The stop at Vardo was short....but long enough for Dave, little little and I to strip to our undies (swim suit in my case) and plunge into iced water. Three people and one bear took the ships tour guide up on the offer of an ice dip.....I wonder why!!!?

We were lead, towles clutched in our hands, to a shack where we stripped off and were then taken out into the snow, down past the other ships guests and onto a jetty with the sea either side. I had a terrible feeling they were going to make us jump into the sea....fine by me, but i am a much stronger swimmer than both little little and David!  

Luckily for us it soon became clear that they had set up a kind of floating dunk tank on one side of the jetty. It had steps leading down into decidedly cold looking water..... The guide told us (Dave and I ) that we were to stand on the steps and on the count of 3, leap into the ice water. Dave preferred to edge down the steps until he was chest deep in the ice and little little and i took the guide at his word and leapt off the steps and into the water. I went under and held little little above my head before dunking her in as well!

It was soooooooooooooo good! I went under again just to show I could and then we all three edged our way out to raptureous applause from the crowd who stood in their full snow gear to watch us. I think little little got the biggest clap of all.....she took the precaution of wearing plastic underwear and she remained bone dry under her bear suit....so no calling social services nanny Adams!!

We had to then slip and slide our way back to the shack (the ground was like sheet ice!) and pull on our dry clothes before rushing back to the ship to get properly warm.....we did this by going in the hot spa jacuzzi of course!

little little now gets waves and comments everytime she is seen round the ship,...she is truly famous on board. I beleive that we get a certificate to say that we did the ice plunge and I think little little gets one too! She is sat here with us as I type, chilling out in her tracksuit and duck slippers, none the worse for her adventure today. You need to watch the video and I will upload it for your viewing pleasure.

After we warmed up we headed down for lunch....not overly enthralled with the fixed table one choice evening meal and today was just about as bad as it could get. The ship is in full christmas decoration now.....and tonight, in celebration of christmas, they serve up reindeer steaks!! Some people flatly refused to eat Rudolph....I will join them in future because it really was not nice at all. The starter was fish soup and that was equally as horrible. Dave and I agree they should stick to their very good buffets for all the meals....the evening meal is so hit and miss!

Who serves up Rudolph as a celebration for starting christmas on board!! It really isnt very tasteful lol.