P&O Britannia Sea Day, Formal Night, and Stavanger

Sea Day, Formal Night- September 14, 2024

We started with the buffet for breakfast. It was crazy today.

We discovered the crossword puzzle and Sudoku today, though they were already out of order, the answers were on the next day, and we did not make it back on the right day ever to get answers. Crossword only -- and it was hard where not many letters crossed so could not get much help! They also had a British newspaper that I read. We sat in the pub, Brodie's, for this and moved to the main area when it was close to time for the quiz/trivia; it had a wildcard or unknown theme, only announced at the start: alcoholic drinks. We did not do great, even not knowing a wine region in the US near a Lake -- have only heard of Napa.

To talk about the Cabin Steward service, they do one service per day between 7:30 am and 1 pm, though she asked before 11am because if everyone waited until the end of the timeframe, she would never get done. You have to put out your "Make up the room" sign, or she is not allowed to come in, some time in this timeframe. I asked for an ice bucket (not sure if this would be an option for a British cruise, but she threw it out as an option; we had it everyday though once we did not find it because she started putting it in the fridge. I passed her in the hall, and she said that she put it in the fridge without me asking.) and a 3rd towel for hair drying (we always had more than 2 towels). We found later that we could ask for wash clothes (face clothes or flannels); I tried it on the pad of paper after seeing the cart with a face cloth laundry bag attached. We use wash clothes at home.

For lunch, we went to the MDR. It was quiet but not great choices for me. I felt lunch in the MDR was very adventurous; they do have different menus each day, which I'm not used to seeing.

Dinner was Celebration Night. We saw in the Horizon (daily planner that we received as paper) that the Captain would speak in the Atrium for Celebration Night. They were giving away Champagne for the Celebration. We ran into our tablemates that we met the first night at MDR, got pictures for each other, and sat down with them to listen to the Captain speak. It was very nice. Travis went to see the Captain and got a picture. I tried to zoom into just the Captain, but it was too blurry. So, only our picture.

Formal night was very nice. All our tablemates were there, so we met the new ones. The new ones were two couples who had been neighbors and now traveling together. They were all good company. There were two formal nights on our 7 night cruise; this one had much more fan fair and felt much more special. We had very good dinner, where after they brought us truffle mints. We then went to a trivia in the Crystal Room, but stopping by the restroom before. With little room in the stall, I ran over my big toe with the door (the door is flush with the floor), exiting, with limit dress shoe protection. Ouch! This trivia had a fancy prize -- a 30 GBP voucher for/toward a bottle of wine. We did not win. It was fun -- general trivia and not too British-specific, which we were afraid that we would not bevery good at.

A funnel picture; the ship had two funnels, which looked cool. Tomorrow -- Stavanger.

Stavanger - September 15, 2024

On the way to breakfast, we stopped to watch the docking/approach. In the first picture, we got a warm welcome from some Norwegian's with flags. This was really sweet to see at our first Norwegian port because I had seen some stories before of protesting cruise passengers at the dock. Then some other port shots.

We had the MDR for breakfast this morning. They were superfast the the first and second days that went and slower the last day that went, though not bad. I got hot chocolate and this (left) Oak Smoked Salmon each time. The salmon was so good; they came around with toast that I ate it on and later found the sour dough toast to order. The fried egg seemed more baked than fried, so not very good. A tablemate last night noted that the salt and pepper shakers were Peugeot; it was right, strange.

Another look outside before going back up to the room to grab our stuff to go ashore. The Britannia had a little of a promenade deck on each side, one side the smoking area, closed at the very aft but you could still see the wake from the side, and the rest closed off for not letting passengers near the lifeboats. It was very annoying; we enjoy a full or at least close to full promenade deck. Required Stavanger-Houston sister oil cities since we are from Texas.

We considered hiking up Pulpit Rock, with a tour bus ticket bought on shore, if it was not raining; it was not. There were people with tour signs on shore. It was hard to tell which were picking up pre-booked passengers versus selling new trips. I asked on guy from GetYourGuide; he was selling and was, in EUR, what was $135 per person. This seemed like too much for a bus ride; though it was an hour long bus ride through a newly build tunnel. Since it was GetYourGuide, it may have included some guiding too. He did not give any more info -- no hard sale and not even any more details. We went off and did the Euro conversion and decided to just walk around.

Our first stop was Gamle (old town) Stavanger; however, we quickly got uncomfortable walking so close to where people lived (I think after I made Travis pose for the picture). They also had a list of rules since these were people's houses. Then you see the little neighborhood and the big ship behind it.

I saw water fountain on google maps, so we found it. There were several statues, including the Norwegian Blue. My brother was asking if we would see a Norwegian Blue.

We were in port on Sunday. We then found the church with ladies going in with fancy, historic dresses. We later heard that there was a special occasion that they dressed up for, not the normal attire.

Though many stores were closed on Sunday, they were setting up a market. They had some adorable baby/toddler clothes. The goose was also enjoying the market. We heard to try waffles in Norway; this waffle stand was not open yet. We kept walking around the pond and then up stairs for a view.

A train station shop was open but with train station shop prices; we tried 7-11 and found a waffle that looked more reasonable and good there and gave it a try. The top was covered with chocolate and in the batter there were balls of hardened sugar -- it was interesting and good. This guy (hooded crow) really wanted a bite.

Then past another Church looking very impressive. We stopped at park, Badedammen, to stand see-saw and then around to the bridge that we could see from the ship. Lastly, I got a picture of some beautiful, Norwegian looking, waterfront houses.