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Alas, our cruise was coming to an end and we have loved this voyage up the cost of Norway and back again, especially in the winter. We’ve been surprised by actually how much daylight we had – we were only expecting a couple of hours (light from 8am until 4.30pm). Some of the colours as the sun rose and set were stunning – a really soft pink/blue light.
Neither of us had a particularly good nights sleep so we went down to breakfast early. We needed to get the suitcases out by the lift by 10am if we wanted them taken ashore and we needed to vacate our cabin by 10am as well (suites get to stay until 12 noon).
There was a farewell gathering on Deck 4 at 10.15 and on the way, we dropped off the packets of sweets we bought and didn’t eat off with the Excursions team. Mats immediately claimed the tin of cherry drops whilst David was intrigued by the Jakemans (he’s addicted to Fishermans Friends!). The Glacier Mints and Fruit Sherbets were left for Robin and AnaTherese.
We stopped briefly in Florø – in fact we stopped and left before our scheduled arrival time. They were hoping we would arrive at Bergen on time, but we were sailing into a bit of a headwind. A case of keeping fingers crossed but we had plenty of time (we hoped!) before our flight back home this evening.
Mats had said to the scenery on the sail down to Bergen was stunning as we would pass a lot of little islands. However when we got to the Explorer Lounge, you couldn’t see a thing. It was a bit of a pea-souper as it was snowing! We were sailing very close to the islands – every so often you get a glimpse of rocks. We’ve been so lucky weather-wise on this cruise up until now so we really cannot grumble.
Jon is a little happier today – the ship is pitching a little so feeling some movement. The crew have all said this is the calmest Winter Coastal Voyage they’ve ever had.
This coastal cruise is very different to the P&O fjords cruises we’ve been on. P&O ships (even Aurora) are much larger so with the exception of heading into port (or leaving port), they just head straight out to sea so there’s very little scenery to admire. We have loved watching the Norwegian Coast pass us by.
So far, the Explorer Lounge is pretty quiet – however, the “very high upper class people” sat on the table to our right who talked so loudly I am sure the entire lounge heard all about the high-foluting lifestyle and business wheeler-dealings combined with the guy on the table on the other side who kept sniffing loudly every minute and I couldn’t stand it any longer. We found a table on the other side of the lounge (although the views weren’t as good).
All of a sudden, there was a bit of commotion in the lounge. Someone had spotted a submarine. Were they sure? Was it just some rocks that were shaped like a submarine. Jon couldn’t resist and went to take a peek. Sure enough, it was a submarine and just about to dive – the next question on everyone’s minds … was it a Norwegian sub or a Russian sub. We won’t get to know the answer to this!
The forecast is for snow in Bergen – one of the 300 days when it’s not raining! We were sailing into a headwind so our arrival was delayed by 15 minutes. We need to collect the luggage from the terminal building then find the airport shuttle bus. Just hope they have a few at the port as the entire ship plus half the crew are heading to the airport.
Disembarkation was very smooth. The disembarkation was by deck – our deck was first, but don’t think it mattered as everything congregating in the Deck 5 Lobby just filtered off in turn. They were using the walkways today so all very straightforward. Our luggage was going around the conveyor belt by the time we’d arrived.
The bus to the airport was right outside the terminal and suitcases were loaded in and we were off. It had snowed in Bergen overnight and still snowing as we’d left. A very different looking Bergen to the one we’d sailed out of.
The traffic on the roads kept moving so just 30 minutes until we arrived at the airport. It’s a pretty small airport, mainly operating internal flights within Norway with a couple of international flights. A flight to Aberdeen was leaving an hour before our flight to Gatwick.
We checked in and managed to get our seats changed to the Emergency Exit row so had extra leg room for the flight home. No delays going through security at this end – even though you had to remove electronics from the cases. Just the three hours to kill before our flight. There was snow on the ground at the airport – not too much but the runways and taxiways were all clear.
Our plane pushed back 9 minutes late – the runway had been cleared of snow. We were very impressed by the light display on the runway (wish I’d taken a photo) – it was dark outside and the entire runway was covered in lights to assist the pilots. Never seen anything like this – it was akin to the films where the spacecraft launches from the spaceship (or may be I hadn’t noticed the lights before as I usually have an aisle seat!).
We arrived back at Gatwick more or less on time. We needed to pick up our cases – one came off really quickly, the other took it’s time. Jon was checking the tracker cards we’d placed in the cases so he knew the case had at least made it to Gatwick! A quick stop at M&S before we exited the building to pick up some milk, then a case of figuring out where our bus to the off-airport car park left from.
