I am sitting in the Delta lounge at the Detroit airport waiting to board our flight to New York’s JFK airport, followed by an overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark.

The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy as we have prepared for this 21-day adventure.

For one thing, I have been busy following the various “roll calls” for this “Emerald Gems” sailing on the Emerald Princess. If you don’t know what a roll call is, it is basically a thread on a discussion board…in this case, there is a roll call on CruiseCritic and there are two roll-calls on Facebook. When you sign up to participate in a roll call, you are talking to people who are going on the same cruise.

This turns out to be very useful. Many people have arranged to share rides to the port (if they happen to be staying at the same hotel), others have arranged their own shore excursions…for example, booking a van for six and finding two other couples to share it, others located bridge partners while still others found casino friends.

Chet and I – who are traveling on this cruise by ourselves – have already been invited to join a group for dinner the first night aboard after the sailaway. What a nice way to begin a trip!

If you have already booked a cruise coming up in the next year, you should check online for roll calls for your particular voyage. Most are posted on Facebook. Your travel agent or the cruise line should be able to direct you to a roll call for your particular voyage. Princess will direct you from its home page.

I also took the time to send E-cards from AllThingsCruise to all my friends and relatives telling them how to reach us on board, if necessary. It is a nifty service and it is free.

Check on it here…http://allthingscruise.com/cruise-e-cards/.

My next report will probably be from Copenhagen.

These next few months are going to be extremely busy for the AllThingsCruise blogging team. Over half of us will be sailing and blogging from trips that are all over the globe.

Here is what is already scheduled:

David Molyneaux will sail on NCL’s Norwegian Dawn Aug. 19-26 roundtrip from Boston

Barbara Ramsay Orr is sailing on the Nooit Volmaakt canal barge in France from Aug. 26-Sept. 2

Eileen Ogintz is sailing on Windstar’s Windsurf from Venice to Rome, Aug. 27-Sept. 3

Julie Hatfield is sailing with Hurtigruten Aug. 27-Sept. 5 from Kirkenes to Bergen, Norway, on the MS Nordlys

Bob Bone is sailing on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam Aug. 28-Sept. 8 from Barcelona to Venice

Lillian Africano is sailing on Le Ponant Sept. 16-26 from Boston to Montreal

Marcia Raffel Levin is sailing on the MSC Poesia to the Caribbean including Panama and Costa Rica from Nov. 1-10

New blogger Jackie Sheckler Finch will sail on the Carnival Magic U.S. Inaugural cruise out of Galveston Nov. 14-20

And I will be sailing aboard Princess Cruises’ Emerald Princess Sept. 11-29 on a transatlantic cruise from Copenhagen to Ft. Lauderdale.

Whew! Everyone is going to be blogging so we will have so, so much new information for all of our readers!

There is also a good chance that Edward Garrett will be cruising either in Asia or the Galapagos Islands.

It is good to know that our writers are in such demand and we look forward to bringing you their reports here.

Be sure to check in daily for our news!

Most of my friends know that I am a fan of country music. So I always get pumped when cruises feature country music stars. Now there is a cruise featuring sexy Blake Shelton and chances are if he is on board, his wife singer Miranda Lambert will be, too.

Here is the scoop

The first ever Blake Shelton and Friends cruise will set sail on Norwegian Jewel from Miami to the Caribbean on October 14, 2012, for a seven-day cruise. This is the first ever opportunity for fans of Shelton, one of the hottest names in country music, to spend a week at sea enjoying intimate concerts, surprise unplugged performances and more. The week of boot-stomping fun at sea is being presented by Flying Dutchmen Travel and Fan Fair Country Cruises.

A full-blown country music showdown, Shelton will perform two live concerts in the intimate Stardust Theater. In addition, there will be live music every night in at least three different venues around the ship by various country artists to be announced soon. Other exclusive perks include:

Song writer workshops;

A custom version of “The Voice” with a karaoke contest judged by the pros;

Surprise unplugged performances and jam sessions;

Question and answer sessions;

Opportunities to get up close and personal with musical guests;

Late night dance parties with radio station deejays.

Shelton is currently the reigning CMA (Country Music Award) Male Vocalist of the Year as well as one of the judges on the hit NBC show, “The Voice.” Shelton has had a string of singles that has continued with his new album, Red River Blue, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts across all genres. His latest single “Honey Bee” spent four weeks as the #1 single, and holds the record for the fastest-selling digital Platinum single for a male country solo artist.

The Blake Shelton and Friends Cruise will call on San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; Tortola, British Virgin Islands and Nassau, Bahamas. Guests will also be able to enjoy three relaxing days at sea to experience Norwegian’s signature Freestyle Cruising which includes 11 dining options and 10 bars and lounges on board.

