Sunday, June 15, 2014

Baltics..... the beginning!


Suddenly it is all over! The hard work cracking my head thinking, imagining and planning for many months gave a very successful result. Alhamdulillah! Everything went right. What more important is all went well! 

We started our journey from KLIA . Hjh Wan Remlah's Pulut Kuning and Rendang was a good start.  Unfortunately, some already walked to the Gate without taking theirs! So I had double dose!! Thank you kakak.

It was a long flight to Amsterdam....12 hours. My buttocks went soar so I had to walk up and down the aisle to loosen the tightened muscle. Upon arrival, we went out through gate 20D and our next flight to Copenhagen was at another gate which was about 25 minutes walk! Still, I am so surprised that our fellow Malaysian commented that KLIA2 is such a big complex and you had to walk quite a distance to your gate. My advise is, please visit Schippol International Airport in Amsterdam and you can really feel the difference! The distance can really exausted you easily especially for the elders!


 


We were divided into two groups to fly to Copenhagen. All 46 of us were not able to fly at one go. I was the first 18 and the next group arrived almost two hours later. We gathered at one place  and waited for the next group. While doing that, I took out my Nasi Himpit and  Sambal and everybody had a taste of our  local food. I spared some for later. The food was not much but enough. Alhamdulillah. Thank you Nora and Adnor for the food!

 

 

We were then drove by bus to the port in the process of checking in. All went well. We got ourselves to our rooms and majority on 10th floor. Some on floor 4, 5, 11 and 12. This time around I had a room with a balcony and  I love it  very much!!! My next mission was to meet the Restaurant Manager or the person in charge of the food. Why? I already wrote to Norwegian Cruise Line regarding the kind of food that we Muslim can and cannot take. I even attached the list of names of our group of 46 and  I was told to see the people  on board and to sit and discussed. I was so disappointed with them. Many came to see but none listen! But I just don-t want to ruin my vacation  because of the unsettled case.  So what we did was to choose whatever we could eat. Of cause there were a lot of choice but Norwegian Spirit treated us differently last year.... they cooked our food separately with Seafood Fried Rice, Seafood Fried Noodles, eggs , Steam Fish and so on. And it surprised me that we did not even need to write to NCL regarding the food matter before we took the Grand Mediterranean Cruise in 2013 but still the crew entertained our needs. Norwegian Star have a lot to learn from Norwegian Spirit! What is so difficult in preparing rice or noodles with sea food? I just don't understand!


Overall, our first day went well and we even took part in the Emergency Fire Drill on board which we missed doing so last year on our first experience of cruising. Out of 46 person, only 9 had cruise experience. While the others walked around to get familiar with the ship , we just enjoyed the view of the sun setting....... so beautiful!