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Raoul Fiebig

Age: 21 to 35
Occupation: Public Relations Work
Number of Cruises: 6 to 10 cruises
Cruise Line: Norwegian Cruise Line
Ship: S/S "Norway"
Sailing Date: June 19th, 1999
Itinerary: "Norwegian Highlights

This was my first longer cruise (longer than 2 nights) since 1994 and my mother's (who accompanied me this time) first time on a "real" cruise ship (rather than a cruise ferry) at all. In addition, it was by far my longest cruise so far.

Getting booked...

This was the first time I booked a cruise in the US. I'm from Germany, and therefore booked via the internet. This decision was made, since most ships marketed in Germany are quite small (the largest one being 28,000 gt) and very expensive. In addition, the average age on most of the German ships is 75 or above - right, this is the average age! While I don't mind staying with elderly people, the entertainment onboard the German ships is not for people under the age of 50, with German (Bavarian) folk music, some singers that were known in the 1980s and barely anything more! Not exactly what I like. Many of the big US cruise lines also have offices in Germany, including HAL, RCI, Celebrity, Costa, and NCL. The prices you have to pay for a cruise on one of their ships are sometimes twice as expensive as in the US when booking in Germany. No idea, why this is.

Our TA in the US had to be quite patient with me, since I had no favorite cruise line or ship and just knew that I wanted to cruise the Norwegian fjords for at least ten days. She sent me a number of quotes, and that narrowed it down to two ships: Princess Cruises' "Royal Princess" and Royal Caribbean International's "Splendour of the Seas". In addition the German vessel "Columbus" of Hapag-Lloyd Seetouristik was another option. Later the summer 1999 schedule of the S/S "Norway" was changed and the cruise we actually took was added to the market. We decided to take this cruise for several reasons: the price was as excellent as the itinerary, and the sailing date appealed to us very much. In addition I wanted to take the probably last opportunity to see this grand ship again. Remember that this is her last season in Europe.

The Barcelona fire...

On May 29th (I had just returned from my tour of the "Norwegian Sky" at the yard in Bremerhaven), somebody posted a message on r.t.c. that there had been a fire on the "Norway" and that she would be out of service for four weeks or more. First I dismissed this posting as a bad joke or a wrong information. But more and more postings seemed to confirm the dreadful news! On June 1st - four days after the fire had occurred just off Barcelona - Norwegian Cruise Line finally confirmed it and announced that the June 6th sailing had been cancelled. Our June 19th sailing was scheduled to sail as planned. Nevertheless the first moment I was sure that we would definitely sail was when I saw the "Norway" at the Queen Elizabeth Terminal at Southampton harbor on the day of our sailing.

Getting to Southampton...

When we booked this cruise we didn't pay attention to the fact that school holidays started in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia two days prior to our sailing date. When we went to a local travel agent to book a flight to London in early February, all flights from Paderborn (where we live) to London on June 18th or 19th had already been booked out. Therefore we decided not to fly from North Rhine-Westphalia, but from Lower Saxony where school holidays don't begin until mid-July. The car journey from Paderborn to Lower Saxony's capital Hanover took us two hours - lots of roadwork on the freeways A33 and A2. We had to start as early as 4 A.M. on June 19th, since our flight was schedules to depart at 7:30 A.M. from Hanover Langenhagen airport. British Airways flight #975 took us to London Heathrow. We took the motor coach to Reading station and the train to Southampton via Basingstoke from there. At about 12:30 P.M. we arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Terminal with a taxi from Southampton Central. The journey back home was just the other way round, so I won't describe it.

Embarkation.. .

The whole embarkation procedure took us less than five minutes. Since we were at the pier quite early, we did not have to stand in a line, but directly went to one of the counters. When we were leaving the check-in lounge four busloads of elderly people arrived, so we were really lucky.

The ship...

