Sea42

We're in 4211 and loving it! Gede, our steward is great.

And we did dock in Flam which was a happy surprise as we were scheduled to tender!

Randy and I went our separate ways in Flam yesterday. He did a HAL excursion Coach & Train. He enjoyed but did wonder why people scramble to get window seats and then promptly fall asleep for the entire ride.?! Anyway, he enjoyed the time spent in Voss (about 1 1/2 hrs). There were many people out and about in traditional dress. He enjoyed a nice lunch for a surprisingly reasonable price. I recreated the excursion that had been cancelled. I took the train to Myrdal and walked back down to the Blomheller station for the return to Flam. The first mile was quite steep but no ice or snow on the trail. After that the trail leveled off. It was nice day for a walk and wish I had planned to meet the train at a lower station as the scenery was much more spring like the lower I went. From the trainhead at Myrdal There were so many waterfalls, large and small, it seems like I took a hundred pictures! Eventually the snow was gone and it was started to show some signs of spring. All too soon I arrived at the little train station. The walk went much faster than I thought it would! I had book the 4 o'clock train but arrived at the station at about 2. A train came by after about 15 minutes so I hopped on that one. Blomheller train station (the little yellow building) I never saw another walker over the 6 mile walk but did see 4 bike riders. I recommend this walk to anyone who does not have issues with steep downhill walking. Sail away from Flam was gorgeous! We waited as long as we could to go to dinner. Dinner was in CO. I had a yummy salmon with an amber beer glaze and Randy enjoyed the beef short ribs. We both thought that the chocolate whiskey torte was disappointing 😞. What a fabulous visit to Flam!

Oh, thank you for the feedback! The weather was perfect in Haarlem and Amsterdam for our sail way! Going through the locks was interesting. We were at dinner in the Pinnacle Grill but had a nice view thru the window.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qMS3DfHpNr93kTfT6 OK trying to see if I can add a photo from Haarlem. My laptop tells me Google photos isn't a trusted site so I'll see if using my phone works. Grrr, I guess I'll wait until I'm on my cell service for photos, sorry!

Monday - Sea Day We spent the day today recovering from last night! We started the day with breakfast at Club Orange. Surprisingly there was a wait for a table at 8:30. It was less than 5 minutes so we survived. The Main Dining room did have a line that went to the staircase but it appeared to be moving quickly. My omelet was made as ordered and was fluffy and light, very good. My husband had the All American (?) breakfast and said it was good but he didn’t care for the hash browns. After breakfast I attended the tail end of M&G, while Randy went to a talk given by one of the ship’s engineers, which he enjoyed. We did have our M&G place and time changed by HAL which was quite frustrating for our organizers! The early time and change of venue may have cut into attendance numbers but there were still over 50 attendees! I did get a chance to talk with others who were on my canceled hike and they supplied me with a back up walk to a waterfall so I’ll be set for Flam either way. Now I just have to think about booking another excursion, I hate to let the included credit go to waste but not enough to take an excursion I’m not interested in. Lunch was in the Pinnacle Grill. That was a first for us and I’m so glad we did it and that we have another booked next week. I had the mushroom ravioli and a brownie w/ice cream for dessert both were great! I did notice later that afternoon that we were double charged for lunch. After a visit to the Neptune Lounge we found the issue. After ringing up the initial bill, we signed the slip and added in a tip. The waiter then rang the lunches up a second time with the tip included. I haven’t seen a correction on the bill yet but I’ll wait until tomorrow and see if it has been taken care of. The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing in the cabin. It was a formal night and neither of us wanted to get out of our cozy, cabin clothes so we just shared a room service sandwich and chocolate cake. Tomorrow we’ll be exploring Stavanger and it looks like we’ll have a nice sunny, 50F day.

That's a consideration. I'm going to talk with the TI people when we get there and see what their recommendation is. I did learn of a different walk to a waterfall that is my back up plan right now.

Thanks for the information but for me the goal was the hike not the train ride.

