July 2019: Our Magical 11 night Iceland and Norway Cruise (Gothenburg + Wrap Up, Update August 18 x 2)

[Ladybugx87]

Now it's time for Sea Day #2 - I love sea days, I was excited for today, and it was a great day BUT this is when the seas started rocking and rolling quite a bit!

DH was up first and started his run on the treadmill but realized the rocking wasn't going to work so he headed down to Deck 4 to finish.

This was the morning of our VIP Character Breakfast and I was not feeling the best from the ship motion so didn't eat much. I know the girls enjoyed their pastries and pancakes but cannot remember what J. We saw Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie.

Next up, we headed to the braiding station on Deck 9 with the lovely Rosetta. S decided she didnt want to do BBB this time (she is growing up before my eyes, more on that later in the day today) but she wanted to try braids. We saw a girl earlier in the week who told us where to go. Rosetta was amazing and S loved her braids!

My notes say the girls went to the Kids Club (and maybe I joined them for Open House) before we saw Princess Minnie and went to Cabanas. At this point, I gave in and bought the Sea Bands in the shops and ....they WORKED!!!

We had the Princess Gathering with Ariel, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Tiana was under the weather so we had to see her later in the week.

We played Pixar Trivia and actually did OK! S really enjoyed this. We saw Pixar Trivia later in the cruise and she asked if I thought we could win that time...I didn't think so and she found something else to do so this was our last Trivia but not our last attempt for the Mickey Medal!

I went for a run and let me say - it was interesting being out on Deck 4 with the rocking waves. I was super careful and didnt get close to the edges at all - the most interesting part was the small ramps on the deck as the waves moved around.

And another sign that S is growing up - she begged for in and out privileges at the Kids Club. I remember two years ago when they asked us for Baltic if she could have them and I looked at them like they had 3 heads. Last year she didnt want them on the Fantasy but this year she did so we said YES after she showed us she could get us to the room and back multiple times. She even went and saw Stitch alone - something he was very proud of her for - see high five!

C wanted to play Barbies in the room so I met S for some Donald & Daisy and Mickey & Minnie Character Visits.

Dinner was Lumiere's before the ONLY show I make my whole family go to - Tangled!!! - I love it, I loved it two years ago, and I knew the girls would love it. I was right but little C had enough and fell asleep with about 10 minutes left and was asleep for the night. We had a long day the next day so off to bed for all of us from what I can tell.

We also turned the clocks back 1 hour on our way to Iceland, country 36 for me!

 

[BadPinkTink]

I just found the personal navigators for your cruise and I see that you had an overnight in Reykjavik with Open Seating in MDR. Im booked on a September 2020 European cruise with an overnight in Le Harve, so Im interested to read your report from your Reykjavik days

 

[Ladybugx87]

Reykjavik Day #1!
One of the things I loved about this itinerary was the full day and a half docked in Reykjavik because I knew it would give us the flexibility we wanted to explore. The more research I did, the more this became important. I just could not decide between the Golden Circle and the South Coast so I found a private tour with Iceland Go Tours for just the four of us and this was such a good decision - I highly recommend booking them.

As for the day itself, it started with bringing Cabanas to our room and J getting a good run in. We were off the ship by 8:30am and found Gunner easily for our tour for the day.

We started the day with the highlights of the Golden Circle - Gulfoss waterfall, the tectonic plates area where Europe and North America meet, lovely countryside driving, and the amazing geyser. The geyser was especially interesting because you can get so close to it and watch the water move and change as it gets ready to shoot in the air. We had snack time/light lunch at the waterfall tourist area and the girls were thrilled for some ice cream too.

I know that everyone says this is the must do part of the tour and it was great, but our day was about to get even better!!

We started driving towards the South Coast and the sun started shining even more. We made a quick stop for more snacks and put S in the third row to give her more space as we continued on our way. This part of the drive felt a little long but it was totally worth it.

We saw a lot in the afternoon, but here are some of the highlights:

1) An area with 3-4 waterfalls - we actually stopped here and saw the main few waterfalls and then came back later on our way back to the ship for a 'secret' waterfall - basically it's through a rock walkway and then you have a gorgeous waterfall inside. Only DH and our guide went in but a great stop and easy one to make twice!

