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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

Category: Captain’s Log (page 1 of 128)

2026 August 18; At sea sailing towards Southampton, England.

August 19, 2026 / / 2 Comments

An Electronic chart overview of our whole voyage. These screen shots come from the Navigation channel which has kept me up to date the whole cruise, Although not as good as the real thing, it is good enough to get a good overview.

Today is our 2nd sea day. We have now left the Norwegian Sea behind and have entered the North Sea. By 08.30  the ship joined the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) off the port of Hull and we will remain sailing in these “highways” at sea until we arrive at the Southampton Pilot Station. Even when sailing through the Straits of Dover, we will be in the Traffic separation zones.  The English channel was one of the first area’s where a TSS was implemented as it is one of the busiest channels in the world. It is and also one of the most chaotic ones, as apart from the North – South  traffic and vice versa, there is also the cross channel traffic, the fishermen and a lot of coastal traffic that stays away from the TSS, but can still come very close.

Entering the TSS on the English side near  Hull.

When looking at the more detailed chart, it looks like it has contracted a bout of measles. The purple lines are Traffic  Separation Schemes, with one on the English side (dark purple). then one in the middle which is especially for the deep drafted tankers,  some of them with a draft so deep that they would run aground if sailing in one of the others. And then there is the 3rd one, which follows the Dutch Coast and is primarily meant to keep the traffic to the Dutch, German and Baltic ports away from the rest of the North Sea.  The blue dimples are depth marks , with water depths less than the standard chart reference which is normally 10 meters.  Most of the time these bumps are wrecks of ships, airplanes  and materials dumped during a long forgotten past. It is not advised to drop the anchor here as it might hit something and blow itself up. Or when retrieving an anchor having a complete 2nd world war lorry hanging on one of the flukes. (That happened to me once, when I was ordered to anchor off the Thames pilot station). Then the sea bed is full of purple wriggly lines, which are communication cables, anchor chains from oil rigs and pipe lines often inter connected between oil wells, still in use, but where the oil rig above water has already been removed.

This 3rd screen shot is what the navigator will have on his screen. Here we see the Aurora approaching the TSS with the intention to join. The Rules say, that when you are going to join a TSS, you should approach it under the smallest possible angle. So that other ships are not confused about your intentions and the Rules of the Road are simple to apply. When crossing, it should be done under a 90o angle or as close as possible to it.

The routes of the TSS, and there where the TSS turns direction are normally marked by a buoy. All ships now have Electronic Charts which come up on the radar screen, so the radar picture (that picks up most of the traffic) shows these buoys on the screen but a secondary confirmation of your position, by looking out of the window is always handy. Last week one of the Saga cruise ships reported that Russia had disturbed their GPS satellite signal so much that they could not enter their scheduled port and had to go to another one. Most ships do not have plan alternative B anymore = paper charts= and rely on a plan B which consists out of an Electronic back up with independent power of the same equipment. When you have such an electronic back up system, paper charts are not required anymore. That is fine during a black out , but not when Putin starts playing around.  If there is an (up-to-date) paper chart on board, then you could resurrect old time navigation again by looking out of the window and taking bearings of land marks and even buoys if necessary.  During the Koeweiti war when Allied forces removed Saddam from power, the President of the United States almost decided to stop the GPS system (which is a USA system) as the Iraqi tanks all had GPS as well for their desert navigation. However when it was realised that the Allied Forces would have been up the creek as well, using the same system, the plan was abandoned.   The Russians have their own GLONASS system and Europe is working on their own Galilei system. All to bring redundancy and to stop one world power from flipping the Big Black Switch.

I did not need GPS to find meyway around the ship today but it would be nice to have a gadget to help with packing. Apart from 4 bottles of Gin (savings, over £100,–) we have not bought very much but for some reason it is always harder to get the clothes back into the suitcase, than you put them in at home. I wonder if there is somewhere a professor out there who has a developed after much testing (packing suitcases) a convincing theory for this.  Without GPS we walked the ship as it is always interesting to see what the guests get up to on the last day. The pub “champions” was well filled with lonely men, most likely turfed out of the cabin by the good wives who were packing.  The Curzon theatre was full for the two lectures, one about the big freeze of 1947 and one about how Viking and Nautical Words have seeped into the English Language.  Most interesting was the shops, who were doing a roaring trade. Since the invention of “On Board Credit”, the shops in general have seen an upswing in sales on the last sea day, compared to the times before.

The Sindhu lunch menu. We found it money well spent.

We had booked lunch in the Sindhu, the Indian restaurant which is also the breakfast place for the suites. We had done a dinner years and years ago on the ms Arcadia of P&O. We had looked at the menu and it did not seemed to have changed very much. But as we were still interested we decided to go for lunch. That costs £ 11.90 a person and brings three courses.  They serve Kingfisher beer, the 650 cc Premium version, so I was directly in heaven.

The ms Arcadia is the 5th. Vista class ship that was pushed over when building, by Carnival from the “Holland America Brand” to the “P&O Brand”. At the ship yard the hull was much modified and then Holland America incorporated those changes in the ms Eurodam and ms Nieuw Amsterdam, being the Signature Class.

Traditional Goan Beef Vindaloo dish. Simple in setup but extremely tasty.

The space of serving, although the food still comes very fast out of the kitchen, is somewhat slower than in the dining rooms and also the waiters have the time for a little chat.  The taste was excellent but they had tuned down the “heat” somewhat as there will be many guests visiting who are not familiar with the dishes. The average British person is very familiar with ordering an Indian Take-away, but the restaurants have little “red pepper” markings next to the the dish, but otherwise they tend to play it safe. so my “Beef Vindaloo” was not as hot as I was expecting it to be, but if the spices are right, it will taste very good, and indeed it did.

And then there was the rest of the afternoon, my struggling to get 3 suitcases packed with aim of getting them packed in the same way as they came to the ship. Should make it easier to get everything back in the correct ward robe when we get home.   We received our “landing papers” and that gave some confusion again as it did not state that we could have Breakfast in our suite restaurant, the Sindhu, only that we could wait there 30 minutes before disembarking (08.10). However our butler confirmed that breakfast would be served. Why not just list all the venues? At 5 pm. the Cruise Director came into the cabin via the P.A over ride to explain the disembarkation process and also forgot to mention that the Lido was open for Breakfast and not only the dining room.

Accumulated pop-up cards in the cabin. It took me two days to realize what was different to this cabin compared to others. It was the number of pop- up notification cards everywhere. No fixed signs, no stickers.  Bathrobes for use, hours forward / back. Flushing the toilet. Don’t take the Bose speaker home and also not the Handwash bottle in the toilet. We later also go a hard copy bill statement, instead on an electronic copy mailed to our Email account,

On other company’s many of these cards have been replaced by fixed signs so the amount of paper used is reduced. P&O, at least on the Aurora has not gotten there yet. Also as the T.V system is very antiquated.  (There is no TV movie library either only 2 streaming channels with movies, but they are not in synch with the TV program and they often do not run on time)  BUT: the captain announced that P&O will start investing in the Aurora so it will be ready for the next 10 years. And that is good news. This is a very nice ship, and excellent for longer cruises. so an update of the T.V system, a spruce up of the public areas (I hope they do not decide on a complete revamp, as that takes some of the ambiance of the public rooms away) would all do the ship very good.

And finally now I have to reveal the real reason  why we are on board.

  • We were asked by Gemma, Lesley’s Chiropodist to take a cruise on the ms Aurora to meet her favourite Cruise Director who had promised her an Aurora-teddy bear.  How could we refuse, any excuse to make a cruise, is a good excuse. Hello Gemma, we have the bear , we are going home tomorrow and you will your teddy bear at your next appointment.

Gemma’s Teddy Bear.

After final cocktails in the Crowsnest and dinner in the dining room it was also time to go to and see the final show. Another performance by the ships cast, the Headliners called “Applause”. This time a compilation of the best known and most successful songs from Broadway and West End musicals.

The Headliners in “Applause”.

This was another very good show and they received a standing ovation at the end. This was their most  high powered & fast costume changing show of all, so quite rightly most of the audience stood up. (Some were beyond getting up, due to age) Maybe also partly as there only had been regular applause during the previous shows.  This is cruise number 5 this year and although the cast of the ms Sky Princess was very good as well, this was the best we have seen this year. The number of shows they can do (eight of them) and also the quality and high octane performance of the group was extraordinary. COMPLIMENTS,

Tomorrow morning the ship will at the Southampton pilot station at 03.00 hrs. and should be docked by 05.30. Then self disembark will start at 06.30 followed by us at 08.30 hrs. If all goes well, we should be home around 17.00 hrs. tomorrow.

As is normal routine, then the day after tomorrow my final blog will be posted: Review and Verdict with the total overview of the cruise.

Weather for tomorrow: Overcast with 22oC, so it should be good driving weather.

.

2026 August 17; At sea sailing towards Southampton, England.

August 18, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Today we have our first of the two days at sea to get back to Southampton. We have all night sailing on a nearly 180o south course and we will stay on that course until  we merge with the Traffic separation scheme near Hull on the British coast.  The arrival in the separation scheme means that we will see a lot more traffic, being the main reason that the separation scheme (A sort of motorway on the seas with the separation zone in the middle between the lanes) has been created there. More about that below.

First of all thank you to several readers for answering my question about the mysterious door at the foot of the mountains. I had never heard of “Google Lens” but it seems that if you put a photo in that system, Google looks for the meaning of it.  Impressive, but also scary in a way.   But it came up with the answer.   I will give the most extensive answer as collated by Mr. Ruud van Deventer. (Son of the late HAL captain H.L van Deventer, see biography on this website)

One of the many similar “doors” giving access to a power station carved out of the mountain.

The door is the camouflaged mountain entrance to an underground water power station of the Norwegian, state owned, energy company Statkraft.  They can be found everywhere and anywhere in the Norwegian landscape.  Hence I saw three of these doors during our train excursion.

The front door covers the entrance to a long access tunnel, leading to a Turbine and Generator Hall cut out of the mountain rock.  The front entrance is heavily protected against falling rocks, avalanches and un-authorised access. The access gate is wide and high enough to allow for heavy traffic for maintenance.

The water collected at the top  falls down in pipes into the Turbine Hall which drives the turbines that generate the electricity.  Where we rail-roaded by on the train, the mountains were on average 1.2 km high, so water going down in the pipe under the influence of gravity, gain quite a momentum before it hits the blades of the Turbines. Keeping everything inside the mountain stops the need for having ugly pipes and generator buildings dotted over the scenery.

As we still saw lots of waterfalls and other places where water was cascading un-checked over the mountain side, I do not think that Norway is going to run out of power very fast.  As a matter of fact Statkraft just announced that they are going to spend 80 billion NOK for more Wind, Sea and waterfall energy generation.So they will be digging for many years to come. I do not know how many electric car load stations they have in Norway, but it seems safe to say, that if you take your electric car to Norway you will not have much of a problem getting your car charged.  Petrol / Gas for a regular car is still about 10% dearer than in the rest of Europe, even with the current high prices, everywhere, caused by the rumblings in Iran.

One leg of the VanderBilt card room. The other leg is slightly shorter but not much.

As we had following winds, it was quite pleasant on the outside decks and many guests found a sunny space to enjoy at least one day of having a “cruise” experience while being on board. For the rest everybody was out in force, all lounges filled (at those that were open for service) and that left only 2 relatively quiet spaces on board, The Crowsnest (drinks service starting at noon time) and the Anderson cocktail lounge (2nd Cocktail making lecture starting at 13.00 hrs.).

So we have 3 major distinctive groups on board, first are the card players. This ship has a very large card room on board, the “VanderBilt” located on Deck 8 and L shaped and positioned around the Midships Lift Staircase. On port days it is a haven of  tranquility with a few people trying to complete one of the many puzzles laid out on the tables. On sea days, the place is almost completely taken over by the Bridge Players. There is a Lady on board who directs it all, with a lecture in the morning, and then the rest of the day it is full time play.  This is ideal for longer cruises when company’s like P&O and Cunard always have larger groups of Bridge Players on board.

Apart from the regular bar area, the pub also has booths in the windows and these are highly sought after and also full all day. (This photo was taken in port in the mid morning when all were ashore. The little gold looking displays in between each booth are full of small figurines that  belong to the Art Auctioneer and are for sale.

