Norwaylady

SO SORRY, late to the PARTY🥳 Work, work, work and no time to sneak around on CC🙈 Looks like your having a great time🥰 Your engagement celebration by X sounded wonderful. How incredible sweet of them to make it special for you❤️ Thats really something you remember and makes a great impression of X. We had our 5.years wedding anniversary on a med cruise on Equinox, it was listed as a special celebration thing... lets just say we were not impressed. No, nothing. No Happy anniversary or anything from any crew🙈 A card or something would have been nice... We even had matching t/shirts saying today we celebrate 5years wedding anniversary made by me, since it was a sea day and Mr Norwaylady hate to be in the spotlight... So he received a matching t/shirt to me and a bracelet on the bed in the morning😂 It was deadly quiet from everyone. Have a great sailing back to Florida❤️ Hope to walk the gangway soon. The winter is killing us🥶 We have had minus 20 to 25c since November and it has snowed far to much....

Thank you for a wonderful review! It´s been a pleasure to follow your adventure down under❤️ I must admit, I was swearing a bit when you arrived in Milford Sound/Fjordland.... Really wanted to be there❤️ We really ❤️ NZ Wishing you a Christmas that's merry and bright🎅

So ready for your asian adventure! Looks like your off to a great start🥰 Will enjoy this as my Christmas entertainment❤️ Bon Voyage⚓

Enjoy your cruise❤️💃🏻🕺🏻 seems like your off to a good start❤️🙌🏻

Have a great day in Auckland! Really jealous on your NZ adventure❤️ It is a bit scary that loyal customers are flagging that the changes X do is not for the better.... We are not locked to X. But it has been a good fit for us and we have found routes we wanted to sail. But it's getting harder to find routes we want to sail. Caribbean is nice for winter getaways. But we really enjoy the out of the box sailings. Im must admit.... today we pushed the button, we are cheating on X or (rcl group) We wanted a cold climate cruise.... (mr primarily, what not to do for your loved one😂) Ken the cruiser sendt us off to a further investigation after seeing an interesting detail in his signature... So we will try NCL Star on a 10/n Iceland and Greenland sailing June 25. We will just go open eyes in, we have picked this cruise just because of the sailing route. NCL Star is a smaller vessel, same as Milli etc and it's been refurnished. So we will just see..... If we hate it, its one and done🙃 on the other side, if we enjoy it, we have more options to find routes to sail. Only time will tell......😇

Bon Voyage! We did SY when she was new in Europe. We had the last sailing before she was leaving for US. So we sailed a 9-n med cruise. Really was a great way to have time to enjoy the ship. We really enjoyed some of the things and saw other things we disliked by this ship size compared to X. The entertainment is really outstanding. We truly enjoyed that. We did specialty dining in Jamies, Wonderland and Teppanyaki. All was great. We had a Central Park balcony. Really looking forward of your sailing in the suite and costal kitchen🤩

Looks like you're going to have a fantastic sailing! Can't wait for the rest of this adventure😍 I have some news.... I hope you will keep Star in good shape.... Maybe we can have a coffee in Reykjavik......🤭

Bon Voyage! I will follow your adventure 🥰

Thank you❤️ We sail b2b on March 23😅 So you need to keep her in ship shape for us🙌🏻❤️

I can happily take your space😂😂🙌🏻 I can offer you fabulous -15 to -10celsius and ❄️❄️❄️❄️ My long johns are on on my down jacket is out & about😜 Enjoy your sun & summer😎😎 Really looking forward for your view on this b2b project 🤓

Bon voyage! looking forward for your adventure🤩🕺🏻🕺🏻

Mr lived in Longyearbyen for 20months before we married, he worked there. So it was lots of polar bears when he lived there in the city.... it was very overactive during his stay there... So he has been spoiled! I, on the other hand have visited Longyerbyen several times and still not seen a polar bear.... I know they have been close, but not visible. During covid, the place we could go furthest away from Oslo was Svalbard.... So we visited several times..6 trips in 2021 to new year 2022😅 (so we have tested almost all tours available😂) I will really consider it🚢 Mr want to go on a new "cold water" cruise.... I need to read up on NCL options.... I can just see from the pricing that they offer me 3 options in NOK. They offer Cruise best 50% off, cruise+tips and Free at sea. The difference in price is around 250USD for the cruise best vs FAS option. This really gives me something to think about....

