Patty and I had scheduled this cruise a couple of years ago, but that was cancelled by world events. So, while we were cruising around Antarctica last winter, we arranged time with the Future Cruise Consultant onboard, and booked this cruise.

You can view the itinerary and movie for this cruise by clicking here. Scroll down past the itinerary to find the movie.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to see actual GPS tracks of the cruise route and the shore excursions we took while on the cruise.

I have found it helpful for me to record interesting things that we did, or things about the cruise experience, as soon as I could after they happened. And I might as well make those notes available to everyone. So, here is my log of the trip, with notes about what we did and what was going on around the ship. You can find maps at the very bottom of this page.

Monday - September 25
About a week before the trip - Today I am preparing my laptop for the trip. I decided that performing a Windows Update would be a good thing to do, so I did. That was either a mistake or the end of life for my 6-year laptop. Upon restarting it would only stay running for a few minutes before showing the blue screen of death. I tried everything I could think of for about 2 hours before giving up. Clearly, I came up with a work around solution, but, when we get back, I have some additional work to do to see if it can carry on for a while, or it is really dead.

Tuesday - September 26
Note to self - whenever you find the travel size packets of Kleenex, buy them. They are not readily available where I do my regular shopping. Also, wouldn't you know it - the laptop I am using as a substitute started doing automatic updates today when I was not watching. So far it seems to be OK, but I have set a delay date for future updates of 10/31, so I don't get surprised again.

Thursday - September 28
Another note to self - Resolve any laptop situations well in advance of any trip. Today I burned more hours trying to get the substitute PC set up for this trip. Maybe I am too complicated.

Monday - October 2
With the new winter boots and other cold weather stuff, and baggage weight restrictions on the airplane, I was forced to pack 2 bags, plus carry-on stuff. That packing task is complete - both bags under the 50 pound weight limit. I did pack some filler because one bag was not full and I did not want stuff moving around inside there. Nothing left but getting to the airport tomorrow morning with all my stuff.

Tuesday - October 3
Departure day started with a ride from home to the Tampa airport. We checked in at the counter, no problems, then moved to the Wendy's for lunch before getting to the airside at around 1:30 pm. Boarding started about 2:20, but the jetway was backed up to the terminal building, so it seemed like it took a long time. Everyone was onboard and the door was closed at about 2:53, then we had to wait a few minutes for pushback and take-off around 3:12. Landing at Atlanta was about 4:14, then to the arrival gate about 4:25. Next up was the flight to London Heathrow, with pushback around 6:40 and take-off about 6:55. We have about 8 hours 30 minutes before landing. At around 10:00 pm, over the Atlantic Ocean we are going at 545 knots (about 625 mph) and we are at 39,000 feet altitude. Patty is watching "80 for Brady", while I am listening to Hotel California. Life is pretty good so far.

Wednesday - October 4
During the night we lose 5 hours on the clock, so our landing is about 2:20 am on my watch, while it is 7:20 on the ground. Long walks to passport control, bag retrieval, and customs, and we find the crowd waiting for a bus to the port. The bags are put on a truck and we board a bus to the port of Southampton at around 9:00 for a 2 hour ride through southern England. We are checked in and onboard the Island Princess at about 11:40, and waiting for bags to be delivered. After the muster drill and a normal dinner, we go to the first show, a comedy guy, before retiring for the evening.

Thursday - October 5
Our first day onboard is a sea day. The only activity today is the meet and greet with a gang of Cruise Critic users, followed by lunch in the dining room. Outside air temperature is around 59 degrees, we are travelling north at 20 knots in the North Sea. It was a pleasant afternoon, but overcast skies. Just before dinner we learned that the planned stop in Stavanger is cancelled due to weather, and that we would next stop on Saturday at Trondheim, a little farther up the coast.

Friday - October 6
Another sea day because of the altered schedule. Sky is overcast, air temperature is down to 48, and wind is up to 37 mph according to our weather display. Dinner tonight was interesting - we had been at a different table every night so far, so yesterday we talked to a head waiter about reserving the same table each night. Tonight we are shown to a table and told that we will be there for the rest of the trip. This is good because we will not have to wait in line for any table, and because we will have the same waiter and assistant waiter. This is much better. After dinner, we go to the show, a tribute to Elton John, which was pretty well done. After that, we go to a different place for a comedy show by George Casey. It was clean and funny.

Saturday - October 7
Today we are in the substitute port of Trondheim. Some excursions were set up, but none of them suited us so we slept in late before an early lunch and catching up on some news. Air temperature is around 39 degrees and it has been raining all day. Occasionally we see some blue sky and sunshine, but mostly it is heavy overcast, cloudy and miserable. Dinner was normal; we skipped the main show, which was a comedy-hypnotist; we did attend a tribute to Frank Sinatra in one of the bars, followed by a singer-guitarist who performed a bunch of oldies including I Am A Rock and Sunday Morning Coming Down.

