New Digs!

 So today was the big day: MOVING DAY!

I know those words usually conjure up horror stories and PTSD trauma, but it actually went really well.

We got up this morning and headed up for some coffee and brekkie, then went back to our room to pack.

That doesn’t sound exciting, but it actually was because everyone who was leaving the cruise at this point had to be packed up last night and leave their suitcases outside the room. The letter we got said for us, it was a three step process to change rooms:

1. Pack up your things and leave your suitcases outside the room by 9am

2. Go to the service desk and get your new room key card just after 8am.

3. Hang out in your room until 9am and then the new room would be ready.

So we did #1 and #2 - and well before 9am, our housekeeper buzzed the door and said the new room was already done. They sent people to gather up our suitcases and other belongings and off we went, up two floors to the front of the ship.

It’s a really nice room!

It’s bigger than the previous one - 405sf vs 338 sf. The room is the same depth as the other one, but it’s wider.

Main differences: the curtain room divider, which is awesome. Rob and I often go to sleep 2-3- hours apart and the divider will let him have some darkness to sleep in while I can still leave the window curtains open and enjoy the view. At this latitude, even nighttime looks like someone left a light on.

The other big difference is the washroom. The extra width allows for a double sink and a much larger shower.

There’s also a second TV, which (for us) doesn’t really matter. We only watched TV once in the first two weeks on board so I can’t imagine we’ll get much use out of a second one.

Also, the balcony view doesn’t suck.

We went back into town after we got unpacked and poked around a bit. Rob wanted to go back to an artist’s shop and get a t-shirt that he liked and we also wanted to prowl around in an antique store or two.

We did both. The first antique store was nice, but most of what they had were dishes and silverware.

The next one, we didn’t even go in after looking through the window!

You might remember the sunset shots from the top of the funicular I took yesterday. I’m SOOOOOO glad I did it them - I just walked right up, got a ticket, and caught the next car up the hill.

Here’s what the ticket stand looked like today:

I’m estimating that it’s at least 30-45 minutes just to get a ticket in that lineup, then probably another 20min or so to get a seat on a tram. Ugh. Looking up the hill, I could see the observation deck was packed.

No thanks. Been there, done that, got the pics. No need to go back up.

I had remembered seeing this the other day:

And I’m like, “WHAAAAAAAT???? Creole food in Norway? It’s probably hysterically inaccurate, but how can you NOT?” So today we went in search of it.

Turns out, it’s closed and no longer a restaurant. The new owners have opened a bar in the building, but haven’t painted over the other graphics.

That’s a shame. It’s a really pretty building, though! (The tall red brick one)

We also checked out the farmers’ market, which is less fruit/veg than it is fish/seafood.

Back on board, we had our first reservation at The Chef’s Table. This is one of the upscale restaurants on board, but it’d done differently than the other in that there’s no choosing what you’d like - it’s a five-course meal prepared by the chef with wine pairings to accompany.

Tonight’s menu was Cantonese cuisine - Rob wasn’t particularly looking forward to it after seeing the courses offered, but we figured we could always hit the buffet afterward if the Chef’s Table was nasty.

So the courses were:

Hot & sour soup - excellent, paired with a Riesling

Crispy garlic and chilli prawns - also excellent, paired with a Muscadet

Coconut Granité (basically a sno-cone) with lemongrass and ginger - outstanding! (No wine pairing for this)

Black Pepper beef with prawn fried rice - very good, paired with a French Cab Sauv blend

Mango tapioca creme, paired with some French white that was really fruity and acidic. Very nice, although neither of us would order the dessert again.

Here’s the beef:

H!! There are only 18 of us who stayed on from the last cruise, so we have a whole new crop of cornucopia!

And again: I think I’m the youngest passenger - although there are a few who might be close to my age.

One of the newbies was sitting behind me at dinner and WOW I know that this is going to make me sound snobbish, but the man talked non-stop the entire meal and the banter was a source of endless entertainment.

I first took notice when we sat down and he was explaining (err, “man-splaining”) to his wife how the menu worked. You didn’t pick anything, they just bring you all five of these dishes and they’re paired with these wines.

So far, so good, other than him assuming his wife couldn’t have figured that out on her own.

Then he went course by course and told her which wine would come - and he said that one of the wines was from Maine.

Me [silently]: Wait, what?

I checked my own menu and found this:

OH, that’s priceless. It’s at this point that I began eavesdropping in earnest.

The best line of the evening - and I have no idea why he was talking about chicken parmigiana, because it wasn’t on the menu tonight - was “I really wanted her to try that chicken parma-janna. It was better than Olive Garden!”

It’s going to be a fun cruise. Here’s the map:

On to the next day!

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