A Sisters‘ Summer Sailing to Scandinavia - update: After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli

[Steppesister]

Thanks, I get shocked by my age regularly. I feel much younger.

And it only gets worse! I am almost.... 39 again, and I feel like I'm 20 sometimes. Once in a while I act like it too. LOL!

 

[Flossbolna]

I am so excited to see this report being continued! I fully understand Katharina being too busy to work on it but am so happy the two of you are willing to come back and finish it. Life does have a way of getting "in the way" of our plans. Heck, I have been too busy for the past five years....

Hello Kate! Great to see you reading along!

Happy New Year! (We celebrated by watching the movie "Dory" and then going to sleep early, around 10 pm. How about you guys?)

Happy New Year to you as well. I went to a lovely party with some friends and their families. I am glad that most of my friends kids are starting to get old enough to disappear to the kids' bedrooms to play now while the adults sit in the living room chatting. We had the German "traditional" New Year's feast of raclette, i.e. melted cheese - and loads of it. And then at midnight we watched the firework madness that happens on New Years in Germany. It involves explosions all over the place for about 30 minutes. It was a fun evening!

 

[Flossbolna]

Wait what?!? I missed my 2017 trips?

Oh!!! Well, I guess you just need to store the good wishes for the next year now!!

You two look great! I can't tell which is the 2010 photo and which is the 2015.

Thanks!

I love how you got the Disney store in this shot.

Yes! We visited it after the cruise and it was as dissappointing as the US Disney Stores. Just stuff for kids...

Thanks for writing. Reading these is so much fun.

You are welcome! I love writing them myself. Sometimes I get tired of writing because I tend to put too much detail into them. But I love having these as mementos of my vacations.

 

[Flossbolna]

Awwww, I love this side by side! You are both very beautiful and youthful still after 6 years.

Thank you!!

Mmmm! That looks fabulous! I can see how Danishes got their name.

Looking at these pictures made me think about having to plan a trip to Copenhagen soon again...

And we thank you for that! WOW! I think I'd have chosen that chocolate one.

I love the one with poppy seeds on top. They are more like a bread roll and are served for breakfast in Denmark with butter and jam.

CUTE!! The wallpaper is striking!

Brings on a whole new meaning to "Tourist Trap"!! YIKES, I think I'd have panicked a bit.

Yes! I was not very happy about it either...

Thank you! I was wondering already way back when you you showed the pastries. One was 19 Kroner and I was like, well how much is that, I wonder? Now I know.

When I was in Denmark it always used to be that one German Mark was quite exactly 4 Kroner. So easy to convert. Now it was all confusing. We often used 10 Kroner to 1 Euro, but that was not really the right amount.

Languages do that. When our kazakh friends came over for Bek's wedding, we were forced to use ours, and after a day or so, it was mostly there again. Still dream in it every once in a while.

I think in today's world with the internet it is easier to keep up with less commom languages. But I think you still are not reading news online from Kazakhstan that frequently?

Who knew!?! I'd heard of it before, but know nothing about it. Looking forward to that part of your TR.

There will be more! The one thing that is striking about Tivoli is how much of it is a beautiful park/garden and you can definitely see how that is something that Walt went for at Disneyland.

And it only gets worse! I am almost.... 39 again, and I feel like I'm 20 sometimes. Once in a while I act like it too. LOL!

 

[glennbo123]

I can't imagine having to mow my roof! I have a hard enough time with my yard.

 

[franandaj]

I'm glad to see that you've picked this one back up. I doubt that it is an itinerary that I will ever sail on, so it's fun to hear about places I'll probably never visit.

I liked the recreation of the earlier photograph, the only difference I noticed in you two is that you (Magdalene) appear to have lost a bit of weight between then and now. But you both still look very young and vibrant!

Interesting facts about the Berlin airport. That's some backlog on the schedule there!

Sounds like an interesting day of touring. From you pictures I didn't realize that it was so late. I forget that summer days there are long like Alaska.

