Blazza

Just off the QV Northern Lights voyage today, and Starlink performed exceptionally well, even above the Arctic Circle. The only downside is it makes it harder to escape work - or on the plus side, it opens up a new work from home possibility.

I used my iPhone 15 for all the photos. The camera definitely enhances the colour, however they were very impressive to the naked eye last night, especially during the first 30 mins or so. All the best for your trip.

At about 6:15pm tonight the Officer of the Watch made an announcement that the northern lights were visible off the port side and were ‘quite impressive’. She wasn’t wrong. The display was still going after 9pm, albeit at less intensity than the first half hour or so. At the time of the first activity the ship was on a southerly heading, roughly abeam Froya.

In Tromso we went with a private tour in a Tesla X. They take a maximum of 5 people, but it ended up with just us and the driver/guide. He had a favourite spot that he took us to near the Tirpitz Memorial on Hakoy Island. The Aurora started showing as soon as we arrived and we stayed for 45 minutes or so until it stopped. He then kindly took us to the Arctic Cathedral on the way back to the boat. We actually did an RIB harbour tour in the morning that stopped at the Tirpitz site, so it was interesting returning landside to the same place in the evening. The Narvik skies were perfect for viewing, but we gave up after about 4 hours of our private tour because of the cold. There were 8 on the tour and 5 of us called it quits when the driver offered an early return to the boat. He carried on to another viewing location with the remaining 3 after dropping us off, but I am unsure how successful they were. We did the late morning Narvik train trip you highlighted on the roll call and thoroughly enjoyed that. This is our first time with Cunard and it has been an extremely satisfying experience. We are very happy with all aspects of the cruise so far. The itinerary has been a very nice balance of sea and port days. Our next 3 cruises are with Princess and HAL, but we would definitely return to Cunard for the right itinerary.

I am on the same cruise and I was very happy with the performance of my iPhone 15 Pro Max in Tromso. It is all I am taking on tonight’s hunt from Narvik. I would suggest taking boots. I have been wearing boots and two pairs of thick socks in all the ports so far. The footpaths in Tromso were very icy in places and even in boots I managed to slip in relatively spectacular fashion (no injuries luckily).

We also did the Expedition Black Bear offered by Alaska Hummer Adventures last year. We faced a similar issue re departure shortly after our scheduled docking time. They were very responsive over email and amended the start time to accommodate us. We were the first to book for the particular trip so it was relatively straightforward for them to make the change. I think they only sell 6 seats per trip and you can see how many seats are for sale on their fareharbor page. It was a fantastic excursion

I’m sure you’ve used this website https://www.postoffice.co.uk/banknote-exchange which appears to show the closest Post Office to Southampton that will carry out the exchange is in Portsmouth. I faced the same issue and ended up making a diversion into central London as that was the only option that broadly suited my plans and didn’t cost more than the amount I was exchanging. The process at the Post Office I used was seamless and there were other people in at the same time doing the same thing. You will need your passport and the maximum you can exchange per person GBP300. There is also a process detailed on the The Bank of England website for exchanging the notes via mail - although it seems quite involved (and was why I decided to divert into London).

My wife and I are also experiencing the same thing - no forward bookings and no past cruises.

We went on Expedition Black Bear with Alaska Hummer just under 2 weeks ago. The tour is limited to 6 people and involves a 1 hour fast boat ride (28 knots most of the way) to/from Margaret Creek. There is a short van ride and walk to get to the viewing sight. Our visit was right at the start of the salmon run so we only saw a few bears, but it was a great excursion. The scenery is fantastic all along the journey and our young captain/guide (a long term Ketchikan local) could not have been better in any respect. We felt it was money and time well spent.

A rainy day in Juneau for the 4 ships in port. Our flight to Taku Lodge was canceled due to the low cloud base. On the plus side, we saw a great many whales as we sailed in this morning, and the Zuiderdam is a great ship.

We were in Juneau today and watched Noordam dock from our room in the Four Points. We also saw the two Princess ships arrive as well. The weather was very ‘atmospheric’ with cloudy skies and very little breeze.

The Royle Family is a timeless classic - but perhaps not the best showcase of British cuisine - although not necessarily an inaccurate representation.