Days 17, 18 & 19… At Sea - Into Rotterdam port - At Sea again

Days 17 At Sea

Cruising day today – we are heading back from Kirkwall to Rotterdam as this is the end of the one week cruise for many people. When we booked ours it was a two week cruise but it’s actually back to back – two 7 day cruises.

Didn’t do too much today – I wanted to see about having a shared table in the dining room for brunch. They automatically suit you at two person tables unlike all other cruise companies we have ever been on which will sit you with other people unless you request it and there is a table free. Anyway, we got seated with two couples both from America and was good to have people to sit and talk to – very interesting lives. From a dentist to a psychologist and everything in between! We wandered around and got a bit of exercise and read our books from the ship library before getting ready for our specialty dinner at The pinnacle Grill, which is a steak and seafood restaurant. We had two of these specialty meals included because we had a two week cruise.oh my goodness – it was so nice – we got a couple of cocktails as well – this package that includes your drinks, Internet, on board credit and a couple of short excursions is great. The meal was a giant ribeye steak and I had a 19oz lobster tail as well – I love crayfish but even I couldn’t eat it all! we were so stuffed afterwards we went outside and found that you can walk around the entire ship at the bottom on deck two – a lot of it is semi covered by the lifeboats but was great to find as the walking track at the top is just a little tiny one. There have been my only disappointment about the ship not being nice and open at the top where the swimming pool is, so this was a good find! We tried to walk off some of the feeling of being over full – felt so uncomfortable all night and neither of us had a great sleep because of it, but it was a beautiful meal.

Amazing steak and lobster 

Day 18 Rotterdam

Today is disembarkation day for more than half of the ship – And all the new passengers will get on. For those of us that stayed on and I’m not sure that there were many, we got a transfer card that we could just show so we could bypass most of the security when we got on and off.

Yesterday we had gone to a talk in the morning and another one in the afternoon about the behind-the-scenes work on the Rotterdam ship. The second one was about the history of Holland America – it was super interesting actually and about how they were initially a ship that carried poor immigrants to America and wanted to give them a better experience than going in common hallswith no designated sleeping or eating areas back in the 1800s. The company has certainly gone through a lot with wars, stock market crashes, Covid etc. But they have kept going – the Rotterdam ship we are on is about number seven I think with the same name and the old ship is in a port just down the road so we decided to walk there this morning. A very pleasant day weatherwise and we walk to it but it was a bit awkward as it’s also a hotel now and there are stuff everywhere asking you what you need! So we walked back and then over a huge bridge next to the dock and aroundthe town area.

There  the town Lane streets with all the apartments – we walked over 11 km today and then back to the ship as Graeme was starting to flag. He is starting to get better but still feeling quite dizzy at times.

It’s interesting as the new passengers got on, It is a markedly younger crowd – funny as last week was the second week of the Dutch school holidays so there were more children on the first week and maybe lots of elderly grandparents? Anyway this feels a lot more upbeat and people in their 40s upwards this week.

, It is a markedly younger crowd – funny as last week was the second week of the Dutch school holidays so there were more children on the first week and maybe lots of elderly grandparents? Anyway this feels a lot more upbeat and people in their 40s upwards this week.

We went up on the top deck as we sailed out of Rotterdam again – with a tug spraying water into the harbour in front of us. We actually backed out and then spun around and were away.

We went down to the bar and had a few of our favouriteCocktails, we have mainly been having mojito’s for Me and bees knees– They have honey and lemon with vodka in them. They got steadily stronger as the night went on and again we don’t have to worry aboutPaying extra – you only pay the difference if they are over $11 per drink. A lot of of them are $12 so you pay the USD $1 + tax so only about USD $1.18 extra a drink. Then we had dinner in the restaurant, played a trivia game with guessing songs and the artist – there was a limit of six people in a team and one other team got more than us but they had 7 or 8 very merry people! so we were declared the winners with 32 points – we only missed one song which was we built the city by aeroplane! Will remember it now ha ha. Up to read our books and mooched around quietly as Graeme has been grumpy and feeling knackered. 

Was lovely to have the pool roof open today and sunshine 

The old Rotterdam

Day 19 – at Sea

We’ve had large rolling seas today – very different to when we sailed this way a week ago. We went up to the crows nest on deck 12 as it looks out the very front of the ship. It was crowded today but Graeme got a seat and we sat talking to a couple. It’s interesting talking to them about languages there as they speak Flemish which has a variant of French, but the lady said they can’t understand each other as the dialects are very different.