After a couple years of planning we’re finally on our way to the fjords of Norway! Our cruise last year on the Volendam was canceled 6 weeks before sailing due to the ship being needed for refugees from Ukraine. For us, that trip turned into a 3 week land trip of the Netherlands and Belgium and it was wonderful but I am so glad we were able to be back here this year to sail on the Nieuw Statendam, leaving from Amsterdam. This is our first cruise on a Pinnacle class ship and so far we are enjoying this ship. We spent one night pre-cruise in Haarlem. Last year we were in Amsterdam and Rotterdam so we thought we’d try something new to us. We only had time for dinner and walking around when we arrived on Saturday. We slept in on Sunday, found a place for brunch and had a short walk. Hotel ML was a nice, central location, with a friendly helpful staff. I had prearranged a taxi for our transfer to the pier. However, I set it up for 12:30 and at 11:30 the street the hotel is on becomes pedestrian only! Our taxi driver walked the block to our hotel to meet us and took our luggage to the taxi.The round trip fare for this service was $130 and the trip took about 20 minutes once we were in the van. We arrived at the port at 13:00 and were in our cabin by 13:30. Boarding was quick and we had all of our luggage in our cabin by 14:00. From what I’ve heard boarding earlier was a little more time consuming so, based on our experience, I recommend enjoying your pre-cruise city for the morning and arriving at the port after lunch. After boarding we went to the stand set up across from the Pinnacle Grill to make a few dining reservations. We already had our included reservations for 1 Pinnacle Grill and 1 Tamarind dinner so we booked one dinner each at Rudi’s Sel de Mar and Canaletto and 2 lunches in the Pinnacle Grill. We had no issues making reservations for 20:00 dinner reservations. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking our onboard account for OBC totals and purchasing a wine package for cabin consumption. One change to the wine package since the last time I sailed was that they would only deliver 2 bottles of wine, from the package,to our room at one time. In the past we’d had all of the bottles delivered at one time. It seems like an unnecessary procedure to make multiple trips to deliver the wine over multiple days. Sail away was spent on our aft wrap balcony and it was wonderful! We ordered a couple of cheese plates (yes, there are crackers) and had a beautiful day to enjoy the views leaving Amsterdam. We had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and it was quite good. We had lobster bisque and mushroom soup for apps and for mains we had tenderloin with lobster dumplings and Alaskan Halibut (huge portion!). Both were delicious. Dessert was chocolate souffle for both of us. I wish I had left more room to enjoy all of it! After dinner it was off to watch 2 sets at BB Kings. I hadn’t seen them since 2021 so it was a lot of fun. Loved listening to covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lou Rawls and Tina Turner. The rest of the playlist was a bit of a blur due to the consumption of adult beverages, I just remember having a good time! We did find out upon boarding that my one and only ship excursion was canceled. In Flam, I had booked the train ride with the downhill hike. Unfortunately, the tour operator canceled due to icy conditions. My husband is doing a different excursion so I will have to come up with something else to keep me out of trouble while he’s gone. I’ll try to keep up posting new adventures. If anyone has questions, I’ll try to answer. If anyone else, who is on this cruise, would like to share their experiences here that would be great! Google pics is being cranky so no pictures right now but hopefully tomorrow when we get to our first port, Stavanger.

Did you notice if there is a selection of large print books?

Thanks for continuing with all of the information. It's really helping to pass the time until we board on Sunday. I'm thinking about getting a spa pass so I appreciate the information on that. I think I'm going to have to make up my own mind on the chocolate ball because it sure looks yummy to me☺️ I hope we see you at the M&G! Carol

Thanks for taking the time to write up a review, it's appreciated. I am sorry that your trip was interrupted and hope all is well, covid wise, for you now.

Sorry Pete, I should have mentioned that I found the blogs that I follow for this cruise thru your website! That link has helped me pass the time these last few months until our cruise begins (3 days!!). Thank you

I so agree with what you're saying. I've been following 4 other blogs for this cruise and it is very interesting reading the different views of the same cruise. My favorite, besides Pete's of course, is Debra's, who is on the ship with her teenage daughter: https://livevicariouslythroughdebra.com/ She has such a refreshingly positive attitude, it is a joy to read each morning.

We purchased CO separately from our initial booking and the fees were definitely counted towards our precruise/onboard spending credit just like buying excursions, laundry etc.

That's awful!

Wisconsin people by any chance? It may as well be our state cocktail! LOL

That is a good way to handle those type of situations. People who just want to complain are very tiring. Best to avoid them when you can! I hope you find comfort in the good memories.

Thanks, Jacqui.

Can you tell me if NY Deli was open on Embarkation day? Thanks!

The weather certainly made for some beautiful photos!

We're looking forward to joining you on the 14th! Safe travels

Is there a menu that's provided for the hors d'oeuvres? Do you order them thru the regular room service phone number? Thanks!

Anytime dinning.

My TA forwarded the upsell email to me and I made the call.