Live from Journey Norway Cruise

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

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

Used about 5GB, but O2 messaged us wrongly.

[Grandma Cruising]

As Eric has gone on leave Danny is now the Cruise Director and he did a great job at white Night.

.After White Night we went for a drink in Spirits bar, then came back onto Deck 10 just before 12 see the midnight sun.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[Grandma Cruising]

This morning it was the breakfast for Discoverers and above in Discoveries restaurant.

It was a lovely buffet breakfast with a huge range of dishes from regular breakfast fare, Dutch pancakes, cold meats, fruit etc. There was a great ice carving of a Viking Warrior!

[Lottie A]

Interesting that the Discoverer and above breakfast was held in Discoveries Restaurant. It is usually held in a speciality restaurant, mostly Prime C. There must be a lot of higher tier LCV members onboard? 

 

How did they stop the other passengers from entering Discoveries for breakfast and partaking of the Discoverer and above breakfast?  Surely all passengers would have the right to go there for breakfast if they wanted to. 

[uktog]

1 minute ago, Lottie A said:

Interesting that the Discoverer and above breakfast was held in Discoveries Restaurant. It is usually held in a speciality restaurant, mostly Prime C. There must be a lot of higher tier LCV members onboard? 

 

How did they stop the other passengers from entering Discoveries for breakfast and partaking of the Discoverer and above breakfast?  Surely all passengers would have the right to go there for breakfast if they wanted to. 

No they advertise it as closed - thats how Pursuit handled it, at the door they asked to see cards or invites if they did not know you.  There did not seem to be any problems.

It wasn't as special as the Discoverer Plus breakfasts used to be but it was better than splitting the seating between the two specials as had been done before.  Last month they ran several breakfasts to deal with numbers but I am sure it is too much for the officers never mind the amount of wastage.

[KazLoudspeaker]

Staying on the Port side we have got fully acquainted with the midnight sun. We don't close our curtains at all & it has been lovely. Sometimes the sun is brighter overnight than during the day.

Karyn

[Lottie A]

16 minutes ago, uktog said:

No they advertise it as closed - thats how Pursuit handled it, at the door they asked to see cards or invites if they did not know you.  There did not seem to be any problems.

It wasn't as special as the Discoverer Plus breakfasts used to be but it was better than splitting the seating between the two specials as had been done before.  Last month they ran several breakfasts to deal with numbers but I am sure it is too much for the officers never mind the amount of wastage.

Well that has never happened on any Azamara cruise I have been on Ann. It has always been held in a speciality.

 

Must say, if I was a lower tier passenger and was not allowed to go into Discoveries for my breakfast because of the higher tier event was taking place well, I would be miffed to say the least! It is the MDR after all. 

As there are so many Discoverer and above passengers now perhaps a special buffet breakfast could be laid in the Cabaret or Living Room? I take your point about food wastage as there always seems to be a lot of it at these events. 

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, Lottie A said:

Well that has never happened on any Azamara cruise I have been on Ann. It has always been held in a speciality.

 

Must say, if I was a lower tier passenger and was not allowed to go into Discoveries for my breakfast because of the higher tier event was taking place well, I would be miffed to say the least! It is the MDR after all. 

As there are so many Discoverer and above passengers now perhaps a special buffet breakfast could be laid in the Cabaret or Living Room? I take your point about food wastage as there always seems to be a lot of it at these events. 

I think the breakfast is held in Discoveries when they want to do one sitting. If there are a lot, but not enough for two they use the MDR. It wouldn't work in Cabaret or Living Room because they need to be near the kitchens at the back of the ship and those two venues are no good for a cooked breakfast. 

 

Phil 

[Lottie A]

Yes, I do understand the logistics problems Phil but my point stands for closing the MDR at breakfast in order to hold a LCV event for higher tier members. I think it should be a public space for all passengers to enjoy their breakfast and not just those of us in the higher LCV tiers. Maybe I'm a Communist! 😄

 

Of course I would be there now anyway, but when I was Adventurer level I would have been very annoyed had the MDR been off limits to me, even for one day. I much prefer breakfast in Discoveries rather than Windows. 

 

I wonder where the Discoverer and above brekkie will be held on Pursuit next week?  

[excitedofharpenden]

So what do they do?  I am quite happy to have breakfast in the buffet or in the cabin for the odd day. It's just about being flexible. Azamara will do their best. 