I started feeling quite seasick which is new for me – even with vertigo I dont usually get it but today it really deteriorated into motion sickness and then feeling seasick – felt exactly like when I was pregnant🤢. So have had a quiet day lying fairly flat and sipping sparkling water.Wasn’t sick though so that’s good ha ha!

We just grabbed a small dinner from the Lido deck cafeteria tonight and we’ll have a quiet one as the seas started to subside, thankfully!

We watched an Australian movie called “long story short” tonight about a man who wakes up after his wedding and time keeps jumping forward on him- quirky and thought provoking  🧐

Days 15, 16 & 17. 30 April - 2 May - Eidfjord, Bergen & Kirkwall Orkney Islands Scotland

 Day 15- Eidfjord

This morning was a spectacular view as we came through the first fjords into Eidfjord. There was a little snow on the peaks of the mountains and lots of thin waterfalls running down from the top through the crevices and into the water. We passed under a massive span bridge, reminded me of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco a little! They took a while docking as it was in a very small harbour– I could see rocks in the shallow water very close to the ship so obviously it drops off deeply very quickly off the dock. It was cold but clear and after a continental breakfast to our room, we were off the ship for a walk around the small town.

We have been surprised after sailing on Royal Caribbean a few times before, that on this ship and it being the largest of the Holland America ships (2700 pax) there no long lines or problems getting on and off at any of the ports. It runs really well and people are pretty polite.

We walked through town and out the other side along the waterfront – it’s so pretty and the houses are all built into the rock. We came across two concrete curved lounging chairs on the rocks that you could sit on and look out over the vista of the water, the ship and the mountains. We sat there for some time – a lady came along and asked us if we wanted her to take a photo as they had a metal frame set up the with the name of the town on it, that you could take the photo through. Funny- not funny, she almost fell over about 3 times on the uneven surface – I was getting ready to go grab her ha ha!

After a nice sit there for awhile we had a nosy into the community sauna which was behind the chairs – it is only small but anyone in the community could use it and it had glass windows floor to ceiling looking out over the water – it would be bliss. We watched some kayaks on a ship excursion go past- man you would not have wanted to fall in the water because there was even a sign saying how cold it is!

We walked on further for a good way until we came to a road like in Forrest Gump where he had been running forever and then stopped, looked along the road and then said it was time to go home! 

We wandered back and then went through some of the shops. There was a shop that sold local made chocolates– I’ve got some caramel licorice squares there are six in a box. That was about $18, and Graeme got some orange and almond dark chocolate in a bar that was $27! Just as well you don’t know how much it is when you get it in Norwegian krone! My ones were absolutely delicious though, soft buttery caramel with just a tiny hint of licorice.

We walked around a couple of the other shops– Did over 11,000 steps today – we are averaging about that each day which I think is about 8 1/2 km, so pretty good and just as well with all the food they give you on board ha ha.

Back on board as it was starting to rain, We went and had some lunch, We got some nice cocktails and then mooched around before going to the dining room for dinner later. Stopped in at the B.B. King’s bar for the usual Q&A session about the day ahead – that’s quite good as the tour director does it and you find out all the things like how far it is from the port to where you’re going or any other specifics that are really handy to know.

Loved Eidfjord💓

Day 16 - Bergen

We docked this morning a bit ahead of time, Into the very pretty city of Bergen. Graeme wasn’t feeling very well and was all blocked up so he did a Covid test that was very positive – Bummer, this is his cruise gift from someone on board the river cruise we think! Explains why he is feeling so underpar.Got him some pain relief and luckily I always bring cold and flu tablets so I gave him one to dry him up a bit. Had a read of the information on the cruise and there is absolutely no mention of covid or safety precautions anywhere so obviously it is just another respiratory bug now. There are a lot of older people coughing on board and there were some on the river cruise as well.There were a couple of Australian ladies on the river cruise that have been away for a month that I wondered about, as one had lost her voice but she was coughing a wet cough the whole time and seemed to be getting worse as we cruised. But what can you do- that is life now.

Anyway we got off the ship and walked through the beautiful streets with the colourful houses. We stopped at a pharmacy to buy some more Panadol – can’t get the Panadol osteo in any countries in Europe unfortunately, it is good for my nerve pain in my neck, But will just have to make do with the normal panadol. We walked around the waterfront looking in the shops and then went to the Rosenkrantz fort, which was pretty impressive and well worth the $26 entry fee. Walked around inside for over an hour –every room you went in and out of had a stone staircase  to go to another floor  or room- it was amazing. Then we went next door to the separate great hall. This was built in the 1200’s, so much older than the tower fort. The banquet room was stunning, It actually was rebuilt after a ship in the nearby port caught fire in 1944 after the explosives onboard, caught fire. There was a loss of over 150 lives and 4000 children had to be evacuated. This was when they were under German occupation still. So It has all been rebuilt beautifully.

