Another sort of live thread - this time Apex in Scandinavia 2 cruises with a 4 day break

[abbydancer2003]

Day 10 New Forest 2, Sunday 2

 

 

The weather was better today, so we decided to take one of the tour buses.  We had our cereal and milk breakfast, and noticed one of the milks was leaking.  We thought it was the regular milk so we put it in a carafe.  Oops, the goat milk.  We moved the remaining goat milk to the container for the regular milk.  

 

After breakfast and dressing, we looked at the brochure for the tour buses.  There are three routes, covering different areas of the New Forest.  You can also exit at any stop and get back on, or transfer to a different bus.  We decided to try the Green Route because it looks longest.  We noticed the first stop was at a mini golf course, so we decided to go there.

 

The route included driving by the ferry terminal.  Our current plan is to use it to visit the Idle of Wight on Monday.    Once we got there we realized that it was a private lot you have to pay for (our Airbnb included a parking pass for official lots).  So we decided to try to park in town near the High street stop.

 

Since it was the weekend, the Quay area of Lymington was very crowded, and it looked like no parking anywhere.  So we decided to head to an out of area stop and see if we could park there.  However as we were starting the drive, we saw the Lymington High Street stop, and somebody was pulling out of a parking space behind it.  So we parked, set our permit for the time we arrived, and decided to wait for the Green bus.

 

Right after we arrived, a blue bus arrived.  Since we were now in 3 hour parking, we jumped on.

 

Glen has gone to one of the websites, and bought tickets, but I’m not sure he got the right ones, since there seemed to be a different price for tour rides, and transportation rides.  Glen presented the bar code, but it wouldn’t scan so the driver said to just go.

 

We went to the top of the bus, and we were off.  This was the coastal route.  First thing of interest was the low railroad bridges.

 

 

We went through forest, and meadows.  One feature of this area is wild horses.  They’re all over, including in the towns (not, however, Lymington).

 

 

Here’s a couple in a meadow.

 

And they do disrupt traffic in the smaller villages.

 

One minding its own business near a gate.

 

At each stop, people got off and on, so I guess people use these for getting places.

 

The drive was very pretty and we eventually got closer to the sea, so more flat land tan forest.

 

 

And we did reach the sea.

 

 

It turns out that a full loop on the buses is about 2 hours or so.  Some of the stops included train stations, holiday trailer parks, and restaurants. In addition, there was occasional narration of what we were seeing.  On the whole, very nice.   Since we didn’t have time for our parking, we didn’t leave the bus.  

 

We also realized we’d have to move the car before getting any sort of lunch.  So once we got off where we started, we drove up the parallel street to High, and found a parking lot with lots of open spaces.  We parked, and waked over to High.  A short distance away, we found a pub called Angel and the Blue Pig.  It was in our cottage manual as recommended, so we tried it.

 

In this part of England (maybe others too) there’s the concept of the Sunday Roast.  It’s your choice of meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork and others in some combination, served with roasted potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding, peas and green beans and roasted carrots and parsnips.  Also, of course, a mountain of gravy.  I ordered the turkey roast, and it was good.  The fact that it always includes Yorkshire pudding might explain why Yorkshire pudding is a side always available on the ship.

 

After lunch we went back to the cottage, where Glen relaxed, and I watched TV, and worked on the blog.   I also decided I should book the ferry to Isle of Wight.  They were a lot more expensive then I remembered from looking at them at home, maybe because they were last minute?  Also the 11 am was sold out.  They had both refundable price and, for a few dollars less, nonrefundable.  I decided I should go with the refundable, and check with Glen at dinner. 

 

At about 8:15 we left for our dinner.  We had a reservation at the Ship Inn at the Quay.  Parking was much easier than during the day, and the restaurant was right at the Quay.  It took a couple of minutes to find the host stand vs the bar, but it was soon worked out.  For dinner, Glen had a salmon special and I had Sunday roast number 2, this time with beef, which is how I determined that a Sunday Roast has a very specific profile (for lack of a better term).   

 

Over dinner, we discussed Isle of Wight.  Since Glen is finding driving stressful, he said to cancel it, and maybe we’ll just relax and pack tomorrow.  So after dinner I went to the website, and cancelled.  A popup about economy tickets being non refundable popped up, Since I thought I’d got refundable, I went ahead and canceled.  When I looked at it afterward, it showed a 100% cancellation fee because it was less than 24 hours before.  (I also, of course booked it less than 24 hours before).  If it was to be the case, then they should only sell nonrefundable tickets.   I went to their website, and contacted them to ask for a refund.

 

After that, I watched TV and read for a while.  Tomorrow is our last full day in the Forest.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Day 11 New Forest 3 Monday 2

 

Today was a very slow day.  I did wake up to a response from the ferry people that they were refunding the ticket, and the only reason it listed  the fee was the 24 hour thing.  All good.  

 

Since driving has been stressful, we decided to do both lunch and dinner near the cottage.  However, we realized that we left the parking permit in the car.  So I suggested that we head to High Street, park on the parallel street, visit the candy store (I thought they might have caramels) and then go back, put the permit back in the manual and walk to lunch.  

