Our German cousins asked us to cruise with them to Norway. We let them do all the planning and they chose Mein Schiff 2 sailing out of Kiel. We arrived 4 days early and stayed at the Nordic Astor hotel in Kiel. It's a nice clean hotel with a great buffet breakfast on the top floor with a wonderful view of Kiel.

Two days prior to our cruise, my wife who speaks fluent German called TUI Cruises to inquire about the Norway harbor pilots strike, and she called again the morning of our cruise. TUI told her not to be concerned because they would helicopter harbor pilots to our ship and we would definitely be visiting Norway.

There is only German spoken or written on the ship and so all announcements are made in German. The first night the captain tells us that when we wake up in the morning, if we see land we will be in Norway..we do see land probably 5 miles away and about 8am the captain says NO Norway, we are going to Scotland. Read more