Adventure of the Seas Iceland & Norway Cruise May 30 2014 Sailing Review

[Iluvcruising2]

Fab! I'm loving this blog and I can't wait until 31st august. Loving the menus - is the aged hand cut strip steak on the menu every night and is there a surcharge?

 

What's your itinerary for your upcoming sailing?

[Iluvcruising2]

MDR Dinner on Day 6, as we sail away from Akureyri, towards Trondheim, Norway.

 

Here is the menu.

 

The anti-pasti. Ordinarily, I wouldn't order this while on land. But hey, we are on a cruise!

 

Garlic Tiger Shrimp on a bed of rice.

 

Dessert menu

 

I had the Tiramisu tonight

 

The Staff Captain was hosting dinner this evening. Wonder who got invited to dinner.

 

More pictures on my blog post here -

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-6-mdr-dinner-ship.html

[Missbrightstar]

What's your itinerary for your upcoming sailing?

 

It's identical to your cruise apart from it's a day shorter (we don't do Molde). I can't wait! Its refreshing to read a positive review about Adventure as I was starting to get really worried by other reviews/comments

[Iluvcruising2]

It's identical to your cruise apart from it's a day shorter (we don't do Molde). I can't wait! Its refreshing to read a positive review about Adventure as I was starting to get really worried by other reviews/comments

 

Personally, it is about expectations.

 

Maybe I am simple-to-please. We have cruised many times with RCI and I don't recall ever having a bad cruise. We always end the cruise wanting to cruise some more.

[Iluvcruising2]

Cruise compass. Sorry, for some reason why I upload the pictures into the image sharing website, it comes out this way (landscape), even though I uploaded the picture the correct way. (Portrait)

 

We were somewhere in between Iceland and Norway. In the open seas.

 

The gang was still fast asleep! Anyway, sea day. No hurry to do anything.

 

Selling hot mulled wine. The weather was quite cold outside, but within the ship, everything was fine.

 

Lunchtime!

 

Oh, a surprise was waiting for us at the Windjammer. Nice. I don't think I can finish all of that though.

 

More pictures on this blog post:

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-7-sea-day.html

Edited June 25, 2014 by Iluvcruising2

[Missbrightstar]

Me again! Do you have a picture of the inside of a cruise compass to see the types of activities? I totally take your point. Weve only ever done Thomson cruises before so I don't really know what to expect

[Iluvcruising2]

Day 7 - MDR Dinner Menu. Notice the Classics. They are slightly different from the Classics from yesterday. Again, I can't figure out why the image program shows my picture in landscape. Check out my blog to see the menu in Portrait. (or download the picture, and make it upright)

 

Disclaimer - I cannot be held responsible for any neck injury arising from trying to read these menus.

 

Starter - Salmon fillet. It looked almost like a main course.

 

NY Strip Steak with fries. Is this considered comfort food for Americans? We like it too. We hardly get to eat steak at home. Always a treat on a cruise.

 

The dessert menu - watch the neck.

 

This dessert, I have not seen before in previous cruises.

 

This was the beer I had earlier at the Diamond lounge cocktail hour, prior to dinner. Hmmm, I guess all the pics turn out landscaped.

 

More pictures on my blog post here -

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-7-mdr-dinner-top.html

[Iluvcruising2]

Me again! Do you have a picture of the inside of a cruise compass to see the types of activities? I totally take your point. Weve only ever done Thomson cruises before so I don't really know what to expect

 

Sorry, I didn't take photos of the activities in the Cruise Compass.

[Iluvcruising2]

Day 8 - Sailing. We will be in Trondheim later today.

 

The call at Trondheim, Norway, will be the shortest call in this cruise. We were scheduled to arrive at 1pm and all aboard time was 5:30pm.

 

So, we had half a day of sailing on Day 8 morning. I was up rather early, as usual.

 

See this video the Cafe Promenade, taken slightly after 7am in the morning.

 

7am in the morning. On the way to Trondheim.

 

This morning, we also listened to the Destinations lecturer.

 

I learnt a lot listening to his lectures. Glad to have attended.

