DAY 33 - WE ARE OFF TO NORWAY TODAY. Thursday 25th May, 2022

 Day 33 and our holiday away with Pete and Maria begin.  We are heading to Norway for a week and Pete thought it might be fun to catch the overnight ferry to Oslo and then drive down through Norway to Tryland which is where we have booked a holiday house for the next week.

We spent some time this morning doing some quiet time activities..

 

 Basically our morning was spent at home packing and amusing the children until it was time to et ready to leave.

We left home at lunch time for our 40 minute drive into Copenhagen which I where we were catching the ferry from.  

Pete had booked us overnight accommodation on the MS Pearl Seaways for our overnight sail into Oslo in Norway.  They had previously done pre children days and absolutely loved it, especially cruising in through the fjord.

The MS Pearl Seaways ferry is a passenger vessel operated by the Denmark-based company DFDS SEAWAYS.  The ship has a max capacity of 1989 passengers, and 320 cars plus 60 trucks/trailers.  This particular vessel was launched in 1989 and currently operates on the Denmark-Norway ferry route Copenhagen to Oslo.  The crossing takes around 17 hours, hence the reason we wanted to book cabins.

We arrived and queued up ready to board the ship arriving in Copenhagen around 1.30pm.   We had taken the scenic drive in to Copenhagen as Pete and Maria wanted both boys to have a sleep in the car before we boarded the ship.  As we had a bit of time up our sleeve, we extended the drive to give them some more sleep time.

Driving onto the ship...

On board - just grabbing our overnight gear before heading upstairs.

Oslo bound

Pete and Maria had a lot more gear to get out of their car...

Getting the family together to head up stairs.

 

We actually boarded the ship around 2.15pm, half an hour before the ship was due to sail.  We were unable to enter our cabin until 3pm, so met up in the Coffee shop area and enjoyed a hot drink together.

Enjoying a hot drink together in the Coffee Shop whilst waiting to access our cabins.

We all enjoyed a hot drink whilst waiting...

At around 3pm, we were told we could access our cabins so we all made our way to our respective cabins to unload our gear and check them out.  We were keen to explore the ship but that was not possible when we had so much gear sitting at our feet.

Our cabin were pretty tidy, much smaller than our room on the Spirit of Tassie.   Our cabin was so small that both of us couldn't stand up in it at the same time.  They literally were meant to be slept in and that was all.   If one of us wanted to get dressed, the other would have to either head to the toilet or lay on the bed whilst the other person was up getting dressed.

Our cabin was pretty pokey.  Not much room at all.

Our bathroom.

Testing out the bed...

Maria testing out her bunk..

There were three in the bed...

Pete and Maria's cabin was for four people so they had two sets of bunks in their cabin.  They did have a little more room in theirs in comparison to our but then again there were four people trying to stay in their cabin... 

Once we had unloaded all our gear into the cabin we were summoned to the children's play area on the ship.  

We decided to let the children run of a bit of their energy and enjoy the activities for children that the ship offered. 

Elliot enjoyed moving the furniture all around..

 

Theo had a ball in the ball pit...

 They had lots of colour in pages and puzzle sheets to keep the children occupied as well and Pete and Maria spent some time doing these activities with the boys.

 

We just sat back and relaxed and took it all in...

We had booked in for the buffet dinner on board but unfortunately we couldn't get in at the same time as Pete, Maria and the children.  They had their dinner booking for 5.15pm and ours was for later around 7.45pm.   Once they kids had finished playing it was time for them to head for dinner..

Pete and Maria had an early dinner booking at 5.15pm

Theo was in his element with unlimited ice cream..

We were supposed to have set sail by the time we were able to get into our cabins, but for whatever reason our sailing time was delayed.  Some problem on board and in the end we were over 2 and a half hours late in leaving Copenhagen.

Once Pete and Maria and the boys headed off for dinner,  Steve and I decided to do a little ship exploring.

We found some information on our cruise ferry and found out the the Pearl Seasways has 702 cabins and a total of 2166 berths.  All the staterooms are air-conditioned and all have en-suite bathrooms.

We learnt that there were 11 levels on our cruise ferry with the Engine room, storage and bakery being on Deck 1.  Deck 2 houses the Seawats Class staterooms, crew cabins and a crew gym.  Deck 3 and 4 are the car deck platform.   

