At sea – going home.
No exciting new panoramas to wake up to today, we have a full day at sea and time to reflect on our first cruise.
There are two aspects to a cruise. There are the exotic foreign locations where you dock, and the facilities on the ship. For me, the combination of the two has been good. We get to spend a day exploring a new part of the world, then relax and sleep, to wake up in another part of the world.
I had been concerned that with a limited time in each destination, we would be rushing back to the ship and have to miss out on stuff. That has not proved to be the case on this cruise. The destinations were stunning, but we had plenty of time to explore them. I would imagine it would be a problem on a different type of cruise though. I would not be happy having to be back on-board ship after half a day in Dubrovnik or Budapest, for instance.
In this blog, I have possibly done the bigger towns a disservice. Stavanger is probably very nice when it is open. Haugesund is probably very nice when it is not raining. And they are probably both good launch points for excursions. If I were to do it over again, I would do more research and definitely make sure I booked an excursion.
Flam and Olden are just stunning, simply stunning. Whilst I would do an excursion from them if I went back, they were beautiful enough to keep me happy.
Mixing the cruise and going ashore makes perfect sense to me, but there were quite a lot of people that never set foot on dry land and never had any intention of getting off the ship. One guy, who we got into the habit of calling ‘Smokey Joe’, never seemed to move from one seat. He had found himself a seat in the smoking area of the open-air bar and just sat there drinking and smoking for the whole cruise. The one time we went to the bar and he wasn’t there we were quite concerned that he might be ill.
The ship was ok. I can’t really complain about it, but it wasn’t really my thing. Too ‘normal’ and ‘straight’. I have no interest in karaoke or going to watch a Robbie Williams tribute act. But unless someone is going to launch a psychedelic dub punk cruise line, ‘straight’ is the only option open. There were lots of options in terms of facilities, but you don’t have to use them. You can just chill in a bar, do a few laps of the deck or put your feet up in your room.
Living on a floating town has it’s cost. Whilst the industry is slowly being shamed into becoming greener, it is still a huge contributor to pollution. Norway is forcing the industry into taking action though.
Norway has the world’s second longest coastline, and the fjords are the country’s biggest tourist attraction. From 2026, greenhouse gas-emitting vessels will be prohibited from sailing into the spectacular World Heritage fjords. Hopefully this will snowball to other parts of the world and see the industry, literally, clean up its act.
Tourism is a massive boost to any economy and the money that places like Flam and Olden make from cruise ships dwarfs any other income. But a cruise ship landing is like an invasion, with tourists pouring off ships like ants taking over otherwise un-spoilt idylls. I am advised that for places like Dubrovnik, the arrival of a cruise ship turns the historic town into a medieval Disneyland for the duration of the ship being in the harbour. Which then begs the question, what is the point? You’re not really interacting with local culture and any photographs you take are likely to be full of tourists.
I’m torn about the experience. There is an element of guilt involved with contributing to the spoiling of these incredible landscapes. But I feel privileged to have visited the fjords, and unless I were to spend a lot longer in country, driving along dangerous icy roads, I was never going to see them first hand. Whilst the onboard experience was very ‘straight’, so is most of the world. Life can’t be one big festival all the time.
One final anecdote. Do you remember Sven, the model railway maker from the first night? We finally hooked up with him to record some Welsh language train announcements. I went with Becks down to Sven’s cabin. His cabin did not have a window (if you take one tip from this blog, book a room with a view). We sat for half an hour wetting ourselves, coming up with announcements, translating them into Welsh and recording them. Messages like “The train on platform one will be leaving now in a minute” and “Whose train is that locomotive?” I was pleasantly surprised how this Dutchman ‘got’ the Welsh sense of humour straight away.
Whether you are on a cruise ship, on a train, in an Irish Bar in a big foreign city, a Norwegian café looking over a fjord or in a windowless cabin – the real joy of travel is meeting new people, learning about different cultures and having a bloody good laugh. Keep it real.
NOVEMBER 2026 UPDATE
It’s November 2026. We are about to head back to Norway to watch Wales play Norway in the Nations League. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this 2023 visit. With the benefit of hindsight, what do I remember most fondly? Was it the scenery, the ship’s entertainment or the culture? No. It was time spent with Eleanor ‘Posh’ Dainton, who sadly went to the big trip to the sky earlier this year. Still missing that laugh girl.
