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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: Cruises of the Past (page 1 of 4)

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

August 19, 2026 / / 3 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.

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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 11, Alesund, Norway.

August 12, 2026 / / 2 Comments

After a slow cruising night at sea, out of the fjord of Olden, we went back in, into the Fjord of Alesund. Although not very much inside as Alesund is located at the entrance of a fjord. Not just a fjord, but Alesund forms the entrance  to the Storjorden Fjord system, which includes the Geiranger fjord system and the Hjorund fjord. (that is the one with the steep cliffs and waterfalls).  So apart from being a port and destination in itself it is also the gateway to a lot of other destinations.  Hence there is a large pilot station just outside Alesund which provides pilots for all the (cruise) ships going in.  In the past a cruise ship would pick up the pilot at a pilot station somewhere (Bergen has a north and south pilot station and there are a lot more, like Alesund) and then keep them on board for the duration of the cruise. Through the years that became very expensive as these pilots had to be paid, as if they were working even if they were not working. So, when the ships were  docked,  the cruises were adapted so that the pilots came on for the day and then left at the end of the day. The ship would then spend the night at sea and then pick up the next pilot up the next morning. The pilots of course did not like that very much, they way too much enjoyed life on board, but their managers of course did, as they had many more pilots available for ships and did not loose any idle piloting hours.

Air photo from Alesund. This photo comes from my 2018 blog when I was there with the ms Koningsdam. The red line is the regular cruise route sailing in

This cruise the captain kept a pilot on board when travelling up the coast because of the bad weather. If the weather is too wobbly outside, the pilot cannot board and the ship cannot go in. It is very seldom that they allow a ship to sail in a few miles themselves to get into the shelter to make a lee for the pilot boat. The coast is very dangerous. I will point that out when the ship gets to Bodo. Then the option is there to get a pilot on board and keep him/her for the duration of the time when the ship is travelling in one pilotage area. That made is possible that the ms Aurora was not that much affected by the bad weather on day 2 and 3 of this cruise.

So by 0800 hrs. the ms Aurora was docked at the Alesund cruise terminal, a berth we shared with the ms Aida Nova. That ship is 180.000+ tons with 6000 guests on board so considerably larger than the ms Aurora. The most outstanding thing is that this ship has on board, is a fully operating brewery, and a Fahrrad Meister or bicycle boss as the ship carries about a 100 bicycles for tours. That gives rise to two funny observations, When I talked to the captain of another Aida ship, he explained how the brewery worked; and in the distilling process there is a critical moment, when the brew in the copper tanks has to be as motionless as possible. That gave the Brau-Meister as the only crew member on board the right to call the captain directly and ask him to slow down. change course or whatever was needed to prevent any motion.

With the Fahrrad meister is was something else, I saw this myself when in 2018 I was as Fleet Master visiting one of our ships that was docked next door in Bergen. Walking over to see how their gangway operation worked, I arrived at the moment that these 100 bikes were carried ashore. This was done by a trained crew of 10, who worked on a highly drilled system that got the 100 bikes out in 10 minutes over the gangway without hindering each other, lining them up perfectly on the dock side (60 cm. apart) and giving them a final check. When asking I found out that this routine was developed to ensure that the gangway was not blocked any longer than was absolutely necessary.  This was not just a group of crew carrying some bikes ashore, no this was a “eins, zwei, drei” drill routine, preparing for a German invasion of Bergen by bike.  I wonder if they still do this, as it was really impressive and professional to watch.

One of old Alesunds main streets. Cobbled stone and Jugend Still Houses. Courtesy of the German Emperor

 

Alesund has another German connection. Most of the town, made of wood,  burned down in January 1904. The German Emperor Wilhelm II had (as most Germans have) a deep love of the Norwegian fjords and took his yacht their often for holidays When he heard about the catastrophe  (over 10.000 people were made homeless) he sent a number of  ships full of aid. food, medicine and building materials and also specialised labour. Very quickly the whole town was rebuilt in  German Jugend Still / Art Nouveau style. As a result most of Alesund does not look like a Norwegian town at all, but a German town from around the turn of the 20th. century.  While Wilhelm II has not gone down in history as a very popular person, as he more or less started World War I, in Alesund he is very fondly remembered with a street named after him and a monument. Also when we walked into town, we saw his photo in several areas.

We decided to go ashore  in the afternoon as it was dry by then and also because we expected that most of the 6000 Germans of had returned to the ship. Alesund downtown area is not that big, so 6000 extra people make an impact.  So before we went for lunch in the Lido.  I think that the alert readers of this blog have already noticed that the food on the Aurora (and also on the other P&O ships) is not as distinctive as with other company’s.  Our visit to the Lido  at 12noon confirmed that. I am getting the impression that P&O is spending more on the entertainment which has been more than excellent so far than on  food. It is not that the food is bad, it is more the sameness and the lack of choice. The only positive thing I can say about it, it helps me from putting on too much weight. Which is a real challenge with the Lido’s of Holland America, Princess, Celebrity and to a certain extent Cunard.   No more said about it. What did amaze me, with all the British around, that there were more then enough crew members to clear tables, but here was not a single bar waiter around to sell drinks. Is there a secret that British suddenly do not enjoy a drink with lunch anymore ? Who knows.

The cruise dock is about a 10 minute walk away from the gangway, with the tour coaches, sightseeing trolleys, and local buses all lined up directly at the main bus stop just outside the Gate.  The “downtown” area of  Alesund is then right there. We first ended up in a small shopping mall which gave us the idea of the local prices; about double of the prices in an English supermarket, and then walked into the street, which there where a large number or Real Estate agents congregated. No reason to buy a house or apartment in Alesund, expensive for regular size dwellings and very expensive for the large stuff. We saw a mansion for sale, which came to £ 28 million but would have gone for about £ 5 million in the UK. But that is maybe because the UK has a lot more mansions than Norway. And then there seemed to be a lot of secondary taxes to consider as well. Let’s say you do not move here for a cheaper housing market. But then Norway is one of the richest countries in the world.

When back on board, we stepped in what I call Life On Board Surealism. We had already found out that there were officers on board who were reading my blog and up our return two gentlemen in white popped up shortly after we were back in the cabin. They were there to inquire if we were enjoying ourselves and if everything was ok. It seems that they were alerted by my remark about table cloths some days ago. So we had a good conversation and I ensured them that the Butler was doing great and the cabin stewardess was doing great as well.  As is nothing easier for a supervisor to do but to blame something on a crew member.

So I managed to get the conversation on the fact, that P&O Office (brochure, website) is very vague about what the duties of the Butler exactly were, as there is nothing on paper. The brochure even talks about an “optional butler”, whatever that is.  After I explained that other crew had spoken to me in confidence (it is amazing how fast word travels around of who you are) that one Suite Cabin on a cruise before had taken advantage of this, to the extent that other cabins were suffering (luckily the other cabins understood and banded together with the crew to make it work) a light bulb went off.

Then I said if I can ask the Butler anything, can I ask him to paint our balcony ? That got  them off the butler topic  and on to painting. And then they explained, which is the same with every  company, that there is a balcony maintenance program on board but it is very hard to get permission from the guests as they do not want have the sailors coming through the cabin. So I offered them, to do our balcony and we will be out early and work around them for the day.  Then at least they get one balcony done.That was very well received and we will now wait to see what the Staff Captain can plan.

Miss Abbie Edwards with the tribute “Adele Express” performing in the Carmen’s lounge.

Then it was time to think about cocktails. With the 3 show rooms on Deck 7, it is hard to choose where to go, but today there was a 19.15 hrs. performance by a lady who was a tribute to the singer Adele (well known from the title song “Sky-Fall” of the same named James Bond Movie). In was in the  Carmen’s lounge where there is Bar service during the show and thus we could combine both. This was an English Lady, called Abbie Edwards, who had boarded today, had never been on a cruise ship and was thrown directly into the deep. But Oh Boy, was she good. She sounded like “Adele”, could belt out the songs like Adele and even looked like Adele.  She was already booked for more P&O ships in the rest of the year, and I think P&O is on to a winner here. She was very good.