I would have freaked out about the door not opening as well.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I'm so glad you're going forward with the trip report. I always enjoy reading about your adventures.

The pretzel bread you had on the plane looked so good. Reminds me of the bread at Le Cellier.

What wonderful memories you are making with your sister. Can't wait till you get on the ship.

 

[linetbo]

Thanks for sharing your vacation memories. We did The Baltic cruise July 2016 and doing Norway this June. Before our cruise we are going to Berlin (Tegel-Berlin Airport) on an Air Berlin flight only for a day and we book anow 8 hours private tour to see everything we can.
Can you recommend where to eat, and what we shouldn't miss. We also want to go to Pandora store to see if they have a exclusive Berlin or German charm.

 

[tiggrbaby]

So glad I stumbled on this report! I love to read about sisters who get along as well as my sis and I do.

That village museum looked very interesting. I also enjoyed your street shots.

The Disney store in Barcelona had adult shirts; my sister gave me one for Christmas!

Looking forward to more as you have time.

 

[rndmr2]

So glad to see you are starting this TR up again. I am looking forward to hearing more.

 

[Steppesister]

But I think you still are not reading news online from Kazakhstan that frequently?

No, not really. It's either censored heavily or just non-existent. We do however hear of news from our friends there through FB and can still read and respond to most.

There will be more! The one thing that is striking about Tivoli is how much of it is a beautiful park/garden and you can definitely see how that is something that Walt went for at Disneyland.

YAY!! Looking forward to it!

 

[AussieMumma]

Looking forward to reading along with this TR

 

[nodnol]

Please be tolerant - I'm posting from the IPad for the first time, as I'm on a train to see my sister and parents this weekend. And it's no fun. Posting. Visiting with my family will be fun!

I can't imagine having to mow my roof! I have a hard enough time with my yard.

Maybe you should just let the grass grow as the Faroer people do?!

Interesting facts about the Berlin airport. That's some backlog on the schedule there!

All of Germany makes fun of Berlin because of it.

The pretzel bread you had on the plane looked so good. Reminds me of the bread at Le Cellier.

I've never been to Le Cellier, I can only tell you that unfortunately this one didn't live up to the standards we're used to in Nuremberg.

Thanks for sharing your vacation memories. We did The Baltic cruise July 2016 and doing Norway this June. Before our cruise we are going to Berlin (Tegel-Berlin Airport) on an Air Berlin flight only for a day and we book anow 8 hours private tour to see everything we can.
Can you recommend where to eat, and what we shouldn't miss. We also want to go to Pandora store to see if they have a exclusive Berlin or German charm.

Oh, that's great! PM me what you're interested in (history or culture or ...) and I can give you some recommendations! The Pandora store is not far away from some of the major sights, so this should be no problem.

So glad I stumbled on this report! I love to read about sisters who get along as well as my sis and I do.

That village museum looked very interesting. I also enjoyed your street shots.

The Disney store in Barcelona had adult shirts; my sister gave me one for Christmas!

Looking forward to more as you have time.

So glad to see you are starting this TR up again. I am looking forward to hearing more.

Looking forward to reading along with this TR

There might be an update in the near future....

 

[linetbo]

Thanks!! I will!

 

[dolphingirl47]

All of Germany makes fun of Berlin because of it.

What had us giggling that at one stage, they could not switch the lights off.

Corinna

 

[chunkymonkey]

I am here and very excited to hear about this cruise! Copenhagen looks beautiful in your pictures!

 

[Flossbolna]

Cast Off! – Cruise Day 1: Embarkation and Green Slime - Part 1

Today we are going to board the Disney Magic!

When I got up I also checked the port webcam to see if our ship was there and that was our first glimpse of the Magic:

Both of us did not sleep that well. Our room was quite a bit stuffy during the night. There was no air conditioning, there really was no need as Copenhagen really does not hot in the summer. But since it was getting light so early we wanted to make sure to close the drapes very well, so that also prevented any air getting into the room from the window. And the night club opposite the hotel did add some late night noise with people standing outside the club chatting. So, in case anyone considers staying at the hotel, I would recommend requesting a room facing away from the street.

