Our Magical "Fjords, Vikings and Castles" Norway Cruise - June 2015 - w/ pics - Completed!

As we were walking near the pier, I saw a lot of people congregated in front of the souvenir shop. Can you say “free Wi-Fi”? Come on people, you’re in one of the most beautiful places on earth, disconnect already! :sad2: :rolleyes:

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free wi-fi became a running joke on the Iceland 11 night cruise
 
I'm so sad your trip is ended :sad::sad:

Gorgeous pictures and great read til the very end. I particularly enjoyed your pictures of Tivoli. We went there on the Friday before the cruise and had a walk around (we had the Copenhagen card and entry to the park was included). We did a couple of rides (including the Flying Trunk, which I loved) and had dinner there, but didn't really have enough time to explore - we made the mistake of going with our daughter to a play area (next to the Lighthouse ride) and it took us forever to get her out of there, she was loving it too much!

And what a brilliant end to the trip, upgraded to business for an 11 hour long flight :cheer2:

Thank you very much for sharing your trip with us :thumbsup2
 
free wi-fi became a running joke on the Iceland 11 night cruise

:rotfl:

I'm so sad your trip is ended :sad::sad:

Gorgeous pictures and great read til the very end. I particularly enjoyed your pictures of Tivoli. We went there on the Friday before the cruise and had a walk around (we had the Copenhagen card and entry to the park was included). We did a couple of rides (including the Flying Trunk, which I loved) and had dinner there, but didn't really have enough time to explore - we made the mistake of going with our daughter to a play area (next to the Lighthouse ride) and it took us forever to get her out of there, she was loving it too much!

And what a brilliant end to the trip, upgraded to business for an 11 hour long flight :cheer2:

Thank you very much for sharing your trip with us :thumbsup2

Yes, it was the cherry on top of an awesome trip. pixiedust: Thanks for reading along and sharing your comments.

Fun trip! Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you for reading. :flower3:
 


Wow! I just read your entire trip report and loved all your pictures and information. :) Thank you for sharing!! We are going on the Norway/Iceland cruise next July and am very excited.
It looks like Copenhagen is a very walkable city. Would you say it is easy to walk from Nyhaven to Tivoli or is that too far? Also I was interested in your private tour to the Zealand castles. Who did you use and would you recommend them? Any info you can pass along would be great!

Thanks again I really enjoyed reading all about your trip. :) :)
 
Thank you so much! :flower3:

Yes, Copenhagen is completely walkable and easy to navigate. You can get maps from any hotel or visitor center. It probably took us 15-20 minutes to walk from Tivoli to Nyhavn. We walked from one side to the other with no problem. It is easier to walk than grab a taxi. If you bike, Copenhagen is the most bike friendly city in Europe.

We used Tours In Copenhagen for our day trip to Zealand. I highly recommend them. My neighbor set it up and they were very accommodating to our needs and Jens and Jon did a great job!
 
Thank you so much! :flower3:

Yes, Copenhagen is completely walkable and easy to navigate. You can get maps from any hotel or visitor center. It probably took us 15-20 minutes to walk from Tivoli to Nyhavn. We walked from one side to the other with no problem. It is easier to walk than grab a taxi. If you bike, Copenhagen is the most bike friendly city in Europe.

We used Tours In Copenhagen for our day trip to Zealand. I highly recommend them. My neighbor set it up and they were very accommodating to our needs and Jens and Jon did a great job!

Thank you !!!
 


Found this TR a week or so ago and have been reading some every day and just finished it. I really enjoyed reading all about your trip! This itinerary really appeals to me, I would love to take this or a similar cruise someday.
 
Day 1 – Travel

Thursday, June 4, 2015

After 15 months of anticipation, planning, researching websites, reading Cruise Critic, watching Rick Steves videos, selecting excursions, and booking airfare and hotels; our adventure is finally beginning. I have to say though, I felt at a loss. Because this was Disney’s first trip to Norway, I had no trip reports to read so I felt I was going into this blind.



