Northern European the Magic Norwegian Fjords and all... June 4, 2017

jenbuFL

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Hello-This is my 2nd trip report so bear with me and my (maybe) unconventional writing style. This was our 6th cruise with DCL. The other trip report was of our Alaskan cruise in June of 2015. I still read through that trip report when the memories get a little foggy. So I thought I would give it another go.

We are me, my husband, and our 15 year old and 11 year old sons. We live in Florida so we were looking forward to a change in weather and scenery.

We had a 7 pm flight from Orlando on June 2nd on Icelandair. We had a short layover in Iceland and then arrived in Copenhagen around 1:30 pm on Saturday, June 3rd. Unfortunately, not all of our bags made it back onto the plane during the layover. After a long wait at CPH, the woman at baggage assistance told us that indeed our bag was still in Iceland. 3 out of the 4 bags we had did make it. The nice lady had assured me that Icelandair would deliver our bag to the Magic the next day. I felt very uneasy with that! There really was no other option for us than just to trust the system and have faith that it would all work out. The airport is a good distance to the port so that only added to my worries. The nice lady assured us that "this happens all the time...." -definitely not helping. :scared:

So we went on with our plans for the day. Our plan was to take the train to Malmo, Sweden. I had researched and learned that there is luggage storage in the parking ramp P4 at CPH. We brought our luggage over to the storage area. Our 3 large bags and 2 backpacks fit into one large locker. We paid for 24 hours-although you can pick a shorter time allotment (4 hours) but I didn't want to risk going over our time limit. The 24-hour locker was 100DKK ($15.00).

We got our tickets to Malmo which also includes the train into Copenhagen's central station. To be honest I don't know exactly how far the ticket covers in Copenhagen. I asked the person helping with tickets to make sure we didn't need to buy a separate ticket to go to the central station in Copenhagen. I was told that ticket would cover us back and forth to Malmo (from CPH) and to central station. The price for 2 adults, 15 year old and 11 year old was 268 DKK about $40.

The train took about 20 minutes and we got off at the Triangeln station in Malmo. Our goal was to visit Malmo Brewing Company. We had a refreshing pint and then got back on the train and headed to central station in downtown Malmo. There are quite a few bike sharing/rental programs and we had decided to use Donkey Republic. Donkey Republic was great. You use your smartphone to unlock the bikes. The bikes were located in an underground garage. We were able to unlock all 4 with just one phone. The bikes fit all of us-even my 11 year old. They are great because you can lock and unlock them with the app on your phone-but no worries you don't need cell service. The cost is around 100 SEK ($11.50) for 24 hours. Malmo is a great city for bike riding. We went to see the Turning Torso up close and visited a few playgrounds. We rode all around before we stopped at Max Burger for a quick bite to eat. We brought the bikes back to central station-with Donkey Republic you have to bring the bikes back to the place where you rented it.

We got on the train and headed back to CPH to pick up our luggage. After picking up the luggage we got back on the train and headed to central station (Kobenhavns). Our hotel was Hotel Danmark less than a mile from the central station (just around Tivoli). We were able to walk to the hotel although it wasn't the smoothest walk since in was nearly 11pm and we were all pretty tired and the sidewalks were pretty crowded with Saturday night party goers. The hotel was very nice. Although the junior suite we had booked was no longer available we were given another room that was big enough for all of us and we all fell fast asleep. Breakfast was included and it was a simple but good breakfast.

On tap for the day was a canal tour and then a stop at the Round Tower. We were able to store our luggage at the hotel and set out to rent bikes again. This time we tried Go bikes (30DKK per hour). There are banks of Go bikes all over. Each bike has a screen attached to the bike. The screen allows you to rent the bike and it allows you to lock and unlock the bike with a special password that you pick. Go bikes are heavier than regular bikes because they are power assisted. The bikes worked great for most of us but were too heavy for my 11 year old to control. Fortunately, there was a bank of Donkey Republic bikes right there so we rented one of those for my youngest.

We rode over to the canal tours at Nyhavn. It was a wonderful tour although it had started raining. So I would bounce back and forth from inside to outside to take pictures. We learned quite a bit about Copenhagen and it's history. The tour lasted for about an hour. After the tour we headed over to the Round Tower. It was still raining so the views from the top were pretty drizzly and therefore we didn't spend much time on the observation deck. The Tower itself is really neat and we enjoyed our time checking it out.

