I did the 12 night Copenhagen Norway to Iceland and Scotland cruise, it was a fantastic cruise, the ports were wonderful, the nature fantastic, Iceland the jewel in the crown, Scotland wonderful where we had a great local send off.
Firstly seas.
The seas were OK, bar going out of Bergen where we hit very bad seas, the ship was shaking, I have sailed in two back ends if hurricanes and if they were a " 10" thus was a " 9". Deck 4 was closed off, few went to dinner that night, the animators colour show had say 20% tables full, and the hygiene man was kept very busy, coming to deal with spills.
On our cruise meets group of 150 cruisers, we all agreed this was a bad night, more noticeable in the lower decks like deck two where many were ill, Cabanas was busy on the higher deck where people decided to eat.
Deck 8 where we were was less random movement, was bearable, we spent the least time we could on decks 3/4.
Seas were great apart from that with sunny sea days, and people in the pools.
Weather
Apart from that storm out of Bergen, we had rain in Bergen, and slight rain in Kristainsand, Oslo was sunny, bar one major shower we missed, Iceland sunny, tee shirt weather, Scotland, sunny, and quite nice, on ship there was fog, the fog horn blew overnight and some mornings, very noisy if you near cover cafe or forward.
We took rain coats and jumpers, we used them in Bergen and took them off first day in Iceland and then didn't use them.
It was cold and windy on ship st night.
Food.
Good spread of food, excellent in Palo, Cove cafe the cakes were poor, desserts at dinner poor, cabanas great, great hard ice cream there good choice, cabanas in the evening was either a sit down meal or the cabanas dinner buffet, very good. Mistakes were made at dinner, plastic in a soup, wrong meal brought out, but service fast. Many staff doubled up, our assistant server also helped st palo brunch.
Characters. Family
We booked online, they sold out, but good availability on embarkation, queues fir changing dinner sitting to main, and private tables, queues for palo, we got a second brunch as well as a dinner, most people got private dinner request. People had not realised late started at 8.30 and was very late. Some misinformation, so families swapping to Main.
We went to Late one night, there was say about 15% of tables used, Main was always full, Cabanas early evening very full.
Frozen party was said online to be indoors, it was a deck party, and not very good IMHO. Just karaoke.
Theme nights.
We had one formal night,
DCL ahead of time said it would be Oslo night, I was right it was Kristiansand night as we left earlier. One semi formal, and all others cruise casual. Formal night may have had say 50% dressed up, then semi formal a slight effort, Palo was very relaxed ai saw leggings tee shirts, little jackets, I was over dressed in a suit, service by a friend was fantastic. Thry gave upgraded the menus for brunch and dinner, the brunch calzone is great and the dinner Ozo lamb fantastic .
I have scans if all the menus inc MDRs there like 2015 had expanded regional variations menues lot of choice, more on them than any online blog shows currently.
Petes boiler bites had expanded options Swedish meat ball dub, spicy ckicken burger, and the kebabs next door with chicken lamb on a spit, and you could have them on pita bread or in a wrap, pizzas had specials like Norwegian salmon and BBQ ckicken.
Cove cafe has an update menu more like Starbucks now, I have a copy, as said the dessert cakes there were poor.
Entertainment
Tangled great, we got a
castaway club behind the scenes morning presentation of enhancements to twice charmed, an afternoon matinee of tangled, which had queues 45 minutes before starting and was full as the doors opened, both were spectacular, twice charmed more like a pantomime now eith added jokes and the chsnges storyline.
Disney dreams was upgraded but the story the sane with the frozen added songs.
Guest entertainers, the jugglers were very poor, the Beatles abs abba tributes great, the Broadway singer fantastic, we had more than enough to entertainment, Greta the Icelandic violin player great, junk in fathoms, and other performers outside MDRs. Clay ton the CD is fantastic, walked the ship and very pro active as a CD. I have all the navigators but I cannot post just yet. Will do a TR when well.
Copenhagen, 90% of our group stayed at Tivoli Hotel that's very good.
Taxis plentiful, easy to get, within five minutes, we read horror stories not true. Sane as threads posted here re Dover issues, we had none.
Embarkation we dropped luggage off at 9.45, the terminal didn't open till 10.30 am, there was not a good queue st the start until a lot of people are there say 10.15. I think we were about 20th there, many cane later, they then firmed three lines, left middle and right, the people who were there later and queues right jumped to the front if the line, we were on the middle and one made who got there say 30 minutes after Ts complained that our checker key us through before her.