Cruises are priced starting at $1,099 based on double occupancy. For a limited time, guests can take advantage of an Early Bird Discount with rates as low as $899 per person through August 26, 2011. To book the Blake Shelton and Friends Cruise, visit www.blakesheltoncruise.com or contact Flying Dutchmen Travel at 800-248-7471. To learn more about Norwegian Cruise Line, visit www.ncl.com or call a travel professional.

It is always exciting preparing for a cruise and I am in that process now.

We are going to sail on a repositioning cruise of the Emerald Princess, from Copenhagen to Ft. Lauderdale, beginning Sept. 11. We only booked the cruise a couple of weeks ago so we have been busy firming up the details.

On Sept. 8, we will fly from Detroit to Copenhagen via Delta/KLM. I booked the one-way transatlantic ticket through Airfare.com, a consolidator that often offers prices way below what the airlines quote…particularly for one-way flights. And in this case, even though the flight is operated by Delta, the KLM price was much lower.

We are going in a few days early so we can see the Danish capital which we have not visited before. We have already arranged for Copenhagen Cards, which will get us on all public transportation and into many museums. We are going to stay at the centrally located Hotel Kong Arthur (“kong” is Danish for “king”).

Then on Sept. 11 we board the Emerald Princess and sail for 18 days across the North Atlantic, a route we have never taken before. We have taken two previous repositioning cruises, but both were on the southern route. This trip offers many new ports for us. We were particularly interested in Iceland and Greenland. Even though our stays are quite short, at least we will get a taste of these countries.

Princess has sent us several emails in advance of the cruise and they are very helpful. One, in particular, directed us to a Facebook page where I can interact with other people going on the cruise. It is very nifty.

Here is the itinerary:

SUN 09/11/11, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

MON 09/12/11, OSLO, NORWAY

TUE 09/13/11, KRISTIANSAND, NORWAY

WED 09/14/11, AT SEA

THU 09/15/11, GLASGOW (GREENOCK), SCOTLAND

FRI 09/16/11, DUBLIN, IRELAND

SAT 09/17/11, BELFAST, N.IRELAND

SUN 09/18/11, AT SEA

MON 09/19/11, REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

TUE 09/20/11, AT SEA

WED 09/21/11, AT SEA

THU 09/22/11, QAQORTOQ, GREENLAND

FRI 09/23/11, AT SEA

AT 09/24/11, AT SEA

SUN 09/25/11, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

MON 09/26/11, AT SEA

TUE 09/27/11, AT SEA

WED 09/28/11, AT SEA

HU 09/29/11, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, USA

This past month we added a new blogger to ATC’s pages, my good friend and travel writer colleague Lillian Africano, and she immediately submitted two excellent articles on small cruise ships Le Boreal and MS Europa.

Lillian Africano

This week it was announced that Lillian has been elected to the position of president-elect of the prestigious Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). She will take office this fall at the professional society’s convention in New Zealand and assume the presidency two years later.

We congratulate Lillian on this major career accomplishment and are honored to have her on our AllThingsCruise blogging team.

My friends, Owen and Lesley Morrison from Australia, report on the final leg of their six-week cruise and land tour.

Well, we are on our way back home, we arrived back in Copenhagen yesterday afternoon and we were picked up at the airport by the hotel and for the first time we did not have to pay to get to the hotel. When we leave on Thursday, June 16, we will again be taken to the airport.

They have had a couple of rains the last two days but now the weather is fine and that is good. It was Saturday yesterday and the shops are shut today and we have been told that on Monday there is another public holiday. We struck one in Sweden and now one in Denmark.

We have picked up the bag we left behind in Copenhagen and today we are looking at how we can get all our things in our bags all under the 30kg each, but this time the computer and my coat do not count and Lesley can use the cameras as  extras as we are flying business class. I still think we may need to buy another bag as the one we had is broken and the zipper is busted. We can have two checked bags that make up the 60 kg allowance we have combined.

We are going into town to get a Copenhagen card, so we can travel all around for free as well as getting into a lot of attractions for free.

We walked over to the metro station and found that we needed to have coins or a credit card to purchase tickets. Here they pay for everything from a beer to airline tickets with a credit card using a machine, no operators anywhere, just machines. We did not have enough coins with us. We had notes but they were no good. There was nowhere to get change, so we walked to a large shopping center which was open but no stores were open. So reluctantly we walked back to the hotel to get change to use tomorrow and then we find that the hotel can sell us a metro ticket. That was never explained when we checked in yesterday, ah well, we can do that on Monday.