That ended just on time to make dinner. Tonight service was more relaxed again than yesterday and this time I clocked  1h. and 20 minutes.  There were Indian dishes on the menu and that made the dinner not so bland. We are dealing with an English crowd here, and the English kitchen is not known for food with a bit of a zumpf. But this way it was nice.

Then we had made sure that we made it on time to the Show Lounge (This lounge does not have Bar service, as the chairs are too close together in a cinema set-up) to see the next show. Tonight we had an Electric Harp player called Rebecca Mills.  Nice songs and she also explained how an Electric harp (called a lever harp) works. It goes a bit like a piano where you can change the length of the piano wires for the black  keys.

Mrs. Rebecca Mills in concert together with Harpo Marx.

The highlight was when she played together with Harpo Marx. Harpo was the 3rd Marx Brother who did not speak but communicated by musical instruments. She showed a recorded small Movie called “the Big Store” where he played the harp (and the cello and the violin) So she played along with him on the movie screen and it was very good, and very intriguing to watch and listen.  They do have some very good Entertainers here.

While we were in the dinning room 20.30 hrs. the captain came on the tannoy, to announce he had to go back to Alesund (we left at 18.00 hrs.) because there was a medical evacuation. So he was going back to the pilot station and do a boat transfer. As it is a slow speed run to the Lofoten (Port of Leknes) the deviation was not going to affect our arrival time. I calculated that he would be back at the pilot station around 22.30 hrs., make a lee lower the tender platform and do a quick transfer. Something must have happened as by midnight, the Aurora was just again leaving the downtown area of Alesund. I just hope the patient is ok. Hopefully there will be an announcement.

Coming back to the cabin, we found two sun glasses in the cabin for observing the eclipse of tomorrow evening. We are not inside the full eclipse band but we should see a partial one. Whether we will  see something remains to be seen, as it is expected that it will be fully overcast but hopefully I will be wrong.

 

 

2026, August 08: At Sea.

August 9, 2026 / / 3 Comments

Today was a full day at sea while the good ship ms Aurora sped through the North Sea northwards to Norway. During the night we sailed through the English Channel and this morning we passed my home town on the Norfolk Coast but too far away to even see the coast.

The ship is under the command of Captain Karl Shephard who went to sea in 2000 as a cadet on coastal tankers. And that makes now feel really old as I made captain the year he became cadet. He then joined Carnival UK in 2003. Carnival UK is  part of Carnival Corporation of Miami and controls Cunard Line and P&O Cruises. This set up makes it possible to rotate officers between the two company’s, which in the beginning caused quite an upheavel as both company’s  have a very unique tradition and culture.  I remember that the Cunard crews had a collective heart attack when a P&O commodore (Bernie Warners) took command of the Queen Mary 2.  The Commodore title has since been retired and I think the only company that still has one is Princess Cruises.

Captain Karl Shepherd, Master of the ms Aurora.

So also Captain Shephard was assigned to the various ships within  the two company’s and this continued when he made Captain.  In the old days this would be unheard of but now the bridge & engine watch routines of all company’s under the Carnival Umbrella are standarised by continous training at the company’s simulators at Almere in the Netherlands . And so company routines and tradition do not matter that much anymore.  The product delivered on board is now categorized as a “Brand” and decided on market demands and is now less and less an organically grown “way of doing things”. Hence a captain is now less a “Master of the vessel” but more a Technician who provides a navigational and safety service to the product. There is still the legal side of course but also that is taken more and more over by the shore side as there is nowadays constant communication. So the function keeps changing and evolving in a ever changing world.

We started our day with breakfast in the cabin. The P&O cabin breakfast card is quite limited compared to some other company’s but sufficient if you do not have a big appetite and can live with a focus on Continental Breakfast. It was delivered by our Butler but it was not different than regular room service. Butler service normally means setting the table but that did not happen, although we have a round full size table and table cloth in the cupboards. I hope to find out in the coming days what the exact brief of the Butler is as there is no listing available of what exactly the Butlers duties are.  That is so far also the hardest thing here on board; the cabin is full of little cards and I will post a table full of them at the end of the cruise, with do’s, don’ts and advise but very little about the EXACT perks that come with a suite.

Same for the TV.  The On Board TV system is not as advanced as on other ships. There is no in house movie library, only a dedicated channel with movies)  and there was also no listing of the TV programs. or which channel the news is on etc.  When mentioning this to the Butler, he said but we have a weekly TV program and I can get one “if you want to”. So he brought one but it begs the question why was it not standard in the cabin on arrival ?

There is a cabin directory  but the information about the Peninsular Club (*) loyalty program  is not the same as what is delivered. Same goes for information on the P&O website.  It does not detract from enjoying the cruise but little details do reflect on the care a company shows to the guest / customer.

(* What is irritating and somewhat nasty, is that depending on the Club level, you get 5%, 10% or 15% off on all on board purchases. BUT that only kicks in when you have spent your On Board Credit. So if your Travel Agent has secured a good deal for you with P&O, with on board credit included, then you as a loyal customer are penalised by not getting your discount you are entitled to after investing a lot of money in previous cruises)

The Inside Pages of “Horizon”, the daily program of the ms Aurora.

We continued our day with exploring the ship and so far really like it as has a lot of features which makes laid back cruising and enjoying cocktails in the evening very nice. P&O still has a dress code and announces that it enforces it, which means dining rooms and certain public rooms are only accessible when you are in formal. If you do not want to dress up, some other venues are still available including the Self Service Restaurant. So before going on our round we scrutinised the Full Colour daily program and together with the one from the Sky Princess, it is one of the most extensive programs I have come across. Compliments.

The Port Talk or Destinations Ashore. Not done with the Shore Excursion manager standing behind a Podium but having an informal chat sitting down with the Cruise Director.

Lesley wanted to see “Let’s Talk destination” as being a Shore Excursion Expert after 40 years escorting Tours on  the ships.  This was an overview by the Shore Excursion Manager assisted by the Cruise Director. She wanted to see it, as A to find out something about Haagesund where we are tomorrow and B. to see what they exactly talked about.  Lesley was very impressed. Instead of being a pure sales -spiel for the ships tours, this was a genuine Destinations Briefing. All the important details in the port, including walking options, local buses, local tours, shops, were included. It was really about supporting the Guests to have the best cruise experience possible.  I wished that more company’s would focus more on the guests, than on the revenue. The Shore Excursion Manager, from Brazil and ably assisted by the C.D. did a very good job. Compliments.

The Ships library. With a very good selection of books. There are four lines like this one with bookcases.

While Lesley was enjoying the Port Talk, I went around the ship for photos and to see how the ship passenger flow worked. It was a sunny day  and the ship has a lot of area’s protected by wind/glass screens, so every deck stretcher was taken. As if ……… we did not have enough in England sun in the last few weeks…………   Behind the “Crowsnest” (it is really called the Crowsnest, same as on the HAL ships) there is a library with a nice selection of books. No librarian present so it is all “on your honour” for borrowing. Looking at the pocket book exchange there are a lot of readers on board.  There are 4 cosy seats in the window for readers and in good Library Custom, three were full of guests sleeping and the 4th. one occupied by a musician reviewing his charts for an upcoming performance on board.

One corner of the “Uganda Room”.

On the other side is the “Uganda Room”. The ms Uganda is a legendary name in British Maritime history. She was built as a  troopship and regular passenger carrier for the  British India (B.I) Line,  a company which became a subsidiary of P&O. Then she became a Summer Holiday ship for children and then went as a Hospital ship to the Falklands during the 1981/82 war.  When back, there was a concerted effort to save her as a museum /hotel (Same as the ss Rotterdam V in Rotterdam) but it did not work out, so she went for scrap. But it is nice that the ship is remembered by means of a lounge on board the ms Aurora. This space is now being used for informal gatherings (Bill W lives here) and church services.

A full size model of the ss Uganda. With the B.I Lines funnel colours.

Behind this, is the Upper level of the Crystal Pool area with a magrodome. When HAL was bought by Carnival in 1989, the trademark/copyright which Holland America held after it had bought the Home Line ships, went to Carnival Corporation and all new company ships since that time now have a magrodome. Today, with the sunny weather it was open. Tomorrow it will be probably be closed as rainy weather is coming.

Part of the “Crystal Pool” with the Magrodome on top.

