Trip Report Norwegian Fjords & North Cape 28/6/-12/7/08

[dmb707]

Hi all

I have now finally found some time to start posting a trip report on my recent cruise to the Norwegian Fjords & North Cape.

This is a 14 night trip that Seabourn only do once every 2 years, although the same trip is going July 4th 09, so anyone thinking of doing this cruise I would highly recommend it,

We arrrived at Copenhagen airport at 1 pm by 2 pm we were on the ship, Copenhagen airport is very easy and not crowded, taxi's easily available so anyone going from Copenhagen there is no need to get a transfer with Seabourn (unless of course you want to!), luckily the taxi's are very large so no problem with 2 people and 6 pieces of luggage, i think the taxi cost about £30.

Embarkation was a total breeze arrived at 2 pm and in the suite at 2.10 pm and the luggage arrived straight away, so a quick unpack and straight up to afternoon tea.

Lifeboat drill at 4.15 pm where we bumped into lots of guests who we had cruised with many times which was nice.

Sailaway at 5 pm was to grey skies, drizzle and a cold wind, (first sailaway that i have ever had in a ski jumper:) ) but this did not of course stop us from having a few glasses of champers and a catch up with friends from before. The deck did empty pretty quickly after sailaway perhaps it was the thought of bad hair days that did it :p

The crew on our cruise were as follows Captain Dexter, Laurent was hot man, Luca Maitr'e D, Nick Cruise director and Allan was the main chef.

The next day we were at sea and i breezed up to the Verranda restaurant in my shorts ready for breakfast, no room inside so sat outside (like Billy no mates) under a rather fetching tartan blanket (at times the blankets became like old friends!!!!;) ). The weather for the day was a bit on the cool side, but if you laid down on the sunbeds under blankets and towels you could survive, grey skies and a few showers but ok and the scenery was lovely so it would have been a waste to be inside.

Dinner that night was formal night about a 50 - 50 mix of tuxedo's, I did not go to the Captains welcoming party so can't report back on that, then after Mandy Mullins was on board as the guest entertainer (she had stayed on from the cruise before) so went to her show and enjoyed the show.

The food at Dinner to begin with was very bland and not a lot of seasoning, although this did improve as the cruise went on, which was surprising as the chef is french but no garlic;) , for the first time I ate a few times off the classic menu as the main menu had some fairly obscure items on it, I wish I had brought some of the menu's back with me so i could report fully. (a lot of the passengers were not impressed with the cooking to begin with, but this as mentioned improve greatly as the cruise progressed).

The service was superb probably the best I have ever had on Seabourn, there was a lot of new crew, who were really enthusiastic and willing, perhaps not as polished as say the crew on the Legend and Spirit, but they were all absolutely stars, all knew you by your names from day 2 which is pretty impressive.

Day 3

Breakfast today i did not make the same mistake again of eating under a blanket!!, i ordered room service for breakfast, which was always a surprise remembering what i had ordered the night before (especially after a few glasses of vino:D ) We had 2 star crew memembers who every morning would bring us breakfast Jaska and Florian from Germany.

(next installment to follow)

deb

[crystal808]

Deb:

 

Thanks for taking the time to give us your impressions! Looking forward to more....

 

Quick question: Was Nelson at the Sky Bar, or elsewhere on board?

 

Paul :D

[Tony & Trevor]

Deb,

 

Thank you. Look forward to the next instalment. We were there last month albeit with P & O and had a superb time. Would love to do it with Seabourn.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[Grace Smith]

Hi, Deb!

I just wondered about you on my other post today, not realizing that you were back and reporting!

I can't wait to hear all of the details of your voyage.

It doesn't sound like you were kayaking or banana boating this time.:D

Grace

[dmb707]

Hi, Deb!

I just wondered about you on my other post today, not realizing that you were back and reporting!

I can't wait to hear all of the details of your voyage.

It doesn't sound like you were kayaking or banana boating this time.:D

Grace

 

Grace I don't think Seabourn would let us participate in Marina Days again after our adventures last year:p

 

deb

[dmb707]

Paul

 

Yes Nelson was in his usual position at the sky bar, I have never found him working anywhere else on board, he told me he is permanently at the sky bar now, such a lovely man very charming, the bar manager by the way was Richard who used to be the bar man on the Legend and has been promoted and doing a great job.

