This Christmas Present Blindsided Us

Way back on Christmas day, a curious thing happened. My in-laws have always had this tradition of hiding things inside the Christmas tree. Usually they’re cards or DVDs. Small things that are easy to overlook until you go digging for them. (One year we even lost something until my mother-in-law found it 3 days later.)

This year there was a pack of small folded pamphlets containing a series of nerdy questions. It was clear pretty quickly this was meant to be some kind of scavenger hunt. I thought it would lead to somewhere in the house where another package was hidden. It’s the kind of thing my mother-in-law would do. But it also quickly became apparent that the questions were tough. Even my history major husband had difficulty answering them.

Each question, it turned out, related to a specific city. The final note on the pamphlet said, “the answers will unlock the present.” Again, I was thinking of some kind of map or game. But each of the answers actually corresponded to a stop on a cruise. That my in-laws bought for the family – in secret.

In fact, they were so worried we might accidentally find out what happened, they created fake email addresses to tie all of the cruise accounts to.

We were all completely blindsided. It hasn’t been long since the last time we went on a big family trip, and none of us expected to do it again any time soon. Also planning a cruise for 5 people while keeping it a secret from 3 requires a spectacular amount of organization.

The cruise took place this past July, in the middle of the summer. The stops included Scotland, Norway and Iceland – places that have been on our bucket list a long time!

How it All Began

The last time my husband and I went on a cruise, it got off to a rocky start. Our flights had to be changed at the last minute, and we ended up not reaching the ship during regular check-in. It was 1AM by the time we reached the port, and the people checking us in seemed uncertain about the process. It was 3AM before we got to bed. Then we woke up the next day to start the main event.

This left us understandably nervous about the first leg of the new cruise.

But this time, our flights went off (mostly) without a hitch. We arrived on time to meet up with the cruise representative at the airport. Of course, we were tired because two days had blended into one. We needed coffee, and we were ready to fall off our feet – but we were on time!

Still, it was quite a process getting from the airport to the ship. Our cruise representative took us to the bus terminal only to discover the bus had not arrived. This poor women spent a lot of time looking at her watch, sending frantic texts and making angry phone calls. It took about an hour and a half, but she was finally able to pack us onto a bus.

The bus was interesting. There was a problem with the emergency door and it set off an alarm the entire 2 and a half hours we were on it; a test of patience to be sure.

But we got to the ship nominally on time, checked in and got to enjoy the welcome day festivities. Best of all, our first day was an at-sea day, so there was plenty of time to catch up on sleep before the trip began in earnest.

First Stop: Edinburgh

Adding to the ease of starting this trip, our first stop was Scotland. Since we’ve been there a few times, we were able to take those days easy.

Our first stop was Edinburgh, our favorite international city. We’ve been there twice, but there are still plenty of places we haven’t gotten to explore. This time, the main event was Edinburgh Castle, which was closed the last time we tried to visit.

Our excursion started out a bus tour. These can be hit or miss. When we drove around Athens, it was shocking how few of the most famous sites remained and how quickly they vanished while we moved around. Our guide for this tour, however, was fantastic. He not only knew a great deal about the city’s history, he was obviously passionate and knew how to make it fun for his audience. He called us ‘his little ducks,’ because our tour number was 22.

After driving through both the new city and the old city, we walked part of the Royal Mile and arrived at the castle. This one was a proper fortress. One of the first things that struck us as we approached was that we were essentially navigating a maze. It would have been incredibly daunting if people were firing the canons at us at the time.

Edinburgh Castle also perches high on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city, which means it provided some of the most spectacular views of our whole trip. We did not try to see the honors of Scotland, but we did visit the absolutely beautiful war memorial that also inhabits the castle grounds to honor those who have died in service to Scotland throughout the conflicts it has participated in.

Stop Two: Aberdeen

Rounding out our trip to Scotland was a stop in Aberdeen. This was a new stop for our ship, the Norwegian Star. So a large group of bag pipers and cultural dancers greeted us to start the morning. Plus our ship got a brand new plaque to put on display.

Aberdeen is another place we’ve visited before. Though it was a holiday at the time, which meant most things were closed. We had already seen the big highlight of this trip: Dunnottar Castle. So instead of a shore excursion, we decided to explore this city on our own.

This also afforded us a rare opportunity to meet with a friend we’ve made since moving back to Canada. He made the trip over to the city by train and we were able to meet up and spend the afternoon together.

First, we visited the local maritime museum to learn about the history of Aberdeen ship building. There were a lot of beautiful scale ship models here as well as some interesting historical figures to learn about. One of the best things about Scotland is that all their museums are free, so it was also a quick and easy outing to organize.

After perusing the museum, we headed down the street to a local pub for some lunch and tea. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city looking at interesting architecture. There were quite a few buildings we didn’t get to see the last time we were there, so we enjoyed this quite a bit.

We rounded out our day in Aberdeen with a trip to the ship’s teppanyaki restaurant. This was my husband’s first teppanyaki experience, and it did not disappoint. Not only was the performance great, they gave us so much food!

Overall, it was a spectacular opening to the trip – and there were many more exciting experiences to follow!