Deck 5 and 6 house more class staterooms, crew cabins, adventure club SPA, Blue Zone, Blue Zone family play area with swimming pool, although I am not sure how many folk would want to go swimming with the temperatures the way they are up here.  The pool did appear to be heated and there were quite a few folk in it when we were down with the kids in the children's play area...

Deck 7  was the main deck where the 7 Seas Buffet Retaurant was situated and this is the restaurant where we had our meals whilt on board...  It was also where the Information Desk/ Reception. ATM cash machines, Wi-Fi Service, Tax Free shop, Casino and Coffee Shoes were located also.

Deck 8 had other more expensive restaurants which we didn't even attempt to book into with the two boys.  There were three other restaurants on this deck along with two wine bars and another Cafe and Nightclub. 

Deck 9 housed the Navigation Bridge, more class staterooms, crew cabins and the crew mess.

Deck 10 & 11 had a discotheque, SPA area with a pool and some of the Balcony staterooms, Conference Centre and the Commodore Deluxe Lounge.

 

After spending some time exploring the ship whilst Pete and Maria and the children were at dinner, we then came across the Cocktail Bar at the back of the ship and we found a table in there and ordered a couple of cocktails to enjoy whilst we waited for the ship to set sail...

Cocktails whilst we waited to set sail

It was closer to 6pm before we finally got underway, over two and a half hours late in departing.  We had a birds eye view to us pulling out from Copenhagen.  We were finally underway...

Finally we are on our way...

Leaving Copenhagen behind...

Ordering our Cocktail.  - Blue Moon and Pink Floyd...

Bird's Eye view of the windfarm in the ocean....

After Pete and Maria and the boys had finished dinner, they came and joined us in the cocktail lounge where we were able to show the boys the big motors churning up the water at the back of the boat.  It was nice for us adults to just sit and relax and enjoy the music also...

The boys love sitting up on the back and just watching the water churn.  Poppy joined them as well.  Theo is at a good age where he quite inquisitive and asks lot of questions.  Good bonding moments for him and his Poppy...  Elliot just loved hopping up and down...  Super cute moments with him..

Watching the churning water from the back of the ship...

There was a good thing there was class separately the boys from the water otherwise I think Elliot might have fallen straight in...

Elliot was so cute dancing to all the music....

We still had an hour or more before we had to be in the dining room for our appointed dinner time, so we decided to head up onto the top deck with the boys.  It was a beautiful evening but very cold and windy so we didn't  last up there too long...   Just enough time to enjoy the beautiful rainbow that is lighting up the evening sky and also to grab some family photos.. 

 

We were blessed by a beautiful rainbow which lit up the afternoon sky and we were happy to be able to share this with each other...

Enjoying this beautiful rainbow as a family

It was very windy and cold up on the top deck....

It was time for us to head back downstairs.  We were due to go for dinner and Pete and Maria wanted to get the kids settled and ready for bed.  Pete suggested that he might like to catch up with us again back in the Cocktail lounge after we had our meal just to sit and relax and enjoy a bit of music together..

We headed down stairs and were about 10 minutes early, but we were allowed into the restaurant until our allotted time so it meant we just had to hang around just outside until we were called...

 

Our travel route into Oslo...

 

Our meal was a buffet meal and there was a huge amount of variety.  It was pretty expensive, but then everything eating out is expensive over here..  I am pleased that we had the later eating time as we had a porthole next to our table. 

A good variety of food on offer.

Enjoyed sitting near a porthole and watching the waves spray out from the ship..

They also had a really lovely range of deserts on offer. I was almost too full though to enjoy them.  I must admit that even though it was a little on the expensive side, it was nice to enjoy this night out and it did make the trip across to Oslo a memorable one...

Steve enjoying his desert..

Watching the spray from our dinner table...

Enjoying a nice dinner for the two of us...

It was a special way to end our evening in the dining room as we sat and linger over a cup of tea whilst we enjoyed watching an incredible sunset over the water.  How blessed we are...

Enjoying a stunning sunset as we finished our meal.

What a wonderful evening we have had, first up on deck watching a beautiful rainbow glide across the sky and now finishing the day with a beautiful sunset on the horizon...

 

It was after 9.30pm by the time we made our way back down to the cocktail bar once again.  We weren't there too long before Pete came and joined us.  We probably spent a good hour just sitting down there enjoying the music, chatting to each other and relaxing before we finally called it a night and headed back to our cabins for a shower and to call it a night.

 

I'm so glad we decided to do the overnight cruise into Norway.  Pete was right, it has been a lovely start to family holiday...