 

right next installement!

 

Day 3

 

We were supposed to call at Gudvangen for a couple of hours, but due to a problem we could not sail quick enough so we went straight to Flaam, the sail in was very nice, lots of waterfalls and dramatic cliffs, the weather was fresh and cloudy. We arrived at Flaam which looked a bit like a "toytown" had a quick look round the shops, then lunch, then we had booked the excursion on the Flaam mountain railway, which was very scenic although it started to rain on our way up and the cloud came in, part of the tour included a stop at a hotel near the top of the railway for waffles and tea, to be honest we were stuck in this hotel for an 1 hour 20 mins which is not good as nothing to do and pouring with rain outside (if anyone does this trip with Seabourn i would advise getting the train straight back down and have afternoon tea on the ship a much better experience:) )Also a side note the train is very busy and difficult to book seats, so if you want to do the train trip i would advise that you book it via Seabourn so that you are guaranteed a seat, I'm not sure you would be able to just walk up and book on your own off the ship to fit in with timings etc.

 

A very nice sailaway which I enjoyed sitting up on deck with my new best friend the trusty "Tartan Blanket"

 

A good dinner and then bed

 

more to follow if i am not boring you???;)

 

deb

[crystal808]

Boring?? Never!!

 

Good to hear Nelson is at his "station"! Richard may have been the Bar Manager on the Legend for this Spring's crossing...he seemed to be everywhere (and very handsome, I might add, if it's the "same" Richard)!

 

Thanks for the latest...and please continue!

 

A good weekend to you....

 

Paul :D

[Host Dan]

Looking forward to the next installment Deb!!

 

Host Dan

[jagi]

Really enjoyed your first post and looking forward to the next installment. We did this trip on the Caronia while it still belonged to Cunard. A spectacularly scenic experience. Did you stop in Oslo?

 

Caronia was a 700 passenger ship and I'm sure Seabourn could get into all the nooks and crannies that we could not. I'd love to do it again--on Seabourn, this time.

 

Tony and Trevor. When is your next cruise? We will be on Seabourn Spirit in January. Hope I get to see you again.

 

Judith

[GrannyLorr]

Caronia was a 700 passenger ship and I'm sure Seabourn could get into all the nooks and crannies that we could not. I'd love to do it again--on Seabourn, this time.

 

Judith

 

Granny is doing it on Seabourn next year :D :D but first will be jumping ship and doing a European River cruise, and trying one of the ~almost big ships~ aound the islands close to home dont tell anyone!!! ;)

[4kitties]

Grace I don't think Seabourn would let us participate in Marina Days again after our adventures last year:p

 

deb

 

 

More details please.....:D

[dmb707]

More details please.....:D

 

 

We somehow managed to sink a pedalo on marina day!!! which is some doing still not sure how we managed it but i have a lasting memory of bailing out the water with a Coke Can;)

 

deb

[dmb707]

Hi all

 

thanks for the nice comments

 

Here is the next installement (I did post it last night but i have noticed this morning that there is nothing there so not sure what happened to it?:mad: )

 

Day 4

 

Today we were in Aalesund which is a largish town by Norway standards, we decided not to do a ships tour as nothing sounded that interesting, i had read in my guide book about a very good Aquarium so we decided to get a taxi there.

 

We arrived 30 mins before it opened so had a lovely walk around the penisula where the Aquarium was situated, there were little beaches and crystal clear waters, so quite a cute place. The Aquarium itself was ok nothing great to be honest and only took 20 mins to walk around and that was at a dragging our heals pace, so not a recommendation for future cruises.

 

The Aquarium called for a taxi so that we could go back to the town, be warned the taxi's charge to come and pick you up so you end up paying double on the way back.

 

Aalesund itself was quite pretty and had lots of shops but we could not believe how deserted it was, apart from people on our cruise you did not see anyone about very strange.

 

We came back to the boat for a very nice lunch in the restaurant together with a couple of glasses of "liquid nap medicine" and enjoyed a very nice afternoon nap up on deck:p

 

The sailaway was nice past some lovely islands with white sandy beaches.

 

That night we had an early dinner as the spa was doing a ladies pamper night from 9pm - 11 pm where you had 4 treatments and had champagne and chocolates served at the same time:D this was the first time the spa had done this evening and it was certainly a lovely way of spending the evening, so i can highly recommend it if you get it offered on future cruises.

