“12 Days … 1000 Memories”

… these are the words with which Havila Kystruten begins its description of the 12 Day “Round Voyage” Coastal Express experience that will be taking us from Bergen to Kirkenes and back again … BKB in the passenger vernacular.

Today, as we embark m/s Havila Castor in Bergen, we are looking forward to making that promise a reality.

More later …

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

And now it’s later. Here’s today’s story.

Our day started with rain … and continued with rain. After visiting the Bryggens Museum, Mui suggested we head to the mall to check out the waterproof Sketchers slip-on shoes he’d seen in the store a few days ago.

Our hiking boots are waterproof. But if the weather these past few days was any indication of what was ahead, having easy-on/easy-off footwear to wander around the outdoor decks — and run in and out as needed — would not go amiss. Yes, we each picked up a pair … and left the mall wearing them. They stood the ‘test of rain’ quite well!

While we were at the mall, we grabbed a bite to eat … much better than we expected for a fast food joint. Then, stopping by our old neighborhood to pick up our stored luggage, we hopped in an Uber to Jekteviksterminalen — less expensive than a taxi, we’d been told.

If it had not been raining so hard, we would have delayed our arrival at the terminal to avoid the check-in crowd. But conditions being what they were, we decided to brave what we expected to be a fairly long queue. Yes, the line was long … snaking around inside the terminal. But it became much longer very quickly after we arrived, extending to the outside the building. It took us an hour from arrival to boarding the ship … but at least we weren’t outside in inclement weather.

We knew cabins would not be ready until about 6:00p. So, once we’d been scanned aboard, we found a corner with comfy seats and a power point and made ourselves comfortable for the next 1½ hour. While I read through the embarkation pamphlet, Mui went to the restaurant to book our dining times … breakfast open seating; lunch/dinner at specified times at assigned tables. The 6:30p and 7:00p dinner slots were already taken, so he signed up for 6:00p. Which is fine … except that it is automatically paired with the 11:30a lunch slot. Methinks I’ll be skipping lunch quite a bit as I doubt I’ll be hungry enough for another meal after breakfast.

Between going walkabout around the ship to familiarize ourselves with the layout of what is essentially a ‘ferry-with-luxuries’, and playing with our iDevices, time flew by … wi-fi is included for everyone. Before we knew it, the ‘cruise director’ was announcing that we could go to our cabins.

I mentioned in a previous footprint that we are in an SSD cabin — seaview superior double — on deck 4. It is far more spacious than we expected it would be … plenty of storage, too … though a few drawers instead of shelves would work better. The en suite is a bit lacking in storage, but we’ll make do. There is a weird half-glass wall between the shower and the rest of the facilities, so we picked up an extra towel to help soak up any water overflow.

We were settled into #4308 in short order.

And then off to the restaurant for dinner … open seating tonight. All meals are table service … ‘small dishes’ that are intended to reduce food waste. You’re welcome to order additional appetizers, main courses, and/or desserts if you haven’t had your fill. Perfect portions in our estimation, so we did not need to order anything extra. Good food … dishes focused on the specialties of the regions we’ll be sailing through. That said, I prefer my food rather hot, so I will have to get used to what I consider warm food.

Just before sailaway, we went to the daily meeting in the conference … doubling as the emergency safety briefing as well. The captain also put in a brief appearance along with some of his senior officers … so the meeting ‘tripled’ as the welcome aboard and meet the officers party they have on regular cruise lines. Our session was in English, but there were sessions earlier in Norwegian/German as well. All announcements, in fact, are made in the three languages.

We sailed from Bergen at 8:30p as scheduled. Still pouring cats and dogs, so we did not go out on deck. Fingers crossed for when we return to Bergen on the 19th!

That’s a wrap for today.

P.S. Since I am posting belatedly, the photos from around the ship are from various days and times. Yes, there are others onboard with us, I asked Mui to take photos of the public spaces when he goes out for his morning coffee … not many others around at 5:30a … I wonder why 🤣.Leggi altro