VISION OTS REVIEW - Norway and Arctic Circle, 9th August 2012

[Mrssmithysrat]

This review is of our recent sailing on Vision OTS round Norway and the Arctic Circle. It was a 12 night cruise, departing Copenhagen on 9th August and visiting Alesund, Honningsvag, Tromso, Olden, Bergen and Geiranger.

 

 

I have split it into topics rather than doing it day by day, and I will put it up over various posts as it is rather long!

 

 

This is the link to our photos:

http://s824.photobucket.com/albums/zz169/lemonthelime/Norway%20and%20Arctic%20Circle%20cruise%20August%202012/

 

 

and this is the link to hubby's videos, although he is only up to day 6 so far.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/smithysrat

 

 

 

 

About us

Hubby (Smithysrat) and I are both in our early 30s. Hubby has cruised quite a few times where as this was only my second cruise ever, the first being Jewel OTS last year round the Baltics. Therefore I don't have much to compare my experiences on this cruise to.

 

 

Pre-Cruise and embarkation

 

 

We flew from London Stansted, UK, the day before we were due to set sail. We were on 07.05 EasyJet flight so arrived in Copenhagen (CPH) relatively early. The airport was easy to navigate, and after a 15 min walk from our gate to baggage reclaim, our bags were already on the carousel waiting for us.

 

 

At the airport we purchased 24hr Copenhagen cards, which gave us free bus, train and metro travel, plus free or discounted entry into over 70 attractions. We bought these at the info desk at the airport, which is where we discovered a problem – we had bought Swedigh krone instead of Danish!! It was a complete oversight on our part, and wasn't like we didn't know where CPH was as we visited last year.

 

 

Anyway, once that was sorted out we got the train from the airport to Central Station – about 3 stops taking 10 – 15 mins. We did a short walk from here to our hotel – the Palace Hotel. It was very nice, clean etc as you would expect. Normally breakfast isn't included in the price but hubby works in travel and got us an industry discount that also included breakfast.

 

 

We got up to a few things in the afternoon. First was a trip to the zoo. We caught a bus from near our hotel to right outside the zoo. There was lot to see and we spent a couple of hours wandering round before taking the bask back into the city centre. We then caught another bus to Nyhavn to get some lunch. Lovely area by the canal with lots of bars and restaurants that have outdoor seating areas.

 

 

After lunch we took a canal boat tour. We were told to make sure we used the boats with the blue bottoms as they're the best! The tour took about an hour and the commentary was very informative. It took us through the old naval base where all the buildings are converted to flats or summer houses as well as into the city under some very low bridges.

 

 

In the evening we went to Tivoli. There was a show taking place on the stage when we got there so we watched a bit of it but didn't really understand what was going on, having missed the start of it. There were plenty of restaurants to choose from so we struggled a bit at first but we ended up having dinner at an Italian restaurant in the gardens which was nice. The gardens were then starting to light up as we finished but as we were tired we decided not to wait until 22.45 to see the full illuminations.

 

 

Breakfast at the hotel was good, with the usual buffet fare, including hot and cold options.

 

 

We got a taxi from our hotel around 10.30am to head to the port. This cost us approx 160DKK. Porters were on hand to meet our taxi and took our luggage straight from the boot of the car for us. Having already printed our set sail passes meant things were straight forward. There was virtually no queue so we didnt wait long to get to the desk and sort paperwork. We were then giving a boarding group number and pointed in the direction of a 'holding area' where refreshments were supplied. We only waited around 10 mins before our group was called and we headed onto the ship.

 

 

By now it was around 11.15 and the ship wasn't busy at all. We took the opportunity to explore every part of the ship and take photos of all the areas without people in the shots. We then grabbed a bite to eat at the windjammer before heading to the bar for the first drink of our cruise – long island iced teas.

 

 

Around 12.45 an announcement was made that our cabins were ready so we went to locate it. After walking round for a while and getting lost, then wondering whether our cabin actually existed, we realised that there was an inner corridor on either side of the front of the ship. We had walked past the entrance to the corridor twice. We eventually located our cabin tucked away in the centre of the ship.

[Mrssmithysrat]

Cabin

 

 

We were in cabin 4327. The cabin was pretty much what we expected. It was clean and tidy. There was plenty of storage: 6 drawers in the desk, 3 draers under the telly, 2 drawers each side of the bed, plus a wardrobe with 1 rail for long clothes, and 2 rails above each other for short clothes. There was also the cupboard space above the TV with the safe inside.

 

 

I would say there was too much furniture though for the space we had. We had the beds pushed together as a double. On the left at the base of the bed was a tub chair we couldn't get past, and on the right were the drawers with the TV on top. This pretty much meant we crawled up the bed to get in every night! We frequently had to move the coffee table to different locations as well depending on what we wanted to do. It either ended up blocking the bathroom door, the wardrobe or the dressing table.