Inside as platinum we checked in at concierge, was fast, for embarkation it started around 11.30 with concierge going from thier area, but an ugly scene by a few platinum cruisers demanding to go in with concierge as thier boarding cards said " anytime" on them.
Embarkation was fast, you go in at deck two. CMs man the elevators to deck 3 for the announcement or to deck 9, we went to 9.
Luggage was fast we got three of four bags at 1.30 one came post muster drill.
Port adventures
I normally book private and was rewarded on this.
We only booked one DCL tour at Kristiansand for the steam train, on embarkation the letter said it was cancelled due to low participation, but on our cruise meets seemed everyone booked the 7.45 am one. I went to port adventures the man there was disinterested, most tours sold out, didn't mention the second steam train was running, I didn't book anything, but a friend booked the train for he when shortly after they saw a different CM.
I know others had difficulty booking the blue lagoon at Iceland as it was full, I booked mine in December at a lower price.
With my private tours, I choose what I did and when, and updated when there, Priavte tours are the way to go, I booked well in advance many sell out quickly like extreme Iceland and in Kirkwall, Orkney aspects are full on some dates for 2017 on DCL days.
Oslo private guide you dock in the city no need for transport, we got Oslo cards, had a great guide, and saw additional things like the national gallery and the scream, it was free that day, we saw the palace, Vigeland park, and I suggest going on the subway and bus and tram to get around.
Bergen Private guide, booked funicular in advance, we avoided most if the queues, it did rain, but we did a lot. I cancelled one guide service as they didn't communicate well with me, my guide was great.
Iceland, brilliant fantastic words fail. We had three fantastic trips with extreme Iceland, rather than bearded in groups of 55 with half getting a window seat and stopping at tourist places, we stopped in quite places, went at times we wanted, moved in when we wanted, went off the beaten tracks, avoided queue, eat locally ( one expensive, one a supermarket but great) we did two of the geothermal baths both great, blue lagoon check in was chaotic. Everyone should go to Iceland at least once, even with the sea crossing from Bergen it was worth it.
DCL tours are NOT the way to do it, heard numerous complaints.
Think " outside the box" if you have an overnight stay in Iceland, use it, stay out late, use that time, there us daylight 20 hours a day, have city tour at 9 pm or 10 pm.
Scoyland the people do nice we had a pip highland pipe band play us off, the characters cane out and it seemed all of the islanders cane out to sent us off, there are videos on the picture of the day thread.
We saw so much, note it us small and things book up fast.
Invergordon, we had a private tour, Loch Ness Urquhart castle, for Augustus, and then nature, waterfalls that tour coaches can't get to, then time in Inverness.
First time ever an issue on a private tour the van broke down the guide got us a taxi and paid fir it, we were back well before all onboard.
Issues,
Queuing to get on the ship, say like Iceland second day at 4 pm, queues that were unmanaged, longer then Soarin in WDW, The terrible misinformation at port adventures, people finding LATE dinner far too late after a day touring, and trying to swap to Main, the poor jugglers for entertainment in WDT, one guy just kept dropping everything and the seas were calm that night.
They took our UK /EU passports on embarkation saying thry had to take all non EU passports, UK has not left yet, this was a mistake, but have photo ID that is an alternative to a passport as they can be taken, there was an immigration check by the UK post Icelabd starting at 8.30 am deck by deck, we were through in a minute. It was the same morning as our character breakfast, they should try to avoid clashes, we just went to our CB early, we had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto.
Dover disembarkation was fast from 7 am, but not all luggage was out, pre book taxes and agree a meeting place.
Summary.
Prepare for the possibility of bad seas.
Book private tours and guides well in advance.
Whatever you think you know about Iceland it will quite literally blow you away, get good local guides.
It can be cool, cold at night.
Service great, but queues most times st guest services.
Join an active cruise meets group, ours was great, we helped each other, some booked tours together, saved money, an active FE and candy swap group, some joined a bit late join early. We had 150 in our group, but that leaves a lot who didn't join, and when I talked with cruisers not part of the group, lack of research, or lack of planning was a major issue. Not booked private tours, abs sold out, not booked DCL tours left with poor expensive tours, on wrong dinner sitting, budget too small, - I know some who stayed on the ship a day in Icelabd re organisation issues, and some who didn't expect bad seas crossing the Atlantic, some didn't know where the embarkation port in Coprnhagen was.
