Vacationing When We Can Travel Again

What's Next From a Cruise Specialist's Perspective

Traveling has been put on pause in 2020.   This year has been filled with fear, anxiety, and lot's of stress for most families.  If you are like me, you've been cut off from friends, co-workers, favorite restaurants, churches, and much more.  Perhaps you didn't realize how much you could miss those things. 

Vacationing, when it is safe to do so again, will play a large part in the healing process.  There is hope since the CDC has just published a framework that will allow cruising from America to resume.  Europe has already been sailing.  It may be possible to vacation soon, so let's dream together.

Tropical breezes are blowing, the surf is calling, but if you are like most Americans, you are feeling guilty about taking time off to relax with your family, even though you desperately need to.   This year, those feelings might be more intense.

Did you know that most Americans, earn on average 14 days of vacation compared to Britain (24 days), Spain (30 days) and France (36 days). Also, a recent study discovered that most Americans don’t even use their vacation time. 

Another study discovered that women who took holidays were more satisfied with their marriages and less likely to become depressed, while a separate study showed that among men who were at high risk for coronary heart disease, those who took vacations had a lower death rate. So don’t feel guilty about taking a vacation; it’s healthy for you to do so.

While tropical breezes sound inviting, you are yearning for something different.  If you are going to take time off,  it has to be all about the experience.

So while that is sinking in, let’s pretend that you’ve decided to take the big plunge. You call me and say that you have a large bank of vacation time stored up, you’ve always wanted to go to Norway to see the Fjords, and experience the Northern Lights.  You and your family want to get away for a couple weeks. Checking the available itineraries, looking at various demographics, your budget and other factors, I recommend the 12 Night Coastal Voyage on Hurtigruten Vesteralen which departs from Bergen, Norway.   I suggest adding the pre-cruise Train from Oslo to Bergen.  This time of year it will be amazing with all the snow capped mountains and other scenery.

Fast forward to departure time for your Norway adventure ...
You sleep on the plane ride over the pond, you are already feeling relaxed even before you get off the plane in Oslo. Your pre-cruise stay included bus transfers from the Oslo airport to the Bus Terminal which was down the block from your hotel. After a short walk you arrive at Clarion Royal Christiana Hotel. After checking in, you drop off your luggage and explore the neighborhood in search of a restaurant for dinner. You notice that the train station is just across the street, so it will be quite easy continuing your journey in the morning. You decide to head back to your room to relax and get some sleep.

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, you were ready for the adventure in this winter wonderland to begin. A short walk from the hotel, and you were inside Oslo Central Railway Station. Checking the departure board, you found that the train's departure track wasn't posted yet. You'd given yourself plenty of time so that you didn't have to run through the train station to get to the platform on time. Once the track was posted, you headed to the entrance gate.

The European rail system is a very reliable way to travel. The train arrived at the station on time and you made your way to car 7, stowed your suitcases, and found your reserved seats. You were off on a six hour journey through the Norwegian countryside.

Onboard the train you were able to communicate using free Wi-Fi. When you got hungry, you purchased sandwiches from the dining car. Winter in Norway brings lots of snow in the mountains. You got your first glimpses at the beautiful scenery you'd be experiencing throughout the rest of the adventure.

The train arrived in Bergen on time and you gathered your luggage and headed towards the station exit. There you were greeted by a representative from Hurtigruten who directed you to a shuttle bus for the short ride to the ship. Once at the pier, you dropped off your luggage, and checked in to get your cabin keys. Before you got onto the ship, there was a mandatory safety drill where they showed a safety movie and demonstrated how to put on the thermal protection suit and life jacket. This was the only compulsory activity of the voyage. The ship sails on time and you get ready for dinner and your first night at sea.

Let's fast forward to the morning of arrival in the first Norwegian port, Alesund. You step onto

the deck and get your first glimpse of the Norwegian Fjords. In the still of the morning, the only sound is that of rushing water from a nearby waterfall flowing from one of the nearby mountain peaks. The sight exceeds your expectations. You pinch yourself to make sure you are awake. This is truly beautiful country. You are now extremely happy that you took your cruise vacation.

Several days have passed, you've seen amazing sights, gone dog-sledding and crossed the Arctic Circle.   There's still one highlight that you can't wait for.   You go to dinner and share stories about your adventures with your table mates and then head to the lounge for some coffee and entertainment.  The loud speaker cuts in with an announcement ... Northern Lights have been spotted.  Everyone races outside to watch the lights dancing in the night's sky.  The lights fill the night sky and you can't believe the amazing sight unfolding before your eyes.