Sunday - October 8
We are back on schedule with a sea day heading north to Tromso. The captain announced that early in the morning we crossed the Arctic Circle, the lowest latitude where one can see 24 hours of sunshine at least one day per year, and also 24 hours of darkness at least one day per year. It is cold (41) and windy (over 20 knots) most of the day, but the rain has stopped. By the way, we are 6 hours ahead of US east coast time, so when we turn on the TV at noon, we are seeing the 6:00 am shows. Or said another way, we were able to see Ohio State beat Maryland yesterday; the game started at noon in Columbus, which was 6:00 pm onboard our ship. We are expecting to be at the dock in Tromso at 9:00 in the morning, with a temperature range of 30-36 degrees. We will see if the cold weather gear we brought works as advertised. Close to 10:00 pm, we were in the Crooners piano bar when a wave of activity swept the ship, as the northern lights were sighted from outside decks. We could see what others were seeing, and my iPhone showed color, but photos I took did not show much color. We expect better sightings in the next few days.

Monday - October 9
Tromso, Norway. We arrived on time this morning. We did not have an organized tour, but Patty had researched a way to get to one of the area's best places using local transportation. We took a shuttle bus to town from the port, then walked to a tourist information center several hundred meters away, where we got admission tickets to the attractions on the way and a 24-hour local bus pass. After some time on the bus, we stopped at the Arctic Cathedral, a triangular shaped building with a huge stained glass window. Then it was back on the bus to the base of a cable-car to the top of a mountain and fantastic views of the city. The local bus brought us right back to the shuttle bus boarding area, and we were back on the ship around 3:30. Patty's research was right-on and we had a fantastic day thanks to her extra efforts. Temperature today was around 34 degrees with light wind. Our cold weather gear pretty much worked as it should. We enjoyed a normal dinner and then hung out at Crooners listening to the singer-guitarist for a while before shoving off for Alta tomorrow.

Tuesday - October 10
Alta, Norway. Sometime during the night, we cruised north to about 70.43 degrees north latitude, which I think is our most distant point from the equator, either north or south. We anchored off of Alta around 10:00 this morning; we cannot get any closer because of water depth. Temperature reported earlier today was about 30 degrees, but there is no wind and we are seeing a lot of sunshine, a good sign for later. Our tour today starts around 6:30 pm with a ride to a prime northern lights viewing spot. We will see. After the excursion, I can report that the boots, special socks, thermal underwear, coats, gloves and hats all worked as expected. It was about 28-30 degrees through the evening with minimal wind, so it was cold but not biting cold. The bus took us about 15 kilometers out of town to a mountain top with a good view of the sky. It started with light clouds that filled in to obscure the sky for the whole three hours we were there. A guide told us upon arrival that everyone would know if there was a sighting, and we could hang out in a small building with refreshments, or other structures built around campfires. The campfires were popular places. Patty and I found seats in the building and watched a movie showing northern lights from the past. We would occasionally venture outside to have a look, but at the end there was nothing but clouds. The coldest part of the excursion was getting on and off the tender that took us out to the ship anchored in the harbor. At about 11:15 pm we are back in our room ordering room service for dinner. It was quite an experience, but ultimately there are no pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday - October 11
This is our second day in Alta, with an excursion to a different viewing spot later tonight. Weather forecast is 28 degrees with snow, so this might not be any better that last night. We will see. We actively considered not going on our excursion tonight, but in the end we did get all dressed in cold weather gear and went. As we were moving to the tender on one of the outside decks, snow started falling, with a temperature around 28 degrees and a little wind. We watched snow on the bus ride to the excursion site, and throughout the rest of the evening. That meant that the sky was cloudy the whole time including riding back to the ship. No lights visible at all. The place seemed to be a good spot for seeing northern lights, but again we saw nothing. We weighed anchor around 4:00 am and got underway for the next port.

Thursday - October 12
This is a scheduled sea day, without anything interesting going on, so we just relaxed all day. It is still cold.