 

See this blog post for more pictures:

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-8-morning-at-sea.html

Edited June 27, 2014 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

Blog post - Trondheim Part 1 (with videos)

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-8-trondheim.html

 

We have arrived in Trondheim, Norway. We are tying up.

 

Ship arrived on schedule. Getting off was easy and orderly. Looked like most passengers were going to walk into town.

 

Our plan was to walk into town. From all the research we did, everybody said that Trondheim was very walkable.

 

Useful sign. From this point, it was 1,400M to the Cathedral. This would lead us up a foot bridge to cross some railway lines.

 

Great views of the ship from the beach.

 

There is the railway - this picture from the footbridge.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Iluvcruising2

[big al]

Very nice & thorough review with great pics...STILL waiting for your Diamond Lounge review, though..when will you post it?

 

Big Al

[Iluvcruising2]

We reach the end of the footbridge, and these are the steps down.

 

I think this was called River Nidelven. Look at the boats.

 

We would walk up this street - Nodregate. (Technically, we were walking South).

 

We found a TGIF Fridays. We didn't eat there though.

 

Starbucks. How expensive? Quite. Norway was indeed a very expensive country, though I am not sure why the cost of living is so high.

 

Cafe Latte -

Tall (42 Kroners or USD 6.85),

Grande (47 Kroners or USD 7.66),

Venti (52 Kroners or USD 8.49)

 

Cappucino

Tall (39 Kroners or USD 6.36),

Grande (44 Kroners or USD 7.18),

Venti (49 Kroners or USD 7.99)

 

 

See my blog post for more prices -

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-8-trondheim_27.html

Edited June 27, 2014 by Iluvcruising2

[Madshus]

Norway was indeed a very expensive country, though I am not sure why the cost of living is so high.

And the answers are:

Production of oil, gas, hydroelectric power, partly shipping like RCCL once was more norwegian than it is now.

A level of Social security that is very high and expensive.

A big country compared to the 5 mill inhabitants.

Mountains and fjords means that transportationcost are high.

All this gives rather high taxes and wages.

 

I live in Norway and can benefit of the few cheap things here like subsidized kindergardens. Of my rather average salary, I use 4% to pay for one child in Kindergarden.

 

Actually I would not agree that the cost of living here is high, but the cost is very variable. Transportation, restaurants, food and especially beer and wine is very expensive which makes cruising a good alternative for experiencing Norway.

[Iluvcruising2]

Very nice & thorough review with great pics...STILL waiting for your Diamond Lounge review, though..when will you post it?

 

Big Al

 

I have been creating another blog post for the Diamond Lounge and I have put the link in several other threads, though not on this one.

 

See this -

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-diamond-lounge-june.html

 

Maybe I should start a separate thread on this so that it is easier to find.

[Iluvcruising2]

And the answers are:

Production of oil, gas, hydroelectric power, partly shipping like RCCL once was more norwegian than it is now.

A level of Social security that is very high and expensive.

A big country compared to the 5 mill inhabitants.

Mountains and fjords means that transportationcost are high.

All this gives rather high taxes and wages.

 

I live in Norway and can benefit of the few cheap things here like subsidized kindergardens. Of my rather average salary, I use 4% to pay for one child in Kindergarden.

 

Actually I would not agree that the cost of living here is high, but the cost is very variable. Transportation, restaurants, food and especially beer and wine is very expensive which makes cruising a good alternative for experiencing Norway.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes, as a Norwegian citizen, you would benefit from all the welfare that your country gives you, which is great.

 

However, as visitors, we have to pay for the expensive stuff as you have mention (transportation, restaurants, food etc). And, yes, if not for the cruise, I don't think I would bring my family to Norway!

[Iluvcruising2]

Some pictures of the Nidaros Cathedral from the outside. We didn't go in.

 

We also didn't manage to go into Stiftsgarden. We discovered that you must join a guided tour. You can't just enter the Stiftsgarden on your own. We arrived at about 2:20pm and the next tour would be at 3pm.

 

Very pretty flowers.

 

The Nissan Leaf. A fully electric car. I've not seen this car before. Looks to be a good size.

 

So what else did we do, other than walking around the city centre?