OH,. what a great itinerary! I had to go to NCL to see:) You will not regret this sailing. I can actually really want to sail this itinerary..... We talked about it this morning.....😂 Mr called me on his way to work.... Artania was in Oslo. We want to do a new "Norwegian" cruise, but not on Hurtigruten. (I want a full cruise thing) Do you think we should come along🤣?

Bon Voyage @Ken the cruiser Looking forward to follow this adventure! I see you have Longyearbyen/ Svalbard on your next list...

We sail on the 29.... when you get off.... If could decided, we would have sailed on the 22.... But due to our nephew, we needed to make sure school was finished and that we had time to fly him from the north of Norway to Athens.... My birthday is on the 28.... So it would have been nice to celebrate onboard... Mr has celebrated his birthday 3x times on a cruise... Since he has his birthday in January... Me on the other hand... summer holiday season, means no travel.... So I always go to work🤣

We sailed our first part of our b2b in a concierge infinity balcony. No issues of big characters. We ate 14 dinners in MDR. No problems we didn't handle, we rotated around as we wanted. We decided around noon where to book a table for dinner every evening on the app. We eat late, so always tables for booking 20.30 or 20.45. Never a problem, they were always waiting us and things worked out. Our housekeeping staff first part, deck 12 did an excellent job and everything was spotless and cleaned to our needs. We had no big issues at all for this partition of the cruise. Only thing was my Captains Club status missing. (I did tackle it, and it did not ruin my holiday.... I waited in line for 45.min for captains club and new 20.min+ at guest relation to reprint my card) But if you have read my live, you know we did not meet our housekeeper, retreat team until we went on a hunt for them after our move in Dubai to the SS and retreat. Our stateroom (suite) was not clean on arrival. It was stains and a dental stick brush left in the floor in the bathroom. What we have made criticism off is the lack of the attention to detail and overall service of a SS produkt that is not as described. For both legs of our b2b we have visited Oceanview, we had breakfast, snack or lunch and it has always been available tables if you go all the way aft. We had never problem finding a table out on the terrace or aft of the buffet. We ate dinner in the buffet in Phuket. It was on Thanksgiving. They had lots of choices and a big turkey station celebration of thanksgiving. And we ate in the prime rush in Phuket, not impossible to find a table. Again, aft of the buffet..... It sounds like you really had a bad experience. We did not in many ways. This was in our eyes a great itinerary and a really good cruise on most parameters. What governmental decisions taken in Greece, India, UAE and Singapore, we can't control nor the ship or X. They just have to follow their instructions. We waited in Athens as everyone, we did our immigration inspection in the morning in UAE due to private tour and was lucky compared to others on a ship tour. In Mumbai and Cochin we had luck on timing. So we didn't have the worst case scenario. But it was just pure luck. When we checked out of the ship in Singapore, we left early, so we didn't have a too long line to pass immigration. But again, this was not due to The Retreat. We were ready to leave the ship. But what we criticism is the miss match of what a SS is market as and what the actual produkt given. Remember, I dont sail in suites, The Retreat on a regular basis. This was the first experience in The Retreat. I have 19 other X cruises in regular balcony, AQ and CON mix. So this is what I am comparing my SS experince too. But we can't in any ways call this the worst cruise we have taken!

Thank you for this feedback❤️ What you are addressing is really important. Had our SS been our first X cruise..... Im not sure if we would booked X again. (its the attention to details that really slips and the mega important first impression connected to the retreat) Specially if you have stayed at some nicer resorts or something in the same category you assume you're booking.

Jim that's really a Great Ide! And as @Northern Aurora says.... she should indeed test her own product. In the survey for our b2b last cruise, I added a link to my live and said that they should consider to read it for closer information on what's going on in real life... Particularly how you meet and greet people. And that the first impression is something we really were not impressed by in SS. I hope she gets the "warm" and cosy welcome we had🤣🤣

🎅🏻🎄🎅🏻 looks great ❤️ Best of luck for a speedy recovery ❤️‍🩹 Cheers to water and 🍉🍹 Fingers crossed you feel better soon❤️

I could not find it…. I searched in Al Bacio, OceanViev, in sugar selection on the table in MDR. None…. If I have some sugar in my coffee, I never use white sugar. It’s only brown sugar.