The 2nd distinctive group huddles all day in “champions”, the Pub. This Altar devoted to Bacchus opens up at 10 am. and then apart from being plied with drinks from then on, one can spend the day quizzing.  The first quiz starts here at 10 am. ,  the next one at 12.15, the next one at 14.15 hrs.,  and then all have to shift to the Masquerade Lounge for bingo at 16.15 hrs., as on sea days the Pub is too small for this. But you can be back by 17.30 for the next quiz, followed at 18.30 by the “Busker” singer/ guitarist, followed at 19.30 by the next “pre dinner” quiz, then the busker returns at 20.15 hrs. Followed at 21.30 for an “Evening at the races”, followed by the busker again at 22.30 hrs. until late into the night.  For those who do not like Horse Racing (it is played on a large monitor with real horses racing and you bet on the end before it is shown) there is the option of yet another -group- quiz in the VanderBilt cardroom.  So with 10 distinctive features, and at 1 pint an hour, you can have a very happy day. British pub life is split between those who drink Cider and those who drink Beer and it looks that this cruise the split is almost 50-50.

The “Curzon Theatre” names after an Director of P&O from the good old days. I estimate it seats about 500 and has excellent line of view everywhere.

Then there is the 3rd distinctive group who are not into quizzes but follow all the lectures. We have two lecturers on board, one is specialises in Viking History this cruise, and another one who is a bit more over the place with topics but held one today about the British “Shipping Forecast” . This is the weather forecast system for the mariners that in its 100 years of existence has never lost its importance. These lectures are held in the Curzon Theatre where also the main shows take place. It is one of the better ships theatres we have experienced, good elevation to look over the rows in front, the chairs staggered with the row before, so you can see between the heads and a fair amount of leg room to stretch out or let people pass by. I have not seen it as explicit on other ships as here, but for some reason, the end of row chairs are always first occupied. And then those people then have to get up several times to let later arrivals in. I think it is to be a able to make a quick run to the toilet, or to be first out when the show ends, I have no idea. Or maybe they like the exercise of standing up and sitting down 10x in short succession. We always try to arrive a bit early, as Lesley with her proclivity for shows, likes a center view. But we are still beaten by the “end of row huggers” on many occasions.

Deck 7, walk around deck

We have now taken up a daily walk in the afternoon. In the morning there is a large contingent out there, worrying about the weight they are putting on, but we avoid that as with so many out there, it is hard to keep a regular pace, and then there are the joggers trying to overtake. The main problem here is, is that the Promenade Deck is only wide in the center at the lifeboat embarkation stations. Then goes very narrow at the bow (3 feet / 1 meter) when curving around the “Curzon” show lounge, and is also somewhat narrow (1.4. meters) when it curves around “Carmens” show lounge. In the afternoon all this people seem to disappear and one can make the rounds at a much brisker pace. 3.2 times around the deck is a mile so it works quite well to get some steps in.

Tonight was our final formal night of the 3. We brought a separate outfit for each night so tomorrow I have to try to get it all in the 3rd suitcase we brought for this occasion. Normally I do not like to travel with 3 suitcases as it is just harder to handle three at airports but as we are with the car, it does not matter too much. And dressing up is part of the fun. The ship is doing its best to get the guests out as much as possible and gave each guest a voucher for a free glass of sparking wine, I do not know what sort of sparking wine they serve but as it is on the sweet side, so we let it go. The result was that the waiters were run of their feet in the public rooms with getting as many champagne glasses out, having them washed between sittings and then ready for 2nd sitting cocktails. This was the time this cruise that I had to wait longer than 3 minutes before a waiter popped up to take our order.

For this occasion we returned to the Crowsnest as a musical trio was playing there. I was keeping an eye on the gentleman’s formal jackets as I wear different colours for each Formal night. It was heartening to see that “Male England” is also slowly moving away from the “penguin” standard. A lot of older gentlemen will be members of the “Masonics” and still have “full penguin” attire ready for use, but there is a shift.

So tonight I clocked out of about 50 male guests in the crowsnest: 4 x white, 1 x green, 1 x grey, 1 x red velvet, 1 x kilt (of an unknown Clan as the tartan was dark grey/ lighter grey and dark brownish (?) cross stripes, it came closest to the “grey Watch, but I am not sure) 1 x  dark blue. Then a large number of black jackets, but where the owner had been splashing out on a multi coloured bow tie.  (*) And then the regular plethora of lounge suites.  And ONE T shirt. This evening the ships complement did not have time to enforce the dress code and one slipped through, or overstayed  from pre cocktail time. Most British are very good at adhering to the dress code so most T shirts and shorts were tucked away in the Lido restaurant and the Pub. (People wearing shorts indoors really seem to like quizzes……..)

(*) The shops on board sell formal attire but the peculiar thing is that although they have a considerable range of multi coloured and multi patterned bow ties,  they only have Bow tie & cumberbund in Red, White, Black and Blue. I was quite interested in some of the more extravagant bow ties but without a matching cumberbund it is not worthwhile the purchase. This concessionaire, Hardings, also has the concessions on Cunard and Fred Olsen, where the Formal collection is identical. So the hunt is still on to find a cumberbund that goes with a light golden patterned bow tie that they sell. Maybe next cruise.

Dining was another experience tonight, with a special menu designed by the world famous Chef Marco Pierre White.

The festive dinner menu for tonight. Instead of Blue, it was printed in red.

He had some fancy names dishes on the menu, but I think that it did not come out of the Galley, the way it was intended. Most likely due to the speed with which everything is being served. That does not gives much chance to attention to detail.  So again it was good, but not excellent or outstanding. And we were out again after 1h. and 17 minutes.

The trio The Knights in action.

Tonight we had the show of the 3 gentlemen that had it made it to Andelsness on time, while “Blondie”did not do so. It turned out that the group called “The Knights” referred to the “knights” of singing such as Sir Elton John, Sir Tom Jones and Sir. Rod Steward, plus a few others that had been ennobled through the years. They brought a very good show and all the guests liked it. They seemed to have come from Cunard as they named the orchestra “the Royal Court Orchestra” and that is Cunard speak.

P&O does not do turn down in the evenings (except in the suites) but there are no towel animals. Except on the first formal night when this little fellow popped up.

A wise looking “P&O” schnautzer doggie. Which is partly towel and partly added things like ears, nose and eyes.

Tomorrow is our 2nd day at sea, and we are expecting the same weather, same seas and same temperatures as today.  By the early morning we should be coming closer to the British Coast and then zipped though Dover Straits by early evening and this all at a warp speed of 16 knots.

 

2026 August 15; Trondheim, Norway.

August 16, 2026 / / 3 Comments

Today we are in Trondheim which lays about 40 miles inland, when counting the steamer distance from the pilot station, but it is a fairly open fjord called “Trondheim fjord” so  it does not feel as if we sailed between the high cliffs of a real fjord. The rain remained with us and only lifted briefly in the late morning. It seemed that the “Trundles” (this is what they call themselves in this province) had decided to make the best of it and had descended in great numbers on the local indoor pool located across from the cruise dock. It it called Pir Badet, which translates into something like Bath of pool at the pier. When I was here in the past one of my officers translated it into Dutch as “piere badje”. which is Dutch for very small pool. But it is not a small pool at all, it is a very big one. At the ship side, there are at least 4 wading pools and behind there is at least one 50 meter pool for regular swimming within the lines.

After evaluating the weather and the fact that we have been here so many times we decided to stay on board. We would have gone ashore if it has been dry as the town is quite nice, although similar to all the other Norwegian towns we have visited.  It is comparable to Olso and Bergen but then on a much smaller scale. This city was the first capital of Norway and it kept its importance through the ages. Founded sometime in the 11th. century it has a cathedral and an archbishop’s palace which is now a museum. And there is a music museum as well. It is Norway’s National Music museum with a collections of over 2000 musical instruments from all over the world. 2000 is a lot, but I hope they are still collecting, as there must be more than 2000 out there.

The Pir Badet at Trondheim,this is the only port in my experience of sailing to, where a cruise ships docks opposite a public swimming pool.

Being a larger place, means that there are a lot of tours available. Of course there is the Big Red Bus, always my favourite if you visit a place for the first time. Then walking tours, kayaking tours and many tours into the country. There is even something called an “Arctic Floating Tour”. Here they put you in a cold water survival suit, same as we have on the ships, and you float in the cold arctic water “enjoying a tranquil floating experience”. They offer you a cup of hot coffee afterwards, so it might not be so tranquil, but cold instead.

The ship was docked starboard side along side and we were facing the fjord side. Trondheim fjord is not a narrow fjord. Hence the wide open water. Not on the photo the yacht was too far away, was the Norwegian Royal Yacht “Norge”. There are only 3 countries left in Europe that have a Royal Yacht. Having one in Norway does make sense as it is much easier for the King to get around and into his country with all these fjords and small and remote villages located so far inland.

We were not the only ones how gave Trondheim a miss, the Horizon (Lido) was full  all morning and there was still a  line with people queuing for a hot breakfast past the closing time of 11.00 hrs.  Exe. Chefs that I sailed with always told me that there was a correlation between the amount of hot food consumed and the outside temperature. So in Alaska more “sunny side up” eggs were consumed than when in the Caribbean. Same went for coffee. If that also goes for a P&O ship then today the guests made a good dent in the egg stock on board.

” Seaside Escape”, by Suzanne Marazzi.

As a follow up to yesterday’s Paintings in the Staircase display, here is one of a few hanging in the Atrium section around the Shops. I could not find out very much about this painter, except that she was born in 1971  and thus I also could not find out why the painting is called a Seaside Escape. It looks more like “Contemplating Cocktails”, but then I am not an art expert.

The Raffles Cafe, on a photo taken from the other side of the Atrium. The above painting is hanging in the top left corner.

This painting is hanging in the Atrium opposite the shops but also at the entrance to “Raffles Bar” and lounge. Although all cabins have coffee and tea facilities (A well raised English person cannot face the day without having a cup of tea first) but a lot of guests still like to go out for a morning coffee with free cakes. It is a similar lounge as The “Grand Dutch Cafe” with Holland America or the “Carinthia” Lounge with Cunard. P&O serves “Costa Coffee” in  its lounges and it must be good as the lounge is packed all day.

The Peninsular Club Party invite. We are going up in the world.

For the evening we had another lounge to go to. We returned to Carmen’s Lounge as we were invited to the “Peninsular Club Party”, as we are proud members of the lowest Tier in the P&O repeater club. You need 15 days to get an invite and we have about 40 days, courtesy of trying all the P&O ships from Southampton (except the very big new ones). We were even on the maiden voyage of the ms Britannia which was a most “interesting” experience. So we wanted to go and see how P&O did such a party. We had heard that for this cruise the numbers were not so very high, with many guests being on their first cruise, but they will no doubt catch up in the future.

We both got a nice invite with the promise that we would be entered into a Raffle if we handed our invite in. So our expectations grew considerably. What would the Raffle be, a free cruise, a dinner for two in a Speciality Restaurant? The mind boggled at the options.

With said paper in hand we arrived at 19.50 hrs. at the entrance of the lounge (we have now learned to show up 5 minutes late at each venue after opening time so we do not have to deal with the British love for queuing and indeed the line was gone. We said hello to the captain, had a very short chat about mutual friends working for Cunard, had our picture taken (we still have to figure out how that works for buying) and then sat down to watch the proceedings.

Captain, loyalty team and longest sailing cruise guests on the dance floor for the obligatory photo. Hopefully the cruise couple with get a free copy.

After an introduction from the Loyalty Manager, the captain conducted a sort of One Man show, engaging the audience in a very good way. As mentioned before, he has excellent mic. handling skills and has a very open and gregarious personality.   I used to do the same in a more Reserved way (I am not good in telling jokes, I am better in telling stories, hence the lecturing that I do)  as I also believe that those who pay your salary are entitled to some TLC from the Master of the vessel. But I always felt that the Holland America Line Entertainment was not universally happy with this  because you stick out above the average and that makes your ship stand out.

I hope that P&O let their captains “soar” if they want to, as a captain with a bit of flair for presentation is an asset to the ship. The couple with the highest number of sailing days (2000+) came forward to receive………………. a bottle of champagne. Come on P&O can you not do a little better here. 2000 days x a per diem of £150 a day = £ 300,000 +  so you already made a lot of money from them. So a bottle of champers is a bit cheap……..

