LIVE Norwaylady sails on Edge World Cruise from Rome to Singapore 30.10 to 25.11.23 , 26.night

[cruzzzinma]

@Norwaylady I, too, agree with your description of the Retreat Lounge experience on E-class. It is not as comfortable or as personal as the older ships. It is sad to see what they’ve done to the Sky Suite experience.

 

I’ve really enjoyed your review. Safe travels.

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s show is Matt Hale. He is a hypnotist. So this can be fun or not😅

 

It’s fun if you like this type of humour and maybe not if you don’t… 😅 let’s just say it was 50/50.

 

After the show we went to watch the flair show. They are getting into shape now🥳🥳 

We had a chat by Mihail hotel director. Things are changing in the industry, so some things are for the better or worse. It’s has been harder to get senior crew back. So training is something that takes time and patience. 

 

After our chat, it was time to go for dinner. 

It was still a bit crowded, but people was eating desserts, so it calmed down quite quickly. 

 

Today’s menu: 

 

Chefs taste

 

We had the asparagus for starter and then we ordered scallops, lobster and the lamb. 

 

 

 

 

So we had a little buffet bonanza😅

Lamb was much better then last time we tried a lamb dish😉

 

Food tasted good 👍🏻 sauce on the lobster was really tasty and not too strong of taste. So you had the taste of the lobster and the sauce😋

 

Dessert menu 

 

 

We had ice cream. 

The peanut gelato was extremely powerful. It was like eating a bag of nuts😅😅😅 So probably very good together by some chocolate or caramel  sauce. 

By itself a bit overkill😅

 

After dinner it was time for bed….

The dreaded departure letter and tags had arrived on the bed😩

[Norwaylady]

Departure information on the bed:

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Tender information The Retreat, Phuket

 

[Norwaylady]

Cruise Compass Day 11, Phuket Thailand 🇹🇭 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

And for all Americans, Happy Thanksgiving❤️ 

May you have a great celebration by family and friends❤️

 

In Norway, we don’t celebrate it.
 

[CardowMD]

Thank you for your well wishes. I am going to miss following your adventures and humor on this journey! Look forward to your next trip! Safe travels back to Norway!

Carole

[Jim_Iain]

On 11/22/2023 at 7:10 AM, Texed said:

 

The chocolate pill is very good, IMO.  😊

Sold....I'm going to try the full menu.   I love cold soups and corn is one of my favorites. 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, cruzzzinma said:

@Norwaylady I, too, agree with your description of the Retreat Lounge experience on E-class. It is not as comfortable or as personal as the older ships. It is sad to see what they’ve done to the Sky Suite experience.

 

I’ve really enjoyed your review. Safe travels.

 

I will agree with both of you.    I think the sweet spot for Suites is S-Class.

[Norwaylady]

Phuket, 🇹🇭 

 

A bit gray and foggy 😶‍🌫️ 

Fingers crossed it will clear up a little more during the day😎

 

We have a shore excursion:

 

Meeting time 10.00. 

 

We had breakfast in Luminae. 

Menu:

 

 

We asked for porches egg and avocado toast👍🏻

[Wookie01]

Have a great day and enjoy your last port prior to disembarking.
Safe travels and fun memories, thank you so much for sharing your review with all of us here, it has been a delight to follow along 🙂

 

[Scottishclover]

I’ve really enjoyed reading about your adventures. I love your reviews - always so upbeat and fun to read. 
 

I love the fact that Mr Norway eats herring for breakfast on his cruise. You can take the boy out of Norway but you can’t take Norway out of the boy……😂 I’m also a lover of herring  ( living for a year on the German Baltic Coast facilitated that).   I agree about the smoked salmon and Gravlax on the ship being cut too thick and I think being a Norwegian and a Scot we know best!

I loved your varied photos of India. It’s important to show the bad as well as the good.  It’s a place I would like to visit but not sure I could cope with the sanitation levels and deprivation. How did you deal with that? 
 

Me and my family are going on the Arctic Cruise on Celebrity next July. We can’t wait. We were on a Fjords cruise in 2016 and loved it. Really looking forward to exploring your country once more. We are hikers and love the Norwegian attitude about experiencing the outdoors. Think it’s called friluftsliv?? Your via ferrata in Loen looked Amazing!

