10-Night France, Iceland, and Norway Cruise - Day 12 Alesund, Norway

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Alesund

We lost an hour. I forgot to mention we lost an hour the day before too. We had gained them going into Iceland and now they were gone again. There were so many time zone changes on this trip. We lost 6 hours from the US to the UK, then we lost another going to France. Then going to Iceland we gained two hours and then back the other way going to Norway (they did both of those across two days which was nice). But because of all these time changes it was like a nonstop Daylight Saving Time changes and I spent a lot of trip feeling jet-lagged and off-kilter because of it. 

So we slept in, but also tried to get up at a reasonable hour which was 8 AM. Emmaline did not find this reasonable and did a LOT of complaining. Finally we all went off for a very light breakfast before picking up the day’s scavenger hunt, which was slightly different. They supplied photos of flags and we had to identify which country had that flag and the name of a crew member from that country. It was harder than anticipated. 

Then at 10 AM we had second breakfast since we would be on our excursion during lunch. Emmaline had lunch, which consisted of chicken tenders and fries from the pool deck. Roger and I had breakfast type foods from Cabanas. At 10:40 AM we debarked the ship and explored the town of Alesund and did a bit of shopping. 

At 11:45 AM we checked in for our RIB wildlife tour. We all overdressed because the little suits that they gave us were WARM. We left all our warm stuff behind in their cubbies and got on the boat. I have really mixed feelings about this excursion. The good: the fjords in Norway are beautiful, it was a beautiful day and the RIB is really fun. The bad: I really wanted to see much of the wildlife (the reason we booked the tour) closer AND I really really wanted to see puffins and we kinda did, but there were maybe 4 of them and they looked like tiny little fluttering dots (see last photo). Though we did see a lot of sea birds on a cliff quite close. Close enough to smell them! (The photo below of a grey cliff face with white dots are all birds. And the white smears are...not birds.) Also the seats were freakishly uncomfortable. We were straddling them like saddles and they were hard as rocks. This is coming from an indoor cycling instructor who sits on hard seats for a living so you know I’m serious.





After our boat ride (about 2 hours) we went for coffee (hot chocolate for Emmaline) and snacks at a little shop then went back to the ship. Roger and I wanted to walk up the 418 steps to get to the Aisle Viewpoint (it’s actually a few more than that to get to the very top of the observation point, but whatever). Emmaline was not interested and decided to stay on the ship and hang out with her friends. 

It took us about 10 minutes to get from the ship to the base of the steps and then about 10 minutes to climb all of them to the very top but we were rewarded with an amazing view. Then we walked back down (about 8 minutes down) and back to the ship. Once back onboard Roger and I grabbed a snack and then went back to the room where I made some notes and worked on my trip report and Roger showered. 


Then we relaxed a bit until dinner which was in Royal Palace again. After dinner we went back to the room and enjoyed the view as we sailed out of the fjord. The show that evening was a ventriloquist. We’ve seen quite a few of these throughout the years and this guy was…not so great. He had some moments, but he kept making self-deprecating fat jokes and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

After the show, Roger and I went to bed and Emmaline went off to Vibe with her friends, but she didn’t stay out long and I heard her come back around 11. Then around midnight I heard her in the bathroom throwing up. Oh no. I thought, this is it, our luck has run out and after 13 cruises, one of us finally ended up with Noro. I gave her a couple of Pepto tablets (did I mention I basically travel with a pharmacy?) and got her back in bed, not knowing what the next morning would bring. 

Click here for Day 13.

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