On Monday we got the train tickets and went into Copenhagen and it took only one station and we were at the Central Station. We found our way out of the station and went to the information center to buy our Copenhagen card which gives us a number of benefits mainly free entry to museums and, best of all, on trains and the metro.

We could have got it at the station, but I thought it would be better at the information center because of the language, but most speak English. We then decided to go on our favorite transport, the hop-on and off buses. Here in Copenhagen there are two choices and after a bit of haggling we went on the green bus and not the red one. We had a lovely almost two hours, only hopping off once because the bus had to go into a secure area where three cruise ships were docked. That was the same place our ship was docked on June 3 and security was tight then also.

We got off at the terminus and got some lunch and then went to a 7 Eleven I saw just up the street and got some chocolate for Lesley and a bottle of diet coke for me as the mini bar costs in our room are huge. We then walked back to the station only to find a 7 Eleven there as well as a number of eating places. Ah well, we will know better next time.

With all the different train’s tracks and the metro we asked the station master and he told us that we needed to find the airport train and that would take us back to where we got on this morning. We found that and went to the platform to find a train waiting and we hopped on and they have a first class area and a second class area and that was where we sat and went back to the hotel. We will have a nana and a poppa nap this afternoon and then catch up with our packing and our paperwork and sorting out our photos. We also have to charge up the batteries for the computer, the camera and the mobile phone. The new part I bought on the ship has come in vary handy over here and the converter does not fall out of the wall anymore.

I have whittled the photos down from over 2,000 to about 300 on the first go and that will be culled again before we show the family.

Tuesday is not a holiday here and we are going back into town and go on a canal tour and hopefully there will not be six cruise ships in town. Today there was a NCL ship, a Celebrity ship, a Costa ship, a Royal Caribbean ship, a Crystal ship and one other I could not see the name of. Most most were over 2,000 passengers. They get over 330 cruise ships a year and the majority are in the three summer months.

We met some Americans at dinner last night and most were going on the Norwegian ship on a 10-day cruise, but one couple had a horrible story to tell. They were on the Costa ship in St. Petersburg and they had their passports stolen and the wife also had her cruise card taken as well and that meant that they could not get back on the ship because they had to show their passports to the Russian border station as we did when we left Russia. They went to the American embassy and got someone before they closed for the day and then had to stay in Russia until a new visa and passport was issued.

To get the visa they had to answer some weird questions like where did you go to school, what jobs have you had over the last 40 years and the name and contact of the boss and what clubs and association did they belong. They made it up and eventually they were allowed to leave some days later and came to Copenhagen to meet the ship. The man could get on the ship here but the wife could not because she had lost the cruise card. So they rang the ship’s agent in London because, believe it or not, Costa does not have a ship’s agent here. The only things they had were the clothes they were wearing the day it happened. They managed to buy a couple of things, but all their money, medicines and clothes were on the ship. We hope all went well today.

We looked at our bags and our clothes and the things we bought while we were away and decided that we may get away with buying Lesley a large hand bag which she entitled to have as well as her carry-on baggage on the Singapore Airlines plane as a Business Class passenger.

If we need to buy a bag, we can do that later in Singapore for her purchases there. If necessary, I guess we can post home some things from Singapore.

My friends Owen and Lesley Morrison have now disembarked from the Seabourn Sojourn and are going to visit Oslo and Stockholm before they fly home from Copenhagen to Australia.

Hello from Stockholm, we are having a great time. The SAS plane trip from Copenhagen to Oslo took a mere 45 minutes and the one from Oslo to here took only 50 minutes and the seats we could pick ourselves as we are SAS frequent flyers and yesterday I picked the ones over the wings to give a little more leg room. Then we find out that as we cannot speak the language we had to move.

Even though the flight was almost full they managed to get three people from the row back to move and then get the bloke that was sitting between us to move a few seats back, which gave us a spare space between us, so we could spread out.

Owen and Lesley Morrison

SAS has been wonderful.

The hotel we picked in Oslo was great for location, but the bathroom was horrible, the toilet was up against the wall and the shower was very small and it was very noisy in the afternoons and evenings, but there is another Best Western on the next street called the bohenin or something similar. The Flybussen ,the SAS airport shuttle, picks up and drops off there and the cost is 150 NOK. A taxi ride from the airport was 880 NOK, a big difference.

We caught the hop on hop off bus around Oslo. It was just down the road and we had a great time at the City Hall where they hand out the Nobel Awards (but not for peace as that is handed out in Stockholm).

They had a music festival and earth day celebrations in the park opposite our hotel in Oslo. We had a look around and then had a rest. At 6:30 we decided to go and see some more music and displays. By 6:45 p.m. they had all finished. The next morning the place was clean and you wouldn’t have guessed that anything had been going on.