 

So we did that.  Turns out what I saw was butterscotch fudge, but I did get some white chocolate truffles and some English toffee.  After that we drove back to the cottage, parked the car, and headed out to lunch.

 

I wanted to go to the Sail Inn for a baked potato, but it turns out they didn’t serve lunch on Monday.  In fact in the area near the cottage the only place that seemed to be open was a restaurant across the street from the grocery store called Town House, and I’d made a dinner reservation there for tonight.  Not wanting to eat two meals there, I suggested we go to the grocery and just get something to take back.  Turns out the there’s a little cafe there, so we decided to go there.  I ordered a backed potato with cheese and Glen picked a prepackaged sandwich.  They use big yellow (?) potatoes for baking, so it’s not the russet I’m used to but it was good.  It also came with greens, with no dressing.  Wasn’t the best, but good enough.

 

Then we went back to the cottage, and I took some pictures for you.

 

 

This is the kitchen.  It was perfectly functional.  The nearest cabinet on the left is actually a washer dryer.  We left the grocery bag and the food on the counter for the cleaning crew..

 

 

 

This is the dining room.  The host left us a hamper with Prosecco, cleaning cloths, and 6 little jars (you can see one on the table next to the manual for the cottage.). They contained:  tea bags, coffee machine pods, sugar, dishwasher pods, laundry detergent pods, and dog biscuits.  I don’t know if that’s typical.

 

 

As promised, the very steep stairs to the bedrooms.   It may not be clear, but in addition to being steep, the steps are small.   The gate at the top is for dogs, apparently.  

 

 

We had an 8:30 dinner reservation, and were walking, so we left early.  On the way we saw a very big bird on a roof.  That’s been kind of interesting here.

 

 

We arrived at restaurant a little early and it was completely empty.  The server/host asked us if we wanted the restaurant or pub, but we said the restaurant because it would be quieter.  (There were many people in the pub).  He was Ok with that, so we had dinner all alone in the restaurant.  We started with an order of bread, because we’ve done that every night.  Their “artisanal bread was the best.  I had chicken stuffed with tarragon and shallots and it was quite good.  We skipped dessert and went back to pack.  My hope for tomorrow is to be on the road by around 9, so we set an alarm for 8.

 

[abbydancer2003]

Day 12 Embarkation 2 Tuesday 2

 

It’s embarkation day for cruise 2 and bye bye day for the New Forest.  The plan was to try to leave by 9am, and I thought an hour would be enough time to pack, load the car, and clean up the Airbnb.  

 

We woke, got dressed, had our breakfast, loaded the dishwasher and hand washed what wouldn’t fit.  We also had to put all the bedding in the bath and and make sure the house was locked up.  The easiest way to to do the last and to load the car was for Glen to bring the car to the front.  He actually loaded it from the back, but for locking up, it was better in front.  So he did that, and then locked the back door.  After turning off all the lights, we went out the front and put the key back in its lock box.  That all took about an hour and a half, so we left about 25 minutes late. 

 

We headed down the road, and Glen revealed that he’d selected least traffic for his route.  This meant that in one of the towns we diverted into side streets, including one that was closed (we had to detour around it).  The issue was that several were one way roads, so we did a lot of waiting on the side for others to pass, etc.  The net result was that we made it to the airport, and it took about an hour, including returning the car.

 

We’d decided not to call the driver who’d taken us to the airport, but instead we called an Uber.  The Avis lady told us to wait outside along the road, since the driver couldn’t go in.  Turned out he could, and Glen had to track him down.

 

Once all loaded, around 10:45, we headed to the pier.  Along the way, I saw another example of the painted lighthouses.

 

 

A little after 11 he dropped us off in front of one of the luggage guys, who took the bags.  We went to the terminal, through security and were greeted by Carollyne (now retreat manager) and Jamie, one of the concierges.    

 

One of the checkin people did her thing and then Jamie escorted us to our room.  There was a minor issue with one of the elevators (not moving so when up was pressed again the door would open again) but eventually we made it to deck 15.

 

We got to the room, and it was very decorated for Glen’s birthday.  In addition what I took pictures of we did have disco lights going.

 

 

The next two are blurry, but they give you the idea

 

 

 

 

And the view from the balcony.

 

 

And we do have a hot tub on the balcony.

 

 

 

When we arrived in the room, Francis, our room steward, was there working on the hot tub temperature.    We said hello and dropped our bags.  I noticed that on the desk there were tickets for shore excursions for the previous  occupants (ie the cancelled people).    So we loaded the safe, and took the tickets with us to the retreat lounge, which is just down the hall.

 

While there, we had a latte (nowhere near as good as at Al baccio.  I also made some specialty reservations.

 

At about 1:00 we went to our muster station, and also stopped for a good latte at Al Baccio.  

 

After our lattes, it was a good time to go to lunch, so we did.  I had my usual not really borscht and the steak.  The only oddity was that we saw no sign of our assistant waiter, and nobody offered us bread, or noticed we didn’t have any.

