In October of 2024, Mei-O and I, along with our friends Teresa and Steve, began looking for a cruise to take in 2025. After some research by Teresa, she found this Delta Cruises' "15 Night Land of the Midnight Sun" cruise on Princess Cruise Lines' Sky Princess. While mostly a trip along the west coast of Norway traversing the Arctic Circle in June of the following summer, the ship also made one stop in Edinburgh (South Queensferry), Scotland. We liked the itinerary, so we agreed it would be our next cruise.

June 19, Mei-O and me under the Gate of Happiness on Gamle bybro, the Old Town Bridge, over the Nidelva River in Trondheim.

June 18, a smiling Steve and Teresa on the dock in Olden.

On June 11^th, we left Rochester en route to London to begin our journey, arriving there early in the morning on June 12^th. Before the cruise, we would spend some time in London before taking a private van^noteTeresa once again came through
and arranged this private van
ride from London to the cruise
port in Southampton and the
one returning to London from
the port once the cruise was
over. to the cruise port of Southampton about 75 miles away to board our ship on the 13^th. Once on board, we'd make our way to our deluxe balcony stateroom, D329, starboard-side on Deck 9. Our first port, after a day at sea, would be in South Queensferry, Scotland (the only day in Scotland, the port for Edinburgh), then on to Norway. We'd cruise up the west coast to our northernmost point, the port of Honningsvåg (famous for having 24 hours of daylight in the summer months) before turning around to head back down the coast, stopping in ports along the way in each direction. Finally, we'd end up back in Southampton where we'd catch a private van back to London for our flight home.

Here's a map of our itinerary, beginning in Southampton, England. Click on it to see the details of our itinerary. (Note that Honningsvåg and Tromsø are both north of the Arctic Circle.)

Teresa did a lot of research on the trip which we ended up booking through Delta Cruises (a Delta Airlines company). Teresa worked to find appropriate flights, and then she worked on finding interesting shore excursions to round out our trip preparation. Many thanks to Teresa! All her work made this cruise enjoyable and successful.

Click this image of downtown Edinburgh to continue.