STOCKHOLM

The Marriott Courtyard is great, the room are the biggest in Stockholm, and for future reference they do now have a room with breakfast rate. Breakfast is 135 SKK for a continental breakfast and 190 SKK for a full breakfast.

We went out yesterday and caught the hop on-hop off bus and bought a three-day pass which is great as it stops across the road from the hotel and takes you into town on a yellow line and then we can swap to the blue line and do the other parts of the city. There is another line called the green line and, guess what, it commences the day we leave. Also there is a hop on-hop off cruise and that is extra, but we have a ticket for the Royal barge tour but guess what? That also starts on the day we leave.

Today we went out again on the bus and it started to rain but it soon cleared to be a great day. Lesley went to the information center for some, guess what, information., I went to the currency exchange to change some $US to SKK local currency. We are going on a cruise around the islands.

Tomorrow is our last day on the hop on-off bus and on Friday we will do something else.

The hotel we are staying at has a great restaurant and grill downstairs. We have a full breakfast every morning and a light lunch and then a great dinner.

One day I had a hamburger and it was so big and it was delivered on a wooden plate. I had trouble eating it all. It came with a huge bucket of chips, which at first looked as though the cup was pushed in, but it soon became apparent it was china and all the buckets are the same.

We have still not finished our Norway story, but watch this space.

The Morrisons continue their cruise through Norway

We saw Copenhagen and had a good look around even though it was a little wet. We found out where our hotel was situated so we can get the taxi to take us there when we return next week. There is a train that goes from the airport, but we have to take our bags. We are getting a little old for that so we will get a cab.

We went to the info desk and got a load of info and we have planned our time.

We sailed off to Norway on May 25 and had one sea day before going to Flam and was it great. We came into the fjord about 2 a.m. and took about six hours to go up the fjord to the town. It was so beautiful but cold. I got some great photos and even managed a short movie which is yet to be edited.

Owen and Lesley Morrison

The Flam railway and bus trip is done two ways with over 200 passengers going on the tour. Some had  the bus trip first and the train second and other groups from other ships and other tourists did the train first and then the bus trip.

We booked an expensive tour with the Flam railway in which we were to experience one of the most interesting and beautiful stretches of railroad in the world. We started in the pretty village of Flam and left by coach where we stopped at the Tvinde waterfall to watch it cascade down the mountainside. Then passed by Oppheim Lake before reaching the serpentine bends in what is called Stalheimskleivane, the steepest road in Norway. It is a series of hair-pin bends and there is not much room between the bends. Most of this leg is through a mountain with two tunnels: the first almost seven miles long, and the second approximately four miles long. We ended up in Voss where we had lunch.

After lunch we boarded the train to take us on a an incredible train journey from the mountain station at Myrdal on the Bergen Railway, down to Flåm station nestled in the innermost corner of the Aurlandfjord.

Each year, this exciting stretch of railway attracts people from all corners of the world, making the Flam Railway one of Norway’s major and most spectacular tourist attractions.

The train journey provides some of Norway’s wildest and most magnificent scenery. On the 20 km train ride you can see rivers that cut through deep ravines, waterfalls cascade down the side of steep, snow-capped mountains and mountain farms cling dizzily to sheer slopes.

The Flåa Railway is one of the world’s steepest railway lines on normal gauge. The gradient is 55/1000 on almost 80 percent of the line, i.e. a gradient of one in eighteen.

Kjosfossen waterfall

The twisting tunnels that spiral in and out of the mountain are manifestations of the most daring and skilful engineering in Norwegian railway history.

At Kjosfossen waterfall we got off to take photos of the 300-foot waterfall plunging down the mountainside beneath the train track. There were some girls dressed as trolls dancing to music for the train passengers.

At the foot of the mountains you can enjoy the natural beauty of the Flåa Valley and admire the majestic Aurlandfjord, a branch of the world’s longest fjord, the Sognefjord. We went to the patio grill for dinner and even there was only four of us braving the cold and we were rugged up like nanook of the north. It was a great experience coming out through the fjord and the views were spectacular.

Our cruise continued and we went to Alesund and did a tour of two islands: Giske Island and Godoey Island. To get to the islands you have to go under the fjord through tunnels and on bridges over the water. The tunnels go through sheer rock and no cement is used in the roof or sides of the tunnels. Norway is definitely not a place to be claustrophobic as they have tunnels everywhere.

One of many tunnels was 2.5 miles long. Before we went to the islands we went to a lookout and saw where we were going. On the way we saw a cement bunker built into the side of the mountain by the Germans. You had to look close to find it. We looked all over Alesund and down to the ship. Great views, but once again cold.