 

After lunch we went back to our room, and Prateek, our butler arrived, introduced himself and gave us a tour of the room.  The main bit of new information was how to access the TV recessed in the ceiling of the bedroom (similar to our Royal Caribbean room).  We also asked him to make more specialty reservations, bring potato chips and have regular bottled water in the room.  (He also said we had a 7pm reservation somewhere, which we did not.  I guess it was the old people).

 

Once he left, we went to the Retreat sundeck to watch sail out from the Solent.  (Which I now know is the body of water between Isle of Wight and the New Forest.  After that, we tried our balcony Jacuzzi.  It was nice.  

 

Once we finished in the tub, we got dressed for dinner and went to the lounge for a drink.  I noticed that we had no OBC showing in either account, so I asked our butler who had magically showed up.  He checked with the concierges, and let us know that it was a problem lots were having, and to wait until tomorrow to see.  (It did show up the next day.)

 

Tonight dinner is at Luminae.  At about 8:20 we headed over, but there were no tables in the section we liked, so we got a buzzer,   At about 8:40 it went off.  I wondered if, since our room backs up to the retreat lounge, the buzzer would work there.  Next time we have one we’ll do a test.

 

We have a new assistant waiter.  I asked, and apparently Wiwiki had to go home for a couple of cruises.  The new guy seems fine, and we did get bread.  We skipped the amuse bouche because it was fish.  I had the Green Asparagus appetizer (which I do like) and the roast chicken.  For dessert, we both ordered creme brûlée.  

 

While waiting, much of the staff, including a chef, descended on our table with a birthday cake for Glen.  It was vanilla, as I requested, and had a very good buttercream frosting.  Notice Umesha also brought the creme brulees.

 

 

Once back in the room, we decided to start watching the first season of “Rings of Power”, the Amazon Prime Lord of the Rings Prequel.

 

It was a very nice embarkation day.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Day 13. Sea Day 3 Wednesday 3

 

We woke up in time for breakfast today, and enjoyed it.  After breakfast, we headed to the lounge with laptops to let our room steward do his magic. 

 

After a little while, I went to the casino to play my favorite machine, and lost a little bit.  I then stopped at Al Baccio for a latte to go.  When I got back to the lounge, Glen and my stuff were gone,  Apparently Glen had taken everything back to the room, so back I went until lunch time.

 

 

While in the lounge, I did meet the parents of one of our staff from the solstice.  I invited them to visit us tomorrow.

 

We decided to try Le Grand Bistro today.  I’ve never been there for lunch before.  We had no trouble getting in.  

 

We both started with French onion soup, which was pretty good.  They have an entree of the day and some entrees, but also sandwiches.  We both opted for the sandwiches (turkey for me and tuna for Glen).  They were pretty big, and we thought that we could have split one if we both liked the same one.

 

 

For dessert Glen had creme brûlée, but I opted for one of my rarely seen favorites, floating islands.

 

 

This looks like it’s floating Montserrat, rather than islands, but it tasted good.  (Google if you don't know what happened there)

 

After lunch I went to the retreat pool to do exercises, but it was too windy, so I went to the Solarium instead.  For the hot tub, I decided to use the one on the balcony.  It was nice, but the problem was it was very windy, so not comfortable.

 

Tonight is the officer’s soiree in the lounge, and since we didn’t go last time, we’ll go tonight.  We got dressed and headed to the lounge.  We were visited by a few officers, but we never saw the captain.  

 

We ended up chatting with a couple from Seattle for a while, and then discovered the “secret door”..  Just behind the serving area, there’s two doors.  One on the left goes to some sort of serving area, and the one straight ahead goes to the regular hallway, and our door is just on the other side of it.  Now we use it sometimes.

 

After our nice conversation, we headed for the show, Crystallize.  Glen thinks we saw it in December, but it was still good.

 

Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the show, we decided to go to dinner.  Since this is the first of two Evening Chic nights, we opted for Luminae.  We walked to the back elevators, and then crossed on deck 14, and went down one.  Less boring than deck 11.  

 

Once again, a table in our preferred area was not available, so we got a pager.  At 9, Yuri paged us, saying that neither of the 4 tops we liked were available, but the galley would close.   I noticed that one of the two tops in the middle of the alcove was available.  I did tell her that we don’t care which table in the alcove we have; any work.  So we sat there.

 

I had the beef tartare, with extra capers.  It was a little more oniony than on the last cruise.  I ordered the 4oz filet with baked potato and asparagus.  I did ask for Yorkshire pudding but because of the time, it was too late to get it tonight.  Oh well.

 

For dessert, we just had our leftover cake.

 

After that, it was back to the room.

 

 

[Blue Eyes]

I’m enjoying your “live thread”….thanks for sharing 

[MandL]

Us too!  Appreciate your taking the time to share with us. We will be cruising on the Apex B2B2B starting with the President's cruise May 17, 2025.  We really enjoyed our time on the Beyond in the Mediterranean and Transatlantic, and are looking forward to spending time cruising such a beautiful area on the Apex. Interesting also to hear your experience in Lymington, as we are planning to spend extra time in the area.  

