clydeozzy

May 18 Oslo, Norway Bright and early I got up and made my way to the main dining room for breakfast. I had the express breakfast, a fruit salad and my favourite French toast. This is the first port of the trip where the weather is amazing today! 22-25c in Oslo and bright and sunny. For Oslo, I'd made plans to visit the Edvard Munch museum, famous painter behind the iconic The Scream along with other amazing works. The walk over was roughly 45 minutes from the port. Oslo is a really cool and modern city, I liked the look of it as I was walking. Here's a few pictures. The Munch Museum can either be booked online in advance with tickets in timeslot entry or you can get tickets on the day by queuing up. I'd booked mine in advance for a 10.30am entry. The museum has three versions of The Scream on display and they go on display each in thirty minute intervals. To see all three you'll need to stick around for a bit. I was able to see all three during my visit. Aside from The Scream, Munch has such a massive catalogue of pieces. The museum does a great job categorising/organising them by themes. Here's a few of my favourites. After I'd finished, I made my way back to the ship. I got back at just after 1pm, all aboard was printed in the freestyle daily as 3.30pm but announced and signposted at the gangway as 4pm. I didn't really want to take any risks still and preferred getting back early. I had a quick bite to eat in the buffet. It's my first time actually going there! They have a big selection of lots of different foods to choose, pasta, burgers, Asian, salads, etc. I decided on pizza because I was craving some haha! It was very greasy, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless 😋 I then settled in on some of the seating on the waterfront on deck 8 with a strawberry daiquiri to enjoy the warm weather and draw until sail away. The waterfront is a great place for a quiet spot during the time the ship is in port and you have good weather. You're shielded from the harsh sun (I have extremely pale skin and burn very easily even with suncream) so you can still enjoy the warmth without risking any burning. At about 5pm I went back to my cabin to get ready for dinner at 8.30pm which was Le Bistro! I decided to put full effort in on this one as it was a more formal setting so nice dress, full makeup etc. The interior/theming of the restaurant is lovely. There's also an "outdoor" section too, not really outdoors but it's just at the entrance to Le Bistro and you'll get to see all the people walking by along with being opposite/nearby Teppanyaki, Headliners comedy club and the staircase up to deck 7 and 8. I ordered the escargots (snails), filet de canette roti (roasted duck) and fraisier (strawberry and pistachio goodness). The food was amazing, absolutely lovely. My favourite would have to be the escargots! As I was dining I had a view out to the staircase and could see the photographer. I'm the kind who finds it awkward to take selfies of myself in public and being solo you don't have anyone to take pictures of you. Of course you can ask strangers, but I just don't want to bother people. I was thinking aw, it might be nice to give the photographer a go, I'd gotten all dressed up and such, but I wasn't sure... Well low and behold she must have read my mind as I was leaving Le Bistro she asked if I'd like to have some pictures taken. I decided to give it a shot. She made me do a few poses on the stairs, and the pictures will be available to view tomorrow in the Photo Gallery. Hopefully at least one of them I don't look too awkward haha! One other thing to note is a few days ago I got the laundry bag and offer in my room. I waited a few days to get some more dirty laundry for the bag and have filled it up and left it on my bed for tomorrow morning. It's a good offer I think if you have lots of laundry to do, maybe if you've had a pre-cruise stay and not had the chance to do some laundry yet. I've got a post-cruise stay in Copenhagen, Denmark, so I still need clothes for that so I used the offer. A much better day than yesterday! 🤗

Apologies for the delay, here they are. I will start posting them with my summary of each day with the corresponding one. I will see if anyone knows in regards to the dry dock but honestly I've heard nothing so far !