Giske consists of several islands. Giske is known as the Saga Island for the Viking chieftain Rollo, who was born there. Giske Island is fairly flat and fertile and there have been settlements there since the early Bronze Age. We went to Giske Church which dates back to 1150 and was originally a chapel belonging to the Giske family. The graveyard was very interesting. People died very young and there was a high infant death rate. There were a lot of graves that must have been during the war years when the German occupied Norway.

We then went to Godoey Island, over a bridge that is closed during bad weather, and then to the small fishing village of Alnes, which faces the Atlantic Ocean and if you went straight ahead over the water you would end up in Greenland. We went to its lighthouse. We had a great view of the ocean and surrounding islands. Some climbed the stairs to the top of the lighthouse for great views. We thoroughly enjoyed coffee, great cake and typical Norwegian pancakes at the café below the lighthouse before returning to Alesund and the pier via the Aksla viewpoint.

The Heights and Highlights of Bergen

We did a tour of Bergen called “Heights and Highlights” and it was very well named in the height department. We went through the city via the cable car system. It goes up 2,100 feet. I couldn’t tell as I had my eyes closed all the time, teeth clenched and hanging on to the side of the car. Owen didn’t come up as the stairs up to the cable car were very steep and had no handrails and there is no seating on the cable car. It only takes a maximum of 15 people. They say it only takes five minutes to get to the top but it was more like 10 to 15 minutes. Once up there the 360-degree views were spectacular. The wind was blowing and very cold, so I am not sure if the photos came out as my hands were shaking so much from the cold. Unfortunately, you have to come down the same way. They have a bicycle race down to where we started from and you would have to be mad to do it.

We then drove to the Fantoft Stave Church which was built in 1150 but destroyed by fire in 1992. It was rebuilt from timber north of Bergen and they used the same construction methods that were used when it was first built in the Middle Ages. The only thing original was the wooden roofed gate. The whole church is made of wood with elaborate carvings on the roof. Unique to Norway, the stave churches were all built before the year 1300, and this was the first time in 700 years that this type of church was constructed. It is set in lovely treed parkland. We then had to fight peak hour traffic to get back to the ship.

We went on a tour called scenic Nordfjord. We started at Olden where the ship was berthed along the fjord through pretty villages with waterfalls, farmland and lovely trees all along the way. The road was quite narrow and winding but there wasn’t much traffic so it was okay. We went through a lot of tunnels and some of them were only one lane with passing lanes. We followed another bus as our driver was Swedish and it was his first time driving tour buses in Norway and he didn’t know the way. We stopped to take photos at a lookout 1,600 feet looking down into the fjord. It had spectacular views of the fjord and the opposite side mountains with snow-capped peaks. We had a welcome afternoon tea at a local village on the edge of the fjord. There were men fishing off the banks. We stopped for photos at Hornindal Lake which is the deepest in Northern Europe.

We arrived back at the ship with the staff standing on the pier holding up a “Welcome Home” banner. The band from the club was there and they were playing jazz and hot mulled wine given to us all as we boarded the ship. Some locals, all dressed in national costume, were out on the balcony opposite cheering. It was a lovely welcome back to the ship.

In Stavanger, just a five-minute walk from the pier, the Rygerkatt catamaran will take you on an exciting cruise deep into the Lysefjord. Cutting over 30 miles into the countryside, the Lysefjord is surrounded by steep glacier-polished mountainsides dotted with beautiful waterfalls and the occasional small farm perched on a mountainside. On the southern side of the fjord is Helleren, an overhanging cliff that in former days gave shelter to the people that fished and hunted in this area. On the northern side of the fjord, view high above the well-known protruding rock formation, Pulpit Rock. Completely flat on the top, Pulpit Rock extends some 80 feet out over the fjord, and is over 1,800 feet above sea level. Made a stop along the way for a coffee break with Norwegian delicacies at a rustic fjord side restaurant, before commencing the return cruise to the pier in Stavanger.

We then went to Oslo where we did not do any ship excursions, but instead when into town to the information building and got some information, so we could plan our return in two days’ time. The ship was berthed right in the town and you did not have to go far. The was one major thing that Seabourn did was always to get the best mooring possible and have the shore excursions well organized and on time.

Now that the cruising part of our holiday is over, one final postcard will be needed as some has asked us for a comparison between the 220-passenger ships the Spirit, the Pride and the Legend and the 450-passenger size ships, the Sojourn, the Odyssey and the new ship just launched, the Quest.

They smaller ships are great but do not have the areas that the larger ships have been purposely built into the ships, namely the Patio Grill and Restaurant 2. On the smaller ships those areas are converted from other areas at dinner time.

