Midnight Sun and Summer Solstice

    Norway here we come. It has been almost a year since our last cruise. We just didn't find something we liked. In any case after the wonderful time in Florida this past winter, we are headed back to the Princess cruise line. The “Midnight Sun And Summer Solstice” cruise heads to Norway, a destination that has been on our list of places for a long time. We have been to Norway before but the ports have all been in the south. This time we are headed along the entire coast right up to the North Cape stopping in many fjords along the way. The writer of the cruise article in the local paper noted that Norway is like Alaska in beauty. We think it will be better because the ports requiring sailing into many fjords. There are 11 stops on the 14 day cruise.

The added bonus on this cruise is that we will be farther north than we have ever been as the map shows. At this time of year we will be getting extended hours of sunlight – hence the “Midnight Sun and summer solstice cruise title. Sunrise will be around 4 am and sunset around 11pm in the southern part of the cruise. As we get near the North Cape we should have 4 days of 24 hours of sunlight. It should be an interesting experience. The map with Greenland and Norway shows just how far north we will be!

    We are sailing on the Crown Princess which is similar to most of the big Princess ships. It will be our 4^th time on the Crown. We are on Aloha deck about mid ships  This is an "upgrade" - part of the package that we booked. The ship does have the International Cafe, the small food bar in the atrium which is where we like to go for daily tea and small meals .

    As the map shows, we sail and return from Southampton England.

Ship Schedule

North Of Iceland!

We have booked four ship tours. After doing the research on all the stops we have a good balance between exploring the ports on our own and the ship's offerings. We have booked hiking to the top of a fjord, going to North Cape at the top of Norway, driving through the Lofoten Islands; going through a fjord to a waterfall. We have also booked a bike tour in one port. The bike tour is only 7 kilometres each way but then we hike to a waterfall. I think we have a nice balance planned if the rain holds.
Being on the west coast next to mountains means that we can expect to use our wet weather gear often!

 We stayed in Toronto last night. We leave early Friday afternoon from Toronto arriving in London at 6:30 am. The overnight time change routine.
    We are ready to enjoy the perks of being “Elite” on Princess.  It means free laundry, on board credits and prepaid gratuities! Anyone that has cruised will appreciate the free laundry luxury. It means that you do not need to pack as many clothes. The mini bar, free internet (basically) and wine tasting are also nice.

        At the bottom of each post is a small icon that looks like an envelop. If you open it, you should be able to send us an email directly to my gmail address from the post. If you have a gmail account I think that you can leave a message on the blog. A simple email will also do it. The “free” internet means that we have time to look at emails. Because of where we are in Europe, we "should" have good internet service. It is always nice to read the comments of people interested in our travels.
    More Later!