May 17 At sea I've been pretty much positive this whole time so far and not had any issues at all, which is great. And I still had a great day today, however this is the first day where I will be a bit more critical. I woke up quite late but it's a sea day so I think I'm allowed to indulge haha! I had a late breakfast at O'Sheehans and had the French Toast (forgot to take pics sorry but it was great!) It was roughly 10am when I was having breakfast and I could already see the ship was extremely busy in the Atrium below and the bar seating surrounding the atrium above. I think this cruise is sold out, I might be wrong, and I'm not sure if it's a capacity issue or a ship issue but I found the ship to be so busy today. Of course it will be since it's a day at sea, but in my opinion I'm not sure the ship's design lends itself to this. Basically, a lot of the daytime and even evening entertainment takes place in the Atrium. This ranges from the trivia quizzes, game shows, future cruise presentations and such. I really do think this needs to be a bit rethought of, as not in the atrium do you have all the guest services such as shore excursions and such but then also the atrium bar, along with Starbucks and the internet cafe. There is no other real lounge/big area to seat people aside from outside on the top decks on the loungers which in the weather we are on the way to Oslo, Norway, is not exactly ideal to be sitting out in. The seats in the atrium were basically all taken at 10am, only to get busier during the day and evening. There are so many bars on the Getaway, I just think maybe if one of those could maybe be made into a lounge type area that could host events like trivias and other interactive game show type entertainment it might benefit the congestion that congregates in that Atrium area? I know it will always be busy but I'm sure something could be done to help lessen it a little bit. Of course this is all my opinion! Don't take it too seriously or let it dissuade you. I love the ship and I am a lover of peace and quiet, so I of course will be biased to that. I would have liked to have done some of the trivia activities today but with no seats in the Atrium and not really wanting to stand in a busy place I just decided not to. Luckily my lovely cabin steward had made my room and I was able to draw and read in peace and quiet. The studio lounge was also a big help for this too with snacks as well, as I knew if I had lunch I'd get too full up for dinner which I was excited for. I had Teppanyaki booked this evening. However again, a few small critiques of this do come in too unfortunately. Teppanyaki, that I know of, is not so entertainment focused, the entertainment or art of it comes from the chef's preparation of the food, it being an art in itself how they prepare it for you. I'm not sure if it's changed but on NCL it's about singing songs while cooking your food and juggling a few kitchen tools? I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, and the chef's enthusiasm was really sweet and infectious. But yeah, not what I was expecting! The food was great. You choose your main and dessert, as you are served miso soup and salad before hand and mains are served with a bowl of fried rice. I chose the Yamato which is combination of chicken and jumbo shrimp and had the green tea cake for dessert. I'm don't think I'd go again sadly. But glad to have tried it out! Like I said the food was really great! Something which is nothing on the restaurant or crew but on myself is I felt a bit awkward eating there by myself tonight. I have no issues eating alone in the MDR or O'Sheehans, however in a group/shared table setting like Teppanyaki I felt quite awkward. I find it very hard to initiate a conversation or insert myself into one that other people are having, plus people there are usually dining in either couples or family groups that I really just do not want to bother anyone. This only really made me feel it during the down time moments when either the chef wasn't cooking for us or I had finished a meal and was waiting for the next part but yeah. It will probably also depend on who you sit with too, I'm sure there are people out there who might like to converse or include a solo in conversation or if you are much more extroverted/confident than I am so don't take my experience as the be all and end all. I have Le Bistro booked for tomorrow which I should hope will be better! (I'm looking forward to trying the escargots) Going to bed now ! Apologies for the critiques, hopefully the last of them as I don't like to be negative.

