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

[Flossbolna]

Oh-my-goodness the view from the top! I would not have wanted to be the driver!

Me neither!!

The original border stone was interesting. Thank goodness you were prepared as to what you were seeing since the guide was not.

I think if I had known how crappy the guide would be, I would have been prepared even better.

I like that DCL has little snacks at the lounges before dinner.

For some strange reason, I have only ever found the pre-dinner snacks on the Magic and the Wonder, not on the Fantasy.

The views are stunning; can't wait to see what you woke up for!

Coming up shortly!

 

[Flossbolna]

I will take you up on this kind offer. I just need to convince my boss to give me a couple of days off in a row.

Looking forward to it! I still need to post only your trip report, but I read what you posted about out trivia evening and I agree that it was a great evening and lots of fun, so hoping for a repeat sometime here in Europe!

That sounds like my worst nightmare and even looking at those hairpin bends made my stomach turn. However, the scenery is truly stunning.

I have done a lot of bus trips through the Alps in my youth when I was in skiing camp, this was actually not bad at all. I have been through far worse...

We have been up even earlier for both Panama Canal crossings and the Suez Canal crossing. I am far from a morning person, but sometimes it just has to be done.

The point here was that we knew that we would come the same way again in the afternoon, so not getting up did not mean that you missed out totally.

I love this dish.

You have good taste!!

This definitely would have warranted an early wakeup call for me.

We decided that seeing it twice would definitely be worth it.

 

[Flossbolna]

Actually I eat a lot of salad, I just try not to get confused between salad and a sandwich.

duly noted!

Errr.........what???

Will send you an email and explain!

You really do like to be bored don't you??? And you've spent time with me before too...................

I guess I do...

Now that's the sort of view I can see myself camping at.............in a cabin!

I agree. Neither Katharina nor I felt in any way inclined to sleep in a tent there!!

And all the snow to throw the lighting off..........

Actually this trip was one where I most regretted not having a "real" camera. I was in a photography group at school and my father let me use his SLR camera quite a bit, so I once used to know how to use a camera. And therefore it really gets frustrating when you know that there would be ways to make your pictures better, if you could just change the settings on your point and shoot camera. But of course then it would no longer be a point and shoot, but it would require work. And ultimately I am too lazy for that.

 

[Flossbolna]

Nice update, Wow that mountain road was crazy! definitely wouldn't want to drive up that road. Beautiful views from the top though. Sorry you had such a stinky tour guide but at least you got a lot of great pictures.

The road was quite spectacular and all in all it was a fantastic excursion!

Dinner looked good. Definitely don't blame you for wanting to go to bed early to get up by 5:30am to see the Fjord. I have seen pics of it and I would think it will be worth it. Hopefully you'll have time to take a nap later.

Since the Magic was going into the fjord, she was coming out later that day as well, so there was a chance to see the same scenery without getting up early. But we decided that we wanted to have two chances. No nap, but we made some adjustments to the usual cruise day...

Ohh yes, those things are Heavenly!!

Ok, another vote for Krispy Kreme.

 

[Flossbolna]

Do you remember how long that stop was? I wantbto have enough time to buy some pastries and see the view, of course and use the restroom.

I see that Katharina already tried to answer. I am not sure which stop you are referring to, the one where Katharina and I bought our lunch? On our tour there would have been plenty of time for a brief visit to the grocery store to pick up a pastry, the view over the fjord and a restroom stop. However, I am really not sure if the timing we had was the typical one for this tour and then if Disney has not changed the timing due to our feedback. We told them that in our opinion that stop was too long and we rather wanted more time at the Trollstigen Center. Also, the pastries we got there were definitely the least good ones. All the others we got, especially in Stavanger and Bergen were much better.

Hope this helps!

 

[Flossbolna]

But the mountains and fjords make up for it!

Yes, it was quite some amazing landscape!

Yeah, that looks like one you'd find in any grocery store. Sorry it was a disappointment.

The good thing was that it was already included in our cruise fare, so at least we had not spent any extra money on that dry donut.

Sounds like your Dad is a wise man!