Sidenote – it’s funny. We were walking along the street and a guy stepped out of a store coming towards us and I noticed him straight away as he looked so much like our friend Warren Tosse, It was an uncanny resemblance. So much so that I wrote to them to say about it and it turns out that he has lots of relatives in the area as his father was from a town 45 minutes from Bergen! Wish I had known or I would’ve actually stopped this guy to ask him, the resemblance was so similar!

We headed back to the ship after that as Graeme was not feeling well and just took it easy the rest of the afternoon. He fell asleep for a couple of hours and is very hot to the touch. Through the night he was burning up so obviously fighting The covid bug. We are wishing about them that he hadn’t decided, not to get the vaccine booster I had booked – The side-effects from the boosters were getting worse each time we had one so we had a flu jab instead ha ha!

We just grabbed some pasta in the Lifo deck diner for dinner so he could get back and have a shower and lie down as he’s been spinning out a lot. Hopefully a good sleep and he will feel a bit better tomorrow.

Day 17 Kirkwall, Scotland

Today we were all ready to go- we had the new ETA Visa (that’s the same as the ESTA Visa you need to get to enter the states – basically just another $20 per person charge!). We now require this and immigration comes onto the ship and you have to get your passport checked by immigration officers, as you are now in the UK. The lines were fairly quick and it was all very painless – much better organised than Royal Caribbean on other cruises. Graeme is feeling a little better although still not great but he was keen to get out and see Kirkwall .

It’s really well set up here as they have courtesy buses that take you into town, which There’s about 10 minutes away. You’d think with 2700 people on board, there would be huge queues for the buses but they’re weren’t and they just flowed.  We were dropped in town and wandered through the really picturesque town. There are lots of people in high-vis jackets there to give people information if they want it and everyone is so friendly – especially considering we flood their town in one hit when a ship comes in! Might be hard for the locals but they all seem really good.  

We walked up to the large graveyard outside Saint Magnus Church. There are so many beautiful headstones and all old. If I lived here, I would love to volunteer to scrub them so that a lot of the words that are disappearing are saved.  But especially nice was the juxtaposition of the graveyard on one side and you could hear children playing in the kindergarten right next door!

Inside, the church was amazing – I would say it almost rivalled cologne. and very surprising for a small town. There were crypt stones on the walls with the names of members of the church beside them – the ones I saw dated back to The 1500s in some cases.We spent ages in there. There was so much to see including the monument for a local who was an Antarctic Explorer, who went there four times in the late 1800s. Now they would have been intrepid  

Outside, we wandered around the town. Surprisingly, there are three pharmacies in this one road.I went into two of them as I was trying to get some of the Panadol osteo – but the UK is the same as Norway apparently- you can’t get it so had to settle for the normal sort. It’s interesting as I also bought some in Bergen and it was probably 20 times the price of Panadol in the UK – 49p for 16 tablets! So cheap:-).

Then we wandered a bit more and bought a big wedge of fudge each from a store where they make it - it looked better than it tasted, but oh well! Then we wandered back down to the bus after looking in the various shops.

All the volunteers were down at the bus area waiting t to assist. One of the guys started talking to us telling us about his visit to Dunedin as his mum lived there, next thing the doors closed and he was like oh well I’m coming to the port with you! You could see there was such good camaraderie with all of the locals – not sure if they volunteer or are paid but they were also very friendly! 

Out and back onto the boat – the wind was really starting to pick and Graeme was running out of steam so grabbed something to eat and then into our room.

Later in the afternoon the captain came on the loudspeaker and said they were suspending the gangway as the wind had reached 90 km an hour equivalent and he was calling in a tug to keep us at the port. Obviously, it was too much strain on the ropes and next thing there is a tug, virtually outside our window which sat there pushing us against the dock for 4 hours until we set sail. Had dinner in the dining room then an early night as we walked and walked and walked today!