May 16 Amsterdam, Netherlands This is the first port on the cruise I've been to before. I went for a short city break here with my family a while back, Amsterdam is great! I was very excited to be back. I had O'Sheehans for breakfast as I again woke up a little late for the MDR. This time I got my ordering correct and got the full English breakfast to prep me for my day full of walking. I disembarked as soon as possible as I had pre-booked the Anne Frank museum and had to walk over. From the cruise terminal it's a roughly 15-20 minute walk to the central Amsterdam station and then from there you can get to anywhere central in Amsterdam on foot very easily or catch any of the numerous public transport available. It was about another 20-30 minutes on foot to get to the Anne Frank House. There is a tram stop right near if you would prefer that, however I wanted to do some photography as I walked so that's why I opted for the longer journey. If you are interested in visiting the Anne Frank House, you will need to book a timeslot/ticket a bit in advance online as they sell out very quickly. They can booked online on https://www.annefrank.org/en/museum/tickets/ and the dates for booking will open up every Tuesday week by week, six weeks in advance. You then pick a timeframe of 15 minutes to enter the house to help stagger out visitors, but the visit itself takes about an hour. For reference, I entered at 11.15am and came out at 12.30pm. No photos are allowed, so I cannot share any with this thread but I highly recommend a visit. It's a must do in my opinion for Amsterdam. If you're familiar with Anne Frank and her family's story, you'll know how tragic it is. To stand in the exact location where they hid along with seeing recreations of how it looked (advised on how they should look by Otto Frank himself) and seeing the journey the family went through is very moving and powerful. Especially when you consider how close they were to almost making it through being undiscovered. I then went on a leisurely walk to a museum I had wanted to go to, Katten Kabinet. It's focused primarily on cats, specifically artwork of cats. I'm a cat lover, so this was a must. If you're also a cat lover I'd highly recommend, thought be aware it's quite small but densely packed. You'll get around very quick. You might even see a real life cat which live there like I did if you're lucky! Tickets are €10 and there is a lovely gift shop too with cat postcards, posters, books and such! The crazy cat lady might be coming off very strong right now. I then walked to my last stop in Amsterdam, the official Miffy shop, or in Dutch called de winkel van nijntje. Miffy or 'Nijntje' in Dutch is the iconic white rabbit character created by Dick Bruna. I grew up with Miffy being on a few of the television shows when I was little and I'm a lover of all things cute (Hello Kitty, Sanrio etc) so I knew I wanted a Miffy plushie! Of course you can get these cheaper online or find cheaper knock offs/not official ones elsewhere, but isn't there something nice about having a Miffy from the official store and from the Netherlands itself? I then had a leisurely walk back to the ship which took just under an hour. I did a ton of walking today. I've attached some photos I took of Amsterdam below. Part of my walk back to the ship involved going through the red light district very briefly. I'd advise if you're not interested or not aware of what you'll see there, that there will be scantily clad women dancing/showing off their services in windows there, yes even at around 2-3pm when I was walking back. I've been before so I knew what to expect from that area and I just keep walking, but just in case you're not or do not want to see that, I'm telling you now haha! Here was my haul from Amsterdam! I had a bit of a rest for my feet until about 5.30pm where I went down to O'Sheehans for early dinner. I have reserver Teppanyaki for tomorrow and Le Bistro for the day after and all my heart was craving was a bit of comfort food after all that walking so I let myself have some. Smoked BBQ chicken wings, chicken sandwich and cheesecake. I haven't attended the past few solo meets just because I've not really been in a social mood honestly. I'm a big introvert, but that's one of the good things about being solo is you can choose when you want to and when you don't want to socialise. Tomorrow is a sea day, so I should be full of energy to attend then! Going to have a relax before bed time.