 

 

The TV was the old tube style, and wasn't interactive so we had to get regular print outs of our room bill.

 

 

Our cabin was somewhere below the mooring deck and above the bow thrusters. We knew we were docking each port day as our whole bed vibrated when the bow thrusters were in action. On the day we anchored and used tenders, we also had the pleasure of having the anchor chain clanking loudly above our heads as the anchor was dropped.

 

 

The wall behind our headboard backed onto a staff corridor and you could hear trollies, etc being trundled along at various points in the day.

 

 

TBH we weren't that bothered by the noise, but anyone that likes their peace and quiet should avoid this cabin!

 

 

Staff

 

 

Captain Lis – Wow what a fantastic woman. One of only 4 cruise ship captains in the world. She was approachable and friendly and would stop us for a chat if she saw us about the ship, and was happy to pose for photos etc. She was very visible around the ship and gave some very informative announcements, including describing what we were seeing as we sailed out of Geiranger. Brilliant sense of humour too.

 

 

Cruise Director – Mike Hunnerup He was totally showed up by how wonderful the captain was, and her presence really showed up how invisible he was during the whole cruise. We only saw him when he was at a scheduled event, which was usually the evening game show or at the start/end of the evening show. At the end of events it was like he couldn't get away quick enough, and rarely lingered to chat with people etc. We saw more of the captain than him. The only other CD I have to compare him to is Clodagh O'connor form Jewel and she was fantastic,running trivia, walking a mile every morning with passengers etc. We saw none of this kind of thing with Mike. Even when he was running game shows he seemed very stilted/wooden and nothing ever lasted longer than 30 mins.

 

 

The only thing he did seem good at was recognising what activities were popular and making sure that these activities were repeated at some other point in the cruise. Example is kareoke with a live band. This was done a second time later in the cruise. Also, at the start the kareoke was in the crown lounge where younger guests couldnt take part (they did anyway till security got involved!). He later scheduled family kareoke sessions so that they were able to take part properly.

 

 

We recognise he had a tough crowd on board (less than 100 Brits, not many more Americans, with the majority being non-English speaking Danes or Spanish), and the majority of the Danes just wouldn't get involved in anything, we felt he let down those people that did want to get involved and take part in activities.

 

 

Cruise director staff – They were all fab and very approachable, again showing up how poor the cruise director was. They would always stop for a chat, and were very good natured about our heckling and disputing of wrong answers in the trivia (hubby likes to get a bit competitive!) Their rendition of YMCA complete with costumes, during the centrum party, was very amusing.

 

 

Cabin Steward – didn't really see much of him. He did a good job keeping our cabin tidy though and left us some nice towel animals. There was only one we couldn't figure out this year, although we think it might have been a bull?!!

 

 

Waiting staff – We had a wonderful head waitress called Gabrielle. She introduced herself on the first night, and we saw her most nights after that. She was attentive and made sure that everything was ok/no problems. Well, we had plenty of problems (see food section) but she always did her best, along with our waiter, to resolve any issues. Our main waiter was calle Mirel (I think?) he was good and attentive. He was helpful in solving problems with meals, although managed to give out the wrong menus a couple of times! The assistant waiter was ok and quick to learn who liked which bread, who had pepper etc, although he took hubby' starter away before he had completely finished a couple of times.

 

 

Bar staff – Arlene and Turnip in the schooner bar were fantastic and had brilliant sense of humour. They soon learnt what we liked to drink. Arlene also introduced me to French Martinis which soon became my tipple for the rest of the cruise, and I have even been out to buy the drinks to make them at home!

 

 

Food

 

 

The food was OK, nothing to write home about/. However, every night in MDR something was missing off the menu or had been replaced. One night I ordered a melon, papaya and waterchesnut starter, and got kiwi fruit and grapes instead! That got sent back for an alternative. We found out 2 days before the end of the cruise that 3 containers of food hadn't made it onto the ship for some reason so they were missing a lot of ingredients.

 

 

A number of us on our table ordered the coq au vin when evening which was poor. Other friends that we spoke to had also been disappointed with it on their table. Basically our expectation was small pieces of chicken that had been marinated in a red wine sauce, which would then be served in a sauce with small onions, mushrooms and small pieces of bacon. What we got was a squiggled of red wine reduction on the plate, with half a chicken plonked on top, with a small amount of mushrooms and a strip of crispy pancetta on top for decoration. The meat was dry and white, so clearly hadn't been marinated. It tasted OK but we just werent impressed.

 

 

There were also other food issues on our table. One group were blue cheese fans and wanted some after dinner. Waiter enquired with kitchen as to whther they had any but the reply was negative. They later went up to the windjammer where they had a whole platter of blue cheese! They went back and complained to Gabrielle. The next night they were then presented with a whole platter of blue cheese to make up for the problem.

