Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Our room was next to the elevator and the noise cost us
another night’s sleep. Clay says he’ll be glad to have one bed in one room for
the next few nights. We’ll see. We were up pretty early and dressed for the day
and for breakfast. We had the included buffet and then went up and packed up
and checked out. We put our luggage in their storage room and set out for a day
of sightseeing. We were early so we had to build a schedule around what was
open first. That meant we went to Rosencrantz Tower first. It was fun and
pretty amazing and mazelike. It was built in the 1560’s. Next in the same
fortress area was Hakon’s Hall. It was largely modernized as it is still in use
but it was built in 1247 to 1261. Next we visited Bryggens Museum. We were glad
later that we took the time to watch the video about the Hanseatic League. As
the weather was nice and our feet were tired, we next rode the Bergens Express
little road train on a sightseeing trip of an hour. After that we had lunch at
Madam Felle. Clay had a beer and a hamburger and I had tap water and a ham
smorbord, which is an open sandwich. Lastly we visited the Hanseatic Museum and
the Schotstuene. This is why we were glad we had watched that video in the
other museum because otherwise we would not have had a clue about what was
going on with the historic buildings and artifacts that we saw. We tried to see
St. Mary’s church but it was closed until 1 July. We went back to the Clarion
Collection for waffles and to pick up our luggage and await our tour prebooked
taxi. The taxi was right on time at 4pm and we were off for Nordkapp.
The Hurtigruten terminal was across town, more or less. He
drove right in and dropped us right in front of the door. We walked in and got
in a line about 50 people long. It took about a half hour to get checked in.
They took our 2 checked size bags and we kept the smaller ones. We went up an
escalator with our envelope and the day’s newsletter. We found our keycards
inside and our Geiranger tour tickets. We found someone else’s tour ticket in
there as well. I returned it to the woman who checked our keycards into the
safety briefing we were awaiting before boarding. She double checked with me
that it wasn’t mine and then she ripped it up and threw it away. It had a cabin
number on it and I could have delivered it myself if I’d known that she
wouldn’t deliver it. We watched the safety briefing video and read our
documents. We discovered we did not have a table/dining assignment, but the
letter said to ask at the restaurant after boarding. We boarded around 5pm and
were told cabins would not be available until 6pm when dinner would start. I
went down to reception and the girl there scanned my keycard and told me we
only had 4 breakfasts included. I told her I had paid for full board and she
asked me to prove it. I went back up to my carryon bag and got our Kensington
Tours itinerary. She pointed out to me that on day one in Oslo we did not have
lunch or dinner included. I pointed out it was Oslo and that past Bergen all
the way to Tromso all our meals onboard where shown as included. She agreed it
was so and asked to take it and photocopy it for the Reception Manager. I
agreed and she left and then brought it back. She said I would be contacted
directly by the Reception Manager when he had an outcome to report. (It is the
next day and I am still waiting. Clay and I have both asked at Reception and
the Restaurant but no one will own the problem. In addition Outlook and AOL
appear to be blocked so we can’t send or receive email except through Clay’s
phone. It is not clear if I will be able to post entries to the blog either.
That is the bad news, the good news is that Internet is complimentary although
only on decks 4 and 7. Our cabin is 611 on deck 6.)
We finally got called to our cabins at dinner time. We had
luggage so we went directly to 611. Our checked bags were in the hall and we
unlocked the door and moved them in. This is not the smallest ship cabin we’ve
ever had, but it is the most poorly designed. There are no beds but pull down
cots, so there is nowhere to store the luggage. There is also no cupboard space
to put the clothes. You can’t open the bathroom door if someone is sitting in
the one chair at the desk and you can only see out the window if you’re
standing up anyway. Clay is rethinking the advantages of a different hotel room
every night.
As part of my conversation with reception earlier, she
called the restaurant manager and they agreed to feed us dinner tonight while
this issue is in dispute. You have to scan your keycard every time you enter
the restaurant just like leaving or boarding a ship. Mine bonged but the girl
manning the station had my cabin # written on her palm. The reason they let us eat tonight is that it
is open seating buffet on Bergen embarkation night. It was not very good but it
sounds like it was a bigger selection that are offered on the other nights. If
it weren’t for already paying for the meals it might be worth just forgetting
about it and trying to survive off the snack bar/café. We’ll keep you posted,
assuming we can post.
We had an English language information meeting at 9pm. We
went and the tour manager shared some information about where things are
onboard and how they work. Mostly it was about tours and meals and dining
assignments. Since we only have the one tour for tomorrow and evidently no
meal/dining assignments it was hard to cull anything meaningful from it. His
weather predictions seem as meaningless as anyone else’s. He said it would be
chilly but clear and windless in Geiranger tomorrow. As I type this the next
morning, it is snowing in Geiranger according to weather.com. It is expected to
warm into the mid-40s and rain all afternoon. It does not bode well for our
expensive afternoon off the Nordkapp.
The curtains in the cabin are unlined so in addition to
sunset at 23:37 and sunrise at 3:37am there are lights on the outside deck 5 so
it is never dark enough to promote sleep. In addition, I forgot to say that you
have to keep a keycard in the wall slot to keep the electricity on to the cabin.
That means to keep chargers charging we have to leave one behind in the cabin.
So, I was able to post this entry. Clay says he will not get
photos linked in to the entries until we are on land. I am not sure exactly
what he means by that but it may not be until we reach Tromso for 2 nights. I
think that is at least 3 nights away. Sorry!
