Life of a melancholy gal in Israel: Norway/Amsterdam trip 10th-19th Aug 2012

Almost missed the ship due to a flight delay at Rome. Our flight to Rome by Air Italia was delayed for 45 mins in Tel Aviv and then further delayed by more than 1 hr in Rome while waiting for our KLM flight to Amsterdam. We were the last 2 person to take the Holland America airport to ship transfer. Although we missed the lunch on the ship, we were glad we made it for the ship. Word of caution for those taking cruise if you do not want to get a heart attack, its best to arrived at least 1 day before the ship departs coz THE SHIP WAITS FOR NO ONE!

Managed to get a balcony room for this 6 nights cruise for just $1K per pax. Surprisingly we got a free upgrade to a higher floor balcony just 2 days before the cruise.

The balcony turned out bigger than I expected.

This is where I spent most of my time lounging and enjoying the cold weather of the North Sea.

This is where Hubby spent most of his time taking pics.

Needless to say, we were starving by the time we boarded the ship and after looking at the menu at Rembrant Room and Lido, we decided to have our first meal at The Tamarind, an Asian fusion restaurant. It's just $15 USD per pax for a 3 course meal. There was even complimentary keropok.

For the soup, we chose the Scallop Consommé. It was wonderful!

Fried spring roll and Alaskan crab meat roll in the middle. Nice and crispy but a bit too oily and filling for me.

Hubby chose the gyoza.

For the main course, we chose the seafood hotpot in a slightly spicy tom yum flavourful soup. There were 2 alaskan crab legs, mussels, clams, prawns, fish and squid. It was so delicious that we came back to the restaurant and ordered the same thing again.

For desserts, we each chose tempura ice cream as shown above,

and this trio ice cream sorbet. Surprisingly, the wasabi ice cream (white) was nice and refreshing. The yellow one was mango and the green one was greentea lychee (but I can only taste lychee)

The next day was a whole day of sailing at sea. Its formal dinner tonight and there were Alaskan king crabs on the menu at the Rembrandt dinning room. It will be sharing of tables with others. It's very uncomfortable eating formal dinner together with total strangers. There were 2 elderly couples and 2 elderly ladies sitting with us. All were angmohs and older than our parents. But for the sake of the alaskan crabs, I don't mind. It was also our last time eating at the Rembrant room.

The Alaskan crab legs....yeah!

Followed by free champagne at the Captain's toast in the theatre.

Tonight, we had German theme midnight snacks from 11pm to midnight. Yes, they actually served midnight snacks with a different theme each night so that we can eat 24 hrs around the clock. There was also complimentary 24 hrs in-room dinning.