Days 12,13 & 14. 26–28th April Amsterdam – Rotterdam – at Sea - Kristiansand

 Day 12 – Amsterdam to Rotterdam

Today we had our bags outside by 8 am., then up to the lounge to have breakfast. They need us out of our rooms by 8:30 am so they can prepare for the next cruise. Funny how they always call this one of the days of your cruise but you are up and out as soon as they can get you going. Although to be fair, the crew of the Emerald destiny, have been fantastic. We gave our lovely cabin attendant Dina some chocolates to say thank you as we left at 8.

Had a couple of hours in the lounge catching up on my blog and then we were chatting to Allison and David, before we 4 grabbed our suitcases from the end of the pier, said goodbyes, which is always hard when you’ve made new friends. 

We walked into town to brave the many thousands around for the kings birthday celebrations! All the young people and not so young people! are dressed in orange so I wore my bright orange dress today in honour as well. We walked to the main train station in Amsterdam, which was easy - 10 mins. We had researched what we needed beforehand and purchased a ticket to Rotterdam €19p.p. It is really pretty easy here to work the train system out, although some of the Dutch words are pretty long to pronounce!

Onto the train – no problems getting seats and luckily I got one with 4 seats so we could squeeze our cases in. There were tons of older teenagers coming on and off the train all dressed in bright orange, very happy! Most of them had alcohol with them and were drinking, but have to say they were no problem at all - just loud and happy which was fine. 

It took about 1:15hr to get to Rotterdam, then we went to Starbucks and got a lovely hot drink and had a look at the next step to get to the port. It was 4 stops to get to Wilhelminaplein, just had to find the right place as we were going to a different area to go on a Metro. We got out at the other end no problems – was a bit tricky to find where we had to exit and walk to as we didn’t have internet, but we got there fine.

We are sailing on Holland America, the ship is the Rotterdam – the largest of their fleet, but with only 2668 passenger capacity ( this sailing is full), so seems small to us compared to some we have done! Embarkation was pretty painless – it ran like a well oiled machine – our check in time was 2 pm and we were pretty well spot on. It started at 12 pm so probably the messes were already Through. Apparently, 800 passengers stayed on from the last cruise as they are doing the same as us – we are doing Norway in two parts, it’s two 1 week cruises put together.

Got up to our room – 6011 balcony, nice room and outlook. Unpacked our bags so that’s out of the way for two weeks! We wandered around a bit getting our bearings, the ship is a bit strange as instead of having a large central open area, it has more like a front middle and back which are not really connected – not our favourite layout as there’s no big walking track or open area but I think it is mainly because the swimming pool has a closing roof so you aren’t looking down into that area like you normally do with ships that don’t have the roof. 

We were pretty tired tonight and both of us have been sore from the bed on the river cruise. Not sure what it was, but we have both been feeling it, so we grabbed a burger and chips from the deli for an early dinner as we didn’t feel like going to the main dining room. They were very nice except the first lot that came had incredibly hot chilli all over them and blue vein cheese! The sauce was a bit hot for me so got some nice normal ones. We got a couple of smoothies and sat at a table with a built-in chessboard. I can never remember the moves but we had fun trying.

With Holland America they have what’s called a have it all package which includes specialty dining, some excursion credit, OBC, and drinks – up to 15 per person a day!! We will be hard put to ever drink that, however it does also include specialty coffees and drinks, smoothies and water. I would not like to pay for the water each day – around $10 NZ for a 1litre bottle! Discovered later on, down at reception that the daily gratuity of €17p.p per day– So about $57 NZ is being added onto our bill. I had checked these were included in our package, with the travel agent prior to the trip (who honestly has been pretty useless and made a lot of errors). So there is an error somewhere – reception screenshot the confirmation I had via email from the travel agent – I always get it in writing, so they are sending it to head office and we will have to wait and see the outcome. Will be fun to sort out if the error is at her end.

Read up on the bits and piece about the ship, then we went up to the orange party – Holland America always have one on their cruises and because of the kings birthday celebrations they bought it forward to tonight. They had a band playing, which was so incredibly loud I can say without a doubt, would cause pretty instant hearing damage – with the roof closed over the pool and the volume up, it was terrible. There were hardly any people there unsurprisingly. Anyway they finished and then another band that was quieter came out, although still very loud under the closed glass roof. Was pretty disappointing overall, as whenever Danni and I have sailed, the sale away parties have always been really good for at least 1 or 2 “YMCA”s! Anyway that was a flop so back down to the cabin and into bed. 

It’s lovely to be able to do what we want– is quite different from the river cruises where you are working very much around their timetable. There are just so many things to do on a sea cruise and I have to say Holland America have more activities per day than I’ve seen on Royal Caribbean, NCL, MSC, P&O.

