My wife and I have recently completed a 7 night  Norwegian destination cruise onboard the MSC Virtuosa. Regular readers will recall that we had already cruised on the ship some 14 months earlier sailing around the Persian Gulf from Dubai…

 

MSC Virtuosa – An Arabian Adventure

…sailing at their ‘Premium’ level, the Yacht Club experience.

Earlier this year we had no plans to return to MSC and already had cruises booked with Azamara and Cunard in the pipeline. That was until an intriguing email landed in my mailbox from one of my favourite cruise agents,  ‘Cruise Nation’…

 

I mean to say, two things grabbed my attention, the first being that MSC were basically offering a 7 Night cruise for under £50.00 a night, including gratuities and,  secondly, that despite having done two other cruises to Norway in the past, the FOUR ports of call on this MSC one had eluded us. We being a very itinerary driven couple, I mentioned this offer to my wife.

 

 

Of course, being well versed in cruise advertisements, I realised immediately that this offer was going to involve an ‘inside’ cabin at that ‘from’ price. Following a short discussion I was given the ‘nod to investigate further and check out the ‘Premium Extra Drinks Package’ that was also  on offer.

Having run a check on MSC’s own website pricing…

…it certainly appeared that what Cruise Nation were offering was a pretty fair deal. We agreed that we would take the whole package as it stood and made our reservation. There was of course the added advantage that having previously made use of MSC’s offer to upgrade another cruise lines loyalty status, we were already in possession of the MSC Voyager Club’s ‘Diamond’ level which itself carries a number of onboard perks.

So on 19 May 2023 we embarked MSC Virtuosa at Southampton and as Diamond members were soon onboard. As luck would have it our cabin, a ‘Bella’ Interior….

…was available and we could safely  dispose  of our carry on luggage items.

Always pleasing to know the shower cubicle is a glass fronted one (no clingy curtains)….

Interesting even at this level the cabin technology was was excellent with interactive TV and a personal Zoe speaker system for one’s iPhone music….

 

On the basis that our luggage had not yet arrived we headed off to test-out our Premium Extra drinks package which allowed us to purchase individual drinks up to the value of £14.00. And that price included champagne by the glass while all MSC Cruises’ pre-paid drink packages include the normal onboard 18% beverage gratuities.

The onboard British Pub seemed a good place to start….

Bar prices were generally similar throughout the ship, here’s the masters of the Seas…

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Suitably refreshed we the headed to the reservations desk to book our ‘Diamond’ Voyager Club complimentary ‘Speciality Restaurant’ dinner and having successfully achieved that we headed to the Virtuosa’s ‘Market Place’ buffet restaurant, for a late lunch.

Sadly this was to prove a bit of an eye opener and ample proof that we normally tend to avoid this type of dining on larger cruise ships. Absolutely  nothing wrong with the food choices, just the manic scramble to find a table before joining a queue at one of the numerous serving counters. We settled for a reasonable Lamb Curry…

…while the real saving grace was that the bar waiter service proved efficient and we managed to down a brace each of a reasonable  Sauvignon Blanc.

Cases eventually unpacked and the safety video watched at the same time, we headed for our chosen ‘sailaway’ venue, The Sky Bar…

 

 

Prior talk of lack of staff and long waits to be served disappeared almost immediately: as can be seen from the number of G&Ts on our table and the number of waiters available in the background.

We had downloaded the MSC App onto our iPhones and throughout the cruise found them generally good and easy to navigate. For instance, a reminder as to our evening dining arrangements…

 

So there you have it, we were allocated The Minuetto Restaurant…

 

and Table 487…

 

…that’s it in the corner by the window.

From our previous sailing on Virtuosa our favourite pre-dinner drinking venue was the L’Atelier Bar situated on 6 Deck and encroaching just nicely onto the Galleria – a fab & fun prime people watching spot most evenings…

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Of course L’Atelier  also had the advantage of being on the same deck as the Minuetto restaurant and just a short walk for dinner.

