North Cape and Norwegian Fjords Detailed Trip Report (Photo heavy)

[tan2199]

We were in C244 and on the same Lysefjord cruise as you :)We really enjoyed the cruise, weather was a bit of a downer but you cant do anything about that.

[Ibrasu]

We are really enjoying this - thank you!

 

Ibrasu

[cal56girl]

We are really enjoying this - thank you!

 

Ibrasu

Yes I am too. As my husband and I will be with Ibrasu on the 28th Norwegian cruise.

:)

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. I really like the one with the Crown Princess and the 4 swans swimming behind it. I don't think there's a chance of seeing that too often!

[rdsqrl]

I liked the swan photo, too -- not just for the swans, but also for how the stern of the Crown towers over everything else in the harbour there.

 

Really enjoying reading along with your cruise and love the photos! What was the air temp in these ports (in real temps, not in that Celsius stuff!) 'cause it looks pretty darned chilly even from the outset in Southampton.

Most importantly: were you able to obtain a razor??

[lovevacadays]

I liked the swan photo, too -- not just for the swans, but also for how the stern of the Crown towers over everything else in the harbour there.

 

Really enjoying reading along with your cruise and love the photos! What was the air temp in these ports (in real temps, not in that Celsius stuff!) 'cause it looks pretty darned chilly even from the outset in Southampton.

 

Most importantly: were you able to obtain a razor??

 

 

Seriously, we've got to cruise on the same ship at some time and add Quincytoo in the mix!

 

Plus, I just relooked at the picture and you are right - the Crown does tower over everything. And, now I actually see 7 swans in the picture

[silkismom]

"Seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying" Sorry couldn't help myself. We were also on the Lysefjord cruise, stayed on deck until the rain so so hard that we were drowning! Glad I had my London Fogw/hood jacket on, the wind got too strong for an umbrella.

[User Error]

We had the first trip out on the fjord that day and I managed to stay on deck for the entire outward journey dressed in my t shirt and shorts before the elements finally took their toll

 

I was soaked.

 

Pancakes and coffee were gorgeous and did the trick.

[wickesy]

We are really enjoying this - thank you!

 

Ibrasu

 

Yes I am too. As my husband and I will be with Ibrasu on the 28th Norwegian cruise.

:)

 

Thanks to YOU for reading.

 

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. I really like the one with the Crown Princess and the 4 swans swimming behind it. I don't think there's a chance of seeing that too often!

 

Thank you - as you'll read in the next update I am trying to put a bit more thought into the composition of my holiday snaps and this one looked like it might come out well.

[wickesy]

Really enjoying reading along with your cruise and love the photos! What was the air temp in these ports (in real temps, not in that Celsius stuff!) 'cause it looks pretty darned chilly even from the outset in Southampton.

 

Most importantly: were you able to obtain a razor??

 

 

Thanks for reading along. If I remember correctly the temperatures never went below the high 40's/low 50's - warm enough that just a hoodie was OK to keep us warm, although being a Brit I'm used to the cooler temperatures. ;)

 

Yes I did get a razor - bought a disposable and a little can of foam in the ship's shop. :)

[wickesy]

Day 4 - Flam

 

Today’s Patter (click for full size)

Flam Port Guide in my photobucket album - http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t120/wickesy/Norwegian%20Cruise/Day%204/

 

Today we were in Flam and what a view to get up to at 6:45.

 

 

[wickesy]

The plan today was to be on the 8:35 train on the Flam Railway up to Myrdal so as soon as we were up we went straight to Horizon Court for some breakfast and then took some photos from up on deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the looong corridor we had to walk down to go to breakfast every morning!

[wickesy]

I had read that the tour groups tend to book up the early trains so by 7:45 we were in the ticket office - the only problem was that loads of people had beaten us to it and the area where tickets were sold was not due to open until 8:15. They actually opened up at 8:00 and the queue slowly started shuffling forward whilst we watched the monitors that showed the departure times and which ones were available. It soon became clear that we were not even going to reach the front of the queue by 8:35 and, in fact, once we were about half-way to the front the 8:35 flashed up as sold out along with its corresponding return departure. Very soon afterwards the next train, the 9:45 departure, came up as sold out leaving us to book tickets for the 11:00 departure going up and the 12:11 departure coming down. We finally had our tickets in our hands at 8:45 and went off for a walk around the shops where we bought some trolls as presents for my friend Michelle and her family, a nail manicure set for Dad’s friend and a calendar and fridge magnet for us.

 

By the time we came out of the shops the queue for train tickets looked like this.

 

 

And there would have been twice as many people inside that you can’t see in the photo!! If you ever find yourself in Flam - and if you get the chance you should go because it is an absolutely stunning place - my one piece of advice would be to plan to get to the ticket office early and then get there an hour before you planned to so that you can be at the front of the queue. Forget breakfast, forget taking photos just do whatever you need to get to the front of that queue.

 

Dad went to drop the shopping back on the ship and I wandered off to take some photos.

 

 

 

 

At about 10:00 we bought a bottle of coke each and stood to wait for the train to come in - again loads of people had beaten us to it. The train arrived at about 10:45 and as there was a mad surge to board we ended up with aisle seats on the left hand side.