Friday - October 13
We arrived near the Lofoten Islands, Norway on schedule this morning near the town of Gravdal. This is another tender port, and we do have an excursion this afternoon, so we spent time getting bundled up, waiting for a tender, and waiting for our bus onshore. Today is brilliantly clear with about 37 degrees of temperature. The bus took us to three picture sites, the last near a local grocery store, before dropping us at the tender dock. Back in our room, we prepared for a normal dinner; the sunset was superb, with still no clouds. Partway through dinner, someone announced seeing the lights, and the dining room half emptied. We could not see anything from our table, so we just finished dinner, skipped all of the evening entertainment options and started hanging out on our balcony. Around 10:10 pm the captain announced that lights were sighted forward and to starboard, and sure enough, we got our first sighting of the northern lights. We have a few photos to prove it. My video camera could not see any colors, so we are getting photos with our iPhones. The lights come and go, so after a little while, they left. Shortly after midnight, more sightings were announced, so we got a few more photos, and that was it for us tonight. After 5 days north of the Arctic Circle, we finally saw the lights on our last day. It is around 37 degrees, but clear, outside.

Saturday - October 14
Today is another sea day, so we have lunch in the dining room, and are trying to get the news on the TV. Satellite connections have been poor or none for days, and today is the same. We have the Captains Circle Party coming up shortly.

Sunday - October 15
Our final port is Alesund, Norway. We do not have an organized tour today, but there is a tour of the city that we will try to get on. Through a stroke of good luck and expert planning, Patty directed us off the ship and to the ticket booth for the City Train at exactly the right time to make the last run of the day. We boarded the "train" 5 minutes before departure and enjoyed a narrated tour of the city. You will have to wait for the movie to see what the "train" looked like. After the ride was over, we did some souvenir shopping and reboarded the ship just before rain started. A normal dinner and the last production show ended the day.

Monday - October 16
Nearing the end of the cruise, we enjoyed the last free sea day with lunch at Alfredo's Pizza. Perfect planning had us at the restaurant with only one couple in front of us. We were seated quickly, and ordered and finished lunch in about 45 minutes. We were seated near the windows so we could eat a good pizza and watch the North Sea rolling by outside in comfort. A little later, we went to a wine tasting in one of the main dining rooms before preparing for the last formal night.

Tuesday - October 17
The last sea day is also packing day. This is a little stressful because we have to be sure to retrieve all the stuff we have brought aboard the ship but leave enough clothing and other stuff for the last evening and the plane ride tomorrow. We were successful getting packed and had the bags ready for pickup within the required time. It was an early evening.

Wednesday - October 18
We were up in time for breakfast at 7:00, and in line to disembark at 8:20. Then retrieve our big bags and pass through customs by about 8:30 and onboard the bus to the airport at about 8:45. Outside it was about 57 degrees with rain. The bus ride from the port in Southampton to the Heathrow airport terminal 3 lasted until about 10:35. We reclaimed our bags from the bus, went through the check-in procedure and security checks before walking a long way to the Delta Sky Club. We stayed there for a couple of hours before finding the departure gate. After boarding the plane at about 3:15 for the 4:05 departure, another family told us that we were in their seats. A flight attendant then showed up and told us we had been given different seats (due to the double-booking), and that they should have given us the new boarding passes when we were at the gate. The seats were up front in Business Class. We did not object. The flight left the gate on time, took off at about 4:28, for the nine hour flight to Tampa. Landing was at about 8:33; we had gained 5 hours crossing the Atlantic. Finally, we retrieved our bags again, and found our way home by a little after 10:00 pm.

The Movie
I did not get as much video as I expected, but there is still enough to make a movie. Most of the problem was that I was not prepared for the exposure requirements for capturing the Northern Lights. We did get some iPhone photos and these are included in the movie. You can find the movie on the itinerary page by clicking here. I hope you enjoy it.

Map of Actual GPS Data Points
During this cruise, I used a GPS Tracker to record the actual position points that we passed over. The display below shows the tracks of these position points on a map which can be manipulated. You can zoom in and out with your moise wheel and you can move the map around by clicking and holding as you move your mouse. To see the map in a full screen window, click the four cornered shape in the upper right. I suggest that you do open the map in full screen mode, where you can turn on or off the different segments by clicking the check marks in the segment list on the left. To see the trip toward the north, turn off all segments after 2023-10-10. To see the trip south, turn off the northbound segments, and turn on the southbound segments. For the trip north, the tracks are blue, for southbound, they are red. And don't forget you can zoom in to see more detail.

Map of Actual GPS Data Points for Shore Excursions
In addition to the track of the entire cruise, I used the tracker to record our path during shore excursions. The map below shows the tracks of these position points on a map which can be manipulated just like the one above. You can zoom in and out with your moise wheel and you can move the map by clicking and holding as you move your mouse around. To see the map in a full screen window, click the four cornered shape in the upper right. I suggest the full screen mode, where you can automatically zoom into the excursion path by clicking any one of the elements below the segment name on the left. Special Note: because we had two excursions in Alta, and they partially overlap, turn one off to see the other, then switch the check marks to see the second.

Thanks for having a look at the log and the maps.