 

A final accolade for you - so impressed by your English. I mean, I know you’re Norwegian but still…👏🤩 

 

Enjoy the final days of your cruise and wishing you both a safe journey home. As always, reading your review has brightened up my day😀

 

[Shiba_Lover]

Thanks for allowing us to follow your trip!  It was an enjoyable read!!

[DaKahuna]

@Norwaylady I know you and Mr both love good food.  One of the great experiences I had in Phuket was eating seafood.  You walk past tanks for seafood as you enter the restaurant and in some are able to pick out the fish you  would like to eat.  Some of the best prawns I have ever eaten I found there. 

 

 I am really sorry that your adventure is coming to an end.  I have thoroughly enjoyed following along on your travels and seeing the wonderful pictures.  In case I do not have a change before you depart, I wish you and Mr a safe and stress free journey home.  You two are such a lovely young couple.  Thank you for taking us along on your journey. 

 

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Phuket 🇹🇭

 

Oh, what a day😎🇹🇭

I ❤️ love Thailand 🇹🇭 I have visited every year since 2005 at least once a year. Only time not during Covid😩 I always go to Hua Hin. 

 

This was the first time in Phuket and we decided to go all-in for Phi Phi island. 

Tour was via the ship. 

I was in contact for private tours, but docking times was not good for making it back in time to the ship. (Very good decision!) 

 

It was 4 groups on our tour today. 

25/26 guests in each group. So 4 buses/speed boats. 

We left the theatre on time and took the tender to land. 

The pier in Phuket is long, so a far way to walk before you are on land. (Important to know if you have a walking issue) 

 

Our tour guide was waiting a far stretch of walking from the pier. The tour numbers started at 39 on the pier end and we needed to go to nr 3😂😂😂

From there we needed to walk to the bus parking… So a decent tour on foot before we left for the bus👍🏻😂😎

 

You need to take a bus from this pier to another pier. It took 40.mins in the morning. 

At the pier they had toilets, water and coffee available to all guests. 

 

The speedboat ride is 1h to Phi Phi. 

Our first foto stop was the famous “the beach” movie spot. A million boats and people on the beach😂🇹🇭😎

 

 

 

 

Onward we moved to the caves. Foto stop. 

 

 

Then we continued to our snorkel reef. 

 

 

The reef was okay 👌🏻 lots of fish and decent visibility. 

For us a good time🐠🐟🐡 the water was warm and perfect for snorkelling 🤿 

Not everyone on our boat had snorkel experience, so it was some arms and legs hitting wildly around the reef. 

Our guide did a great job explaining how to snorkel for them and helping them out into the water. 

After 45.minutes in the water, we moved onward to lunch. 

 

It was a Thai 🇹🇭 buffet. They served the classics from the Thai food. 

It tasted excellent 👌🏻 

 

 

After lunchtime it was time to move onward to last stop. A little island you could snorkel 🤿 or just swim on the beach. 

 

At 16.30 it was departure time for our boat trip back to the pier. 

1 h travel time on the boat again. 

On the pier, it was back on the bus. 

Due to rush hours, the guide said minimum 1h. 

So if everything was going well, we would be back in town to 18.30….

Well…. 😜 you probably understand where this is going🤣🤣🤣

 

We parked in the city centre 19.15… so after last tender😝

Not a huge problem, 100 people just from our Phi Phi groups…. 

And other ship tours were also delayed. 

 

So we arrived on the ship 20.00🙂

And still several tenders left to go before everyone was back onboard. 

 

The ship was ready to departure around 21.00. Then we raised the anchor ⚓️ and started to move. 

 

We needed to shower off and change. 

We decided quickly that tonight is buffet time…. 

We had a great Thai food luncheon and we had no interest of dressing up to Luminae…. Just to much to do after a long day😎

 

In the buffet, the rest of the ship was going also😝🤪🤣🤣🤣

Everyone was late back onboard😅

They had an Asian theme tonight and thanksgiving turkey. So plenty of options for everyone. 

Mr went for Ramen and I had some nachos😊

 

 

We had a great day to Phi Phi. We will definitely do an overnight there if we travel to Phuket on holiday. 

