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| Arrived to Emerald Princess. Waiting for Our room access in the International Cafe. |
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| View of Southhampton, UK from Emerald Princess. |
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| Moving into our Interior Cabin with the Mirror Illusion. |
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| This Closet is the Handicap Version and I Liked it! |
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| Requisite Tiny Cabin Bathroom. The cabin shower experience is one of the competitive experiences between cruise lines, and this one is 'meh' or sufficient. |
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| Video Call with Grandson Quinn in Brazil! Oh my heart is so happy! |
Week 1 Cruise Notes:
“In Search of the Northern Lights” Cruise on Emerald Princess. Sept 27- Oct 11, 2025. Round Trip Southampton, England to the Arctic Circle with Port Days in Norway.
Nomad Notes: We signed up for this cruise 5-6 weeks ahead of the embarkation. We have been planning the October 11th Transatlantic cruise with our youngest son, Samuel for over a year. Our biggest 2025 travel issue has been Darrell’s eye treatments that began this past February. He’s been on a 5 week treatment interval throughout this year. His eye doctor is in Huntsville, Alabama. He found out that his September treatment would be a different medicine injected into his eye. This different medicine gives him a 7 week interval until his next appointment. We took this widened opportunity to plan a longer trip. His next scheduled appointment is Tuesday, October 28th in Huntsville. As far as we know, he will be returned to the 5 week treatment intervals for 2-3 treatments.
We left from Southampton on Saturday afternoon. We saw our best Northern lights from the ship deck on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as we were leaving Trondheim and sailing northward.
We scheduled a ‘tour’ for viewing the night sky and the possibility of seeing the lights at Alta. The tour was way too expensive in our opinion for what we got. For the two of us it was over $500 to ride in a 50-60 person travel bus to a plateau outside of town to see the sky. It happened that there were no remarkable lights that night. So nature doesn’t agree with our timelines. That’s understandable. The intolerable parts of this tour were that we had no commentary or even an explanation of how our evening bus ride was progressing. When we arrived at our viewing area, our bus driver tried to explain some things to us in broken English, and that was it. The two of us went to him directly to see if we could understand better what was going on. A couple of hours later when we were finished early with this non-view, viewing experience, we found a bilingual bus driver to explain the process of getting a bus ride back to the tender dock to get back to our ship. We got through our less than mediocre experience with more of a mind to seek out our own tours separate from the tours offered on the ship.
Our Past Cruising: We are ‘elite’ Princess cruise passengers. We have perks with our status. We have sailed between 300-400 days with more than 20 cruises. I never dreamed in my past that I would say any of that! Our cruising began in 2010 with a one week MSC Caribbean cruise. I was working as a self-employed massage therapist and I saw where I could get CEU’s on a cruise. My therapist friend, Sarah, from North Carolina and I determined that we would get our CE’s this way. We invited our husbands and we had a great time! It was Darrell and my first cruise. Darrell said to me, “I thought you said that you never wanted to do a cruise.?” I said, “I changed my mind.” Three years later we took a two week Princess cruise to Hawaii for our 30th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful time and our love for cruises began!
Saturday. 27. Turn in our rental car in Southampton. Arrive ship by taxi with luggage and board by 10:30 am. The ship leaves the dock by 4:30 pm.