 

Phil 

[Bloodaxe]

2 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Yes, I do understand the logistics problems Phil but my point stands for closing the MDR at breakfast in order to hold a LCV event for higher tier members. I think it should be a public space for all passengers to enjoy their breakfast and not just those of us in the higher LCV tiers. Maybe I'm a Communist! 😄

 

Of course I would be there now anyway, but when I was Adventurer level I would have been very annoyed had the MDR been off limits to me, even for one day. I much prefer breakfast in Discoveries rather than Windows. 

 

I wonder where the Discoverer and above brekkie will be held on Pursuit next week?  

 

Ours was held in Prime C on our only sea day last month on Pursuit.

[jkadventures]

HGC - your photos are stunning! I’d love to get back to Norway someday. One of my favorite trips of all time! Thanks for the great “live from” thread. 

[LuAnn]

18 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

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.

 

What an "amazing setting"!!! Love the look of the "town" and the church!!! LuAnn

[wabamun]

19 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Date on the booking is 24 Oct.2020

Did you find out what happened to the booking?

 

We are booked on that cruise and it still shows on our website.

 

Cheers, Glen.

[Grandma Cruising]

4 hours ago, wabamun said:

Did you find out what happened to the booking?

 

We are booked on that cruise and it still shows on our website.

 

Cheers, Glen.

Yes, we're booked on it and that's the date on the booking.

[Grandma Cruising]

9July contd

After breakfast we went ashore to join the Blue Puffin North Cape Sightseeing tour. Over 60 of us joined the tour in 2 buses with 2 guides, Monika & her friend Michelle.

First we went to Skarsvag where we saw King Crabs, then to the North Cape where we had one and a half hours in the North Cape Centre. We saw an excellent short film there showing the weather in the North Cape across the seasons. There's also a nice gallery showing the history of the North Cape, a beautiful ecumenical chapel, a room dedicated to a king of 'Siam' who went there, a hall of lights and a display of sea birds.

We then went out to the North Cape globe - we couldn't see much as it was pretty foggy and very cold.

From there we went to Kamoyvaer, which is Monika's village. It's a small fishing village and Monika explained about how the cod is air dried - no salt is used. One of the houses there had a beautiful garden, even though the season for flowers is very short - only a few weeks. From there we went back to Honningsvag, had a look around the town including a beautiful art gallery called West of the Moon, then back to the ship.

We had dinner the Safety Officer, Vangelis Dragotis and it was a very good meal - scallops in a delicious sauce and surf & turf.

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[Grandma Cruising]

A couple more photos from the day

[malcliz]

12 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Yes, I do understand the logistics problems Phil but my point stands for closing the MDR at breakfast in order to hold a LCV event for higher tier members. I think it should be a public space for all passengers to enjoy their breakfast and not just those of us in the higher LCV tiers. Maybe I'm a Communist! 😄

 

Of course I would be there now anyway, but when I was Adventurer level I would have been very annoyed had the MDR been off limits to me, even for one day. I much prefer breakfast in Discoveries rather than Windows. 

 

I wonder where the Discoverer and above brekkie will be held on Pursuit next week?  

 

Last week on the Pursuit it was in Prime C. 

[excitedofharpenden]

22 minutes ago, malcliz said:

 

Last week on the Pursuit it was in Prime C. 

It's always been Prime C for me too. 

 

Phil 

[Grandma Cruising]

There were way too many people for it to be in Prime C

[excitedofharpenden]

17 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

There were way too many people for it to be in Prime C

They have more than one sitting in Prime C if there are a lot, but maybe it was easier to hold it once in Discoveries because of your itinerary. 

 

Phil 

[Alsun]

Thanks everyone for the beautiful photos, especially love the ones with the sea/sun/sky views.

Think there is something so special about Norwegian skies, and even more so from a cruise ship [emoji4]

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[Grandma Cruising]

Wednesday 10 July

Today is a sea day, scenic cruising down the inside passage back past Tromsø towards Bodo (which we learned is pronounced Booda).

We had breakfast in Discoveries again, then we had a walk around Deck 10 to get fresh air, exercise and take a few photos.

 

[wabamun]

8 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Yes, we're booked on it and that's the date on the booking.

Well that's great. We'll see you on board.

[Host Jazzbeau]

We booked the Nordkapp excursion through Finnmark tours – and had Monika as our guide too!  Same tour as yours, except in a slightly different order.  The big difference was the weather: 70 degrees and sunny for us.  Didn't really fell like we were that far North!  Monika Dabkowska was born and raised in Poland and fell in love with Norway when she came there for Scandinavian Studies.  Her home in Kamøyvær was a real bargain because the locals think it is haunted – in two years she hadn’t seen the ghost yet.  She is the youngest resident.  Population 75 [and I'm wondering if a ship with only 200 passengers will be too small for a week!]