Day 25 – trashy day two – and get on a boat
- This time, we both awoke to the sounds of trash trucks and other “banging” city services. It seems that maybe they did compost on one day and trash the next. It has been fun staying on main street of the city center. It’s been extra nice to have a tiny kitchen. But that comes with some drawbacks.
- We had breakfast, did our final packing, and then work while we waited for checkout time. Housekeeping and Maintenance knocked on our door three times. The second time, I said, “checkout is at 11am, right?” I know they want to get a head start and get it all done and overwith, but we can’t help it that we can’t get on the ship yet. We told the maintenance guy, who was there for the micro/oven that we were checking out in 20 minutes.
- We popped down to cafe for a farewell-Reykjavik hot cocoa, hailed a taxi, and then waited in a very loooong line to check in. Oceania didn’t seem to stagger boarding times for guests. Their check-in process was also a tad bit wonky.
- Standing in line, we made new friends, Bevin and Pete who are also childfree. She had the most adorable navy and pink raincoat with a pleated skirt. I simply must find one for myself. They are also our same deck, but I made a mental note that they seemed like morning larks and we might not see them much on the ship.
- It was around that time that he noticed some kids in line. Oceania only recently went adult-only, so these ones were all grandfathered by their reservations that pre-dated that change.
- Once we were finally checked in, we walked through to find our Muster station at the Casino before heading to lunch in the cafe. I got some fish before I realized it was salmon, but that was a win because I liked it prepared that way. I also had really excellent creamed spinach, good carbonara, and good red wine. And he found his favorite: buttered noodles.
- Almost immediately after, they announced that our cabins were ready. We found one bag already delivered and champagne in our room. We unpacked what had arrived so far and headed back out to take a self-guided tour of the ship.
- It’s a pretty ship with lots of teal and gray …as if my sorority sisters designed the decor. But we also got trapped by a spa staff member who gave us a tour of the spa and reminded us several times about their services. We almost made it out of there without that part. For future cruises, we need to remember to look at it later on and not the first day.
- When we stopped for a drink at the Horizons bar, a bartender named Ramesh recognized and remembered us from Seabourn. That’s the boat that kept sourcing Dr Pepper for him, so it’s not surprising that they remember us. Cruising may happen in large ships, but it’s a small world. He had been moved from the Quest to another boat in Seabourn’s fleet, but then Seabourn sold that boat and got rid of that crew. I don’t understand this logic, but since Seabourn is owned by Carnival and based in the US (Miami), I’m not surprised. They probably also got a big tax break for effectively firing a whole boat load of people.
- And just like that, we were all full and having an early shove off early. The nice pilot even gave us all little bon voyage waves after he got off our ship and on the pilot boat. We got the rest of our bags, unpacked, and set up a bag to go to the laundry. They have machines so you can do your own, but you also get three laundry services done by them. It can take them 3 days to get it back to you, but it’s a nice thing to have access to between all our hand washing we do on trips.
- We had trouble finding a bar that wasn’t packed. I guess everyone wanted a pre-dinner drink on the first day aboard. We ended up in the casino at Founders’ bar where my wine was a Sebastiani ( #theU ) and where we met John and Buff. They are casual like we are, but were confident that I was dressed up enough for the restaurant. They also went back to their cabin to spruce up a bit for the dressy dinner and then passed our table on the way to theirs at dinner. Adding a pretty scarf goes a long way.
- Dinner was a “be seen” event with many guests in black, white, or black and white and quite a few people very dressed up. The tables were also set with silver. I can’t fathom how many staff members they must need to keep up with silver polishing for 1200 guests. Service was a little odd from what we are used to. Just at our table for two, we had two hostesses, a water/tea/coffee server, a separate sommelier order, and a normal waiter for everything else. Our sommelier wore a massive “turnover” chain ( #theU, again ) with a tiny cup, a tastevin with smaller divots that he could use to evaluate the color and taste of the wines he was serving.
