Honey Honey! We’re heading to the ABBA Museum! Northern Europe on the Magic June 13, 2015!

[chocolateMinnie]

sounds like you are having a fun time. Just as well you have Diane With you or it sounds like you would look like a solitary traveller without your daughter

 

[Alohagirl73]

Sounds wonderful.

 

[Tracerr00]

TODAY IS JUNE 18TH ABBA DAY!!!!

I've had service in every port but no time to write a proper update. So I'll try to do some short ones to catch up and fill in a little more later. We did go to the ABBA museum today and it did not disappoint. But more about that later!!

On our St. Petersburg day we did two excursions. The first one was not until 1:45 pm and it was learning to make Russian meat dumplings called pelmeni. So we slept in a bit and when we ventured or fire breakfast we quickly realized that we basically had the so to ourselves, it was so empty! At guest services they said that about 2000 people were of the ship and only about 200 people were left. We boarded or bus and there were only about 7 people but it was really nice. We went to the Literary Cafe and went upstairs where the chef was waiting for us. We listened to the history of pelmeni and we got to try our hand at crafting them ourselves. I did fairly well!

We also had a snack of some herring and caviar. But again, I don't eat fish or seafood so I didn't eat it. However I jumped in right away for the vodka tasting! We tried 4 different kinds of vodka and I liked the regular and the cranberry. Yum!

We were then served our pelmeni in a broth with sour cream. They were fabulous!!!

After we ate and thanked our chef, we had a little time to shop and we picked up a few souvenirs.

We got back to the ship a little after 5 pm, ate and turned back around to go to our evening boat/canal tour. It was a little chilly but not too bad. This tour was a private excursion set up by someone on our Facebook group. We had a great tour guide, very funny. When I thought "evening" cruise I thought of beautiful lights of the city in the dark. But I forgot about the white nights in this area so it never really got dark during the evening cruise. We also went shopping for a bit before the cruise but this place wasn't as nice as the first place.

After we got back we went to one of the bars to play 80s trivia and to have a few drinks. It was very fun and the cast member who was leading it, Jo, was a riot! It was a great day!

I'll try to catch up before we leave port today but that might not happen because it's going to be dinner time and then it's a sea day tomorrow. But I'll try!

 

[Tracerr00]

HELSINKI DAY!

This will have to be quick! We didn't dock in Helsinki until around noon I think. So we slept in, had a late brunch and went on our Walking Tour of Helsinki. We had a fabulous tour guide named Heidi. We saw beautiful buildings, opera house, parks, museums and finally the Rock Church which was gorgeous. We stopped in the middle of the tour for a pastry and coffee/tea. We loved our day with Heidi. We went to bed early because we wanted to get in a full day in Stockholm the next day. Which we did!

ABBA museum day coming up soon!

 

[Alohagirl73]

Sounds like a terrific cruise. Sooo glad ABBA museum didn't disappoint. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

fantastic updates - sounds like you are having an amazing time. Almost the longest day - you couldn't be that far away from 19-20 hours of daylight up there.

 

[lbw25]

TODAY IS JUNE 11th! Two days until we board the cruise and 7 days until the ABBA Museum!

Our flight on Norwegian was great! We arrived in Copenhagen around 12:30 pm and it couldn't have gone more smoothly. Customs was an absolute breeze! No lines, the man just looked at our passports, stamped them and we were done. We bought train tickets at the window to central stain which was also quick and easy, went to the platform and we got on a wide open, clean train. It really set the tone for the day.

We got off of the train and made our way to the hotel about three blocks away. It's a budget hotel so we knew it would be small... But it's super small! We're not choosy though and we don't mind. We freshened up and decided to take a walk. My daughter wasn't feeling very well so she decided to stay behind. I just think she was tired. Diane and I headed toward the Stroget which is a long pedestrian shopping street. There is a little is something for everyone!

Hi! I'm from MN and loving hearing about your travels we go on this cruise summer of 2016. Can you tell me the name of this budget hotel? there will be 4 of us (actually 15 total but 4 in my family). I had never thought of switching planes here in the U.S., everything I've looked at so far switches in Europe. Thanks for help on the hotel, and now I will read more (and certainly ask more!).