The larger ships have a great area named, in our case, the Seabourn Square, when many functions happen in a peaceful place. Check in happens there, the pursers are all stationed there; there is a wonderful coffee shop where you can get snacks, coffee and drinks from 6:15 in the morning until 6 p.m. at night. In the same area is the library, the boutique, the future cruises consultant and plenty of areas to simply relax and read the papers or books. There is a large area outside with very comfortable chairs and tables to sit and again relax.

The larger ships have more areas outside to sit and relax:

1. Deck 5 out the back of the club, there is a small pool and two hot tubs and many lounges and tables and chairs
2. Deck 6 in the front of the cabins there is another hot tub and lounges and chairs
3. Deck 7 is the area mentioned above
4. Deck 8 is the Colonnade at the back of the ship which is a buffet area for lunch and breakfast and a restaurant for dinner, restaurant 2, which is only open for dinner and in the front of that deck is another pool and hot tubs together with more tables and chairs and lounges and the best place to eat, the Patio Grill and bar, which is open for lunch and dinner.
5. Deck 9 there is an outside bar and that is also a great place to relax
6. Deck 10 is the Observation Deck where early risers are catered for from 6 a.m. each day. Aternoon tea and pre-dinner drinks are served there and you can relax well into the wee hours
7. Deck 11 is where you can play deck sports

We have travelled on the Spirit and the Pride and now on the Sojourn and for us the larger ship is for us, but we know many who much prefer the smaller ships and that is why Seabourn has the two sizes of ships. The main advantage of the smaller ships they can get into many places the larger cannot go and that is why many passengers prefer the smaller ships. Many say it is the more personal nature of the crew knowing your name and your quirks. We know the staff knew our names and we try to know and remember their names in return as they are people and not just a person to serve you.

We will again travel on Seabourn because we firmly believe they are value for money because when you pay for your cruise you know the only extras will be your excursions and anything you buy on the ship, unlike other cruise lines where to have to sign for everything you have on the ship and there are NO PHOTOGRAPHERS CONTINUALLY

The last day on the ship…

We are on our last full day of our cruise, tomorrow we will be in Copenhagen and hopping of the ship for the final time. We have been on a cruise ship since April 18 and tomorrow is June 3 and we are ready to go back to the land.

We have today picked out our seats on the plane for tomorrow’s flight. I was able to do it online and that made it easy. Hope it works out. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

We have finished our packing, almost; we are having a little trouble fitting everything in as we seem to have more than we started out with. It is good we can leave some with the hotel in Copenhagen as that bag almost weighs 30kg by itself. We can only take 23kg each on SAS airlines for checked baggage and 8kg each carryon luggage. No extras with them unlike Singapore Airlines.

We only paid $22 each for the SAS air tickets, but the taxes amounted to more than $120 each, still a lot less than normal.

We have arranged to be one of the first off the ship, so we can go to the hotel and drop off one rather large bag and then take a taxi to the airport for our flight leaving at 1:30 p.m. We did it that way because we do not know how long it will take at the airport to check in and go through customs and immigration. The flight time is only one hour. (It takes five hours on a train and eight hours on the ferry.) If they want to put us on an earlier flight we will take it.

We go to Oslo for three nights from June 3-6, then we fly to Stockholm and stay there four nights and then on June 10 we fly back to Copenhagen for five days. We paid for all our accommodations before we left Australia and have breakfast included in two places.

On June 16 we start on our way home from Copenhagen to Singapore. We arrive there at 5:20 a.m. after a 12-hour flight. We have a hotel booked in the airport, so we do not have far to go to our bed. We have four days in Singapore, before arriving home very late on June 20.

We will be more awake on June 21.

Lesley is already planning to go up to Hervey Bay on July 12 to stay at our timeshare at the Ramada. She is anxious to see our new grandson.

Finland

Monday, May 23, 2011

Here we are in Helsinki and it is somewhat cold outside. We should expect that as we are getting closer to the Arctic Circle.

Owen and Lesley Morrison

Today is 12 degrees C and the forecast is a 20 percent chance of rain. Well, they got it partly right. We went for a light breakfast as they were tying up and by the time we went ashore we got about 100 yards  from the ship and fortunately we took our jackets that we got made when we were last in Tasmania. The coats are lightweight fabric and have a liner and they are rain- and shower-proof and both weigh about 3kg together so they are great to travel overseas.

We have some dry-as-a-bone coats that we bought in Australia and they keep you warm and dry, but weigh a ton and are not good to take overseas, but are good if we are travelling in Australia.