Clap! Clap! Wake up! Have you been dreaming? It's time to go to work, or you'll be late! You reluctantly come back to reality, but alas, you've decided that you DO really need to plan a cruise vacation. You've worked hard and you deserve some time away from work with your family. Don't wait too long, you might change your mind. Give me a call and tell me about your dream. Every day I help clients plan their dream getaway. No matter if it's a 3 night Bahamas cruise or a 108 night World Cruise that you are dreaming about, let me put my 30+ years of cruise experience to work for you to plan your well deserved vacation. Until then, sweet dreams.

This Concludes the 2020 National Plan a Cruise Month Mini-Series


We hope that this series of articles has answered some of your questions about cruising, for those that have never experienced it before, and sparked your desires to continue your life's adventures at sea.

Continue to follow our blog as the story has just begun. We will continue bringing you our personal experiences and industry updates.  If this Norway getaway sounds interesting, check out my mini-series, Diary Hurtigruten Classic Voyage Bergen, which details our 12 night roundtrip from Bergen.

When you decide to travel again, please reach out to your Travel Professional.   Like your favorite local restaurant, their doors have been closed this year.   They have been keeping in contact with their suppliers to stay updated on the latest industry news as well as protocols which should be followed for safe traveling once it resumes.

They've always had destination and industry knowledge to help find the perfect vacation for you, while making it a stress free trip.   

If you don't already have a Travel Professional you work with, I'd be honored to plan your next vacation.   Besides cruises, I can also assist with land-based adventures such as resorts or tours.

Looking Forward to Traveling Again Soon

 

Click the banner above for the latest cruise promotions

 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

Follow Us On

       

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Vacationing, from a Cruise Specialist’s Perspective

Tropical breezes are blowing, the surf is calling, but if you are like most Americans, you are feeling guilty about taking time off to relax with your family, even though you desperately need to. Did you know that most Americans, earn on average 14 days of vacation compared to Britain (24 days), Spain (30 days) and France (36 days). Also, a recent study discovered that most Americans don’t even use their vacation time. Another study discovered that women who took holidays were more satisfied with their marriages and less likely to become depressed, while a separate study showed that among men who were at high risk for coronary heart disease, those who took vacations had a lower death rate. So don’t feel guilty about taking a vacation; it’s healthy for you to do so.

While tropical breezes sound inviting, you are yearning for something different.  If you are going to take time off,  it has to be all about the experience.

So while that is sinking in, let’s pretend that you’ve decided to take the big plunge. You call me and say that you have a large bank of vacation time stored up, you’ve always wanted to go to Norway to see the Fjords, and experience the Northern Lights.  You and your family want to get away for a couple weeks. Checking the available itineraries, looking at various demographics, your budget and other factors, I recommend the 12 Night Coastal Voyage on Hurtigruten Vesteralen which departs from Bergen, Norway.   I suggest adding the pre-cruise Train from Oslo to Bergen.  This time of year it will be amazing with all the snow capped mountains and other scenery.

Fast forward to departure time for your Norway adventure ...
You sleep on the plane ride over the pond, you are already feeling relaxed even before you get off the plane in Oslo. Your pre-cruise stay included bus transfers from the Oslo airport to the Bus Terminal which was down the block from your hotel. After a short walk you arrive at Clarion Royal Christiana Hotel. After checking in, you drop off your luggage and explore the neighborhood in search of a restaurant for dinner. You notice that the train station is just across the street, so it will be quite easy continuing your journey in the morning. You decide to head back to your room to relax and get some sleep.

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, you were ready for the adventure in this winter wonderland to begin. A short walk from the hotel, and you were inside Oslo Central Railway Station. Checking the departure board, you found that the train's departure track wasn't posted yet. You'd given yourself plenty of time so that you didn't have to run through the train station to get to the platform on time. Once the track was posted, you headed to the entrance gate.

The European rail system is a very reliable way to travel. The train arrived at the station on time and you made your way to car 7, stowed your suitcases, and found your reserved seats. You were off on a six hour journey through the Norwegian countryside.

Onboard the train you were able to communicate using free Wi-Fi. When you got hungry, you purchased sandwiches from the dining car. Winter in Norway brings lots of snow in the mountains. You got your first glimpses at the beautiful scenery you'd be experiencing throughout the rest of the adventure.

The train arrived in Bergen on time and you gathered your luggage and headed towards the station exit. There you were greeted by a representative from Hurtigruten who directed you to a shuttle bus for the short ride to the ship. Once at the pier, you dropped off your luggage, and checked in to get your cabin keys. Before you got onto the ship, there was a mandatory safety drill where they showed a safety movie and demonstrated how to put on the thermal protection suit and life jacket. This was the only compulsory activity of the voyage. The ship sails on time and you get ready for dinner and your first night at sea.