2) The town of Vik including a black sand beach that is just on the other side of the rock formations side - this side is very calm so the girls could play in the sand. Everyone loved the fresh air and some time for free play, especially younger daughter. Gunner also noticed that older daughter loved horses and stopped at a field with 5 or so horses inside to see them up close.

3) Next up we headed to the more touristic black sand beach with the rogue wave warnings everywhere. Here the rock formations were amazing and it was fun to see how close we had been at the calmer black sand beach. We also grabbed some hot dogs before heading onward.

4) Even though it was getting later at this point, Gunner insisted that we go to the lighthouse viewpoint and I am SO grateful he did - the weather was perfect - in fact, he said he had not been up there since October and we had such a gorgeous day we couldn't pass it up. The views into the Ocean and back towards land were simply breath taking. It seemed there was a wedding happening up there too which was interesting to see.

We arrived back on the ship too late for the open dining at MDR so we dropped our stuff and headed straight to deck 9 where we filled plates with pizza and items from duck in diner before some ice cream and heading back to the room for bed.

 

[Ladybugx87]

I just found the personal navigators for your cruise and I see that you had an overnight in Reykjavik with Open Seating in MDR. Im booked on a September 2020 European cruise with an overnight in Le Harve, so Im interested to read your report from your Reykjavik days

We ended up doing a super long day off the ship for our full day in Reykjavik and missed Open Seating in the MDR by about 20 minutes - people were still in Lumiere's but we wouldn't have wanted to wait for a full sit-down meal at that point. Most people I spoke to were still off ship for MDR Open seating too. Let me know if you have any specific questions though and will try to answer them

 

[BadPinkTink]

We ended up doing a super long day off the ship for our full day in Reykjavik and missed Open Seating in the MDR by about 20 minutes - people were still in Lumiere's but we wouldn't have wanted to wait for a full sit-down meal at that point. Most people I spoke to were still off ship for MDR Open seating too. Let me know if you have any specific questions though and will try to answer them

ah ok, thanks, I think the 2 main questions are the menu , I've only been able to find a Land and Sea menu from 2017 on The Wonder , and if you knew about the serving teams. My overnight is the last night of the cruise, the last time in MDR so if we have the same open dining as you did, Im wondering will I see my serving team to say thank you and goodbye. I'm planning to skip the MDR breakfast on disembarkation day and have breakfast in Cabanas.

 

[Ladybugx87]

ah ok, thanks, I think the 2 main questions are the menu , I've only been able to find a Land and Sea menu from 2017 on The Wonder , and if you knew about the serving teams. My overnight is the last night of the cruise, the last time in MDR so if we have the same open dining as you did, Im wondering will I see my serving team to say thank you and goodbye. I'm planning to skip the MDR breakfast on disembarkation day and have breakfast in Cabanas.

If I see photos of the menu, I will be sure to let you know.

From what I recall, my servers told me where they would be during the different dining times but I know they all had time off of the ship too because we compared what we saw in the different places. I don't know how they are going to handle it with it being your last evening - perhaps they will all need to be on the ship for the dinner shift?

 

[Ladybugx87]

Reykjavik Day 2

After our long day the day before, we didn't have a specific plan for today but knew we wanted to explore Reykjavik some before all aboard at around 1:30pm.

Morning started with DH running about 9 miles off the ship and once he got back, I headed out for about 4 miles. It's super easy to run or walk from the port directly along the shore line.

We hopped on the Disney-provided shuttle to town and were on a relatively empty shuttle. We knew we wanted to walk to the main church along the various streets and were glad we did. We were traveling for my dad's birthday on this trip and he asked for something from Iceland so we stopped at the 66 degrees North store for a shirt for him before continuing to walk the streets. We stopped for a snack and made our way to the church.

The inside of the church is super airy and bright. We thought about going to the overlook tower but decided not to. We wandered back towards the shuttle stop and there was one waiting for us. (I am having issues uploading photos that aren't from Disney onto this report - if you want to see photos from Reykjavik part - check out my personal blog: https://jmsadventure.blogspot.com/2019/08/disney-cruise-iceland-and-norway-cruise.html)

Once back on ship, we had a small lunch and then went to see the Disney Junior Characters- Vampirina, Doc, and Sofia - I realized too late some of these were missing from our Shutters photos.