[abbydancer2003]

Day 14 Skagen Denmark Thursday 3

 

 

Today is our first of 5 ports.  It’s Skagen Denmark, and our first ever visit to Denmark.  We woke up for breakfast, and then went back to the room to get ready.  

 

 

The usual view from the balcony.  

 

We headed out after breakfast, and decided to walk around town, since it wasn’t supposed to be far.  

 

Glen with a map, at the port exit.  Note that was a shuttle bus, but we decided not to bother. 

 

There was a blue line to the center of town, so we followed that.  

 

Not sure what this sign means

 

 

But this one is pretty clear

 

 

Along the way we say what looks like a Swedish church.

 

 

We opted not to go in.

 

We eventually found the main shopping street, and everything had opened by the time we got there.  I did stop and get a magnet for me and one for Yuri, the hostess at Luminae.  

 

We googled, and found this store called Normal, right nearby.

 

 

So we went there, but it turns out if was more like a pharmacy like CVS for something.  If you go in, you have to walk the whole store before you can go out.  One display I thought was kind of amusing was this one.

 

 

Notice that Takis are part of Americandy?   Interesting classification. 

 

We did find a grocery store across the street and we wandered around.  One thing we noticed about fruit is that it’s all packaged, so you can’t just buy one or two, or an exact number.

 

We thought then maybe we’d take the shuttle back, but it turns out you had to buy a ticket with Euros, and we didn’t have any so we walked back.  Along the way we did find a nice public restroom for a stop. 

 

After getting back, we went to Luminae for lunch.  I had the ravioli with morel mushrooms.  It was good, and small, which is good.

 

 

After lunch, I went to the lounge for a while and asked the concierge about a bang trim in the spa.  He put me on the phone with them, and we made an apartment for 5:30. 

 

Today we are having company.  The parents of the the staff member are stopping by at 3pm to see the suite.  So we had Prateek put out some food.  He did a cheese plate and a charcuterie plate.  It wasn’t much but it was probably just right for 4 people.  

 

We had a nice time with them.   Our butler had given us a bottle of  Vueve Cliquot and opened that.  It was very good.

 

After they left, I went to the spa, and then to toe casino, which was open by then.

 

Apparently, Prateek is escorting us to our specialty dinners, so he picked us up in the lounge for our dinner at Fine Cut tonight.  It’s a slightly different layout than on Beyond, as it doesn’t have the booths that are against the atrium.  They gave us a nice window table.

 

Glen had the wedge salad.

 

 

I had the caesar 

 

 

 

We both had ribeyes (which looked like ribeye steaks), and Glen said he wished Luminae could cook them as well.  For sides, I had creamed spinach and macaroni and cheese, which is, I think, somewhat better than the gruyere potato tots.  Glen did mashed potatoes and asparagus, and these asparagus were bigger than the tiny ones on Beyond (and better).  I had some of the cinnamon ice cream (from one of the desserts) for my dessert.

 

After that, it was back to the room and called it a night.

 

[Norwaylady]

Welcome to Oslo, Norway🇳🇴

 

Im waiving from a gray home office 

 

For you port of call in Skagen, Denmark

 

The sign Maskinrummet is a museum. It's Denmarks largest collection of engine.

https://www.maskinrummet-skagen.dk

 

Fun for children and engine geeks... Just like Mr Norwaylady😆

 

The Swedish flag is the Swedish seaman church. We have also the Norwegian Seaman church .

The main mission was to establish safe havens for Norwegian seamen around the world. Priests visited harbours and ships, and within few years the organisation established several church-buildings in different countries.

Today we continue to meet Norwegians abroad, but our focus has shifted from concentrating mainly on sailors, to all Norwegians living, studying and working around the world. We also have churches in popular tourist destinations and in cities where many Norwegians stay

 

[hcat]

Still following and enjoying!

[abbydancer2003]

20 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Welcome to Oslo, Norway🇳🇴

 

Im waiving from a gray home office 

 

For you port of call in Skagen, Denmark

 

The sign Maskinrummet is a museum. It's Denmarks largest collection of engine.

https://www.maskinrummet-skagen.dk

 

Fun for children and engine geeks... Just like Mr Norwaylady😆

 

The Swedish flag is the Swedish seaman church. We have also the Norwegian Seaman church .

The main mission was to establish safe havens for Norwegian seamen around the world. Priests visited harbours and ships, and within few years the organisation established several church-buildings in different countries.

Today we continue to meet Norwegians abroad, but our focus has shifted from concentrating mainly on sailors, to all Norwegians living, studying and working around the world. We also have churches in popular tourist destinations and in cities where many Norwegians stay

 

Thanks for all the info.  Appreciate it (and thanks for this morning, too!)

[abbydancer2003]

Day 15 Sea Day 4 Friday 3

 

So far, we’re doing pretty well at making breakfast, and we did it today (easy when it goes to 9:30).  When Prateek delivered our pre breakfast coffee (one of my very favorite things about cruising), we mentioned we’d like to try Raw on 5 for lunch, and did we need a reservation.  I guess we did because he made one.