For our first night’s dinner we were pleasantly surprised at both the choices and service…

…That was a fair piece of sesame seeded Yellowfin tuna I’d chosen…

We dined at the Minuetto Restaurant for six of our seven nights onboard, the only exception being when we used the speciality restaurant ‘Indochine’.

A selection of other dinner dishes during our week onboard…

 

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…and of course the wines that were included in our drinks package…

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While on the subject of dining, we conscientiously avoided the Market Place buffet like the plague apart from that first embarkation lunch and a visit to the Pizza Station when we returned onboard mid afternoon one day.

We had two sea days and one early afternoon port arrival on which days we enjoyed  the Minuetto Restaurant table service lunches…

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Waldorf Salad…

…followed by the ‘Shrimp and Cucumber Finger Sandwich….

…and the Raspberry and Chocolate Tart…

While another day…

The Bresaola Starter…

…followed by the Roasted Cuttlefish with Basil Breadcrumbs…

…and a Tutti Frutti Sundae to finish…

As mentioned earlier, the day of our visit to Flam we returned on board mid-afternoon feeling a little peckish. We decided to seek out the Market Place Pizza station. As luck would have it there were obviously a lot of passengers still ashore and the diner was almost civilised: certainly the wine service was outstanding. Anyway, a memory of our mid afternoon Flam Pizza Party…

 

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Cheers MSC…

There was also a simple answer for how to avoid the  chaos and bunfight for the market place breakfasts, once again the Minuetto was the answer and what pleasure it was…

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Just  so much more civilised….

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And finally on the food front, our visit to the speciality restaurant,  Indochine…

Indochine is a light and airy restaurant with large porthole windows and plush velvet seating. It offers modern Vietnamese cuisine with a classic French twist…

Indochine offers two dining experiences: a set menu costing £49 each or an a la carte menu which would average out about the same price unless choosing one or two of the more exotic dishes….

Our visit was complimentary due to our MSC loyalty  Voyager Club Diamond status, hence we chose to stick with  the set menu, commencing with the Rice Paper Hand Rolls…

…and followed by Crispy Squid….

For our Main Course we both chose the Crispy Caramelised Pork Belly…

…accompanied by the Melted Eggplant…

The meal was rounded off with a ‘Vietnamese Custard’ which bore a remarkable resemblance to Creme Caramel…

 

 

This was a really good meal and by ordering our wines by the glass rather than the bottle the whole experience added nothing to our onboard account.

It just so happened that the night of our Indochine experience was also one of the popular entertainment nights in the Galleria – White Night, for which I was suitably attired…

What we hadn’t realised was just how popular this was and space on the floor was definitely at a premium…

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Wow, that’s packed….

Still, a great atmosphere and fun evening all round.

The other excellent evening we participated in on the Galleria floor was the ‘Silent Disco’…

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Over the course of the week we did three or four shows in Le Grande Theatre…

 

Mainly of the singing and dancing variety they definitely saved the best till last with the show entitled ‘Italia’…

…with the nice touch of a parade of staff from across the ship’s many departments to the tune ‘Time to Say Goodbye….

As always we fully engaged with the ‘Elegant’ evening dress code for the Gala Night…

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Our favourite live music venues included L’Atelier and the Virtuosa Bar, where the Ocean’s Five Band played some good dance (Bop) music…

 

 

…though the latter, good for the odd dance, was difficult to find seats as the evening went on.

Apart from sailaways in the Sky Lounge we also enjoyed the live jazz courtesy of Skyline on a few evenings…

 

…and when the live music tended to wind down just before midnight there was always the AFTerdark Disco with the resident DJ Chap at the Attic Club…

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We never found ourselves short of things to do while onboard. Indeed, our final full day, a sea day, turned out to be rather hectic.

Following breakfast the challenge was on for me to take the Himalayan Bridge…

Situated on the very aft of the ship’s  deck 19  the bridge is basically a high ropes course with a difference…

…offering participants a number of options while circumnavigating the course.

