Live from the Jade first voyage to Norway

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Thought I had better finally get round to posting a little, as promised for our Vicarious Vikings.

Apologies for not posting earlier but you know how it is, busy doing nothing, and we have also had internet problems caused by the geographical location and the fact that the satellite connection keeps going down. Also we are still waiting for the network port in our cabin to be reconfigured so have had to go to the public areas to get Wifi connection (as a matter of interest, we are immediately below the Great Outdoors Café and can’t get the signal. On deck, no problem even though it’s only five feet, must be the metal)

 

Trip down and meet up

We took a very leisurely two days to drive down, stopping halfway on Friday at a lovely country pub in Hilmarton near Swindon. I can highly recommend the Dukes Inn, lovely rooms with a definite personal touch. As an added bonus, we got to watch the C130 Hercules overhead on approach to landing at RAF Lyneham about a mile away.

Saturday, we took the scenic route to Southampton calling in at Stonehenge on the way. We arrived just as the Druids were marching into the circle for a ceremony as it is the Summer Soltice. Good opportunity to try out the 10x zoom on my new camera as they performed in the centre of the ancient stones. Impressed with the camera if not the druids.

Arrived at Southampton and checked into the Jurys Inn which we had prebooked at £69 (plus £9.99 for breakfast). Very nice hotel with nice big rooms plenty of room for all our luggage. The hotel has an NCP car park in the basement. Hotel Customers get 40% discount which made the overnight charge £6. After parking the car, came back upstairs and immediately bumped into Bigdog and son and the Calmac clan, later joined by Inside Cabin who were well into an alfresco booze up and lunch. Of course we had to join in so all plans to have a look around Southampton, including looking at the cruise ships in port, went right out of the window and the hotels bar takings were suitably boosted that afternoon.

 

Sailaway from Southampton

The following morning the group had grown by a few more, so after breakfast we all made our way to the port, and we said our goodbyes to Hilary, Stuart and Callum who were sadly having to make alternative holiday plans in the UK. Maybe another time.

We arrived at the City Cruise terminal at about 1100 and the drop off and parking went really smoothly. We entered the departures building then joined the queue for security. Although there was a bit of a wait, we cleared that fairly quickly and as it wasn’t the ship’s security they didn’t seem particularly interested in illicit booze stashes. Again the NCL checkin went smoothly with about six agents handling the Lattitudes line which we cleared quickly. The waiting hall was absolutely heaving although there wer plenty of seats and the ship had provided coffee, water and juice. There were plenty of announcements regarding the expected boarding time just after twelve. The VIP Suites were called first then within a few minutes the Lattitudes (? Those with red boarding tickets) were called and we joined a long queue to board the ship. Finally got on board after standing on the linkway for about twenty minutes. It was very hot and not particularly pleasant and we couldn’t see any obvius reason for the delay. Got the wlcome aboard bubbly (which there seemed to be plenty of around) and we were informed tha ALL the cabins would not be ready until 2.00pm and were directed to Medusas to deposit carry-ons. After a quick look around, with staff offering samples from the speciality restaurants, it seemed a good idea to head for Grand Pacific for a very nice lunch, during which they announced that the cabins were ready.

We are in an aft AF on deck 11 which we are very impressed with. Previously, on the Dawn, our balcony cabin was a bit restricted when the sofa bed was fully extended, The AF is just that litlle bit bigger and it makes all the difference as the sofa bed folds out sideways and you can still get to the balcony without climbing over the bed. The refrigerator door wouldn’t close properly which the steward said he would fix. After a couple of days, we reported it at reception and it was fixed within a couple of hours.

 

General Impressions:

The ship is very impressive with its previous Hawaii theme still very prominent which feel a little odd on a Norway cruise. The ship is spotless and the crew are really good, they do what they have to do really efficiently and seem very happy and relaxed which makes for a very nice atmosphere. Nothing seems to be a problem and they will go out of their way to accommodate whatever you ask them for. The passenger mix is very diverse with a predominant US/UK mix but there are a lot of Europeans (German, Dutch, French and Spanish) but there are also a lot of Eastern Europe languages heard.

This the first time I have sailed on a Jewel Class ship and I must say that I much prefer it to the Dawn/ Star Class. They have taken the best of the other ships to put this together. I like the Action Stations replacing the cafeteria line and the Great Outdoors is something I liked on the Sun and am glad to see it on the Jade. The Blue Lagoon is opposite the TexMex/Tapas restaurant overlooking the Atrium and I think it works well as a proper service restaurant. It felt like you were eating in a corridor on the Dawn, it was far too cramped. There is a feeling of overall improvement compared to the Dawn class.

