Don’t they say “when in Rome do as the Romans do”, now we’re in Liverpool, its no longer just enough to Ferry across the Mersey, the Historic waterfront is now a major cruise destination. Last year my Sister in Law, Amanda asked me join her on a cruise to Iceland. I was about to jump ship from our lovely little narrowboat onto the Fred Olsen Borealis, for a 10 night trip in search of whales and waterfalls.
Neither of us were too sure what to expect, what to wear, how to act, would we get seasick, or bored, What was my tag line going to be? “no I’ve never cruised before”, or actually, “well I’m a continual cruiser, beat that”. But we needn’t have worried, we soon fell into being waited on hand and foot, a very easy existence to get used to. And the whole atmosphere was very welcoming and friendly, and we were given something appropriate to wear.
And we quickly discovered what food and drink was on offer
And I think we had more room in our cabin than I have on Firecrest
Although after our initial walk around I didn’t think we’d be spending much time in the cabin
I think we were the only passengers who had someone come and wave them off as Eric stood on shore and waved us off
He was going cruise out of Salthouse the following morning and moor up near Maghull to wait for me, interesting to see the Stanley Flight, tobacco warehouse and Titanic Hotel from the opposite side.
In the mean time Amanda and I had to dress for dinner, (it was more casual most nights)
And then settled in for the cabaret, although we decided that was a bit cheesy so most of our evenings were spent dancing with the band, bogeying with the piano guy or just chilling with the vocalist
We had 2 full days at sea before we reached Iceland, but no shortage of things to do Bar billiards,
Table tennis, (it was too windy for the paddle tennis and the outdoor deck sports)
And there was the gym, the jaccuzi, the spa, and beauty salon, We attended lectures about Whales and Icelands geology and history, we joined the Orca team on the observation deck looking out for whales,
But although the sky was blue, the wind was so strong they had to close the deck shortly after this, it was nigh on impossible to stand upright, let alone watch for whales. We did however have several sightings, although most were in the distance, our on board experts said we saw Orca, Blue, Fin, Humpback, Pilot and sperm whales during the cruise.
One of our highlights was seeing the Midnight sun not setting
Another was dressing up in the sort of sparkly clothes that aren’t my usual cruise wear
There was so much to do see and enjoy on the ship, that we realised by our 10th night we still hadn’t explored the whole ship or sampled all its delicacies, yet we weren’t returning home feeling fat and lazy, but energised and invigorated.
And that was just the cruise, we still had to explore Iceland.
(Please forgive the number of photos I’m sharing, this is as much my own diary for me to remember a great holiday, I hope you can enjoy them as much as I enjoy recording them, but its without expectation.)