 

After breakfast, I did my pool exercises.  While I was doing those, they came to work on our hotter.  Apparently it needed the filter changed, but once done it wouldn’t fill.  So we spent the morning in the lounge.  During that time, I went to the casino (I have a lot of OBC to burn off), and got a latte from Al Baccio to bring up.  (They have a much better machine than than in back of the retreat lounge).  

 

At about 12:50, we dropped our stuff off.  The tub appeared to be filling, so I guess they figured out what was wrong (yesterday when trying to fill it it kept tripping a circuit breaker and stop).  

 

We headed to Raw on 5 and got a nice window table. 

 

 

 

 

 The Sommelier was actually an American from Texas, which is unusual.  She did get me a very nice gamay wine (when I asked in Luminae, they said it’s only a bottle wine there). 

 

 

 We had tempura bok  chuy  (sort of fried bok chuy), and chicken Gyoza.  Glen ordered crispy salmon sushi, which wasn’t crispy but I’m not sure he read the menu correctly.  

 

 

I had ribeye medallions, which were pretty good.  

 

 

We were hanging out in the room, when we got an in cabin announcement.  Apparently the sail into Stockholm is gorgeous, as you go through their archipelago.  But can be trechorus in windy conditions, so we’re still going in, but not out tomorrow.  We’ll overnight and leave at 2:30.  No more Visbey.  (We had nothing scheduled there).  So it doesn’t matter how long our TBL tour tomorrow takes.

 

Prateek stopped by to give us a new bottle of Veuve Cliquot.  

 

In addition, Francis, our room steward, artfully did the bed runner today.

 

 

 

 

So while we’re doing not much of anything,  here’s a picture of the upstairs bathroom.

 

 

I’ll take some more pictures toward the end of the trip.

 

Since we had nothing else to do before dinner, we decided to go to the show.  It was a singer, Tommy Green Jr.  

 

 

He did a lot of sing alongs, and a long thing with an audience member and his wife.  

 

 

 

His name was featured prominently throughout the show.

 

After that we were able to get an elevator up easily so we headed to Luminae.  

 

There were no tables in the Alcove, so we took one of the two that backs up to to.  I ordered tomato soup to start.  (My new go to when nothing else works.). For my main, I had one half order of NY strip.  It comes with truffled mashed potatoes, but I had a baked potato instead.

 

 

For dessert I had the Orange Sponge.  It’s nice and fairly light.    During dinner, we had a nice conversion with the British couple at the table next to us.

 

Tomorrow, we go to Stockholm.  It’s our first visit to Sweden.

 

 

 

[catgirl411]

Don’t miss the sail in to Stockholm. We’ve done it twice now and it is one of my favourite cruise experiences. So beautiful and serene as the ship moves quite slowly.

[abbydancer2003]

32 minutes ago, catgirl411 said:

Don’t miss the sail in to Stockholm. We’ve done it twice now and it is one of my favourite cruise experiences. So beautiful and serene as the ship moves quite slowly.

It started at 5am, so we only caught the end.  We did, however, watch the sail out, and in a day or so I'll have some pictures.  And it was indeed gorgeous.  (As someone on the sundeck said, I don't know where to look next.  Today's sail out of Oslo was also gorgeous.

[hcat]

sounds like things are going well

i made a note to order the rib eye Medallions next trip to Raw on Five! Veggies look great too!

[MMMCruiser]

Following along and really enjoying your trip report.

 

Prateek was our butler (July 20th Fjords cruise in an Aqua Sky Suite).  He's a nice guy and we were really happy with him as our butler especially after the issue with the sky suite butlers being taken away for a while.  Say hi (if you want to) from the couple in 10191.  He used the disco lights when we decorated our room for our anniversary.  

 

Looking forward to more of your cruise.  Do you feel a lot of motion in your suite?  I worry about booking something at the front of the ship, but that suite looks so nice.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

On 9/5/2024 at 11:02 AM, MMMCruiser said:

Following along and really enjoying your trip report.

 

Prateek was our butler (July 20th Fjords cruise in an Aqua Sky Suite).  He's a nice guy and we were really happy with him as our butler especially after the issue with the sky suite butlers being taken away for a while.  Say hi (if you want to) from the couple in 10191.  He used the disco lights when we decorated our room for our anniversary.  

 

Looking forward to more of your cruise.  Do you feel a lot of motion in your suite?  I worry about booking something at the front of the ship, but that suite looks so nice.

 

 

It was pretty calm throughout the cruise, so not much.  We did feel more on the first cruise, where were deck 10 forward.  I thought that any motion would be amplified by being up so high, but that didn' seem to be the case.

 

Edited September 8 by abbydancer2003

[mac_tlc]

Enjoying your review, and pictures of the Villa! I think it may cost me money, though, as now I will have to put in a stronger “move-up” bid for our Thanksgiving Beyond voyage 😂😂.

 

mac_tlc

[abbydancer2003]

Day 16  Stockholm 1 Saturday 3

 

The gorgeous sail in to Stockholm started very early, and to end the suspense, we slept through most of it, knowing we will see it tomorrow as we leave.  

 

We did catch the end, as we were up for breakfast.  Here are a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Does seem like we’re awfully close, but I’m sure the bridge crew knows what they are doing.