He is!! But he can also be incredibly silly. Great combination.

Obsessive trip planning always pays off!

But sometimes I do get tired and try to not obsess too much about it.

Wow, it's an amazing amount of detail!

It was even a bit overwhelming at first when we entered the church. It took some time before I could appreciate it really.

I could pretty much quote every photo and comment on how gorgeous the scenery is. So I'll try not to repeat myself and just say I love all of the mountains, fjords, and waterfalls. Just a beautiful area!

More landscape pictures coming the next day. I have a very hard time limiting my pictures. I know I often post too many: But I am so bad at editing down the numbers. You always do a great job with finding the right amount of pictures and I know how much hard work that is. Especially since I have seen the quality of your pictures (or should I say Julie's pictures?) and I think you have an even wider selection than me to choose from.

That's disappointing. If you're going to spend all day with someone, you would hope he would be interesting!

At least the scenery made up for the guide.

Wow, that must have cost a fortune to build!

I knew that the road engineer would appreciate the tunnel info! Remember all the oil money Norway is earning. That's what they are using it for.

This reminds me of driving through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

I have friends from Vancouver who visited the Alps in Europe once and they came back saying that it is like Canada, but smaller and more populated. Now, Norway is certainly far less populated than the Alps. But I think this is still a very good comparison between America and Europe: You rarely get the same level of "emptiness" in Europe that you can get in the wilderness in America. Nearly all landscape in Europe has been formed by humans in one way or another through history. Norway is one of the few places where you get true nature once you get away from the coast. But even where we were, you would still far more civilization than in a National Park in the US.

I bet that's a fun drive. Was it scary in a bus?

I already mentioned it above that I have been on plenty of bus rides in the Alps that were far worse. I was fine.

I mean, if you only get one chance to see amazing scenery, you have to put in the work, right?

See, I should have mentioned that: The ship was going into the fjord in the morning and would come out the same way in the afternoon. So, it was not one chance, but two chances. And we knew that we would take the afternoon chance for certain.

It looks like no one else was up there! I would have loved to spend the evening hanging out on the deck and enjoying the scenery.

It is even more amazing the next evening. For me one of the highlights of this cruise was definitely the amount of scenery you could experience from the ship and that is why I think that Norway is actually one of the best cruising destinations in my mind.

Hooray! I hope it was the right decision!

You will see soon enough!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks, that's good to know! I thought the circle was a halo.

Great trip planning!!

I know that other trip planners would appreciate my attention to detail (and of course it is a great tip for anyone who might want to do this excursion in the future).

These designs were really cool! (Just replied to one picture as an example.) This must've been great to see.

They were a bit overwhelming at first even. It really had to grow on me before I could appreciate them. Maybe if the guide had given us some introduction, I would have been less shocked.

That's a shame. The guides can really add so much to a tour; you're there to learn, as well as see. This one didn't even sound competent.

It really speaks for how amazing the landscape was that Katharina and I still considered this excursion as a highlight of our trip despite the tour guide.

Another great "sisters" picture. The ironwork looks really cool on this bridge also. I like how it doesn't spoil the view of your surroundings.

Thanks! Yes, the whole bridge construction was quite amazing. And we thought exactly the same how it managed to look cool and still become part of the natural surroundings.

Wow! You should've gone down on a skateboard!

We were talking about how we would not enjoy having to go downhill here on a bike. I am pretty sure that there was a lone biker up at the Trollstigen Center when we were there.

I've never seen that attempted...really cool!

It did not turn out as well as I hoped, but it is a fun thing to try.

With that look on her face I can tell she's writing something critical of the tour guide right now!

No, that is just her writing face. She looks the same when she is writing her weekly Saturday shopping list.

 

[Flossbolna]

It says it on the ear: It is a Jackalope!!

Seems to be related to the Bavarian Wolpertinger.

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View - Part 1

We had set our alarm for 5:30 am and when we woke up we saw on the TV that the ship was indeed in some kind of fjord. So, we quickly put some clothes on and made sure to pack our rain gear as it looked like it was drizzling. It sure was quite wet outside when we were on deck at 5:45am.