Then came the raffle, won by a couple having a cabin somewhere near the dungeons and that was also a bottle of the same champagne. For the raffle, a bottle is not bad, but somebody who has 2000+ days, should then get something better. What amazed me, and what I had not expected from my fellow British guests, was that there were several who took double the free drinks offered. Drank one glass at the party and then took the next one down to the  dining room. The mind boggles……………

If you want to you can make the “Grand Entry” in this dining room by descending down the stairs from deck 7 to deck 6. For those who are not that good in descending any more, there is a door on the side on Deck 6, so you can come down with the lifts to an even level.

The Alexandria Dining room is located under the Carmen’s show lounge. Arriving again 5 minutes after opening time, and yes the queue of eager eaters had just dissipated, we saw when walking in was that half the tables were empty at the least in the forward half of the dining room. That made the service at our table even faster than usual and within 1 hrs. and 10 minutes were were out again.

The banner for the cast show “Unbelievable”.

Then it was up to the show. We had the “Headliners Cast” again, this time with a show called “Unbelievable”. This was a combination of a regular sing and dance show interspersed with the cast doing magical acts. It turned to be very interesting. You do not have to be a David Copperfield or a Houdini to present a good magical trick. The cast members were very good at it as well.  Cast member cut in half, cast member levitating, one cast member going in a cage and six coming out.  etc. etc.

The moment the dancing girls popped out of the box after one of the singers had disappeared into it.

We have now found out that this cast has 8 shows in their repertoire and as a result they doing one every other night. Quite impressive, so we have 5 in the Main Show Lounge and at least 2 more in the smaller Carmen’s show lounge. I am very impressed. I sailed most of my life with American cast and for them it was already stressful to have 4 shows on their list, let alone to do 2 smaller ones as well. But British cast are totally different and do not seem to be phased at all by some more work.  But as this group was selected out of over 1500 applicants when doing their auditions so they cannot be bad, even if they tried to. Compliments once again. Tomorrow they will be in the Carmen’s and we will be there……….

This came on the screen. As you can see most of the audience had already ran away, before I could get this shot. Maybe those who stayed were as flabbergasted as I was.

Every main entertainer / head liner, we had had so far, was allowed to plug their own C.D’s or Music stick (sales table outside the shops)  and I was amazed that P&O would let them. Tonight I found out why. The company does it itself as well. To my utter amazement at the end of the show, a large photo popped up on screen urging the guests to buy the “Exclusive” Unbelievable P&O Magic set. Including a link to U-tube that explains exactly how each trick goes and how to do the trick.   So now I am waiting to see the Head Waiter coming on the stage to plug the Cocktail of the Day, or somebody from the shops, advising that they still have some bottles of Duty Free left……………….  The possibilities are limit less.

Tomorrow we are in Andalsnes. This town has seen cruise ships since the late 19th. century when steam powered ships started making cruises to the “Nordland”. If you see a photo of a ship of the Hamburg America Linie or from Holland America Line in a fjord, then there is a fair chance it was laying at anchor in Andalsnes. It is fairly deep into  “Isfjorden” at the edge of Romsdalsfjord. This sailing in & out goes by steep Fjord walls and that has attracted attention since a very long time. We are having a train tour tomorrow afternoon as this tour is one of the very few her ladyship has not done in her long career.  I certainly have not done it as Andalsness has always been a port where I did boat drills, as the boats are normally in the lee of the ship and thus out of the wind. So I would not be amazed if the captain does the same.

Weather tomorrow: Overcast with rain showers with a chance of dry spells. Temperatures between 8 and 12 ocC or 46o and 54oF. Chilly but not cold as there is not much wind expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2026 August 12, At Sea sailing towards Leknes, Lofoten.

August 13, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Today we had a quiet day at sea. The wind came down to a force 3 and the seas although still confused (swell and waves from various directions) also got less and less.  While the good ship ms Aurora sped almost due north with a warp speed of 13 knots. The captain made an announcement advising that the Medivac had taken longer as expected as at the last minute there was no suitable local boat available to transfer the patient and thus he had decided to go back to the dock and do the transfer over the gangway. He did not advise if the patient was doing well, or not, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed.

The whole ship is buzzing about the eclipse, we all got sunglasses last night in the cabin and today’s lectures were about planets, stars and related. We have found the old lectures on the TV in the mean time, it took a while for them to get posted but when flipping through all the programs on the TV we found them this morning. It is not advertised in the TV program for the cabin but later on we also found a note on the display outside the Show lounge, the Curzon theatre. That gave the chance to look at a lecture giving at the beginning of the cruise about the Vikings.  Their  voyages around Western Europe, to Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia and also their presence in what is now Russia. Tsar Ivan the Terrible was from Viking stock.

What I did not know that their influence even stretched into modern computer days.  What we now know as Blue Tooth, was taken from a Viking name. Harald BlueTooth. The symbol for a Blue tooth connection are the two first letters of his name in Rune, put together……………….. so that was my cultural contribution to the blog for this cruise.

The well known photo wall from days gone by. Now only in use for Stock photos (5 for £ 50,–) Ordering is done at the other side by means of 2 kiosk consoles (similar as in use at  MacDonalds

I have posted photos of most of the public rooms on board but there are a few more. The photo shop, which harks back to the old days with a wall of printed photos, although that is now only in use for stock photos. 2 digital displays have been installed and with typing in your cabin number your photos come up. There no medallion as with Princess that activates when you get close, so I assume that the photographer notes your cabin number when taking a picture so you can type in your cabin number. We are not completely sure as we have not seen any photographer since we came on board. The other night, there was one in the dining room, coming closer and closer towards our table, and then something went wrong with the camera and the photographer disappeared, never to be seen again.

The Art Gallery on Board. Located in a corridor so you cannot miss it.

Another concessionaire outlet on board is the Art Center. Here on board, same as with Cunard, we have Clarendon Fine Art.  Contrary to what is the norm on the American based ships who have Park West from Miami, Clarendon works less with an auction formula but much more in direct retailing. So the art on display has prices for direct purchase. And some very nice paintings and statues as well. Buy them and you can directly walk off the ship with them. How that works with customs, I do not know, as everything over £ 139,– needs to be declared as import. But guests were buying so it must work.

We are in the cabin

We are out of the cabin

A gadget I really like and apart from Cunard I have not seen any other company doing it, is magnetic door signs. One sign with 2 sides. The advantage is that it does not blow off the door handle when compared to the paper versions that most ships still  have. Especially if they are printed differently on each side. Pick one up from the deck and you do not know which side was on display. Here somebody has to forcefully peel the sing off and then turn the sign around. On Cunard I saw a few children doing  that but the ms Aurora is an adult only ship, so it does not have that problem. Taking about Adult Only cruises on P&O. They have two adult only ships, the Aurora and the Arcadia. However lately they have been designating some cruises as Adult Only and some not, so you have to be careful when booking otherwise you end up on a cruise you might not like.

The Golden Cockerel

With an explanation for the historically less inclined.

Another unusual thing on board is that the Aurora is the holder of the “Golden Cockerel”. This is the internal Blue Riband of P&O Lines and Cruises and dates back into the grey mists of time, when the company had regular liner services to the Far East and Down Under. Then the ships tried to stay on schedule and also tried to improve their schedule. I do not know how far this tradition goes back, but I know that the trophy was given to the ss Oriana of 1960, and then went to the ss Canberra.

 

As the Aurora has a service speed of 24 knots and has sailed with a maximum sustained speed of 25.4 knots she is the fastest ship in the Fleet. 25 knots is already quite high but on trials she reached 29 knots. Hence she got the Golden Cockerel which is now displayed in a corner of the  foyer/square near Guest Services.

One of  my loyal readers asked what, to me, is the difference is between sailing in Alaska and sailing in the Fjords. Let’s start with the similarities. Both areas have a lot of green trees and land, and grey rock mountains. Both areas you can only get into when under pilotage. Both areas have indignous peoples. Indian Tribes in Alaska, Viking descendants in the Fjords.  Both areas are not a great place to be in, in the winter with (horizontal) rain, snow and storms. Both areas have  good viewings of the Aurora Borealis. (The best one I ever saw was in Juneau with purple “wheels” flashing over Mount Roberts.

“Pulpit” Rock in Norway. You can park a ship almost at the bottom of the face (other side of the photo) and look straight up.

The difference is mostly in the height of the mountains and how close they come to the waters edge and very often they are still very steep.  In the Norwegian fjords, (Geirangerfjord, Sondefjord) you can sail within touching distance (*) of the fjord wall and still have 300 feet of water under the keel or more. In Alaska the mountains are more curved and they curve upwards further away from the water. Hence there are normally wide beaches with low foliage near the water line (Great for Bear watching). Even in Grenville Passage and Johnson Return channel which are the narrowest passages in B.C. Inside Passage the mountain faces are not rising straight out of the water. What comes closest is maybe Seymour Narrows, where you go through “the hole” at Maud Island. That is steep near the water line but not very high.

The 750 meter gap in Seymour Narrows. Not so high but still impressive as the gap is quite narrow.

As a result I do not have a real preference. You can get with the ship close to a glacier, in Alaska, to see calving and a lot of  wildlife, but in Norway you can sit under a rock wall and have to put your head in your neck to see the top.  For sailing there is not much difference as the pilots are required to do all the work. For the guests the good thing this, that all of the Norwegian fjords have  5 & 4G phone coverage everywhere, which in Alaska you have to be close to a town.

A Hurtigruten Cruise ship going through a tight opening. Where is the Broomstick ????

(*) A little anecdote told to me by a Norwegian pilot when I went into the Fjords with the Veendam in 2007. A lot of the pilots employed come from the coastal Mail boats, the Hurtigruten and they sailed almost without supervision through the fjords on their watches as it was daily routine. Not as we have on the cruise ships where either the Captain or the Staff Captain is on the bridge when sailing inside. So through the years (this goes back a long, long time) they devised a game  called “broom stick sailing”. Each ship  had a standard length broomstick on the bridge wing. When coming close to a cliff rock in a fjord, the flat bristle bit was pushed against the bridge wing rim so that the stick part was sticking out. Most likely 5 feet or so. The idea was that you then sailed that close that the broom stick-stick hit the cliff rock but not the ship. This pilot claimed that this went on for a long , long time, until AIS was fitted on the ships and the people in the office could see where the ships were at all times.  I did not directly believe it but the harbour master in Bergen confirmed that this was indeed happening and it did not always work well.

Guests on board have the chance to sign up for a visit behind the scenes, as you now can do on nearly every company. You have to pay for it but here with P&O the price is a reasonable £ 85,– for the whole tour; as there are company’s out there who now charge $ 179,–

 

The Classical Duo, the Meridians, Flute and Piano.

Lesley went to see an interview with the whole cast, on the stage in the show lounge, while I took the chance to take photos of the art in the 3 staircases. There is a pattern to the consistent style of paintings hanging on the wall and I will come back about that later. Then we re-united in The Playhouse to listen to the 2nd recital of this cruise by “The Meridian Duette” with Dream Like music by Debussy, Faure, Albeniz and De Falla. The set was called Moonlight & Fire to warm the guests up for the Solar Eclipse. And they were very good again. There was even a classical piece influenced by  Scott Joplin (The Entertainer) I never knew that there was “cross -contamination” also from the light arts to the serious stuff.  The Playhouse/Movie Theatre was packed again, and I expect that when the 3rd recital is coming it will be standing room only.

A very clever way of looking at the eclipse without  having to look into the sun. Just use a reverse pair of binoculars. (Photo courtesy Ruud van Deventer, son of old HAL captain H.L van Deventer)

That warmed us up for the Solar Eclipse, but there was n’t one, at least not on board the ms Aurora. Had it been perfect sunny weather where we were, we would have seen a 1/3 eclipse or so but it was completely overcast. People in middle Europe and Spain had a perfect and even good friends of mine in Holland, far north from the centre of the eclipse could observe at least a very good partial curve. But how hard the guests standing on the outside decks did wish for it, The skies remained overcast. Luckily there are plenty bars on board to get over the disappointment.

The stage setting for the show “Up all night” which center’s around people falling in love and getting engaged in a pub. I could not get a photo of the cast performing as there was that nasty announcement again of “no recording”.

