Scandinavian Cruise

Scandinavian Cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship Vision of the Seas.  My husband and I selected this cruise because we had never been to Europe.  We left from Dulles International Airport on Friday, June 15th at 8:40 P.M. to the Keflavik International Airport in Iceland at roughly 1:20 A.M. Since we had about 45 minutes before our next flight we decided to go in search for something to eat.  As we scoured the food court we discovered that the food did not appeal to us (and I am the adventurous eater). We decided to play it safe and get a bottle of Icelandic water and a kleinur or Icelandic doughnut. Since the currency of Iceland is the Icelandic Krona, we paid for our breakfast with the U.S. Dollar which was $11.00 for two bottles of water and a stale greasy doughnut. The doughnut left a greasy film on your lips you could not fully wipe off. The Keflavik airport is a small airport that resembles something constructed by the CEO of IKEA.  Frommer's ranks this airport three on the list of most beautiful airports.  Thought that might be the case this airport is currently ill-equipped to accommodate large crowds. The terminals were not much of a terminal at all.  The terminals or waiting areas had very few seats and many were forced to sit on the floor or against the wall before boarding.  Icelandair staff did not have any particular organized manner in calling passengers to board.  It seemed to be a free for all when boarding was announced.  The flight attendant were mostly blonde and I would venture a guess were no shorter that 5'7''.  

Our flight to Oslo, Norway was about three and a half hours and seemed longer than the previous five hour and 45 minute flight from Dulles International Airport to Keflavik, Iceland.  When we finally touched down at Oslo, Norway Gardermoen we were ready to get of that damn plane.  We grabbed out luggage and exited the airport in search of the familiar Royal Caribbean representative dressed in the tradition blue blazers with all too familiar RCL nametag holding the sign with the name of our ship Vision of the Seas.  After an hour wait we boarded a tour bus with the other passengers and headed toward the port to board our home for the next five days.  

We checked and received our sea passes.  Also we headed to the gangway we were accosted by the annoying photography staff eager to take their quota of guess photos for the cruise.  Robert and I actually despise these photo ops as were are the ones who look like we have been on a 24 hour flight and look and feel the worst.  To humor the photographers we stopped for a photo for which we never purchased.  These photos are huge money suckers and we always seem to look like dorks and our pictures are always found at the bottom of the rack.  I believe that they put the ugly people at the bottom, so that is where we look and find most of our pictures.