This deck doubles up as Sports deck, with 3 pens for golf club swinging, shuffleboard, paddle tennis / pickle ball etc.etc. and several staircases connects between Deck 12 (with the Bars) and Deck 13 for the Sports. With so many people using the area, P&O has stratigically stationed several bars here, with the Crowsnest Bar inside, Crystal Bar at the pool, The Riviera Bar  midships and the Pennant Bar at the stern, and all within easy reach by walking one Deck.

Three Golf practising Pens in a row. I have never seen so many on a ship.

To make it easier to find these Bars and all the other venues, each daily program has an small insert that gives all the opening times of the Restaurants, Bars, shops and other Onboard services, so you can put it in your pocket as a quick reference. Very handy. For those who drink beer, nearly every bar on board has at least one Draft beer and the brand of what is on Tap varies from bar to bar. So you can set up a personal Pub Crawl if you want to try them all.

The center of the Anderson Lounge. So far the pinnacle  (at least in my taste) of what a cocktail lounge should look like.

The center staircase has a small Atrium  that goes 3 decks high and some of the public rooms are located around it. On  Deck 5 there is the Pursers Desk and Future Cruise sales, Deck 6, has some shops. Deck 7 and 8 have all the main Public Rooms. Around The Atrium on Deck 7 are some more shops and then behind it is an open area called “Charlies” with behind it the main cocktail lounge called “Anderson” (after one of the founding father of P&O). This lounge with a large bar could have been pulled straight out of a London Gentlemen’s Club. With bookcases (fake), chesterfields, cosy chairs and nice sitting areas. Good for book reading in the morning and drinks and good conversation in the evening. Background music by the piano player comes wafting in from Charlie’s sitting area outside.

At the corners of this lounge there are fake”bookcases, and some clever clog decided to use them to store a fire hose reel and a fire extinguisher in it. Not exactly the standard fire locker you expect but I am all for it. I am a great safety promoter but looking at a fire extinguisher during cocktails is a bit much. So this is a perfect solution.

This music arrangement also makes it possible that one Deck up, The Raffles Bar and Cake place can be used in the evening for cocktails and drinks as well. And believe me, on a British ship, you do need it, as 90% of the guests will come out for a drink before dinner. (and then have a drink during dinner as well)

One of the two large laundry rooms on board. Not visible in the photos are the six ironing  boards. And the very good news is, they are free of charge.

Before I could park myself here and have a nice drink, I was called to order and had to proceed to the Self Service Laundry to de-wrinkle various pieces of garments as tonight was formal night. I have always been good in packing but since we are full time cruising I have reached new heights in my efforts. My wife’s formal night dresses are now being sandwiched between layers of bubble wrap and thus arrive wrinkle free on board. So do my formal jackets but regular shirts and Ladies Tops are more difficult and hence we had to go and iron.  The Aurora is enhanced by several large self service laundries with a lot of machines and 6 or 8 ironing boards. For us there is one located on deck 9 and one on Deck 11. We are on deck 10 so nicely in between.  While there is still the idea out there that most of the laundry is done by women, I find more men in the laundry rooms than women. Either we are more emancipated then the world gives us men credit for, or the men are sent out with a mission, while her ladyship goes for a cocktail.

One side of “Carmen’s Lounge” located at the stern of the ship.

We had received an invite for a Captains cocktail party this morning but it did not say why and also not all cabins on our deck had one. But if there are free drinks involved, a Dutchman has to go and so we duly showed up at 19.45 hrs. at Carmen’s lounge. This is a smaller show lounge with a large dance floor (hence the name Carmen as it has a Flamenco theme) but is also used for all sorts of other activities.  When we entered there were loads of  officers lined up but not in a very organized way, so the “Meet and Greet” was a bit erratic. We came in on the Starboard side and I saw the staff captain hanging around but he was more interested talking to a lady (ships nurse ??) then to take his function as second in command seriously.

The lounge during day time, in use for dance classes as it has such a large dance floor. In the evening they have ballroom dancing here and that event was well attended when I passed by the first night of the cruise.

It turned out this was the “Welcome on Board” party  for a group of about 300 people. I never found out if there was a First sitting party as well, or anything else, as we have about 1800+ guests on board. (There is a sign at the Pursers Office saying “the ship is booked to capacity so no changes possible” so we must have that number of guests on board).

The captain turned out to be a very personable man with excellent microphone and communication skills and he  gave a nice chat of where we are, where we were going and the expected weather (rain and swell for the next two days). He did not introduce any officers. although they were scattered around the lounge but did not socialise very much.  I introduced myself as there is nothing worse for a captain to find out that there is “another one” on board as crew love to gossip. I am already being addressed as “captain” by the cabin staff and waiters in the ship and I am a retired person.  So letting the captain know on forehand is always a good thing to do and I think he appreciated that.

Then it was time for dinner and as I expected it was less hectic then the first night. It was still fast but now I clocked  1 hr. and 15 minutes instead of the one hour last night (including the waiting time). The waiter even had time introduce himself and his name is Mohammad Ali.

So I had to tell him a story of when I was captain and had a dining room steward of the same name. That steward was not very good so in the end Muhammad Ali was fired.  To our utter amazement he showed up again about 3 months later. He had moved to another ship but so had I. The security officer was ordered to investigate and then found out that this gentleman had gone home, gotten himself a new passport but now in the name of Ali Muhammad. Had applied again, got a new company I.D number and arrived back on a Holland America Line ship.  Very creative but not a wise thing to do when there is a captain around who is good in remembering faces. So Ali M. was removed from the ship and was then duly arrested by the American CBP for having used a falsified name  / passport.

The “Triptonics” in action, they will be back for another show 2 days from now.

So after talking to a real “Ali M” it was time to go to the show. Tonight it was a male group called “Triptonic”.  Three British  male vocalists which sang a variation of Pop songs and some Musicals but is different forms of harmony. Different than expected, but very, very good. All three had quite a track record outside this group, with appearances in the West End and other well known venue’s. That took us until 23.00 hrs. and then it was time to turn in.

Tomorrow we are in the port of Haagesund, one of the larger and one of the oldest towns in Norway. The captain advised there would be a chance of rain and wind and I looked at the 500 millibar weather chart, looking at the progress of the bad weather system coming over, it will rain for sure. Temperatures 14oC / 57oF with wind and rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2026 Aug. 06; Southampton, England.

August 8, 2026 / / 4 Comments

So we are on the way for our next adventure. 12 Days Norway with the ms Aurora of P&O cruises. She was the last P&O ship on our list that we had not sailed with before, and suddenly the opportunity popped up. Lesley managed a very good price so we are in one of the suites, called the Sunda Suite.  As is normal, we drove yesterday from Cromer down to Southampton, with the roads being unusually calm. Even the M25, the ring road around Greater London, had less mayhem than normal. Her Ladyship is moaning about the petrol prices which have gone up 30 pence since Trump started meddling in the Middle East, and with each hiccup announced around the Strait of Hormuz the petrol price goes up much faster than  it comes down.  But it will not stop us from cruising though.  This time no Cricket matches in the planning so all was quiet around the Hilton Hotel. It was irritating that a large Mercedes Maybach had blocked 3 car park spaces, while  with the Golf Club nearby parking spaces are always at a premium.  But as somebody left, I could slip in.

Today, we arrived at the time advised to us at one of the smaller cruise terminals in Southampton port. After lining up outside for about 15 minutes, we were let into the terminal for check in. P&O operates a priority system for their “Penininsula Club Members”,  which does not applies to us as we are in the lowest tier, but as we have a cabin in the one-but top cabin category it does applies to us again. So the flow through was very quick. Because you get your cabin -key-ID cards only at your cabin we had to go through 5 Boarding pass checks to get to the gangway.  Cabins were not available until 13.30 hrs., this also applied to the top cabin category, so  we had to wait in the public lounges or go for lunch. This is always irritating as everybody leaves their hand held luggage / trolleys all over the place. and in the walking paths. With some company’s you can go to the cabin to drop of your hand luggage and then go for lunch. Not with P&O, they had closed all the Fire screen doors in the cabin corridors. But we could do boat drill as its the same as with other company’s.  You go to your Assembly station, ours is in the Movie Theatre and then get checked off. Then watch the safety video in the cabin later and all is well in the world. So we had a little walk around and a drink in the Raffles Bar.