The S/S "Norway" was built at the transatlantic liner S/S "France" for Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (CGT) - also known as the "French Line" - from 1957 to 1961. In the early 1970's the competition by the airlines became far too tough for many transatlantic shipping companies including CGT. In addition the prices for oil had risen excessively. Therefore in 1974 the ship was laid up at a pier in Le Havre (the "Pier of the Forgotten"). Five years later Knut Kloster purchased the ship for US$ 18 million for his Norwegian Caribbean Line - today Norwegian Cruise Line. Following an extensive reconstruction / refurbishment at Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven (Germany), the vessel was introduced as NCL's flagship in 1980: the S/S "Norway" was born, the largest and longest cruise ship so far, only a little smaller than Cunard's famous transatlantic liners "Queen Elizabeth" and "Queen Mary" and at 315,5 meters even longer than those! In 1990 the "Norway" was further rebuilt / enlarged, when two completely new decks were added. Her last five-week makeover was in May, 1999, so I expected her to be in good shape. Generally I was not disappointed. For a ship of her age she is in a very good condition, although some little things need more attention. While the open deck areas that are accessible for passengers were cleaned regularly, the area forward area where the two huge tenders are located look as it hadn't been cleansed for months, with a film of oil and dirt.

Our home for the next two weeks...

As we walked on board, a string trio played and a steward showed us the way to our cabin, V255 on Viking Deck aft, a category I inside cabin with a double bed. We had received a five-category upgrade from a category N inside cabin with one upper and one lower berth. The cabin was of a very good size (165 sq. ft., ~15 sq. m.). There was plenty of closet an drawer space for a 14-night cruise. The old plastic wallpaper was in need of replacement, however, and the carpet needed a thorough dry cleaning. The bathroom was of a good size, as well, with plenty of space even for a big guy like myself. Sadly, the air conditioning system in the cabin could only be described as poor. On the first day we could not get the cabin cold enough, while on the rest of the cruise the air conditioning system would only know the adjustment "very cold". The only way to control the temperature (and make a bit warmer) was to turn the air conditioning off at times. When our cabin number was assigned one day before the cruise, I was a bit concerned about the fact that the cabin is located almost next to the ship's disco. But fortunately this was not a problem, since the disco is that difficult to find on this ship (there are no signs), so it wasn't that heavily frequented. In addition, the insulation of the disco was excellent and you could only hear the music at all when somebody opened the door to enter or exit the disco. Sadly, the insulation of our cabin itself wasn't that good.

Public areas...

Most of the public areas onboard the S/S "Norway" are located on two decks: Pool Deck and International Deck. Popular places include the Sports Illustrated Cafe, Club Internationale, and the Saga Theater's Balcony on International Deck, as well as the North Cape Lounge on Pool Deck. Since we do not gamble, I cannot commend on the casino, which I only crossed once when it was closed. The indoor promenades on International Deck reminded me of those on the "Queen Mary" that I toured two years ago. There are also numerous shops on International Deck.

Dining options...

There are two main dining rooms: the Windward Dining Room (forward) is the former first-class dining room. It features a domed ceiling and original murals from the S/S "France". We had been assigned to the Leeward Dining Room (aft), which is the former second-class dining room. The Leeward features a balcony and is larger than the Windward. There is also a Le Bistro casual restaurant (by reservation only), which we did not use, so I can't commend on it. The Great Outdoor Restaurant was a popular place for breakfast and lunch buffets, as well as the place where one could get a cup of coffee, tea, and sometimes fruit juices 24 hours a day. Sadly, the Great Outdoor Restaurant was very crowded as soon as the weather got fine, with long lines for buffets. In addition the restaurant was very badly organized. I do not see why the maitre d' allowed people to sit down at the dining tables during breakfast or lunch time to play cards or to just sit and watch the scenery, while others had to stand with their trays of food or had to carry the trays into the Club Internationale or the Sports Illustrated Cafe in order to be able to sit down for breakfast or lunch.

The food...

Generally the food in the restaurants was good to very good! In contrast to what some of the guidebooks say about NCL, the food was most definitely not overcooked. The steaks were always excellent and although I like them well-done they were still very tender. Seafood, including the broiled lobster on the last formal evening, was also very good. The selection of breads and rolls at dinnertime was excellent. With two exceptions lunch in the dining room was also fine. The buffets at the Great Outdoor Restaurant were fine, with the exclusion of the risotto or pasta dishes that were prepared in huge pans. Sadly there was not a big selection of foods. Breakfast at the Great Outdoor Restaurant was better than in the dining rooms with bacon, hashed brown potatoes etc. not greasy at all - in contrast to the bacon and hashed browns in the dining rooms (they always "floated" in oil or fat for roasting).