[Iluvcruising2]

We found our way to Sverresborg Trondelag Folkemuseum. We took a cab to the museum (4 of us), and the cost was 180NOK.

 

Here is a description from the Visitor Norway website:

"Open air museum with more than 60 buildings from Trondheim and the Trøndelag area. Beautiful surroundings, and from the ruins of King Sverre's Castle, you have a wonderful view over the city and the fjord. The impressive main exhibition "Livsbilder" - "Images of Life" in the new public building reflects childhood, youth, adulthood and age in a the region during the past century. The Ski museum tells the story of skiing as a competitive sport and a practical means of transport. The rural section shows the development in Trøndelag buidling styles from the fjord to the mountains, and how people lived in the 18th and 19th centuries in the different country areas."

 

Some pictures of what we saw. A chemist store from the past.

 

The inside of somebody's home.

 

Look at the roof.

 

And we made our way up to the top of this hill, where there used to be a castle. Now you can only see some ruins. But still worth a climb, for the views. Looks rather high, but it doesn't take that long to go up. The slopes were not very steep.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the visit. Thereafter, we took a bus back. The bus-stop was located right outside the museum and the timetable showed that the bus came about twice an hour.

 

The bus brought us back to the city centre and we made our way leisurely back to the ship, stopping by at some shops and eateries along the way, primarily to check out the prices. I went into a Burger King. A Whopper meal was 89NOK or around 15USD. How much is a Whopper Meal in the USA? (average?)

 

We made it back to the ship in good time. There was also a long line to get back onboard, but it moved rather quickly.

 

See my blog posts for more information:

 

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-8-trondheim-part-3.html

 

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-8-trondheim-part.html

[TravelerThom]

...we made our way leisurely back to the ship, stopping by at some shops and eateries along the way, primarily to check out the prices. I went into a Burger King. A Whopper meal was 89NOK or around 15USD. How much is a Whopper Meal in the USA? (average?)...

About US$6 not counting up-sales (additional for cheese, larger drink, larger fries).

 

The Economist (UK magazine) has a "Big Mac Index" comparing Big Mac prices around the world. They have Norway as the most expensive, but "only" 69% more than in the US (but their US price is about 15% more than I'm used to; they are probably looking at [more expensive] New York City). I've been to Norway three times and I didn't think anything was only 69% more than in the US.

 

Enjoying reading about your trip

Thom

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks, Thom.

 

Ah yes, the famous Big Mac Index. Thanks for sharing the prices of Burger King in the USA. Looks like Burger King Whopper meals in Singapore are about the same price as that of the USA these days.

 

What about Snapple? How much does it cost in the USA? Here, it was 23.40NOK (USD 3.82) for this bottle.

 

And Pringles? 19.90NOK or USD 3.25.

 

Prices, prices.

[Joe12]

Great review as always,

Trondheim looked especially nice, I would love to do the Fjords one day

14 hours is pretty long for 8 and 9 year olds though, but you enjoyed it so that is the main thing

Thanks for writing!

[Iluvcruising2]

Great review as always,

Trondheim looked especially nice, I would love to do the Fjords one day

14 hours is pretty long for 8 and 9 year olds though, but you enjoyed it so that is the main thing

Thanks for writing!

 

Thanks for leaving a note. Yes, the Fjords are worth doing.

[Irish Cath]

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. We considered this exact cruise this year but in the end opted for a 12 night Med cruise as being from Ireland we knew it was probably our only chance of getting some real sunshine this year ! It's lovely to see all of your pictures, its letting me know what we missed out on.

[scubacruiserx2]

Thanks for your great photos , videos and review !! We will be cruising Iceland ( and Norway) next September on Princess and I' m going to link your thread to our busy Roll Call :)

[Iluvcruising2]

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. We considered this exact cruise this year but in the end opted for a 12 night Med cruise as being from Ireland we knew it was probably our only chance of getting some real sunshine this year ! It's lovely to see all of your pictures, its letting me know what we missed out on.

 

Thanks for your note.

 

Hope you had a great cruise!

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for your great photos , videos and review !! We will be cruising Iceland ( and Norway) next September on Princess and I' m going to link your thread to our busy Roll Call :)

 

That's great. Thanks. What is your itinerary?