I don’t think the supervisor could quite believe he had a 77 year old teenager at heart signing the waiver form, but there you go, I had something to prove and an unwavering faith in the safety harness…

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Having completed the course safely I can now admit to it being amazing fun and a credit to one’s rather aged physical ability: life in the old boy yet so as to speak. Needless to same my wife had more sense and acted as photographer instead.

Later that morning we had the Voyagers Club party which was scheduled to be held in the Carousel Lounge. We had, on two previous MSC cruises, attended these functions but this one was probably the most odd and least enjoyable. We  were served one drink and  offered some canapés…

…before being given a short sales pitch for a new MSC Ship. We then joined the Captain in a toast…

and that was it. Needless to say we beat a hasty path back to the L’Atelier and back onto the G&Ts…

At this point perhaps I should mention another spot that we frequented when something was happening in or around the Galleria. Very often there are parades or other activities through the Galleria…

…and immaterial as to whether one was sat drinking at ground level, other passengers were happy to stand in front of you (see above). Having clocked this on a previous MSC cruise whenever such an occasion arose we would bag one of the tables outside ‘The Master of the Seas’ which afforded an unobstructed view over the various activities…

See what I mean…

The Itinerary

As stated earlier it was the itinerary as much as the price that attracted us to this cruise and, in particular, the fact that we had never visited the four Norwegian ports that the Virtuosa was scheduled to call at…

 

Sunday 21 May was our first port of call,  Haugesund….

Research showed us that Haugesund  is a walkable city with cafés, museums, galleries, and attractive streetscapes. All very good except that we were visiting there on a Sunday. Haugesund was also the only port visit that we had not pre-booked any activity.

Haugesund is also one of the best places you’ll find to explore the Viking period and is regarded as the home of Viking kings for centuries. A reconstructed village in Avaldsnes on the island of Karmøy, just south of Haugesund, is where Norway’s first king, Harald Fairhair, had his royal seat.

And so it was the Viking connection that helped formulate our plan for the day with priority being given to visiting the Haraldshaugan National Monument and the statue of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway.

Comforting for those unable to walk long distances, there was a selection of local transport options adjacent the cruise terminal…

As can be seen from our plan above, the ship was berthed relatively close to the town centre. It proved very easy to find the main pedestrianised shopping street, Haraldsgata Street…

…along which one will pass Torggata Square, site of the Fisherman’s statues and the Var Frelsers Kirk…

 

Our walk continued along Haralaldsgata until we came to a grassed communal area with what appeared to be a bandstand. This is known as Byparken…

Once past Byparken we immediately turned left back in the direction of the water and  the statue of Harald Fairhair came into sight…

On closer inspection we could make out the ship in the distance…..

Just for the record….

…and of course…

King Harald was the first King of Norway and reigned between  850 –  932 AD and, suitably photographed, we bade farewell to him and continued on our planned walk following our map’s roadway  in the direction of the Haraldshaugan National Monument…

During our walk we had been overtaken by both the mini train (photographed earlier outside the cruise  terminal) and a Ho Ho bus. On arrival at the monument these visitors were in the process of returning to their various means of transport and we soon discovered we had the monument temporarily to ourselves…

The monument was erected during the millennial celebration of Norway’s unification into one kingdom under the rule of King Harald Fairhair and was originally unveiled on July 18, 1872 by Crown Prince Oscar

The monument consists of a large mound surrounded by a granite memorial stones with 29 smaller stones, one from each of the historic counties of Norway. At the top of the mound stands a 17m high granite main obelisk, with four bronze panels around the base. Each panel depicts important scenes from the life of King Harald I.

In close proximity to the main monument and a short walk along a well trodden path…..

….is the Krosshaugen….

 

 

The Krosshaugen  is one of 60 stone crosses in Rogaland. They  date from the earliest Christian period in Norway. The site has in the past functioned as a Parliament site and the cross is thought to be a monument to farmers who converted to the Christian faith during sessions of Parliament.

