Today was Thursday and also our day of departure for our cruise on the Hurtigruten Coastal Ferry. We had to wake up early (for us) as Chris was stopping by at 8AM to pick up any luggage that we would not be taking on the cruise. Christian was back at our apartment a second time by 9:30AM to take us to the ferry for good. So we said goodbye to our Trondheim apartment as we will stay with Chris & Siri for our last night in Trondheim. We all piled into the car – illegally – to only take one trip. We will be gone for 5 nights returning on next Tuesday morning. We will be taking the Nordkapp to Tromso, Norway (arriving Saturday afternoon). Then we will be taking the back to Trondheim arriving on Tuesday morning.
We were checked in on the ferry (the Nordkapp) by 10AM however we could not enter our rooms until 12:00 noon when the ferry left Trondheim. We walked around and explored the boat. The Nordkapp is one of their newest ships and has lots of amenities. Our return trip from Tromso is on one of their oldest ships in the fleet so we will get to compare. Our room is on level 2 (the lowest of the floors containing rooms) and the boat has 7 levels. The kids quickly zeroed in on the play area (on level 4). It is small but has this great ball pit. Level 4 also houses the restaurant (too expensive for us) and the café which has food 24 hours and is more our style. There are plenty of tables & chairs for sitting on outside of the play area and this keeps everyone happy.
The ship got under way promptly at noon and the scenery quickly turned spectacular. Our first stop would be Rorvik at 8:45PM where we would be allowed to get off the ferry for 30 minutes. Before that we did a lot of sitting around and watching scenery and birds. We ate lunch from the supplies that we had brought with us – later determining we were eating in an area where food was not allowed – oops! At one point the ferry had to go through an area only 42meters wide and make some a turn around a corner – that was fun! The kids spent a lot of time in the play area. Gwyneth found a friend – a 10 year old girl from India – and they quickly hit it off. There are no other kids of this trip that we’ve seen and most people seem to be of an older set. The girl has been on the ferry since Bergen and knows her way around the ship so she and Gwyneth were quickly going off on their own (made me a bit nervous, but there really isn’t too many places that she can go). They were playing games and Gwyneth was invited back to the girl’s room – a suite - a far cry from our room in the bowels of the boat!
Ethan managed a nap at about 5PM and we dragged him off to the café about 6:30PM. Luckily there was a bench seat as he wasn’t quite ready to wake up. We had a fried fish plate, a chicken dinner plate, a pizza, a milk and a beer for about $60. Not bad given the captive audience they have. The picture shows Janet Carolyn Dahl Ormes with her “Dahl’s” beer glass. Well it was really my beer but it seemed like she should be in the picture. The food was decent. Jan had a burger that looked quite good so I think that Nic and/or I could be sampling that tomorrow. Of course there were ice creams for some members of our party after dinner.
The boat stopped in Rorvik at 8:45PM for 30 minutes. With a little effort we got everyone off the boat. Ethan thought it was funny to hide his socks in the ball pit right before departure. Nic did not think it so funny as he was helping to get his shoes on. We had a short walk around the ferry area and we were treated to the southbound Hurtigruten arriving – the Richard With. The kids enjoyed the ferry parallel parking next to ours. After the stop we found ourselves back near the play area. Gwyneth had to do some math first however. It is 10:30PM and Nic just took the kids down to the room as I write the last few sentences of this blog. All in all the day has been quite pleasant. The ferry is very comfortable with lots of options for sitting and viewing the scenery.
We were checked in on the ferry (the Nordkapp) by 10AM however we could not enter our rooms until 12:00 noon when the ferry left Trondheim. We walked around and explored the boat. The Nordkapp is one of their newest ships and has lots of amenities. Our return trip from Tromso is on one of their oldest ships in the fleet so we will get to compare. Our room is on level 2 (the lowest of the floors containing rooms) and the boat has 7 levels. The kids quickly zeroed in on the play area (on level 4). It is small but has this great ball pit. Level 4 also houses the restaurant (too expensive for us) and the café which has food 24 hours and is more our style. There are plenty of tables & chairs for sitting on outside of the play area and this keeps everyone happy. 
The ship got under way promptly at noon and the scenery quickly turned spectacular. Our first stop would be Rorvik at 8:45PM where we would be allowed to get off the ferry for 30 minutes. Before that we did a lot of sitting around and watching scenery and birds. We ate lunch from the supplies that we had brought with us – later determining we were eating in an area where food was not allowed – oops! At one point the ferry had to go through an area only 42meters wide and make some a turn around a corner – that was fun! The kids spent a lot of time in the play area. Gwyneth found a friend – a 10 year old girl from India – and they quickly hit it off. There are no other kids of this trip that we’ve seen and most people seem to be of an older set. The girl has been on the ferry since Bergen and knows her way around the ship so she and Gwyneth were quickly going off on their own (made me a bit nervous, but there really isn’t too many places that she can go). They were playing games and Gwyneth was invited back to the girl’s room – a suite - a far cry from our room in the bowels of the boat! 
Ethan managed a nap at about 5PM and we dragged him off to the café about 6:30PM. Luckily there was a bench seat as he wasn’t quite ready to wake up. We had a fried fish plate, a chicken dinner plate, a pizza, a milk and a beer for about $60. Not bad given the captive audience they have. The picture shows Janet Carolyn Dahl Ormes with her “Dahl’s” beer glass. Well it was really my beer but it seemed like she should be in the picture. The food was decent. Jan had a burger that looked quite good so I think that Nic and/or I could be sampling that tomorrow. Of course there were ice creams for some members of our party after dinner.
The boat stopped in Rorvik at 8:45PM for 30 minutes. With a little effort we got everyone off the boat. Ethan thought it was funny to hide his socks in the ball pit right before departure. Nic did not think it so funny as he was helping to get his shoes on. We had a short walk around the ferry area and we were treated to the southbound Hurtigruten arriving – the Richard With. The kids enjoyed the ferry parallel parking next to ours. After the stop we found ourselves back near the play area. Gwyneth had to do some math first however. It is 10:30PM and Nic just took the kids down to the room as I write the last few sentences of this blog. All in all the day has been quite pleasant. The ferry is very comfortable with lots of options for sitting and viewing the scenery.
No comments:
Post a Comment