 

And we are docked.  The view from our balcony.  Very scenic, yes?

 

 

We have a walking tour of the old city today.  Since it’s not near the pier, our guide will meet us and we’ll take a bus there.  We can use Apple Pay or a chip card to pay.

 

I did, during breakfast, get a WhatsApp message from our guide with the location of the meeting point.  In addition our butler, Prateek told us he’d walk us off the ship.  Our meeting time is 11, so we told him t0 meet us around 10:40.  We did that because we don’t know how busy getting off the ship would be, and maybe he could help.

 

He took us to the gangway, and there was no line so he walked us off the ship, and pointed out the exit.  Turns out the meeting point was just after the exit.  We were 15 minutes early, so we sent a message to the guide (with our picture).  He was on his way, and suggested we follow the green line (on the ground) to the buses, and he’ll meet us on the way.  That worked well, and a little before 11 we met up on the trail.

 

We hopped on a specific bus, used our phones to pay.  On the way Zanid (our guide originally from Croatia) told us about what we were passing, such as the hill where hangings took place in the bad old days.  

 

Once off the bus, we walked the streets and learned about apartments in Stockholm and the history of the city.

 

 

We saw lots of interesting doors, with seals above them.

 

 

And the Royal Palace

 

 

The palace guards don’t mind if you stand in front of their station and take a picture.  It’s windy.

 

 

 

 

A statue of one the kings.  This one fought for Napoleon and was invited to be king of Sweden.  Apparently now, if you want to join the Swedish royalty you have to be young, good-looking or very physically fit.

 

And a shot of Glen with Zenid.  

 

 

And no visit to Old Town would be complete without visiting the “Iron Boy” Stockholms smallest monument.

 

 

It’s apparently good luck to rub his head, and people leave money or dress him.  Right now, he’s got a necklace, last time Zenid was there he and a sombrero.  Zenid also mentioned that some people kiss his head for luck, but he doesn’t recommend it.

 

Another highlight was that there are parts of buildings with viking runestones built in.

 

 

 

An oddity in the old city.  People with apartments with windowless walls felt less than their neighbors.  So to “keep up with the Jones” they painted them on.

 

 

 

Towards the end, we waked down what may be the narrowest street in the world.

 

And once down, we went to a grocery store.  It was a small one, but Zenid did tell us about some of the eating habits of the Swedes.

 

Soon after we took a different bus back to the stop near the port.  Because of the location of the stops, on the way back we had to take a pedestrian tunnel under the main road.  Zenid walked us back to the port entrance and we said goodbye.  If we’re back, I would definitely book another tour with him.  I picked this one based on the limited time in port, which turned out not to be an issue.  

 

He also told us a bit about how you get to be a guide with TBL, and you do have to go through a somewhat rigorous process, which helps explain why all my tours so far have been good.

 

 Once in the port area, I stopped at the gift shop and bought a magnet.    

 

Once dropping our stuff, we went to the  buffet, since that’s what’s open.  It wasn’t very busy, since I’m sure most people were enjoying Stockholm.  It was, not entirely surprising, Swedish food day.  Glen tried the meatballs and said Ikea’s are better (probably because Ikea doesn’t have pepperoni sauce) and I tried dill chicken, which was a little bland.  I also had the always available Yorkshire pudding.  (I love that about Southampton cruises - always Yorkshire pudding).

 

After lunch I did my pool and hot tub thing, and then nothing.  Our only plans for the rest of the day is to go to the 7:30 show and then the rooftop garden for dinner.  I did some work on the blog.  

 

After getting dressed, we went to the show.  I think I’ve mentioned this before, but, at least on Apex, the center section of deck 5 is reserved for suites and zenith every night.  There’s usually (except evening chic) one or two butlers there, and they just open the rope for you (on evening chic they was you to whichever row you want).  And seats are released a few minutes before the show starts.

 

I also asked about the X pass reserved seating.  On previous cruises it was on the just left of center section on deck 5 and every night.  They told me it was on deck 4 on this ship.  

 

We’d seen the show in December, but it was still good.

 

 

The seasons and time of day change.

 

 

As the show ended, Prateek arrived in the theater to collect us.  We walked to the back elevators and he dropped us off at the restaurant.  Even with the ship not moving it was chilly, so the maitre’d gave me a blanket.  Once we ordered I sent Glen back to the room for jackets.

 

I started with a caesar salad.  Good, but Fine Cut’s were better.

 

 

For my main I ordered the brisket, baked potato, baked beans and Mac and cheese.

 

 

All good but the brisket could have been juicier.  Lots of carbs in this.  

 

It was back to the room after that, but I did get a picture of Stockholm at night.  The towers are their amusement park, which we did not see this trip.  Maybe next one.

 

 

It was a very nice day, and tomorrow we may stay on the ship.

 

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

7 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Enjoying your review, and pictures of the Villa! I think it may cost me money, though, as now I will have to put in a stronger “move-up” bid for our Thanksgiving Beyond voyage 😂😂.