Let's fast forward to the morning of arrival in the first Norwegian port, Alesund. You step onto

the deck and get your first glimpse of the Norwegian Fjords. In the still of the morning, the only sound is that of rushing water from a nearby waterfall flowing from one of the nearby mountain peaks. The sight exceeds your expectations. You pinch yourself to make sure you are awake. This is truly beautiful country. You are now extremely happy that you took your cruise vacation.

Several days have passed, you've seen amazing sights, gone dog-sledding and crossed the Arctic Circle.   There's still one highlight that you can't wait for.   You go to dinner and share stories about your adventures with your table mates and then head to the lounge for some coffee and entertainment.  The loud speaker cuts in with an announcement ... Northern Lights have been spotted.  Everyone races outside to watch the lights dancing in the night's sky.  The lights fill the night sky and you can't believe the amazing sight unfolding before your eyes.

Clap! Clap! Wake up! Have you been dreaming? It's time to go to work, or you'll be late! You reluctantly come back to reality, but alas, you've decided that you DO really need to plan a cruise vacation. You've worked hard and you deserve some time away from work with your family. Don't wait too long, you might change your mind. Give me a call and tell me about your dream. Every day I help clients plan their dream getaway. No matter if it's a 3 night Bahamas cruise or a 108 night World Cruise that you are dreaming about, let me put my 30+ years of cruise experience to work for you to plan your well deserved vacation. Until then, sweet dreams.

This Concludes the 2018 National Plan a Cruise Month Mini-Series


We hope that this series of articles has answered some of your questions about cruising, for those that have never experienced it before, and sparked your desires to continue your life's adventures at sea. Continue to follow our blog as the story has just begun. We will continue bringing you our personal experiences and industry updates. Our next mini-series will be about our National Conference on the brand new Norwegian Bliss. Check out our Cruise Diaries for more about the Hurtigruten Norway Coastal Voyage and some of our other favorite cruises.

 

National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

Follow Us On

        

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers


Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Welcome Dinner Buffet

Dinner is Served

Welcome Aboard

Hurtigruten

Vesteralen

12-Night

Coastal

Voyage

Departing

Bergen

Norway

 

Embarkation on Hurtigruten Vesteralen started from 4 PM.  Around 6 PM, our cabin was available and our luggage was waiting outside our door. We unpacked a bit, freshened up, and then proceeded to dinner. Following dinner there was an information meeting in the Vesteralen Lounge, deck D aft.

The Evening Buffet was served in the Restaurant, deck 4 aft, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM. This was one of two times during the voyage where dinner was an open seating arrangement. Table reservations for dinner were marked on the envelope that contained our cabin cards. We had a table that would seat 8, but there were only six of us for most of the voyage. We'll tell you more about the normal evening dining in a later post.

On the first night, the buffet had quite an assortment of fish, meat, including carved beef, pasta, potatoes, vegetables, salad fixings and soup. There were several bread selections and of course, dessert.

Additional photos can be found on our Norway Shutterfly page

Vesteralen Cabin
MS Vesteralen (Facebook album)

Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc 

Vesteralen Embarkation

click images to enlarge

Bergen Embarkation 

The embarkation process in Bergen was rather quick. Our shuttle bus dropped us off just outside the terminal building. We brought our luggage inside and waited in a short line to be checked in.

We presented our paperwork, passports, and credit card as usual and were given our cabin card keys. Our checked luggage was tagged and put on a conveyor belt and off we went to get onboard.

We were directed up the escalator to a waiting room where we were greeted and told about what would happen next.

Safety Briefing

If you've been on cruises before, the first difference you'll notice about sailing on Hurtigruten MS Vesterålen is that you are required to sit through a safety briefing before you embark the ship.

The waiting room was filled with a number of passengers when we got there.  We were told the briefing would start in a few minutes.

One of the crew members introduced the safety briefing which was shown on video monitors located throughout the room.   You'll notice in the image above that this isn't your typical life preserver.  In fact, it's a thermal protection suit which makes sense since we'd be sailing in some pretty cold waters during the next 12 days.


A sticker was placed on our card to indicate that we had completed the safety briefing.  We were then directed to the ramp leading to the ship.

Exploring the Ship

Once onboard the ship, we explored the public areas until we were able to get into our cabin.  Pictured here is the cafe and gift shop which is where we waited.


Hungry between meals?  Want a cup of coffee or hot chocolate or perhaps a treat of some sort...  the Cafe was the place to go to purchase something to eat or drink.   It was also a meeting place before meals or excursions.