The girls and I went to play music trivia (we did awful!) and then stayed for our second round of Who Am I. This time they played more like a relay race because it was so well attended but S did really well again.

We took some more pictures, enjoyed dinner, and then headed to the Freezing the Night Away Party which was quite fun. We headed up about 15 minutes early and were able to get the front row.


Next up was more character meet and greets and then we found Goofy who needed help climbing the stairs so the girls played with him and helped him climb the stairs. You know it's fun when C starts cackling which she did.

The last thing I have noted from tonight was the Oaken Maypole event - at one point both girls had a ribbon while waiting to start when C realized people would be watching she ran back to me and then fell asleep on me during the event. She was worn out!

 

[Ladybugx87]

Well, I ended up with some unexpected free time today so here's another update! Akureyri, Iceland today!

The day started with J getting to the gym as soon as it opened for his 14 mile run before our DCL Jewels of the North excursion. This excursion was highly recommended by others on the cruise so I had this noted as a 'must book'.

The excursion started with a drive to Godafoss - also known as God's waterfall - and it was amazing. C and I stayed up at the top of the fall while DH and S climbed the stairs down for even better views!


Next up were the hot springs which were gorgeous but also as stinky as they warn you they will be! Someone on our bus took a great family photo of us. Note that this specific stop didnt have toilets - all of the other stops did.

We then went to an amazing area with different rock formations and where our tour guide kept challenging the kids to find things before the adults (like specific flowers) which the kids always won.

The last stop was to see the craters and have a snack - the desserts with the snack were delightful. I will also mention that it was interesting to see a Crew excursion bus. It pulled in, all the members on the bus ran off quickly, took photos, and got back on the bus and left all in a short matter of time. My brother used to work on another cruise line so I kind of knew what this would be like but seeing it in action was somewhat exciting.

Once back on the ship, we met Captain Marvel and also found Thor and Spiderman roaming the halls. The girls especially loved Spiderman who taught C the right way to make Spidey hands (side bar - DH took S to see the new Spiderman movie before the cruise because that specific movie wasn't on the ship and she loved the movie).



Now it was time for some adult alone time at Palo - we took the girls for a quick dinner and then to the Kids Club. They had a great evening in the Kids Club including an excursion to the D Lounge for Pirate Games.

J and I loved Palo - it was our 3rd timing enjoying it and this time we had the fabulous Sacha. I just love the antipasti plate and the butternut squash main pasta. I went for the souffle (as I have every other time) but J ordered the panna cotta and I know what I want next time instead!

We picked the girls up from the kids club (C was kicking and screaming leaving because she wanted to stay longer) but we were jumping an hour ahead this evening and I knew she needed her sleep.

Next Up - Sea Day with BBB, Pin Trading, and a lot of Fun!

Edited to add some Tips for Excursions:

1) For longer excursions, make sure you have some pre-packaged snacks - for us that was granola bars and I called and got some PB&J sent to our room still in the packages.
2) Bring your own water bottles and fill them up on the ship.
3) Bring the kids iPads if you are in the bus for awhile. I resisted this but then started to and it made everyone happier.

 

[JulieODC]

I was so sad we missed the characters in their Scottish gear!!

Brave to run on that sea day - we really got rocking for a while there.

Love seeing your excursion pictures - we didn’t do the same excursions, but saw many of the same things - the weather was so amazing! So lucky!

 

[Ladybugx87]

Sea Day #3
Our last full Sea Day arrived with an exciting morning - BBB for C - she agreed to only do her nails, makeup, and hair because the Anna dress that we bought on the Fantasy in 2018 still fit her. We arrived and she was seated next to one of S's pen pals so it was a nice morning for everyone. J joined us about halfway through because he had run 5 miles that morning.

BBB was a great experience - her Fairy Godmother in Training was SO much better than the one last year on the Fantasy. She started with a unicorn horn of hair for C before finishing with the traditional bun, glitter and make up. You can see from photos that the Anna dress didn't last long and frankly neither did the bun. She enjoyed it but not sure if we will do BBB anymore.