It was a long day and it’s lots of transportation. So keep that in mind. 

 

I will go thru the GoPro footage later tonight. Maybe Nemo is caught on tape🙃🐠🐟🐡

[Norwaylady]

11 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

@Norwaylady I know you and Mr both love good food.  One of the great experiences I had in Phuket was eating seafood.  You walk past tanks for seafood as you enter the restaurant and in some are able to pick out the fish you  would like to eat.  Some of the best prawns I have ever eaten I found there. 

 

 I am really sorry that your adventure is coming to an end.  I have thoroughly enjoyed following along on your travels and seeing the wonderful pictures.  In case I do not have a change before you depart, I wish you and Mr a safe and stress free journey home.  You two are such a lovely young couple.  Thank you for taking us along on your journey. 

 

 

 

 

We love Thailand for The seafood options😍

In Hua Hin they have a great selection also. 
One of our favourites are flambé mussels and fish garlic 🧄 then a hole fish is covered and baked in garlic boats. Mmm really 😋 and scampi and lobster on the grill is never a bad option😋😋😋

 

We both like Thai style food. (Only thing is not to spicy for Mr😅) I have changed my dinner several times to save him from hot hell🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥🌶️

[DaKahuna]

45 minutes ago, Norwaylady said:

We love Thailand for The seafood options😍

In Hua Hin they have a great selection also. 
One of our favourites are flambé mussels and fish garlic 🧄 then a hole fish is covered and baked in garlic boats. Mmm really 😋 and scampi and lobster on the grill is never a bad option😋😋😋

 

We both like Thai style food. (Only thing is not to spicy for Mr😅) I have changed my dinner several times to save him from hot hell🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥🌶️

 

Shame on him.  I still laugh when I think about going to dinner with a few of my fellow shipmates and one 'brave' (or should I say uninformed) ordered his disk without asking for lite spice.  Needless to say it was served spiced for someone Thai.  I tasted it and it was too hot for me as well.  I do love spice in my foot but if it is too hot to taste the food then it's not good in my opinion. 

 

Thailand is one of my favorite places.  I was very fortunate that I was able to visit Chang Mai in the highlands on one of my visits.  Beautify hardly describes it. 

 

 

[Lastdance]

What a nice excursion to end this journey, but there will be so many more ahead!  Yes, it was an exhausting day filled with memories; however, it is always so nice to get back to the ship.

 

Question...I hope you did not already answer this earlier:  How do you feel about the tub with shower in a suite compared to just a shower in the cabin?  

[mac_tlc]

@Norwaylady thanks for sharing your SS experience. Too bad they have destroyed a great product. All we can do is let our feelings be known onboard and through the surveys. We will decide for ourselves in January, but all the reviews have a disturbing common thread. 
 

FWIW, I will be the lone wolf in preferring the E class lounge to S class. The old Michaels club, with no windows, seemed uninviting to me. Sorry, I’ll take this view:

 

 

 

For the right price, I would sail any of them. Unfortunately, that right price is hard to come by. 
 

 

mac_tlc

Edited November 23, 2023 by mac_tlc

[StopTheWorld]

@Norwaylady Thank you for your wonderful review - I’ve really enjoyed it. I hope you and Mr have a safe journey home (and that’s it’s not too cold! An Arctic wind is hitting Scotland this weekend 🥶) 

[az4ship]

I always love your wonderful “live from”. Safe travels home

[hcat]

safe trip home!  til next time...

Edited November 23, 2023 by hcat

[Barwick Cruiser]

@Norwaylady just want to thank you for all the wonderful posts and amazing pics! I’ve really loved following along each day, one of the best “live froms” for sure. Hope you and Mr enjoy your final day and all your flights home are smooth and on time! 
Cathy

[BytownMatt]

I would echo the thanks to @Norwaylady It was a great review and travelogue, filled with many wonderful photos. And it was a pleasure to meet you both during the first part of the journey. Already looking forward to hearing about your next adventures on Celebrity.

Matt

[dock]

Loved following you on this trip @Norwaylady,and enjoyed your writing style.

Thank you for taking the time to post regularly. 
 

Appreciated your input re Retreat. 
Safe travels home. 
Will be watching out for your next review. Take care. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by dock