Some anticipation for the cruise might have played into this as well...

We got up and went to breakfast a little before 8am. The breakfast room was not very large and it got crowded later. But when we were there it was quite pleasant. It was a very nice breakfast buffet.

Katharina supposedly thought we walked to much the day before as I have a note that her feet were hurting and that she was happy that today would involve less walking.

There was also some issue with some kind of noise that we heard from our window in the morning. It was very difficult to figure out what we were hearing, it could have been protesters or maybe a running event. In the end it we decided that it must have been a music festival that was going on in Copenhagen that weekend. We just never figured out why they were out in the streets in the early morning hours. By 9am the noise had stopped…

We both were packed quickly (despite one of Katharina’s comments in her notes, which reads: “I am now fully packed. We are planning on leaving in about one hour from now. It will be interesting to see how often Magdalene is going to repack in that hour.”) and decided to go for a little walk in the neighborhood.

You managed to surprise me there!

Well, I guess I have had to become better at packing since I am now in a relationship with the world's worst packer. I need to keep the equilibrium...

We found an interesting little statue at some mail boxes:

We also found the bus stop closest to our hotel for getting the first bus to the port. So, we went back to the hotel to collect our luggage and returned to the bus stop. The bus was very empty, but it was a bit tight and did not have a lot of room for luggage. However, it did have an area for strollers and wheel chairs where there were some seats that you could fold down to sit if the area was not in use. Of course the only two other people on the bus were sitting on these fold down seats and made no signs of moving away when they saw us with our large suitcases. Luckily the bus stayed that empty, so we were not too much in the way of other people.

If I remember correctly it was the weekend. The city buses might be a lot more crowded on a regular work day. Just in case anyone wants to do the same.

Getting off the bus and finding the next one was totally easy and soon we boarded the bus to the port with a handful of other groups going to various cruise ships that were in port that day.

And then we got to the port! The bus lets out a little way away from the terminals, but not far at all. We were lucky that the Magic was at the first of the terminals:

The white building in front of the Magic is the terminal and there are four of them in a long row.

We were directed to the right hand side of the building as this is where luggage drop off was. The entrance for check in was on the left hand side of the building however. I am not sure this was the smartest way of organizing a brand new cruise ship terminal. Those terminals had only been opened in summer 2014!

Here you could see which other ships were in port that day:

Dropping off our luggage we saw a little structure that looked like an observation tower at the far end of the pier:

We checked it out and it was indeed an observation tower from where you had a great view of the Magic:

The selfie was actually taken for the purpose of sending it to a DIS friend, @GoofyFan1515

It was definitely not as nice as the day before and quite a bit windy. They make good use of the wind they get there however:

We then went to check in. For whatever reason, the CM checking us in seemed to have a lot of issues with our passports. I was very glad that I had decided to not test out what would happen if I tried to cruise just with my National Identity Card. See, here in Germany we have two different types of official IDs: One is the passport, the other the Identity Card. I think in the USA you know have something similar with the passport card. However, the advantage of the German Identity Card is that it can be used for travel in a number of countries, especially nearly all European countries, and more specifically for Denmark and Norway. However on the DCL website it says that European citizens need a passport for all cruises. I had tried to find out if that was really true for our cruise as it seemed silly that DCL required more than the countries we were sailing to. It took several emails back and forth until someone finally understood my issue and they said we would be fine with the Identity Cards. However, since already our German passports confused the CM (who was not a real Disney CM, but definitely a port authority employee on loan to Disney), we might not have made it on the ship.

It really took a long time checking in and I started to get a little nervous...

I had given Katharina a lanyard as part of a pre-cruise-preparation-package. However, once she put her Key to the World (the card that is your room key for your stateroom as well as your only method of payment on the ship) in it, she realized that it was made for people who were much taller, or preferred to have something dangling far lower on their body than she did. So, the lovely sister that I am, I figured out that I could get her another one by speaking to the people at the DVC desk. As a DVC member (which I am) you are given lanyards for all in your party. Sounds like a nice perk, but they actively tell you that you should use it to tell other people about how wonderful DVC is so that they buy into it while on the ship.