 

The Flam Railway was built to join the main railway from Oslo to Bergen with the little villages along the fjords. It consists of sharp turns and it rises 866m at gradients of up to 1:18. The train makes a 5 minute photo stop at Kjossfossen, a waterfall with a surprise attraction!

 

 

[wickesy]

 

Click for video

 

 

It wasn’t raining at the waterfall, everything you see there is spray!

 

 

We reached the end of the line, Myrdal at 12:10 and as the people we were sitting next to were leaving the train to join the train to Oslo we were able to pinch their window seats for the journey back down to Flam.

 

 

 

We arrived back in Flam at about 1:30 where we got back on board the ship and headed up to the Trident Grill for lunch where we had a cheeseburger and fries each and Dad also had a slice of pizza. After lunch we both got off the ship and headed our separate ways. I went off to take some more photos of Flam and the ship.

 

Normally my photos are of the ‘point and shoot’ variety but lately I have been trying to put some more thought into the composition of them so I took a quite a few photos of the ship from various angles. I won’t bore you with all of them but here are a few of my favourites.

 

[wickesy]

 

 

 

At 3:00 I re-boarded the ship and went up to the cabin to relax for a while before sail away at 5:00.

 

We were up on deck 16 for 4:45 but it seemed that some people hadn’t been checked back on to the ship properly so it was 5:15 before we cast off and were under way again. We watched the scenery go by for a while but it got a bit chilly so we went downstairs where we could watch from the cabin, occasionally popping out onto the balcony. After a while we went downstairs to pick up our photos from formal night, then went to Crooners for our pre-dinner cocktails and made our way down for dinner at about 8:05. Tonight I started with tortilla chips while Dad had fettuccine Alfredo, then we both had black bean chowder and I had beef stroganoff, Dad’s choice was coq au vin. Dad finished off with sorbet and I had rocky road ice cream.

 

After dinner we went to our usual late night venue and I had a play with the iPad while we drunk our brandies then we were in bed for 10:30 ready for a full day tour tomorrow.

[User Error]

Great stuff.

 

Keep it coming.

 

Watching your video made me laugh- almost identical to mine.

 

 

Meant to say earlier...on the 1st sea day, did you try the Escargot?

Never had them before but tried them and they were awesome....

[silkismom]

So that was the view from the Flaam train was like, by the time we came down, it was peasoup fog the whole way and we didn't see a darn thing. We had been on the bus ride first--not really worth the $200 per person for the tour.

[lovevacadays]

The pictures you posted today are so beautiful. Great shots!

[Denny_Crane]

Great report, can't wait to read more. We are going on the Aug 4 Crown sailing of the British Isles and I can't wait. The ship looks to be in great shape!

[wickesy]

Watching your video made me laugh- almost identical to mine.

 

 

Meant to say earlier...on the 1st sea day, did you try the Escargot?

Never had them before but tried them and they were awesome....

 

Is your video shaky and desperately searching for where the action is as well? :D

 

Before the trip I had thought about trying the escargot but to be honest I don't even remember seeing them on the menu. :confused: Maybe there was something else that night that caught my eye first.

 

So that was the view from the Flaam train was like, by the time we came down, it was peasoup fog the whole way and we didn't see a darn thing. We had been on the bus ride first--not really worth the $200 per person for the tour.

 

That was one of the reasons I wanted to do as much as we could ourselves so that if we knew the views weren't going to be great we could skip it.

 

The pictures you posted today are so beautiful. Great shots!

 

Thank you!

[wickesy]

Day 5 - Hellesylt/Geiranger

 

Today’s Patter (click for full size)

Geiranger Port Guide is in my Photobucket album - http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t120/wickesy/Norwegian%20Cruise/Day%205/

 

We were up at 6:45 again today as we were due to meet for our tour at 8:15. First of all we went up for our usual breakfast at Horizon Court and time for some photos of our latest port, Hellesylt.

 

 

[wickesy]

 

 

At 8:10 we made our way down to the Princess Theatre where we were assigned to tour group 3 and had to sit and wait until the other groups had left. About 10 minutes later we were lead down to deck 3 where we boarded the tenders to take us to shore.

 

 

As we were one of the first to be assigned to group 3 we were lucky enough to grab the front seats on the coach that was going to be taking us around for the day. The final destination for the day was the port of Gerainger, where we would re-join the ship which was going to sail down there to meet us.

 

By 9:00 we were on our way and the first stop was just down the road at Hellesylt waterfall for a photo stop.

 

 

 

From there we made our way up to a second photo stop, which was in Hornindal.

 

[wickesy]

 

 

This is an old pregnancy test – apparently in the summer the milkmaids would have to pass through the hole to prove they weren’t pregnant!

 

 

Next was a stop at a hotel for coffee and cakes.

 

 

 

[wickesy]

 

 

 

 

Then we made our way to the community of Stryn where we had a short shopping stop. From Stryn we made our way to the Videseter where we stopped for a 3 course lunch - prawn cocktail, salmon, boiled potato and broccoli with crème caramel for dessert. We also had a chance to look at the Videfossen waterfall.

 

 

[wickesy]

 

Click for video

 

We were away from there at 2:00 and made our way to the summit of Mount Dalsnibba, although it was far too misty to see anything.

 

 

From Mount Dalsnibba we went to the Flydalsjuvet viewing point where we were able to take photos of our ship waiting for us in Gerainger port below.