 

[Tracerr00]

Today is June 29th and I apologize that it’s taken me so long to catch up!! Since I’ve been back from vacation it’s been crazy busy – I came down with a cold, my bank account was hacked because I used my debit card in Copenhagen (several times at places I thought were safe), I had three days to pack up and move out of my old place and into my new one and work has been crazy busy!


I wanted to do justice to the ABBA Museum in my report so I needed to wait. It seems like it was so long ago so I’ll do my best! Pulling into Stockholm was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen. There are so many little islands and there are homes on these tiny islands! Diane went to get a coffee and I bundled up in a blanket to sit on the verandah and she came to join me while we were making our way to Stockholm. If you look at the channel on the tv that shows the location of the ship, you’ll see that there are hundreds of little islands and you’ll appreciate the captain’s skills!

On this day we purchased a Hop on Hop off boat tour in addition to the ABBA Museum tickets. When we got it, we thought we’d take public transportation into town but we were happy to find that in every port (other than St. Petersburg), Disney offered a free shuttle to anyone who may have been doing a port on their own. So we went down to deck 1 and exited the ship, went through the terminal to the shuttles that were waiting for us. They dropped us off in town right next to the Opera House. From there we walked through Old Town which was beautiful.

From Old Town we caught the Hop on Hop off Boat (and we also could have caught it right across the street from where the Disney shuttle dropped us off but we had time to walk around before our noon museum ticket time). We rode around it through several stops and Stockholm was beautiful! We wished that we’d also made plans to stop by the Junibacken Museum (a children’s museum which features works by Astrid Lindgren the creator of Pippi Longstocking) or the Vasa Museum which were one stop before the ABBA Museum. We got off at the stop for the ABBA Museum and there was also an amusement park right there. We easily found the museum and we knew instantly that we must do all of the activities that we came across no matter how silly – and some of these started outside!

We got there just a bit early so we looked around the gift shop so we knew exactly what to buy when we came out!

Then we picked up our audio guides and waited to enter. The museum was fabulous! It was just as fun as I thought it would be! Each member of ABBA got their own informational stop, there were plenty of photo opportunities, videos, and interactive stations.

As for interactive opportunities, there was a recording booth where you could sing along to an ABBA song (which we did even though we are all atrocious singers), a booth where you could make your own ABBA video (which we did), one where you could get up on stage and perform with life size digital images of the group (we did not do this one because it was only one person at a time and we perform better as a group), and one where you sit down and it takes a picture of your face and puts it onto various ABBA outfits (we did this too, please see photo below).

We had a ball and I don’t think we laughed so much during the entire trip! So we didn’t see a whole lot of Stockholm, it wasn’t particularly educational (unless you wanted to learn more about ABBA) but we had FUN!!! And that’s what it’s all about. My 15 year old daughter is very familiar with ABBA because I’ve listened to them since before she was born and I knew it was a successful venture when she said “I hate to admit it, but I’m having so much fun here!!”. When we left we went through the gift shop and Eilee said “You’ll probably let me buy anything I want here because it’s ABBA right?” and I said “Well YES!!”. So she picked out a shirt and a few other souvenirs. I also got a shirt and some trinkets.


After we left, we got on the boat and we got off near the Opera House where the shuttle would bring us back. We decided to take a walk and we found a shopping area and a beautiful park. We also found a Starbuck’s but we didn’t go in! We had a bite to eat, wandered around a bit and then went back to the shuttle. We had some great excursions at the other ports and learned a lot about the countries we visited but this one was purely for entertainment value. We loved it and we’re glad we visited. And someone even saw my Packers jersey in the museum and said “I love Nelson – Go Pack!” and got a kick out of finding a fellow Packers fan in Sweden.

 

[linetbo]

Wich hotel did you stay and how did you like it?

 

[Tracerr00]

Wich hotel did you stay and how did you like it?

We stayed at the Cabinn City hotel. It was super small but we didn’t really mind. And as long as you don’t have a mountain of luggage it was an easy walk to the train station.

 

[linetbo]

Can you pay for souvenirs and lunch with dollars. I may only exchange currency on Copenhagen.