I'm on a cruise ship going round Iceland AMA

[Imdunfer]

As title and we have a day at sea tomorrow so I'll be around to answer.

The evening show starts soon so you might not get a quick answer tonight.

Is it cold? I dream of the cold....

Did you not get enough attention from your plastic lawn AMA?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's not warm, for sure. It's been cloudy and at times rainy and about 10c. I'm wearing my normal winter gear.

Do you have a relevant question?

OK. Do you think your choice of environmentally damaging plastic grass is related to your choice of one of the most environmentally damaging forms of tourism?

I don't believe being on a cruise ship of 1400 passengers where I travelled to the port an hour away in an electric car to live on a ship and view a volcanic island by day is anywhere near the most damaging way I could take a well deserved once in a lifetime holiday, no.

Is it a rocky sail?

Can you see the northern lights up there? I know nothing about that part of the world, so that is probably a really stupid question!

where else does the cruise take you?

Not in July sadly. Other times of year yes. We've been told we have a good chance of seeing whales and dolphin tomorrow. We're inside the Arctic circle now, to the north of Iceland.

We go right round Iceland, got 3 more ports to stop at, then 2 days sailing to get back to England.

Whales and dolphins will be epic, though!

Shame about the northern lights - that’s on my bucket list!

A bit. It wallows more than rocks, the ships are very stabilized these days. I got seasick after 24 hours but one pill sorted it and I didn't actually throw up!

It's great fun swimming in the pools, especially the one on the outside deck. That one is off centre, so you get some really big waves sloshing around as the ship rolls.

Mine too but I overheard a conversation yesterday where someone was saying they'd taken a trip just to see the northern lights and there weren't any, so it doesn't seem guaranteed.

What is the cruise line, and is it child friendly on the ship?

It's Fred Olsen. It's a small ship and has absolutely no facilities for children. One ship in the line is adult only, the others will accept child bookings but they certainly don't encourage them. Age profile of most passengers is towards the top end. The ships are small so the price is high compared to ships carrying 3000+ passengers. I'd guess that also discourages families. The ship is very disabled friendly though, quite a few wheelchairs, lots of autism lanyards, big lifts in four locations.

A pod of at least 4 whales, minke we think from the size of the spouts, just put on a show for us as we had breakfast. Magic! The north of Iceland is stunning seen from the sea.

Photos?

Just been told by the professional wildlife crew on board that it was a pod of at least 14 humpback whales but they were much further away than we thought they were.

Sorry we didn't take our phones to breakfast. We're on a whale watching boat later this week, I'm hoping to get some then.

What type of people are on your cruise?

What landing lights said. You clearly don’t care about the environment at all. Very selfish attitude.
Do you plan to make more considerate choices in the future?

What the fuck are you on about? Millions of people take cruises and flights and go on holiday.

Mumsnet is absolutely fucking mental 🤣🤣

Nowhere else on earth would someone talking about their holiday be met with that response.

You don't go on holiday? You don't drive?

What are you accessing the internet on? I hope its not a chinese manufactured tablet or phone! It better be through a pile of organic teabags channelling mumnet via pure hope and the love of bottlenose dolphins!

Actually I'm feeling very virtuous that I'm not on one of the Virgin ships that have over 5,000 people on board and swamp every port they dock in as they crowd out the Med with rowdy tourists that the locals despise.

Mostly older and quieter. An awful lot, like most of them, have been on a Fred.Olsen ship before and many have been on this one. Because it carries so few passengers, and it's kitted out like a 5* hotel, it's pretty expensive, which inevitably means people with money to spare, most of whom know how to behave in company and don't get rolling drunk on the "free" booze.

The worst I've seen so far is the 70 year old bloke with the huge belly wearing what is almost a Speedo thong. It's quite a disgusting sight and he's very obviously proud of his big pouch of dangling stuff 🤢 🤮 🤢