Next up - snack time and then character visits including Frozen and a meet and Greet with Max, which was new to all of us. I also checked Shutters (but didn't realize some of our Doc and Sofia photos were missing) and took S to the Kids Pin Trading event. The Kids Pin trading event was great - I had happened to walk by the Adults one earlier in the cruise and it was a MADhouse - the Kids one was much more manageable and S even traded 3 pins.

Time for my run and then I met the family for pizza - I didnt note what they did while I ran. The afternoon was spent with time at the Kids Club, more characters, delivering Pixie Dust gifts, and taking Family Photos.

We had dinner at Animator's Palate and then took the girls to the kids club while we finalized plans for next year's 12 night Med Cruise. Candidly, we were thinking the 9 night Sicily/Greece cruise but it was totally booked up AND the dates are slightly worse for work for me so we splurged on 12 night Med. (AND since we have been home, we have decided to take my parents with us - the world has an interesting way of reminding you that people don't live forever and my parents are healthy but in their 70s so we are treating them to their 2nd Disney Cruise.)

We picked up the girls and all headed to bed happy from a wonderful day at Sea!

 

[Ladybugx87]

Alesund, Norway
Time for 3 straight port days before the end of this magical cruise! I was thrilled to approach Norway for a number of reasons - it seemed like a gorgeous country, the tours we had booked were a good mix of things for everyone, AND it was country 37 for me (and I am 37!). I set a personal goal awhile ago for my country count to reach my age and I achieved it (my US states need to catch up - I have only been to 35).

So we arrived in Alesund and had DCL excursion AL01 booked - the Viking Museum & Overlook. It was a perfectly gorgeous day - in fact, they told us they only get 4 days a year as nice as the day we had!

First up was a short drive to the Viking Museum before arriving - this is an open-air museum with homes and other buildings that have been moved to the museum to see how the vikings lived. The kids enjoyed seeing the homes, the furniture, and the school house especially. C was getting antsy so it's good that it was outside.

We had some free time to explore more and the girls of course wanted an ice cream treat before exploring the indoor museum a bit.

Next was a short drive to the overlook - beautiful views in every single direction. This is a place I could sit for hours and just enjoy the views.


We were back to the ship by around 1pm and the girls and I headed to Cabanas while J headed off the ship for a run. Cabanas was fun - we found our server Suttipong and his roommate Tiger and they entertained us while we enjoyed lunch.

The day was perfect for swimming so that was next - C braved the yellow slide for the first time and really loved it - after she had her fill, S rode AquaDunk a handful of times until the line started to grow as more people arrived back from their excursions. We grabbed ice cream and headed back to the room for relaxing time as we left Alesund.

The rest of the day was character carousel, dinner at Rapunzel, Kids Club for the girls, another run for J, and peaceful walking on Deck 4 for me. We picked C up to go to Once Upon a Song, which was fine and she fell asleep during the show. I took her to bed while J picked up S. The three of us enjoyed the gorgeous sunset from the balcony while C slept before all going to bed.

 

[Ladybugx87]

Stavanger, Norway
Next up was Stavanger Norway - my notes started to get less and less as the trip went on but thankfully pictures reminded me of some things!

I woke up early and ran on Deck 4 as we approached the port - it's such a nice time to be out on the Deck - even when mooring is in progress you can make a big U to get a nice run in. When I got back to the room, C was up and wanted to see Hook and Smee so we went. We got back to the room and now S was up and wanted to see them so we ran back down and caught them again.


We had to get ready for our excursion after that - we had a fjord cruise organized in our cruise group - it's the same excursion DCL offers but much cheaper when booked private so we went for this option. One of S's pen pals was on our ship too so they sat and chatted and enjoyed seeing the sites together.

The weather was a bit gloomy and I am not sure that the hike for the Path of the Trolls would have been great to do today, but others on the ship may have done it (our time was tight and our girls are small so we opted for the fjord tour).

Back to the cruise- it was really enjoyable - the fjords are so tall and we saw goats, waterfalls, and had a lovely waffle stop too.