We were up at 4:00 AM to get ready and put last minute items in our luggage. We had ordered an Execu-Car from Super Shuttle to pick us up at 5:00 AM to get us to the airport for our 7:30 flight to Dulles. I tried to check in online 24 hours before our flight, but SAS wouldn’t let me since we had a leg with another carrier, even though SAS booked it. Anyway, when I got to the ticket counter, I couldn’t use the self-serve kiosk and had to have an agent print my boarding passes and luggage tags. Evidently SAS did not release the reservation to United. No bother, it was all sorted out and we had our boarding passes for both legs of our journey. We then went through TSA, pre-check so we didn’t have to take off our shoes or show our 3-1-1 bags. Very nice! However, I was randomly selected to have my hands swabbed. We then went to our gate and waited to board. We had 3 seats together for the 4 hour flight to Dulles. Our flight was uneventful and landed on-time. It was raining when we landed in Dulles. We had to take what looked like a rover with a subway car on top across the tarmac to the International terminal to catch our SAS flight.

The terminal was truly international with almost every international airline represented. We saw British Airways, Saudi Arabia Airlines, Thai Airlines and some airlines I had never heard of. We didn’t eat much breakfast so we were hungry and decided to grab some pizza in the terminal. We had people from several different nationalities eating next to us. There were flags hanging from the ceiling from various countries and it was fun trying to name the countries. It didn’t even feel like we were still in the U.S., except for the Washington D.C. souvenir kiosks.

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After eating we found our gate and waited for our flight to board. Boarding was done from 2 gates with SAS Business an SAS Plus boarding separately. Boarding was very easy and quick.

We found our seats and were very happy with the extra room they afforded us. We were also thrilled to have individual TV screens, pillow and a care package including ear buds, eye mask for sleeping, toothpaste and toothbrush and a bag to put our shoes in. During the entire flight, you could track our progress and we flew over the Atlantic. It was pretty cool. As you can see, we took a northerly route to Copenhagen just flying south of Iceland.



Shortly after take-off, the flight attendants came by with hot wash cloths so we could refresh ourselves. We were then served beverages and dinner. We had a choice between an Asian chicken dish and ravioli. We chose the ravioli. After dinner, the lights were dimmed in the cabin and passengers were encouraged to sleep. DD and I had not seen Cinderella when it was released in the theaters and was hoping to see it on the ship. As it happened, Cinderella was one of the featured movies we could watch free on the plane, so we both watched it. I liked it. After the movie, I tried to get some sleep. It wasn’t easy with DD poking my arm and telling me she couldn’t sleep. We have been through this before. Evidently, if she can’t sleep, none of us can.

DH had to wake me up as the attendant’s came by with warm wash cloths before they served breakfast, so apparently I got some sleep. Anyway, a traditional Norwegian style breakfast was served with meat and cheese and fruit.

We didn’t have window seats. The plane was equipped with a camera in the front and below so we could see what we were flying over, but at night, there wasn’t much to see until we approached Denmark.



It wasn’t long after breakfast that we landed in Copenhagen at around 7:15 AM. When we got off the plane we were directed to Passport control. We made our first encounter with somebody else coming to sail on the Magic while we waited in the passport line. The agent stamped our passport and we went to retrieve our luggage. DCL was waiting at the luggage carousels to greet us and arrange our transportation. We met Jessica and talked with her while we waited for our luggage. We were then led to another part of the terminal to wait on our Sprinter mini-bus. Once the bus arrived we were escorted out with our luggage and loaded the Sprinter. We waited a short time for another family of 3, our second encounter with fellow cruisers.

At around 8:30 AM we headed towards our hotels. The other family was dropped off first at the Radisson Blu. Then we were dropped off at the Tivoli Hotel.



I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the hotel. It has a conference center too so it is large and currently going through construction for even more expansion. Obviously, our rooms (we had to book 2 rooms for 3 people) were not ready this early, so we gathered what we needed for our first day of sightseeing, checked our bags with bell services, got directions to City Hall from the concierge and set off for our first full day of exploration in Copenhagen.

Next: A full day in Copenhagen.
Thank you so much for sharing this! We're headed to Norway out of Dover in May 2016.
 
Wow! You're not on the DIS for a while and my TR gets resurrected! :)

Found this TR a week or so ago and have been reading some every day and just finished it. I really enjoyed reading all about your trip! This itinerary really appeals to me, I would love to take this or a similar cruise someday.

:thanks: It was the itinerary that hooked us as well. If you ever get a chance to cruise in this part of the world, you will not regret it.


Thank you so much for sharing this! We're headed to Norway out of Dover in May 2016.

:flower3: You're welcome. Have a great cruise!

Thank you for sharing your trip. We have the same cabin booked for the same cruise this summer :-)

:flower3: You will love the cabin and the location relative to everything on the ship.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful trip photos & report :tigger:

:flower3: You're welcome. Thanks for reading!
 