It was 2nd formal night this evening, we have 3 this cruise, and we were able to combine cocktails again with a show in Carmen’s. This time a small Cast Show. It was the full cast complement but on a dance floor about half the floor size of the show lounge.  This was a show set in a Pub having the good English name of the “Cat and Fiddle”. It was very good, we are now becoming used to the very high standards on this ship where entertainment is concerned, but they could have named this the “musical chair show” as I have never see a cast moving soo many chairs, soo many times as part of the show routine.

Tomorrow we are in Leknes, capital of the Lofoten Islands. We are too big to dock in downtown so the ship has to anchor and use the ships tenders. With an official arrival time of 08.00 hrs. I expect that the ship will be at anchor around 07.00 hrs. to lower the 4 tenders and set up the platforms.  The distance from the anchorage to the shore is a 4 tender distance as we sailors call it (one ashore, one at the gangway and 2 sailing opposite) and that should give a smooth operation. As we are in a suite, we have priority tickets so we do not need to get a tender ticket in the lounge.  We are getting up somewhat earlier tomorrow as we want to try the Suite Breakfast in the Sindhu Restaurant. We have not done that yet, as it closes either at 0900 hrs. or 09.30 hrs. and then we are only just waking up. So we will make the effort; one has to experience everything, at least once in a lifetime………….. If it is good, we will do it again.

Weather tomorrow, looks mainly overcast, dry and with a chance of sun breaking through. Temperatures  around 13oC / 53oF and a gentle breeze blowing. England will be facing another blistering hot day, so it looks like that we choose the right period to go away.

 

2026; August 09, Haugesund, Norway.

August 10, 2026 / / 1 Comment

Today we are in Haugesund Norway (I have also seen spellings with two a’s and two s’, but I have taken this spelling of the Harbour masters office opposite our dock). It is a bit of a peculiar place as it is not that well known to the general outside world as it has always have been outside the focus point of most cruise ship company’s. That is now changing as the “Apartments of the Seas” are taken over all the prime berths in the well known cruise ports, so company’s with smaller ships have to look for new opportunities or just be lucky that a major port berth is free.

This was the view that greeted us this morning when we arrived at 0900 in the morning. Pouring down with rain and strong winds gusting. And it did not improve until 3 pm. in the afternoon, 90 minutes before sailing.

In the good old days, the company’s could simply book a berth in a port and that was it. But now with the so much larger ships, the amount of tourist tax that comes in, and the amount of ship’s tax (due to the size) that is coming in, has changed the whole picture.  Harbour Masters are now much more focused on returning a profit for their local port, then was the case years ago. And they will bump a smaller cruise ship if a late booking for a big one comes in. So  ports like Haugesund are now coming into prominence, even if there is less to do.

The grass at our apartment building since the hose-pipe-ban. Our garden director had marshalled “the troops” , all in their 80’s for watering the plants by hand, as that is still allowed under the hose pipe ban. We have invested about £ 10.000 in perennials and and we do not want to lose those. The two green spots are caused by the wind bowing over the fountain spray from the ponds. (Under a hose pipe ban, the ponds are also allowed to operate so the Fis-hies do not die)

And with good reason as the place has a lot to offer, but due to the horrible weather we decided to stay on board. All that rain here and all that drought in England, with hosepipe bans. I think it is time that Norway starts exporting water to the UK instead of gas. There is already a gas pipe running to the North of the UK from Norway so they only have to switch from gas to water.  When we walked the ship later in the day, a lot of guests had made the same decision to stay on board and the lounges were packed. The ship must have made a killing with bar sales, as the British do not sit in a lounge without  a drink in front of them.

This is what Haugesund looks like during a sunny day. The main town is located around a channel where in the old days the herring fishermen used to dock. Somewhere around there is the longest pedestrian / shopping street in Norway. (Photo courtesy, somebody on the internet)

Still there were a few hundred brave people, who packed in Anoraks and backpacks braved the weather and even sat on top of the open Hop-on-Hop-off  bus.  There is also a trolley service with pulled carriages which cost £75,– for 90 minutes and goes around the town with a few stops. The town also claims to have the longest pedestrian street in Norway, which no doubt would have been very exciting were it not that today is a Sunday so all the shops were closed.

Although the P&O shore excursions are very reasonable compared to some other company’s it is still expensive as Norway is a very expensive country.   £ 6.50 for a standard ice cream cone ashore, is my idea of being expensive.

This is the big thing on the tours. Leaning against St. Olav’s church is St Mary’s sewing needle. It is an old dolmen (from before the church was founded)  and it is only 7.5 cm away from the church wall. Legend has it, that if  the needle would touch the church, then Norway would fall apart. So the Authorities are very alert as nobody wants to go back to Sweden. (Photo courtesy, Visit Norway.com)

Haugesund with a population of 47,000 people, is where Norway, or Viking Land, really started. The nearby church dates back to 1250 AD, dedicated to St. Olav’s, once a local king, who got promoted to Saint for spreading Christianity in this area. For the Norwegians this is an important area as here King Harald Fairhair  is buried. He was the first local leader who united all the tribes and little kingdoms in the area of what is now modern Norway. There is a national monument nearby at Haraldshaugen, raised in 1872 commemorating the 872 battle of Hafrsfjord which brought this first unification. Then the Swedish invaded and it took the Norwegians until 1905 to become truly independent by fully separating from Sweden.

The “Playhouse” movie theatre, concert hall and congress center.

So we decided to give all this cultural excitement a miss and stayed on board. The Cruise Director seemed to have anticipated that and had laid on more activities, which were very well attended.  Morning stretch, Guided meditation, Creative Waves (= arts and crafts and today was skyline silhouette making), Short tennis, Morning trivia, Shuffleboard, Interactive gaming, Archery. etc.etc. and this was only what was going on until noon time. Very Good.

The Playhouse auditorium now taken now with a photo taken from the stage.

As mentioned the ship has a very nice array of public lounges. The Curzon Main show Theatre (bow), The Playhouse (midships) for movies and intimate concerts and Carmen’ (stern) for  band playing and dancing. Then there is another larger lounge with stage and bandstand  called, Masquerade, which mainly acts as a Disco but is also used for daily activities. So enough public areas, outside the regular lounges and bars,  to find a space for all 1800 guests to do something.

The stage of the “Masquerade Lounge”.

According to guests who consider them P&O experts, and we have already come across a lot of them, this lounge is also used by the Cast members giving solo- performances. so we will keep an eye out for that as they are often very talented but seldom get the chance to spread their wings.

So we worked our way up to Top Deck to see how the Lido Lunch would work in the Horizon Restaurant and we ended up first at the Crystal Pool. Every hotel, resort and cruise ship has the problem of people blocking sun loungers. They sit there and then go for a very long lunch or something else, but keep blocking the lounger for hours without returning. Germans and British are in general blamed for it but Italians and Spanish are very good at it as well. And no doubt the Dutch and the Belgians are not much better.  So P&O has the stretcher police. But of course done in a very nice way.

The “Stretcher police”.

The way it works is as follows: The policy is called the “Lonely Lounger routine”. There are signs that advise  that you are not allowed to reserve a sun lounger and if you do it will be cleared after 30 minutes. But because the “official duty” of the towel man is to provide hand towels and to replace them when needed, he is not considered a “nasty person” by the crowd present. So there is very little arguing when he does clear personal stuff away.  Our towel man said then he had only come across issues during short Caribbean cruises when the public tended to be different.  I think this is a wonderful policy and it seemed to work very smoothly as well. Compliments.

The Lido Grill, which was at least today, a complete let down. The glass cabinet holds desserts and then to the left is a ice cream parlour but you have to pay for the ice cream

By now it was lunch time and as there was no waiting line, we decided to visit the Hamburger Grill outside the (Lido) Horizon restaurant on Deck 12.  This turned out not to be an unmitigated success. The service was very fast, less than 5 minutes between ordering and having the Cheese Burger on the table, but we had to look very carefully to see a small veil (yes, as in see- through veil) of cheese on the top of the patty. And it was not even hot; how it could cool down so fast from being freshly cooked will remain a mystery forever. Then we found out, the waiter could not be bothered to explain, that you had to get the condiments yourself from the counter. Those condiments were limited to chips (french fries for the Americans) a slice of tomato, a bit of lettuce and a 1/4 of a cucumber. We were aware that P&O is not the greatest on food but this beat it all.

Then you have to buy your ice cream. There is no free ice cream in the Lido or anywhere else on board, except in the dining rooms. This Lido ice cream comes from Jude’s which is  a famous name in England; a company which produces very creamy ice creams.  But 3 scoops / balls on a coronet sets you back £ 4.20 and that goes against all my principles. For the amount of money I paid for this cruise, investing in one of the top suites, ice cream should be complimentary.

By 13.00 hrs. it was still raining and Haugesund still did not look very exciting.

Fearful about putting on weight, we decided on a deck walk. The ship still has a wrap around deck, where 3.2 times around is a mile. It is quite tight at the bow and at the stern but in the middle, under the lifeboats is is really wide and spacious. Something that we now see less and less. This Deck 6 has cabins and public rooms but the designers kept the open deck space while the newer ships have either no space to walk around (except for a track around the funnel) or it is very tight. This as the designers have decided to “optimize pubic room space” for an increase of “revenue opportunities”. The Aurora is from 2000 and in those days, the designers where not yet immersed in “synchronising internal brand opportunities”, so the ship has very nice open decks.

The starboard deck 6 open deck space under the Lifeboats. A throwback to the days of the five star premium market ships built before 2010.

Back to the cabin and time to write yesterdays blog and to decide which lounge will get our custom tonight for cocktails.  Also we had found out, that as repeat guests we get 5% discount on what we spend on board, but only after we have finished our On Board Credit. We were planning to buy some Gin before we went home, so instead of doing at the end of the cruise, we did it today, as that depletes our on board credit and then the rest of the cruise we get our 5% discount. Otherwise we might have  used all our On Board Credit first and then paid with our own money for the Duty Free. Since the UK left Europe, the free import rules of how much booze you are allowed to bring in have increased dramatically. It is so far the only positive / benefit I have found about “Brexit” . The shops (operated by a Concessionaire called Hardings of the UK)  had quite a few good things on offer. A high quality Gin (Gin Mare Capri retailing at home for £ 52,–)  for £ 45,–  a bottle but………… 4 for £ 100 which brought it down to £ 25,–  So if a Dutchman sees a way to save a lot of money, in this case 50%, he will jump. So her Ladyship has now been set up with a full liquor cabinet until New Year.  Strange thing was, that we have to go and collect the bottles ourselves on the last sea day, while with Sky Princess (4000 guests) they delivered. Maybe they cannot handle the volume of orders that have been placed, as they have assigned the whole Masquerade Club to line it all up, for when the Assembled Alcoholics come marching in, to pick it up on the last sea day.

The Anderson Lounge on Deck 7.

I fell in love with this lounge the moment I stepped on board. If I would have had a regular house, instead of an apartment, one reception room would have been changed in something like this, or an extension built, so that a poor and worn out gentleman can have a cocktail in proper surroundings at the end of long and dreary day.  So this lounge is a great alternative. There is no direct music but outside is an area called “Charlies” where there is a piano player and the music “wafts” nicely into the lounge from there.

Dinner was  good  but not outstanding and the service was extremely fast again. I clocked 1 hrs. and 10 minutes from stepping into the Dining room until we had, had our coffee and tea and could leave again. The fact that we are sitting close to the bar and the galley entrance might have something to do with it but I am getting more amazed by the day. Maybe I should try to get a 10 minute pause between each course but that might not be good for the waiters mental health, and/or we might get cold food. Although the ship says it is booked to capacity we still have a lot of half empty tables around us and we do not know  why. Partly it might be that guests prefer the Lido, partly maybe because First Sitting and Early Free dining (in the Medina dining room) seem to be very full.

The Ships Dance Company called “The Head Liners” with their Revue show called “Destination Dance”.

