aubreyc1988

BOY, am I GLAD I made that decision! Manafossen Waterfall Hike was INTENSE. And you really didn't know how intense it was going to be until you were halfway into it and there was no backing out. There would have been NO WAY they could have made it up there. I BARELY did and I was shooketh by the time I got to the top. I am short and I have short legs, so most of the rocks I was climbing were about half of my height, which made it hard for me to heft myself onto the rock steps. I honestly cannot believe I made it up to the top of this waterfall. There were parts of the trail up that were just a piece of flat vertical rock and a chain and you just had to sort of pull yourself up. Other parts of the trail had HUGE rocks mixed with small rocks going up the steepest incline. I have NO IDEA how these older people made it up, to be honest. When we all got to the top, I think everyone was shaking in their boots LOL. I *almost* didn't bring my hiking boots and just brought my Nike running shoes and believe me, you NEED hiking shoes in Norway It was incredible at the top and I was pretty proud of myself for getting up there. I was pretty worried about going back down, as were a lot of people, but I excelled at going back down. Idk, I always find it harder going up, maybe because I am shorter and it's harder to go up steep stairs vs. down. And it also took way less time to get down, thankfully. Some people who did really well going up didn't do so hot going down.

And here are some more van pics I have ZERO pictures of the hike going up. I had to concentrate on staying alive. I am serious, idk why but this excursion took a lot our of me. I was pretty scared going up, with my anxiety levels increasing as we went. But I stuck it out and made it to the top. My legs were shaking hard AF when I got to the top but it was breathtaking. * * * * *

And here are a few bad photos I took as we were driving to Manafossen We also stopped once on the way there for scenic photos.

Day Three has us in Stavanger, Norway We booked a Royal Caribbean excursion for this one, called Manafossen Waterfall Hike. The total excursion was about 5 hrs long. 1 hr to the base of mountain, then waterfall hike, then 1 hr back to the port. No food was provided, even for a fee, which was surprising given the length of the tour. The tour was labeled as "Strenuous" but I was told that it was "Royal Caribbean strenuous" and that most people would not have a problem, as it is a 800meter hike. And remember, initially I booked my inlaws on this excursion too. They are in good shape, but they ARE in their 70s so I was hoping this was doable for them. I wanted to do Pulpit Rock, but thought it would be too much on them. Whenever they canceled, I just decided to keep Manafossen and not do Pulpit Rock anyhow. Here we are coming into port *

Not much to report on the first sea day. I didn't take many photos of the Anthem, big oversight on my part, but to be honest, there's lots of photos of the anthem you can find haha I am sad to report that these next two photos are the ONLY slot wins I had, at any bet level. The gambling was brutal, and after these two nights of slots, we switched to tables. While tables were better, it still was a drain and we lost every penny we brought you know how it goes sometimes. So if I do not talk about the gambling much this report, it's because jack sh*t happened. I may have gotten a couple of full houses playing UTH or a couple of good runs on Blackjack, but nothing to write home about really. I did learn how to play Let It Ride, so that was fun. AND the casino was non-smoking, due to UK laws so that was REALLY nice. The bartenders were amazing and I did drink enough to make the gambling losses more palatable. TJ also got to Prime, so we are both qualified for the next calendar year Casino does BADLY need some new games. Some of the ones on Anthem are ANCIENT and no one wants to play those

Before I knew it, we were boarding Anthem around noon, no lines, just walked straight on TJ found his first duck (if you know, you know) We did hide a few of our own * * * * * We had early set time dining. For the first time EVER, we got seated at the big fancy table in the MDR. I thought this was reserved for VIPs but maybe not. I've never been seated here before so I was shocked. I thought maybe it was because we are diamond, but the ladies next to us were not so no idea. Maybe it's random draw, if you know, feel free to chime in

It was such a beautiful perfect day to visit, and not very crowded. They are more majestic in person! Many people told me this was a waste of time, even for tourists, but I disagree. Yes, it essentially is large rocks in the middle of nowhere but they are OLD and historic and the scenery is beautiful! They have a lot of other things to see and do at the Visitor Center as well. It's the PERFECT add on before heading to the cruise port from London. * *