May 15 Zeebrugge, Belgium I had a lay in for this one and ended up missing the main dining room breakfast, so I decided to try out O'Sheehans. I think I misunderstood how the ordering works. I thought I'd ordered the English breakfast, which had listed under it things like eggs, bacon, tomatos, etc. but when it came out it was just the eggs which you had to tell how you'd like them done. I realised you had to tell your server your selection of the items listed under! A very silly mistake by me which is probably obvious to everyone else, but nothing I was too bothered about to bother the servers with, they have enough going on. Fried eggs, toast and a fruit bowl for me. I then got ready to head out to Brugge, the port do. If you're interested in going to Brugge I have a few tips. It's a roughly 15 minute train ride away from Zeebrugge. Ignore the transfer they try to sell you immediately as you get out the terminal or the taxis, they cost €25 each and take a lot longer! Instead take the roughly 15-20 minute walk to the train station and get a return ticket for €7,50 each. It's a very easy walk and the train ride is lovely. The ticket machine is on the platform and has English language option, just follow the instructions. The trains run every hour. I've left a few screenshots below. Once in Brugge, I had a nice walk around. It's a lovely place and very beautiful. The place I wanted to eat that I had looked up prior on Tripadvisor happened to be closed on Wednesdays, so that was a bit of a let down! But was still nice to have a wander about for a few hours. Again, if you're into photography, this is a lovely place for it. I got back to the ship and had a late lunch/early dinner at O'Sheehans at 3pm. I had the buffalo chicken wings for starter, cheeseburger and fries for main and carrot and walnut cake for dessert. Lots of comfort food I'd call it! I saw some other things on the menu I'd like to have so will definitely be back sometime. I just drew and spent some time relaxing until the show at 7pm which was Million Dollar Quartet, the Broadway musical onboard the Getaway inspired by the recording session that brought Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins together for the one and only time. It was incredible!! Highly recommend. I am not familiar with that era of music but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And now bed time!

I would highly recommend their studios if you just want a small room for yourself. You also get access to the lounge too which is usually very quiet so if you need a quiet retreat it's a great exclusive space. The Getaway is quite busy at times especially around bar areas in the evening so having that option to always have a place to get some peace and quiet is nice.

May 14 Le Havre, France I got woken up by the announcement into the cabins that we could go off the ship into Le Havre. Regal Princess was also in port with us for this one. I had an excursion booked with NCL for this port. Most of the ports I've decided to make my own plans or just explore by myself, as I am confident exporing and planning by myself, however this one I was a bit stumped about what to do in Le Havre, so I decided to go with the excursion Colourful Honfleur as it looked quite nice! I opted out of the Paris ones as I can easily get to Paris whenever really as someone in south England plus it's a very long day for those ones. The excursion wasn't until 2.30pm, so I enjoyed a breakfast in Taste one of the main dining rooms. Avocado and egg wraps and French toast. French toast is my favourite so I throughly enjoyed that. I then spent the morning drawing in a quiet spot on the Waterfront which runs around deck 8 until the excursion. The things you can see in front of where the ship is docked is Siemens building wind farm energy parts there! The first half of the excursion is a drive to Honfleur (around 30-40 minutes) and then the tour guide shows you around Honfleur. Then you are given free time to do as you please before heading back to the ship. The tour guide was really informative, lots of history behind Le Havre and Honfleur. If you're a fan of photography or just pretty places to wander about, this is one for you. Honfleur was beautiful. I've attached a small selection of some pictures I took below. I brought my 35mm film camera which I have set a rule to try to discipline myself with only using 1-2 shots in each port to save some film on each port and have some leftover for Copenhagen, but I used 3 here haha!! We got back at around 6pm, so I had missed the daily solo meet at 5pm. I'd say if you're solo to be aware of that if you're spending time out late in ports, you might miss a few, but you are under no obligation to show up to those every single day. I got quickly ready for the show tonight which was Ian Shaw's Magic Show. Quite funny, he had some technical issues though with his camera, bless him! I then had dinner in Savor, which I had the cobb salad for my starter (without cheese sorry cheese lovers!) and parmesan crusted pork chop for my main. I think I'll try out O'Sheehans tomorrow to branch out! And now it's bed time!

