Our two days at sea......30/05/2014 and 05/06/2014.

Our two days at sea ... 

30 May 2014  and  05 June 2014

 

         Our first day at sea was from port Warnemunde, Berlin, Germany towards Tallinn, Estonia. Our second day at sea was from Stockholm, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a beautiful day and some of us started the day with their morning exercise in the gymnasium, a dip in the jacuzzi or simply a brisk walking on deck 12.

     The others enjoyed their room by waking up late after a long travel time to Berlin City from the port,around and back! Time to relax the old and worn out muscles! hehehehhe.

     Somehow, almost all of us had breakfast almost at the same time and before doing so, we will dance to the crew guitarist with his Washy Washy Song! The song will start with a good morning wish to everyone and at the same time reminded us to always clean our hands at anytime of the day especially in and out of the restaurants! This is to assure of the cleanliness of the ship throughout the journey. This is good.

     As usual, we are among the loud ones. When we bumped into one another, there will always be jokes that made all of us laugh even if the joke was on you! That is what friendship is. Full of fun and laughter.

     It was true when Boris our guide in Berlin said that, you eat every 30 minutes when you are on board!  Food is lavish. The choice is yours. All kinds of fruits, food and drink are served. Just take whatever you want  and enjoy your breakfast with the   background of the Baltic Sea. Oooooooo what a life!

    

     While at sea, there were so many things and activities you can do. They have dance classes, aerobics, towel foldings classes, art auctions, music all day and night, stage shows and many more. All we need to do is to read from the daily bulletin they sent to our rooms. And wait patiently for the sunset.......... Perfecto!

     After dinner, we rushed to Stardust for the show! They have lined up magnificient shows like  the Acrobatic by a family of three, instrumental musics bya multi talented musician who played different kinds of instruments and the one I love most was the mucial show of th 80's! Awsome! Songs like "That's the way aha aha I like it.... aha aha...." brought back memories of our salad days!

     When the show ended after an hour, we all went around to listen to musics from different venues. Some bands, pianist, duos will plays songs of the past and present! They even have a karaoke session where anybody can take part. One of ours took part and he really can sing...... forgive me Delilah I just couldn't take it anymoreeeeee....... hahhahahhahhahah. Everybody sang with him!

   There is no way to say that cruising is boring! Your time are full if you know what to do. When we have free time, we even visit out friends to their rooms to have chats and coffee together. That built comradeship! so, feel free to do anything on board. If nothing, just stay in your room  watching ships passed by, read or sleep! The best is go shopping at the Duty Free Shops!

We used our last day at sea to pack our belongings and ready to leave upon arriving at Copenhagen.  We were then separated into four different groups. The first group went home to Kuala Lumpur via Amsterdam. The second group of 10 stayed back in Copenhagen, Denmark while the third group of 9 diverted to Paris for  four days. The last group of three went to London! Adios!

 

Baltics.......Berlin, Germany. 29/05/2014

The ship docked at Warnemunde Port at 7.30am on the 29th May 2014. The excursion will start at 8.30 am. We boarded the bus with a grumpy look driver. He speaks quite good English but when asked, he does not understand. Hahahha. Funny but it is true. Actually he was a very nice person and was enjoying our laughter eventhough he could not understand the jokes. His name is Dethlef!

The journey to Berlin City from the port took exactly 3 hours. Every one hour, the bus stopped for the driver to rest and for us to go to toilet or have a cup of coffee.

When we arrived at the Olympic Stadium of Berlin, we were greeted by two gentlemen. Our guides, Boris  and Shaun. The group was separated into two and were loaded onto two different buses. we were taken around the city and we finally met again at the mosque for Zohor/Asar prayers. It was a beautiful feeling to be able to visit the mosque and  to be able to pray with the local Muslims. Alhamdulillah. We made Wakaf for the mosque from the collections we made earlier.

The City Sightseeing of  (West) Berlin was inclusive of Charlottenburg  Palace, Ku'Damm. Tiergarten. Victory Column, and Holocaust Memorial. Then we stopped for lunch at a Halal Restaurant and my God, the portion was so big that we shared our food an even took back home the leftovers! The taste was marvelous! Burrrrppppppp!!!!

Then we continued our Sightseeing of (East) Berlin which to me is the backword side of Germany compared to the modern high rising and new buildings in the west.  some of the places we visited or passed through was the site of Hitler's bunker, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Humbolt University, the Museum Island, the TV Tover and the Red Town Hall and the New Synagogue.

We had to say goodbye to Berlin and to  both Boris and Shaun who had done a very good job from the begining to the end. Then we proceeded back to Warnemunde board the ship which departed at 10pm. I could see that almost everyone of us were so tired and exausted but once on board the ship, after a quick shower and dinner, most of us went out again to the Stardust to watch the show for the night while the others chose to retire early in bed. 

  

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!