But despite the cool, wet weather, the next 1.5 hours were truly spectacular. The landscape was really great and we were very happy that we had followed Commodore Tom’s orders.

When we got up on deck at 5:45am, it was already quite crowded. But not too much. The front of the ship was crazy, but there was great viewing from both sides.

This is a picture of the front:

There was still a bit of space between the people and the glass wall, so it was nearly as crazy as it was when we got to the Panama Canal on our Panama Canal cruise. And sorry for the strange people. I just had a few faces so clearly in the picture that I thought it was only fair to not post someone else’s portrait here in my trip report.

The fjord is quite curvy, so the views kept changing all the time. With the dark cloud cover, the snow capped mountains and the dark rocks, it was very difficult to get the point and shoot (and Katharina’s IPhone) to take the best pictures. It is these moments when a real camera would make all the difference as you can adjust shutter speed and aperture manually.

There were a million water falls coming down from the mountains. Since there was still so much snow to melt off (while Norway has glaciers, none of this snow is glacial, so by the end of summer, it will be all gone), it was flowing down everywhere.

There were several trolley carts up on deck where CMs were dispensing coffee and tea and they had trays with pastries. I think there were even some servers roaming the deck with pastries. Very nice!

More random rock pictures:

In this picture you can see that there was plenty of space up on deck:

There were also a lot of crew members who came up on deck for a quick view. It seemed that whoever could spare a minute or two, would come up for a few pictures. Some of the maintenance workers obviously had a lot of great fun making sure to get good pictures. You could tell that for many of the crew this was incredibly exciting.

I think you can tell from the next pictures that it was very early in the morning and that it was wet and cold…

Our smiles look a bit forced…

Next we were coming to one of the “highlights” of the Geirangerfjord: The Seven Sisters Waterfall:

To be honest, we thought it was pretty, but we also were a little underwhelmed as there was so little water and we had seen plenty of other neat water falls already.

The view back was more spectacular:

Soon the next waterfall came into view. This is one is called the Suitor Waterfall (yes, because of the connection with the Seven Sisters, there is some kind of backstory to it).

And then we were approaching the little village of Geiranger – immortalized in a movie called Frozen as the inspiration for the town of Arendelle.

Looking back again, just because the scenery is so awesome:

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

Cruise Day 5: Hiking in Geiranger and Dinner with a View - Part 2

A lot of people had booked excursions that were departing early it seemed as the deck had definitely cleared after we had passed the Seven Sisters.

Katharina and I absolutely loved hanging out up on deck though and watch us getting closer. Once we approached the port, the Disney Magic was playing its horn and it was quite fun as there was a respectable echo coming off from all the mountain walls around us.

Random ship picture thrown in:

In the next picture you can see already where we were going to dock, kind of between the boxy ugly hotel that is in the same location as the palace of Queen Elsa in Arendelle and the white ferry boat:

Geiranger does not have a dock, but for us it still was not a tender port. They have something called a sea walk. So, the ship is anchoring like it would for tender, but then this walkway swims out to the ship and you can walk to land. We found that fascinating and were quite intrigued what this would look like. But first we were going to turn so that the bow would be positioned toward the exit of the fjord.

And now you can see the sea walk moving out to us:

We decided to relocate down to deck 4 to have a better view of this.

Do you see the little hut at the very end of the sea walk? This is where engine was located (very loud and stinky) that was slowly moving it closer to the ship.

Here is a close up of the hut:

The pilot was not in the hut, however. He was mobile and running up and down the sea walk steering with his remote control:

There was another interesting person who was hanging out on the sea walk while it was approaching us. He had a briefcase and we thought he must be the harbor master or something similar:

And indeed, once they had put a bridge out to the sea walk, the harbor master was greeted by an officer and then entered the ship.

It seemed that now nothing interesting was going to happen anymore, so we headed for some breakfast at Cabanas.

