Oriana - In Search of the Northern Lights - the end

Monday 24 March – at sea

A calm and bright final day. People were even sitting on the prom deck in the sun, looking at the many oil and gas rigs we passed. I dislike packing day, but managed to complete all I could early on. At 2pm I wandered into Tiffany's where I was meeting the Captain for a coffee and chat. We had to go into the Curzon Room as Tiffany’s was packed.

 

Tuesday 25 March

I hate disembarkation! However it was fairly easy and if we had been in a public room instead of out on deck, might have been even easier as we never heard the announcements. For the first time we had bright yellow Priority Luggage tags to add to the normal tags on our cases. In the disembarkation hall, they were still in deck order but Priority bags were separated and it made it extremely easy to find our luggage.  We were also allowed to keep our cruise cards! Yay!!  Signs were up that they were trialling new methods of disembarkation – presumably to streamline the process before Britannia launches!

 

This was a magical adventure into the Arctic and I am so glad I was able to take part. I know many people never saw the Northern Lights, but if you made the effort to be out on deck every evening, there was a good chance and they were visible from the ship for three nights in a row. They were the icing on the cake of the stunning landscapes, snowy activites and lovely people we met in Norway.