed enjoy my visit to your beautiful village,,I loved it. You are very lucky to live somewhere so nice. I know it must be hard in winter but I imagine your summers make up for it. I'm so glad you told us all about the Loen skylift!

It was so fantastic and the fact that it's not yet crowded made it even more fantastic because I really felt like I was the only person up there. I spent all morning up there,,got the 12.30pm cable car back down, was back on the quayside by 1pm waiting for the others to get back. When they did return they were all tired and hungry after their hike so they all went back onboard Azura for lunch and I went on the mini train on a lovely little trip around the village,past a lake and up and down some lovely leafy lanes. That was a nice little train ride that didn't cost much,,sorry can't remember exactly how much. I liked Olden very much, not a lot in the place itself but very very pretty.

ahoy shipmates. I've just got back from the fjords on the beautiful Azura this morning. Just thought I'd offer a few thoughts.

Azura,,,beautiful and elegant as always.

Food in MDR ( meridian freedom) very nice,,much improved from Ventura at new year,

Norway,,fantastic:cool: weather was changeable and we saw rain,fog,snow on the mountains and warmish sunshine. The sea was kind to us every night!

The highlight of the week for me was definitely the new skylift which I did on our day in Olden. I know we've been talking about it recently and many thanks to Galaxy for his help with information on it. Here's what I did,,we arrived nice and early in Olden and all 8 of us were off the ship before 9am. My husband, son and friends all did the briksdall glacier hike but I went straight to the little tourist info right by the quayside and got my ticket. It cost me 650kroner and included the shuttle bus which you get across the road 100 yards down from the petrol station car park. The man that drives the shuttle bus is great,,very friendly and talkative,,told me loads of stuff about the whole area. He goes back and forth all day to and from the port/skylift. The skylift itself is totally awesome,,it's practically vertical at some points and you are face to face with the mountain. I cannot recommend it enough. I absolutely loved it! Because it's so new there were very few people around,,only about 10 going up with me and coming down I had the whole thing to myself,,apart from the handsome Norwegian operator! There is a fabulous cafe at the top which is brand new and very modern,,food looked excellent. I had hot choc and cake after I spent a good hour walking around the paths at the top and taking photos. It was very cold up there with some snow still around and the air was quite thin as it's very high and I was gasping a bit after my walk,,could have been the cold though? Obviously the views are breathtaking! It's so new they are still building parts of it. If you're going to Olden I'd definitely do it,,I think you could do the glacier and the skylift in one day,,it was only 8 mins on shuttle bus just around the shores of the fjord.

I was on Azura last Sunday evening and we sailed through a good storm. The lightening was amazing to watch,,the sea was calm and we just watched it light up the sky. It went on for a few hours as we sailed north.

I'm sure we will --- though we may moan about embarkation we always make the most of our holidays. :D

We just can not wait to get on that balcony tomorrow and just sit and look out on the sea.

 

We're so lucky to be able to cruise like this :)

We're off on Azura tomorrow to the fjords,,am finally all packed:cool: hate to be a doom merchant but have you seen the forecast Presto? Looks like it could be a very wet sailaway and an unpleasant sea day on Monday for the journey north:( we'll soon see I suppose!

Thank you Galaxy :cool:

Galaxy,,,,if you're there,,do you know if the shuttle bus for the skylift runs at regular intervals all day? I've been trying to book it via the link you put up but it's only showing one option of 10am for my day in Olden. Do you think I could just turn up on the day,,get off the ship and get the bus and do it? Or do I really have to pre book it? It would just be me on my own as everyone else I'm travelling with are going to the glacier.

I bet Martin Lewis would know how to deal with this fiasco! Or Anne Robinson ;p it is truly stunning that p&o are behaving as though it's a minor irritation and very arrogant of them to I think. We checked our accounts yesterday and there doesn't seem to be anything there thankfully. Hasn't this happened before though? I seem to recall getting a similar email after returning from a cruise saying that the final account payment had been accidentally put through again but that it was the 3rd party at fault,,I think it was this time last year after we had been on Britannia.

Does anybody know how far it is from Olden port to Loen where the new skylift is?