Getting back to today, 100 yards (I know we should be saying meters, but I still calculate the old way) from the ship, down came the rain and there was even lightning and thunder. It became very slippery and we were dry and warm to our knees, but wet from then on to our sneakers. Some had umbrellas, but in the wind they were not much help. The market outside the wharf was very ordinary and one shop wanted 15 euros for a child’s T-shirt and 20 euros for adult ones and they were poor quality and were screen printed with local flavour. We said no to the store keeper and moved on to other places.

There are many large vehicle and passenger ferries in this part of the world with countries and towns being so close people move around for work and pleasure. We have taken photos of the ferries, some so small where they take just two cars to large ones that take hundreds of cars and lorries.

There was no hop on-hop off bus in Helsinki as there was in other places, however, there was a tram ride you could take for 2.5 euros each and the people who went enjoyed themselves. We decided to go back to the ship and dry off and as we still have 11 more days on the ship washed our wet clothes in the ship’s self-service laundry. There are four washing machines and four dryers and the soap powder is free, as so are the washing machines and dryers.

We had a little trouble with our washing. We got to the laundry to find two little old ladies had taken our completed washing out and put theirs in, one load was finished and the other was just finishing, so we must have just missed them doing it. They made some remark about how we should be more considerate of others and we find later when we were checking on our dryers that their washing had been removed by others so they could use the machine.

I asked them how long did they wait and they said about 15 minutes and gave up waiting. Another couple also used the machine and the old ladies still had not been back to the laundry to check on their clothes. I guess there is one rule for some a not rules for others. Someone once said, which I thought was great: “They have all the money in the world but do not have any manners towards others.”  I guess that is life.

We were told in Russia that things were very dear there and they come to Helsinki to buy all their food and drinks and then drive home, some six-hour return journey.  After hearing that you cannot gripe about the cost of food at home.

So now we are good for the next few days and we will wash again before we hop off this ship on June 3. It was a shame that the heavy rain came and spoiled the day but I guess we can’t complain too much because that is the first wet shore day we have had since leaving Dubai on April 18.

Most of the passengers went on shore excursions and most got wet or very wet, so in a way were happy that we decided not to go on a shore excursion today.

Tonight we sail to Copenhagen and we have one sea day and arrive there on May 25. It is hard to think our cruising days will be over soon, we just have nine full days and a couple part days to go, before we commence the land portion of our holiday. We finally disembark in Copenhagen on June 3,  leave some bags at our hotel that we are coming back to in eight days, go to the airport and fly to Oslo and stay there for three nights, then fly to Stockholm for four nights and then fly back to Copenhagen for five nights and then take a direct flight of 12 hours to Singapore, where we arrive at 5:20 a.m. Singapore time. We have booked a hotel at the airport so we can go straight to our room and have a sleep.

We stay in Singapore until June 20 when we fly back home, arriving about 7 p.m., just over 9 ½ weeks since leaving home. Many have asked why so long away and we say, well, it so far to come over here and the cost of the airfares is huge so we try to see as much as we can while we are here.

On our final cruise portion starting May 25, we have booked about seven excursions each which equates to one a day for every shore day, so we hope the weather holds and we have had our only wet day.

When we left my friends, Owen and Lesley Morrison, they were several weeks into their Seabourn Cruise, heading into St. Petersburg, Russia. They have finally finished their entire cruise and are heading home to Australia.

Owen and Lesley Morrison

Owen sent me lots of reports on the second part of their trip and I will post them here…know that these events took place a couple of weeks ago. They are now sailing on the Seabourn Sojourn.

Russia

Saturday May 21, 2011

We arrived in Saint Petersburg this morning  and found we had a lovely warm day awaiting us. We had a light breakfast and went down to the Grand Lounge to check in for our tour of the city.

We had to be there 15 minutes before the departure time as normal, but we have a group of passengers that do not worry about time and get there when it suits them. This morning management had their measure. When we checked in we were given an orange, blue, red, black, green etc. sticker on the back of the shore excursion ticket and that indicated which bus you were on. We later found out it also indicated when you left the ship.

Well, what a commotion when the cruise director started calling out the colors. Those who arrived late were standing at the door and we were the second color to be called and those by the door said, “When do we go?” and were told they had to wait their turn. Well!!!!.

When we got off the ship after having the ship’s security staff check us off, we went to passport control. Those passengers who were going on a tour were covered by the ship’s visa; those who did not have a visa or were not going with a ship’s tour could not bypass passport control. The ship gave each passenger a copy of the ship’s visa and all you had to do was check that the personal info of yours was correct and just simply sign it in two places and take it with you together with your passport, your ships ID and hand it to passport control. Some passengers did not check it or did not sign it and had to fill out new ones. We have four young Americans on our trivia team and they paid $350 each for a visa that allowed them off the ship at any time. When we booked the cruise we were told that it took longer than six weeks to get a Russian visa and not to bother as it was quite involved.