Future Cruise I know some of you wonder what we think about the future and what have we booked???? We still feel that X is a decent option for us. So we have some cruises on our plan. But I do pay attention to other lines itineraries. We are seeking towards the more special ones. And we have understood that we need to look at other lines to be able to get what we want. We are open minded for almost anything. If you go into it eyes open and don’t pre judgment, I think we can survive on many other lines🤓😌👍🏻 We are eager to try out Silversea, Hurtigruten Expeditions, HAL, Fred Olsen and Windstar. We will do a Caribbean cruise for the Easter 🐣 on X. It’s a b2b on Equinox. 10+9 days from Fort Lauderdale. (We have sailed on EQ 3 or 4 times before) It’s just straight forward sun, heat and beach😎 Next up is the Queens holiday! The Queen and I will do a 10-night sailing on Infinity from Athen, Greek 🇬🇷 & 🇹🇷 Turkey in May. We do have a overnight in Istanbul🥰 Then I just run home to work for 5 weeks ish to go back on Infinity for a 7-days Greek 🇬🇷 sailing from Athens by Mr & our 15year old nephew🥰 In September I’m bringing my cousin…. She is my “little” sister I don’t have❤️ She really wanted to try a cruise and have asked for years if we can go together… So here we are…. A 9–night Greek 🇬🇷 island cruise on Infinity from Athens😂🇬🇷 So 2024 will be a year in Greece 🇬🇷 for me😂😂😂😂 For Christmas 2024 we will escape! Then we will sail on Millennium from Singapore to Bali. We are already counting down to the next Christmas 🎅🏻 This is really a beautiful sailing we are looking forward to❤️ It will be a combo of land tour + cruise. Planning is in the making🤓🤭 We know we will spend 1 week on Bali after our cruise. But we are in the planning phase if we can do something special before our cruise somewhere else then Singapore 🇸🇬 (since we have visited several times) We are thinking about Chang Mai, Thailand 🇹🇭 or Siem Riep, Cambodia 🇰🇭…. Time will tell…. 2025 is a busy year😂😂😂 My father in law is turning 70 years old during the easter 🐣 SO NO cruise or warmer weather holiday…. He will definitely celebrate in the north of 🇳🇴 Norway…. The Queen is turning 60🙈 Yes I know🥳 In September. She has made it clear that she wants to do something fun for her birthday. And that she doesn’t want a party. She wants to go away on a cruise or something similar… She really wants a river cruise in Asia( Vietnam) or a Mediterranean cruise by the close family. So we will see how to tackle this one😅 We have 15 years wedding anniversary in October 2025…. So YES 🙌🏻 we need to celebrate in style🥳🥳🥳 For those who have followed the Galapagos lives… you see where this is going😎 We are booked for 10-days tour package on Xpedition🐢🐠🐡🦭 I have followed the lives and I’m confident that this is a great sailing and adventure for us🥰 So we do have some things on our plan… I do have an open/moveable b2b on Xcel during the Easter 🐣 2026… it’s in the Caribbean… so nothing exotic. So we will see if we go for a new ship adventure or if we change it to an Asia adventure… Bon Voyage!