Once back, we headed to lunch while J went out for his run. The girls and I decided to walk Deck 4 after lunch (they like seeing the front and back of the ship) and we happened to spot J coming back on the ship from his run.

The afternoon was character carousel, pin trading, and Heroes Trivia (which we did poorly at). The kid pin trading is really fun for me to watch - a lot of the kids were trying to trade the free pin they got for attending the DVC presentation but no one bit on that. I think S did trade a few pins then but let her do her thing and didnt really watch too closely.


Dinner was in Lumiere's and C had had enough - she fell asleep on my lap and was asleep for the evening.

Another thing you may have noticed- my girls love characters. S decided to track her character interactions on her watch and she was approaching 100 character interactions today. Minnie is by far her favorite. Before we dinner we saw Mickey and Minnie together and S told Minnie she was at 94 interactions for the cruise and she promised to Minnie that Minnie would be 100. Well after dinner, I took C to the room to sleep and J took S back to Mickey and Minnie. Minnie was counting her fingers and remembered S and this was interaction #100! S was very proud.

The rest of the night was laundry and hanging with C for me, the gym for J, and the Kids Club for S. Another great day with a little sadness setting in that our cruise was coming closer to an end.

 

[Ladybugx87]

Gothenburg, Sweden
And now our last port city - Gothenburg, Sweden. We loved Stockholm on the Baltic Cruise a few years ago and were thrilled to visit Sweden again. My planning slightly (but only slightly) failed us today.

The morning started with a lovely deck run for me as we approached the port - it wasn't quite as gorgeous as sailing into Stockholm but it was still lovely.

We brought Cabanas to the room and then the girls and I had fun on the ship while J ran.

For our time on the ship, we did the character carousel including visits on Deck 9 in the Gazebo. If any of you were on our cruise and around us, this was the time that C had an epic melt down trying to meet Goofy and Max so we took a little break before heading to the Edge Open House because S was curious about what it's like. We played some Jenga before moving on. Next up was a stop at Guest Services and they had C's missing dress.

We went to play Who Am I and S rocked it and finally won a coveted Mickey Medal which she has now proudly hung in her room before we grabbed lunch in Cabanas.

Back to J - he took the shuttle into town for his run - he said that it was fairly easy but that there were not people explaining how to get back on the shuttle back to the ship like they had been in Iceland. He figured it out, but said it wasn't the exact spot they dropped off.

and back to my slight planning mishap - we booked the Disney Volvo excursion for Gothenburg - when we arrived into port, we were literally right in front of the Volvo Museum so the girls and I didn't see town at all. Oops!

The Volvo excursion was nice - it was a lot more expensive than just going on our own but we had some special activities so I think it was semi-worth it. There was a tour of the museum followed by snack time and then some special Disney things - C wanted to stay in the play area so J took S to the activities and S loved the tilting truck and her craft project.

Once we were done we headed back to the ship and had a special invite in our room - check out my blog for more on that.

We packed up, girls headed tot he Kids Club, and we had our last dinner at Animator's. Tonight was the night we drew our dinner characters which is always fun. The girls headed back to the Kids Club before our special event (again more on the blog) and bed time.

https://jmsadventure.blogspot.com/2019/08/disney-cruise-iceland-and-norway_18.html

 

[Ladybugx87]

Disembarkation + Travel + Closing Thoughts

The next morning came way too quickly for all of us - our breakfast time was 7am at Animator's. We did express walk off because our flight was at 10:40am, too early for Disney's comfort level, so we trudged down the elevator with all of our bags.

Breakfast was fine and quick - it was nice to say bye to Suttipong and Jose. We grabbed our bags and were able to walk off - our car service insisted on coming at 8:30 even though I told them we'd be ready earlier so I called around 7:50am to see if they could come by sooner. The Copenhagen terminal was a bit mayhem and our driver arrived around 8:20am. We arrived at CPH and checked our bags and were told to head towards the gate because it was 'a long walk'. We went through security, through customs, and kept walking and walking. We did a quick bathroom stop, arrived at the gate, and were able to do express boarding since C is still under the age of 6.