 

mac_tlc

I know, right?  We're on Ascent in January in an MC sky suite.  If our friends don't cancel, we'll keep it.  In March/April we're on Edge and i'm thinking my move up bids will have to be better.  I won't even care if we have to change rooms.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 17 Stockholm 2. Monday 3 

 

We slept in today, and missed breakfast.  By the time I woke up, Glen had gone to the lounge for a continental breakfast.  He texted that there was brewed coffee.  I dressed and joined him and there wasn’t but we had Prateek bring some.

 

I worked on the blog for a while, and then decided that I wanted some more coffee.  I was about to go to the buffet (nearest and by late morning only place) to get brewed coffee.  Rosanna heard this and called Prateek to bring us more.    

 

Eventually we decided to go to lunch.  Since we were still docked, we decided to go to the Rooftop Grill, since they offer a lunch menu.  We stooped that the room for jackets.

 

The menu is sandwiches, burgers and flatbread pizzas.

 

 

We both started with the chop chop salad (the menu says you design it, but really pick your dressing and anything you want left off) and  had the rooftop beer burger.

 

 

Instead of regular fries, we asked to share an order of TrainWreck fries.  They were good.

 

 

We skipped dessert, which in general are weak if you don’t like chocolate.

 

We noticed what looked like a road to nowhwere.

 

 

It makes sense once you figure out it’s a draw bridge.

 

I went to the sundeck to watch sailaway, because we’d slept through most of the sail in.

 

 

New things to see.

 

 

 

 

Some sort of a fort, I think.

 

 

It did start raining so I watched part of it from the room.

 

After the gorgeous scenery,  I went to the casino, and won a bit.

 

For dinner tonight we had Eden.  I started with the Rueben Raclette, but skipped the meat, so potato etc Raclette.

 

 

Glen started with the salad, which was very pretty.

 

 

He found that lettuce was rather gritty, so he switched to the Bazar bowl.  He liked that.

 

I had the steak and short rib entree which was good, and Glen tried the lamb.  He thought the dijon crust was too sweet (apples maybe) and generally thought the rest was OK.  

 

For dessert, I had the lemon tart, good as aways, and Glen had the creme brûlée.

 

This is not the correct vessel for a creme brûlée, and he thought the carrots on top were odd (I don’t know what Celebrity’s thing on carrots is lately).  

 

So overall for him, this was a miss.  We liked it more than Fine Cut on Beyond, but less here.  

 

We called it a night after that.   Another sea day tomorrow, and then our last ports.

 

 

[Norwaylady]

The sail in/out of Stockholm is beautiful🤩 Its narrow parts, twist and turns.

 

For those not early risers....

This is sail in to Stockholm from my aft cabin on Voyager of the seas in May 3. 2022. 

 

 

 

And the departure from Stockholm 4.may 2022

 

AND then again sail in on 17.may 2022 Voyager

 

 

 

Here you can see how narrow some areas are...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

On 9/10/2024 at 10:10 AM, Norwaylady said:

The sail in/out of Stockholm is beautiful🤩 Its narrow parts, twist and turns.

 

For those not early risers....

This is sail in to Stockholm from my aft cabin on Voyager of the seas in May 3. 2022. 

 

IMG_1597.mov 29.27 MB · 2 downloads  

 

 

And the departure from Stockholm 4.may 2022

 

 

IMG_1632.mov 34.46 MB · 0 downloads

AND then again sail in on 17.may 2022 Voyager

 

 

IMG_1730.mov 38.29 MB · 0 downloads  

 

Here you can see how narrow some areas are...

 

IMG_1725.mov 17.87 MB · 0 downloads  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 18 Sea Day 5 Monday 2

 

Not much going on today, but here goes.

 

We started with our morning coffee.  When Pateek asked about dinner last night, we told him about Glen’s experience.    By the time we got to breakfast, the staff at the restaurant knew about it and were very apologetic.  (I have to wonder if there’s some kind of a chat thread for every guest on their phone or something).  

 

After breakfast, I bought tickets to go to Tivoli Gardens tomorrow.  It turns out that you need both Garden entrance and ride tickets, although you can buy individual ride tickets.  I decided just to get the unliminted ride tickets, since I have no idea what we’ll do tomorrow

 

I then emailed the Pdfs to the  concierge’s to print, and then went to the lounge to get them.  While I was there, Jamie (concierge) also apologized for dinner last night.  I wonder if we’ve heard the last of it?

 

Before lunch I did my pool exercises in the Solarium, since the sundeck can get windy.  I also stayed there for the hot tub, since it was empty.

 

For lunch we went to Grand Bistro again.  We both had the onion soup, since it was very good.

 

 

I decided to try their mushroom tart, and it was actually pretty good.

 

 

And I finished once again with Floating Islands.

 

We didn’t do much for the afternoon, although I did do one casino run.  Prateek came by and asked what time we were going to Luminae for dinner so he could tell them.  I’m not sure why that matters, since it’s not like they hold a table for us.

 

Later that evening he came to the lounge to get us for dinner.  We did have to wait a few minutes for one of our preferred tables to cleaned.   

 

Tonight I had my usual filet with bernaisse sauce, baked potato and spinach.  I also had some Yorkshire pudding, since I asked earlier, and it was pretty good.  