Service / Gratuities...

I have to say that the first dinner in the dining room began with some trouble. We had received the number of our table (a table for four) at embarkation. When we had just sat down, an assistant maitre d' showed up and asked unfriendly for our cabin number. I told him "Viking 255". Without explaining why he did so, he went away again, just to come back after a few minutes to say "Your boarding passes" (not that he said "please" or something like this). We showed him our boarding passes and I asked what the problem was, but he only insisted on taking our boarding passes with him and that he could not tell us what was wrong. Some minutes later he and another assistant maitre d' returned with our boarding passes and said that there was a problem with a Spanish-speaking group of passengers which wanted to sit together at a group of tables, and whether we agreed to be seated at a table for two, instead. Since neither me nor my mother understand or speak any Spanish (and would not have been able to communicate with anybody speaking neither English nor German anyway), we agreed. 

At our new table we were greeted by our table waiter, Neil D'Souza from India. We did not regret the decision to change to this table at all. Our waiter was incredible. His service was perfect and the way he served us our meals had an elegance that I had never seen before on any cruise ship or anywhere in a restaurant ashore - and you could also see this difference when watching other waiters at other tables. Since he only served five people (our table for two, an empty table for six and another table for six with three ladies), he had a lot of time where he could tell you about his training, the ship etc., but only if you asked him to do so.

He always kept a distance when talking to us, but our conversations were very open nevertheless, and some things he told us were even a bit delicate (especially when he told us about the fire on the ship off Barcelona). He said that they had been lucky to be so close to the port, and that they would have had a huge problem if the fire had occurred on a transatlantic crossing. He also said that in contrast to what NCL said, the fire hadn't been that small. The aft engine room had been totally smashed, according to him. This was our waiter's last cruise on the S/S "Norway". He was transferred to the "Norwegian Sky" to help to build up the dining room operation there. He had worked at several luxury hotels and Cunard Line before, when the "Cunard Crown Dynasty" he worked on was taken over by NCL. I'm already looking forward to seeing him again on the "Sky" this August.

Our busboy, Mocles Noncant from Haiti, also did a good job, but he was a little playful. By the second night he know what tea we would like to have after dinner, and he somehow even managed to get this tea for us when they ran out of it both in the dining rooms and the Great Outdoor Restaurant in the middle of the cruise.

In contrast to both our waiter and our busboy, our cabin steward, Carlton Douglas from Jamaica, wasn't that good. There were only two days where I didn't forgot something. One day he forgot to deliver "Cruise News" (the daily program) for the following day. Then he forgot to change towels, or he took the towels of the two of us away and brought only one set of new ones, etc. He almost always forgot to bring hair shampoo and shower lotion. I had to "lift" it from his service carriage.

In my opinion gratuities should reflect the level and the quality of the service experienced onboard by the persons that receive the gratuities. Therefore I use a cruise lines' tipping guidelines only as an orientation. I usually tip the amount suggested by the cruise line if I've received an average service by someone. If I regard the service as being even slightly better than average I tip more than suggested. If the service is worse than average I tip less the suggested amount.

NCL "is happy to suggest" (that's what they say) the following tipping guidelines: US$ 3.00 for your waiter and cabin steward, and US$ 1.50 for your busboy and the maitre d'. Let's start with the maitre d': We only were in contact with him twice. Once on the first night (where he behaved very, very unfriendly) and a second time on the second evening of the cruise when he asked whether we liked the new table or not. I tried to find out why I should tip him at all. Probably because he exists?!? Seriously: I decided to tip him approximately half the suggested amount. But then he wasn't in the dining room at the last evening and I had no interest to search for him. Therefore he ended up with nothing! Since our busboy was definitely better than just "average" I tipped him about 50% more than the suggested amount. Our cabin steward in contrast to this received slightly less the suggested amount because of his unreliability. Our table waiter was nothing but excellent (A+) and I therefore tipped almost twice the suggested amount. He deserved every cent of it!

Entertainment...