 

 

 

Day two: At Sea

Plenty of people at the Meet and Greet. The Hotel Director, Julian, took the lead, he was accompanied by the F&B director, the rebadged CD Julie and a couple of other assistant managers. Julian was very informative but although he invited questions from the group, they all left immediately afterwards without staying to mingle. The meeting dispered fairly quickly after that and although we got to chat with a few people, there wasn’t a lot of mingling going on.We have bumped into lots of CCers around the ship so it has been successful.

Chatting to the Bar Staff in Tankards that night, we heard about the Minicruise the weekend before. One of the reason the cabins had not been ready was that the Bars were busy till 7.00am and so they had trouble clearing some of the cabins. The bartenders loved it, one said he had the biggest bartab he had ever seen at $400, remember they get 15% gratuity on all the bar sales, so the busier it is the more they like it.

 

Day three Alesund.

We arrived late morning so we got the chance to watch the sail in through the fjord with our first taste of Norway’s spectacular scenery. There seems to be more opportunity to take the inside passage, so it seems closer than you see in Alaska. That, combined with the lack of night time means you seemed to be surrounded by wow factor rocky island and distant snow capped mountains in all the time.

We took a Taxi to the Atlantic Sea Park an Aquarium on the outskirts of town Cab cot 100Kr (£10/$20) and was a good way to spend a couple of hours. The setting is really nice, set into the rocky coast and they had some really good exhibits including penguin feeding time.

We went back to town and booked tickets for the tourist train later that evening and looked around for something to eat. That’s when we found out how expensive Norway was. Set menu was £20, fast food shops £8 for a kebab up to £20 for a pizza. Coke was £2.50 a can. As the ship was docked right in town we went back onboard for something to eat, then went back to ride the tram. The Bytoget as it is called does a one hour tour, with commentary, of town including taking you up to a viewpoint where you can take pictures of the town (and docked ship) and the surrounding scenery. As the ship turned round in the harbour Vera Lynn blasted out “We’ll meet Again” from the dockside as we sailed away. Very cheesy but a really nice touch as the locals waved us off.

 

Better stop for now, Will post again with the day we woke up next to a glacier, the Kristiansund fire chief makes us coffee and shows us his fire station. Oh, and a local idiot in a speed boat learns that it’s not a good idea to get too close to a departing cruise ship. , We cross into the Arctic Circle, say goodbye to nightime and hello to King Neptune and nearly kill Rudolph.

[CruisinEurope]

Thank you thank you thank you for posting along this journey!!

 

I have BIG plans to do this exact trip next year - - and your thread will be read with MUCH interest.

 

QUESTION:

 

what side of the ship is your AF located - - and are you happy with the view?? I am looking to book either a mini or a balcony - - and want to know what the best side of the ship is for vantage of the scenery of the fjords/etc.

 

 

 

THANK you - - and happy sailing!!!

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Tony,

This Vicarious Viking surely appreciates your interesting commentary. Sounds like you are all having a great time!:D

 

Have you seen any of the shows yet? Haven't read any comments on them yet from your CC group.

 

How was the group Teppanyaki dinner? What's your favorite meal been so far?

 

Pls say hello to everyone for us. We miss being there. Enjoy every moment!

 

Tony, if you like the Jewel class ships, you'll love trying the Jewel, Pearl and Gem!:)

 

Hey - CruisinEurope - we've already booked for next year June 13th. Hope we can get a roll call started! Anyone else up for the Midnight Sun?

[Rocky4ever]

http://jade08.sellie.de/

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Rocky,

Bob and I just spent our morning looking through (and salivating over) the photos. Loved the one of the "great climb" with your expedition team following you.:eek::D

 

How lucky can you all be getting a day like that through the Glacier - blue skies all the way.

 

Hope that hot tub is behaving itself.;)

 

Can't wait to see more pictures. Love the ones of the food, too!:)

 

Enjoy your great suite. What a viewing platform you have.

 

Tony, have you done any fishing yet?:eek:

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

We are in an aft mini, great, out of wind and sunny on way up, shaded when heading south view is superb, but noise from wash is loud when going full steam.

 

Barb, Teppanyaki was great, keep bumping into various folks, all seem to be enjoying it,

 

Petra, thanks for link, don't know how you find the time. I have hundreds of pics to sort through first.