But it made us in time for the Show and in finding a good seat. Not so necessary this time as the Theatre was only half full. I think that a lot of the guests were worn out after a full day of rain and wind. (And tomorrow won’t be much better) This show was very good again, with song and dance routines from all over the world, a sort of world cruise in music, and I was amazed in how fast the Ladies managed to do their costume changes.  For the boys it is not so difficult, another pair of pants  and they are ready, but the Ladies have to get in and out of these difficult costumes with feathers, petticoats, change the colour of their underwear that goes with the new costume and that must take some time. But they flew off the stage in a cancan dress and flew back on the stage again in a country and western outfit.   Very Good, as was the previous  show.

We went from South America directly to Paris with a Can Can and then from there to prairie land with a song and dance routine from the musical Oklahoma. There were 4  Can Can dancers, but when I took this photo one just dived behind the screens to come out a few minutes later in a Cow Girl Costume. But she still threw her skirts in the air, so all was well in the world.

Tomorrow we are in Olden, a small town deep into the Norwegian Fjords. For those who have followed our escapades on the Sky Princess a month ago, (see under the right hand lable: My Cruises and Reviews) will remember that we went there as well. The highlight of the place is the souvenir shop across the dock, the large souvenir shop in Downtown and also the large supermarket in Downtown. Tomorrow is mainly for the tours.

How those tours will go, is anybodies guess, as the weather will be much the same as today. Rain and Wind and with low hanging clouds and could be a problem for the tours that go up the mountains. Temperatures around 13oC / 57oF with a bit of luck.

 

 

2026; July 15, Olden, Norway.

July 16, 2026 / / 2 Comments

The ms Sky Princess at the Olden cruise ship dock. Somehow it does not seem  right to have a towering white apartment building dominating the Fjordenland skyline. But easy for guests returning to the ship, you can not get lost.

This morning just before 8 am., we arrived in Olden, which is a large city compared to Skjolden as it has double the number of inhabitants. 500 against the 250 yesterday,. Also Olden is a much older cruise port, ships already used to go here in the 1920’s long before there was a cruise terminal, and even longer since they rebuilt / constructed the new dock here, which is nearly identical to the one in Skjolden and in a whole slew of other small places.  Because they have been in the cruise business for so much longer, the locals have built quite an infrastructure with more tours, hop on -hop off busses and the small “Tsjoek-tjsoek sightseeing trains. And instead of one souvenir shop, it has 5 in a row, straight across the dock, including one with more “posh”souvenir shop in the form of wood carvings, high quality paintings. soaps and fragrances. Bike rental was omni present and a bit further out, the local garage was also renting out quad bikes for the more adventurous.

The commercial centre of Olden:  A Supermarket and a large souvenir shop. The small town itself is just behind it.

The town itself is a 15 minute walk and the local authorities have created a dedicated path all the way to the town and in good planning it also leads past another large souvenir shop and the local super market. (same chain as yesterday). Normally you see in every port crew running ashore to the nearest supermarket to stock up on whatever they ran out of, but not in Norway. All are waiting for Southampton as the Sky Princess docks right opposite downtown Southampton and it is only a 10-15 minute walk to get there.  The prices are simply too high in Norway, England is not cheap for shopping but Norway is 3x dearer on some items.

Olden is much higher on the “tourist trap” ladder then Skjolden, and thus, yes, there was the Big red bus

We did our tourist duty and marched to “downtown” which consists out of a few shops, a small white church and a very large school which serves the entire district. And then we marched back again,  sort of in a formation, with a 1000 others. Olden is one of the best ports for tours in Norway and the coaches were rolling in and out in a very high tempo. The tours on Princess are quite expensive which is not much different to other cruise companies, all with a 100 to 150% mark-up. Right at the gangway (similar to what you see in Ketchikan and Juneau. Alaska) you can get it all much cheaper on the dock side, but you have to keep in the back of your mind to add extra time to your plans to ensure you get back the ship on time. The captain will wait for ships tours to return but not for individual escapades.  Like most companies, Princess sets up a refreshment stand near the gangway but this is the most elaborate one I have so far seen on all our cruises. It even  had the option for Bouillon. Favour of the day seemed to be chicken soup.  Two gangways out as usual made for a speedy return on board.

The Refreshment stand on the shore side. Cucumber Water, Citrus Water, Clear Ice Water, Hot Chocolate, Bouillon and Non ice water. Very impressed.

Back on board it was time to investigate the top decks of the ship where we had not been yet. Deck 16, called the Lido, has the self service restaurant with 2 pools, a hamburger bar and the ice cream stand but then there is also deck 17 and 18 as well. Below the radar mast is another pool, for adults only, and in front of that pool is “The Sanctuary”, which is  a separate area’s where you can rent cabana’s ($100 a day and deck stretchers at $ 25– a day). It comes with a concierge and a waiter. Because you have to pay for it, it is a tranquil area where you can roast in the sun without any noise from the rest of the ship. I think it is also a very nice place to sit during sightseeing in the fjords, Panama Canal and going to Kotor.

The Sanctuary on Deck 18 , nice and peaceful and under a Dome so also with inclement weather you can sit / lay outside.

Around the funnel uptake there is a very large fitness area with all the modern machines you can think of, a large class area and also an area for personal training lessons. Funny thing is that with this large area dedicated to health, when stepping outside you can inhale directly the cigarette fumes of the smoking section directly below. Good planning………………. Then a deck higher there is a basket ball court and what intrigued me very much, was a small golf putting green under the TV domes.

This is the small golf putting area under the two Domes. Great use of an otherwise neglected area.

This is the first ship that I see where the area under the Domes, which is really a wasted space, was put to good use by installing a small putting green. Here we also have the jogging track, as the ship has no wrap around deck under or behind the lifeboats. Older Princess ships still have them, but here the space between the bulkhead and the lifeboats is down to about 3 feet. That is enough for embarkation out of the lounges behind the bulkheads but not safe for regular walking. In front and behind the lifeboats the decks are nice and wide again, for sun loungers, but they do not wrap around. So walking around the funnel is the only option.

The Fitness area is quite large, but as the average age seems to be around 50, there are a lot of guests who want to work out. After a few days on board, I think that everybody would NEED to work out, but that is a different story.

Looking at all that torture equipment made us hungry, so a quick stop in the Concierge Lounge was needed for a few nibbles, and then we had another challenge on our hands. According to our Princess Premier package we were entitled to 2 special desserts. But it did not say what.  But our concierge Lady Dorothy, knew the answer, it was 2 special ice creams from the Gelato Bar.  Let me correct myself, here on board you are not allowed to call “Gelato’s” an ice cream. A Gelato is a Gelato and not an ice cream. Same as a Taco, is a taco and not an Mexican Gyro, even when you buy it in Greece. It turned out that this Gelato was  a “Coupe Grande” of about 12 inches high, which normally costs $17,– a piece. Listing to the magical names of “The Da Vinci”,  “The Godfather” and “The Michelangelo” etc. Small Gelato’s cost between $ 3,– and $ 6,–  Even with the cost price, there was a great demand for “real ice cream”, sorry “Gelato’s” instead of the free soft ice from deck 16. So we had our Gelato, and were instantly happy that we had not gone for a full lunch as it was very good, and extremely filling.

These are not ice creams, they are Gelato’s. The Godfather to the left, and the Leaning tower to the right. They should have been even more impressive with fruit and sticks on the top, but the “Gelato” lady was cutting corners a little bit as she tried to keep the pace up with serving.

Next adventure on the list was to visit the “Captains Circle Lounge”.  According to Princess PR speech “this is an Exclusive venue for Elite and Platinum Circle guests to meet your ships officers and fellow guests with drink offers, delectable delights and live entertainment.”

The guitar player and singer in the daily “Repeater party”.. We think it is very nice of Princess to pay so much attention to their loyal customers with offering a daily get-together. The official “Captain;s Circle party is on departure from Stavanger tomorrow during formal night.

Although is is our first cruise with Princess, we were somehow catapulted into the “Captains Circle”  Platinum one from the top due to our sailing dates with P&O, of which we have done about 10 since the 1990’s. When P&O/Princess split into P&O and Princess, two independent Brands, guests kept the same status in both company’s. Hence we are here repeat guests here as well. So it turned out that Princess opens up the Vista Lounge at the stern each afternoon at 1700 hrs. to their repeat guests. On seven day cruises / in port is was quiet, but on longer cruises / sea days, it is quite busy. Today there were about 50 people there, mainly interested in the nibbles (cheese and salad) and their phones. Drinks are not free, but most had a Drinks Package anyway. The singer from the Crown Bar provided background music. Meeting the officers consisted of the “Chief Financial Officer” being present and the Assistant Human Resources Officer. The latter made a direct beeline for us, as he recognised that the two of us  did not look like the normal crowd.  Ship people recognise each other everywhere. He was from Serbia, and had just flown in from the Diamond Princess in Japan, to fill a gap here. There must have been some planning panic in HR as Japan to Norway is a long flight and he was going home in 4 weeks time anyway. But having been in the business it all made sense to us.

Today it was not very well attended, and most of them present were more interested in their phones than meeting other Princess “Veterans” but they said that on sea days it was often a full house.

Time to change, and then we tried the Crown Bar for a second time. Last time we were hindered by the show in the Vista Lounge which ended during cocktail hours and about 500 people came marching out, but now this smaller show lounge was readied for the football game England against Argentina ( the show in the main theatre was brought forward to 17:30 and 19:30 to have that lounge available as well) so there was not much traffic.  Our favourite waitress Judith popped up again, and with the pianist playing all was well in the world.  With our Princess Premium package we were entitled to several speciality restaurants, and Lesley had pushed the button for “The Catch by Rudi” twice and as the time of 19.30 worked out for us, we went a second time. The ship had been advertising the venue on the App,  but when we got there it was still half empty. No way Rudi could compete with the football game.

Shrimp on the Rocks in stunning glass bowl.

So now we could try something else and I was intrigued by the starter “shrimp on the rocks”. It is devlishly difficult to do something with fresh shrimp and on nearly all the ships you see the same shrimp with similar red cocktail sauce. Also Rudi Sodamin could not come up with something better, but had compensated for this with an extraordinary glass cup filled with crushed ice.

The shrimp hanging from a steel hook above the plate.

Main Course again an intriguing inscription: Three S’s. platter, which was Shrimp, Salmon and Scallops.  I large shrimp, one filet of Norwegian Shrimp and 2 scallops, with Parmesan Fries. Nothing special in the food but again it was the presentation. We had again chosen / wriggled a table near the window, to be away from the Piazza side, which was a good thing, as they had a dance competition going and the crowd roared as loud as during a football match. And all the marble does not help. We were both wondering why Rudi’s outlet was in the atrium as Sabatini’s, the Italian was more forward away from the atrium and opposite the shops. It would have made more sense to have Rudi’s there was well and have had the shops in the Atrium as most of the other (Jewellery) shops were already there. The Sky Princess is a very nice ship but here and there one wonders about the new build planning.

After dinner we poked our nose into the Vista Lounge where the game had just started. Two pop-up drink outlets had been created at both entrances and a British Pub atmosphere started to develop in the lounge, as all was still well in the world with 0-0. While writing this, the next morning, we now know that England is out, and Argentina will go against Spain in the finals. The whole of England will be mourning today, with or without a hangover, but many business will be happy as the Government was planning to declare a National Holiday if England would win the World Cup. There is still a collective memory in the good about the Good Old Days of the 1966 world cup and now the hopes were dashed for another   4 years.

In case you are wondering if there is a Casino? Yes there is and it is a big one. We have not been there in the evening as we do not gamble and. we do not smoke.

We went to the liquor shop as Lesley as contemplating on buying more Gin, but the “tax free” prices are not really tax free, just a bit cheaper than ashore, and cannot compete with the prices on the Ferry to Holland. So we let it be. Although the shops are large, most of the stuff sold is the same as on the other ships. We are now in Norway, so there are trolls and Norwegian clothing (did not sell as we have the heatwave) and Russian lacquer work, including baboeska’s. I think the shop logic is, we are very close to Russia, so it will sell. We did not see much interest, and I think that most guests are waiting until Russia opens up again. We have a lot of Ukrainians on board, including Anna our head concierge, and they all say that the country is getting war-weary, but will not give up especially as the Ukraine seems to be turning the tables on Putin.  The Tourist people in Leningrad must be really hurting with all the ships now going to  Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Princess is even starting with home porting in Helsinki, so it can do more ports in 7 days, instead of losing a sea day going from Copenhagen to the Baltic Sea.