- The club’s band was just a duo with a drum machine. Their playlist could use some work (don’t change to a ballad when people are dancing) but they played some 80s stuff right off the bat.
Day 26 – Heimaey Island
- A great night of sleep was rudely interrupted by the damn alarm. We had ordered room service for breakfast and needed to be dressed. Adding the busy cafe breakfast to our morning just didn’t make any sense. I didn’t care for my avocado toast; they used too much lime. But the sausage links were great.
- Tendering was pretty organized. On our way to the dock, we saw someone from our previous cruise.
- We had a funny tour guide, Trusty, sharing a lot of great information. Heimaey Island is 4800 people, 1% of Iceland. They are the largest fish exporters in Iceland and Iceland is the largest fish exporter in the world. Fish is a big deal.
- The small island is also known for Sprangan, or “side swinging.”
- Aside from Sprangan, handball is the most popular sport in Iceland.
- The golf course is a full 18 holes and was nominated for most beautiful in Europe. We saw many golfers in the rain.
- We also saw them setting up for Þjóðhátíð, their 20,000-person annual music fest. They had a giant stack of palettes that would become a bonfire. They would also have fireworks in the “amphitheatre”-shaped cavern of the mountain. Finally, they fire one flare per year of the festival and make a ring of light while they all sing their national anthem. Awwww and it makes for awesome pics.
- On the way to the highlight of our tour, we saw some sheep doing sheep things in the rain.
- Originally, the people hunted puffins with nets for food, but then, mackerel came and started eating the puffins food supply (eels). So, to balance it back out, they started eating mackerel and stopped eating puffins.
- Puffins! So cute! They mate for life and migrate annually. Males arrive early and build/tend the burrow for two weeks before the female arrives. They lay one egg per year. Then, instead of the pufflings fledging the burrows, the parents leave so the puffling can learn. But pufflings are young and inexperienced, so when they wander out of the burrow for food, they get confused by the city lights (mistaking it for moonlight) and get lost in town. In August and September, the people of Heimaey collect pufflings from the streets, give them overnight shelter, and throw them off cliffs so they can catch wind, open their wings, and fly toward the sea. The whole process is a kind act of humanity for the cute birds, and was even featured on a New York Times podcast.
- Volcano “the eruption” killed only one, lasted for six months, and added 2 square kilometers of land and a mountain to the island.
- Back at the ship, we had two lunches (so we could get different things), took some photographs, and had an afternoon boost with Cokes before we gave up anyway and took naps.
- Later, during a pre-dinner drink at the Founders’ casino bar we met a great English couple and avoided an awful GQP couple who make it their whole everything (including matching daily outfits). Our dinner was at the Polo Grill steakhouse. The food was good, but the service was awful (as in maybe they forgot we were there awful). We were also seated near a very loud and full-of-himself asshole. Mr “Well, When I Was In Medical School….” is probably the reason the staff went a little MIA.
- We spent the rest of our evening in the club, enjoying the sunset (our first in weeks) and the band.
Day 27 – bonus sea day
- At 7am, the Captain announced that the weather was too bad to anchor and tender, so we’d be getting a bonus sea day. (Lara later told us we didn’t miss much at that stop, anyway.)
- After breakfast, we sat in a quiet corner and watched people using the bonus sea day to do the scavenger hunt. The cruise line has some activities that earn you points. Then, the person/people with the most points gets a discount on their next cruise. At least that’s how we think it works. We didn’t care to “work” for it for a bunch of activities we don’t like that much such as “baggo”/cornhole.
- We went to a Viking talk. Afterword, he told me that through the whole thing, it lined up with the Vikings show he watched (and that I still need to watch).
- We popped into the Library for a quick game of our version of Scrabble. (We don’t keep score, we don’t stick to a certain dictionary, and we can look up words on our phones to make sure they are words/correct.)
- Back at our room, we found our laundry returned in a neat package made from the laundry bag. It’s a very nice service to have.