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| Beautiful Sunrise from Ship. One of my favorite shipboard experiences is Sunrise and Sunset. |
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| Early Morning on Emerald Princess in Norway. |
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| Our First Norway Port: Trondheim. Beautiful Day. Our Second Time to Come Here. |
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| Trondheim Aquatic Center with Reflective Glass Wall. |
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| I Have the Spa Pools to Myself on this Port Day. |
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| This Show was Sand Art and was Amazing and Unique. |
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| Viewing the Northern Lights from our Ship! Wowza! |
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| We Enjoy Quiet Early Mornings with Coffee before Breakfast on the Ship. |
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| This Northern Lights Display was Wonderful and Mesmerizing. Trondheim is the City lights below. |
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| Northern Lights Captured With My Cell Phone. |
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| Our Second Stop in Tromso. View from Riding the Lift up Above the City! Another Beautiful Day. |
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| Beautiful Views Above Tromso. |
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| Colors Above Tromso |
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| View Above Tromso. Arctic Church, Bridge and Ship. |
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| Above Tromso |
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| Coffee Shop Above Tromso. |
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| Distorted, Two Part Shadow Looking Down on Tromso. |
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| Hot Dog in Tromso. |
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| Reindeer and Beef Hot Dog in Tromso |
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| Arctic Cathedral in Tromso |
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| Crossing the Bridge in Tromso |
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| View from Tromso Bridge |
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| Vintage Tromso Architechture |
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| Tromso Flowers |
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| Contrast of Old and New Architechture in Tromso. |
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| View from Ship at Alta |
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| My Lunch Buffet Plate on the Ship |
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| Sitting on Top of the Tender Boat at Alta |
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| About Midnight in Alta. Riding the Top of the Tender Boat to the Ship. |
Sunday. 28 - Friday. 3. We booked this cruise about 5 weeks ago. We booked an inside cabin, picked by the company, for this two week cruise. We are in a ‘handicapped’ room on level 12. It’s pretty good for two weeks. We will enjoy our upgraded room for our follow-on transatlantic cruise. We like our room location for movement around the ship. The hall has been quiet. We’ve also had hallway plumbing issues, but the crew have been managing and fixing issues quickly!
This week Darrell is leading an 8am ‘sea day’ Bible class. We are reading the Book of Mark together. It’s going really well and we enjoy the time of getting together with this focus and getting to know others here too.
We’ve been eating very well and not being extreme diet followers or extreme dessert-eaters. The food is generally very good for our tastes. We get our laundry done as one of our perks. We put a little bit in regularly as do many others with the same privilege.
We’ve been to a few shows, a comedian, vocalists, live music, etc. We don’t go to the ones that don’t appeal to us. We changed our exercise routine from morning to evening and after dinner and sometimes after a show. This is because of the fitness center hours. We’re finding that it is quieter in the gym around 9pm. I’ve had two hot tub soaks all to myself.
The weather has been mild in the 50-60s with calm seas. Each port has had sunshine. We are visiting some ports in Norway that we were at in June 2022. This week we enjoyed Trondheim, Tromso and Alta with one overnight.
We didn’t book excursions or tours in Trondheim or Tromso. We chose what we wanted to do on our own in Trondheim and Tromso. For Alta, there were ‘Northern Light’ tours offered at over $200 per person. This is quite costly for a few hours and a bus full of people. The prices are higher than our visit 3 years ago even though Norway is known for being pricey in the tourism world. These tours were booked up and closed on the ship. We went onto a standby list as a possibility and felt excited when we got tickets for the 8:30-midnight tour. We canceled an off-ship daytime tour we had scheduled.
Before arriving in Alta, Darrell had downloaded an app called Aurora. It gives up to date info about the lights and forecasts and alerts for looking for them, etc. We got our first glimpse of the lights from the ship the night we left Trondheim. I got a good picture or two. Seeing the lights is amazing. I had to remember that my experience wasn’t about getting the best picture! Lol. The next morning at 4am, Darrell got an app alert. We got up, dressed quickly and went out to view the pre-dawn Northern Lights. Again, amazing and a few nice pictures. We took naps during the day. We enjoyed Tromso on our own. We rode the city bus. We walked along the waterfront and went to the skylift and walked by the Arctic Cathedral and across the long bridge near there. We shared a (20%) reindeer hot dog, and bought some licorice and salt candies (a Norway thing) at a grocery store. The next day we were in Alta and had our 8:30pm tour to see the Northern lights. We paid a high price for it like hundreds of others bussing to a plateau to view the sky. The forecast was not good. We went anyway. There were no displays for us to look at. At our arrival location, there were warming outdoor fires, warm air tents and a large indoor glassed building area with tables and chairs. They had hot drinks and cake available for our time there. We sat and visited with a few others while there. We got back to the ship around 12:30pm. The ride on the tender ship to and from the ship was kind of adventurous as we sat up top in the chilly night. Again, the weather was mild and in the 40’s after dark, except for some colder heavy wind up at the plateau. We slept well. In the morning, we reassessed our touring focus, the amount of money we wanted to spend versus what we got for what we spent and our personal satisfaction.