 

We skipped dessert but had coffee.  Tonight we went to bed early, since I didn’t sleep well last night.  Tomorrow is back to ports with Copenhagen, and I’m looking forward to that.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

I assume people will still read this.  It's been a rough few days here with jet lag, but I am working on it, and will post Copenhagen shortly.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 19 Copenhagen Tuesday 3

 

Today was Copenhagen and one of the ports I was excited about, as Tivoli Gardens is on my bucket list.

 

We did get up for breakfast, and watched the not so scenic sail in.  We arrived around 9, but since the gardens don’t open until 11, there was no reason to get off right away.

 

We watched the sail in from the balcony.  There are apparently 3 cruise terminals, but I don’t think we’re going to Terminal 3.

 

 

The terminals are not near the main part of town, so there is a free shuttle into it.  Tivoli is about 1.9 Kilometers away.  So we decided to take the shuttle and walk to the Gardens.  

 

At about 10:15, we had Prateek escort us off.  He pointed us to the correct bus, and away we went.  I’d say the shuttle took about 20 minutes, and was taking us to Kings Square.  It dropped us on a street right by the actual Square.  Glen saved it on a map, 

 

What wasn’t clear from our estimates on Google maps is that the walk was to the near corner of the Gardens, which does not have an entrance.  So we walked a little farther.

 

On the way, we knew we were on the right track, because we saw drop towers ahead.

 

 

You know you’re in Denmark by the street signs. We had to walk around the Garden here to get to the entrance.

 

 

Along the way, a cutely named  bakery.  I think it’s a local chain.

 

 

We finally arrived at the entrance, and they scanned our entrance tickets.  I wasn’t sure how the ride pass worked, so I went to their guest service desk, and they were nice enough to scan those in and give us the bands.

 

Glen at the very pretty entrance.

 

The gardens are by the front, and I can see why people go there just for those.

 

 

Ok, the restrooms have out Disneyed Disney.

 

(Stall doors)

 

Some fun things in the garden.

 

We eventually made our way down to the ride area.  We started with this somewhat unique skinny ride, themed to a time travel machine.

 

 

What  this was was a spin ride that spins on 3 axes. One, the entire platform, Two, the arm that has four cars on it, and finally, the 2 person car itself spins around itself.  

 

It was kind of fun, but it goes into my “one time and never again” file.

 

After that, we continued walking along the ride area.  

 

Wow, you can’t get away from this chain anywhere.  (A downtown near us has 2)

 

One of the family rides was called the Flying Trunk (English translation).  It’s a slow ride through all kinds of fairy tales.  Most, but not all, are Han Christian Anderson.

 

Here’s a scene from the Snow Queen.  Frozen is very loosely based on this.

Overall, the scenes were very pretty and there was English narration within the ride car.

 

Glen tried to get me a coke, but it turned out to be chocolate milk (so he drank it).  The cup was recyclable, and if you found one of the below machines, you put the cup in and get cash back.

 

 

Another part of the garden as we walked back towards the front.

 

On our way out, we stopped at the official gift shop, and the clerk mentioned the roller coaster in the area.  Turns out it’s the 3rd oldest in the world.  (Number 1 is in Pennsylvania and Number 2 is in Australia.  I googled).   We also did what the called the mine ride, which is a slow log ride where you shoot at targets.  Sort of Splash Mountain meets Buzz Lightyear at Disenyland.

 

After those, we were ready to go.  When I picked up the ride bands, I asked about cabs.  She recommended we go out the side exit.  We did, and it appeared to be across the street from a train station with lots of cabs waiting. 

 

Taking a cab was a good decision, It was about 35.00 back to the port, and we had a nice conversation with our Pakistani-English driver.  I was well over 10K steps by this point.

 

I think we got back late enough that we skipped lunch, and instead had tea snacks at the retreat lounge.

 

 

After lunch, such as it was, Glen decided the hot tub was good for his tired muscles.

 

I did my pool stuff as well.

 

Tonights dinner is at Le Petit Chef.  The menu is the how to be a chef one, and the only one where I eat everything on the main menu.    Prateek met us in the lounge a bit early, so we headed downstairs.

 

There were only two tables and 5 people tonight.  Maybe it’s because all aboard is 8:30, but I don’t know why they do this every night.  I’ve never been at one where the restaurant is close to full.   On the way over, Glen said he didn’t really want to go, so Prateek suggested that he and I go, and Glen go to Fine Cut (that didn’t end up happening.)

 

For the first course the chef makes a tomato tart.

 

His version 

 

 

Our version.  It was quite good.

 

Some of table animation.

 

The second course was cucumber salad with poached shrimp.  

 

The short rib main is good.

 

Between the main and dessert, there’s an animation of some online reviews.  It’s pretty funny, so I’m attaching it here.  Hopefully people can see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we finish with the strawberry dessert.  No chocolate, yay!

 

And we’ll finish with the dancing carrots.

 

 

While we enjoyed dinner, I do wish they’d bring back the fun Q’sine menu as well.

 

Tomorrow we go to Oslo.