[CruisinEurope]

Great to hear! I have an aft balcony on deck 10 secured for my December sailing on the Jade. I keep watching the prices to see if any mini's come up... but then again, not sure I would even trade my location for a mini....

 

If you had to pick starboard or port - - which side would you choose for your sailing?

 

 

Thanks!

[snorklinbarb]

Are you guys in another beautiful fjord today? Very quiet indeed!

 

Anyone trying the main DR's? How's the food? I see they've brought back escargots and 2 nights of lobster. Any other standouts?

 

Time for any shows?

[Russian Blue Mom]

http://jade08.sellie.de/

 

Your photos are awesome....thanks for posting them. :eek:

[bluesea777]

Better stop for now, Will post again with the day we woke up next to a glacier, the Kristiansund fire chief makes us coffee and shows us his fire station. Oh, and a local idiot in a speed boat learns that it’s not a good idea to get too close to a departing cruise ship. , We cross into the Arctic Circle, say goodbye to nightime and hello to King Neptune and nearly kill Rudolph.

 

 

PLEASE don't stop - please CONTINUE!!

 

P.S. look at my signature ...

[bluesea777]

http://jade08.sellie.de/

 

Great photos so far!! Thanks for posting the photo of Finnmarken whilst at Honningsvaag.

 

Quite declasse of you to take pictures of the embarkation and the formal "meet the captain" photos yourself for free instead of paying high prices for them - how were you able to take the photos without the sharks looking??? :D :D :D

 

We found the photos in the photo shop a real rip off!!

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

OK Time for a little catch up again and to try and get to real time then may even get closer to real time, although I doubt it. Will fill in the gaps when I get home!!!

 

Day Four Svartisen Glacier.

 

 

This morning we awoke in a beautiful fjord with as we approached the Svartisen Glacier. It’s a fairly impressive glacier but it’s not Glacier Bay. It doesn’t reach the water but feeds into a pretty little river and to be honest, you get a much better impression of it from a couple of miles away as you can see the top and the scale of it. The rest of the day was cruising really lovely scenery which photos will better describe.

 

Day Five Kristiansund

 

The ship docks right in the centre of the town as this is a small harbour town. Ther is a large shopping mall literally across the street from the dock which has all the shops you need, including a fairly large supermarket. Even if you stocked up on large items it’s not far to carry stuff and the crew were buying in there. There are plenty of other shops nearby. I had seen some people looking out from a tower and decided that was where I wanted to go. After much trekking we stopped to check our position and ended up at the very top viewpoint at Varden which was way further than intended but was a superb view nonetheless and we headed down again, passing the point where we had paused but from a different direction. We walked around the corner to ind a fire station which was where the observation tower that we had been looking for. As my friend is a fireman, I statrted taking photos of the appliances and the Station Officer invited us in for a coffee, use the toilet and he would show us the collection of historic vehicles and equipment. Now we hadn’t seen that in any guide book.

 

We had seen many pleasure boats milling around the very busy harbour including one idiot that seemed a little more reckless than the normal. On the sailaway , the ship cast off its lines and this idiot zoomed through between the ship and the dock wall hitting the lines as he went through, breaking the shear pin on his propeller as he went over the rope. Of course this made the engine race loudly alerting all onboard to his stupidity. He then had to be very publically towed in by another boat. The sail out was superb in lovely sunny weather with an accompanying flotilla of pleasure craft. Remember this is the first time they have seen the Jade and it will not return till next year. The crew are also excited about this itinerary and are always out on deck taking photos. This was a lovely port with lots to do and the locals made us feel very welcome indeed.

 

Day Six Cross the Arctic Circle

 

 

We crossed the Arctic Circle this morning at 5 am and the rest of the day is at sea as we head for the North Cape. It is nice sunny clear weather but it is definitely colder, ok in sun but uncomfortable in the windy shade. At 1pm they had the Order of the Blue Nose Ceremony around the pool where King Neptune accompanied by some very dodgy looking Vikings marked the polar circle crossing by painting everyone’s nose blue and dousing them with water. All aboard found a certificate in their cabins later. Good fun and helped with the sense of adventure.

We had noticed the days getting longer with “sunset” at almost midnight with sunrise not much after around three. In reality it didn’t actually go dark

 

Now we have crossed the line, there is literally 24 hr daylight with some weird effects, such as horizontal cloud shadows late at night.

