SUNRISE: 10:43 SUNSET: 13:23
Woke up on the last day of 2024 at eight o’clock as usual, and got washed and dressed before going up to the Thistle Restaurant for our breakfast. As tonight would be Formal Night, the usual bottles of gratis cava were sitting next to the fruit juices so we could make ourselves a Buck’s Fizz (or drink them neat!)
We each enjoyed a couple of glasses of the free fizz which basically set the trend for the day, which seemed to consist mainly of drinking and eating and playing shipboard games! 🙂
At 9.30am we went to the Lido Bar to join in with the golf putting, but we didn’t do very well this time. We stayed in the Lido for the carpet bowls at 10.30am and, as we sat on our ‘usual’ bar stools, the friendly barman asked us if we would like a drink! We wondered whether half-past ten was a little early, but since we’d already had some cava with our breakfast, we decided to continue! I had another cava, while Trevor opted for the cocktail of the day. Well, it is five o’clock somewhere, I suppose! 🙂
While we were waiting for our turn at the carpet bowls, I decided to nip outside on deck, as I could see this strange orange ball of fire in the sky. What could it be, I wonder? The sun !! Yes, as we were now back below the Arctic Circle, it meant that the sun had returned, if only for a couple of hours. I had to take some photos.
We had good fun, as usual, playing carpet bowls with all the regulars, as we kept popping outside on deck to take in the fresh sea air and enjoy the daylight, which we hadn’t seen since Boxing Day. We were not due to arrive in Trondheim until 3.00pm (and we would remain in port overnight) so we had the day at our leisure until then.
The carpet bowls was followed by baggo, and most of those present stayed to play this as well. One thing we have found on ships is that it tends to be the same crowd of people who play the shipboard games every day, and friendly rivalries are soon formed. I wasn’t very good at the baggo this time; I think the few glasses of cava I had imbibed certainly affected my performance! 🙂
It took us nicely up to lunchtime, which we enjoyed in the Avon Restaurant again, as they have fabulous views up there and we could watch the progress of the Balmoral as she made her way to Trondheim. Once again, the captain and some of his officers were lunching as well. We didn’t have a lot to eat; I opted for the Sandwich of the Day which was a toasted turkey, ham and cheese salad with home-made crisps and aïoli. It was washed down with iced water and the inevitable glass of fizz! 🙂
After lunch, we wrapped up and went out on deck again. It was very cold; well below zero. The sun was on its way back down again. We felt that if it didn’t snow today, it certainly would tomorrow.
Returning to Balmoral‘s cosy interior, we decided to go back to 5007 and have a post-luncheon power nap, as we knew we’d be having a late night tonight. 🙂
Just before 2.00pm, we returned to the Lido Bar once again to join in with the indoor kurling, which was being hosted by George today. We had noticed that the ‘stones’ had a tendency to drift towards the right, so you had to be sure to aim towards the left to compensate for it.
Trevor and I progressed through the rounds, punctuated in between by cocktails at the bar, until we found ourselves in the final, against two very good opponents. When everyone only had one more stone each to play, Trevor’s was currently nearest to the centre, but his opponent sent her stone up hard and fast with the express intention of knocking his stone out! As it sped up the ‘rink’ it knocked one of mine, which had been short, into the house, which meant that mine was now in play. It was Trevor’s turn now, so he managed to place his stone so that if it was knocked, it would actually bounce into one of theirs and knock it out! Tactics, it was all about tactics! 🙂
As my stone was looking good and it was now my turn, I only sent my final shot up gently, so it (intentionally) fell short of the house. We were the winners! We had now achieved the hat-trick; the carpet bowls, the baggo and now the indoor kurling. Our prize was the inevitable 50p prize tokens, but bragging rights are much more important. 🙂
By now, the Balmoral had arrived in Trondheim and was getting ready to dock. We hadn’t booked any excursions today, and in fact we didn’t even have any plans to go ashore, because the Captain’s Cocktail party was at 5.15pm and I needed time to get ready before that.
While Trevor decided to go up on deck and watch the goings-on dockside, I returned to 5007 to get showered and put on my makeup; I didn’t need to do my hair as I was just going to wear one of my wigs. We saw that the Afternoon Trivia was on in the Lido Lounge at 3.45pm, so we decided to go up and try our hand at that; we hadn’t won any quizzes yet this cruise!
The Lido was packed; the quizzes are obviously popular. We collected our quiz paper and pencil and ordered another drink each (!) as the quiz started. We only score 14/20, but the winners got 19, so no prize for us once again!
By now, it was time to go back to our cabin and get primped and preened for the cocktail party. It didn’t take me long to get ready, as I already had my makeup on. All I had to do, therefore, was change into my elegant black velvet strappy dress which was topped by a sequinned bolero jacket. I wore it with a necklace of dark blue freshwater pearls and put on my gorgeous platinum blonde bobbed wig. Killer heels, of course, completed the outfit.
Trevor wore his dinner suit with a black bow-tie and cummerbund and, thus attired, we made our way to the Neptune Lounge once again and walked past Captain Steffan and his officers, where we received a smile and a nod of acknowledgement from them.
We’d no sooner arrived at our ‘usual’ front row seat when a waiter appeared with a tray of drinks. We each opted for a glass of sherry for a change. After a few minutes, another waiter came along and, without asking, just deposited another couple of glasses of sherry on the table! We had wanted a cava this time, but we drank the sherry anyway; it would have been rude not to. 🙂
As we sat there enjoying our drinks and our canapés, the band on stage played dance music and the dance hosts invited several people onto the floor. Then the stage was raised and Simon introduced our captain once again. We couldn’t help but compare Fred Olsen cruises with the likes of Cunard and P&O; on some of those ships we have never clapped eyes on the captain or the senior officers once, yet we were seeing Captain Steffan around the ship most days, and he always spoke to us if he saw us.