The entertainment is still the strong point of the "Norway". There were six bands onboard, a comedian, two magicians and many, many more entertainers. Our cruise had been marketed as a "Classical Music Cruise" in the UK and Germany - for some reason this had not been done so in the US. We had a number of great musicians on board, including a harpist, violinist, opera singers etc. They gave a number of concerts which I enjoyed very much. I only skipped the two opera evenings, since I'm not a friend of operas.

There were at least two different evening shows each night. Sometimes it was difficult to decide where to so, since two or even three shows I would have liked to watch were scheduled to run simultaneously. The daytime entertainment was also very good, especially the Calypso Band on the Pool Deck. On the three formal nights Broadway-style entertainment by the Jean Ann Ryan Company was shown in the Saga Theatre. These shows (especially "Crazy for You") were nothing short but excellent!

The biggest nuisances...

There were a few things that annoyed me on board. All of these things the cruise line wasn't responsible for. But some of our fellow passengers seemed to have no idea of how to behave in a civilized environment! Therefore the biggest nuisances on this cruise included:

- Elderly people who after heading for the exit of a public room after a show stopped in the middle of the exit to discuss the show, while others had to try to get out of the show room by "squeezing through" somehow.

- People who thought they could behave as they liked to because they had spent "that much money" for a cruise. This included an elderly lady that hammered onto the doors of the dining room in case it did not open at exactly 8:30 P.M., shouting "I am indignant! I am indignant!"

- Some people of the Argentinean group were some of the most arrogant ones I have ever met. They cut into every line and when you told them to queue up at the end of the line they just said "I no English!" and stayed where they were. Not to mention the confusion this group caused in the dining room on the first evening (please see above).

I'm happy that besides these "black sheep" there were so many, many very nice people onboard, whom I loved to chat with. I also met a number of fellow r.t.c.'ers and people who've been reading my column "The World of Cruising". I am very sorry that I wasn't able to meet all who asked me about it!

The ports of call...

The following table shows our originally scheduled cruise itinerary (left) and the itinerary we actually took (right). As you can see there have been a few changes:

As you can see, Sundal was added as a second port of call at the beautiful Hardangerfjord. In addition we stayed in Bergen much longer than expected and had no chance to visit Ayr in Scotland. This was due to a leak in the ship. Yes, that's correct: a leak in the ship. But this sounds more dramatic than it actually was. During drydock at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven (Germany) in May, the two propeller shafts had been removed, maintained, and installed again. For some reason either the seal around the portside shaft had been of bad quality, or the shipyard had done a bad work installing it. For one of these reasons water got into the ship between the hull and the portside shaft. Experts from Lloyd Werft had to be flown in, but they arrived very late due to bad weather conditions at Amsterdam airport where they should have boarded a plane to Bergen.

Of course we had been looking forward to visiting Ayr, but these things happen! Here are a few pieces of information about the ports of call we actually visited:

Amsterdam: Since we had been to Amsterdam many times before, we stayed on board end enjoyed the shipboard life. The "CostaAllegra" was in port with us that day.

Oslo: Norway's capital is a beautiful city, and especially the view from Holmenkollen ski jump is breathtaking. We took a city tour ("Scenic Oslo") and had some additional time to walk into town afterwards. Sadly, everything is very expensive in Norway, so we kept shopping to a minimum. The P&O cruise ship "Victoria" was in port with us that day.

Stavanger: I've read a review of this cruise by a fellow traveler who didn't like it. He stated Stavanger as one of the main reasons for his dissatisfaction. Not that Stavanger is a bad place to be. It is in fact very nice, but the ship encountered some difficulties there. We arrived on time but it took the captain and two tug boats more than an hour to turn the ship in the small harbor. Therefore we docked about an hour late. For some reason we did not dock directly at the pier, but at large pontoons that were situated alongside the pier. Because of this the ship's gangways and the Biscayne Deck doors could not be used. Instead, a gangway that had been brought by the port authorities had to be used with the Norway Deck midship door. Sadly this gangway was very, very steep (approximately 40 - 45°), and many elderly people refused to use it (which I see as being nothing but correct). In addition the gangway was not only steep, but also very slippery. It was decided to put crew members on the gangway (every 1.5 meters or so) to assist people using the gangway. But this turned out to be a terribly slow matter! By three o'clock in the afternoon the majority of shore excursion groups was still onboard and the line in front of the gangway reached over four decks! We wanted to go ashore independently, but realized that it would take us several hours to get off the ship. By that time it was announced that the ship's starboard tender would be made ready and we immediately proceeded to the forward tender station on Biscayne Deck. The staff captain appeared and apologized for the inconveniences, but said he had already suggested to use the tender more than a hour before, but had been voted down. So we took the tender ashore, what was really funny because we drove around the "Norway‘s" bow and were put ashore right on the other side. Not only the crowd on the pier but also the passengers aboard our sister ship, the M/S "Norwegian Dream" that was docked alongside, enjoyed this special "show" very much. The whole gangway trouble caused huge delays in the schedule. The last shore excursions had been expected back at about 5:30 P.M., but the last one arrived at 10:30 P.M. (!). A "very late seating" had to be added to the Dining room schedule and we finally headed for Rosendal after the last bus had arrived.