Note: For the rest of  the cruise you will come across a lot of names which are related to the history of P&O, either names of old company ships or lounge names after the founding fathers of P&O back in the 1830’s.   Raffles of course refers to Singapore, either to Mr. Raffles, the founder of Singapore or the Raffles Hotel which rose to fame in the days of the Raj.

The ms Aurora of P&O Cruises.  To appeal to the British market the bow sports the British Flag since 2014, but the rising sun logo on the is still there at the very pointy end. That rising sun logo is repeated  on the blue funnel. (Photo courtesy P&O)

The ms Aurora is a cruise ship that came into service in April 2000 and has a size of 76,152 Brt. and a guest capacity of   1878 in 939  cabins. This gives a space ratio of 40, which makes it comparable to the Vista Class of Holland America. She is one of the faster cruise ships still out there, with a service speed of 24 knots and a top speed of 29 knots. I do not think that the cruises nowadays are designed with that speed but to get to Norway from Southampton she will have to make 21 knots.  The ship being from 2000 makes her the oldest unit in the P&O fleet, and the reason that we wanted to get on board as I expect that she might be sold  in the future as P&O is concentrating on much larger ships. Her near sister Oriana, (of which the Aurora is an improved version) was sold of in 2019 to China (it is now called Piano Land) when the bigger ships came on line. At the moment her cruises are planned into 2028, so she might be here for a while.

Sitting area of our suite.

We have cabin B226 on Deck 10 this cruise which consists of a double cabin size, with a sitting area, dining area , bedroom area and then a bathroom with bath, separate shower and two wash basins. Very well laid out and with plenty of storage space and a walk-in wardrobe. Which is large enough for a long cruise but with not enough coat hangers, so we had to ask for more and were given extra metal laundry hangers as there were no more extra wooden hangers on board. Not something that really goes with a request from a top suite.  Apart from a cabin number, it cabin also has a name “Sunda” named after an old P&O ship which in turn was named after an island in the Indonesian Archipelago.

Then the deck has a number but also a name (we are Britannia Deck), so altogether is can be a sure recipe for a lot of confusion. The cabin numbers on Deck 11, also start with letters and are then in the 100 series.   So if you go somewhere, you have to give the letter and the cabin number otherwise they do not know if you are on Deck 11 ( with the letter A) or on Deck 10 (with the letter B)

Dining area of our cabin.

By the time we made it to the cabin, our luggage was waiting and shortly after the butler (Mr. Anoob) and the cabin stewardess (Miss Rachel) popped up, for introduction and explanation.  It is going to be interesting to see what the Butler function exactly entails as the P&O information is not very pertinent, but big on “could” or “might” instead of “should”.  Apart from a large cabin, there are not that many extra perks that go with a suite.  There is no Concierge Lounge but Breakfast can be taken in the Sindhu restaurant if you like,  and that other Room service menus are included, while for the other cabin categories you have to pay for it.  Toiletries in the Bathroom are by the White Company but you are warned not to the take the bottles/ left over contents home at the end of the cruise. You do get a hair conditioner and body lotion as a gift to take home though.

Our section of the dining room. The ship has 2 of them, the Medina and the Alexandria and we are in the latter. Apart from that there is the Lido (called the Horizon Restaurant) and the speciality restaurants, Sindhu (Indian), The Glass House (a sort of English Tapas lounge) and the Beach House, which is really part of the Lido, but has a separate menu with a cover charge.

The Medina Restaurant is the “As you wish” restaurant, and you get a beeper, or follow your line in the queue on “The App”. The  Alexandria has fixed sittings, with first sitting at 18.15 hrs. and the 2nd sitting at 20.15 hrs.  We had asked for a table for 2 or a table for 6 in the dining room. As, expected we got a table for 2 as it is more or less connected to having a suite. Tables for 6 can also be nice as you can meet a lot of interesting people. We saw during the first dinner, that the tables for 6 were not more than half full, so a table for 2 worked out better. So either the ship is not full or guests decided to go somewhere else, We will find out tomorrow night, which is formal night and the British tend to go regular dining then.

With the cabin came a welcome bottle of champagne, the real stuff and not chateau “Plonk” so with the canape’s it was time to have cocktails in the cabin. The Aurora departed from Southampton at 16.00 hrs. as it is a tight schedule to get to Norway on time. It was just too chilly to sit on the balcony (double size) but the full size windows still showed Southampton waters in full view, while having a glass of bubbly.

The ship has 3 lounges for shows, and the two main dining rooms. Then there is a plethora of bars and drinking area’s.  So we decided to go to the Crowsnest, overseeing the bow and thus similar to Holland America or Cunard.

The middle part of the Crows nest with the Bar at the back. The Lady in the center was busy laying out Arts and Crafts materials.

This Bar & Lounge is  very well laid out and comes with a small bandstand in the middle and a bar at the far end. To our utter amazement it was very quiet, maybe because it was a first night, but very unusual for a British Ship. But they had Craft beer on Tap, so I was a happy camper. So was her Ladyship as there was a large range of Gin brands to choose from.

The Crowsnest Bar. I have not yet figured out if the bar has a name but this is a “Half Model of the P&O passenger ship, the  ss Straithard, one of the three sister ships, which  maintained a regular intermediate service to Australia from Tilbury / London.

We have fixed sitting dinner this cruise, starting at 20.15 hrs. as this time makes it almost certain we will make the 2nd show at 22.15 hrs.  As not un-expected on a first night, First Sitting had run late and there was a long queue meandering through the Sports Bar, Casino and into the corridor. But once the doors opened, it went very fast. And so was the service. I hope that the waiters slow down a little bit in the coming days because this was not dining, it was just “Lunch break” eating. Three courses and Coffee/Tea and it was all over in  1 hrs. including the waiting time outside. The food came piping hot out of the kitchen, so there they must also there been working at a frantic space.

But it gave us time to back to the cabin to brush our teeth and then walk to the “Curzon” theatre in the bow of the ship. I estimate that it can take about 700 guests and was almost full when the show started. A very good revue show with a cast of 8 dancers and four dancers/singers.  The Cruise Director popped up to advise us that there was an hour forward and a sea-day tomorrow. We already knew that from the Daily Program and the card in the cabin but he confirmed it. With these sorts of announcements I understand that some company’s do not have the Cruise Director putting on & taking off the shows as it does not add anything to the evening.

So tomorrow we are at sea, heading full speed to Norway. Haagesund is going to be the first port and there is a chance that we have to tender. Weather looks very nice. Smooth seas, sunny and temperatures around 16oC / 61oF.

 

Day 07: 21 April 2026, Cherbourg, France.

April 26, 2026 / / 5 Comments

The Cruise Terminal which now houses the Cruise ship terminal and the Cite de La Mer, the under water museum.

Cherbourg is a famous port that became world wide known when the Ocean Liners to the new world started calling here. And company’s such as White Star Line (Including the Titanic which did call here, once), Cunard, French Line, United States Line, Hapag-Lloyd etc. made sure that Cherbourg became a household name. Until around 1969, Cherbourg was an important port of departure for French and Austrian passengers travelling to New York. Visits by ships such as the United States, the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, etc.etc. often made local and national headlines. Holland America never called here until the cruise era started. HAL ships called at the Boulogne Sur Mer anchorage before the 2nd World War and went to Le Havre after the war. It was only when HAL started cruising in Europe again in the mid 1990’s that Cherbourg became part of the cruise schedules. Sometimes as a scheduled port of call but more often as an alternative for St. Peter Port when the wind at the anchorage prohibited the ship from staying there. Cherbourg was very well ready for that event. The routine was that a ships Captain had to go and have a look at the anchorage to see if a tender service was possible, unless the Harbour Master had already closed the port. The latter was the easiest because we could then sail straight on to Cherbourg which is about 40 NM away from St. Peter Port. If the weather was on the edge of possibilities, then the idea was to arrive at sunrise. The Captain would then take a look at the swell and say yes or no. If it was no, then with the good help of the Harbourmaster and his team in Cherbourg we could be docked with gangway out by 10.00, giving the guests a still a  full day. Even when not in the port schedule, those 3 hours sailing between the ports gave the locals enough time to set up the dock, arrange for tours and for the shuttle service into down town.