Photo shop on board on Deck 6 port side Atrium, everything is digital now but during day hours there is plenty of crew around to help out.

Tomorrow we are in Stavanger and we have a tour in the afternoon. The ship is to be docked by 10 am.  I did not see any other cruise ships scheduled, she will dock in the old port. That might be on the East side (so easy access to the Petroleum Museum) or on the west side with easy access to the old town. If it is the latter, I want to run ashore quickly to see if there are any new shipping books at the Maritime Museum which should be located opposite the stern of the ship.

Weather for tomorrow, Partly Cloudy with temperatures around 20oC / 70oF and a gentle breeze.  The weather people are all confused about what happened to their predicted heatwave.

 

2026 July 14; Skjolden, Norway.

July 15, 2026 / / 1 Comment

The ms Sky Princess towering over the small dock of Skjolden.

After sailing in for about 5 hours, to the end of Sognefjord, the Sky Princess docked at Skjolden.  A new pier was constructed here a few years ago and since then the big ships have started to call as well. When going ashore, we saw several First Call plaques in the Security Gate souvenir office. The ms Prinsendam from 2011 (when I was on leave), and then the Delfts Blue plates from the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam (VII). The dock has been constructed just wide enough for any length cruise ship to be able to put two gangways ashore. Bow and Stern are sticking out and long mooring ropes go to bollards at the edge of the Fjord.   The town is about a 15 minute walk from the ship, which has about 250 or so inhabitants. Downtown is made up of a small Supermarket, the Skjolden Hotel and the Skjolden community center which is made up of a tourist shop, the tourist office,  a small museum,  a community hall and an indoor swimming pool. The latter being used by only 2 people when we were there.

The metropolis of Skjolden with most of the 250 peoples houses in the photo. The first row at the water, just above the curve in the road are Air bnb’s mainly occupied by the Dutch and the Belgians.

Skjolden calls itself “The Gateway to the Norwegian National Parks”, so this is primarily a shore excursion stop for the ship. With full day tours but also a 1 hour shuttle service to the nearest glacier. But a very large majority of the guests opted to march into town and in the case of our Japanese Groups on board, who once again were leading the invasion, to march straight through it as they did not realise that there was not really a downtown.  But the seemed to be impressed by the local bus top, as several took photos when having a seat inside. The route from the ship to the town, led along a number of holiday homes, which were occupied/rented by the Dutch and the Belgians, followed by the option to row in a real Viking boat, do some real Viking Axe throwing or go on a RIB speed boat adventure along the fjord. For the latter one everybody suited up in Survival Suits which for today was a bit over the top as the water was as flat as a mirror.

This is downtown Skjolden with the prominent hotel and visitor center to the left. Not visible but of equal importance the local Co-op shop.

Skjolden is famous for its Cinnamon buns. Sold in the port office and also along the walking road in the two restaurants. The man in the port office said that he baked each day, when there was a big ship in, 540 of them and he normally sold them all. Where the precise number of 540 came from, remained unclear, but maybe that was the maximum capacity of his oven. Interesting to see was also that the souvenir shops were manned by first time immigrants as the lady in port office shop did not look at all like a tall Norwegian Hilde but much more like a seductive Shehezarade.

Norwegians from around Skjolden,from around the turn of the century leaning against their home. Only  one looks like a Viking, the rest could have been from anywhere.

While in the little museum, looking at a wall of old photos which showed farmers living in small wooden farms, I suddenly realised that our (movie) perception of tall blonde Vikings was not exactly correct. Most of the farmers in the photos where not towering Vikings with blond hair and blue eyes, but of small and slender size and had black hair and brown eyes. Even the local family who operated the Co-op store in “downtown” were black haired.  Maybe the Viking imported a lot of Dark haired maidens from their raiding adventures down south, than they are given credit for. No doubt one day a scientist will do a large scale DNA test in the fjords and then find out that the Romans made it up to Skjolden as well.

The local Viking Boat, where against payment, you could row yourself (with 12 others) around the fjord.

So we marched to town and marched back again. We could not get lost as 2000+ of our guests were strung out along the same path as well. The bike rental man did a roaring trade. When we went towards town there were about a 100 bikes waiting, when we came back 1 hour later, they were all gone. He even rented out the option of having a baby box on wheels to be towed behind the bike. This is a safe area to bike as you only come across a few coaches on the road and some locals and tourists, so even if you bike on the wrong side of the road, the other road users are expecting it.

Back on board, we had to face the challenge of where to have lunch as we had not eaten for at least 3 hours and that is a dangerous situation for a cruise ship guest.

Pizza Alfredo. According to the Internet experts, Princess has the best pizza’s on the high seas. I am not an expert but they were very good and very fresh.

Flash back to yesterday. Yesterday with the whole ship ashore we went to Alfredo’s which is a  pizzeria on Deck 7 in the Atrium. Capacity is about a 100 guests but there were only 6 of us, the rest was ashore in Bergen. So good service and with the pizza’s freshly made and not on the conveyor belt system that is needed to keep up with a full house. Even the pizza chef was Italian (or at least he said so) so what else can you ask for ? With our on Board Princess Premium package drinks we can have included drinks up to $ 20,– a glass (with a maximum of 15 drinks a day) so we settled on a Merillo California Pinot Noir, or almost a Pinot Noir as it was slightly blended. It had to stand in for the Bet Gloss a real Pinot Noir, which was out of stock. Some Italian pizzeria’s are embarrassed to serve Hawaiian Pizza but not here, so I was a happy camper to  be able to order a Pizza Hawaiian. And it was excellent. Back to today.

So now today we decided to get some nibbles from our Concierge Lounge as we were not in the mood for a full sit down lunch. But the amount of nibbles and salads available is more then enough to consider it a full lunch. According to our lovely waitress Irma who had the lunch shift, there were never many people there on short cruises and in port, but during a crossing the Lounge was very well frequented.

The buffet in the Concierge Lounge with waitress Irma.

The problem with a buffet like this, even when small, but without anybody else milling around you end up going back a few times, so you still end up with a full meal. Especially if the breaded chicken sandwiches are so very good.  Plus free drinks and impeccable service one can easily while away the hours.

Her Ladyship taking full advantage of what was on offer.

What was missing on the buffet, a nice piece of cake (there were small chocolate cupcakes but not the bigger stuff) So an expedition to the “International Cafe” had to be made. Where they serve Pound Cake in three different versions.  Coffee is $ 5,— but included in our package.

The “International Cafe” on Deck 5.  This is a very quiet moment with only 3 customers inline for coffee. On a sea day I counted 5 waiters serving coffee and 4 bakers serving and re-supplying the sandwiches, cakes and buns.

Today the ship was much busier as the non-tour guests completed their visit to the metropolis of Skjolden in the same time frame as we did and then ran back to secure a stretcher in the sun.  The “World Fresh Market Place” (Lido) was busy and so was the “Salty Dog Grill”. This is the Hamburger Bar. We have not tried it yet but the portions looked very large. But we managed to get an soft ice cream as the crowd with “little Johnny’s” had mainly been replaced with a queue of old “Johnny’s but still eating soft ice.

Then it was back to investigate the ship.

…….to investigate the photo shop if our formal photos were in. You can check them all on the App and then download them, but Lesley has now made it a habit of checking them on the big screen, deleting the bad ones (the photographers post all of what they took) and then later download the good ones. On the big screen you can also mark those you really like and order hard copy’s. We are entitled to 3 hard copy’s with our package and we will make a selection on the one by last day. Unfortunately, for me, the ships photos are not included.

As we were curious, whether the Concierge Lounge was used in the evening for cocktails, we decided to go in at 17.30 hrs. when the free drinks started. and indeed about 10 people where there and a piano player, using the piano in the Wedding chapel, with the doors open towards the lounge.  Then we had a reservation for the general (one of 3) restaurant Cielo at 18.50 hrs. This one is located at the stern of the ship on deck 6. Making a reservation is necessary because of the vast numbers of guests on board. Even with reservations a line had built up.  Following the flow during dinner, it is better to go around 1930 hrs, when it became quieter. But then there is the chance you are late for the Show, which starts at 21.30 hrs. and the theatre doors close promptly.

The aft part of the Cielo Restaurant near the stern of the ship. We had the table for two on the left. For the rest we were surrounded by single ladies.

This was the first main dining room dinner that we did and it was sort of indifferent. The food was good but not special, the service was ok, but not very personable. Again due to time constraints as the staff is friendly enough. But in this case it served us well as we made it to the Theatre just after 9 pm. when the doors opened. And thus we could pick at seat that was up to satisfaction of my Lord & Master.

5 skies show, with the damsel in distress projected in the middle.

Tonight’s show was 5-skies. Something totally different than we have ever seen before. It was basically a computer program based show. The hero gamer had to complete five levels of the 5-skies game, to save a damsel in distress (A digital damsel). So the stage was  very futuristic in setup but the show was extremely good again. We got the show with an un-expected cameo by the captain, as he announced that the ship was gearing up for a medical evacuation. With the order for everybody to stay away from the balconies and no flash camera’s.  Normally  you do not have to announce this in the show theatre but there is always the chance that an important officer or team member is in the show and this is the best way to get them out. The ships crew has either walkie – talkies or beeper but have not progressed yet to beeper phones as I saw the hotel manager, during the day, constantly hunting for a phone each time his beeper went off.  I was impressed that when the captain made the announcement the whole  show stopped and then continued again as if nothing had happened. All music and lights just came back, the cast continued their routine without a glitch. I wonder if that was a built-in routine or the stage crew had been rehearsing it. When the all clear was given after the show by captain again, the same happened in the Atrium, Stop – announcement – Start and no hiccup. Very impressed.

During the medivac the ship was still in the outer reaches of the Sogne Fjord so it did not have to deviate to meet an helicopter somewhere. There would have been an helicopter station nearby as the pilots use helicopters all the time during inclement weather.

Tomorrow we are in Olden, which is located at the edge of the Fajeidtfjorden, which is a branch of the Innvikfjorden which is an inner arm of the Nordfjord system. That means another early morning for the captain for a sail in unless he delegates to the Staff Captain which under BRM navigation rules is nowadays allowed. Weather tomorrow, another sunny day with temperatures in the low 20oC / 68oC. The predicted 29oC/80oF heatwave is petering out quickly so we are having the most perfect cruise weather you can think of.

 

2026 July 13; Bergen, Norway.

July 14, 2026 / / 2 Comments

We did make it to the pilot station at 10.00, and saw the pilot boarding at 09.57. Always nice if you have a cabin in the midships and you recognize the sound of the pilot boat engine. I suppose that will stop when they go electric, but I do not know how good electric engines are versus diesel in bad weather. And they have a lot of that here in the dark winter. Many guests were on the balconies as it was a sunny day with no real wind and 16 knots of relative – ship generated wind- is not something that blows you from your balcony. And it is a scenic ride into town with all the posh houses on the fjords sides interspersed with some industrial activity.  Most of it linked to the North Sea oil exploration. Norway itself derives most of it power needs from White Water but it has large oil deposits and thus sells to the whole world. By 10 am. we were docked with the tranquility of the arrival being broken by announcements of the Cruise Director trying to keep everybody away from the gangway and out of the staircases. In all my years of sailing, I have never been able to figure out what is better: no announcements (so guests are not alerted to the option of going and line up at the gangway) or to make announcements and hope that the guests will listen (mostly they do not).  In port with us was my old ship the ms Maasdam now sailing for Ambassador Cruises as the ms Renaissance and serving the French Market. Later on the Hurtigruten ferry/ cruise ship the Vesteraalens came in. She is officially a mail boat and coastal ferry but a lot of the (few) cabins on board are snapped up by tourists. Especially the Germans as they are heavily focused on it.  Our ship was docked at the Jetkeviken dock, which is a container cargo dock but the regular cruise terminals are too small for a 330 meter long ship. It also means that the walk into downtown Bergen is about 10 minutes longer.

The ms Sky Princess approaching the dock. The terminal facing the sea is the one in use by the local ferries.