I just HAD to, you know? LOL

We booked a private transfer to Stonehenge and to the cruiseport through https://londoncruise-transfers.com I have no complaints, our driver was great! Initially, we booked this Mercedes 6 seater for the four of us so that we would have plenty of room, but since my inlaws canceled it was super roomy. So I asked on the cruise roll call if anyone wanted to join us (since there was a rail strike going on in London, transportation was a little unreliable) and we had a nice solo cruiser who joined us. I would 10/10 do a transfer+tour with this company again. The cost was 500.00 for the whole van. It took us 1.5 hrs to get to Stonehenge, then the driver waits for you for two hours at Stonehenge (you could also have selected Windsor Castle) and then takes you to the port (another hour). Honestly, it's a steal and a super comfortable ride. We loved Stonehenge. We opted to walk to the site, which was a 30-minute scenic walk. * * *

Although I've eaten at several of Gordan Ramsay restaurants in Vegas, I had to try one of his London places. I chose Heddon Street Kitchen because it was low key and I didn't want to go all the way back to my hotel to change into nicer clothes to go to The Savoy or something We sat at this lounge area until our table was ready, I had a cider of course. I was weird and ordered some sides as appetizers Mac and Cheese AMAZING. Mashed potatoes, meh. I will fight Gordon on this, but I love a lumpy mash. I ordered the pork belly, where the skin was SO crispy it was inedible. Not sure if it's always supposed to be like that, but it was just OK at best TJ picked better this time around The whole meal ended up being around 90.00, which considering what the local pub cost me the night before, I was surprised. But honestly not impressed but did check it off the bucket list. I'd def order the mac and cheese again though.

After the palace, we went to Portobello Market, where I didn't take any photos apparently. My husband probably has some and I'll add them later. Probably the jetlag or something haha. I know we ate some pastries from some shops there and a delish cookie. We then went to the National Gallery to look at some artwork, which was fantastic. I love that is free to the public as well! After the gallery, we walked around Covent Garden, and Chinatown, bought some stuff, and decided to have some drinks at a pub

Oh GOD lol, no I do not go into that great detail HAHA.

The next morning, we got up early to walk around in Kensington Gardens before our timed visit at 10 a.m. to Kensington Palace. We started walking around about 7 a.m., and stopped for breakfast at about 9 a.m. Here are a bunch of photos I took on our walk

oh man, I don't know this reference, something I missed on the boards?

I haven't sailed NCL in two years and miss it. Been on Royal because of their MUCH better casino program. I do have some NCL stock and it is doing so poorly 😞 Hopefully things turn around for them. I am thinking my first Prima class ship will most likely be the third ship in the fleet. I really want to get to Diamond+ on Royal before I go back to NCL and still have another year or so before that happens. One thing I'm more concerned about with NCL is where they are cutting costs. IMHO, I'd much prefer food cost cutting to entertainment cost cutting. I can always pay a little bit more to eat at a specialty, but entertainment is really important to me and Royal exceeds NCL there. Also, for those who have sailed recently, how has the bartenders/drink quality been? It's DREADFUL on Royal and the unique bars and drink menu/bartenders/barservice is something I think NCL was doing really well in the past.

I bought the internet so I COULD have done this one live, but honestly, this itinerary is so "go go go", I am glad I decided to not do it live. I feel like I really couldn't have been detailed and imparted good information for people planning to do this itinerary and also enjoy the cruise myself.

* * * After walking around a bit, we decided to nix Tower Bridge for the day and go back to the hotel, find a pub nearby to get some dinner, and call it a early night I wasn't fully prepared for the cost of food in London. This was a $$ place called The Hayden, where both of us got fish and chips and a cider with a bottle of water and it was 90.00 USD! Oh well, when in London and all that! And it was a nice ambiance and service so that is a positive

The next stop was Tower Bridge. We did the Yeoman Warder tour and I wasn't that impressed. We should have downloaded an audio guide and just did that. I opted to not climb the 200 stairs to the top, to save my feet because I KNEW there would be lots of walking on this trip and I needed to make as many smart choices as I could We didn't visit the Shard as it was under some sort of construction, can't tell from the outside though. I wasn't able to purchase tickets to go to the top.