Passport control was in a barge that had been towed alongside the ship and they checked everything twice and it was somewhat slow. It does not matter to me how many checks are carried out or how long it takes as long as I get home safely. Some passengers were unhappy with the whole process. I said to one of them, “What’s the rush? We all have to go in the same bus.” They were still not happy so I gave up.

We got a bus and the guide in her opening speech said that we were very lucky today as they only have about 30 days like this in the whole year, weather-wise.

The bus driver took us around the city and there are cars everywhere and the bus driver was great. He took us to a canal boat and everyone rushed to get outside and four of us went downstairs. It turned out to be the best place because outside you got to sit in one place on a plastic chair and you could not stand up because the bridges you went under did not leave much clearance. However inside you could sit anywhere, move from side to side, stand up and the windows opened up fully and we took the best photos of the city. The canal ride was well over an hour and a half. We then went ashore again and ended up at the Church of the Spilled Blood which had a market beside it.

The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (Khram Spasa na Krovi) is both an historical monument and a work of art. The men who built the church were given the difficult task of incorporating the spot where Emperor Alexander II was murdered into the interior of the church. The site of the crime is marked by a special chapel in the western part of the building beneath the bell.

I bought a book on St. Petersburg and it shows all the churches, palaces and monuments in the town and it has a wealth of information. It cost 10 euros.

Lesley bought some Russian dolls at the market only to find the stall outside the ship was cheaper. We boarded the bus and drove pass sights in the city, mainly churches and government buildings and a huge university. It was a bit hard sometimes to work out what the buildings were as the guide kept saying about yellow buildings. A lot of the buildings are yellow and when there is a few together it makes it hard. Then back to the ship. What a great tour.

Some passengers had three tours booked for today and some more tomorrow. Some are going to the ballet or the opera tonight and they are going to be cold as the temperature is predicted to be just 5 degrees C and they will be dressed not for the chill, but in evening dress.

There are some passengers going to a cocktail party before the opera. Some say they may never come this way again, so see as many things as possible, but I am happy going on just a couple of tours.

On Sunday we slept in after a big day.

We went to breakfast in the Colonnade and had a great breakfast. Lesley ordered eggs royale which was like eggs benedict but has salmon instead of ham, I had poached eggs on English muffins with some grilled tomato and link sausages which are like beef sausages with a little spice. We rested up and went to the customs area early which was great because unbeknownst to us a large ship, the Empress, had berthed next to us and about 1,000 passengers were lined up. Seabourn, with their normal efficiency, had arranged two lines just for the Seabourn passengers and as we had all been through the initial check of yesterday, it was much quicker the second time around.

We got through quickly and waited for our two buses. The other group’s buses were waiting and not leaving any room for our buses, finally one of our buses arrived and everyone wanted to go first. The staff were very good and explained that there were two buses and some should wait.

Lesley and I were lucky to get on the first bus and we were taken to a store called Onegin where all tourist buses seem to stop. They must be all on a commission. One of our passengers made it simple for the rest of us and noted that the place where we got off was also the pick-up point. He said, “One Gin Please” — that will be easy to remember. We had to be back 2½ hours later.

We all went into the shop and there were a lot of souvenirs. There were toilets there as well and some of the passengers were happy about that because they had a box lunch provided by the ship while they we waiting. We had a look around and  we knew that the prices at the stalls on the pier were cheaper and a little better quality.

We went for a walk around and took some more photos of buildings we only saw from the bus yesterday. We then went back to the bus for a rest and then went on another walk to the a very plush hotel called the Europe Hotel, reporedly the most expensive hotel in town. We had a look inside and it is very grand and large. We did not ask the cost.

We got back to the bus and found we had two passengers from bus 2 on board which was initially confusing but it was sorted out and when we returned to the ship, the ship was ready to leave.

Lesley bought some Russian eggs for the grandchildren and another set of Russian dolls. Except for the big department stores most shops and stalls take US dollars or Euros.

St. Petersburg is a huge place and we were told that there are 119 museums and many more theaters and it is impossible to see everything in just two days. It is a lovely city but the young ones with the visas were telling us it is hard to get a taxi and an honest one at that.

We left at 5 p.m. on May 22 and to get going we had to have two tugs assist us down the river and then spin us around with the help of our thrusters. We needed the tugs because there was a strong current and there was only 60 feet at each end of the ship at the narrowest point on either end of the ship to the other ships in the river.

We then proceeded out of St. Petersburg and saw some magnificent sights along the way. The channel was very narrow on both sides.

We are now on our way to Helsinki and will be there tomorrow morning at about 8 a.m.