 

For our return to Haugesund we decided to take the more scenic route which followed the coastal path….

 

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Once back in the centre we made a closer inspection of the Vår Frelsers Kirke…

 

 

…and the Haugesund City Hall with its Seafaring tribute fountain…

 

 

…and ‘Four Winds’ Statue…. 

 

The four women who make up the statue are made in bronze and mounted on a granite plinth.  The sculpture, created by Nina Sundbye,  which is labelled “De fire vindene” was unveiled by Queen Sonja on 26 August 2004 in connection with Haugesund’s 150th anniversary.

Haugesund is, during the summer months, home to two festivals: an International Film festival and a Jazz Festival.

A connection to the Film Festival was the impetus for our final stop before returning to the ship, to see  the waterfront Statue of Marilyn Monroe….

The monument was opened in 1992, the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the actress, and became a symbol of the film festival, which is held in Haugesund every August since 1973. This event is considered one of the most important for Scandinavian cinema.

And Marilyn Monroe’s connection with Haugesund? It would seem that the iconic American actress had a strong paternal link to this old Norwegian fishing village. It turns out that  Marilyn’s Grandfather, Martin Mortensen was born in Haugesund in 1861 and emigrated to the US in 1878 in search of a better life.

 

The following day, Monday 22 May, we berthed at Olden….

….which sits at the head of InnvikFjord.

For this visit we had pre-booked tickets on the internet for the Loen Skylift.  which included transfers from the ship’s berth and return…

Loen Skylift is an aerial tramway in Loen, a 6 kilometre or 10 minute coach ride from Olden. The cable car climbs 1,011 metres to the top of Mount Hoven, above the Nordfjord.  With a gradient up to 60°, it is one of the steepest in the world.

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The ride from the Fjord base to the Mount Hoven station takes approximately 5 minutes.

On arrival at the Mountain Station…

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…which has multiple view points, a cafe and a sky shop….

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…one can enjoy a 210-degree panoramic view overlooking Mt. Skåla and Lake Lovatnet in the east…

 

…and Jostedalsbreen Glacier, Olden and Lake Oldevatnet in the south…

 

, and the Nordfjord that winds its way towards Stryn in the west.

 

From the upper station you can explore the mountain on your own on a comprehensive network of trails leading to further viewing points…

…and some interesting features….

Whoops, naughty naughty Richard….

An old tale claims that Mount Hoven has its name after the Norse God Odin’s horse Sleipner, who, on a ride across the mountains, struck his hoof and left the powerful impression on the mountain side.

Whatever the legend, there is a great additional photo opportunity not to be missed ….

By way of a finale, the skylift return journey offered a number of amazing fjord  reflective photo opportunities…

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Having spent a couple of hours on Mount Hoven we returned to Olden via the regular included bus transfer.

Still with many hours left on the visit we decided to trek to Floen Lake: first utilising  the zig zagging rickety bridge system to get there…

 

…following the route of the Oldeelva River….

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…and using the main road for the return hike to Olden…..

On the way there we stopped at the Laukifossen Waterfall….

 

…which seemed to also be a stopping point for the miniature train passengers whom we kept meeting on the road…

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From the Laukifossen Waterfall Floen Lake was  a short 10 minute walk….

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On the return journey we stopped at the picturesque Olden Kyrkje…

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which, as luck would have it, was open….

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Back in Olden we separated while I walked along the far side of the fjord to take a few photographs of the ship berthed at Olden. Mission accomplished…

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That basically concluded our very successful day and first visit to Olden. We certainly covered some ground:

8.13 miles during the day to be exact…..

 

and enjoyed all that we did while being very pleased we had now ticked Olden off on our port visit list.

All that was left was to enjoy a  beer from the Horizon Bar and capture a parting shot as we sailed off to our next port of call….

 

The following day, Tuesday 23 May, we berthed at Flam….

The berth is a really short distance from the railway station….

Flam was the second port on the itinerary that we had pre-booked our activity: in this instance a ride on the Flam Railway….