A display in the building showing the departures in the Trans Atlantic days.

I remember that it was standard, at least for my  ship, to ask those who made this quick follow up possible to be invited for lunch on board, which was always appreciated. That did not always work with the people who manned the gangways and protected the terminal but a few bottles of wine, helped out here. Once Customs found out and wanted to arrest everybody but that was then solved by donating a box of Kendall Jackson Reserve to the Customs office. French customs can be very flexible if you play the game right. The company was always much less flexible as they saw it as bribery, while we on the ships saw it as appreciation. The Hotel Manager had a solution for any discrepancies that might occur in the bottle count. It was called “breakage” and there was often a spike during calls at Southern European Ports. The peculiar thing was that the ship often received gifts from the Port Agents and Tour operators out of appreciation for the business that we brought to the port. So bottles were going both ways. But those were the good old days. Now with soo many cruise ships and soo many mega liners, it has becomed so stream lined that even courtesy visits from the Agent to the “Master of the Vessel” hardly occur anymore.

The old Customs Inspection Counters in the arrivals hall.

When the Ocean Liners left, the Cherbourg Passenger Terminal ended up in the Doldrums somewhat as nobody knew exactly what to do with it. Built in late Art-Deco style it was too wonderful a building to destroy and at the same time it did not have a function anymore. So it was left as it was, with occasional use when warships would visit. Now we can be very happy about that as it is one of the few terminal buildings with a links from where emigrants left and the better heeled passengers went to and from, and is still mostly in an original state.

And guests can see that each time when they go ashore because they have to walk through the Customs Hall with the inspection counters from the 1930’s. Another reason that the terminal was left untouched was the fact that Cherbourg did not need the space. Cherbourg is the largest fully man made harbour in Europe and they could expand outwards and were not limited by rocks, moutains, cliffs or other natural features that confined the size of the port, as we see with a port like Dover. Everything there is cramped in under the White Cliffs.

Then in the 1980’s The City started to develope the “Cite de La Mer” museum focussing on under water exploration and underwater traffic of any kind. So there many kinds of deepsea submarines on display, old, current and feature designs and there is even an large French War submarine in its own dock, which providing a really fascinating  visit.

The main entrance hall, where once the trains came in. Now handed over to Underwater craft.

And that was the reason why I was so excited to visit Cherbourg because in the entrance hall of this museum, which is next to the Maritime Terminal, is a souvenir shop with a bookshop attached to it. Second French Maritime hand books can still be bought with not too many challenges, through Ebay, Bookfinder or Abebooks but for new books it is very hard, as a. French publishers are not really bothered to reach markets outside France and b. Since Brexit the cost for sending a book to the UK, has become very expensive.

I bought not too long ago a Passenger List of the Rotterdam from a voyage in 1963. That cost about 8 euro’s (which is the regular going price between 7.50 and 11 euros) but then postage and customs paperwork (*) added aother 15 euro’s to it. Buying “in bulk” does not help either because when the value goes over 139,– then there might be import duties.

(* since Brexit each individual item imported into the UK or otherwise needs it own declaration for customs. So if it is 10 books the same, it is one customs declaration but if there are  10 different books, then it means 10 pieces of paper. At least when they are new books, when they are 2nd hand or antiquarian, you can cover it with one declaration but then often the value goes up too much. As you will understand Collectors are not very happy with Brexit.)

We decided to limit our going ashore with a visit to the “Cite de la Mer”. It is about a 15 minute walk into town, very pleasant to do today, if you wore a coat, as it was sunny but there was a gale force wind blowing from the North East. The port also lays on a shuttle service to town, which ran every 15- 20 minutes, even through French lunch time. The local community had laid on a dance exhibition in the terminal, between 10 to 12 noon, where authentic Breton and Normandic dances where shown.

Several generations of local dancers and singers.

For the guests the most interesting part was most likely the whole group of small, very small, children in local costumes on display. They were sitting there and remained sitting there for a good two hours while the adults and older children were dancing, singing and playing instruments. My wife and I came back when they were just packing up around noon time and just at the moment when the little ones were all “released from custody” and it was an cascade of French excited noise rolling through the old customs hall, while they all fled together to the outside.

This is one of the latest underwater craft. The US Challenger an underwater craft for one person. The French call it the “American Dildo” ,but I do not know why.

The museum is forever expanding, so when we visit next time, will we probably buy a ticket go inside again. We did so a few years back and the deep seawater tank and the explorers submarines and other exhibits were fascinating. They have now also opened up an Virtual Reality exhibition, where with a headset on, you walk through the ocean terminal in the heyday of Trans Atlantic travel and can experience what it really was like. For the young and young at heart they have set up a display based on the French Comic heroes Asterix & Obelix which are very popular in France, Belgium, The Netherlands but also in England and Germany. But even when not going inside the museum, there is so much equipment in the entrance hall, that it takes more than half an hour to have a look at all of it. The sometimes bizarre contraptions humans use and have used to get to the bottom of the ocean. It is said that we know more about the moon than about the oceans on our planet but if you look at the gadgets needed to go to the sea floor, I am not amazed.

This is one of the latest idea. A craft floating around the world, partially submerged. But because there would be somebody on board  watching 24/7,  they would be able to catch anything unusual, instead of relying on spot checks.

The bookshop was a somewhat disappointment as somebody had decided to “focus” on current affairs and what sold best. Hence there were about 25 different books on Titanic for sale, similar with a load of Titanic children’s book, But I have already over a 100 books about Titanic (from the scholarly level across to popular, to the absurd) and that was not what I was looking for, The real history books were no longer for sale. But I still found 2 books, one a thin on 5 euros,– with photos about the ss Normandie of 1935 and one with the history of the Ocean Liners, not with photos, but with hand drawn scenes of the ships. But done by an expert so the details were all correct. Same as you can see in the paintings of Captain Card on the HAL ships. Apart from nice to look at, they are also technically correct in detail and that is what one does expect if you have a bit of insight in maritime history.

The ships telegraph on the bridge. Now used for photos during bridge tour. It is orginally a mooring telegraph from the Moore McCormack days and came via the Veendam (III) and the Rotterdam (V) to the Rotterdam (VI). The write up is behind the telegraph so those who bother can find out about the history.

This the last day of the cruise and that meant afternoon packing. Luckily we had not bought much so what came out, fitted back in. As part of the Suite package, you get two bottles of liquor included and we had decided on Adnams Copper Gin, which is a very good brand in the UK, but that luckily fitted in the hand luggage. Disembarkation starts tomorrow at 07.45 hrs. and if all goes well we will be back at the car by 08.30 /08.45 and on the road shortly after.  I had asked for a quick visit to the bridge, to see if the ships telegraph, installed by me and Capt. Van Dreumel was there, and yes it was. The Captain was quite eager to have a chat about the background of the bridge, as due to Covid there had never been a proper handover from HAL to Fred Olsen.

 Then it was time to run to the Lido Deck, as the Urbu Band was playing. This is a British Brass band that has been performing for the 8th time on board. As far as I understand they are offered a discounted cruise, when a ship does not sell out, with the request for 2 performances. Good to sit and nice to listen to. There is something different and also wholesome in having a somewhat different entity playing that is not corporately managed and “plastic”, but are just purely playing for the fun of it.

After finishing packing it was time to go for cocktails and in the Observation Lounge one of the ships singers was giving a show, with songs from Frank Sinatra and related. It was very good, and fun to see as a beaming mother was sitting in the first row.

“Frank Sinatra junior providing a very good show.

Final dinner was in the dining room, and two things stood out, A. the number of empty tables, so it must have been busy in the self service restaurant, and B. the number of birthdays today. Although the company must know exactly when a birthday is, as it is all on the manifest, for some obscure reason, the number of birthdays tend to increase towards the end of the cruise. Maybe that is the case, or maybe guests declare having an anniversary ( not on the manifest). Whatever the situation, the stewards were busy running around the dining room, trailing behind the guy with the guitar to sing happy birthday left, right and center.

After dinner was the show, but we had seen the singer from the UK from a few nights ago so we did not go as I needed my sleep for the 5 hour drive home. Driving on the M25 (ring road around London) is challenging by itself but then come the smaller roads into Norfolk with all the side roads connecting, often via blind corners. And there are a lot of “creative” drivers in the English Country side. Then there is “farmer John” on the road with his faithful tractor and that can make things even more complicated.