 

Day Six the North Cape

 

Well here we are at Honningsvaag, the town at the top of the world and it’s cold, drizzly and miserable as we tender over to a rather bleak looking port. We board the buses and head over the hills through some fairly impessive bleak scenery stopping at a Sami “camp” for photos, Looks a bit staged but the people are real and it makes nice pics.

 

There are reindeer grazing on the moorland by the roads and the bus has to brake hard to avoid as two run across the road. Christmas was nearly cancelled as we had almost wiped out Donner and Blitzen.

The North Cape centre was good but people didn’t stay out on the Viewpoint very long as although it had stopped raining the strong wind was biting and very cold. Remember the wind was blowing from the North, where another 150miles away, you would be shaking hands with the polar bears.

As it was all aboard at 2.30, thee was not much else to do but get back onboard.

 

Day Seven. At Sea

 

Warmer today nothing happened, very little entertainment. Just enjoyed a quiet day at sea.

Day Eight Trondheim

Went to Nidaros Cathedral more later

 

 

Day Nine Hellsylt and Gerainger

 

Definitely the best day of all. Superb weather blue skies so good pics today and we awoke to face the little village of Hellsylt with a really impressive waterfall with pretty scenery around it. Didn’t bother getting off as it was all aboard at 1030 for the sail into Gerainger. In hindsight we should have got off and caught the ferry round to Gerainger, then would have had the Jade in our photos.

Will not attempt to describe the views apart to say that there are fantastic waterfalls cascading down sheer cliffs of over 1000 feet. The scenery is literally unbelievable, photos cannot do it justice, it is literally breathtaking.

Tendered ashore, there was some delay and they put the all aboard time back to six o’clock. We walked up to the Fjord centre along the waterfalls. Again, spectacular.

On the way back down I noticed that we could have gone Downhill Mountain Biking, where you hire bikes and they drop you off at the top and you bike down. There are also lots of bike, scooter hire places and boat and bus sightseeing tours sold on the dockside.

Again the sort of place where words will not describe what a picture will struggle to capture.

 

 

 

Day Nine Bergen.

Will go out now to ride the funicular. Weather sunny

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Yesterday in Gerainger

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Just realised I'v missed out Trondheim, so all the days will be out of sync.:o

[Rocky4ever]

Quite declasse of you to take pictures of the embarkation and the formal "meet the captain" photos yourself for free instead of paying high prices for them.

 

Just to show you how crappy the "professional" pictures are.

[Rocky4ever]

PICTURE ALLERT

[snorklinbarb]

Hi Tony, Rocky and all the Vikings!

 

The day in Geiranger looks stunning. We've been there (along with Bergen) on our intro trip to the Norw. fjords a few years ago.

 

Thanks for hoisting one for us on the 4th. We certainly miss being there.

 

But now my mind is working - trying to fit in a cruise sometime this fall and am once again trying to convince Bob to make the "Bermuda crossing.":eek: He's gotten sick every time we've done it!

 

Is the ship full? How does the Hawaiian decor feel in the midnight sun?;):D

[nugget16]

I have been so relieved to read how much you are enjoying the Jade. Myself and family are sailing on the Jade around the Med on the 26th July, and have been reading horrendous reviews on another review site. Would you please tell me where children are or not allowed. We are taking my 14 and 8 year old with us, and were wondering if they are allowed in the bars with us in the evening, or will they have to go to the sitting service? Hope you can help - thanks

[harjoe]

Hi Nugget16

Join our merry group on the roll call for the Jade 26th July here is the link http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=683520

Everyone is getting really excited now, What great pics from Rocky.

All the best Les. :) :)

[marjrie]

Sound like a great cruise, I would love to do this one next year.

[snorklinbarb]

marjre and others admiring all the photos,

 

Hope we can get a good roll call going for next year June 13, 2009.

 

12 nighter with the exact same itin as this year.

 

Just hope we get as favorable weather as this year's Vikings did.

 

Tony and others, have a great trip home & look forward to all the reviews.:D

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

marjre and others admiring all the photos' date='

 

Hope we can get a good roll call going for next year June 13, 2009.

 

12 nighter with the exact same itin as this year.

 

Just hope we get as favorable weather as this year's Vikings did.

 

Tony and others, have a great trip home & look forward to all the reviews.:D[/quote']

 

They finally threw us off the ship just after 9.00ish and we got going at about 1000. We were home about 4.30:D Interestingly apart from those with US transfers, we bumped into most of the roll call getting off too.

It was really nice to have some familiar faces around