 

Day 5

 

It was a big yippee moment as the sun was pouring into the suite and the weather was pure blue skies and sunshine:D

 

I had my usual surprise room service breakfast (luckily i had learnt that when you order 1 egg you get 2 etc so did not end up with 4 eggs;) )

 

Today was a day at sea we sailed through some stunning and very beautiful scenery and past little villages on the edge of the fjords, it was made even better that i could sit up on deck in shorts and t shirt, with no tartan blanket:p

 

I wil update again later as i don't want to loose the post again

 

deb

[dmb707]

Day 5 cont

 

Today was the day that we crossed the Arctic Circle, Captain Dexter who was very informative in his daily updates, advised that we would be crossing the Arctic Circle at 7.30 that evening and that we would know as the nearest island had a globe at that point or the nearest land to it.

 

This is where I feel that Seabourn loose the plot somewhat they arranged on this evening for the Club night, so everyone was downstairs at the time we passed the Arctic Circle except ourselves and 4 others, which is a real shame as they missed some spectacular scenery and warm weather.

 

I crossed the Arctic Circle sitting in the hot tub with a glass of champagne in my hand, I thought this to be a rather civilised way of doing it:D.

 

That evening we had booked the Indian night in the Verranda restaurant and the weather was so good that we were able to eat out on deck, the sea was like a lake flat as anything, very still and tranquil apart from the odd speed boat that came out to see us and fantastic scenery to admire.

 

The Indian meal was top notch very tasty and quite hot and spicey, which is surprising as normally quite bland, it was one of the best meals i have had at the Verranda with the exception of tastings at 2 which are different and always very good.

 

That evening we decided that we would stay up to see the midnight sun, which was a new experience in evening wear with a ski jumper over the top;), it really is quite amazing to see bright sunlight at midnight it is a bit disorientating in that you do not feel like going to bed, although it was cold at this time and it is not good jumping up and down in evening shoes trying to keep warm:D

 

more to follow

 

deb

[seapenarth]

Day 5 cont

 

Today was the day that we crossed the Arctic Circle, Captain Dexter who was very informative in his daily updates, advised that we would be crossing the Arctic Circle at 7.30 that evening and that we would know as the nearest island had a globe at that point or the nearest land to it.

 

This is where I feel that Seabourn loose the plot somewhat they arranged on this evening for the Club night, so everyone was downstairs at the time we passed the Arctic Circle except ourselves and 4 others, which is a real shame as they missed some spectacular scenery and warm weather.

 

I crossed the Arctic Circle sitting in the hot tub with a glass of champagne in my hand, I thought this to be a rather civilised way of doing it:D.

 

That evening we had booked the Indian night in the Verranda restaurant and the weather was so good that we were able to eat out on deck, the sea was like a lake flat as anything, very still and tranquil apart from the odd speed boat that came out to see us and fantastic scenery to admire.

 

The Indian meal was top notch very tasty and quite hot and spicey, which is surprising as normally quite bland, it was one of the best meals i have had at the Verranda with the exception of tastings at 2 which are different and always very good.

 

That evening we decided that we would stay up to see the midnight sun, which was a new experience in evening wear with a ski jumper over the top;), it really is quite amazing to see bright sunlight at midnight it is a bit disorientating in that you do not feel like going to bed, although it was cold at this time and it is not good jumping up and down in evening shoes trying to keep warm:D

 

more to follow

 

deb

 

Nothing to do with the Arctic but rather the cuisine. We have found the Indian food served far too bland for our tastes and it is good to hear you found an improvement. We much enjoyed the special lunch time dishes Rajat ( an excellent chef ) produced on the Spirit last Aug/Sept. Unfortunately on the Indian night we were offered a place at the top table so missed out. Hope he`s on ( Rajat ) 2 weeks Saturday. :cool: and hot. :)

[slowe]

Hi,

 

I am taking the cruise that you have spoken so very highly of. We have reserved the Owners Suite # 3 or Starboard side. Is that the desired side for the best views. Thanks in advance for your help!! SL

[GrannyLorr]

The Owners Suites have balconies on the front, so wouldnt matter what side of the ship you were on, view would be great from either! Not that I will ever experience it! :o