As expected, at least 3500 guests marched ashore, so that gave us ample opportunity to inspect and enjoy the ship.  We decided not to go ashore as after a 100+ visits or so, there is not much new to see.  On board we could see a lot more as now there was nobody milling in the way of all the public areas, even if some of them were closed. We even managed to get a free soft ice cream today. There is a complimentary stand on Deck 16 (There is also a Gelato ice cream bar on deck 7, but they charge a considerable amount for artisan Gelato) Yesterday we could not even get near, as there was a enormous pile up of little children in front of it, who were in deep focus on a triple soft ice fix.  (The way that works is, that little Johnny gets a soft ice, rejoins the line, moves through the line while eating the ice cream and is ready for the next one, when arriving at the counter again.)

The Internet Cafe on Deck 7 midships. It is somewhat hidden behind “Collections” which is the chocolate shop. the pocket book exchange is in the back. The two center computer stations have no chairs as they are meant for wheelchair users.

The next discovery was, hidden yesterday by a gaggle of guests who did not know where to go, was the Internet cafe. Complete with printer, so if you have to print out your airline tickets, you do not have to go to the front desk. Here we also found the pocket-book exchange. The ship does not have a library, according to face book, Princess cruises expects everybody to embrace the digital future. But for those who only reluctantly follow modern times, they open up one of the dining rooms for undisturbed reading. In the same way that “The Catch” by Rudi’s restaurant has a section where you can play games. It was only a small pocket book exchange, especially with having 4000 people on board but many might not have found it yet. The only other one I have discovered so far is the one our Concierge lounge but that is not accessible to most guests.

The “Celebration” candy and chocolate store. Although in port the shops were closed, 3 weary shop staff were busy refilling the shelves. Looking at the empty boxes coming out, this shop must be in high demand.

A thing that is more and more coming is the increase of candy and chocolate sales on board. Where a small candy stand was once part of the General Drugstore on board, now a small drugstore section is part of a much larger candy store. If you look at the photo, you see at the top left a read sign hanging from the ceiling: “Spend your on board credit here”. And yes this shop is ideal to get rid of any dollars still left on the account, amounts when not enough left to buy something bigger.

The “Take Five” Jazz Club lounge open everyday from 17,30 onwards.

Another quiet lounge in port is the “Take Five” jazz lounge on the port side, which has a resident Jazz band which plays every evening from 17.30 hrs. onwards. It does not suffer from the “marching crowds” on their way from one show lounge to the other, as it is wedged between  the ships theatre and the photo shop. Main reason is that less people come out of the Show lounge on the lower level and those that do seem to favour flowing / marching through the Casino, which is on the Starboard side. We have not visited  this lounge yet, as we only like old fashioned melodious jazz and are not fans of a Dizzy Gillespy “Glissando’s” going through the sound barrier.

A lonely table in the Piazza, but no goofy’s.

Then we wanted to see what the Cruise Staff did on port days so at noon time we moved to the Piazza for “Goofy Golf” only to find a lonely table but no “goofy’s'” around at all.   There was a cruise staff lady present but she was much more interested n chatting up the Sound Guy then assembling a gaggle of goofy’s to play golf.

But as there was hardly anybody there, I saw for the first time, the center piece sculpture in the lower sitting area.

A double headed bronze sculpture. Located in the lower level sitting area of the Atrium.

I can not tell what it is supposed to be as there was no name plate nearby. And that is a pity, there is a lot of art hanging around the ship but while the framed artwork in the staircases and the corridors all have name plates ( as have the photos in the cabins) the more elaborate art does not.

The art in cabin R604. A photo by a certain Greg S. depicting as shot of the house of Parliament in Budapest and an unknown painting without a description.

I am always very interested in art on board the ships, so I would love to know what this painting is called, who made it, and what it is supposed to mean. Here I can also say that Housekeeping is certainly not into art, as this painting is almost falling out of its frame as the glue around the edges has dried out. But checking that does not seem to be of “perfect cabin set-up” that most ships have.  (Princess has one, as I saw a new cabin steward checking his manual of where the toilet brush should stand. (Left of the toilet when looking in)

We decided to have cocktails on the balcony as it was a very pleasant temperature outside and if you pay for a balcony then you should use it when possible. Our cabin is entitled to canape’s before dinner and what I like is that you have to pre-order them the day before with a sort of Room-Service menu so you can choose out of 5 or  so options. It certainly saves wastage in case people are not in the cabin to eat them, or do not like them.

Then it was time for dinner and as part of our package we had “The Catch” by Rudi included.  We know Rudi Sodamin for a long time. My wife sailed with him in the 1980’s when he was sous chef on the Vistafjord and then for years he was involved with Holland America. That eventually led him to get married to a very rich Dutch Lady that he met during a ms Rotterdam world cruise and with whom he is now living in Monte Carlo. Now he has the “Sel de Mer” restaurants on the Holland America Line ships, “Rudi’s Sea Grill” on the Carnival Ships and “The Catch by Rudi” on the Princess ships.

The menu of “The Catch by Rudi’s” restaurant. The restaurant lay-out is nothing special and I could not get a photo of it, without anybody in it, as nowadays it is so difficult to take photos, especially if there are children in it.

The food was very good, with large portions (The jumbo shrimp looked like the size of a small lobster) and a nice wine list. Service was good, friendly but not very focused, as with the continuous resetting of the tables, it is just a restaurant like the others albeit, with a dedicated menu. Sel de Mer on Holland America started out as a real speciality restaurant with high quality waiters and then it was slowly but steadily was watered down with not so highly trained stewards and having too many guests at the same time for the waiters to serve properly. Here there was no shortage of waiters but they had to keep the pace going to keep it all under control. According  to repeat guests, Princess has been squeezing here  on the product with one full main course removed and the champagne served at the start “watered” down as it used to be in bigger glasses with fruit in the champagne.

This got us through to 22.00 hrs. so we had to skip the show which started at 21.30 hrs. This evening it was an acrobat duo, and her Ladyship prefers shows, so all was well in the world.  When coming back to the cabin, we had another surprise, the TV popped on and showed both our Mugshots on the screen as welcome back. I assume again due to his medallion sending out a signal ahead of our approach.

People who are vain, must love this product as one’s face keeps popping up everywhere.

Tomorrow we are in Skjolden in Sognefjord. And that is a new port for us. It used to be frequented by smaller cruise ships but in 2018 they put in a dock and now the big boys are calling as well. I am looking forward to see how a small town can be engulfed by 4000 invading tourists.

Weather for tomorrow:  Clear Skies, wind still (we are in fjord with steep cliffs on either side) and temperatures with a max. of 27oC / 80oF. so it should be very pleasant to walk to “downtown”.

 

 

 

2026 July 12; At Sea.

July 13, 2026 / / 2 Comments

The Sky Princess. (Photo Courtesy Princess crusies)

Today we are having a sea day so the ship can get to Bergen in Norway. It has to maintain a speed of 19.5 knots to get there on time and I assume that has to do with the fact that it does not fit under the bridge that lets you approach Bergen from the South. S o it can not use the southern entrance & pilot station to the Fjord system in which Bergen is located but has to go to the  northern entrance and then sail south again for 2 hours, to the dock. The captain,  Tony Draper did not elaborate on it. Although he made a nice departure speech it was devoid of much pertinent information.  But watching the crowd while he made his announcement, I did not get the impression that many guests even cared that he made an announcement. The ship is of a size that is it somewhere in between a cruise ship and a floating destination (like the Oasis class of RCI) and then the presence of a captain is pushed more to the catagory of “one of those driving the ship”.  But he has been at sea for 30 years and his first ship was the Island Princess (sister of the Love Boat) the Pacific Princess, a ship I know well as well, as it sailed with us between 1984 and 1986 in Alaska and the winter season to Acapulco.

Captain Tony Draper, Master of the ms Sky Princess. (Photo taken from the ships Daily Program “Princess Patter”)

The Sky Princess came into service in 2019 and of course went out of service again in 2020 when Covid hit the industry. It has a size of 145.282 Gross tons which makes it still a medium sized cruise ship but leaning to the large side. Length of 330 meters with 4 diesel electric engines delivering a maximum speed of 23 knots.  Service speed between 19 and 22 knots, although as with most cruise ships now the service speed lays around 16 knot so the ship can run more efficiently on 2 engines.  Official capacity is 3660 passengers in 1830 cabins (81% with balconies) and a crew of 1200. This cruise we have over 4000 guests on board, courtesy of the school holidays and 1134 crew on board.

This morning we took it slow as we knew that the ship would be large area of “controlled chaos” with over 4000 guests on board. Plus we needed time to figure out how the Princess App works and what you can do with it. Although Princess tries to go digital all the way, it still understands that there are lot of “digitally challenged” people out there and thus there is still a steady stream of paperwork coming to the cabin with all sorts of information and there is still the hard copy of Princess Patter the daily program. (This is named after the daily program on board the first – charter- ship of Princess back in 1965; the Princess Patricia, which was an old ferry . Originally employed between Vancouver and Alaska).  Princess does not stint on things to do on board so going through the densely printed Daily Program takes some time as well. We get fruit in the cabin, and not in small portions and that enough for breakfast after a heavy dinner.

By 11.00 we felt mentally ready to face the Princess world again and went for a walk about and indeed it was very busy everywhere. So if you had not pre-booked for any of the venues then it was hard to get in. Bars and related all had long lines including the International Cafe which s provides free sandwiches and cakes all day, and you only pay for the coffee and drinks. (A bit like the Grand Cafe on Holland America and the Carinthia Lounge on Cunard, but then on a much larger scale; and it is open 24 hours a day. It seems that there are a lot of guests on this ship who wake up around 3 am in the morning and then feel the urgent need make an expedition to Deck 5 to stack up on more calories. We were not surprised that there was a long, long line waiting here and most of those in line were of a weight that should have urged them not to have been in line.

After scrutinising the program we found out that in one dining room (there are three main dining rooms, they are free of charge but you have to book your time) the Estrella, they had a section reserved for Princess Premium guests, and  that includes our cabin. Thus we had to go there to find out what this was. It turned out that the menu was the same but by filtering us out from the rest of the crowd, it was less busy and thus we could have a more relaxed lunch.

With 17 ships, Princess sails everywhere and it has even ships especially designated for the Chinese and Far East market. Which is growing and thus they are dedicating a 3 ships to it.

We were on a mission as at 13.00 hrs., we had to be in the Vista Lounge at the stern to be part of “Cruising with Princess”. Not many people there but the Future Cruise Lady gave a presentation with a little of Princess history, 60 years old this year, what the fleet was made up of,  what new ships were coming and their differences, and where the ships were sailing and how the discount system worked . A sort of “book your cruise” but  without the sales pitch. Also explained was the difference between Princess Plus and Princess Premium the two on board packages that you can buy. We have the premium version which includes nearly everything you want to do.  And if you go to the included speciality restaurants which are all $ 55,– and over, and have a few drinks, then you are already breaking even. Not counting the free internet (for 4 devices, free laundry and a few other things)

Some of the senior hotel staff, participating in the welcome on board games including the Hotel manager.

This was directly followed by “Welcome to new Princess cruisers” happening hosted by the Cruise Director. It was very meagerly attended (we have 1500 new Princess cruisers on board, but only about 50 in the lounge)but turned out to be a nice introduction to Princess with prices given, a few games  and with the participation of the some of the Sr. Hotel Staff. I do not care very much for “Charades” games  but there was free champagne, with refills, so all was well in the world.  Once this was over, we had to run out as it was time for “Bingo”, and we hardly had time to get out of our seats as an tsunami of old ladies swarmed over the lounge all eager to get the best seats in the house.

The digital screen. All the photos you see are from guests whose medallion is in the vinciniity.

Our next mission was the photo shop. As mentioned on day one, we have all digital photos included in our package that we have taken out, so it was time to check what the results were. You can do it from you App. as well and then download them directly but a bigger screen gives more details. Again we came across a nifty thing due to the medallion. Once you come close to the digital display board, your own photos pop up in the rotation of advertised “show photos”. When they take your photo the photographer has a sensor on his camera so the medallion automatically “anchors” the photos taken to your name. All of them appear on the screen and you can delete those you do not want. We are the sinners in the top right.

The whole happening started at 18.15 hrs. with a short show by the cast celebrating drinking champagne.