It was about 1 pm and we decided it was time to head to the ship. We headed back to Hotel Danmark to collect our luggage and get a cab to the port. The front desk called us a cab and it was there within 5 minutes. The trip to the port was about 20-25 minutes. There were no lines at the terminal and we made it onto the ship within 20 minutes. Since it was about 2 pm our stateroom was ready so we were able to drop our backpacks and check out our little oasis for the week.

After lunch at Cabana's we headed back to the room and much to our happiness our lost bag was there! I was pleasantly surprised that it had indeed worked out and our lost bag had made the long journey from Iceland to the Magic by itself!

Next up day at sea....ATTACH=full]245283[/ATTACH] turing torso.jpg roundtower2.jpg roundtower.jpg canaltour3.jpg canaltour2.jpg canal tour.jpg [GALLERY=][/GALLERY]
 

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I was on the same cruise so following to find out how yours went as you probably did different excursions etc.
 
[GALLERY=]Sea days are lazy days for us so not a lot to write about. We slept in until 10-10:30 and then wondered up to Cabana's to grab some breakfast/lunch. We did part take in the Mickey 200. Each team is given a potato, a carrot, 4 wheels and 2 toothpicks to build their racecar. Our car survived 3 heats to be the top car! It was a fun way to spend some time together as a family.

We did go to the fitness center for a workout while the boys watched a movie in the stateroom. The equipment was nice and you are able to watch the same movies and TV programming that is available in your stateroom.

Before dinner, we went to the Danny Buckley show at Fathoms. I really enjoyed his style of comedy and magic. We did go to his adult only show the night before and enjoyed that as well.

We always choose late dining while cruising. We tend to eat dinner late at home and we have found the dinners feel less rushed during second seating. Although the dinners were good the speed of service was painfully slow for us. We don't order wine and it seemed as if all the other tables assigned to our service team did. I'm not sure if it added to the slow pace but it was one thing that we did notice. The food was excellent as always but I am not one to take pictures or write about what we ate. I have a very immature palate and most fine cuisine is lost on me anyway. :)

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We were on the same cruise as you and Sunday in Copenhagen was rainy. We arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon and the weather was beautiful on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
 
Following along. I am looking at this itinerary for summer 2019. By then my DS's will be 11 and 8. Curious to know if you think my kids would enjoy it too.

Thanks for sharing.
 


We were on the same cruise as you and Sunday in Copenhagen was rainy. We arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon and the weather was beautiful on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
we'd just got off the Magic from the Northern Europe and had to wait until 6pm for our flight - the rain wasn't ideal!
 
Stavanger All ashore 7:45 am~all aboard 4:45 pm

Our plan had always been to hike to Pulpit rock (Preikestolen). We did this excursion on our own. Disney's minimal age is 12 but even if it wasn't we would have still done it on our own. The price for the ferry and bus was 960 NOK ($112.00) total for all 4 of us. We saved a bundle! I know there are benefits when booking excursions with Disney and I totally understand why people book with them but for our family doing this excursion on our own was totally doable. All ashore was at 7:45 and the first ferry was at 8:00. We wanted to be on that first ferry and have more time to enjoy the hike. We were waiting on Deck 1 when the doors opened. It was less than a mile to the ferry dock. We did double time it to ensure we were on that ferry. I know some of the other passengers took a cab. I didn't want to wait for a cab or waste time finding one and risk missing the ferry, although they may have prearranged a pick up to speed things up. I had bought our ferry/bus tickets online so we walked onto the ferry and it departed by 8:02 am.

The ferry was fairly quick and then we boarded a bus to the base of the hike. They pack a lot of people on the buses so I guess that is good to make sure everyone gets there. The bus ride was about 20 minutes and we started our hike about 9:00 am. It is a tough hike but we saw lots of different hiking abilities. We saw families with small children, hikers with babies on their back, and both big and little dogs. We are a pretty active family and it took us about 1 hour and 40 minutes to go up and about 1 hour and 20 minutes down. We had great weather so the rocks weren't too slippery that really helped on the way down.

The top was beautiful but incredibly windy. The wind was so strong it made me nervous that someone was going to lose their footing and fall. I didn't really enjoy our time at the top. The wind made it so uncomfortably cold and I learned my fear of heights is more intense than I thought. My husband and sons didn't mind the wind at all and probably could have spent more time at the top. We did stay for about 30 minutes, enough time for pictures and a snack and then headed down.