Reality kicked in quickly🥶🥶🥶🥶first morning… (it’s in Celsius) Well, it’s winter ❄️ My parents in law had -26😝 This is just to round up our adventure on Edge and som final words from me & Mr❤️🤓 Would we sail this itinerary again? YES Has there been issues with immigration and customs? YES Did it affect us? NJA… not to bad. So you see…. We can’t had the worst time onboard🤓🥰 Entertainment was really a huge success! Shoreside booking was really on the ball for our 26.nights. The first part from Rome to Dubai was literally a walk of power how to do it! Live music onboard was great and Charlie the pub/guitar consept was great. (It fitted well for the demographic onboard AND the mix of nationalities) I don’t know how aware you are when you go cruising, but the cocktail of nationalities change the vibes onboard in different ways. We as the underdog in guest counts feel this change of vibe very well. It’s nothing wrong or bad. But if you have a cruise full of Americans, the vibe is very American 🇺🇸 and we can definitely see and feel it. On this cruise it was a load of AUS & NZ and British. It’s a completely different vibe and it’s a little differently from sailing in the Caribbean. We like to think we are all similar… but it is a difference for some things🙃 I must admit as the Norwegian 🇳🇴 I am, we feel very cosy and “home” when we sail on ships loaded by British and NZ/AUS🥰 it’s just something about it🇬🇧🇳🇴🇳🇿🇦🇺 Well, back to our cruise! The port talks/destination talks by CD Guiseppe. He did an excellent job and this is absolutely necessary to have during a cruise like this. It’s a great way to learn something about the process of immigration and customs. And to have a small teaser of what to expect. (Not everyone is up to date on ports and what to expect…I know I have a black belt in organising😅) And the man can talk, be serious and fun at the same time😂😜🤓 So definitely something to KEEP for the future if they do a similar cruise! CD Guiseppe is fantastic! ❤️ nothing more or less🤩 (the activity team also needs a big applause 👏🏻 Dominique is so fun, he rules the YES/NO game🤣🤣) Captain Matt is a wonderful person. He is really a great leader of the vessel. Together he and CD Guiseppe are dynamic dynamite 🧨 Food has delivered (some hit and misses on the way) But the overall quality and experience has delivered. OceanView has offered a great mix of dishes and the bread/bakery items has tasted great 👍🏻 Mr said it after a week… after all cruise on X this is definitely the best cruise for bakery items. The bread do taste good and have the right texture and taste as of home. Really good! (And this Mr do eat a lot of bread😜) Staterooms have been as booked…. The infinite veranda is not my cup of tea 🤭 Mr on the other side said 👍🏻 YES… So I see a sign of conflicting interests for the future🤭 The balcony in the SS was definitely my cup of tea. Mr loved the tub for his 🦆🦆. But other than that, we are fine in a smaller room “steerage class”🤭😂😂 We can manage on smaller space. We are used to having limited space😝 The Retreat They say, once you tried it, you want go back…. Well, I’m very sorry to say….. We will go back/stay in “steerage class” We can in some areas see the great things but on other areas we are very much underwhelmed. The prices they have is increasing to levels far over the el cheapo accounting paying will. So this strikes it out from start to finish🥸 My expectation and our stay in a SS didn’t come to meet my expectations. It was a miss/match for us. I don’t think we are demanding? It was just so “cold” This was sailing number 20 on X. So when we walked the gangway in Dubai this was for the 20 time on X…. So you do know what to expect and kinda how things work on the ship. This was the “coldest” welcome we ever had on any cruise ship. (And I’m not speaking of the great security officer on the gangway pinging us onboard and welcoming us back again🥰) We didn’t see or meet anyone from housekeeping or the retreat team. We needed to hunt them down. Our stateroom (suite as they politely reference to) had visible signs of lack of cleaning. It was obviously a job in a hurry. Really underwhelming and really a bit of a turnoff to start the sailing in a suite. This impression didn’t come off, we felt it was like booking a “biz” ticket on a low cost airline and expecting SQ Singapore Airlines 5* service. (We know they can’t make SQ to the ankles😝) But SS is sold and marketed as a suite. But the service from housekeeping and the “retreat” team are not good if this is the way you greet & meet new guests onboard. It just sat the tone…. At least say hello to your guests in a decent time after they arrive on the ship and make them feel welcome❤️ Go thru basic details of services and point out how X can make them feel comfortable and welcome. Luminae has great crew. But the layout of the restaurant makes it noisy and very difficult to enjoy the meal during rush hours. The food was great on some days and off for our tasting other days… We feel the Blu menu is more to our liking. Due to more vegetables and fish/seafood options. Other than this issue, we overall had a great time. We loved India & Sri Lanka. We need to go back on a land tour. Tours via X, shore excursions worked well. It’s safe and works well. Private tours in India worked great. So a great cruise!

Thank you for a great report from Galapagos! I really feel we made the correct choice of booking for Galapagos. Looking forward to this adventure in 2025🙌 Safe travel home! We arrived home to Norway yesterday after our Edge adventure🥰

Happy Anniversary! Looks like they took good care of you on your day🥰 Have a great sailing🙌

It's a DB Hugger 25L and 30L. We have one each. https://us.dbjourney.com/collections/backpacks We enjoy them. They have several types, depending on your needs.