Signage at Gatwick is not the best so a bit of wandering around before we found where the APH bus would pick us up. All very straightforward – the car park was one where we selfparked and kept the keys. Just needed to pop into the office to get the code to exit.
We left the car park at 10pm and headed home. Overnight works had started on the M25 so down to one lane in places. We were debating whether to go M3 or M4 home – that decision was made for us as they’d closed the M25 completely between the M3/M4 junctions. We found out later the M4 was also closed at Junction 10.
We parked up at home at 11.30pm, unloaded the car and headed straight to bed!
This has to be up there with our best holidays of all time. The scenery we saw was stunning and so much to see whilst hopping between ports. The Northbound voyage was non-stop with the stops, gatherings, meal times and points of interest up on deck. The Southbound journey was more relaxing as not so many long port stops (you tend to pass through/stop at the ports you slept through on the way up); the stops they had were either first thing in the morning or late afternoon leaving time during the day to relax.
Cabin 616 – Arctic Superior
Our cabin was a bit of an anomaly. It was incredibly spacious with a King Size bed, wardrobe/shelves and dressing table, seating area with settee, and the smallest bathroom we’ve ever seen (think it would fit in our downstairs loo!). It looked to be the same size as a suite, but as one window was blocked by a lifeboat, they couldn’t call it a suite.
Deck 5 is a “prom” deck and you can walk all the way around the ship. There are also a lot of cabins on this deck so you get people having a good nosey through the windows as they walk by. That especially goes for the two Expedition suites at the front of the ship. There’s nearly always people stood in front of these windows.
Whilst we didn’t have people walking by, we occasionally had crew maintaining the lifeboat as we saw a pair of legs by the lifeboat. If we were getting changed, we made sure the curtains or the black-out blinds were closed.
The TV is on a shelf unit at the bottom of the bed and it swivels around so you can either watch it in bed, or sat on the settee.
There’s loads more storage space that you can fill on an 11 night cruise. A large cupboard with shelves. Another with wardrobe handing space. By the cabin door, there are two more cupboards with shelves with an open shelf. Also another wardrobe with a shelf above – we used this to put our coats away in the evening and hats / gloves / scarves so everything was in the one place. During the day, our coats hung on the hooks on the bathroom door. We seemed to be layering up 6+ times a day to venture ashore or out on deck.
The bathroom is tiny – but gather this is the same for all cabins. It’s only slightly bigger than our downstairs bathroom. However, it is practical and we loved the heated floor! The shower curtain seemed to have been new washed but it barely stretched across the opening. Jon’s magnets came in handy as we used them to secure the curtain to the walls. Otherwise, anything hanging near the shower would get soaked.
Shampoo / Body wash, Hand soap and Conditioner were supplied in refillable containers and smelt lovely. You really don’t need to bring your own. If you watched Lorraine Kelly’s Norwegian Odyssey on Channel 4 featuring the Hurtigruten cruises, these were all made by Lofoten Seaweed (she visited the company as part of her tour).
There are more sockets in the cabin than you can shake a stick at; 12 from memory plus one in the bathroom. All the public areas all seem to have plenty sockets you can use.
MS Nordnorge – around the ship
The Explorer Lounge (Crows Nest equivalent) was comfortable and we always managed to find a seat with a view, even when the mass influx on foot passengers came onboard.
The dining room on Deck 4 worked well although most of the tables for 2 were in reality tables for 4 (a couple of inch gap between the tables). Whilst we were pleased to have a table next to a window at the back, it was dark every evening so not really anything to see unless in port (1 night!). In summer, it would be an amazing table with the views as you sail along the coast.
The food was amazing – we were spoilt having smoked salmon for breakfast every morning and we loved the fact that all the food was locally sourced from the ports we stopped at.
We were lucky enough to have won a meal in Kysten – the fine dining restaurant and the food served here is superb. As each course comes out, Christoffer would explain the ingredients and where they were from. The food could not be faulted. With the exception of Valentines Day, very few people dined here – perhaps as the food was so good in the normal restaurant.
The Excursion Team were the heartbeat of the ship – they did pretty much all of the announcements in Norwegian, English, German and occasionally French (we had a party of Belgian’s onboard) and not sure when they slept as they were always around. David’s announcements always made you smile – if food was involved, there would be a “yummy, yummy” and you were “hotly welcome” to join any of the events onboard. The Gatherings were great giving you information about the ports we were stopping at, any points of interest and generally not taking themselves too seriously.
The shop onboard is huge and stocks a wide range of clothing, accessories, souvenirs and snacks.