The flight to Toronto was easy and again we were pleased with the food. Customs to get back into the US was painless and then we had a long layover so enjoyed dinner before flying (delayed a bit) to Cleveland. My dad picked us up so we could spend a few days with them before heading to Cincinnati. DH had to leave for a work trip the next day.

Some Closing Thoughts
This trip more than lived up to expectations - I had wanted to take this itinerary for so long and it finally fit our schedules. Everything was amazing and I hope that Disney returns to a full day and a half in Reykjavik for future cruisers.
1) For longer cruises, the pen pals ahead of time are a great idea for the kids - S already has one for next summer.
2) Consider private excursions - I am fairly risk averse and conservative but reputable tour companies will get you back to the ship on time - I enjoyed our two private tours + the DCL Jewels of the North the best. The others were fine but I think Kirkwall and Alesund would have been even better on a private tour. For next summer, I have booked a private tour for Athens already and will likely do so for Santorini and Livorno too. I did find DCL options I think I will like in Mykonos (from old lists) and Cannes.
3) Do not try to do it all - I fully expected to see more of the evening shows, but we were enjoying doing other things and simply didn't get around to them - that's OK.

And if you are on the Magic soon, Paige in the Kids Club, Axl/Axel (not sure of spelling) who leads a lot of the family games, and Tiger (assistant server who we loved from Cabanas) are amazing. Plus Rosetta at the braids station is great- if your daughter wants the braids, it's a steal!

Thanks for reading along and if others find this report in the future, feel free to comment here or message me on disboards with questions. Our cruise was made immensely better by reading trip reports and getting advice from my cruise group.

Edited to add - we are doing the 12-night Med Greece and Italy next summer! I am trying not to get into crazy planning mode yet but from the above you can see I did look at some tours. We have a guaranteed Oceanview room (first time trying non verandah) but DH asked me to keep watching for verandah to open. AND I might have mentioned this but a few things happened after the cruise that remind me people don't live forever so we have booked my parents (in their 70s but very healthy and active) on the next cruise too. I'll probably be back with another pre-cruise report in the new year!

 

[Deb T.]

Enjoyed your report. We were on the same cruise, but without kids and definitely not runners, so our experience was a tad bit different. We had late dining (with friends) and did different excursions than you, so it was nice to read what your days were like. We were down the hall from you (on the other side of the laundry room), and in the same Candy Exchange!

You're right, the laundry room was super busy the whole cruise. We heard non-stop clanking of dryers and occasional heated discussions over people not coming back in time to take their clothes out of washers/dryers when their stuff was done. Even being just 2 doors down from the laundry room, it was difficult to snag an empty washer, so I ended up doing ours 11pm-1am the night of our 1st Iceland day.

Thanks for taking the time to write and post your trip report!

 

[Texas Twin Sis]

Looks like you're good that this trip report thing, how do you add in the pictures to your text?

 

[Ladybugx87]

Looks like you're good that this trip report thing, how do you add in the pictures to your text?

I’m not perfect by any means. I uploaded them by ‘attach files’ and then plugged them in where I wanted them. I’m enjoying reading your take on our cruise too!!

 

[Ladybugx87]

hey everyone- I started a pre-trip report for our 2020 12-night Med if you want to follow along: https://www.disboards.com/threads/spending-12-nights-on-the-magic-in-the-med.3783821/

 

[Ladybugx87]

That sounds like a wonderful cruise

Nothing next summer but my parents' 50th Anniversary Cruise over NYE and then Mom's b2b Bahamian cruise for her 70th bday. Neither are exotic nor super interesting but her "happy place" is Castaway Cay!

Non DCL is Viking Australia and New Zealand in February---I was too impatient to wait for DCL to go there

Hope you are enjoying your parents' Anniversary Cruise! Would love to hear highlights!

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

Thank you for this very informative trip report. I’ve been undecided these last few months about whether to keep our reservation for the 2020 version of this itinerary. There are just too many things I want to see/do in Iceland, and I thought a land trip might be better. Also a bit wary of the sea crossing to Iceland being rough.
Over Christmas however we have made the decision to just go for it...full on planning mode has begun.
I will also follow your Greek isles report with interest...I suspect we will be looking at this itinerary for the following year!