I'm sure you told me how great it is!

Here are some pictures from inside the port terminal:

The waiting area was already quite crowded with people who did the previous cruise. That became obvious when at some point they announced that those back to back cruisers could now board and suddenly loads of people got up. After that it was still quite a long wait. We definitely were at the port far too early. However, there was really nothing which we would have wanted to do back at the hotel. So, it came down to sitting around somewhere anyway.

Once again, for a terminal that was purpose built just a year ago, it really did not impress me. The waiting area was cheap chairs and not large at all. Also, the air in the building was not good at all.

I remember getting anxious about suffering from the bad air as I tend to get headaches or get sick in such situations. And I definitely didn't want to start the cruise like that. Also, I was very happy that we were travelling without kids. They would have been even more bored and thus unbearable.

We killed some time by going to meet Captain Mickey:

And then they finally started calling the boarding groups! I had been a bit disappointed that we were at the port so early and only got boarding group 5. However, after they quickly called boarding groups 1 and 2, it seemed that 3 and 4 did not exist, so it was very soon our turn!

We were very happy to escape as it was getting unbearable inside there. Instead of a bridge, in Copenhagen you just board the ship from the pier, so we first walked along the Disney Magic:

and then entered the ship on deck 1, far away from the atrium. There we CMs stationed at the elevators in “Norwegian” costumes as the welcome committee.

(second picture is from a CM stationed at the elevators in the adult bar district, but I wanted to show both the male and female costume now).

But unlike other Disney cruises, were every group entering is announced in the atrium, this did not happen here.

We were sent up to deck 9 to go to lunch at Cabanas, but we had other plans. Well, we followed the instructions to go up to deck 9 at first since we were parched from hanging out in the far too warm terminal. So we headed to the drink station to get a drink.

Then our next stop was at guest services, so we made our way to the atrium.

There has been a lot of discussion about the changes that were made to the atrium of the Magic in the 2013 refurb. I have to say that I was not impressed by the pictures I had seen of it, but in person it was actually quite stunning. I even really liked the chandelier. I think it looks far better in person when it can sparkle. I also loved the color scheme which I found very calming and less busy than before.

We wanted to sign up for one of the beverage seminars. We decided to go with a Mojito and Caipirinha tasting on the second sea day.

The other thing we needed to do was to try to get a Palo brunch reservation. By the time Silver Castaway Club members could make reservations, those were already all booked up. Disney has a tiered booking system. Depending on your level in their loyalty program called Castaway Club, you can book excursions and special dining reservations earlier. With 1-4 cruises done you are at the lowest level and only have and advantage over those who never cruised with DCL. This cruise obviously attracted a lot of people who were Gold or Platinum Castaway Club members and they all booked the Palo brunch reservations. Palo is a speciality restaurant serving Italian food that has an extra charge of 35$. They have dinner every night and brunch on sea days.

They do hold back some reservations to be booked onboard, not during online check in. So, we hoped to get one of those.

If I remember correctly, it was also that I wasn't entirely convinced on dining at Palo. In situations like these, when I can't really make up my mind about something, I like to let it decide by fate. In this case that means to see whether we would still get a reservation on board.

But according to the Navigator, booking would not start until 12:30pm. We felt that we did not have enough time between boarding and 1pm to really enjoy lunch, that’s why decided to have lunch after we had taken care of that.

However, it was still some time, so we went a little bit on a tour exploring the ship which was totally new to Katharina and fairly new to me, since I had only been on the Magic’s sister ship, the Wonder, but never on the Magic.

Magdalene walked around the whole ship while I tried not to get lost by loosing her.

We had a look at the adult entertainment district (Disneyfied of course, not like adult entertainment opposite our hotel):

We peeked through the shop windows to get a preview on the merchandise:

They had quite a lot of special DCL Norway merchandise and some even for the inaugural cruise.

