Overall, it was a nice cruise, though it was absolutely the itinerary that MADE it.
One of the firs things we did, as per usual, was trivia. One of the great things about trivia is that it is where we meet the best people. And, one of the best perks of cruising is that we nearly always leave the ship having made a few new friends that we enjoy enough to keep in touch with, try to visit or travel with of have over, etc. Here we are with our trivia buddies:
who became our cruise buddies (this was taken after we had just won The Quest--beating out a team who came prepared with bras and undies and various other things in a bag they dumped out on a table--I have to say it was a nice feeling to win without "cheating" while competing against those who did!):
Dinner was, well, interesting throughout the cruise. We were seated at a table for 8 with our party of four (Dave, Marika and I plus our friend Joachim) and two couples. After the first night, one couple never returned (we have no idea why; they were friendly when we ran into them elsewhere onboard or in town--so it is hard to say if they preferred not to dine with a teen, just wanted a table to themselves or a different seating time, had an issue with the other couple or what). After that first night, we were joined by another young woman from Germany. She was a welcome addition and we became a table for 7. We had a GREAT waiter, who kindly brought out a plate of the evening's curry and Indian dessert every night after learning that David loves it (we passed it around though). Travellers from India were among the top 10 represented nations on this sailing so the chef was making Indian curries and desserts every night in addition to whatever was on the menu. We also had a wonderful assistant, who kept Dave's wine glass filled with Cunundrum.
It should have been a great table; we were even against the window with lovely views. Unfortunately, towards the end of the second night the wife of the other couple at the table started what became a theme of bringing up, every night, how much she dislikes children and teens, how she wishes they were not allowed on cruise ships, etc. That first time, we assumed it was a one off comment and it would not happen again, and we were getting attached to our waitstaff and other tablemate at that point. It is too bad that she did not show her colors on the first night when we would have felt okay about asking to be moved for the duration of the cruise. By night 7 it had become apparent that she had not simply not heard Marika a few times but that she was refusing to acknowledge ANYthing the teen at the table said. That night she went as far as to say that the cruise-lines should not allow children on board, Marika finally snapped just a wee bit and stood up for herself (which was entirely appropriate in my opinion) and looked right at her saying "well thank you very much" sarcastically. Her husband tried to cover and say she only meant small children but she interrupted him to say she meant anyone 18 or under (all while looking directly at Marika). It was all I could do not to tell her that the only person at the table who was rude was HER with her insults and ignoring a tablemate--the teen was just fine. Sigh. Thankfully (because I was at a point of not caring and ready to tell her off if she started in again) the last night went better, and she even responded to comments Marika had in the conversation. Maybe she could tell she had pushed me as far as she could? Either way, it was good to end on a pleasant note--and can I just throw out there that if you are truly so opposed to kids and teens that you feel they should not be allowed on the ships, choosing to sail a line which markets heavily to families and runs child and teen programming on every ship in its fleet is probably not a wise idea?
Other than the one crappy tablemate, dinner was nice. The food was always good and fresh, though I am not a huge fan f the new menus. Sailing in Norway also meant that we had incredible views nearly every night.
The entertainment onboard was very good but not great. The cast was talented (we had seen 3 before on sailings last year), the orchestra was great. There were This was very well done and a surprise favourite for our group.
The variety acts were a juggler (Charlie Frye and Company) whom we have seen a couple of times and whom we find okay but nothing special, an electric strings group that was much better and more interesting than we expected, and a Bee Gees tribute band (as Marika says, someone really needs to get across to RCI that tribute bands are over rated)--we lasted three songs.
The cruise staff left some to be desired. They were not terrible, but not great either. The cruise director, Topi from Finland, was rather stand offish and did not really engage the guests either in direct conversations or leading parties, etc. He played guitar or sang with the band but didn't actually converse and get people interested and going. He DID do a really interesting presentation on the final sea day about a transpacific sailing adventure he took. If you sail with Topi, it is worth organizing your day around seeing this.
The activities manager, Jeremy, was the one bright spot in the team and really tried extra hard to compensate. The other three were all nice enough and seemed to be trying but perhaps lacked the natural outgoing personalities needed (though one was brand new and possibly just needed some time and one was about to leave for vacation after 7 months on board and seemed to just need a break more than anything). We were glad this was a cruise that the ports really made; if we had been relaying on the activities for most of our fun we would have felt underwhelmed.
This was a particularly mellow group of cruisers. It was cold, so the solarium was nearly always full but never even slightly loud. We were thrilled to find that overall this was one of the best behaved group of passengers we have ever seen (though there were a couple of very notable incidents: especially the man who put his face inches from the security staff and then shouted "no!" when asked if he had anything in his pockets after yelling about having to put his iPad through the belt, and the woman who tried to stop the Centrum Show of flags from the various nations represented on board because there was not a Turkish flag in that line up (several flags were missing and it was obvious that staff who could come did but that nor everyone was able to).
So, that is the "on the ship" stuff in a nutshell. Next up will be photos of Norway (which is much more interesting in my opinion).
--Hadley
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