There were plenty of activities if you wish to pay a little cash, such as rides on zodiac rubber boats, rides on airplanes and speedboats but none of this appealed to us at all so we did not bother. However we did have a nice quiet day reading and resting after yesterdays rather busy day. We decided to take sandwiches back to the room for lunch and sat on the balcony whilst the fjord moved around us. Luckily the weather has been very kind to us and the temperature was about 23 Centigrade which is a nice temperature.
Now a little bit about this boat, its is one of the smaller cruise ships, its still quite large but small compared to the really big ones which can take 8000 people which is not for us. This one has about 240 rooms which mostly have balconies and can take about 450 guests and the the most important thing is that is what they call fully inclusive which makes it more expensive however you don't have to keep signing and paying for drinks and extra for different restaurants. This ship has basically four restaurants and the main one can seat just about everybody on the ship, whilst the Colonnade is more casual and there is the Grill which we used on the second night and finally the Patio which is an outdoor restaurant and only open when it does not rain buy with ceiling heaters its very comfortable. On past cruises you may have to wait to be seated as the restaurant is busy but with so much restaurant seating capacity none of the restaurants is very full up which makes it quieter.
The majority of the guests on board are Americans and yet on yesterdays visit we sat next to a couple form Auckland New Zealand who it appeared had family relatives in Freckleton, Lancashire which is where Jennifer was born and lived for a while. Although he was a very quiet type of guy he was heavily in to motor racing and has driven Formula 3 and Formula 5000 cars in OZ as well as at Brands Hatch and Silverstone., You meet all characters on this type of ship which can make for an interesting time except for those very noisy yanks who shout a lot and and think the restaurant is only for them. A bit like Hong Kong really where there is always so much noise people tend to shout anyway. This evening they are having a Captain and Senior Crew walkthrough where you are supposed to be in in the corridor outside your suite with a drink in hand and meet your neighbours and the Captain who incidentally hails from Lancashire. So right now whilst writing this there are some vey noisy American ladies getting pissed and beginning to shout, I think we may go for dinner soon but not sure where we will go as it depends on the food available which suits the hubby of the household.
Well I am going to stop this for a while as Jennifer is outside on the balcony watching the Fjord go by as the sun goes down and hopefully there will be a nice sunset.
For dinner we chose the main restaurant which was only partially full the whole evening and the food was really excellent, Noel had the salmon and Jennifer the chicken and both were really the best we have had for some while and particularly the salmon was really fantastic which info I passed on to the Chef. After dinner we went to the Observation Lounge for a goodnight drink and listen to the pianist singer who was also very good. A really lovely day and we agreed that we wont bother with large boats anymore and just stick with the smaller ones although considerably more expensive are a world apart from the the Holland America, NCL and P & O and Fred Olsen we have been on in the past few years.
And so to bed