Warning: slightly disgusting post ahead, feel free to skip forward, read at your own risk 😛 After Westminster Abbey, we decided to pop in for lunch at Yaatra, which has Indian food and was rated pretty highly on Google. We opted to pay a la carte instead of a pre-fixe menu. I got the butter chicken and my husband got some sort of curry. It was very good until it wasn't. Halfway through my butter chicken, I started to feel kind of strange so I stopped eating. After we left, I told my husband I wasn't feeling well in my stomach, but it wasn't so bad I couldn't continue on touring. I thought it was just that I had eaten too much with a combination of being tired and having jet lag. So we got on the tube, and approximately one stop later, I HAD to get off to get to a bathroom. So we get off at Sloane's Square station, and find that the public restrooms are all out of service. So I had to race to this restaurant and beg a hostess to let me use their bathroom. Let's just say I made it, but barely. And then I had to wait 20 minutes to leave the bathroom because some girls were doing their makeup in the bathroom and I know FOR SURE they heard me throwing up in there HAHA. They had to have been waiting to see what I looked like. After that whole debacle, I felt nearly 100% again. Although, I was pissed that I threw up about 50.00 worth of Indian food. To be honest, I doubt I'll eat it again for a while, I am that scarred. Ok, ok, enough of this disgusting stuff

After checking in at the hotel, we went to Westminster Abbey. Here, I nabbed this great photo of my husband who put his hoodie on over his camera bag and walked around like this, not a care in the world 😛 *

Customs through Heathrow was a breeze, had facial recognition, and then we made out way to the Elizabeth line instead of Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, to save some money. Our hotel was about a 10-minute walk from Paddington Station. It would have been closer to go to Bayswater Station, but some of the lines were closed so a 10 min walk it was! We stayed at London House Hotel, which was a pretty basic hotel near Kensington Gardens. It met our needs, was quite small, but clean, and had air conditioning. We paid about 100.00 USD per night, which was a steal if you ask me. I had to go cheap on some of the pre-cruise things to save money for gambling and Norway excursions and the area of this hotel is not a prime location. It wasn't bad, but for tourists, there are much better options if you want to pay more. I don't have a photo of the inside of the rooms, unfortunately, just a video. You can look it up online and the photos are pretty accurate. We paid 25.00 to check in early and it was worth it to freshen up and have our belongings put away.

Throughout the review, there will be a mix of color and black-and-white photos. My husband has gotten itno film photography and wanted to share the photos he took while in London. I will try to denote these photos with an asterisk next to them. Here's the Capitol One Lounge Bar area at DFW. It's really the nicest lounge I have been in. I am sure there are nicer (Maybe the Amex Centurion), but I have yet to get access to those. I like the Capital One Lounge, it is perfect for my needs and I get in free with my Venture X CC. AND because of the way DFW terminals are set up, you can access it from any terminal, although you do have to take the shuttle/tram thing.

Oh, and here is our itinerary

Hey all, decided to do a review of my cruise to Norway and hope the info helps people when planning! I booked this trip in April with my Royal Caribbean Casino Royal Prime Cruise Certificate. Both my husband and I are Prime with Casino Royale so we each get one free annual cruise a year of our choosing. So we chose to do Norway this year. We got two rooms. My husband put his Dad in his room as his guest, and I put my mother-in-law in my room as my guest and once we got onboard, we were just going to switch rooms at guest services. This isn't against the rules, they do allow this surprisingly but I am not complaining! Whole trip plan: Two days in London, transportation to the cruise port in Southampton and stopping at Stonehenge on the way, 7-day cruise to Norway, then one day in London before flying back to Dallas. My in-laws live in Omaha, NE and we live in Dallas, Texas so they decided they wanted to fly with us, so they booked a flight from Omaha to Dallas and then we were going to fly together the next day. However, when they flew in on August 30th, the day before our flight to London, they started feeling ill and on the 31st they tested positive for Covid so we ended up having to go without them My husband and I both wore masks and were quarantined from them the day they came to Dallas so we decided to go to London/Norway as we were feeling fine and were not testing positive. I was pretty pissed (still am, to be honest) about them testing positive because we had talked about quarantining two weeks before the trip but they broke their quarantine to do a bunch of grandkids' sporting events and parties so I was not happy, as I had done a LOT of planning for this trip. Once at the DFW airport, we went to the Capital One lounge for some drinks and I had to plug away at getting all my in-law's stuff canceled. Because they canceled the 3 days before the cruise, I wasn't able to cancel my extra cruise room, but because it was free, it wasn't a huge deal, just meant that my husband and I would have our own rooms for the voyage. I did end up essentially wasting a cruise comp, but nothing I could do about the bad luck. We had economy tickets on AA that I got through points. It was pretty miserable and I always tell myself that I will upgrade to Business class next time but I somehow always cheap out and the cycle continues lol. It is just *really* hard for me to sleep on red-eye flights, even with sleep aids. The flight was only 6 hrs to London. It would have been 5, but Heathrow has a curfew and they do not allow landing before 6 am so we circled for about 45min-1 hr waiting to land.