And then it was nearly time for the Palo reservation to open, so we headed to Lumiere’s the restaurant, where that took place. When we got there they were already open and there was quite a line. By the time we got there, the people in front of us had gotten the last table for two for Palo brunch. We were told if we were a party of 4 they could accommodate us. I was not impressed and felt very guilty towards my sister that I had made her run around the ship instead of getting in line as early as possible. I also felt that they should not keep tables for 4 open if we wanted it. It was not as if we would take up a table of 8 for just the two of us and I had often seen parties of 2 being placed at larger tables in Palo. This was definitely the most unmagical moment of the cruise for me.

They put us on the wait list and said that we had the first spot on the wait list. They also kept calling us telling us that we were still on the wait list during the cruise, but we never got a brunch reservation.

After waiting in line for so long I was a little crushed that we didn't get a reservation, but in the end I think it was alright and we were never hungry and didn't have a lot of time to spare anyway.

After being disappointed that we just wasted time sitting on chairs in line at Lumiere’s, we headed to lunch.

We went to Carioca’s where they told us that they currently were totally full, but we said we would wait and very briefly afterwards we were seated at a nice table in the back of the restaurant. While the dining room was quite full, the buffet did not have much of a line at all and we quickly went to get some food! I am not sure who had which of these plates:

It was all really good. We especially loved the veggies, the carrots, peas and the asparagus. Katharina made a note that she ate too much – she had not learned yet that this is the purpose of cruising!!

I was also impressed by how "fresh" most of the food was. Usually I don't really like buffets very much, as always at least a quarter of the food seems to be out to long already. This was not the case here, but sometimes later on at breakfasts (but still better than at most other buffets). I guess they really wanted to impress all guests with their first meal.

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

Cast Off! – Cruise Day 1: Embarkation and Green Slime - Part 2

Leaving Carioca’s we took a picture of tonight’s dinner menu, we were going to eat in Lumiere’s tonight with the standard rotational dinner. On a Disney cruise, you move through the three different restaurants, on the Magic they are called Lumiere’s, Carioca’s and Animator’s Palette. Each restaurant has a signature menu and for three nights the restaurants serve this “rotational menu” and the other night all restaurants serve the same menu, however those menu change nightly as well.

I noted something interesting on the menu: They were offering “Regional Specialities”. The menu was slightly different form the normal menu for Lumiere’s and had additional entrees and appetizers.

Not the best picture, I know. If you want to check out the menu, here you can find a better copy: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/lumieres-menu/

This is the main entrance to Lumiere’s:

And Sailor Mickey is the mascot of the Magic and has a lovely statute in the atrium:

We thought this was quite a funny piece of art:

And then it was time to go to our stateroom! We had originally booked a 11B stateroom. This is the second lowest category that you can get. The lower category of 11C was not available when we booked. This is an inside stateroom with a single bathroom. Every other category above 11 (actually the numbers go down for the higher categories) has a split bathroom: toilet and sink in one room, tub with shower and sink in the other bathroom. Here everything was in one room, but that was fine with us. We had also scored something called “sideways stateroom” when we booked. Those have the doors on the wide side of the room, not on the narrow side. They supposedly appear more roomy. A few months before the cruise, the 11C category became available. The only difference between those and the 11B is that they are on deck 2, not on deck 5 and 6 like the 11B. And there are no sideways 11C staterooms. Downgrading saved us about 80$ and we decided that it would be worth it to have the money for souvenirs, food and such instead of for the stateroom. When we changed we could not pick a stateroom, but were going to be assigned a statroom by DCL. This is called GTY status. About a month before the cruise we finally got our room assignment and I nearly fell of my chair laughing. We had received an upgrade to an 11B stateroom, the cabin next to the one that we had originally booked!

This is the view of our stateroom when standing in the door:

Turning right towards the bed:

Turning left towards the bathroom:

In the picture above you can see the suitcase standing in front of a wall. In the “normal” staterooms, this is where the door would be.