 

 

Another lady on our table ordered rice pudding as dessert, after checking that it would be served warm. Waiter confirmed it would be, but it arrived cold. It was sent back to be microwaved but still wasnt great. Again it was brought to the attention of the head waiter, and the next night they presented her with a steaming hot rice pudding to make up for it.

 

 

So, yes there were problems, but the staff also worked hard to make it up to us when things went wrong.

 

 

A few evenings we chose to eat in the windjammer. We took a liking to the stirfry bar, where we could select our veg and meat/fish, and have a chef cook it for us fresh. They did need to put some instructions up though on what to do as one evening, there were an number of non-english speakers who were selecting raw fish to eat with their salads. Despite the chef trying to tell them it was raw and needed cooking they were mixing it with their other food anyway! They also kept using the veg tongs for the raw meat/fish and then putting them back in the veg.

 

 

The roasted meat that they served every lunchtime in the windjammer was very nice and I had this most days.

 

 

Overall, I found the desserts disappointing, both in the windjammer and the MDR. I have quite a sweet tooth and only 2 desserts all week really satisfied that.

 

 

I had issues trying to get the drink I wanted on a couple of occassions. On the first night I asked for a white wine spritzer made with lemonade. The waiter looked confused and said that they didnt serve that type of wine! I then explained that it was white wine mixed with soda lemonade. He still looked confused and called the bartender over, and he also looked confused. In the end I ordered a glass of white wine and a can of sprite and mixed it myself at the dinner table.

 

 

On the penultimate night we joined 10 other friends for dinner in My time dining. (They all already ate there, and due to a lack of speciality restaurants, we convinced their waiter to squeeze us on their table for one night!) Any way I also requested a white one spritzer and again they didnt know what it was so I order a glass of wine and can of sprite. 5 mis later the bar man walks past a says 'ah you are mixing a spritzer!' I bit my tongue at that!

[Mrssmithysrat]

Entertainment

 

 

Gameshows and trivia

 

 

We took part in a lot of the trivia. We particularly enjoyed the progressive trivia, which was accumulated across the 5 sea days. We got to meet a lot of people through this and it got quite competitive on the last day. They also held the same competition in Danish every sea day.

 

 

There was a good mix of different trivia styles – name that tune, visual ones such as name that flag, 'where in the world am I' that used pictures of landmarks, and straightfoward questions which were quite hard at times.

 

 

We also took part in a couple of scavenger hunts. Some were traditional and some were done with digital cameras.

 

 

We took part in a few of the game shows which were quite inventive, or that we hadn't seen before. 60 seconds or less was fun with silly challenges to be completed in less than 60 seconds. There was a dance competitions where we were in 2 teams. They played some music and as soon as you knew the dance moves to it you had to run up and do them, and get as many of the audience to join in with you as possible.

 

 

There was also the usual Love and marriage game show. They struggled to get people up on stage for this. We had already volunteered our friends that we had met, who were on honeymoon. In the end hubby and I had to volunteer, as well as another couple we had made friends with, else they wouldnt have had a show. This was another example of where the CD really didn't come up to scratch as he didn't seem able to run with the answers we gave him or just generally get into the spirit of the show.

 

 

We had however taken part in the show on our previous cruise, which was our honeymoon, and Clo had made so much more of our answers, run with silly comments and so on, generally making the show extremely funny. She just had a much better rapport with the contestants.

 

 

Theatre productions and headline acts

 

 

From past experience we didn't bother with the RCI productions. However, we heard mixed reviews from our table mates, saying the quality of singers varied greatly.

 

 

It was noticeable that the entertainment was geared towards the fact there was a majority of non-english speakers on board. We didn't have a comedian. We did have A LOT of musicians, and heard Martha's Park performed by at least 2 of them! The magician on the last night was excellent, and again his act involved very little/no speaking. The juggler mid week was good. Claudio Duo (acrobatic duo) on the first night were good but repetitive after about the first 15 minutes. There was only so many times I could watch a woman hang upside down by her feet in a hoop that was balanced on a man's forehead.

 

 

Other

 

 

Topi, the activities manager, gave a fantastic talk about his personal 7 month sailing adventure. He talked about how they across the pacific to Australia, and the places they visited along the way. He was a very good speaker, and his presentation of photos and fill footage was well put together.

 

 

We did karaoke most evenings, although they did have it on every night except 1. This took place in the viking crown lounge. There was usually the same 9 or 10 people that sang every evening as the crown lounge wasn't very busy except for the mass of kids that kept appearing! This did become a problem because the lifts come directly up into the lounge so they had direct access.

