By Rhiana Ralls
Hi everybody, I’m Rhiana and I’m partially sighted, with a number of different causes and variables. I am 20 and live in South West Wales. I’d like to share an account of my recent adventure to Norway and the accessibility of the cruise for others travelling with a vision impairment.
We arrived at Newcastle docks the night before our big adventure. The cruise ship Borealis was due to set sail the next morning. I spent that night resting after the 8-hour car journey. The accessible room was nice and the staff at the Premier Inn were very friendly.
After breakfast the next morning we moved the car to the designated disabled parking spot, which unfortunately was not as easy as hoped due to confusing directions at port and two ships there at same time, but the people were helpful if asked, so I was glad we had left ourselves plenty of time.
As the luggage was removed from the car and taken to the ship by the porters it started to become real for me as I had constantly felt it was only a dream. Going through the check-in was stressful for me as there was a lot going on and it made me feel uneasy. It was very confusing and unclear where to go, but we got there in the end and people were there to help. Once we got to the ship itself, it felt like my dream was becoming reality. The ship towered above us, our home for the next 10 days.
The staff helped me in my wheelchair up the gang plank and then we were free to explore. After we boarded the ship, we went straight to the buffet as it was lunchtime, and the cabins were not yet ready. We needed to carry our backpacks for some essentials until we could get to our cases in our cabin.
The food in the buffet was absolutely amazing, as there were so many different varieties of dishes to choose from. For someone with sensory difficulties like me, which affects what I can eat, I felt like I could choose all the things I liked, instead of being stuck with a restricted menu. Everyone was so helpful and helped me find things, carried things for me and helped me to my seat. The main restaurant had a specific menu, which I found too restricting. They did meet with those of us with restricted diets to see what they could do the help, which was great, but I found the buffet so much easier with much more choice and no need to decide what I wanted to eat the day before!
The accessible cabin on the Borealis was a decent size with a cosy balcony and full length glass doors making it lighter inside and easier to see things outside. The sofa bed I was on was so comfy I slept like a baby every night of our cruise. We got given fresh fruit every day as well as fresh water too. There were lots of films to choose from on the TV, some maritime TV channels and a brilliant ‘Bridge-cam’ showing us the view from the Bridge to the front of the ship. We kept this on most of the time to see where the ship was going, as we were right at the back. It also helped to see the horizon at back and front when it was really rough, and we used it as a night-light during the night.
There was a safety video to watch before the ship could leave the port. We then had to find our designated lifeboat (number 13!). We had to make our way down 3 levels of stairs, each flight with different depth steps, some without yellow lines on the front edges. I have difficulty with open steps, so I could only do this slowly and with help. However, I was told that they had designated me to have someone come and find me in an emergency and help me to safety.
On the very first night aboard I missed the Northern Lights as they were at 1:30am and I was so tired but saw it as white whisps on the ‘Bridge-cam’ when I woke up for a moment.
We landed at a place called Molde the next day and had our first excursion. We were taken by coach along the Atlantic Road, which is made up of bridges over the sea joining lots of little islands. Daniel Craig filmed one of the Bond stunts off the biggest curved bridge, which looks like you might tip off from a distance but luckily felt safe when on it!
We then visited Kvwrnes stave church which was built in 1633. The church is a unique build as it had posts (staves) and inside all the walls were painted it was incredible. They also have to prop the walls up from outside with long posts to stop it falling over.
Hanging from the ceiling was a beautiful boat which is a symbol in the church tradition signifying the Christian congregation and the individual’s journey through life. There was a beautiful altarpiece dating from the Middle Ages depicting Mary with her infant Jesus and Anna Mary’s mother. The wooden walls and ceiling are covered in paintings making it very colourful.
The tour guide was amazing, keeping up a description of the land, the people and Norwegian way of life in the past and now. It made the trip so interesting and helped as I cannot visually focus on things outside of the coach whilst travelling in the coach, so it made it much more interesting.
The next day was a sea day, but the weather was quite rough which meant you could not walk in a straight line without stumbling around due to the big waves, also it was raining so hard that the lights needed to be turned on early. So, on that day I decided to treat myself to a luxury manicure and pedicure package which was very relaxing whilst having it done. However, when it came to choosing the nail colour there where gel colours and regular varnish, but they did not tell me that there would be an added charge from £20-£30 pounds extra for choosing the gel, which is what I had done. Luckily I got my money back because they hadn’t explained it, however they did make it difficult and were slow to sort it out. So do watch your bills carefully for unexpected extra charges!
We did pass into the Arctic Circle during that day, with a ceremony where ice cold water and ice was poured over your head and back. Some crew and passengers took part, but I stayed well away as like to keep warm! Plus I had a 1:1 tour of the ship with Chris from guest services as going in a big group in small spaces wasn’t going to work for me. He was very supportive and worked around my needs.
