7 day trip to the Fjords in Norway, departed from Newcastle at the beginning of May 18, stayed the previous night in a Premier Inn within walking distance of the port. The routine for getting on the Ship was a bit long winded having to go through various check in desks which took over half an hour but at least their were plenty of seats to sit down. We had booked a sea view cabin on Deck 5 which proved to be quiet noisy at times especially when the ship was maneuvering or making up time, but it did not spoil our enjoyment on our first cruise. The first stop was Dundee to pick up more passengers, we did not go ashore, just relaxed on the upper decks in the beautiful May sunshine. The next day was spent at sea, exploring the ship (quite a lot to see and do} and finding our way around the various Restaurants, Bars, Coffee Lounges and the Show Theatre which had 2 shows every night, how the crew managed to remember the different acts they put on every night, During the day there were various talks from Guest speakers who were very entertaining and also competitions in the lounges together with all types of dancing and quiz’s to keep your mind active.
The first port of call was Flam where you could go ashore on a visit over the Mountains and meet the ship later that day in another port.
The next day we visited Olden and admired all the waterfalls as we cruised to Nordfjord you cannot believe how attractive the Mountains looked covered in snow.and all the melt cascading down the hills, there were little villages with only 3 or 4 houses scattered all along the Fjords.
The next visit was to Eidfjord, a very pretty village of about 30 houses where we spent the day wandering around the village having coffee in the only cafe.
The following day we went into Bergen, and was greeted by rain all day long quite different to all the sunshine we had all week, but things must change now and then, We spent a few hours wandering around Bergen and could not understand why it was so quiet and all the shops closed only to discover it was a Bank Holiday.
On board the ship there was plenty to do on our last day cruising back to Newcastle.
All in all it was a very relaxing break, the crew were exceptional, always at hand to help and attend to your needs, we used the Al carte restaurant on occasions but much preferred the self service Restaurant on the Top Deck as you could choose what you wanted and how much or little you wanted, the food was excellent on all days, and you could eat almost all day, not that we did. A very enjoyable break.