 

 

We did not see any security in this venue until approx. night 5. Until then the CDs staff were making regular announcements that they had to leave, directly approaching them and elling them to leave, and even the bartenders were trying to round them up and getting them to leave. These kids either point blank ignored them, or lied about their age when challenged! Eventually security arrived on night 5 and made them all leave and then stayed around the next couple of nights to ensure they had got the message. It seemed to do the trick, although there was the odd occasion where they would reappear from the lifts, but staff were prompt to make them leave.

 

 

On day 4 we had a 'Crossing the Arctic Circle' celebration. This was fun but could have been better organised, as there seemed a lack of common sense about some things. Basically the ceremony had the majority of the ship up on the pool deck and there was a cordoned off area. King Neptune and his wife appears and paraded down to a couple of makeshift thrones. Captain Lis gave a short speech, followed by the CD who said we had some 'Pollywogs' on board who needed to be punished by King Neptune. They then brought out some of the senior officers who hadn't crossed the circle before, and they were 'punished' by being made to kiss fish, having flour or cokked spaghetti poured over their heads, and having buckets of ice poured down their backs.

 

 

They then asked if there were any 'pollywogs' amongst the guests and they were invited to go up and stand before king neptune. They then had an ice cube down their backs and their nose dipped in blue glitter. At the end king neptune and his wife 'returned to the sea' by jumping in the swimming pool.

 

 

All of the was fun to watch but here's where it needed a bit more thought:

 

• the ceremony took part on the floor of the pool deck. The rest of the deck was filled with people watching, and people were stood round the whole of the upper deck too. Many people complained afterwards that they couldn't see what was happening because they didnt use a platform etc, and that it would have been better to do it on the upper deck.
  
• Around the upper deck railings they had left all the sun loungers out, and bungee corded them together. People were struggling to get to the railings to be able to watch the proceedings below. We were able to walk along the rubber slats of the loungers and over the head rest to get to the railings but many older or less mobile people struggled with this. They couldn't move the loungers because they were tied together so their only option was to climb over.
  
• On the lower deck a few people got their noses dipped in blue glitter afterwards, but more people were asking where they could get it done. They needed to have more staff around the lower and upper decks with the glitter so that more people could join in the fun.
  

 

 

 

 

Our roll call meet and mingle needs a mention as that turned into a saga! Before we left for our cruise we checked when our roll call was – day 2, in the VKL. What we did not was that 214 people had signed up – very unusual as our discussion board was virtually dead, with only around 10 people posting.

 

 

By the end of day 1 we hadn't received our invites to the event so I went to guest services to check when it was. They said it was on day 4 in the 'Some enchanted evening' lounge. Now, we knew this but the invites for the event weren't delivered until day 2, AFTER most people had already left their cabins to attend the original M&M it turns out. On day 3 we then eceived another message under our door saying that they has rearranged our M&M for DAY7!! due to a clash with the Arctic circle crossing celebration.

 

 

Hubby got on his high horse at this, went off to find our friend Bob whom we had met on our discussion board and met by chance at trivia on day 2! Together they went down to guest services who told him that they had moved it to avoid the clash of events, due to the large amount of people due to attend the M&M. They arranged a meeting for the next day with a team leader from guest services, where they had to point out to her than the point of the M&M was for people to meet each other that they had met on the roll call, organise excusrions and activities, etc. She didn't seem to grasp this until that point and thought that it was just an ordinary group meeting, like a single meet and greet for example.

 

 

In the end the M&M stayed on day 7 and the 214 people turned up! Apparently there was a similar forum to CC, and most of those people were Spanish. I didn't attend the M&M as it clashed with something else I wanted to do but hubby attended. He said that most people seemed to be there because of the free gift and food/drinks, and it was difficult to meet people from our roll call and the other board, and it would have been useful if they had had separate areas for each one.

 

 

On the whole, we found that there was always something to do on a sea day. A couple of times we had to work out when we were going to fit lunch in as there were so many things we wanted to do and we were rarely at a loose end.

[Mrssmithysrat]

Excursions and ports of call

 

 

Hubby isn't one to generally book ship excursions, and last year we didn't book any round the Baltics. However, we were a bit stuck after doing a lot of research and so resorted to ship excursions in some of the ports.

 

 

Alesund

 

 

We book an excursion called 'The Path of the Trolls'. On first glance at the brochure you would think that you are going to be sat on a coach for 7 hours solid with a lunch stop, just looking at scenery.

 

 

We feel that RCI totally undersold this excursion.

 

 

Plenty of stops were made at viewing points where you could walk out over waterfalls or over valleys whilst 1000s of feet in the air! We also made a stop at an old painted church and farmhouse where a local gave a small talk about the history of the church. We also had a short tour of the town of Alesund when we got back, and had enough time to take a short walk in town when we got back if we wanted. Kali, our host, was very knowledgeable and spoke great English. Lunch was good, and served at a local tourist canteen. There was a selection of baked salmon, chicken, and vegetables or salad, with bread, plus a small selection of desserts. They also served water and non-alcoholic beer with lunch as well as tea and coffee.