Our chosen departure time was  9.30 am which gave us ample time for a civilised breakfast at the Minuetto restaurant before wandering ashore for the less than 10 minute walk to the rail station…

As can be seen, we were 40 minutes ahead of departure and just over a dozen folk were ahead of us.

Shortly after 9.00 am the staff commenced embarkation and we found we had the choice of most carriages to ourselves…

The train departed promptly and we were soon enjoying the views as it began to climb on its journey to Myrdal…

At one point we made a stop in order for a returning train to pass on a limited double track…

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Onboard the coaches is a good 0n-screen information system which informs passengers of the trains position…

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During the approximate hour long journey time we made two stops: the first being at the Kjosfossen Waterfall…

 

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At Kjosfossen there is a large viewing deck…

…and while the train is stationary there is a magical live musical performance of Norwegian Mythology…

Watch as the mysterious woman with long blonde Nordic hair and a fiery red dress performs her seductive dance routine…

She is the Huldra, an elusive forest spirit from Norse mythology and according to local folklore she lures men into the woods to seduce them. Watch your menfolk ladies….

Her dance, courtesy of Youtube…

 

There is a further stop between the waterfall and Myrdal at Vatnahalsen Station for Zipline

…where passengers disembark for the Flam Zipline and Mountain bike decents…

 

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Approximately one kilometre further on is Myrdal….

station where, after a short break, the return journey to Flam commences, allowing time to check out the views one may have missed on the outbound journey….

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One particular feature caught my eye on the return journey when we were just a few hundred yards outside Flam…

It appeared to be a sort of mini glacier and using the zoom lens on my camera I could make out people at its edge…

The challenge was on. While my good lady visited the shops yours truly hit the slopes to climb to the mini glacier….

It was some hike but I eventually made it…

Well worth it: the view up the valley was great…

…and with a little patience, I even managed to capture a returning train…

…and watch as it headed into the Flam station…

The descent was a little trickier but I made it safely and soon met up with my wife for a walk along the shoreline

to the opposite side of the Aurlandsfjord for a few photographs of the ship…

 

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That completed our visit to Flam and we headed back to the ship for that well deserved mid-afternoon pizza mentioned earlier in the blog. Flam is an excellent port visit with many diverse things to do. Of course the Flam Railway is the most popular and our only surprise is that we’ve somehow managed to avoid it until now.

All that was really left was to witness the sailaway …

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While waiting for one more specific photograph I had a moment of fun with a persistent member of the ship’s photography team…

…who insisted on taking my photograph. Hmmm, are you reading this pet?

We eventually passed the place of interest to me, here on the side of the Aurlandsfjord, the Seven Sisters…

 

The following day, Wednesday 24 May, we berthed at Kristiansand….

Kristiansand was the third port on the itinerary that we had pre-booked our activity: in this instance a private taxi to the…..

Our time in Kristiansand was somewhat limited as we were not scheduled to arrive until 2.00 pm. Being a retired military chap I am fascinated in military history and I had read of this amazing German relic from WWII. Indeed, there was a ship’s excursion that included a visit to the museum, however, I anticipated wanting a little more time hence we made our own transport arrangements and pre-booked a private taxi. As luck would have it we actually berthed an hour early and most pleasingly the taxi was happy to bring our pick-up time forward.

Kristiansand Kanonmuseum (cannon museum) Møvik Fortress  was built by the Germans during World War II. It is an historical WWII museum  that features a German coastal defence battery from 1940-45, with the world’s second largest land-based cannon (337 tonnes).  The museum houses the only remaining 380mm Krupp gun in the world and plenty of other material from WWII….

Known as ‘Cannon II’, this is the museum’s primary exhibition piece….

 

The cannon is one of the largest in the world, with a 380 mm calibre. The gun barrel alone weighs 110 tonnes, and is almost 20 metres long.

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The Cannon is remarkably preserved and access to the interior of the cannon is straightforward…

…and the systems remain fully functional….