Additional photos can be found on our Norway Shutterfly page

MS Vesteralen (Facebook album)

Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc

Arriving in Bergen

click images to enlarge

On-Time Arrival

Our train arrived in Bergen  just before 3 PM as scheduled.   We gathered our luggage and walked towards the train station exit.  The instructions from Hurtigruten indicated that we should exit the station and find a bus marked with a transfer sign.








Before we got to the exit, we were greeted by the bus driver who was holding a Hurtigruten sign.  We waited a few minutes for another passenger, but they never showed up. The driver called in to report he had all but the one passenger and he was instructed to leave.

Some of the passengers were from the previous voyage and they were headed for local hotels.   We made a few stops to drop them off and then headed to the ship.

Hurtigruten's terminal is off the beaten path in Bergen. The bus dropped us off in front of the terminal and a few minutes later we had already checked in, dropped off our luggage, and headed into a meeting room for the safety briefing.   We hung out in the cafe until our cabin was ready for occupancy.

Additional photos can be found on our Norway Shutterfly page

 

Bergen Transfer to Ship

Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc

Taking a Ride on Train 61

click image to enlarge

Oslo to Bergen 

By Rail

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, we were ready for our adventure in this winter wonderland to begin. A short walk from our hotel, and we were inside Oslo Central Railway Station.

Checking the departure board we found that our train's departure track wasn't posted yet.   We'd given ourselves plenty of time so that we didn't have to run through the train station to get to the platform on time.  Once the track was posted, we headed to the entrance gate.

Traveling by Rail

The European rail system is a very reliable way to travel.  The train arrived at the station on time and we made our way to car 7, stowed our suitcases, and found our reserved seats. We were off on a six hour journey through the Norwegian countryside.

Onboard the train we were able to communicate using free Wi-Fi.  When we got hungry, we purchased sandwiches from the dining car.

Winter in Norway brings lots of snow in the mountains.  We got our first glimpses at the beautiful scenery we'd be experiencing throughout the rest of our adventure.

Additional photos can be found in our album:

 

Train 61 - Oslo

Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc

EPIC Northern Lights Ends Voyage

Day 11 

Classic Voyage

Hurtigruten M/S Vesterålen

Perfect Ending 

Snow-capped mountains, calm seas, crystal clear blue skies - what could be better than that for our final sea day aboard M/S Vesterålen?  Little did we know that was just the beginning of what would be our best day yet on this classic voyage that took us from Bergen to Kirkenes and back.

Norway is a land of contrasts -  on the port side of the vessel were the snow-capped mountains, while on the starboard side, the mountains had already shed their snow,  There were black mountains with white snow and brown mountains with green trees, lighthouses guided our way along our journey.  Red, yellow, blue, and white houses lined the shorelines as we sailed along towards our final port of call.

Arriving in Kristiansund, the sun was starting to set and the buildings were all aglow, reflecting in the water. Finally the sun set in all its glory with reds, yellows, and oranges reflecting in the sea.

Best Was Yet to Come

The discussion at dinner included all of us wondering if we would have another chance to see Northern Lights.  Checking the Norway Northern Lights Forecast site, and checking our schedule for the evening, there seemed to be a slight possibility.   The forecast was "Try" for the area we would be sailing around.  However, we were scheduled to get their later in the evening, which meant the chances seemed to be less favorable.

Going outside after dinner, there were several stars in the sky, it was cold and dark - all of which were good signs to sighting some Northern Lights.

We went to the Panorama Lounge on Deck D  for coffee after dinner.   After sitting there for awhile we decided to go back to the cabin to finish packing.   Also, there was going to be a demonstration on Deck F aft by the chef in a little while (he was planning to serve crab).   All of a sudden, there was an announcement that Northern Lights had been spotted.  Everyone, including us, dashed to Deck F aft to pick up our vantage point for the light show.

The sky was alive with waves of light.  You can't see the color with the naked eye.   To really appreciate the Northern Lights, you need to photograph them.

Here is a sampling of images from the evening.   The main part of the show was from 10 PM until just before midnight.   We were fortunate to have three other sightings of Northern Lights during our voyage, but this was the most intense and longest of the four.

Our ship had a port call around midnight.  We have more images that were taken up until the time the clouds rolled in around 1:30 AM

More pics (CLICK HERE)

Be sure to bookmark our Diary Hurtigruten Classic Voyage Bergen page so that you can easily navigate the entire journey.

Thank You Mother Nature for putting on this fabulous light show for our pleasure.  There are many legends that describe why the lights are visible.   We'll go with one that is God smiling down on everyone on earth.

Today we sail for Bergen where the voyage will officially end.   This has been a most amazing experience.  We'd love to talk to you about it if you have any questions or if you'd like to add this to your bucket list.