notes4theheart

Thanks everyone! I know this is very subjective but I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything I was overlooking.

We have decided to cruise the Eurodam from Copenhagen to Flam, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Oslo, and Gothenburg, Sweden. I went with this itinerary because of my other thread. One of my bucket list goals was to see a Stave Church and this route gives me two chances (Flam and Oslo).

I'm glad to see that most ports here are beautiful. I was just anxious to not miss that one special port.

Does the Explore 4 cover the coffees available in the explorations cafe as well?

Hi, quick question. How did you find out where the ship docked? I'm on the Eurodam in August of 2015.

Hi everyone,

I have one more question for all of you. Is it possible to see an Old Stave Church at any of the ports on a Norway Cruise?

Thanks,

Jennifer

(I realize that I could have asked both questions in the same thread but I thought separating them would make them a resource in the future.)

Hi all!!

I'm researching my cruise to Norway this coming summer (2015) but think I've narrowed it down to the cruise I want. Before I book, I wanted to post here and get a feel.

Is there any Norway Port that is a Don't Miss? I'm looking mainly for that beautiful fairy tale town feel that I've seen in so many photos. I obviously want to see Fjords but I'm mainly asking for that "Must See Port". (For instance, in Alaska I'd almost say Sitka because it was truly unique)

Thanks!

Jennifer

I put the following together for my mother-in-law when we were planning on heading to Alaska together. Therefore, there are a lot of my own opinions and feedback on things I actually did and liked. I'll post if for you:

Ketchikan

• Great post by a local: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=37509046&postcount=23

• Local bus schedule: http://www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/bus/BusTimetable.htm

• Walking tour (print from online or grab a printout at the info desk)

• Misty Fjords Flight-seeing

o This is something we have never done but lots of people talk about it as a

highlight of their trip. Misty Fjord is a national park. We briefly considered

the boat tour but really find it pricey. In addition, we really like the town of

Ketchikan and want to be sure we have enough time to wander around the

streets

• Misty Fjord Cruise

o Same as the above but by boat.

• Totem Bight (city bus, I think blue)

o Totem Poles. We haven’t been here and it’s supposed to be better than Saxman

It was closed the first day we were there and the second day we never wanted

to see another totem pole. (Sitka has a lot, but we won’t be there this cruise.)

o I think this is free

o Online there is a totem guide for Totem Bight you may want to print and bring

with you. http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/totembgh.htm

• Saxman (city bus, I think red) we did this

o Totem poles. We loved this and thought it was amazing. Then we saw so many

more totem poles and no longer liked it. You can get here on the bus BUT the

ship also has a tour here (or totem bight). If you go with the ship tour, you are

treated to a Native Alaskan dance

o The city bus ride was also awesome because there were lots of locals on our

bus. We also saw some wildlife from the bus and got to see some of the real

town

o I seem to remember paying something when we got off the bus

• Creek Street this is walking distance from the boat.

o You can see the salmon swimming upstream and up a salmon ladder. There’s

also some historic red light district stuff and decent shopping.

• Totem Heritage CenterflI can’t remember if we did this one or not, it starts to blend in my head

• Tongass Historical Museum fl pretty decent museum

• Southeast Alaska Discovery Center fl We only went here because we were too early for the bus

to Saxman Village. We really enjoyed it. It is a museum of sorts that gives a great introduction to

the rain forests of south east Alaska. Also some great Alaska native stuff. I believe it’s affiliated

with the National parks service

• I think there is a salmon hatchery there

• Luberjack Show

o We were never really interested in doing this so I don’t know much about it

• Land and Sea Duck Tour fl what we are doing

o This is as kitchy as it sounds. We’ve done a duck tour in Philly and really enjoyed

it. We’re doing this to get a bit of a narrative about the town and to see it from

lower in the water.

• Cape Fox lodge funicular

o We took this trip up because we heard so much about it. The view from the

top is really nice and it was cool to get the lay of the land. But the lodge itself

was boring. There was a nice collection of totem poles out back and then we

walked/wandered back down the mountain. We were trying to find married

man’s trail but I don’t think we ever did.

Hi all,

This summer I spent a week in Fairbanks and wandered around Pioneer Park. While I was there, 2 cabins were selling Jewelry and Earrings. I remember the name of one "Charms by CJ" but not the other. I bought a beautiful pair of purple herringbone wrapped earrings from the second store but lost one somewhere on the flight home.

