Live from Journey Norway Cruise

[uktog]

We don’t switch that off and yet my highest ever monthly including streaming a soccer game and running the business including clients software and a heavy photo month I only hit 20gb. Something is not right with both your phones settings. 

[excitedofharpenden]

23 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

We think it was mainly Photos automatically backing up to the Cloud - we must work out how to switch that off.

You need to get smarter. Honestly, I post loads of photos and the like and never get close. Do you watch movies or something?  They are pretty heavy, but even then I watch YouTube and Prime Video and can watch whole movies even then 12GB is plenty. You sure you don't mean 30MB? LOL 

 

Phil 

[laurieb]

It was a beautiful day here in Slovaer; lovely little town.  The weather turned out nicer than expected; yesterday we got word that our white night tonight was moved to Tromso tomorrow night because it was supposed to be chilly.  Now on our way to Troll Fjord.

[Grandma Cruising]

Contd - photos from Alesund.

[Grandma Cruising]

15 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

You need to get smarter. Honestly, I post loads of photos and the like and never get close. Do you watch movies or something?  They are pretty heavy, but even then I watch YouTube and Prime Video and can watch whole movies even then 12GB is plenty. You sure you don't mean 30MB? LOL 

 

Phil 

Definitely says 30GB in this period! Every photo is 6-9 MB.

[uktog]

9 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Definitely says 30GB in this period! Every photo is 6-9 MB.

So you’d only hit your limit with over 3000 photos.  (If you’ve each got 30g. that’s 30,000 mb.....Unless you’re taking photos for professional shots you can very safely  use camera settings at around 1-2 mb for perfect shots. 

 

[Grandma Cruising]

July 5 contd

We had dinner in Discoveries again, Duck Confit - excellent. The show was supposed to be a violinist, Irina Guskova, butin the afternoon Eric announced that she would be unable to play as her violin had been dropped and had broken. They brought tomorrow’s show forward, which was Paul Emmanuel singing 70s music. We watched him for a bit - he had a lovely voice, but not really our type of music, then went into Spirits for a nightcap.

 

 

Saturday 6 July

Sea Day

We had our morning tea delivered bright and early as Captain Johannes had announced that he had got permission for the ship to go through the oil fields and this would start at around 8:30am. We went up to Deck 11 to watch the rigs and their supply ships go by. A small boat was buzzing around the Heidrun rig and came close to the Journey to give us a wave.

 

After a very cool hour or two on deck we went in to get some hot coffee at Mosaic and warm up.

 

At 12:30 we had the ‘Crossing into the Arctic Circle’ ceremony. King Neptune( ACD Danny) & Eric as his servant were accompanied by an assorted band of pirates onto the Pool Deck stage to perform the ceremony, ably assisted by Captain Johannes and HD Heike. Lots of passengers volunteered to take part, sitting down to have icy water and ice cubes poured down their back, having their noses marked with blue (becoming ‘blue-noses’) and being rewarded with a glass of Aquavit!

It was very entertaining seeing people’s faces as the ice reached the middle of their backs - I’m afraid we were just too cold to take part!

Edited July 8, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[laurieb]

We’re in Tromso today, docked right by the town center.  The weather today is sunny and warm, nicest of the cruise so far.  Good thing as White night will be this evening 😊

[uktog]

6 minutes ago, laurieb said:

We’re in Tromso today, docked right by the town center.  The weather today is sunny and warm, nicest of the cruise so far.  Good thing as White night will be this evening 😊

Watch I got sunburnt Inn Tromso sitting outside a lovely micro brewing pub enjoying something disgraceful strong 

[Grandma Cruising]

 

 

A couple of photos of the Heidrun oil rig and it’s little boat

 

Another first for us today - we had lunch in Discoveries, as we decided both the Patio and Windows would be extremely busy straight after the Arctic Circle ceremony.

There was a nice menu with starters, soup, entrees and desserts and also a live Pasta station. It was very peaceful, good service and a very nice lunch. They’re only open for lunch on sea days,but we will definitely eat lunch there again.

 

A quiet afternoon followed by dinner at Discoveries - another excellent meal.

The show was 2 Argentinian tango dancers - Tango Cevila - who were brilliant.Their dancing was interspersed by film about the history of tango.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[Grandma Cruising]

Sunday 8 July

Svolvaer, the Lofoten Islands

We woke up to find the ship was nearly in to Svolvaer. Svolvaer itself, and the surrounding scenery was very different from the fjord towns. It’s beautiful, rocky and lots of little islands all around. We docked and the MSC Amadeus was anchored just outside the harbour. The weather was beautiful, blue skies with some light cloud, and the forecast said the temperature would hit 59C/15F.

We had booked a RIB tour with Lofoten Explorer, but went ashore a little earlier to look around the town. It’s small, with a little market square right alongside the harbour with a few stalls selling elk and reindeer smoked meats and dried sausage and Norwegian jumpers.