Then it was time to run back to the cabin to get changed as it was captains formal welcome on board. Princess is really pushing this Formal dress thing but is not getting very far. At least not this cruise. We dressed up but we were in the 10% minority. The most effort I saw was that men had changed into long pants and some of them even made the effort of wearing a jacket and the occasional tie. With such a large ship, I think that Princess has to designate a bar solely for those who make the effort as a sort of thank you. But we like to dress up, so we did. Visited all the Photographers we could find, who were very busy, even with those whose formal consisted out of shorts and a Budweiser T. Shirt.  And then we were lucky to find a space on the edge of the Atrium so we could see the Captains Welcome. 95% of those also around the atrium were still in “beach attire” but nobody seemed to care. I think most guests saw the whole happening as a part of a short show interlude.

The captain advised that this cruise there were 1159 Americans on board and 1134 British and the rest people were from other countries, including 144 from Portugal. He did not go down the complete list (as some captains do, as it is an easy way to get a lot of applause) so I never found out if I was unique with being Dutch.

Captain Tony welcoming everybody on board. I have never seen so many officers introduced. (See the whole circle around the floor) This was done by the Cruise Director but as he only announced name, function and home country it did not take that long. The captain was then the last one to appear, so he could launch directly into his speech.

Which in a way it was, a short show interval, as it was also called  the “Captains Champagne Waterfall”. For this a champagne glasses tower was erected in the Atrium and after the Captains Appearance, the Beverage Manager started poring champagne as a waterfall, down the glasses and guests could join in and have their photo taken. And there were a lot of guests interested.

The Beverage manager on the steps behind the champagne tower starting to pour. A long line was forming on the deck from where I took the photo, of those who wanted to immortailized with the champagne tower.

For us was it was then moving with the crowds towards more food. We had booked Sabatini’s, which is the Italian Restaurant on board. We had already heard that it was extremely popular so we were quite happy to get a reservation at the time of 19.30 hrs. We wanted to be a bit early as Lesley wanted to make the Revue show as Princess has a great reputation for shows.

Sabatini’s is modern in lay-out and nice and spacious. As long you are sitting close to the seaside / windows you are not bothered by the music in the Atrium and you can even hear Andrea Bocelli singing as background music in the restaurant.

The menu is not “designer” Italian for advanced Foodies but features the regular starters and main courses, such as Spaghetti ala Carabonari and other wellknown dishes. The food was extremely good with very large portions. Service was attentive  but fast and the waiters did not have much time for a chat or an elaborate explanation of how it all went. But it was very good. With the large portions we skipped desert which was only two options anyway as we went to the show.

The cast of the Rock Opera. According to the Princess Website  this is a new show and we had the original cast in the show, as seen here on the photo. (Photo Courtesy Princess Cruises)

As mentioned before the Theater is much too small to accommodate all on board, so you have to get in 20 minutes before the start to get a good seat.  There were plenty of ushers around (Junior Hotel officers) to get the crowd to their seats as fast as possible.  With our On Board Package we have preferential seating but all those seats were in the “flat” directly under the stage but then you do not have oversight over the whole stage. But the top rows were still empty and we found out that with such a large stage, the top seats were perfect. At exactly 21.30 they closed the doors and from then on, they did not let anybody in anymore. With good reason as all seats were taken.

I have no photos of the show as we had THAT announcement again but the show called “Rock Opera” was good. It was VERY GOOD, Princess did live up to their reputation with very good singers and very good choreography. Basically it was a mixture of Opera like sounding Musical song, or Opera songs that sounded good on a Rock beat. The cast consisted of 15 members and 6 musicians, all on stage. Very impressed.

A good 50 minute show and by the time it was finished it was 23.20 as we had an hour forward tonight. so we called it a day.

Tomorrow we have the pilot at 10 am and then 2 hour journey through the fjords to Bergen. This might be the last day with cooler weather: 19oC / 67oF and then the British heatwave is expected to descend over South Norway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2026 July 11; Southampton, England.

July 12, 2026 / / 7 Comments

We are on our way to our next cruise adventure, a 7 day cruise to Norway with the Sky Princess of Princess Cruises. A completely new company for us and as they have a ship sailing from Southampton, we grabbed the chance and as Lesley managed to get a good deal by booking early, we went for it.  I do not know anything about the Princess Cruises product so it is all going to be completely new to us. The company is a relatively new cruise company, only 60 years young, compared to Holland America with 150 years, Cunard with 185+ years and the oldest one, P&O which started cruising in 1851 and sailing another 20 years earlier. (Although they did not call it cruising in those days but “excursions”.  Princess is also a sub company of Carnival Corporation and was for a while part of the HAL group under the leadership of Stein Kruse until it was decided not too long ago to abolish this holding company again. It had served its purpose and the “brands” where becoming too different to get any “synergy” out of it anymore, to use some management speak.

The Hilton hotel in Southampton which is an integrated part of the Utilita Bowl, for cricket games. (Photo courtesy Utilita Bowl)

So yesterday we drove to Southampton and stayed overnight in the Hilton Hotel at the Utilita Bowl, which is one of the biggest cricket stadiums in England. The drive down was interesting with a lot of small hold-ups mainly caused by cars that were overheating  or breaking down due to heat related issues. All the roads nearby the Hotel had Crowd Control Barriers in place, to stop wild parking , as there is the “England Men versus India” game tomorrow. While we were checking in, several die hard fans already arrived with cool boxes in tow, all set to spend a sweltering day in the sun, as the temperature is supposed to go up to 90 oF or 32 oC and that is very hot for England. If you want to spend the money, you can book a Hotel room that overlooks the pitch with your own private balcony. I have not even looked at those prices but they must be considerable. We stayed the night before with a “park your car” deal. That includes a taxi to and from the ship, and that makes life as easy as it gets.

The personal medallion. You do not have to wear it around you neck, it works as well when in the pocket,

So the next day the taxi popped as planned and were delivered at the ship right on time for our check in moment. The roads were busy as also in port where the Ventura, the MSC Orchestra and Celebrity Apex. Also big boys with a capacity between 3000 and 6000 beds. The Sky Princess (sailing with 4000+ this cruise) was docked at berth 37/39 commonly known as the Ocean Terminal. This is one of the bigger terminals which makes check in and going through security somewhat easier. Dropping of the luggage was very easy, there were 4 bays and all were clearly marked with the  cabin numbers and with Stewards directing people very efficiently.  Then I was really impressed in the way Princess handles check-in. There were about 500 guests going through the pipe line at the same moment but it took less then 5 minutes to get to the counter, The Lady took less then 5 minutes to verify our passports and give us our medallion. This is a sort of sensor / boarding pass/ cabin key , all in one and should take all the hassle out of being on board.  Even security was fast, noting that the  handling personnel was a lot younger than in  the smaller terminals. With Fred Olsen we always seem to have an older group  that handles security, and they tend to be too friendly with a nice chat and thus the flow slows down.

Lesley has booked an on board package “Princess Premium” which basically includes everything you normally pay for. Including all on board photos. (all digital and 3 print outs) So instead of avoiding the photographers at all cost we are now planning to stop at each stand to see what the result is. And that started directly in the terminal.

The front door screen, reacting when it senses the medallion. You can push the red button for privacy and your names are on the top. When you approach it shows the “mugshots” of yourselves as used y security.

The medallion kicked in and getting on board was a breeze and went very fast.  As Lesley had booked a Suite on Deck 14 (called Riviera Deck) we did not have to wait for cabins to be ready and could just march in. Here the medallion kicked in again. When about 5 feet away from the door, it senses the medallion and the door unlocks. At the same time the cabin steward can see that you have arrived and are in the cabin, so he/she knows when to go in and when to do meet and greet. It is a bit of big brother watching you but it works extremely well and no need to put your hand luggage down, find you cabin key etc.etc.

Suitcases arrived about 1.5 hours after dropping them off, which is for a big ship with  4000+ guests on board not a bad score at all.  While waiting for them to arrive we went to report at our Assembly station after watching the safety video. The ship had quite a bit of challenges to get the crowd to conform with the requirement as 20 minutes before sailing there were still 559 guests outstanding on the Boat drill record. I wonder how they dealt with that as it questionable that they could reach all of those in 20 minutes. We also have a considerable  contingent of Japanese, Koreans and Portugese on board , three nations who are not known for applying the rules on board as expected. Sometimes because of language barriers, sometimes because of a different approach to time constraint matters. And then there is always a group, who do not listen to any announcement at all, do not read any paper work, but do scream the loudest when something happens or they miss out.

But the ship sailed on time and the captain (more tomorrow) was in a hurry as Norway is a long way away from Southampton, so the ship has to maintain an average speed of 20 knots to get to our first port of call, Bergen, Norway. And we are going to have headwinds of about force 7 to 8.

We did a quick walk around to get a feeling for the lay-out of the ship. Most public rooms are on Deck 5,6, 7, and then on the top levels of 16,17.  You can book all your dining room reservations and other things on line before joining but if you want to change them you have to go to the outlet. We had ended up with two speciality dining options at 21.00 hrs. so we went to change them.  If you do not want to do it yourself, then there is the concierge in the concierge lounge,  which covers our cabin classification. That lounge  also has nibbles and hand food from 07.00 hrs. to 14.00 hrs.and then from 17.00 hrs. to 21.00 hrs. again. Between 1730 and 1930 there are free cocktails as well. It is only a small lounge but the Wedding Chapel is  attached to it and they can open the connecting doors and then there is more than enough space.  The concierge lady is Dorothy from South Africa and there is Irma from Mexico and Mi-luh from Bali (She is Indonesian from Chinese descent) as waitresses.

The Ships Theatre near the bow. There are 2 more show venues but this one is for the main shows. The side lines are excellent. except on the front section, where you have to hope that the person in front of you is not too tall.

The ship is setup is the same as are all larger ships nowadays, expecting that not all guests want to do the same thing at the same time, so only a 3rd of the ships capacity fits in the show lounge and also most of the food and drink outlets around the Atrium are based on a continuous flow  of guests. Thus very much based on the American system of moving along from one thing to the other. While the British tend to linger much more in place with multiple cups of tea and a good natter. On the MSC Orchestra that was a real challenge, so let’s see how it works here.

The Atrium in the center of the ship. It goes up 3 decks and a lot of venues are located around it.

We are expecting that the heat wave will follow us all the way to Norway and thus the top decks with the pools will be very busy. We had a quick look to see what the “Sail Away” party was all about but when we arrived there, it was only a very loud band.  They large screen is in use all day long, with the first movie at 10.30 and then running on into the late evening. Tonight they will screen the football match England – Norway and that should attract a large crowd.( It did when we walked by at 22.30 hrs. with hundreds of fans, huddled together and wrapped in towels and blankets, as the English heatwave is currently not extending yet into the night on a sailing ship.

The view towards the stern on Deck 16 with the large TV screen. As you can see the guests were already out in force to enjoy the nice weather.

After unpacking and cocktails in the Concierge Lounge, we descended into the ship and had another drink before dinner in the Crown Bar on Deck 7 near the Vista Lounge, which is the 2nd show venue. The Crown Bar and lounge has live music at times and an ample seating area but is split through the middle by the walkway into the rest of the ship. So if you want to do people viewing, it is a great location. Here we came across the next impact of the Princess Medallion. The moment the waitress approaches you,  your names, cabin number and drinks package pops up on her tablet. So you get always greeted by name and also informed at once, if you drinks order is covered by the package yes or no. With our package nearly everything is covered, as it goes to $20,– a drink. (We also are entitled to 15 bottles of water a day and we have no way how we are going to drinks those, plus there is free water in the Concierge Lounge as well)

For Dinner we were in the Crown Grill, which has a good selection of food but with a focus on meat. This restaurant has a cover charge of $ 55.– a person but for us it is included in the package. The food is cooked in an open kitchen, although from your table you can not see into the kitchen, only the heads of the cooks bobbing by. The food was extremely good, but the service chaotic. nothing arrived on time or was synchronized with other people on the time. Whether the TOP  is not high enough or they were under TOP, but the waiters (dressed as French Brasserie waiters) were keeping up a constant banter to distract the guests from regcognizing the hiccups in the service.

After dinner I was ready to collapse after the intensive drive on Englands Motorway’s so we have a quick walk around and then retired. We have to go forward one hour for Norway but on this ship they do the time change on formal night.

Tomorrow we are at sea. The weather looks sunny but very windy, but not too much swell so the ship should be fairly steady. Mainly overcast later in the day and chilly in the wind an temperatures around 14oC / 57oF.

 

 

 

 

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