'The Voice' on the high seas: the ultimate cruise for karaoke lovers
"A final onstage rehearsal brought in back-up singers, lighting and audio effects. Judges were selected from the ship's officers" Credit: Princess Cruises
Rhiannon Edwards, travel writer
5 September 2016 • 4:23pm
Rhiannon Edwards
I guessed that Martin was in his mid-50s. Attired in typical holiday garb of T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, he stood poised with the microphone. The bar was all but empty, its doors shut for privacy.
After a count-in by a member of the Princess Band brandishing a trombone, Martin launched into a big-band intro to Mustang Sally. For two minutes he became Sixties soul dynamo Wilson Pickett. The audience cheered him on as bartenders, preparing for the ship's evening service, clinked glasses in the background.
What we were watching was Princess Cruises' on-board iteration of the BBC's talent show The Voice. Introduced on ships in the spring, it has been a hit. "Auditions are packed," said a spokesman.
"After the first note-perfect line the three "judges" rotated their chairs in unison to look at one another. If I'd had a spinning chair it would have been turning" Credit: Princess Cruises
Martin was joined by seven other passengers, all finalists, and ready to practise the songs they had selected and been rehearsing with their on-board mentors. They'd made it through the selection process (voted for by their fellow cruisers) in a gruelling public audition held on the outbound journey from Southampton. The final, for the coveted Voice of the Ocean trophy, would take place in front of a packed theatre.
Our ship, Emerald Princess, was moored in Bergen, the fourth and final stopping point on our week-long Norwegian Fjords tour. Bergen and Stavanger are both used as a gateway to the more remote parts of the fjords further north.
Some passengers disembarked with bicycles, ready to explore the hamlets of white houses and red barns
Bergen's architecture, from the medieval Rosenkrantz tower to the 900-year-old Bergen Cathedral, is a big draw. As is its mountain, Floyen, the lower reaches of which are lined with charming wood-panelled houses, attractive churches, parks and cafés, making it look easier to walk up than it actually is.
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The view from the top brings the ultimate reward. The city coats a large valley, with mountains stretching to the horizon in one direction, the sea joining the city in the other.
Emerald Princess Credit: Princess Cruises
Back at sea level I walked to the waterfront Bryggen, a Unesco-protected wharf district. Once a key trading post for the Hanseatic League, it has restored its colourful timber shop fronts – one is a museum – and seafood, including caviar, is sold at the waterside fish market nearby.
But the real point of cruising the fjords is to appreciate remote natural beauty. In that respect, Skjolden, at the end of Norway's longest navigable fjord, ticked all the boxes, its mountaintop glaciers feeding waterfalls that cut any which way towards the central fjord, whose body of water remains permanently still.
Even with Princess moored in the fjord, it was delightfully serene, with a handful of houses, one hotel and a small supermarket all dwarfed by nature. Some passengers disembarked with bicycles, ready to explore the hamlets of white houses and red barns. Others set off in kayaks and coasted along the vast expanse of blue water.
Even with Princess moored in the fjord, Skjolden was delightfully serene Credit: Alamy
The rest dispersed on trips to the various historic and geographic wonders of the area, including the Sognefjellet National Tourist Road, a steeply ascending mountain pass that locals call the "roof of Norway", and to the Jostedalsbreen National Park, which takes visitors as close as they'll get to those vast blue glaciers.
Skjolden is also home to Urnes, the oldest of Norway's 1,000 timber-framed stave churches, and the only one protected by Unesco. It is perched at the top of a steep winding road, dotted on a spot it has occupied since the 12th century.
The church's porch framed a perfect tableau of land and seascape: raspberry bushes in the foreground, the glassy blue-green Sognefjord off in the distance, mountains skimming the clouds.
Original examples of the Urnes style of animal art, intricately carved and emulated across Norway, can be seen in the interior. Not surprisingly, people from the surrounding villages still conduct weddings here.
"Back on board, duty called..." Credit: Princess Cruises
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Back on board, duty called. It was us, the passengers, who had to decide whose dulcet tones were worthy of the Voice of the Ocean trophy. A final onstage rehearsal brought in back-up singers, lighting and audio effects. Judges were selected from the ship's officers.
Listening to the singers was comforting. As the ship made for Southampton the mood on board had become muted. But even though the trip was nearly over, here were some talented people, mustering the courage to entertain us.
It was us, the passengers, who had to decide whose dulcet tones were worthy of the Voice of the Ocean trophy
There was Marcel, celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary and singing Can't Help Falling in Love with You, and Gary whose rendition of Fly Me to the Moon bore an uncanny resemblance to the Sinatra version. But it was Natasha, who had been entered into the competition by her husband, who changed the game with her performance of Adele's ballad Someone Like You.
After the first note-perfect line the three "judges" rotated their chairs in unison to look at one another. If I'd had a spinning chair it would have been turning.
"I'm just a mother who works in sales," she said after a unanimous vote declared her the winner. "But I've had the most unbelievable time."
A 10-night Caribbean cruise on Royal Princess (0843 374 2403; princess.com/discover).
Voice of the Ocean is held on most Princess ships (not the smaller Dawn, Diamond, Ocean Pacific and Sapphire vessels). Northern Europe sailings recommence next summer. Passengers can register their interest for two open auditions at the start of the cruise. Shortlisted contestants, voted for by passengers, are mentored for the final on the last night of the cruise.
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