- During our lunch in the dining room, there were some big waves. A woman at the table next to us saw a whale breach.
- Our afternoon was restful with naps, and charging our phones. We also had a “beer & a milkshake” date in the Waves cafe.
- At dinner, the people next to us saw a whale. Dang it!
- After dinner, we went to the Horizons club for drinks and to look for the Faroe Islands we were passing. It was too foggy (from that same storm we were avoiding) and we were too far to see them.
- Our evening entertainment was a pop songs show with the vocalists and dancers. It was good.
- At the club, the band was playing good dancing music and the crowd was enjoying it a lot. We met Nancy & Tom and had fun dancing with them.
- After the bar closed, I tried to order room service, but they told me the “bar is closed.” Womp womp. (We adjusted future evenings and just got an extra roadie at Last Call.) We also had to Spring Forward for the next time zone.
Day 28 – itinerary changes
- We slept in and had a “brunch” of a sort at the Waves Grill before popping down to Reception to make sure the charge that came through was just the pre-authorization. I don’t mind that they do this, but our texts from our credit card look the same if it’s a charge or an authorization, so I wish they would warn us.
- After brunch, we bumped into Nancy & Tom and got to have the formal introductions we didn’t get on the dance floor. And then I saw someone using a laptop. I got the skinny from her on how to get mine to work on this awful WiFi. They give us all a cheap Wifi (with many of the packages) with only one device at a time per person in the hopes that we’ll pay for the nicer one. I flat-out refused to reward that garbage. Seabourn was the same, but once I get their system and the rhythm down, it’s not that big of a deal. I wish lines would just do better. For what we pay for these, good wifi should be standard/included. And then, they’d not need as much “tech” staff, so they could save money there. We popped into Horizons for a drink and the views of the water.
- Back at the cabin and with my laptop, I tried the Wifi switching again. It’s a dumb setup, but it finally “took” or my brain finally clicked. I had forgotten this whole device dance like what I had on Seabourn.
- And then we heard from the Captain again. Sadly, the storms were just too bad to get into Ålesund. Several people on board were sad to miss the fjords. I was just grateful we saw them on the first cruise. Instead of Ålesund, Captain moved up our stop to Halesund. And instead of Maloy, we’d go to Oslo, which was a repeat for us since that’s where we started this trip.
- For the afternoon, we really just wandered from space to space, had some drinks, relaxed, and whale watched with no success. We had snacks at the Waves Grill, briefly watched a woman play roulette, hit Martinis piano lounge for drinks, and also visited the Founders’ bar. Where we heard a fabulous story. Our bartender, Ihthisham, had worked on the Seabourn Odyssey with Ramesh, the bartender we met on Seabourn Quest that is also on this crew. One late night, a Japanese man told Ihthisham that he’d like to buy the ship and asked for someone in charge. Ihthisham thought it was just tipsy talk and didn’t take him seriously, but the guy kept asking. Finally, Ihthisham got the bar manager, who also didn’t believe the guy at first. Eventually, they got the general manager and the process took off from there. The man owned a smaller Japanese cruise line and bought the Odyssey for his fleet. And that’s the story of how our bartender sold a cruise ship and got none of the sales commissions.
- After some day drinking and with a whole evening left to go, I went for a walk and he went for a nap. He later found me in Horizons and we had a pre-dinner drink.
- It felt like the Captain pulled a fast one on the Excursions crew by announcing the itinerary change to us at the same time as them. They needed a heads up. So, the Cruise Director had to make two announcements over the PA not to bother them at that desk until they could get it sorted and get new excursion options printed and in our rooms. And then we learned why no one was following the instructions. We wouldn’t get the printout until we went to dinner (when they do turndown service). Our seating was for 8pm. The Excursions Desk closed at 8pm. With the new date, they had to move a lot of things around and our excursion was moved to 0845, which is way too early for us. So he set an alarm for like 7am the next morning to run down there and cancel it so we’d get our money back. There was no process that made any sense at all. Do better, Oceania.