 

 

The scenery on this tour was stunning and well worth the coach journey – even the steep hair pin bend road down the side of a moutain!

 

 

Honningsvag

 

 

Originally we were going to avoid going to North Cape as we though it would be a bit like Land's End in the UK – a naff tourist attraction only worse! With this in mind we booked an ATV safari instead.

 

 

It wasn't until we were on the ship and received our tickets for this that we realised we had forgotten to bring our driver's licenses. We enquired at guest relations whether we could still do this excursion. They checked with the company but it was a negative due to insurance reasons.

 

 

We therefore decided to do North Cape after all, as some friends we had met on board were going so we thought we'd join them. We had previously costed this trip independently and it came out more expensive than the ship, plus with the temperamental nature of the weather we didn't want to chance not getting back to the ship.

 

 

The journey was very scenic and we saw plenty of reindeer. We made a short stop at a layby on the side of the road. Here we found a tee-pee set up. Inside it was laid out with traditional Sami clothes. Outside, there was a sami man in traditional dress holding a reindeer. You could have your photo taken with him and the reindeer. This was free to do however we looked for a tips box but couldnt see one. Our friends later told us that there was one there. There was also a small souvenir shop here.

 

 

We were pleasantly surprised by North Cape. It was very cold, as there was an icy wind but we were wrapped up in fleeces and woolly hats so it wasn't too bad. We couldn't see very far due to the fog either but got pics of the monument and some of the statues.

 

 

The visitor centre was informative. There was a cinema showing a film about North Cape throughout the different seasons. There was then a tunnel that went down through the cliff and popped out at a viewing area on the side of the cliff, called Kings View. Along the tunnel there are some glass cases in the wall with different scenes built inside them of different events that happened at North Cape, e.g how it was discovered, when the king of Norway visited etc. The underground chapel is also stunning, and it was pleasant to sit in the restaurant at the end of the tunnel and look out of the floor to ceiling windows.

 

 

You can also send a post card from here to get a NordKapp post mark.

 

 

In the afternoon we went to the ice bar. We did this independently rather than with the ship. As far as I know it is cheaper to do it independently but I would definitely book in advance as it was packed. This ice bar is different in that they rebuild it every year. They show a short film about how they cut the ice for it before you go in.

 

 

Inside the bar they don't serve alcohol, only drinks that are a bit like fruit squash. However we did smuggle in some vodka miniatures, which was easy to add to drinks under the large quilted capes! They have built an igloo inside the bar that you can crawl into and sit with friends. They have lined the seats with reindeer furs so you don't get a cold behind. They also had a couple of sleds so you could take pictures of you on them.

 

 

We had a walk round Honningsvag itself but there wasn't really a lot to see or do there.

[Mrssmithysrat]

Tromso

 

 

We took the ship's shuttle into to town as the ship was docked too far for us to comfortably walk. We did ring a taxi company but this was going to work out more expensive.

 

 

The shuttle dropped us outside the tourist information office. We popped in here to find out about the arctic cathedral and cable car. We found that the no.26 bus would drop us at the cathedral and the cable car so we picked up a timetable and bus map from the office. Ticket options were 60NK for an all day bus ticket for any bus, or 28 NK for a single trip.

 

 

We located a bus stop for the no.26 but it took an absolute age to appear and so we gave up waiting. Being a group of 8 we got a couple of taxis between us, and when we split the cost 4 ways per taxi it ended up being cheaper than the bus. Our taxi cost us 88NK from nr the tourist office to the Arctic cathedral. The taxi driver was very helpful and informed us that it was about a 10 min walk from the cathedral up to the cable car, and gave us directions. It is possible to walk from the centre of town out to the Cathedral, and we saw many people from the ship do this.

 

 

The Cathedral was beautiful inside as was the glass window ( note that it is NOT a stained glass window as RCL would have you believe. We had an expert stained glass restorer on our dinner table who restored windows at York minster Cathedral, and he was not happy when he saw the window and then read RCL's description!)

 

 

We didn't stay long at the cathedral, perhaps 15 mins. We then took the short walk up the hill to the cable car. This took around 10 mins. We had been advised at the tourist office that it wasn't worth doing the cable car unless you could see the summit. However, as it seemed to be turning out to be a nice day, and the sun was burning off the fog, we decided to try it out any way.

 

 

As we stood waiting in line we saw the no. 26 bus pull up at the bottom of the car park. It was RAMMED with people.

 

 

There were a number of tariff options, namely being return journey, or up only and down only. There is also a walking route up to the top of the mountain so this is why the single trip options exist.