The party went on until 6.00pm, when it was time to go to dinner. The last time we had seen the New Year in on a ship was on the beloved Boudicca in the Indian Ocean, when we had welcomed in 2019 and spent New Year’s Day in the Seychelles. That had been a wonderful night with a great party, and we had high hopes for tonight. 🙂
On arrival at table #51 in the restaurant, we noticed that each place setting contained a party hat and a noisemaker. We could already hear hoots and squeaks from some of the other tables as everyone started to get into the party mood. 🙂
The meal was fantastic! We were each given a smartly-bound menu (which you could keep as a souvenir) and I selected a Seafood Platter for my starter, containing smoked salmon, tiger prawns and crab claws served with cocktail sauce. It was then followed by house salad and, before the main course, a roasted mango sorbet.
The main course was a perfectly-cooked and served Surf ‘n’ Turf, accompanied by fondant potato and vegetables. It was absolutely scrumptious and we were pleased to see that Fred Olsen still includes lobster on its menus; many cruise lines only offer it at a supplement.
Our dinner was accompanied by copious quantites of chilled house rosé wine and interesting conversation with lots of laughs.
We finished our delicious meal with a cheese board in my case and a clementine and gingerbread trifle in Trevor’s, which we washed down with the customary liqueurs. We ended with petit fours and coffee.
Diane then took a photo of Trevor wearing our daft party hats and me holding up our glasses. 🙂
I then asked our waiter if he could take a photo of all of us at table #51, and he was happy to oblige.
It was 8.00pm when we left the restaurant, and we had an hour before the show started, so we decided to go back to 5007 for a while and see if tomorrow’s Daily Times had arrived so we could see what was on. When we got there, we also found our Crossing the Arctic Circle certificates. 🙂
I used the loo and freshened up before we decided to go to the Neptune Lounge and bag our seats before the show. You have to get in early if you want good seats. We had started getting a lady in a mobility scooter sitting at the table adjacent to ours each night; it meant that three chairs had to be moved out of the way to allow her to reverse her scooter in. So we wanted to be in in good time to make sure we had our front-row seat! 🙂
When we arrived, there was a queue as the second-sitting diners were just leaving the Neptune Lounge to go to dinner, so we had to wait until they had come out before we went in. Then Trevor hot-footed it down to the front and bagsied our seats. Soon a waiter appeared and we gave him our drinks orders. 🙂
The entertainment tonight was a New Year’s Variety Show and it featured the singers and dancers of the Balmoral Show Company as well as all of the resident musicians and singers of the Balmoral. It was hosted by cruise director Simon, who kicked off with the singing to start the show. All in all, it was an exuberant, colourful performance and we enjoyed it a lot. We really can’t fault the entertainment on Fred ships.
Afterwards, we went up to the Lido Lounge as usual for the quiz. Did we win? Did we ‘eck as like! We did enjoy another couple of drinks though, and chatted with Bill and Ange who were sitting at the next table.
We wanted to return to the Neptune Lounge in good time tonight, because they were holding their Grand New Year’s Eve 2024 Party at 11.15pm, and we were expecting the Neptune to be packed out. Of course, not everyone would be able to fit into the lounge (nor would we want them to try!) so there were other events going on elsewhere in the ship. Mind you, not everyone is a party animal and there were those who probably would prefer to see the New Year in quietly; some people might even have gone ashore, as we were in port, after all.
Around 10.45pm, then, we made our way back down to the Neptune, and we had to wait for the second sitting people to come out after the show, before we could go in. Trevor went down to the front, but someone had already taken “our” seats (how very dare they?!) so we had to sit at another table to the left of the dance floor; it was still at the front though. We’d no sooner sat down than a waiter appeared with a tray of flutes, and we each accepted a glass of chilled cava (more free booze!!)
The band struck up, accompanied by singer Hazel Murillo, and the dance floor filled up, many people still wearing their party hats and blowing lustily on their noisemakers. As the theme for tonight’s formal evening was “black and sparkly” there were lots of sequins and rhinestones and spangles glinting and twinkling under the disco lights. The bar staff kept coming around and topping up our cava glasses; even if you’d only had a couple of mouthfuls out of them, they were topped up. Another waiter came around with some canapés (as if we had room for any more food tonight!) 🙂
At around 11.55pm, there was a temporary lull in the music as Simon came back on the stage again. He asked everyone to ensure they all had a drink in their hand, because soon Captain Steffan would be doing the countdown live from the bridge. Shortly afterwards the PA crackled into life as the Captain started the countdown “Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… Happy New Year!” and 2024 became 2025.
The band struck up with the strains of Auld Lang Syne and everyone joined in with Robert Burns’ famous words “Shud auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind…..”
The drinks kept coming and the music kept playing as gradually the crowd in the Neptune Lounge thinned out. Simon announced that the party would continue upstairs in the Lido Lounge if we wanted, but when the lights went back up in the Neptune at 1.00am, we decided that was late enough.
We would only be in Trondheim until 12.00 noon tomorrow and the “all aboard” time was 11.30am, so we wanted to be up early so we could go ashore and explore; that’s if anything was going to be open on New Year’s Day.
Back in 5007, we got washed and undressed and into our ‘jamas, then settled down in our comfortable beds in the nice quiet cabin. We were asleep more or less immediately after a great day.