I think we were ahead of the larger groups of Disney folks heading up so the way down wasn't as congested as I thought it would be. There were parts that it was tight but not terrible. We made it down in time to see the 12:45 bus pull away. Big bummer. The next bus was at 1:25. We took some pictures and checked out the gift shop. About 1:15 we joined the group of folks that were already lined up for the bus. Unfortunately this is the point of the story were things go south. The bus was late...really late. The ferry was late which in turn made the bus run behind schedule. The bus didn't arrive until sometime after 2:00 maybe even 2:15. The problem was when the bus did arrive and started boarding people from the back of the line rushed the doors to get ahead of the people that had been waiting for an hour or more. Tensions were running high. Since missing this bus may have lead to missing the ferry and who knows maybe missing the ship. The chaos getting on the bus didn't last long and the driver packed it full so everyone who was waiting made it on. Luckily the ferry was still there and everyone that was on the bus made it on the ferry. Some of the Disney buses were behind us so we knew we were going to make the ferry. :)

We made it back to Stavanger at 3:15 and headed over to the playground at the Petroleum museum. My husband didn't think he would have enough time to check out the museum so we just relaxed and watched the boys play on the unusual playground equipment. Then we stopped by a grocery store to grab some treats and a few regional beers to bring back to ship.
 
Next up Alesund, Norway June 7th

All ashore 9 am All aboard 8 pm

I had reserved a rental car with Avis. The rental office was very close to the port-less than a 10-minute walk. We wanted to experience the walk up to the Fjellstua viewpoint on Mount Aksla. We found a parking lot near a park that was near the base of the steps. The walk up wasn't too bad as there was a group of preschoolers also making the climb up. The views were amazing! There were quite a few tour buses up there and it was a bit crowded but we got our pictures and then went to search out the old WWII bunkers. We found the bunkers and took a few pictures before heading back down the stairs. I would say we spent about an hour or so here.

Back in the rental car, we headed to Gudbrandsjuvet. It was about a 90-minute drive through beautiful countryside. When we arrived at Gudbrandsjuvet we were the only ones there. It was so peaceful! We took lots of pictures. The cafe was closed but the restrooms were open and available.

After Gudbrandsjuvet we headed to Trollstigen Center. There is a visitor center/cafe and a large gift shop. The weather was very cold and very windy. We did go all the way out to the viewing platform, Plattingen and got great pictures of Trolligsten Road. There are certain stretches of the road that it is only wide enough to accommodate one vehicle at a time. We watched as some drivers had to reverse until there was enough room for the two cars to pass. We did have a quick snack at the cafe and headed out to drive the Trolligsten Road. We were fortunate and did not meet another car on our way down the road. The drive down was amazing!

After Trolligsten we headed back to Alesund. I had read about the Alesund tradition of building a bonfire out of wood pallets to celebrate the summer solstice called "Slinningsbalet". Last year's tower was 47.4 meters (155 ft) high and since we had the time we thought we would check it out. The spot where the tower was being constructed was not too far out of the way (from Avis). Since we were there a few weeks before the festival the pallet tower was not at the final height but it was still fun to see.

We returned the rental car and headed to walk around the town for a little bit before heading back to the ship. We did stop by a grocery store and grabbed a few local beers to enjoy and some treats to bring back home. The city is very charming and easy to navigate. We walked back to the ship around 7:30-7:45 just in time to hear Glen Dolberg's talk on Geiranger before dinner.

alesund5.jpg Alesund4.jpggudbrandsjuvet3.jpg Gudbrandsjuvet2.jpg Gudbrandsjuvet.jpg WWIIbunker.jpg
 
After dinner, we heard the bad news.......The ship would not be stopping in Geiranger. It was very disappointing. The captain had announced that the winds were going to be out of limits to use the ship walk. It is a portable dock that allows passengers to walk from the ship to the port. The new plan was to sail the fjords.
 
Can I ask who was the Cruise Director for this cruise? I'll be on the Magic on August 19th and was wondering if Clayton was still on
 
Can I ask who was the Cruise Director for this cruise? I'll be on the Magic on August 19th and was wondering if Clayton was still on

We did have Clayton as our CD! This is our 3rd cruise with him. His roots are in Minnesota also so we always make it a point to seek him out and chit chat. He is so personable! Not to be too corny but he really makes every guest feel special.
 
Loving your TR so far! Thanks for sharing! One question - do they normally sail through the fjords? I kind of assumed they did, but now I'm wondering...
 

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