 

 

By the time we reached the top the sky was clear and we got a stunning view. We were bathed in glorious sunshine, and many people were enjoying beers and ice cream on the terrace, from the gift shop at the top.

 

 

We spent about 30 mins at the top before our descent. We decided to try our luck with the no.26 bus but after waiting 20 mins, the more agile/younger members of our group decided to walk back into town across the bridge. The bridge is a heck of a lot longer than it first looks, and there was quite a cold wind blowing across it despite it being a warm, sunny day. It took us about 30 mins to do the walk, during which we were overtaken by the elusive no.26 bus!

 

 

Once back in town we had a wander around the small market at grabbed some beers, cokes and hotdogs from the mini supermarket on the corner. We then took a walk along the high street at the various shops, which seemed very expensive. Our friends went off to use the free internet at the library and we went for a look inside the wooden cathedral – the most northern wooden cathedral in Europe.

 

 

After a quick stop at the souvenir shop for postcards, we got the shuttle back to the ship. All in all, you could easily do your own thing in this port without using ship excursions.

 

 

Geiranger

 

 

We were woken by the bow thrusters shaking our bed and then the sound of the anchor being dropped over head so we knew we had arrived on this day!

 

 

We had booked a ship excursion to a mountain farm as we knew that Geiranger was small. However, as our excursion wasn't until midday we planned to get off the ship in the morning to explore the town.

 

 

As we were tendering in this port we went down to the excursion meeting point (the theatre!) first thing and asked whether we could meet up with our excursion party on the dock. The man radio'd someone to find out and after then ignoring us for 5 mins, barked that it was fine and a meeting time at us before running off somewhere!

 

 

Tendering was straightforward. We got off and took a walk along the only main road that seems to run through this small village. There is a small supermarket at the end of the road which was useful for buying drinks and small snacks as we were going to miss lunch due to the time of our excursion departure.

 

 

We visited the small chocolate shop where they make their own chocolates in an on site factory. They had some very unusual flavours such as olive oil and sea salt! Our dinner table mates later told us that they had also visited and enjoyed some lovely hot chocolate drinks in the small cafe that they have in the shop. They also visited a small gallery in the top of a house. It sold some very lovely ceramic and glass items so we were told.

 

 

Along the pier there are also the usual souvenir shops. What we did notice though was that many of the ships excursions were available to book independently along the shore of Geiranger, such as the sky to sea down hill cycle ride, kayaking, rib boating, coach sight seeing, boat trip for sight seeing. Most of the tickets for these were sold in the tourist office right on the pier where the tenders landed.

 

 

We waited for our excursion party on the dock, and made our self know to RCL excursion staff that were there, and they let us know which party number we needed to look out for. As we were waiting we heard a man from our ship complain to the staff that he had booked the rib boat trip for $140 with the ship. He was angry for a number of reasons: he could only do it at certain times with the ship but the man that owned the boat said he spaces all day; the organiser was only charging $70 so the ship had put a 100% mark up on the excusrion. Now whilst we agreed (between me and hubby!) about his anger at the price, we also felt that had this person done his research before his trip then he could have got it cheaper and at a time to suit him.

 

 

Any way...we had no problem meeting up with our excursion. We started by climbing the mountain side in a bus, up a road with a heck of a lot of hair pin bends! We then stopped at a viewing point where we could take photos of our ship anchored in the fjord. We were the only ship in port that day so she was easy to pick out! We then continued up through the mountains, with a running commentary from our guide.

 

 

We passed a beautiful lake on the way that was so still that it reflected the scenery like a mirror. As it was a beautiful sunny day our guide decided to make a stop so we could take photos, and use the toilet. I would stress that if you do this trip make sure you use the loo BEFORE you get to the goat farm for reasons I shall explain in a moment.

 

 

We eventually arrived at the farm, which was basically a collection of wooden huts next to a river and lots of goats. We started with a lady giving us a brief introduction to what brown cheese was, how it was made, and why it was made. She showed us some of the tools used in the process, and was also boiling up some of the Whey that is used in the process so that we could see and smell it.

 

 

In another hut we were then able to sample some brown cheese, as well as other cheeses and some of the sweet caramel sweets that they make. It was possible to purchase some brown cheese and caramels. Because of how the cheese is made it is in effect pasteurised and so did not need to be refridgerated. I would advise making sure you have small change available fore purchases rather than large notes, as they were running out of change due to 2 buses of people visiting that day.

 

 

Now, at this point I needed the toilet and had to visit a hut that was stood all on its own! Inside there was 2 cubibles, each with a wooden bench. Attached to the bench was a toilet seat....basically it was a drop toilet, whereby all that is underneath the seat is a very deep hole! The smell was not pleasant, although not unbearable, but the herbs they had hung in the cubicles did little to mask the smell!

