Jack Staff

We were told that Celebrity catered more for "middle aged" guests and so we booked with out two teenage girls.. They now see celebrity as their favourite cruise line. A wide age range and perhaps a more laid back atmosphere than some lines..    Go for it!

Rebel Rouser -what were people thinking?    Just Wearing Sandals!   Dropping a hot bit of dinner could be entertaining for others!

If you Pay as You Go -any idea on what price  the drinks may be?

On a European cruise we do not bother with the ships internet as the cruise is usually port intensive and internet cafes offer that service and in some cities the service is free if not to good.

We used SPB and have no complaints. Questions asked on their web site were promptly and politely answered. The 2 day tour (about 10 people) included Czar sites and WW2.  The guide could not do enough for us.   

We never get an internet plan while on a cruise but that is because we cruise in the European area that is port intensive and there are plenty of places such as internet cafes etc to get on-line. The frustrations with ship internet just does not appeal.

I have just had an offer to upgrade my cabin/stateroom however there are 4 of us in the current cabin and the upgrade is only for two although the cabin can sleep 4.   Any advice available as I obviously need somewhere for the 4 of us.?

We toured St Petes with SPB and did not have any problems.

Is it possible to  find your Captains Club number?    As usual we have lost it!

We carry Ecohydra foam hand sanitiser - its far more effective than the normal bottles of sanitiser. 

My daughters only drink water and perhaps the occasional soft drink. I assume that its possible for them to pay-as-you-go rather than paying for a package.

It is the first time I have looked at booking a P&O cruise and am not impressed by the web site.  There seems to be a lack of what I consider essential information -not only about the cruise line but also on any included flights -I had to dig about to find an email address to send an enquiry.  It really has not impressed and if it reflects the standard of the cruise line I wonder how long it will last!

Day 9 is effectively the last day of the cruise as we sail south towards Southampton. The North Sea was kind today and made for a pleasant day. We saw a lot of:

Sometimes broken up by an energy rig or ship.

There were activities on board - Trivia quiz; Cake Making Demo. ; Painting Class etc.

2 of the party tried to attend the art class and along with others formed a line however when the class leader came along others rushed in and got the places, not good.

We read books and generally relaxed.

Dinner was at O'Sheehan's (those chicken wings !) . Service was very laid back to the extent that we had to ask for cutlery after getting the somewhat waiters attention. The bartender served a G&T made with lemonade!

They had no Angry Orchard cider either!

The theatre show tonight was Katerina Rossa a violin virtuoso -it did not appeal and so we used the bars.

Tomorrow Southampton and travel home.

Day 9 is effectively the last day of the cruise as we sail south towards Southampton. The North Sea was kind today and made for a pleasant day. We saw a lot of:

Sometimes broken up by an energy rig or ship.

There were activities on board - Trivia quiz; Cake Making Demo. ; Painting Class etc.

2 of the party tried to attend the art class and along with others formed a line however when the class leader came along others rushed in and got the places, not good.

We read books and generally relaxed.

Dinner was at

Our mini-suit on Jade had a curtain. Good size cabin too.

There is space on the upper outside decks - not being a smoker I do not know exactly where.

The Jade had sailed overnight across the North Sea and we had breakfast as we watched the outer Orkney Islands pass by -the cloudy weather had returned and so the seemed bleak and interesting.

We docked at 11 am. at the small cruise terminal at Kirkwall and enjoyed watching a crane put the gangway in place. The Kirkwall/Orkney flag is similar to Norway's flag but has yellow in place of white.

There were no tour or HoHo buses apparent at the terminal that had an Information Centre but free shuttles into the small city were available - we decided to walk as its only about 25 minutes. On the way we passed a stall advertising chicken curry for £3.60.

Kirkwall is a small town and we found the Visitor Information centre alongside the bus station.