I have one more post to go and that is the oversight and opinion of the cruise and that will come a day after this one has been posted.

Fred Olsen is one of the few company’s who have a fully operational flower shop on board. There are two florists and apart from looking after the flowers in the ship, they are also available for Guests to buy. The shop has been on board since 2022 ‘s I assume the concept works. But I do know that they are very busy during Valentines Day.

Day 1: At Sea, 15 April 2026.

April 16, 2026 / / 3 Comments

Today we have a sea day, while sailing from Southampton to Pauillac which is a small wine village on the west shore of the river Gironde, at the edge of the Medoc, a French wine region in the Bordeaux area. There is a weather front coming over and that gave us this morning gale force winds of up to 35-45 knots and combined wind and swell of about 3 meters. Which is high enough to make the ms Borealis move about somewhat. (The S and R class are not affected by any sea movement up to 2 meters but when it goes higher the ships get slowly affected). We were slightly affected this morning and the ship had put out the sea sickness bags in the staircases. Weather improved rapidly after lunch time with the depression moving away and the sun came out and visibility got better very quickly.

The Fred Olsen Fleet. BS = Borealis, BT = Bolette,  BL = Balmoral

While sailing south we are hugging the french shore line  around the coast of Normandy and Britanny and although following the shipping lanes (a sort of highways at seas) we were close enough to the french shore to be able to use our mobile phone with land coverage. If you are not careful, the moment the ship is more than 3 Nautical Miles from shore, it goes to Martime Coverage and that can be quite costly. So it is important that have you phone on airplane mode when not seeing any coastline around you while at sea, even when you have global roaming.  We did not see much of the French coast but that was mainly due to the Frontal Weather system which brought rain with it as well.

Cruise schedule for 8 days. Soutahmpton – Pauillac, La Pallice, St. Malo, Cherbourg, Southampton.

This cruise we are going to Pauillac where we stay from 07.00 hrs in the morning to 18.45 hrs the next evening, giving the guests an ample chance to take one of the wine tours. Then it is a short hop to La Pallice (For La Rochelle) were we are from 07.00 to 20.00 hrs. Then we have a sea day, followed by a full day call at Saint Malo. That is a tender port with the ship anchoring in the estuary. The next day is a full day call at Cherbourg and from there is goes back to Southampton. We have now observed that the ship is not completely full and that might be the  reason that we have new joining cast and singers on board with support staff; and a whole technical team for renewing the lighting in the show lounge. I estimate that about 50 cabins have been handed over for that operation. Most of the entertainers have taken the chance to have their nearest family on board, who are present in full force wherever these new singers are performing. Fred Olsen seems to have taken on a new Entertainment Company, to train these people but we have not found out yet what that exactly entails.

The “Fresco” on the aft Navigation deck with the pizza place.

So what has Fred Olsen done with the ship during the most recent upgrade? They have finally (re) opened the pizza place which HAL had on the aft navigation deck. Insiders might remember that HAL had the brain wave to remove the aft -outdoor- pool on both the Rotterdam and the Veendam so it could add more cabins. The pool area was then reduced to a wading pool. This no doubt increased revenue for the ship but the operational results where not that great. The wading pool never worked as most of the guests were not able to “step/climb” over the rim of the pool and there was nowhere to store your personal stuff, so when sitting on a stretcher in the wading pool, guests blocked a second sunlounger away from the pool for their towels and bags. Then common sense prevailed and none of the other ships underwent this treatment. But the remodeling did give the chance to make a bigger outside serving bar on the starboard side and to install a pizza kitchen / outlet on the portside. When the ship was handed over to Fred Olsen in 2020, the status of the pizza ovens was considered to be in a too bad a condition to re-open when sailing started again in 2022. So the place stayed closed until further notice. In the last dry dock in Autumn 2025, the area was completely renewed and is now in full swing again. Holland America prepared full size pizza’s there (handed out in a pizza box) but here it is slice only, but freshly made and of excellent quality. For the rest they also do other small bites such as cheese and ham croissants etc.etc.

The next thing is that they have remodeled is the library by removing the easy chairs and putting more regular tables and chairs in so there is more seating for the Cafe. The Barista counter of HAL is still there, but Fred has gone one step further and have changed it into a complete cafe same as on their other ships. You can still sit there and read a book but instead of reclining (and falling asleep) you sit now straight up to read your book or magazine.

The Crowsnest / Observatory which under HAL had declined to an “indepth” shore excurions study place, which never really worked that well as all the machinery broke down very rapidly, has now been fully restored to a day and evening lounge. The bandstand is back and all evening there is entertainment. Hurrah.

I believe on other HAL ships where the crowsnest was also converted to an EXC indepth shored and port immersion area, this is also rolled back somewhat to what the Crowsnest used to be, with a new dedicated library on one of the lower decks.

Here on board, the repeat guests are a bit confused by all the happenings going on. With the showlounge been refitted during day time, the lectures are now in the Auditorium (ex Cinema/ kitchen) but as this place can only take 299 guests, they have to repeat the lecture in the afternoon. That is not always appreciated as a lot of guests want to take a nap in the afternoon. The average age of our guests is the same as with HAL and then you need to re-charge your batteries for to be ready for the hard work of eating again  in the evening. As nearly all the guests are British it means that nearly everybody wants to be out and about for cocktails in the evening, both for 1st and 2nd. sitting. So they need some downtime. The music venue times are adapted to this, with the entertainers taking a break while first sitting goes to dinner (18.00 hrs) and 2nd sitting is still trying to fit in their cruise clothes from last time. Then 2nd sitting cocktails start at 1900 hrs., dinner at 20.00 hrs.and the show at 22.00 hrs. Then between 23.00 hrs. and 24.00 hrs. there is music in the Observatory, the Night Club, the Ocean Bar and the the Morning Light Pub (ex HAL casino area)

The new singers “warming up” the captains party

Tonight was formal night with the Captains welcome on board party, which is still done in the respectable way as HAL used to do until about 2010 -2012. With a Receiving line with all of those who were going to be introduced (and yes with 10 white uniforms in a row, it feels abit like running the gauntlet), free drinks (wine, beer ,G&T, champagne), nibbles (canape’s and hot appetizers) followed by a speech from the Captain.

Captain Stefan Ravneng

We observed this Captain for the first time on the ms Balmoral when he was rather new in function and his speech and presence on stage was quite awkward. But by now, he felt more comfortable, made some jokes and his speech was running smoothly. Fred has the routine that the staff officers introduce themselves and that is great fun to see. With the staff captain being the easiest with handling the microphone, the Chief Engineer having the shortest speech of all (name and where he is from only) and the Cruise Director the longest. Then the champagne toast, followed by the announcement to get out of the lounge, to make room for the 2nd show. That results then in an enmasse march through the ship to the diningroom. They where well prepared as somehow they had managed to clear first sitting out completely by 19.45 so they could handle this 2nd sitting invasion.

We decided not to go to the show, I do not particularly enjoy comedians but to go to a concert of the strings. (see yesterdays blog) For those who sailed with Holland America longtime in the past, we then had the Rosario Strings from the Philipinnes on all the ships, one extended family, that never used sheet music but still could play anything. We have them now here on all of the ships of Fred Olsen. Tonight they had a sort of easy listening concert in the Ocean Bar, partly classical, partly crooner songs, and yes no sheet music or tablet in sight and yes they played everything by heart and to a very high standard.

The 2 male singers of the Singers group on board.

This was followed by a Country and Western hour, performed by the new singers and again, with all the family in attendance. I always have reservations about seeing english people in cowboy outfits, but they sang the songs with a nice american accent. Near the end they decided to do a line dance and then it was time to leave. There is only so much one can take, when a large number of octogenarians, fuelled by aa ample amount of (free) alchohol decide that they were 25 again. Free alchohol comes from the fact that the booze during the captains party was free and also the house wine and beer in the diningroom.

Tomorrow we are in Pauillac. We are suppoed to dock in foggy conditions at about 06.45 and then it should warm and sunny for the rest of the day, with temperatures around 21oC or 70o Fahrenheit.

An attempt at an American Line dance, on a moving ship.