Walked 19,000 steps today!

 Had to Borrow this photo from Allison – showing the orange celebrations!

Day 13 – At Sea

Woke up at 6 am- unfortunately this morning! Would so love to sleep in but haven’t managed that yet – boo.

I decided to go sit outside wrapped up in a blanket as it was really cool, and started to read a book which is lovely to do – I always feel so busy at home. I look at my books but find it hard to make the time to stop and do it.

We had showers, then went upstairs and joined the masses to get some breakfast! Found a seat next to a Dutch couple and got talking to them for a while, then wandered around getting used to where things are. We also got some nice hot drinks a coffee and a chai latte, then I grabbed some Domino’s and a Skibo card game and we went and sat at the very front of the ship where it is a bit quieter and played a game of Domino’s. Had a chat with an older lady whose table we were sitting at – she was from South Washington and a lovely lady. Then we went and checked out the library – oh my gosh this is the best one I think I’ve ever seen. It was laid out more like a proper library,  the books had stickers on the spines so that you would take them back, rather than a book exchange type of library. It was so quiet in there with big windows and a few nice comfy chairs so we sat down for awhile and read before going back to our cabin.

Mooched around for a couple of hours then went wandering again before some nice non alcoholic drinks, which were followed by some alcoholic drinks later in the afternoon! when we popped up to the deli to get a Reuben‘s sandwich – they were delicious! We wandered around the outside of the deck watching people play different outdoor games – there are quite a few older teenagers on board who were out playing basketball and beating their parents at different games!

We actually lay down this afternoon and had a 45 minute nap – was so nice and my neck appreciated it! We went to a Q &A session on the stop tomorrow which is Kristiansand. We are just going to wander around in town as it is only small and because our cruise ship isn’t huge and we can go right into the port for the most part without having to use tenders. 

Then onto the dining room and had a lovely dinner before wandering through to the theatre. Grabbed another couple of cocktails and sat down to watch it. The show is old Hollywood type singing and dancing. It was pretty good – Holland America are not known for their shows so much but they did well. I think there are only a couple on over each seven day cruise but they had a really good set up so instead of having to move the seats around continuously in between songs, they project their screen onto the walls, which wrapped right around the seats so you felt like you were in the set with them!

Back to the room and to bed - we have two cabin attendants for the first time on any of our cruises, and they had put in an egg crate mattress our bed which is wonderful :-).

Day 14 – Kristiansand 

Today we docked in the beautiful town of Kristiansand at 7am. We had a continental breakfast in our room – you can get food all day long from a certain menu, complementary with Holland America which is great. With Royal Caribbean, you can get the complimentary breakfast only.

Graeme is coming down with a bug – there are a few people coughing here and of course anywhere you have a lot of people together you get bugs. I have been very careful about hand sanitising when anything is touched or given to me, so we are hoping Graeme doesn’t get worse.

We got off the ship about 9 am and walked around the front dock area – it is so beautiful here. Very crisp and cold in the wind but lovely, with seagulls flying around everywhere with their own seaside sound! Then we walked into town. These small towns rely on the ships coming in, just like Twizel. Bought a couple things in a store that were decent priced clothing and we generally just enjoy the wander around.

Back to the ship where we decided to have a cocktail that had honey in it, the Ginny Hendrix! It was so nice we had another one and then a mojito and a martini for Graeme. Then the bartender told us about chocolate martinis – boy that one was strong so after number 4 we had to go back to the room and have a lie down! :-)

Down to dinner in the dining room – I decided to have crayfish which is $25USD extra but you get two crayfish and it was insanely good. We have $300USD on-board credit to use although we have just discovered that the useless travel agent we had tried, who has been very lazy the whole way through and made lots of errors – has made another one. It is a lesson in making sure you have in writing when things like on board gratuities are being included. 

Luckily, I had written to her when we booked specifically asking if they were included, as they are a significant amount of money at around $800NZD for our cruise – she confirmed they were in the package. Turns out they aren’t and she had made another mistake and they are coming off our on-board credit every day. Have spoken to the team at the service desk and while we could fill in a form and make them take them all off, it wouldn’t be fair as it covers the teams like cabin stewards, kitchen staff and laundry assistants who all ave much lower wages. So we will leave them on and pay the bill and then the agent will be refunding that back.

We were so tired tonight after all our drinkies that we decided not to go to the comedy show or the dancing, but we are tired in a nice way. Walked 8 kms today!