As we wanted to visit the Ring of Brodegar we joined what was a small line/queue at the appropriate bus stop to catch the local bus. The line grew bigger and then a single deck bus pulled up and the line disintegrated as people tried to get on, it seemed that there would not be room for all. Matters were made worse as there was a large party in line and one person was buying all the tickets however the party were strung out in the line which caused some confusion but the bus driver handled matters well and soon we were squeezed onto the vehicle.

The driver was very good and dropped us all off at the junction on the A965 (Stromness Road) and the B9055 and we all walked towards the stones. After about 15 minutes we came to a small set of stones - The Standing Stones of Stenness (4 stones that are all that remains of a ring of 12 built about 5000 years ago) - on the way we saw seals basking - it was busy here and after a look around we continued to the Ring of Brodgar :

36 stones remain out of 60 they stand in a circle and there are prehistoric burial mound near.

We retraced our steps back to the A965 to wait for the local bus back to Kirkwall - the scenery was interesting:

I suggest that it is preferable to pre-book a tour of the area as it will then be possible to see more.

At Kirkwall we could not enter St Magnus cathedral as a wedding service was going on so we went around the corner to the Earls and Bishops palaces and enjoyed those sites.

The Earls Palace

The Bishops palace with the tower of St Magnus Cathedral in the background.

Tonight we had dinner at Alizar and the theatre show was 'Elements' and featured some of the acts that had performed previously - it was OK.

Recently sailed on Jade to the Norwegian Fjords . Every night there was an event in the Spinnaker Lounge and there were more USA citizens on board than other nationalities, plenty of young people as well.

We docked in Bergen and took the shuttle bus to the gates where there were offers for the HoHo buses and tours and Segway's - we decided upon the red HoHo bus and included the tickets for the funicular which was our first alight point. I do advise getting tickets before you arrive at the funicular as there were two long lines of people -one to purchase tickets and one to ride the funicular. Even with tickets we stood in line for 30 mins or so.

The top of Mt Floyen there is a viewing area and from there you can get a good idea of the size of Bergen. It is a lovely city and bigger than expected.

We were a little disappointed with the lake as its quite small (one of our party described it as a pond) but is used for recreational purposes.

After a short walk we descended the funicular and there were still long lines to ride to the top.

We then toured the city on the HoHo bus and again had a wander around the university area where unfortunately for us the museum was closed as it was graduation day and it was being used.

Continuing our journey we passed a couple of statues of Ibsen (a Norwegian poet; playwright etc) these were outside the Den National Scene (The National Stage) .

(look at those eyes!)

We then wandered to the Fish Market which consists in the main of temporary stalls some offering meals while others sell fish - lobsters and crabs (huge) can be purchased alive. (fruit is also sold here)

The fish market is on the harbour side and there are shopping areas near by.

We really liked Bergen and wish we could spend more time exploring.

As can be seen from the photographs the weather was sunny and warm - apparently we were very lucky as Bergen is known for wet weather.

Some info on Bergen weather:

• A lot of rain (rainy season) falls in the months of: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.
  
• On average, the warmest month is July.
  
• On average, the coolest month is January.
  
• September is the wettest month. This month should be avoided if you don't like too much rain.
  
• May is the driest month.
  

We found some useful information on Toms Port Guides

We’re booked Oct 15 on Jade. Mini-suite w/balcony. Can someone please tell me if there is a lighted makeup mirror and a hairdryer in the cabin? I’d really appreciate the info. Thanks

The mini-suite we had on deck 11 was fitted with a light up mirror ; it was to the right of the TV and had table space in front of it. There was also a stand alone magnifying mirror. . . A hairdryer was in the cabin.

I agree with some of the OPs comments :

We had no issues with our cabin. The mini-suite we occupied did not have USB sockets under the bed side lights but this was not an issue. The cabin stewards were friendly and good representatives for NCL.

We had no problems with slow service in most restaurants other than

We were a party of 4 and only ever waited about 5 minutes for a table.

Overall we thought the food on board was OK and taste/style that of the USA (not a problem NCL is a USA line) and catering to UK taste is not expected. We do not expect large portions and found they were adequate.