 

 

At the farm we were free to explore. There were a couple of huts open that we could look inside, and there were goats and horses there that could be petted.

 

 

This excursion took about 4 hours in total. Although the farm was interesting, there wasn't much at the farm to see o

r do. I think RCL would have been better of making this a longer excursion and tying it in with a different stop – maybe at another village or point of interest.

[Mrssmithysrat]

Olden

 

 

Through cruise critic we had arranged a private excursion to the Briksdal glacier. This would involve hiking to the glacier and then paddling out to the glacier in a rubber dinghy.

 

 

We took an independent bus to the glacier and met up with our guide. The hike up to the glacier took around 45 mins to an hour. I walk slow and have problems with my ankles, so some one a lot fitter could do this much quicker. The path is actually well worn and wide, and suitable for buggies. The path is rather steep in places but flattens out towards the end. The scenery along the way is worth it, and we got quite wet passing the massive waterfall midway.

 

 

They also have a fleet of 'troll cars' that regularly drive almost to the top and back. These are open top 4x4 buggy style vehicles that take 7 people at a time.

 

 

Unfortunately when we reached the top the was an exceptionally strong wind blowing and our guide said it wouldn't be safe to take the dinghy out on the lake, so we found a sheltered spot to sit and he spoke with us about the glacier and how it has receded, and the history of the glacial park.

 

 

We didn't stay too long at the top due to the wind. We stopped off at the gift shop before getting back on the bus.

 

 

Olden itself...there is even less to do the Geiranger! There is a small parade of souvenir shops directly opposite where the ships docks, and a tourist info office here also. There is also a tourist 'land' train that does a short sight seeing tour. Our friends decided to hire some bikes in the afternoon and they said they cycled to a church.

 

 

 

 

Bergen

 

 

We did not book an excursion for this port as the town was a substantial size. We had decided that we wanted to visit the fish market, Bryggen and the funicular railway.

 

 

We walked into town which took about 10-15 mins. Swe passed the 13th century Rosencratz tower on the way and a couple of group decided they would like to visit this later on.

 

 

We then discovered Bryggen and had a walk round here, through the crooked alleyways and courtyards. It was an interesting area and there is a small visitor centre next to where they are still renovating some of the buildings.

 

 

Our next stop was the tourist info office as we wanted to investigate what the 'Bergen' card included. Turns out that it included some of the sights we wanted to see, but would work out more expensive for us as we were only going to a couple of places.

 

 

Originally we were going to do the funicular railway first thing as a number of people had advised this in order to avoid long queues. However, the weather was quite miserable so we delayed the trip.

 

 

As the tourist office is next to the fish market we took a walk round here for a while, noting how expensive everything was.

 

 

In the end we bit the bullet and walked to the funicular. We queued for around 20 mins before getting in the car to the top. There was quite a bit to do at the top: cafe, souvenir shop, vieing platform, adventure playground, woodland walks.

 

 

Due to the weather all we could see was fog. As it was raining we set ourselves a time limit for it to clear – 15 mins. During this time we had a short wander through the woods where we found the play ground and some troll carvings. We had almost given up on seeing the view and were heading back to catch the car dwon, when we noticed the view was clearing. Within about 10 mins it was virtually clear again and we got a stunning view of the town and our ship.

 

 

After heading back down to ground level hubby went off to visit the tower with our friends Bob whilst I hit the shops in Bryggen with Bob's wife. We found a lovely christmas decoration shop upstairs in Bryggen which had some lovely items and wasn't overly expensive. Overall the shops here seemed a better quality, even the souvenir shops, than what we had seen before.

 

 

We then headed back to the ship from Bryggen, through the grounds of the tower. In general, you could pass a day easily in Bergen without the need to book ship excursions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

 

On the whole we enjoyed our cruise. The ship was clean and tidy, the food was edible. There were things that were better than our last cruise, and things that weren't. We enjoyed the ports of call and the scenery was worth the trip.

[adaminaby]

Thanks for all the info it has been great we sail 7th sept your photos and info are excellent,very comprehensive.

[adaminaby]

Just one question or may be a few in the next 6 days:D was there shampoo and conditioner provided?travelling from australia we are trying to keep weight down:eek: we are on a 42 day cruise copenhagen to san diego .

[Mrssmithysrat]

Just one question or may be a few in the next 6 days:D was there shampoo and conditioner provided?travelling from australia we are trying to keep weight down:eek: we are on a 42 day cruise copenhagen to san diego .

 

From what I recall there was a shampoo/conditioner dispenser on the wall in our shower. Not sure if it had any in it though as we never used it.

