| That afternoon, as we were sat on the balcony, we noticed what looked like a bomber squadron over birds circling over us. Was it the noon fright victim with his mates or were they a revenge squad? As we were talking and enjoying their antics, one of our neighbours yelled, "QUIET!" before promptly slamming the balcony door (which Cunard tell you NOT to do!). Bloody cheek. Neither of our neighbours were church mice, slamming, banging, TV up loud so whichever one yelled is a hypocrite. We went up on deck to try and get some photos but they kept going out of formation. When we returned, the lady from 6062 was carrying two mugs and had to use her foot to knock on the door, which she did while smiling at us. I popped to the Tours office to ask about tours for Ålesund and was told it would be delivered that night. It was our first formal night. According to a post on Cruise Critic, Commodore Rynd said the reason we weren't going to Geiranger because it would be "too tight and too narrow" so would be interesting to see if she called in August. Another Cruise Critic poster said a call three years before was cancelled but in advance, citing too many ships that time. While another poster said Mary had been there in 2011 with THREE other ships and no issues. Well during his speech to second sitting guests, he first of all said we were going to Åndalsnes, as well as Cunard and White Star merged in 1927. Eh??? It was 1934, something a Commodore should know, albeit from P&O originally. We had an early night after dinner as we were meeting our friend Oskar early in the morning. |
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| Morning had broken and there was a bit of drizzle as we entered the Stavanger approach. Oskar texted to say a Dutch naval vessel was heading out. It was the HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën and the sailors were standing to attention until passing us. We went to breakfast in the Britannia as it takes longer and no fighting the greedy masses and noticed we were turning. Bum in - bitch! Afterwards, we went to the stern on deck 6 and saw Oskar below. As soon as Commodore Rynd said we had clearance, we were off! |
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Bloody rain! Oskar had booked us on a boat tour to see the Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock, which Cunard charge $105 for. This worked out at about $68 so I presume the rest pays for the waffles and coffee on the organised tour. You could also buy at the time, although the website said eight places left when Oskar booked, so what that was all about, we have no idea. As we waited, the rain started before stopping again. We bumped into David Oates, who I'd met when leading the Ocean Liner Society visit to Seven Seas Voyager in 2012. He was also on Mary. Fred and Tracy from our table were going on this boat too, as they'd mentioned during dinner. It was amazing how many people just barged past to board the board. We stood on the bow and as we began to move off around 10am, the heavens opened ruining all photos of Mary. Well there'd be another chance on the way back at least! The only other time I had done this trip was a Cunard excursion on the QE2 in 2008 when my camcorder decided to pack up in Geiranger but worked again in the Solent coming home. The description in my review was, "The weather was a pain, dry, wet, cold, warm" which could be this day as well! We didn't bother having a look at Pulpit Rock because of the evil wet stuff but for some time before we reached it, it was just me and Tracy out there. As she said, we were wet enough already so may as well stay put. Some Japanese old men had an annoying habit of pushing past people to see anything and it was so windy as we sped back, it blew my trouser leg up. At least it became lovely and dry, sun coming out as we headed back to the city - until we neared Mary! The closer we got, the heavier it came down. It was like she had rain inside a force field to ruin everyone's pictures! The Cunard gilet was a good buy, though, and was certainly waterproof as advertised. |
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Soaked and miserable, we squelched to the nearest Burger King for something to eat and began to get depressed as it dried up - grrr! So we decided to creep up on her for photos in the hope she wouldn't do another rain dance with her fat bum and half-drown us even more. |
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