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Below the cannon is a massive underground bunker system…

 

 

….which houses, amongst other things, diesel powered generators…

 

….the shell feeding systems….

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…plus examples of the shells used…

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…and other paraphernalia associated with the battery….

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…including this remarkable very early computer forebears of a range calculation table….

The site was scheduled to have four cannon. In 1944 an enormous ‘casemate’ was constructed over an empty gun mount where the fourth cannon was to be installed…

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However, the gun was lost during transportation so was never installed at the site.

The casemate was constructed to withstand air attacks and its walls are between 3.5 and 4 meters thick.

To the rear of the casemate is the means to scale the roof…

Game on….

Within minutes of our visit concluding, and having almost had the place to ourselves for just over 2 hours, we noticed the ship’s excursion coaches arriving….

For further information the following site is recommended….

Kristiansand Cannon Museum

We had arranged with our taxi driver to drop us at our next planned visit point on our return to Kristiansand. This was to visit and pay our respects at the Commonwealth War Graves that are sited in Kristiansand kirkegård

 

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Having ticked off our two most important visits we now referred to our plan map to provide a suitable route through Kristiansand’s places of interest…

First stop was the Church and Fountain…

The sun was definitely not in my favour though it worked well for the next subject, the Kristiansand Townhall and Haakon VII statue…

Much is made of the ‘old town’, known locally as Posebyen, with its wooden, coloured houses…

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….and my wife was certainly pleased to meet one gorgeous Nordic canine specimen…

We managed to get some good shots of the historic Christiansholm Fortress

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while also amusing ourselves with some of the local statues….

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….before eventually finding the Fiskebrygga which took us back to our ship…

 

All in all a most successful half day in Kristiansand. We achieved everything we set out to achieve and were well satisfied with our solution to spending more time at the Cannon Museum. (The taxi fare came in marginally cheaper that the cost of the MSC excursion).

Just for the record, our covered walking distance for the Kristiansand visit was  8.2 miles …..

 

 

Summary

We had a reasonably enjoyable cruise, managed to add four new port visits and successfully survived a 7 night ‘booze cruise’ at what turned out to be a bargain price.

If one’s sole aim was to achieve ‘Value for Money’ then this would have to be up there with the best: particularly so when taking into consideration the four ports of call were a bonus  as they were all new territory for us.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with being accommodated in an ‘Inside’ cabin, albeit a pretty basic way of cruising. It not being a warm weather cruise there was little value in paying for Yacht Club facilities when one didn’t have a hope  of using them all – the reserved sundeck, etc.

However, one should factor in one or two caveats. The ship was barely two thirds full, 4,200 passengers onboard as opposed to a normal full  6,200.  Maybe some would never notice but with those reduced numbers there were only two dinner sittings so a more civilised pace during meals. Similarly, we never had any real issues over finding seating and service in the bars and entertainment venues. The only exception to this was the Virtuosa Bar which is most popular throughout the evening – there were of course alternatives as we discovered.

We made particularly  good use of the Extra Premium Beverage package and can confidently say it was, in our case, exceptionally good value.

We were more than very pleasantly surprised with the standard, choices and variety of food that we found in the restaurants plus the work ethic of the waiting staff. Buffets are definitely not our scene and when one considers that there are only seating places for 1,300 in the ‘Market Place’ is it any wonder that it’s heavily criticised on social media. Having said that of course it’s often the lingering passengers who create the shortage of turnover places.

So would we do the same again? -a  joint NO from us. We had a good time but we definitely realised we were out of our normal cruising comfort zone while appreciating that  we had struck it very lucky,  particularly when considering the ship’s size, seating capacity and the fact Virtuosa was running well below its actual passenger capacity.

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It is common throughout the travel industry for travel journalists and many cruise bloggers to be provided with complimentary cruises for the purpose of their reviews.

Solent Richard has no ‘conflict of interest’ as he is not an accredited journalist, he pays for his cruises, and is happy to confirm that all his reviews are his own given without fear or favour.