Hi Tony, It's so great you enjoyed the Getaway and as a fellow solo too! I'm still finding my way around but it's a lovely ship so far, absolutely stunning. Enjoy your cruise! Where will you be heading on it? Annabelle

As an introduction, I'm Annabelle! ☺️ I'm a 25 year old from the south of England, United Kingdom. I've been on a few NCL (along with a few other cruise lines) before but this was quite a while ago and when I was younger, with my family. This is not only my first venture back into cruising again, but my first as an adult and as a solo traveller! This will be quite solo orientated as I am one, but I will try to also share information on other aspects too! The cruise departs from Southampton UK and stops in Le Havre France, Zeebruge Belgium, Amsterdam Netherlands, Oslo Norway, Aarhus Denmark, Warnermunde Germany, Kiel Germany and ends in Copenhagen Denmark. I'm a big fan of Northern European cities which is why I chose this one, however I would advise that if you are thinking of booking a similar cruise and attracted to how they word the ports with Paris, Berlin and Hamburg, to please be aware that these cities are quite a ways from the ports. For Paris, the journey is around 2 hours there and back. It's doable but it will be a very long day and honestly you cannot see everything of such big cities in one day! I'd recommend you visit them either before or after the cruise for a short trip, especially if you are from further away like USA, Canada, Australia or Asia as you want to make the most of that trip. For me in the UK, I can hop on the train anytime to Paris, but for further away it's much harder. Two days ago on 12 May, my dad very handily drove me down to Southampton where I stayed in the Novotel Hotel which is located just a 5 minute walk from Dock Gate 10 which is the entrance for the Horizon Cruise Terminal where the Getaway would be tomorrow. I'm very used to walking with luggage and such, so if you are okay with that and your ship will be docked there, I'd highly recommend the hotel for it's convenient walking location. There's also an Ibis and Ibis budget right next to it for a little bit cheaper options. The hotel was nice too, a nice big spacious room for myself. There's a McDonalds along with a TGI Fridays right next to it along with a hotel restaurant. For breakfast included, there is a small fee. On the morning of 13 May I walked down to the Horizon Cruise Terminal and checked my big luggage in with the porters. We were the only ship in port which was handy! I had selected my arrival time as 10:30-11am and was on board the ship at 11.30am. I had lunch in one of the dining rooms, Taste as I much prefer a quieter dining experience. I had tomato soup for starters, fish and chips and orange chocolate mousse for dessert. I then was able to go to my room which is in the Solo Studio area and unpack my bags. The solo cabins are great in my opinion! I don't need much space personally and have no desire for a balcony or such, plus they have an exclusive Studio lounge too! Of course if you like balconies or just having a view to the outside, I wouldn't recommend! I attended the solo meet at 5:30pm and there is a dedicated solo host who will help with reservations along with organise activities. The solo host has organised a reservation for main dining room dinner for a group of 30 but I passed this up, as I much prefer a quieter dining experience, and also organised front row seat reservations for Million Dollar Quartet which I will be going to! I forgot to take pictures at dinner, but I went to Savour, which is just opposite Taste, with two solos I had met at the solo meet and I had shrimp cake for starter, Calamari shrimp pasta for main and a fruit platter for dessert. I decided to turn in after that and will update this thread with today on 14 May in Le Havre soon!

Thank you for the info and link !

Thank you for the responses! I will double check with NCL just in case, but this reassures me. 😊 And great idea @John Bull I will do that!

My first cruise in ten years is in May, I used to go with my parents as a child/teenager but this will be my first time in a long time and solo as well so I've been researching a lot to prepare myself again. I'm probably overthinking this, but wanted to get it out there as I can't find any answer to this anywhere which isn't focused on American forms of ID! For a cruise we need our passport, which is fine, I've got that. However I've been reading and watching videos (online check in for NCL videos where it gets to the part you put your passport details in and mentions about having another form of photo ID?) that they want another form of government issued photo ID? I don't have a drivers license (purely because I have never really needed it! And have never learnt how to drive!). Would it be worth applying for provisional driver's license? Does a provisional license count the same as a full drivers license? I've also seen the UK PASS card too, would this count? I've always just used my passport for photo ID/age in the UK. Do I even need this second form of photo ID or am I overthinking things! Any help would be appreciated. 😅

Following avidly! Am thinking about booking this for 12 Nights in April 2025. Japan is one on the bucket list!