After a bit of a mix-up about where to find the Lofoten Explorer office we finally found where we needed to be. We were given full insulated suite to put on, along with goggles and gloves, then taken onto the boat. The seats were motorbike style - a bit of a challenge to get on them with artificial knees. Eventually we were all seated and we got going. It was a very exhilarating ride. We were doing up to just over 40 mph which feels very fast indeed. The sea was very smooth - until we hit the wash from other boats - then it got very bumpy. We went in and out of little islands and into Trollfjord where we saw nesting black guillemots. From there we went back towards Svolvaer, slowing down to look at lovely little islands where people had their summer homes. The scenery was stunning and where the water was shallow, it was a beautiful blue.

Next we came up to a rocky island and there were the sea eagles - lots of them. The boatman threw fish into the water and the eagles swooped down over the boat to pick them up out of the water. We spent a while there watching the birds before heading back to Svolvaer harbour.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[Lottie A]

That RIB boat ride sounds very exciting and a lot of fun! 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, Lottie A said:

That RIB boat ride sounds very exciting and a lot of fun! 

It was!

[Werangels]

It all looks great.  Regarding the Suez Canal cruise next October; the sales brochures have the wrong date so make sure they put the correct date in.

[Bloodaxe]

4 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

 

 

A couple of photos of the Heidrun oil rig and it’s little boat

 

Another first for us today - we had lunch in Discoveries, as we decided both the Patio and Windows would be extremely busy straight after the Arctic Circle ceremony.

There was a nice menu with starters, soup, entrees and desserts and also a live Pasta station. It was very peaceful, good service and a very nice lunch. They’re only open for lunch on sea days,but we will definitely eat lunch there again.

 

A quiet afternoon followed by dinner at Discoveries - another excellent meal.

The show was 2 Argentinian tango dancers - Tango Cevila - who were brilliant.Their dancing was interspersed by film about the history of tango.

 

Really surprised that it took you so long to try breakfast and lunch in discoveries, it's been our favourite stop for breakfast and also lunch on sea days for years.

Enjoying following your journey very much.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Bloodaxe

[koconnor214]

Enjoying your posts/photos!

 

I have a huge favor to ask—I absolutely LOVE the pillows on Azamara and am trying to order some from the manufacturer, but they need the UPC code off the pillow tag  to determine which ones they are. If you get a chance, could you take a look? It is found under the bar code on the “Do Not Remove” tag and should look like 0 25521 xxxxx x per the company. 

 

Thank you so much in advance! I have bought so many pillows and none of mine are as comfortable as the ones on the ships! 

[oddjob16]

White Night in Tromsø. What a weather. 😊😊💕

[Grandma Cruising]

On 7/7/2019 at 5:57 PM, uktog said:

We don’t switch that off and yet my highest ever monthly including streaming a soccer game and running the business including clients software and a heavy photo month I only hit 20gb. Something is not right with both your phones settings. 

Found out it was our carriers error - great relief!

[Grandma Cruising]

14 hours ago, Werangels said:

It all looks great.  Regarding the Suez Canal cruise next October; the sales brochures have the wrong date so make sure they put the correct date in.

Date on the booking is 24 Oct.2020

[Grandma Cruising]

13 hours ago, koconnor214 said:

Enjoying your posts/photos!

 

I have a huge favor to ask—I absolutely LOVE the pillows on Azamara and am trying to order some from the manufacturer, but they need the UPC code off the pillow tag  to determine which ones they are. If you get a chance, could you take a look? It is found under the bar code on the “Do Not Remove” tag and should look like 0 25521 xxxxx x per the company. 

 

Thank you so much in advance! I have bought so many pillows and none of mine are as comfortable as the ones on the ships! 

02552134503. 4

[Grandma Cruising]

Sunday 7 July contd

We went back on board, had lunch and then spent a restful afternoon on sun beds on the pool deck. It was supposed to be White Night tonight, but it was postponed to Monday in Tromso as the forecast was for it to be much warmer.

We had dinner at Discoveries again then went up to the Living Room for a while, dancing to DJ Mike’s music

 

Monday 8 July

We woke up to find the Journey coming into Tromso where we docked at 8:30. The view across from the ship was great, with the Arctic Cathedral on the opposite hill, with snow-topped mountains all round. We had no tours booked so we went ashore and walked across the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral which is beautiful. Then back to the town for a wander around. We went back to the ship for lunch and it was so hot we spent the afternoon on a sun bed, first on the pool deck, then on Deck 11 as the preparations for White Night got underway.

 

 

White night was lovely - it was hot around the Pool Deck and everyone had a good time. The buffet was split up with the main area being on the Patio , but there was another station on the other side of the stage and the Crepes Suzettes, served by Heike and Fred,, were served at the other end next to the Pool Bar. This worked much better.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Found out it was our carriers error - great relief!

I thought something didn’t seem right.  I couldn’t see how you could use that much data.  Glad you got it sorted.  So how much data had you used and what happened?

 

Phil

[upwarduk]

 Great photos on FB from the Captain, from his office and the midnight sun.

Not sure if I am allowed to share, pleas delete HGC if not allowed.

Edited July 9, 2019 by upwarduk

[uktog]

They are on Twitter as well lots of pics from crew and guests. Looks like it was a typically beautiful midnight sun evening. I love staying up late in that part of the world. 

[koconnor214]

7 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

02552134503. 4

 

Thank you SO much!! Have a great rest of your cruise!

Karen