Rosendal and Sundal: These are two small villages at the Hardangerfjord. They only have a handful of inhabitants. Since we had not purchased a shore excursion we stayed onboard. Some nice waterfalls and the world's largest manufacturer of lifeboats can be found at the Hardangerfjord.

Flam: This small village is located at the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in the world. A new cruise terminal had been inaugurated a few weeks earlier, and the "Norway" was the largest ship to use it so far. Flam station is the starting point of the magnificent Flam Railway, which takes you thru a countryside of incredible beauty. We took the "Train to Vatnahalsen" tour and enjoyed it very much - although I usually don't like traveling by train. At Vatnahalsen Hotel, coffee and waffles were served.

Geiranger : Geirangerfjord is one of the most beautiful Norwegian fjords. There are numerous waterfalls and the view from the 1,500 meter-high Mount Dalsnibba is breathtaking. But be prepared for a bus journey that is already breathtaking itself. Traveling from sea level to an altitude of 1,500 meters within an hour and on a road where you look at of the window and only look down a precipice of sometimes 800 meters is nothing for anybody who suffers from fear of heights! There are often several cruise ships in Geiranger each day. We were there together with Page & Moy Cruises' "Ocean Majesty" and Leisure Cruises' "Switzerland".

Trondheim: A beautiful city at the Trondheimfjord. We took a long town walk (more than five miles) and enjoyed the city's different sights, including the harbor, the famous cathedral, the shopping areas etc. The cathedral is beautiful, and I would have loved to listen to a choir in there. We also walked to the secondary cruise terminal (the "Norway" occupied the whole new terminal), to have a look at Hapag-Lloyd Seetouristik's "Europa" on her last cruise and just two days before her retirement. She still looked great and you wouldn't believe she's 17 years old.

Andalsnes and Molde : We stayed on board in Molde because it was very hot that day. We tried the sundeck and loved it! :-) The "CostaAllegra" was in port with us, again.

Bergen: I already reported about the problems that occurred with the ship's portside propeller shaft, so I will concentrate on the beautiful city of Bergen. Since the "Norway" is too long for the cruise terminal, we were docked at a cargo terminal on the outskirts. We took the shuttle bus into town and had a walk of town there. The fish market is incredible - I hadn't seen anything like it so far. The old houses of Bryggen are also amazing, as is the "Hakonshallen" - this is one of the most picturesque cities I've seen - sadly it's also the rainiest city in Norway and the two days we spent there were partially rainy. A number of cruise ships were in port with us: the "CostaAllegra" (once more) and the "Funchal" on the first day, and P&O's "Arcadia", Festival's / First European's "Flamenco" and the Dutch ship "Club I" on the second day.

The report card...

Ship (general maintenance, facilities etc.): B+
Cabin (furnishings, "level of luxury" etc.): C
Service (cabin steward): D+
Service (dinner waiter): A+
Service (dinner busboy): B
Service (open seatings): C+
Dining Room Food (quality, taste): B+
Buffet Food (quality, taste): C+
Entertainment: A
Itinerary: A
Overall score: A- to B+

Please note that the overall score is not the average of the single evaluations, since I believe some of those are more important than others! The average of the single evaluations would be "B" - but this is definitely less than we would rate this cruise!

If there are any additional questions, please fell free to contact me.

Raoul Fiebig

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