This was Katharina’s plate:

As you see, she had gotten some Eggs Benedict. I saw that she was getting them and was contemplating them as well. However, I have learned that I only think I am a fan of Eggs Benedict. In reality I am not fond of Canadian Bacon at all (I really think it is unfair that you give the distant, less tasty cousin of real Bacon the name “Canadian”) and I also can do without the English muffin (again another one of those passive aggressive naming things going on there as the English muffin really does not hold up against a real muffin). So, basically I just like the poached egg with Sauce Hollandaise. So, I thought I would see if I could get the omelet station to make poached eggs for me. After some difficulty explaining why I wanted a poached egg on its own and not the Eggs Benedict, the CM got my order into the kitchen and I got two freshly poached eggs!!

We also had learned from yesterday’s experience and decided to make some sandwiches to take with us as lunch. I think we also packed some fruit.

I think this might have been the view from Cabanas (however, I think I stepped outside to take this picture):

Take note of the waterfall and the little bridge at the bottom of the waterfall. We will be crossing that bridge shortly and the walk up on the right side of the waterfall, you can see the walkway in the picture slightly, the red/brown rails of the walkway are visible.

To be continued in Part 3

 

[tiggrbaby]

What gorgeous views!!!! So worth getting up early!

That seawalk is genius!

The village is adorable; looks like your hike will have great views.

 

[glennbo123]

There were several trolley carts up on deck where CMs were dispensing coffee and tea and they had trays with pastries. I think there were even some servers roaming the deck with pastries. Very nice!

That's the way to travel!

There were also a lot of crew members who came up on deck for a quick view. It seemed that whoever could spare a minute or two, would come up for a few pictures. Some of the maintenance workers obviously had a lot of great fun making sure to get good pictures. You could tell that for many of the crew this was incredibly exciting.

The crew on these cruises are so multinational, I'm sure most of them have never seen anything like this. I'm glad to see that they let them do that.

They have something called a sea walk. So, the ship is anchoring like it would for tender, but then this walkway swims out to the ship and you can walk to land.

It swims?! This I gotta see!

And now you can see the sea walk moving out to us:

Aw, you said it was going to swim.

Here is a close up of the hut:

His name is Jabba.

The pilot was not in the hut, however. He was mobile and running up and down the sea walk steering with his remote control:

Now there's a fun job! I bet he could operate "Push" the trashcan in Tomorrowland.

There was another interesting person who was hanging out on the sea walk while it was approaching us. He had a briefcase and we thought he must be the harbor master or something similar:

I can't tell...was the briefcase handcuffed to him? (I don't know why I'm being so weird this morning!)

So, basically I just like the poached egg with Sauce Hollandaise.

That is the best part of Eggs Benedict, no doubt about it.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

We had set our alarm for 5:30 am and when we woke up we saw on the TV that the ship was indeed in some kind of fjord. So, we quickly put some clothes on and made sure to pack our rain gear as it looked like it was drizzling. It sure was quite wet outside when we were on deck at 5:45am.

But despite the cool, wet weather, the next 1.5 hours were truly spectacular. The landscape was really great and we were very happy that we had followed Commodore Tom’s orders.

Good job! Looks like it was worth the effort.

When we got up on deck at 5:45am, it was already quite crowded. But not too much. The front of the ship was crazy, but there was great viewing from both sides.

I'm amazed so many people were willing to get up that early.

This is absolutely stunning. I love the scenery.

There were several trolley carts up on deck where CMs were dispensing coffee and tea and they had trays with pastries. I think there were even some servers roaming the deck with pastries. Very nice!

Very thoughtful! A great way to have breakfast.

There were also a lot of crew members who came up on deck for a quick view. It seemed that whoever could spare a minute or two, would come up for a few pictures. Some of the maintenance workers obviously had a lot of great fun making sure to get good pictures. You could tell that for many of the crew this was incredibly exciting.

I'm glad they took advantage of the opportunity as well.

I think this is my favorite waterfall of your photos. Just beautiful.

Looking back again, just because the scenery is so awesome:

Yes, it is!

Once we approached the port, the Disney Magic was playing its horn and it was quite fun as there was a respectable echo coming off from all the mountain walls around us.

How fun!

