As I mentioned in my previous post; I'd made reservations to take the overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo. I thought this would be interesting for several reasons; first, the Missus had never been on a "cruise" and I thought this would be a nice way to see if this suited Her. Second, the Missus just doesn't care to see the same folks day after day. This was an overnight cruise, so I didn't think we'd be seeing the same folks all the time. Third, in terms of price, $269, think of it as a room and transportation, I thought it reasonable. A quick note on prices, there were fares as low as $88. But, having a read a few posts and I actually know two people who have done this, it became quite clear that a lot of young people take the cruise because booze is so cheap……international, duty free and all. So, since we'd be leaving on a Saturday night, more comfortable accommodations, I believe we had what they called "Commodore De Luxe" class would suite us well.
That's the view from our cabin. Our room was very comfortable.
And there was an attendant who went over our cabin with us….including the mini-bar with complimentary sparkling wine, beer, and water.
There was also a lounge for folks in Commodore Class, which was a really nice touch.
Complimentary beer, wine, drinks, and snacks.
Right out the door was the deck. Even though it was winter, the views were quite nice.
Soon we were underway. We decided to take a look around. Here's our Captain for this cruise.
The Duty Free Shop was a feeding frenzy of folks buying up cheap booze, clothes, and other stuffs. It was kind of crazy so we just headed back to our cabin.
We decided to get an early dinner. I'd spent an extra $40 for the "Christmas Buffet" dinner. So we headed down to that dining room. There weren't very many people eating at 530pm.
It was quite a generous spread; but much of it wasn't to our liking.
We enjoyed the pickled herring and smoked fish the best.
Much of it was either too salty, over-cooked, and just not prepared to our taste.
I was excited to try the game meats, but was also disappointed in preparations. Lacking in flavor other than being really salty.
The Missus and I split up and came back with a sampling of the various dishes.
In the end; we might have been better off just grabbing a sandwich and relaxing. Though the smoked and pickled fish were quite good.
After dinner we just went up to the lounge and relaxed.
Before ending our evening, we took one more walk around. At 9pm there already were folks feeling….well, pretty good. One guy was doing the Tarzan yell down one of the hallways! It was time to call it a night. After a nightcap of course.
The location of our room was very quiet, except for the two guys pounding on some door at 2am in the morning.
As for the Missus; well, She had a hard time sleeping. Not because of the movement or noise, but because of the vibration of the boat. So, I didn't get a ton of sleep either.
We decided to get an early breakfast. The "Commodore's Breakfast" was included in the price of our cabin and was in a different dining room than the regular buffet breakfast.
The selection and quality was decent.
More pickled herring and smoked salmon.
We took the long way back to the cabin. We enjoyed spending time on the deck.
In spite of the cold; it was really neat watching the ship slowly arrive in Oslo.
Soon enough we'd arrived at around 945am. Folks gathered to disembark and it was a bit of a cattle-call.
Though I'm certain it wasn't everyone….especially the folks who drank the night away.
As for us…well, it was a brand new day….and we'd arrived in Oslo!
bummer that buffet wasn’t too good.
I know Kat….too bad….
If the cooking staff are Pinoy, you could always ask for a special request. I’m sure they don’t eat what they serve on board.
Do you recall enjoying the seaweed/kelp caviar? I’m really interested in that. I’m vegetarian, and have been for decades, but as a kid my parents made caviar dishes often. I recall liking it, but knowing what it was made it creepy for me. I’d be interested in trying a seaweed version if it was decent. I didn’t see much on your plates, so maybe it didn’t leave an impression?
Since it was a buffet it was hard to tell who the cooking staff were, CC. Plus, it’s just an overnight cruise. There were actually a surprising amount of Filipino passengers.
Hi H – It was fine. You have to remember; I pretty much grew up eating kelp products, so it didn’t strike me as anything special. It really didn’t match up to say; masago or tobiko. Have you tried Dulse? I’ve used it a couple of times and thought it tastes pretty good….I guess I oughta do a post on it.
Thanks for the reply. I haven’t had Dulse, but I do like kelp and seaweed products. I was just wondering about the kelp caviar, if it was same popping goodness w/o the weirdness of being actual fish eggs. I don’t like fake meats, for instance. Lately, I get my popping goodness from finger limes. I was thinking if I could mix the two, it might be good!
I’ll look out for that post. (I’m a daily reader and have been almost since the beginning, I just rarely comment)
I did a cruise a few years ago for a friends wedding. Bored the hell outta me. The best part was disembarking and exploring the city.
I really don’t think I could do anything more than an overnight cruise Junichi.