I'm trying to figure out the name of the second store to contact them about purchasing a replacement. I remember that it was a husband and wife, husband was a former social studies teacher (I believe). They were also selling (main product, actually) antique posters and pictures. (Not the photo stand)

Thanks for any help I can get,

Jennifer

Nope, that's the former Kungsholm, last known as Mona Lisa, and has been a hotel for awhile. EM

Ah, thanks so much! I have seen the interior of that ship and was morphing it on QE2. I appreciate you clearing that up

Hi all,

Just curious if this is the QE2. The profile and interior look familiar.

http://uk.boats.com/power-boats/famous-cruise-ship-converted-to-floating-hotel--stock-no-s2100-14099968/

Here's mine:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=39855951

hmmm, no idea why that last photo is so big :confused: sorry!

Our next stop was the Market Grill where we ordered the highly recommended "Grilled Salmon Sandwich, blackened, with extra Rosemary Mayo". Now, for background information: I HATE salmon. It's way too fishy for me. Apparently whatever salmon we get here on the East coast is terrible because this sandwich was simply amazing. I couldn't get over how fresh and light it was! I loved the rosemary with fish as well. I actually recreated this dish the day we finally got home from this adventure. (Using wild Alaskan Salmon, of course :D)

Right down the market from the Grill is another famous sign that I was looking forward to photographing:

We were then drawn in by a huge crowd of people and workers that were chanting various offers. That's right we found the famous fish throwers! This is definitely something that needs to be seen to be understood. I did get a video but I haven't downloaded those yet so for now, here's a photo:

After we finished our Mac and Cheese, we made our way into the Market. The flowers were beautiful, if we didn't have to cross the border for our cruise I definitely would have picked up a bouquet.

We also walked past the amazing pacific seafood

You read lots of reports on here that Pike Place Market get's really crowded in the afternoon and those reports were not exaggerated! :eek:

I found this sign particularly funny

Having made the light rail trip successfully we walked down to Pike Place Market hoping that the legendary food would live up to its reputation.

(Pay attention to the sky, it changes later)

Our first stop was Beechers Cheese to see how the cheese was made and try the legendary Mac and Cheese. Mac and Cheese is my husband's favorite food, so we made sure to order a 16 oz serving to share. In hindsight, I think 8 oz would have been just fine. I thought the flavor was ok, nothing special. DH enjoyed it so there's that. Beechers lets you sample their cheese and have a few out for tasting. TIP: They will let you sample anything in their case if you ask. We sampled the smoked flagship and liked it better than the original. We purchased a half pound to snack on later in the trip.

Cheese making

The counter

The Mac and Cheese

The plan for the first day in Seattle was to get up at 6am, get on the light rail, and have breakfast at Lowell's in Pike Market when it opened at 7am. Sadly, the long flight had other things to say about that and we were on our way around 10 am. We never made it to Lowell's so will have to make that a priority on the next trip.

The light rail is a very efficient means of traveling between Sea-Tac and downtown Seattle. We rode the entire route to Westlake Plaza. Westlake was then only a few blocks from Pike Place Market. Westlake Plaza's stop is beautiful and clean and has both stairs and escalators. The one thing we found most interesting about the light rail in Seattle is that buses also drive through the tunnels over the same routes/tracks. :eek: It looked very complicated!

Inside the Train:

Light Rail I took later in the trip:

Westlake Plaza Station:

Light Rail Station with Bus in it:

That concludes the first day of this vacation. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about our first full day in Seattle featuring:

Pike Place Market

Seattle Ferry

Monorail

Space Needle

We landed only a few minutes off schedule and quickly disembarked. Sea-Tac is really well-planned out and we found the baggage claim area quickly. After grabbing our bags, we headed out to wait for the shuttle to our hotel of choice (the Holiday Inn at Sea-Tac). The shuttle showed up after about 15 minutes and away we went.

Our Hotel:

The room:

There was some construction going on at the hotel and areas of it looked really run down. The elevators looked ancient and beat up. Our room was beautiful inside and the bathroom seemed to be brand new.

We chose to stay at Sea-Tac to save a little bit of money. The hotels at Sea-Tac were about 25% cheaper than downtown.