Day 4, 2025 Dec. 20: At Sea, sailing towards Madeira.

December 21, 2025 / / 1 Comment

We sailed last night at 18.00 hrs. from Lisbon, slowly moving down the river and as it was dry weather everybody could have a good view  of the “singing” bridge, the Vasco Da Gama statue and Belem Tower. The latter is where the pilot disembarks and that gives the option to speed up to stabelizer speed,  10 – 12 knots, and sail comfortably down the river. Halfway down the estuary the ship started to move again and has continued to do so for the night and the remainder of today.  The ships movement did reduce somewhat by evening as the 2nd (interfering) wave field diminished in influence but it remained wobbly. Tomorrow will not be a problem as  Funchal is located at the South side of the island of Madeira and that is in the lee side of most bad weather. Very light winds are so far forecast for our call and the breakwater is very long and large to keep all the swell out.

Today we had a full day at sea, including the World club gathering (repeater or loyalty party) and a formal night. Cunard runs an excellent lecture program with 3 lecturers so far rotating on this cruise.  Two of them were very good, and one (claiming to do something maritime but only one talk and then talked about Madeira wine) not so good as he read his whole lecture and was not dressed respectfully (no jacket, but a sloppy shirt) towards the audience.

Female Conductor, Mrs. Farnham. started out with directing theatre shows in London and from there progressed to choirs and orchestra’s worldwide.

So we went to  the 2nd & 3rd one. Nbr 2 was a Female Orchestra Conductor, who talked about how to become one, and the trials of making it as a female in a male dominated world.  When she started in 1991, 1.4% of the world’s conductors were female. Now it is up to approx. 5% and she was running classes to get more Ladies in front of the orchestra, instead of in the orchestra. A fascinating world that most people do not know anything about. Next one was a gentleman who had spent his life in Drugs Enforcement and, (this being his 2nd lecture) went from the legal business around the work, to the actual catching of drug smugglers accompanied with what went right and what went wrong stories.

The Christmas market in the Queens Lounge from 10..00 to 12.00. Not exactly very busy, but then the prices were not really “market value”.

Then we had to run to the Queens Lounge were our classical pianist was giving his second recital. This time with works of known composers (Lizt, Handel, Sebelius) but also lesser known composers (Nazareth, Bortkiewicz) and that brought a wonderful experience.  I got somewhat irritated at Housekeeping as they reset the lounge 5 minutes before the recital started (the floor had been cleared earlier for the Christmas Market = a sales effort from the shops and beverage) and continued finishing off after the concert had already started. Their supervisor had poked his nose in when they started but did not stay to ensure that the stewards stopped when the concert started.  Leadership takes a lot of training, even with a White Star program.

The Queens Lounge, still with the open dancefloor space recently vacated by the Christmas Market. Pianist Robert Colville is seen here still practising. Housekeeping moved in 10 minutes before the recital started and all guests were moved to the dance floor. Nothing wrong with that, but why start so late and thus not finish on time ?.

Then time for a soft ice in the Lido and back to the cabin as it was time to write yesterday’s blog.

Time to dress came at 18.00 hrs. as we choose to go to the 2nd party at 18.45 hrs. The first formal night was color themed Black & White, this second one does not have a theme and the third one will be Red & Gold.  So big boss decreed that we should have a different formal outfit for each night and hence for tonight it was blue formal for me blue jacket and blue cumberbund, to match her ladiesships blue dress.

In the grey mists of time Cunard held 3 parties, The Welcome on Board / Captains Intro party, then the World Club party  for the various levels of repeat guests (Gold, platinum, Diamond , achieved at by counting the days) and  also a “Senior Officers party”. When we went on the Queen Anne we found out that these 3 parties had been merged into one. Not nice for those who were looking forward to as many free drinks as possible, but understandable as each time they had to clear the Lido deck (section under the Dome) at 3 pm. in the afternoon to set things up for a party, to much annoyance of those on the sun loungers and/or watching the afternoon movie. If you have to do that 3 times in a 10 day cruise, then you get a lot of un-happy campers.

Wold Club party in the Queens Lounge. See above what a beautiful lounge this is for a party as long as not everybody insists on sitting down. The other 3 Ladies are the World Club loyalty team and they also sell cruises from an office on Deck 2.

World Club party in the Queens Lounge. See 2 pictures higher up, what a beautiful lounge this is for a party as long as not everybody insists on sitting down. Thus this evening we had this combined party again in 2 sittings and with literally everybody coming through the line dressed in Formal. What was nice to see is that more and more men are moving away from the standard black “Penguin Suit” and are starting to experiment with different color jackets. I have about 15  of them in various colors to tune in with my wife’s dress color choice and also because I simply refuse to wear an “undertaker suit” if I am going to a festive formal occasion.

So we had the chance to have a little chat with Captain Sharples, who turned out to be a good conversationist (not always the case, even with cruise ships captains) , then grabbed a drink and moved into the crowd. Those who could stand, did stand, leaving the seats graciously to those who could only sit.  It was irritating again to see that the invited officers were hovering around the front of the dance floor and were waiting for the guests to come over to talk to them, instead of being gracious hosts and mingle in the crowd.  Hence armored with a glass of wine Lesley & I marched over to a trio of junior officers who were “hiding” as far from the guests as possible and gave them a bit of training of how to entertain. They sort of freaked out when they found out my background but with a few stories and some Q&A they started to relax and enjoy themselves.

Then it was time to for Captain’s introduction which went in sequence of: first Chief Engineer ( he who controls the throttle, does control the ship), the Chief Human Resources Officer (all cruise ship companys have been upgrading the status of H.R as the well being of the crew is becoming more and more important), The Hotel Director (the only Lady among the staff), the Staff Captain (who was introduced as captain, to confuse things) and then the Guest Ambassador (who administrates the loyalty system) to introduce the guest on board with the most sailing days. This lady had clocked up 1200+ days since 1991. Her most beloved ship was the Queen Elizabeth 2 but she liked the new Queens as well.  It seems that the older ships, built as Ocean Liners, had a form of character that made them favourites what ever challenges they had when sailing. I still come across HAL guests who remember Rotterdam V (now in Rotterdam) as their favourite  while the new ships  have much better facilities. But they lack character and style. On those older ships, the atmosphere on board dictated how you went about your cruise and how everybody interacted. But those days of ” everyday sea day is a formal day except sundays” are long gone.

When coming down from dinner, we bumped into the Captain and his wife who were going to retrieve their 3 children from the Youth Club. They were also having to deal with the magic of a Youth Club on board. Day 1: they want to go home, Day 2: they will go home when asked, Day 3: they refuse to come out as they are “too busy”, Day 4 and onwards is drama and tantrums near closing time.  (I was once called out as Captain on such an occasion, when the mother in question accused the Youth Director about “brainwashing” her children, as they refused to come out, and neither Security nor the Hotel Director knew how to deal with it.  I managed to talk the kids around (not the mother) by promising a bridge tour with ice cream (which we did anyway each cruise in those days. Then the next day the father threw a tantrum as he wanted a bridge tour as well but could get not one as the (free) tours were fully booked.  ———–Working with people is wonderfull————–  So, we as Captain & family had another chat and I was drawn in to volunteer to take photos with the captain by passing guests.

Then a mysterious bottle popped up in the cabin. Sparking Wine, but why ?? No card, no nothing. Turned out that this was a gift on “repeater day” for those with a higher number of sailing days.

Dinner was a busy affair as a larger number of guests had decided that this was THE night to order A-la-Carte (like we did yesterday with Dover sole) so all the head waiters and the Maitre where in full swing to prepare, Dover Sole, Lamb, Beef Wellington and Chateaubriand at the respective tables. But with being on TOP and have the best trained staff in this Queens Grill of all the restaurants, it all went smoothly without hiccups.

Then we went to the show. Tonight the 4 singers of the cast were giving a performance focusing on Songs of the Movies (James Bond, Abba =the movie etc.) This was advertised in the daily program with having a back up of an 18 piece orchestra (so bascially all the musicians on board) but there were only 9 on stage. Still very good, but why mislead the guests in promising more than you can deliver ?.   The show was very good though. All the other Cast,  Entertainers and family had parked themselves in the front of the stage (in the least occupied seats) and they made enough noise to make the theatre feel completely full.