- We had a late dinner seating at Red Ginger, so during the early evening, I walked around for some air and movement while he napped. Red Ginger was okay. The appetizer sampler was pretty good. It has skewers of beef, chicken, & shrimp, fried shrimp, sushi (that was all rice) and fried calamari (that went untouched). He got butter chicken and liked it. The sea bass I had was very sweet. I think that’s my biggest frustration with a lot of Asian cuisines: I don’t want sugary sauces in my meal. But then, when I want a sweet ending, I find their desserts very plain and bland.
- After dinner, in the Horizons lounge a college kid or recent grad was wearing an anti-Florida shirt. He went to the University of Tennessee (a big rival). His travel companions, he, and I bonded over each of us being a “Gator Hater” and he complimented my ‘Canes on our great season last year. It was a sweet moment.
- When we asked our bartender how he was doing, he answered with “Amazingly amazing.” 💚 So cute.
- ….but then bad karaoke (and with some children) ran us out. We gave it a real chance to “mature” with some good singers, but that didn’t happen within five songs. The night still ended sweetly, though. Back at the Founders’ bar, we met a couple that are sailors from Virginia who trade locations for the weather. He said, they are not “snow birds” and asked them if they were “snow ducks.” A little bit later, a guy at the bar made a rose from a cocktail napkin for his date. I thought it was cute so the bartender made me one.
Day 29 – Haugesund and Magic
- The evil alarm woke us up so we could return our excursion tickets and ensure a refund. But then, we couldn’t go back to sleep, so we went to breakfast with the idea that we’d come back to bed. But that didn’t happen, either.
- So, we took the long walk into the tiny town and ran an errand. It reminded us both of the 16th Street pedestrian mall in Denver. We were back on the ship in time to have lunch before an afternoon rest.
- We thought someone either missed the boat or had an emergency. They called for them over the PA after all aboard. Then they wheeled out a suitcase and carried out two small bags. 😢
- Push off was sideways and very tight. Harbor/canal/fjord Pilots are some skilled folk.
- Sailing was through some small channels. There were a lot of ships and it made for fun watching.
- We were hungry before our special dinner seating. In general, the food was just mediocre except for my dessert. We had drinks at Founders until time for our second dinner at Toscana, where we sat near the same pompous jerk from our night at the Polo Grill steakhouse. I barely picked at my food: awful scampi with tomato sauce (in scampi??) and weak sea bass. But he loved his chicken.
- The show was called Triangle and was the music from Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans.) The show was a slow to start and they kept calling that triangle the Missippippi Delta but that defined geographical area doesn’t actually reach any of those cities. Still, the show was good: Elvis, Eagles, jazz, gospel, soul, etc..
- During our moving about the ship, he ran into a funny moment. A man had both hands in his pockets. His wife pulled one of his arms and said “One hand out.” Is that an etiquette rule? Or maybe that was just her rule. So ever the trouble maker, he said to them, “Well, my wife is not here,” and proceeded to place both of his hands in his pants pockets.
- Finally, the band theme was 80s 90s night! As a joke, Tom “stole” a woman off the dance floor and took her to the bathroom area as if they were going for sex in the loo. It was very funny. And I’m right, about 80s music, dammit. Many people were singing along to Toto, Wham!, R.E.M., Madonna, AHa, Michael Jackson, Footloose, Cher, Ricky Martin, etc..
- Y’all, then the most magical thing happened. The band announced they would play a LoneStar song. I knew before they played the first note that it would be that band’s biggest hit, Amazed, our wedding song. We were the only ones dancing to it. It felt like the spotlight was on us. I was a weepy mess. It has been years since we heard the song and more years since we danced to it. At the end, the vocalist said, “I feel like I’m at a wedding or something,” so I explained to her that it was our wedding song and that this was our 25th anniversary trip. I accused him several times of a set up; he swears he did not. It was true kismet. Which is funny on an 80s-90s night since we got married in ‘01, but the song did release in 1999.