When we were planning this vacation April 2013, I quickly realized that from the NYC area, we actually could save money by flying to Seattle and taking the train to Vancouver than by just flying to Vancouver. Add to this a desire to spend time in Seattle and I was sold. My husband needed a few minutes of convincing but gave in and booked our flight on United to Seattle. We took an evening flight that was scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 10pm (1am our time). There was some debate of how early to go, but we finally settled for 3 days before our cruise and decided to spend two nights in Seattle and then take the late train to Vancouver where we would stay for one night before boarding the Sapphire.

Our flight left from Newark Airport 45 minutes late due to customs being on board late. :confused: Luckily this was not a bad omen for the vacation to come. We boarded the flight hungry and slightly frazzled. United doesn't serve dinner on their flights but do make it available for purchase. We bought a box of Tapas (Marinated Olives | Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta Spread | Wild Garden® Hummus | Rondelé® Peppercorn Parmesan Cheese Spread | Crackers | Emerald® Natural Almonds and Chocolate-Covered Fruit), a Roast Beef and Cheddar Baguette, and a Asian-style noodle salad. Everything was really tasty and reasonably priced considering we were a captive market. The flight passed quickly thanks to a very good book and soon we were making our final approaches to Seattle.

It was about 10 minutes before the call to turn off all electronics when I managed to spot Mt Rainier out my window. I had really wanted to see Mt Rainier on this trip and was really scared that it may be too cloudy to see it while on the ground. I grabbed a few pictures with my camera phone and begged my husband to dig my dslr out of our carry-on (my point and shoot's battery had died an hour earlier).

Sorry for the photo quality. My window had a LOT of frost on it and I wasn't using a very fast lens. The photos will get a bit better as we go on.

Hi everyone!

This review is a bit late but I still wanted to share it as a thank you to everyone who gave me advice and help planning this amazing vacation.

This past August my husband and I flew to Seattle, WA for two short days in the Emerald City, took Amtrak to Vancouver, embarked upon the Sapphire Princess, sailed the coast to Whittier, boarded a bus for a two night stay in Denali, and then took the railroad to Fairbanks where we stayed for 4 nights before flying back home. In all, we stayed in 5 hotel rooms and one cabin.

Some background information on me before we get into the review: I'm a high school teacher and we just went back to school 9/2. That means that I may be a bit slow to write this review. Second, while I am an educator, I'm a math teacher. My writing skills have improved a bit since high school but I apologize in advance for stumbling prose or incorrect grammar. Third, I like to plan by nature but for this trip I really went over the top. If you want any more information about any of things we chose to do (or why we chose them over something else) I can give you that to you.

We had overcast/full cloud skies on our College Fjord Day. Not sure that I took a single picture worth posting or keeping. I haven't gone through them yet, but that is my gut reaction. I'll take the sun, as long as it is in the right place and direction, and you can take pictures before it is too far overhead. As you can see from my Channel Day photos, clouds and mist can make for some fine visuals. But it can be redundant in a way that a sunny day usually isn't.

You should check them, they might surprise you. I was on your sailing and I thought my photos of College Fjord were going to be terrible from how they looked on the screen but got some really stunning ones even with the cloud cover. You had better equipment than I did so I'm sure yours are even better. I was using a T1i with a kit 18-55mm and a 55-250mm.

Did you see any of the sea lions that swam past in glacier bay? I caught a few of them in photos.

Nice job on the whale tale you posted earlier after the Ketchikan day. I was further down and just missed that photo. (I have a blurry tilted tail.)

nevermind...u did add it

Here's one from HAL's board:

Our First Dam Ship:Amsterdam to Alaska

Our bus left at 0800 and got to Denali about 1600. They are very good about stops and do so about every 90 minutes.

Thanks!!

Hi everyone,

we are taking land tour FAX. We disembark and board a motor coach bound for Denali. It says it'll take 8.5 hours

Any idea what time we head out?

Do we stop somewhere along the way for food/stretching?

Taxis always turn up to meet the Amtrak train arrivals - just walk out the front of the station and wait. You could get to the BW by transit, the C21 bus runs from right outside the station to within a couple of blocks of the hotel, but a cab should only run you $10 - it might even be cheaper than transit which is $2.75pp cash fare.

thanks so much! I'm so glad I don't need to book that in advance.