Tomorrow we are  in Funchal, Madeira. We will dock at the breakwater and with us will be the ms Ventura (P&O cruises) which will be with us in all the next ports. Lesley knows the wife of the Chief Engineer on the Ventura as they were at sea together in the grey mists of time, so she is trying to arrange a meet-up.

Weather for tommorrow: Sunny in the morning, rain possible in the afternoon with maximum temperatures  around 18oC / 64oF.

 

28 July 2025; Sandane & Floro, Norway.

July 29, 2025 / / 2 Comments

With the constant increase in the number of cruise ships calling at Norwegian ports (and not considered very welcome in Bergen and Oslo), more and more little towns are getting new cruise ships docks. Most of the extensions and improvements of the postal ferry docks (Hurtigruten) but also complete new ones. They are almost all the same, a dock of about a 100 – 150 meters with ships longer overhanging at the bow and at the stern. Sufficient bollards are for that purpose put down further inland so even the big girls (we saw the QM 2 yesterday in Olden) are able to dock. Draft restrictions are normally not there as the fjords are normally very deep with the hill sides sloping straight down under water. So the docks are normally there where a little river found its natural end of run into the fjord and created a small plateau.. Some ports can then also offer one or more anchorages but not all of them, and most captains are not that excited by those that are there, but as long as there is no wind at the end of the fjord those anchorages are do-able.

The tender service to the dock in Sandane.

Sandane has a few small docks but they cannot handle much more than a large fishing boat or very small ferry. Hence we tendered into the small town which had a very nice new tender dock built for that purpose. It can handle 3 tenders at the same time. The tender distance is what we call a “4 boat distance” and thus all 4 tenders (capacity 75 max.) were in the water. That then gives the option of having 1 boat at the ship, one going to the shore, one at the shore and one on the return journey. By 10. am the tours were gone and most of the rest of the 800 as well and it was “open tenders”. E.G no need to get a tender ticket. For the suite people, like us, you can go to the gangway directly anyway, same as with many other companies. As we had waited for everybody to have gone ashore we had to whole tender to ourselves, not a bad way to start the day. We had the Phoenix supplied green (officially the color is turquoise) umbrella’s with us as the mountains had managed to catch some rain clouds and they were busy testing the town’s drainage system.

One of the two main streets in Sandane. To the left a sort of bookstore, luxury department store with a very nice book selection and a lot of children’s toys and puzzles.

Sandane is a small district town so it has a number of amenities needed to serve the locals who come by car down from their mountain homes and farms. 5 hairdressers, 3 or 4 cafe’s, one supermarket in down town, A city Hall & bank, and a nice bookshop (Unfortunately with only one nautical book, about sunken local ships along the coast, so nothing for me. I went in Bremerhaven to the Maritime Museum and there the book shop is completely gone, so I have high hopes for the Maritime Museum in Bergen. Otherwise only Hamburg is left and that is quickly shaping up as the best maritime museum in the world in my opinion.)

We walked the two main streets and then got back on board before the tours were returning. One tour did not come back but was rejoining the ship in the next port of Floro. This is a sixty mile journey through very scenic waters. Now the sun came out and by the time we arrived there at 1700 hrs. the temperatures reached a balmy 20oC / 68oF. A nice temperature for the Norwegian summer and much better than the heat wave they had last week.

Once back on board we went for “Curry Bratwurst” on the open top deck. This is basically a sausage with a curry sauce pored over it, with some paprika and dry unions. Served together with french fries or “pommes frites”. It was not as spicy as you can get on many a German street corner, but Her Ladyship approved of it, so it was good. You could have a normal beer with it or and Irish Beer.

It does not make sense to me, promoting Kilkenny Irish Beer during a German fast food lunch, but the stuff tasted good.

On the way to the next port, we had a gathering of the Gold & Silber cabins in the main lounge. We were expected to be there at 15.30 hrs. but now having learned that the Germans are early everywhere, “to be in position for when it starts”, we made it a point to arrive 10 minutes earlier. Only to find that they were all there already again with the Hotel manager as main entertainment on the stage telling about his career. (He had worked everywhere in his 40 years, so lots to tell) At the entrance stood a rather annoyed captain, who had popped down from the bridge to shake hands with everybody only to find them already all inside. Luckily there was us as he arrived the same time as we did.  10 minutes before start.. So he made a brief speech, explained that he had to be on the bridge and  went back to the bridge.

This made us question whether they really knew what they were doing. The invitation that came to in the cabin should have warned us. It was signed by the Captain, the Cruise Director, the Hotel Manager and the Gold & Silber host. More Chiefs than Indians and none of them seem to have checked on the other to see how it all was possible. Anyway we got a planters punch (alcoholic or non alcoholic version) to keep us happy and then the three left told stories about the ship, the company and answered questions. The Cruise Director had been at sea since the Maxim Gorky days so he also had been everywhere and done everything. The regular questions were asked but it somehow felt wrong that all the answers came from the Cruise Director and not from the captain. Maybe they get it right next time.

The Marina of Floro. Full of pleasure boats but also work boats that serve the fishing industry.

Right after arrival we went ashore, as soon as the initial “invasion” of guests had made it off the gangway. Floro is a similar town as Sandane but with several older buildings in town and two hotels. A nice size marina and some good looking fish restaurants. For the rest a Thai restaurant (and a Thai bar…….. we never found out what that was supposed to be as it was closed) and a pizzeria. NOK 290 for a standard 12 inch pizza (About 10 kroner to the US dollar so $ 29,—), so we decided not to be tempted and returned to the ship.

The main street in Floro. This was around 1800 hrs. and as you can see it was not a hive of activity, even with the nice weather.

Having learned now that First and Second sitting is marching in about 30 minutes before the actual dinner time we decided to go for cocktails first in the Piano Lounge and show up at dinner around 20.00. (closing time being 20.30) A large glass of beer is 7.5 euro’s and about the same for a large glass of wine (with a large wine list to choose from) so the prices are very reasonable compared to a company such as Cunard. And you get standard a pot of peanuts while at other company’s you have to ask for it. And that is something I do not understand from other company’s where you have to ask, because as soon as you start eating peanuts, or mixed nuts,  you want to have another drink…………..

The La Fontaine Dining room aft part. Seen from starboard entrance towards the stern. As it was during Royal Viking and HAL days.

We learned something new in the dining room tonight. As we could not find the “daily dishes available through out the cruise” on the menu, something that most company’s have, we investigated and found that you can order from the Room Serve Menu, which has quite a few nice dishes. This included Wiener Schnitzel which is not on the regular menu. Well, making a cruise on a German ship, we could not do without the Schnitzel experience and it was promptly ordered. And it was good, very good. After dinner we poked our nose into the show lounge to see part of the show.

Singers to the right and left and the trapeze lady in the middle. (Apologies for the photo quality but I am not a cell phone wizard.)

Tonight it was again a Cast show, now based on the “Greatest Showman” musical / movie. It was not as bad as the previous two days as the ladies are good singers but the cheography was again very bad. The acrobatic lady hung from the ceiling again, being very talented and this time it sort of fitted in with the “circus theme” of the show, but it does not really work with such a low ceiling. But the audience seems to love it, so for them all was well in the world. I think we are a bit spoiled with our international cruise ship experience. ……………..

The new dining room look with Phoenix Reisen. Taken from the same location as the old photo above. Now the restaurant is called the “Ozean Restaurant”

Tomorrow we are in Bergen. It is supposed to be dry and partly sunny and that is not  so usual for Bergen so everybody will be out in force. Also in port: ms Trollfjord (Hurtigruten), ms Viking Saturn (Lesley and I will be on that one in February 2026) and the Costa Diadema. In total about 5000 cruise guests going ashore. It could be much worse and there have been protests in Bergen against having too many cruise ships on one day. 5000 guests marching through the fish market is already a lot, let alone when the count goes up to 9000 or more. And then add the regular tourists to it who come by sightseeing bus.

One more photo. This is the separate forward part,   “the small dining room”, seen looking aft. To the right used to be a circular staircase going up to the Explorers Lounge. It was removed providing space for a steward station. More to the aft a Buffet has been installed, used in the mornings for breakfast and in the evening for cold orders.

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