We had only one problem with drinks (we did specify the brand we required) and that was at

The day started a bit grey and overcast and there was a wind so it was waterproofs.

Alesund is a charming town and is spread over several islands with the Sunnmøre Mountains as a background. A fire in 1904 destroyed much of the town and Alesund was rebuilt in Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) style. Wooden buildings were banned in the city centre.

We like longer cruises and cruise Europe where it can be very port intensive. However you do not have to spend the entire day exploring a stop and can even stay on board if you so wish. Some European cruises often stay for 2 days at a major attraction. So there should be plenty of scope for decisions on what you feel like doing. Only time I would be bored would be on a TA -too many sea days. Just relaxed and enjoy!

The evening before arrival at Flam we had been told as this was a tender port to collect tickets and so have allocated disembarkation times - we chose 9am -the time the ship was due to arrive.

The day was cloudy but at least it was not raining and we were preparing to go to breakfast (it was about 8am) when the announcement was made calling for the first numbered tickets. We thought it a bit early and continued with what we were doing. A few minutes later our ticket number was called -very early! A little later there was an announcement that they were calling 'early birds' and would repeat the session later. However that did not happen. On making our way to the exit port (deck 5?) we were halted at deck 7 and told we could go no further until all the previous passengers had been cleared. After a short wait (a few minutes) we were instructed to carry on and go to the tenders - however at deck 6 there was a rope across the stairs but no one in attendance we all found this curious and after a short wait just carried on down where we found the tenders waiting for us- no one asked or checked the tender tickets at all and we were off ship before our tender time! The entire operation seemed somewhat confused and not very professional.

Flam is a small village at the end of a Fjord and a train trip to Myrdal is one of the advertised highlights. We had looked at booking train tickets before we left the UK via the web site (NCL tour cost much more) and had found that all tickets were sold out. However we went to the rail booking office and found there was no problem and so purchased tickets for that day.

We do like the popular road trains that run and so we decided to do one of their tours while we waited for the train (Flamsbana) and off we went. The tour lasted about 90mins or so and trundled through the village proper which is a little journey away from the dock. We enjoyed it.

On return to Flam dock we visited the museum - found it was mainly about the railway and interesting . It was time to take the train to Myrdal (a fairly uninteresting village that has a connection to the Bergen main line) which will take approximately one hour and you do not get off the train as it returns to Flam where the ship is. First part of the journey gives a different view of Flam village as opposed to the road train then out it goes into the country. The train stops at a water fall for 5 mins so that you can take photos and while there music is played and a person or two does a short performance. (See the figure in red at top right hand of picture to give some scale). An enjoyable journey.

Back to the ship and dinner in the buffet. Tonights theatre performance is by the production cast and is 'Blazing Boots' - a tribute to pop country music. Enjoyable.

Hellesylt is on the way to Geiranger and the ship stops for a short time to allow the disembarkation of passengers who have booked NCL tours.They will re-join the ship in Geiranger later that day.

The rest of us continue down the fjord to Geiranger. The Fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site andis well worth viewing as the ship gently makes its way down it. Not far from Geiranger the ship will pass the Seven Sister and The Suitor waterfalls that face each other.

At Geiranger the ship moored alongside the floating dock andso disembarkation was easy. Geiranger is a small village that we were told had about 200 or so permanent residents. There were plenty of e-cars for hire but as we had no tours planned we went to look in the visor centre where a large sign informed us of what was available.

We chose a short tour to different viewpoints and were well rewarded. The roads tend to zig-zag up the mountains and the buses seem to fill those roads but there were no issues.

We liked Geiranger and found that we could easily pass time wandering around and just enjoying the atmosphere. Geiranger even has its own waterfall.

Tonight’s theatre event was ‘Mistika’ a magic act but as this type of magic show not our thing and we had been unimpressed at the Review show we gave it a miss and went to dinner in Aliza. The Flounder was very good.