Closet:

bathroom:

small desk at the foot of the bed:

TV:

The TV is on a swivel arm that lets you pull it toward the bed or the sofa.

Our door with the magnets our lovely travel agent Brook from http://www.mouseworldtravel.com had made for us:

After having read a lot of reports about the Magic here on the DIS, I had found out something that did not sound very good. It appears that some staterooms have a certain odor problem. They smell of sewer. Supposedly this is a common problem on cruise ships, but it appears that with the Disney ships, the problem is most prominent on the Magic. So, Katharina and I were prepared and had brought a little stone that you could add some essential oils to to make the room smell better. However, sniffing the bath room, we only detected a very very slight smell. Still, we made sure to install our little good smelling stone. And it actually was really nice! I have since used that little stone (it comes in a metal box) on other travels.

After dropping our carry on luggage in the room, we continued to explore the ship.

Some more hallway art:

On the first day before the muster drill, the kids clubs have “Open House”, so this is a great chance to have a peek at what the kids get offered during the cruise. So, we had a look there:

There is also a nursery for the really small ones:

We continued our exploration on the upper decks:

Even the terminal building had a grass roof (still needs to grow in a little):

One of the two slides on the Magic:

Having a look at Palo, where we would NOT eat this cruise:

One of the things that was new to the Magic (and has now been added to the Wonder as well) is the Shawarma station at the pool side fast food offerings:

Besides the shawarma, there is pizza, burger and sandwiches available at various windows. And self serve soft serve.

However, we had a mission! We wanted the Drink of the Day! Every day all the bars on the ship have one cocktail that is the drink of the day. It is priced very fairly, with the automatic 18% gratuity that is added to all bar orders it is under 6$. Most of the time these are fruity drinks. One thing I learned on the Panama Canal cruise was that you need to pay attention as to where you order that drink. If you order it from the pool bar at the main pool, they have large quantities pre-mixed. However, if you order it from the pool bar at the adult pool (on the Fantasy I found out that you need to go up the stairs to Currents, the bar above the adult pool), there they mix it freshly. And when the bar tenders pour the drink in front of your eyes, they are never skimpy with the alcohol, especially once they got to know you and know that you tend to add a little to the automatic gratuity…

Well, so we went to the rather dessert adult pool bar and got our drinks:

They were very tasty and my strategy worked! Katharina’s trip notes say: “was delicious, but also potent.”

We continued our tour and found a spot overlooking the outer part of the bridge:

On the newer ships this is enclosed, but here the Captain and his staff come outside during the docking procedure and work the ship from there. We always had fun watching this!

Exactly what our Dad would do!

Actually, last weekend Katharina was visiting here in Nuremberg and we were talking about this and of course our father even knew what that part of the bridge is called in German. It was a very specific term. I have already forgotten it...

You could see the Øresund Bridge in the distance:

We had a look around the spa area and I took it upon me to document the locker room amenities since no one was using the locker room:

There is also a sauna:

And a rest area:

The locker room (including showers and sauna) is free to use for anyone regardless of if you have a spa appointment. It also works as the changing room for the fitness center. I have often used the showers on my cruises when we were in a hurry to get ready for dinner. It also has the advantage that those showers are more roomy than the one in your cabin. On the newer ships the locker room showers are even nicer and more spacious!

And a view into the salon area of the spa:

It has a beautiful view!!

Continued in Part 3

 

[Flossbolna]

Cast Off! – Cruise Day 1: Embarkation and Green Slime - Part 3

While exploring the upper decks we noticed this island:

We were intrigued what it was and found out that it was one of the forts protecting Copenhagen. In writing this I found out that it was actually bought by a foundation that was put up by the Danish scouts organization amongst others and the island will be renovated into a “youth island” where young people can go for adventure. Sounds fascinating!

Then it was time for the muster drill:

Katharina observed that at any station the most petite person was the Drill Leader…

We went back to the cabin afterwards to finish our unpacking and then we headed to the Sail Away Party.

