Cruising the sea
Sea Cruising Is NOT For Us!
The land is still wobbly
Darling husband and I did a sea cruise many years ago as a last resort one Christmas when our children deserted us.
For many years, we had between 6 and 12 people in our home over Christmas, but this particular year, the kids had grown up, and boyfriends and girlfriends appeared — serious ones.
So serious that Christmas was to be spent with other people's parents.
Some of our relatives had sadly died, and some decided on a Christmas holiday diving in the Red Sea — yes, you know who you are!
So that left the two of us rattling around in a 5 bedroomed house, all alone at Christmas.
Very sad.
Off to the travel agents, last minute booking, paid in full, assured it would be ‘Wonderful’.
Inside cabin, twin beds.
“Sorry, because you booked so late, it's all we have left.” said the agent offering an apologetic smile. “But you are only going to sleep in it, you will be so busy doing other things, it won’t matter.”
In a way she was right, however, the boat — sorry, Ship, was small.
800 passengers and 200 staff.
The inside cabin was so small that only one person could enter at a time, and if one person was in the tiny ensuite bathroom, they couldn’t get out if the other was trying to get to the cabin door to either leave or enter!
The first night, Darling husband, lay in his single bed and complained that the ship was moving.
Yes, Ships tend to do that!
Later, his plaintive voice came through the darkness — “Kate, are you awake? I think I am going to fall out of this bed!”
Two days later we docked in Funchal, Madeira, and he asked me if the dock we were walking on was ‘floating’ — it wasn’t. It was concrete and firmly anchored, but he had his sea legs on, and felt as though he was walking on sponge all day!
The cruise passed quickly, and other than a rather boring boxing day, where due to high winds the ship couldn’t dock on Lanzarote and we spent all day sailing around the Island, it was uneventful, and not particularly memorable for any one thing.
We didn’t leave the ship enthusing about it, booking for next month or even the next year as others had. We were unimpressed.
Friends said that we should try a bigger, better ship. One with more stopping points, more entertainment, and more shopping opportunities.
A better class of both dining and sleeping experiences could then be almost guaranteed.
It took us another 9 years to do that, and even then we only did it to see the Norwegian Fjords at their best. A cruise to Norway, up a major fjord, and then smaller cruises on individual Fjords was the way to do it.
We booked a year in advance. The company we booked with, we later discovered, is odd, in that they allowed us to choose a deck and a standard cabin, telling us that nearer the time we would be ‘invited’ to ‘bid’ for an upgraded cabin — it should have rung alarm bells, but in reality, we were very new at this cruising business, very naive and as it turns out gullible.
10 months later, we were invited to bid for three different types of cabins and duly did so. We would be told ‘within 7 days of embarkation’ if our bid had been successful and assigned our cabin number.
5200 Passengers. 1800 Staff — this ship is colossal! We were bound to have a better time, weren’t we?
We couldn’t believe it.
Our cruise started with a disappointment. Two of the three bids had been unsuccessful, the third disappeared into the ether — and we had been assigned a ‘standard inside cabin’.
Again.
The entertainment that we were able to book onboard, was adequate. The reason is that everyone who was used to cruising had booked the best entertainment, at the best times, with the best seats months ago. What was left were poor seats, inexperienced performers, and either extremely early or late sessions.
The specialty meals that we were able to book onboard were excellent, but very early sittings, with tables only available for a maximum of 1.5 hours, so no ability to relax and have conversations with new friends.
Once again, experienced cruisers had booked months ago. They must have the ability to know which cuisine they want to eat in 8 months — I have difficulty deciding what I want to eat in 8 hours most days!
The queuing to get off the ship to go to the expeditions, to get back on, the distance between the cabin and anywhere else was huge.
The times we could get off the ship, and the times we HAD to back on were regimental, with no thought given to the length of the queues of people who had no way to judge just how long it would take to get 5200 people back on board by 4.30 pm daily.
These times were unrealistic as even their own tours didn’t end until that time, and it had people panicking — would they be left behind?
The fact that on one occasion they removed the midship gangplank and sent everyone to the forward gangplank with only minutes to spare caused angry exchanges and worry.
The fjords themselves were magical.
The Fjords were everything we dreamed of. It was a lot of money, 7 days of our time, but worth it, as we achieved what we set out to do — revel in the beauty, the peace, and the calm of the Fjords.
There were no signs of wildlife anywhere along the four or five Fjords we sailed down. Nothing that we could see in the cold waters, no birds in the sky, but we knew that these waters are, for now at least, home to Cod and Salmon farms and we did see some evidence of these.
Our guide told us that there was legislation in place that has called for all fish farms to be moved out of the fjords and into inland waters. Something to do with the fish food and waste contaminating the fjords. Hearing our guide above the noise of the engines and the water was tricky, so we didn’t get the more in-depth explanation in full.
The journey home across the sea was equally bereft of any signs of life, and passed pleasantly enough, meeting new people, and sharing stories of our time in Norway, the sea was kind to us and we docked on time in Southampton, England.
Darling husband's Sea legs made their presence felt by day three of the cruise — walking on land each day made him feel as though he was walking on foam!
I was fine until we got home, and then I felt like our kitchen floor was moving. Staggering towards the door, I laughed and said — “That's it — no more cruising for me!”
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