 

If you are in copenhagen before hand it should be fairly easy to pick these up at a store. They have corner shops called 'seven-eleven' which you may be help to get them in, or there were pharmacys etc around. Also I'm sure there were stores at the airport that you could get them at.

[RedHeadTexan]

Great review about the Vision! We set sail on her in November and appreciate you taking the time to post so much about the ship! :D

 

Lisa

[Mrssmithysrat]

I forgot to add this...

 

On the day of departure we decided to go it alone. we got a taxi up to central station (approx 170DKK) from the port.

 

We made us of the left luggage facility, which is right in the basement of the station. For 2 large suitcases, and 2 small holdalls it cost us 240DKK. This was using the 'manned' service. they also have a self service lockers.

 

We decided to get the Ho-ho bus up to where Jewel was docked near the little mermaid, then took wander along the river, and through the gardens. We stopped at a small cafe called 'sommerheuset' and got tea/beer and croissants for around 13DKK.

 

The waitress suggested a visit to the danish resistance museum which was next door and was free, so we killed some time there. It was actually very interesting, from the point of view of someone that doesnt really like museums.

 

From here we walked along the river to Amalienborg to watch the changing of the guard at 12noon. Again interesting to watch how they go about this. their guards are different to the British ones, in that the CPH ones move, and they shout at people if they get too close, where as the British ones wont move or talk under any circumstances.

 

At Amalienborg we got the ho-ho back to central station, and got hotdogs from the 7-11 store. Spent some time sat on a bench watching the world go by. We bought tickets for the red route on the ho-ho bus, using the red busses, not the green ones. This came to around 310DKK for the two of us.

 

 

Around 2pm we collect our luggage and got the train from there to the airport. This cost us 36DKK each. We used the self service ticket machines which was pretty straightforward, and had an english language option.

 

We then just spent an age kicking our heels at the airport waiting for our flight. Just a point to note - if flying easy jet there are NO CHECK IN DESKS for them. You have to use the self service check in machines to print your boarding pass and luggage tags. we spent around 10 mins looking for this before remembering reading this information somewhere on the easyjet website.

 

Also it is a heck of a trek to/from the CPH-go terminal (where all the budget flights land) to the main terminal, with very few travelators along the way! There is, however, toilets and a small cafe in the terminal but thats about it!

 

Turnaround on our flight was very quick. we saw plane land at 6pm, and we were back on the run way to leave by 6.30pm.

 

In hindsight, we felt we might have booked an RCL excursion for the last day as this would have worked out cheaper in the long run. The amount we spent on left luggage, ho-ho bus and trains to the airport came to more thatn what the 3hr excursion and aiport transfer would have.

[DarthGrady]

Thanks for posting this! My wife and I are doing a 10-day on Vision in December, and there are precious few pictorial reviews that have been done on Vision. It's great to get some info and see pics before we go.

[wack001]

Most excellent, thank you.

cruisinbob

[Mrssmithysrat]

Most excellent, thank you.

cruisinbob

 

Happy to help ;)

[tiggerman101]

Thank you so much. We are booked on a 7 day Fjords cruise out of Copenhagen on the Vision next June. It is hard to find info on this. I am sure I will enjoy your pictures!

[adaminaby]

are there any laundries or ironing rooms on vots?:confused:couldnt find any info on website also did you have any theme nights?:rolleyes:in oslo did you get a day pass and go to the museums and was it worth it ? like you not on our must do list but the viking museum i think would be interesting and i guess you cant go all the way to norway and not go.:)

[Mrssmithysrat]

are there any laundries or ironing rooms on vots?:confused:couldnt find any info on website also did you have any theme nights?:rolleyes:in oslo did you get a day pass and go to the museums and was it worth it ? like you not on our must do list but the viking museum i think would be interesting and i guess you cant go all the way to norway and not go.:)

 

Oslo wasn't on our itinery so cant help with that I'm afraid.

 

No self service laundry or ironing facilities either. We did get a $25 laundry bag mid week, which was basically stuff as many tshirts, underwear, PJs, swim stuff as you can in the bag for that price. Think we managed 9 t shirts, multiple underwear items and some shorts.

 

We didnt have many theme nights. They had a 70s/80s party in the centrum one night where the CD staff dress as members of the village pople and did a full on dance routine, followed by a chain of people trailing from deck to deck to 'love train', but that was about it. On a previous sailing we had loads of theme nights so think the lack of them this yea was down to the CD.

[DarthGrady]

are there any laundries or ironing rooms on vots?:confused:couldnt find any info on website also did you have any theme nights?:rolleyes:in oslo did you get a day pass and go to the museums and was it worth it ? like you not on our must do list but the viking museum i think would be interesting and i guess you cant go all the way to norway and not go.:)

 

Unfortunately Royal Caribbean doesn't offer self service laundry on any of its ships. That was one of the things I missed coming over from Carnival.