We did not get any streamers, but soap bubbles! Special Inaugural Norway Sailing soap bubbles! I still have a bottle or two standing around…

It really was very uncrowded during Sail Away. I was surprised about that. But so far the ship had not felt that crowded and you could see that there not so many kids on board. More than on my Panama Canal cruise, but far less than on the Caribbean cruises I had been on. You could also tell that the number of black and yellow lanyards was very high, meaning that a lot of cruisers were very loyal DCL cruisers who had Gold or Platinum Castaway Club status. I think for many of them the Sail Away Party was not a big draw anymore…

Actually, I know that I had commented on how the Panama Canal had a rather different cruise dynamic because of the cruisers on board. I found that to be true for this cruise as well. Besides a lot of very experienced Disney cruisers (some of them had to rub your nose into it how they always cruise on the inaugural itineraries), so many back to back cruisers (who had to rub your nose into it how they were spending 4 weeks on the ship and how you were a lowly newcomer), a lot of cast members (the only discount Disney ever offered for this cruise was a cast member discount despite the cruise not selling very well at all) and finally a lot of Europeans, especially a lot of younger European Disney fans (yes, like Katharina and me, but maybe a bit younger still ;-)) it was a strange crowd. However, there were still plenty of very nice people and we even made some friends!

We decided to get a snack from the Cove Café:

Unfortunately the top of the cake was some horrible jelly like cover that was more or less devoid of any taste (looked like it would be chocolate, but was just bland).

We got some hot drinks and Katharina was busy writing notes:

We explored some more and I really liked the entrance areas to Cabanas, the buffet restaurant:

People were queuing for the first dinner seating in the atrium:

We found some seats on deck 4 overlooking the atrium that seemed to be a new addition during the refurb (at least I did not remember any seats on the Wonder in this area, but loved similar seating on the Fantasy right in that area).

(I am realizing that there is one thing that makes this trip report very different from my recent ones in case you followed them: I have so many more pictures of people because 1) I can post pictures of Katharina as opposed to Michael and 2) she actually lets me take pictures of her!)

You're lucky I'm not a very vain person.

We wandered over to the shops to see if they had opened and they were open, so we joined the masses who were trying to get some of the special Inaugural Norway Cruise merchandise. I guess it was some kind of Black Friday atmosphere and I was surprised that Katharina did not spontaneously combust in there as she hates crowds!

The things one endures for loved ones...

I managed to get the last mug off the shelf only to find that in the shop across the hallway they had loads of them as well. As Katharina noted in her trip notes: Nothing that we had wanted and bought was actually sold out by noon the next day, so we could have left it until later… And we did purchase some more stuff later on.

After dropping off the purchases we headed to the show. It was the usual Welcome Show with a variety act and people dancing and characters. I like it as a starting point to the cruise. We also got to see our cruise director Brent. He is no longer working for DCL, but before our cruise we had been told by various people that they did not like him. However, I also have read a lot on the DIS about how many people loved him. So, I was interested to see what we would think of him. We kind of were rather neutral. To me he would be a cruise director whom I could easily forget and not take any notice of.

After the show we got a snack of chips and guacamole from the promenade lounge to snack on while getting changed in the cabin. Then we headed to dinner. (I have to confess the pictures from the atrium might actually be us waiting for the line to get down to go to dinner ourselves…). Katharina was starting too feel a bit odd from the movement of the ship and I kept telling her that getting some food into her would help. The seas were indeed not totally qualm, but nothing too bad in my opinion.

Tonight’s dinner was in Lumiere’s. We were greeted by our servers. That day they seemed a bit overwhelmed, but during the rest of the cruise they really turned out to be quite wonderful servers. So far I would say that they were the best team that I had on any of my cruises. The reason why they were a bit stressed was that there was one really large table with 12 adults that seemed to order all kind of complicated things. Especially our drinks server was very busy with them.

They always made an effort not to neglect us, but we noticed a big change, when the group didn't show up or only some of them.