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| Enjoying the Back Deck on the Ship |
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| Our Saturday Call with Grandson Quinn and Son Jeremy in Brazil! Cute Smile. |
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| Night Time Port Lights at Alta. |
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| Amazing Sky Colors! |
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| Sunrise with Some Choppy Water. View Out Window on Deck 5. |
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| Narvik View of Calm Fjord. |
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| Mountain View at Narvik |
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| Narvik from Ship. |
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| Narvik |
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| Narvik In Town. |
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| Owen Explaining. |
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| Ship Fancy Dessert. |
Week 2 Cruise Notes:
Saturday. 4. Tonight we leave Alta and have a Sunday sea day. Monday is Lofoten Islands. Tuesday is a sea day. Wednesday is Alesund. Thursday and Friday are sea days. And we arrive back in Southampton on Saturday morning the 11th of October.
Sunday-Wednesday. 5-8. : Our itinerary changed radically because of rough seas and storms affecting our ship. Our Lofoten Island stop was to be by anchor with a tender to the dock. That was canceled and replaced with the town of Narvik down a fjord and sheltered from rough waters. The weather was beautiful on the day we visited. We docked at the port where we walked off the ship and straight into the small town. Darrell and I tried to get onto the scenic railroad trip, but decided that we had missed it when the Arctic train sold out. Later at dinner, someone told us that they took the regular train on the same journey minus the recorded commentary, for ⅓ the price of the sold out Arctic train. Oh well, maybe another opportunity another time. For today we enjoyed walking into town and going through the World War 2 Museum. We learned about the Battle of Narvik and the eventual occupation of Narvik by the Nazis. We walked back to the ship and had lunch. We walked again into town and to a shopping mall. We bought a couple of items at a grocery store including a dark chocolate bar for me. We walked back to the ship. We changed and hopped into a hot tub for a soak before heading for our early 5pm dinner time with a randomly assigned group of travelers. The dinner conversations vary and are usually quite enjoyable.
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| Ocean Calm. |
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| Train from Le Havre to Rouen, France with Tim and Angela. |
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| In Rouen, France. |
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| Decorative Rouen Door |
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| Narrow Rouen Street. |
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| One of Many Church Buildings in Rouen, France. |
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| Rouen, France School Kids Wearing Chef Hats and Aprons on a Cooking and Food Tour |
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| Rouen Old Architechture |
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| Our Walking Group. Angela, Tim, Jackie, Jorge and Darrell |
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| Narrow Street in Rouen. Jackie and Jorge. |
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| Narrow Passageway in Rouen |
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| At the Entrance to the Joan of Arc Museum |
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| Early 1900's Joan of Arc Sculpture |
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| Joan of Arc Museum with English Headsets and Projected Movies in Old Castle |
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| Top Floor View From the Joan of Arc Museum |
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| Joan's Story Ending |
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| Joan's Summary |
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| Joan's Final Trial |
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| Rouen |
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| Angela Looking at Pastries in Rouen |
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| Rouen Flower Display |
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| Delicious Appetizer in Rouen |
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| Rouen Lunch Restaurant |
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| Rouen Lunch |
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| Delicious Dessert in Rouen |
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| Rouen |
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| Next to Train Station at Rouen |
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| Rouen Nomad Bus |
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| Rouen Street Art |
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| View of Le Havre from Ship |
Thursday-Friday. 9-10. : Our final stop for this cruise changed because of choppy seas coming south from Norway to the English Channel. Our ship decided to port in France on Friday for the day. The port of Le Havre is a 2 hour train ride to Paris, which we have done on a former cruise stop. This time we listened to several passengers who have been at this port multiple times and what kinds of excursions we might enjoy in the area. We decided to go on a 40 minute train ride to Rouen, France. This is the home of Joan of Arc. We had another couple we met at Bible class, Tim and Angela, who were going with us for the day. The 4 of us walked off the ship, took a taxi to the train station, bought our tickets at a machine, boarded the train and arrived at Rouen. On our way, another couple asked to walk with us. Tim and I were both following a Joan of Arc 6 point walking tour from the app gpsmycity . The six of walked out from the train station and followed the street to the closest point #6 on our walking tour. We thoroughly enjoyed our walking tour of Rouen. I was so surprised with the number of Medieval buildings and the historic architecture throughout the easy walking distance of the train station. Four of us spent 1-2 hours going through the Joan of Arc museum. We got the local story for the events that have kept this story alive for centuries.
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