First days of Norway fjords cruise

Friday, May 24, 2013

Turnaround day in Harwich. No tours offered, so we stayed on the ship until the piano tuner drove us out of Café al Bacio. We went to the terminal in search of wi-fi. No wi-fi. No facilities period. And it was freezing in there! We were directed to the train station behind the terminal. Did find wi-fi there, but it was slow and no comfortable tables to sit at. It was also a bit chilly there. So decided to get back on the ship since it was rainy and cold out. We later heard from others that there is a new building that has very good wi-fi. Apparently the guy we talked to wasn't at that meeting. Or he works for Celebrity and doesn't pay attention to useful details like that.

Got to our cabin at 1:00. Our stuff had been moved by our cabin attendants, so we were able to unpack and spread out. Each of us has her own closet. We have a wonderful, long desk area, and more cabinets and shelves than we can use. We also have a separate sitting area with two couches, a table, and an additional TV. And then our lovely large balcony with room for lots of people. So we got settled in and had a nap. Then the boat drill and our first night as select dining. It had been so noisy in the main dining room on the first cruise and we had got used to eating whenever we wanted to in Blu, so we were glad to be able to transfer. Think we will be meeting new tablemates each night.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

First experience of the buffet for breakfast. Ugh! WAY too many people. We may stick to room service from now on.

Had the Celebrity Connections party at 9:30. Still no nametags, but 2 senior officers showed up this time. The ever present, clueless David and the hotel director.

Then we went to Christine's and Craig's cabin to pay Martin for all the Fløm excursions he set up.

Finished Love Anthony, which I found in the library, so went to return it and see if anyone else had turned in any excellent paperbacks, but no such luck. It was a great book. Will try again from time to time.

Tonight was the first formal night. Glad we decided to eat fairly early, as there was a horrendous line outside the door when we left. We had a new crop of Brits tonight. A table for 6. Told the maitre d' no more tables for 8—you can't hear all the people at the table.

Heidi and Carolyn went to the show. I didn't because I've seen it previously. Got our Celebrity Today newspapers which report it is supposed to be in the 70s tomorrow in Oslo. Yeah!!!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Oslo, Norway

Awakened by the phone call announcing our breakfast was on the way. A bit earlier than we had ordered it. We were planning on an early start this morning since we had a short port call, so decided to do room service.

Amazing sunny warm day outside our patio door! Marta had sent me an e-mail about a week ago saying that the weather in Norway had been gorgeous. All the Brits who got on in Harwich told us it would be cold and rainy. Glad they were proved wrong.

Headed out and decided to take the HoHo bus since I had forgotten to print out the instructions on how to take public transportation. And we didn't have any small krone anyway. Turns out the HoHo bus has wi-fi. Cool. Wi-fi on the ship continues to be horrid.

Rode out to the Vigeland sculpture park because that would be open early on Sunday morning. Amazing sculptures. Lots of steps which is not good for my old knees.

Got back on the HoHo bus and decided to split up because Heidi and Carolyn wanted to see the Norwegian cultural museum and I wanted to see the Viking ship museum. I could see there would be way too much walking at the cultural museum. The ship museum is interesting. One of the ships is very well preserved, the other two not so well. By the time I got back on the bus, decided to continue on to the ship and change to a short sleeved shirt and ditch my jacket. And apply some more sunscreen.

Had a quick lunch and headed back out to the HoHo bus to go the new Opera. Architecturally very interesting. Unfortunately, the old knees weren't up to climbing up to the top. I made it about halfway up, got some pictures from up there, and came back in to see the inside. Then back on the bus to complete the circuit through town to the ship. Went up on deck to get some interesting photos of the fortress across from where we were docked.

Had Carolyn over for sailaway on our deck. Lovely to be able to sit out there and enjoy the gorgeous weather and the view sailing out the fjord. Took a couple of hours. We missed the sail in because we were sleeping! We were visited by a very large seagull who perched on our railing waiting for us to leave our food unguarded for a few moments. Sure enough, when we went in to get ready for dinner, he swooped in and made short work of the leftovers.

Decided to bag the dining room tonight—we had hors d'oeuvres for sailaway and just decided to grab a quick bite in the café and call it quits for the night. Heidi went to the show.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Christiansand, Norway

Weather not as nice as forecast. It was actually raining early. We decided to take our time and go to the Elite breakfast for the first time. Since it's in the SS United States, we don't have to journey all the way to the front of the ship.

The cousin of the seagull who perched on our railing during the sail out the Oslo fjord yesterday apparently got the word that there was food to be had on our balcony and showed up looking for treats. Unfortunately, we didn't have any food out there today.

We decided to wait out the rain and not go ashore unless it stopped. Sure enough, after lunch the rain stopped and the sun tried to make an appearance. Christiansand has a lovely, modern performing arts center right on the harbor where we were told we could also use the wi-fi.

Went into town first and just walked around a bit. It's a small town with not very much to see. I bought some more ibuprofen and we found the fountain I had read about. We then decided to head back to the performing arts center to have a drink and check our e-mail. Didn't have a lot of time to do it because we had to be back on board at 3:45 p.m. Also managed to get our aps updated. That would be impossible on the ship. So nice to be able to do e-mail on such a small gadget (iPhone) and not to have to carry around a laptop or even my iPad.

Took a nap once back on board and then went to dinner early. Went to Ric Steel's show after dinner and then Heidi and Carolyn decided to go to the show in the theater.