My Passport’s Travels

Monday, June 8, 2026

We woke up just in time for Scandinavian Brunch at Sea. Mom and I shared the Swedish Berry Pancakes as an appetizer (our server couldn’t understand that we wanted them for dessert). They were basically crepes with a thin, thin layer of lemon curd inside and berries over the top. Mom had the Classic Eggs Benedict, which was prepared beautifully. I had the Alesund Steak and Egg Skillet (with scrambled eggs instead of fried). I never found the reindeer sausage. However, it was good – especially the Nordic summer salsa, which was basically a tomato chutney.

After breakfast we stopped by the room to pick up the game bag. The North Sea looked foreboding, which somehow seemed appropriate. However since we left the canals near Rotterdam yesterday, we have enjoyed super smooth seas!

Our initial goal had been to play games, but I asked to stop by the Holland America gift shops to look around a little, and we happened to walk through the casino on the way. Since it was absolutely empty and we could have our pick of machines, we sat to play for a bit. Eventually, we made our way to the dining room on deck 3. Technically, it is open during the day for mahjong, but we slipped in and helped ourselves to a table. We played games until 2pm, when the area closed.

We dropped our games in the stateroom and went back up for 3pm Dutch High Tea. It was interesting. We got the feeling they were overwhelmed with the response. Many of us ended up being walked to the deck 2 portion of the dining room where they were hastily setting up tables. The tray was lovely (and tea was definitely a step above the disastrous tea on Carnival where we were given our choice of Lipton black or Lipton decaf tea bags along with our sandwich cookies). But the only items they gave us two of were the smoked salmon finger sandwiches and the raisin scones. So, we split what we could – Mom had the shrimp slider, chocolate creme puff and stroopwaffl and I had the egg salad finger sandwiches, the apple tart and a butter cookie/cake/thingie (and the extra non-raisin scone). They did have a live string duo playing for entertainment – and they even played English Garden!

After this, we needed real food so we went to the Dive In Burgers at the pool. Mom had a hot dog and I had a burger with caramelized onions and bacon. And I heard from Eve!

We strolled around deck 3 to walk off some of the food, ultimately ending up back in the room to get our game bag.

Games in hand, we checked the Crow’s Nest. We had looked earlier and the area was packed. And it’s easy to see why – comfortable seating with 180 degree windows on deck 12, with a full bar and a coffee bar. But, since tonight is formal night, it was only half-full! We easily found seats at a table to play games until about 8:30.

We placed an order on the app for dinner from New York Pizza on deck 10 overlooking the family pool. On the way to pick up dinner, we found fun music-themed carpet – the stateroom-only decks are all named after composers, so there’s a music theme throughout the ship.

The sunset while we waited was gorgeous with lots of clouds and sunshine peaking around them.

Back in the room, we found Teddy with chocolates for us! Lindor truffles! We ate dinner, packed our purses for the excursion tomorrow and made it to bed. We’ve got a long day tomorrow!

Trip Report Index

Previous
Thursday – Saturday, June 4-6, 2026 – Flight over and Rotterdam 
Sunday June 7, 2026 – Embarkation day
Monday June 8, 2026 – Day at Sea
Current
Tuesday June 9, 2026 – Invergorden, Scotland
Coming soon
Wednesday June 10, 2026 – Day at Sea
Thursday June 11, 2026 – Seydisfjördur, Iceland
Friday June 12, 2026 – Akureyri, Iceland
Saturday June 13, 2026 – ľsafjörður, Iceland
Sunday June 14, 2026 – Reykjavik, Iceland and Helsinki, Finland
Monday June 15, 2026 – Helsinki, Finland and flight home