Frequently Asked Questions, round 1

Thanks to Hollis and Stacey.

Do you just fly directly to Norway, or what?
We fly to London (insert rant about Heathrow here) then from there to Copenhagen. We have one night in Copenhagen (during its jazz festival but unfortunately a day too late to see Eliane Elias), then board the ship in Copenhagen the next day. The ship cruises up the coast of Norway and back, then returns us to Copenhagen, where we spend a little more time before flying back to London.

Do you have a picture of the ship?
There's a good one on the Cruise Norway main page.

How many people will be on it?
It's a 1,200-passenger liner, and the Prairie Home cruise has bought out the entire ship.

Have you been on a cruise before?
The most I've ever cruised was three days on the Hurtigruten freight/passenger liner up the coast of Norway. Besides that, just an overnight from Miami to Bahamas, and a couple nights on the Queen Mary (the ship that's now a hotel docked in Long Beach) with a view of the parking lot from my porthole. What can I say, my parents are airline people and I was raised on flight. Kristiana has been on "real" cruises before, and has opinions about the best lines. And the worst. I don't know if she's been on Holland America before.

What's the Prairie Home part of the cruise?
OK, you caught me. It's all on the website, and I haven't studied it. I know the general idea is that Prairie Home personages and guests are the on-ship entertainment for the cruise as well as setting the general tone and agenda, and I know there are lectures on writing and so forth, but I have been a bad boy about studying the details.

Will the food be Norwegian-themed? Will you drink Aquavit?
I can't imagine there won't be Norwegian-themed food, and I can't imagine there will only be Norwegian-themed food. I expect salmon, fiskeboller, and undoubtedly cod. Garrison is quoted as having uncomplimentary things to say about lutefisk, so I don't expect any except for humor value. I don't expect reindeer meat, which I think (I could be wrong here) is too precious to be wasted on the uninitiated or unappreciative. I will be curious to see whether our Norwegian seaman's meal from our last three-hour-tour, steamed shrimp on bread with mayonnaise and lemon juice, will be presented, and how it will go over.

As for Aquavit, sure, a little, why not? I've never developed a real taste for it, but I don't dislike it one bit.