The table was set very nicely:

We also got some bread:

As I mentioned earlier, the menus had “Regional Inspirations” and we did order some of those tonight.

Katharina started with the Ham and White Cheddar Croquettes with Apple-Cherry Chutney which were regionally inspired. Not sure from which region as it did not seem very Scandinavian to me.

I had the other regional appetizer, the Smoked Salmon Potato Lefse with Sour Cream, Asparagus and Dill. This is far more Scandinavian in my opinion:

Katharina had the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak, Roasted Filet Steak, Crushed New Potatoes with Shallots, Buttered Green Beans, Red Wine Jus and a Béarnaise Sauce on the Side:

I hope I won't write this after every dinner, I think this was one if the beast dishes I had onboard.

And I had the lamb, which again was regionally inspired: Roasted Rack of Lamb Medium with Creamed Potatoes, Buttered Brussels Sprouts and a Rosemary Red Wine Sauce.

After I had taken the picture, our server offered some mint jelly to go with it and I thought why not. Luckily we remembered that we needed a picture of it before my plate disappeared after finishing my meal:

It tasted as artificial as it looked, kind of like toothpaste. That’s why it remained untouched on my plate…

We both really liked our food. I still remember the lamb being excellent, but I might have passed on some of the Brussels sprouts to my sister as she is far more a fan of those than I am.

For dessert we both ordered what I consider to be one of the few desserts that is good on DCL (their desserts are definitely not one of the reasons why I cruise with them, you will hear more on this on my upcoming trip report on the Fantasy cruise with Michael): The Grand Marnier Soufflé infused with fresh Orange Zest and served with Grand Marnier Créme Anglaise:

We headed back to the room to pick up one of the things we had just bought. We saw the first towel animal of the cruise:

When getting ready for dinner I had tried on the t-shirt that I had bought. I have a number of Disney t-shirts and I am usually between a medium and large with US shirts, at DLP I usually need a large or extra large. The t-shirts had European and US sizes in them, but they actually looked tiny. So, I got the one that said US extra large and European 2X large. Katharina is more delicately built than me and she went for US large, European extra large. She usually wears small or medium, sometimes even extra small. Seemed to be the safer choice. However, when I tried it on, it was still very tight, so I decided to try to exchange it for a larger size if available.

Since we wanted to head to Fathoms for one of the adult shows, I tried to be quick with my exchange and just grabbed the bag where both our t-shirts were in. I took one out and saw that it was US large and thought that this was mine because I knew that I had gone with the larger size and as I said I usually get US large when things run small, otherwise medium. But because of their crazy sizes, this was the t-shirt that Katharina had bought and which fit her perfectly as we had seen earlier. I was so happy when I got to the store and saw that they still had the t-shirts one size larger than the one that I wanted to exchange. What I did not notice was that I was actually exchanging Katharina’s shirt and not mine. We did not realise this until we got back home and Katharina called me to ask me if I had accidentally packed her shirt as the one that she just put on is too large for her. Now, we both have shirts in the same size which is too large for Katharina and which will only fit me when I finally manage to lose some odd 15 pounds… I still blame Disney and there totally off sizing for this incident. Yes, I am not a stick figure, but a European 3X large is not my size either.

After our “successful” exchange we headed down to Fathoms, the night club in the adult area of the ship where they had all kind of events in the evening. The reason for heading there was to see “Match Your Mate” where three couples have to guess the answers their corresponding partner gave to certain questions. When we got there, the game “Magic Quest” was still in process, there different teams need to bring all kind of items to the game host. It was quite fun to watch, but I could not understand how the points were being allocated…

The it was time for Match Your Mate and it was a lot of fun to watch. The Club Host for the cruise was Jo from the UK and she was very funny. I really liked her a lot!

After this we returned to our cabin and I managed to forget my wonderful t-shirt. Luckily we remembered just in time before we went to bed!

We ordered room service breakfast for the next morning and then quickly fell asleep.

Up Next:
Cruise Day 2: Stormy Sea Day

 

[linetbo]

Can't wait for port days, looking to see your excursions.