We arrived at Narvik for the next morning, where we went on the Atlantic train, on a track which is carved into the mountainside with stunning landscapes as you travel along its length. The train took us alongside Rombaksfjord which was beautiful with fresh powdered snow, with icicles hanging down from the rugged rocks right next to the train as it hugged the mountainside. We were given hot drinks and a fresh cinnamon twisted bun, which was almost as good as the scenery! There was a live description which helped for the bits I couldn’t see. I was very glad of my Polaroid mirrored Cocoon over-glasses as the light bouncing off the snow was dazzling.
On Mother’s Day mum picked up a bug, so she was sick in bed. So we had a quiet day enjoying films for the day as we were at sea. We arrived in Tromsø, the largest city in the Artic, late in the evening. We enjoyed a quiet evening watching more films, whilst Dad had a bumpy ride on a bus trip unsuccessfully chasing the Northern lights, leaving at 9:30pm, arriving back at 1:30am, so I was glad I didn’t go!
The next day dad and I went on a trip to see the Sami people and their reindeer herd to see what their life is like. We also got to walk in amongst the reindeer and feed them and stroke them. It was an amazing experience. They offered reindeer stew, but it was not for me! There were about 200 reindeer, they loved the pellets we fed them, and their muzzles were so soft. One of them tried to eat my dad’s shoe, (apparently it was better than pellets!). There was so much snow I needed my snow boots and sticks with ice grips as it was very slippery. We visited the Sami in their traditional tents, but they do live in normal houses, have Wi-Fi and use drones to monitor their herds of reindeer!
The ship left in the afternoon and the weather was so nice that it made the snow turn a gorgeous colour of pink and lilac when the sun hit the snow as it was setting. The scenery was stunning as we left Tromsø into the Atlantic Ocean.
It was now April fool’s day, and the crew did an amazing prank by telling everyone that you could try surfing with the captain on the deck! As we left the Arctic the sea got rough to the point the waves hit 3-4m. We all felt fine as long as we did not try walking about! I had a pizza in the room which was delicious, and it was safer than trying to walk to the buffet with the rough seas.
On days like this the ‘Bridge-cam’ was a godsend as it allowed us to look out at the sea at the front of the ship whilst we could see the sea from our balcony at the back as well. This helped with balance as could see the waves coming and with sea sickness as could see the horizons. I was ok with sea sickness all the way through as long as not in my wheelchair on the rough days but found moving around ship tiring so I needed my wheelchair! So I took these days gently.
Following the stormy day at sea, we sailed up the calm fjord to Ålesund. Ålesund was burnt down early in the 20th century and was rebuilt in colourful Art Nouveau style in early 1900s. We left our big ship (1,000 passengers) to go on an old comfortable smaller boat on Hjorundfjord.
The fjord cuts through the rugged Sunnmore Alps, which are some of the wildest mountain ranges in Norway. The sun shone, the scenery was spectacular, and we even got tasty waffles!
Even though it was pretty warm in the sun it was still very cold in the wind, so I was glad I had my extra warm clothes on. Today the lady tour guide was the same one we’d had on our first coach trip, so we knew we’d have lots of information, including that Tom Cruise did a stunt off one of the mountain cliffs in one of the Mission Impossible films.
That night we had a fabulous Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) display lasting at least a couple of hours. On deck It was too windy to stand up on the main deck, so me and mum made our way back to our room and settled ourselves down on our balcony with a nice blankets to keep us toasty warm. You could see wisps of what looked like white mist. You still see the stars in the sky behind it. With our phone cameras we could see amazing colours due to the different gases in the air. You could see pink, purple, green yellow and at times almost red. Each camera picking up the colours slightly differently. It moved and danced across the horizon over the sea. It looked like curtains blowing in a breeze. It was totally magical.
For our last day at sea it was flat calm and sunny as we made our way back to Newcastle, passing a lot of oil rigs on our way. I spent my time shopping, as there was a lot of last day discounts in the shop, (another tip!) and packing my bags, as we had to put our bags outside the cabin door the night before we docked at Newcastle. I had an early night as we had to be up early in the morning to disembark the ship at 7.30am. We were treated to a beautiful sunset at sea.
A very early alarm and no time for breakfast before disembarking! After all plenty of time to eat breakfast, lunch and maybe even dinner on our 8 hour trip home! Waking early meant we saw the delicate sunrise over the docks.
Time to say goodbye to our cabin and home for the cruise. The balcony and full window had given us plenty of opportunity to experience the Artic even on rainy days and even if having to rest.
This has been an adventure that I will never forget. I hope you enjoyed my record of it and maybe got some tips too.
By Rhiana Ralls