Just read your entire trip review and may I say...WOW.
Family and I are headed on the 7 day June 29Th and we are very excited. Bearing in mind this is our first cruise and we have an 8&5 year old with us, any tips or suggestions /can't miss items? Day excursions look gorgeous, did you see many little ones enjoying the scenery or was it more catered to old kids/adults.
Again, thank you for the detailed review and amazing pictures!!!!
 
Just read your entire trip review and may I say...WOW.
Family and I are headed on the 7 day June 29Th and we are very excited. Bearing in mind this is our first cruise and we have an 8&5 year old with us, any tips or suggestions /can't miss items? Day excursions look gorgeous, did you see many little ones enjoying the scenery or was it more catered to old kids/adults.
Again, thank you for the detailed review and amazing pictures!!!!

Thank you so much for your kind comments! You will love Norway and your cruise in general. I can honestly say that we saw people from all ages on our DCL tours. Not sure if the kids would enjoy the city tours as you are on the bus a lot. I would look for more interactive things for them to do. There were some excursions to small farms where you can interact with the animals. I would look more for those. You definitely cannot miss the overlooks in Alesund and Bergen. Those are must sees, as well as the overlooks in Geiranger.

Enjoy your cruise!
 
Day 7: Geiranger (Continued) - Geiranger Overlooks

Important information for the day.

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When we were cleared to disembark, DCL photographers were there on the Sea Walk ready to take our pictures. It was the best group picture we took the entire trip!

It was extremely windy and a little drizzly. However, we found the Sea Walk to be as stable as any pier on land. It was cool walking across it.

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Here is a cute little café.

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Again, because of the wheelchair, DNC arranged for a private van to take us to the overlooks and up to Mt. Dalsnibba. We met our driver and a 9 passenger van. It started raining as we found our driver and loaded up the van. It was close quarters, but it was wonderful as the driver took us to the various overlooks. He started heading out one side of the village towards Eagle Bend road with these 11 hairpin turns.

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All along the way we had great view of the Magic.

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Some of the countryside on the way up.

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Then he stopped at one overlook.

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Then we reached Eagle’s Bend overlook. This is a beautifully designed overlook, not just a cut out in the road.

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We had several minutes here to take pictures by ourselves before a tour bus unloaded.

We had to go back through Geiranger to get up to Mt. Dalsnibba. We stopped at the Flydalsjuvet overlook after going back through town.

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It was touch and go on whether the road to Mt. Dalsnibba would be open. They started clearing the road in May and had to suspend operations because of avalanches. I was watching ICruiser’s thread on Cruise Critic and he let us know that the road opened about a week before we got here. The higher we climbed, the less visibility there was to the bottom of the fjord.

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Once we made our way up the winding road with the snow piled 8 feet high on the sides of the road, we couldn’t tell where the snow ended and the sky began.

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Helicopter tours were going on.

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We got to the top and actually got snowed on. DD and DH even had a snowball fight. I was expecting “Marshmallow” to come out at any time to defend Elsa’s ice castle.

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We encountered another troll.

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After our overlook tour we were dropped back into town near the pier. We passed this tour bus on the way back down. You can see how high the snow is actually piled.

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Next: Waterfall Walk
Hi, do you know if disney have a tour like this one? Thanks
 
Hi, do you know if disney have a tour like this one? Thanks
The closest tour I can see on the DCL website is the Dalsnibba Viewoint and Fjord Center tour. DCL also offers private vehicles. However, you can save money by booking independently. We had a large number of people and a wheelchair, so doing a private tour worked better for us. I know that there is a bus that leaves from the port that goes to the viewpoints as well.

Here a website to check out. http://www.geirangerfjord.no/panoramic-bus-geiranger-2
 
The closest tour I can see on the DCL website is the Dalsnibba Viewoint and Fjord Center tour. DCL also offers private vehicles. However, you can save money by booking independently. We had a large number of people and a wheelchair, so doing a private tour worked better for us. I know that there is a bus that leaves from the port that goes to the viewpoints as well.

Here a website to check out. http://www.geirangerfjord.no/panoramic-bus-geiranger-2
Thanks, I read your trip report when you posted but I booked Norway for next year and I love the panning stage.
 
Thanks, I read your trip report when you posted but I booked Norway for next year and I love the panning stage.
Congratulations! You will have a Magical cruise to Norway! Have fun planning and remember to book excursions as early as you can!
 

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