They have something called a sea walk. So, the ship is anchoring like it would for tender, but then this walkway swims out to the ship and you can walk to land. We found that fascinating and were quite intrigued what this would look like. But first we were going to turn so that the bow would be positioned toward the exit of the fjord.

That's a neat trick. If you could move the back end as well, could you walk across the ocean?

In reality I am not fond of Canadian Bacon at all (I really think it is unfair that you give the distant, less tasty cousin of real Bacon the name “Canadian”) and I also can do without the English muffin (again another one of those passive aggressive naming things going on there as the English muffin really does not hold up against a real muffin).

Hey, why is this our fault? I think it's an insult to call that thing "bacon".

I do think English muffins are great for breakfast sandwiches, though.

Take note of the waterfall and the little bridge at the bottom of the waterfall.

Can't wait to see it up close! It looks beautiful.

 

[dolphingirl47]

But despite the cool, wet weather, the next 1.5 hours were truly spectacular. The landscape was really great and we were very happy that we had followed Commodore Tom’s orders.

I am glad that it was worth getting up early for. I have the say the scenery looked really stunning.

And then we were approaching the little village of Geiranger – immortalized in a movie called Frozen as the inspiration for the town of Arendelle.

I did not know this. I knew that Frozen was inspired by Norway, but not the specific town.

Once we approached the port, the Disney Magic was playing its horn and it was quite fun as there was a respectable echo coming off from all the mountain walls around us.

I think this would have been fascinating to listen to.

Geiranger does not have a dock, but for us it still was not a tender port. They have something called a sea walk. So, the ship is anchoring like it would for tender, but then this walkway swims out to the ship and you can walk to land.

What a wonderful idea. I wish more tender ports would adopt this technology.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

Catching up one update at a time. Too bad that your original bus was damaged, and the other one was not nearly as comfortable. Good research on which side if the bus to sit on!

Shame that your guide was not very interested in sharing information. The scenery is just stunning!

Great picture of the two of you on the bridge!

Haha! It sounds like you would fit right in when Michael and Fran bonded over the aversion towards "weeds" in a salad.

Actually as I remember it, Michael ordered the weeds whereas Fran and I thought they were icky. UT we all enjoyed saying the word "weeds" a little too much.

 

[franandaj]

The second half of your day looked like fun. I would have been holding on for dear life down that mountain side! Those hairpin turns were crazy!

I found it funny that you called your food from Deck 9 "snacks". If I ate that much at that time of day, it would have been my dinner, because I would be too full to eat any more!

The scenery was very beautiful. I would probably be up at 5:30AM, but that's why I love my verandah. I just throw on a cover up and go out the door. No need to brush my hair, put on shoes...

Dinner looked interesting. I'm not sure I'd like many of the regional specialties on that cruise.

 

[dizneeat]

I would probably be up at 5:30AM, but that's why I love my verandah. I just throw on a cover up and go out the door. No need to brush my hair, put on shoes...

Exactly the reason why we always have a verandah.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

the ship was indeed in some kind of fjord. So, we quickly put some clothes on and made sure to pack our rain gear as it looked like it was drizzling. It sure was quite wet outside when we were on deck at 5:45am.

Good choice..........as cold as it looks I don't think you could have a-fjorded to do otherwise.

There were a million water falls coming down from the mountains. Since there was still so much snow to melt off (while Norway has glaciers, none of this snow is glacial, so by the end of summer, it will be all gone), it was flowing down everywhere.

A million waterfalls? You took a million pictures??? When you go.......you definitely go big!!!

The view back was more spectacular:

Simply gorgeous!!!

Maybe the most scenic and lovely!!!

Looks like a well chosen early morning to enjoy.

 

[franandaj]

OK, now I'm all caught up! You definitely made the right choice to get up and see the fjords!

It looks so much like the Alaskan cruise into Tracey Arm but different! Your pictures were beautiful but I'm sure they didn't do justice to what it was like actually being there.

That arm walkway that went out to my the ship was really cool! I hope more tender ports get them!

 

[Steppesister]

But despite the cool, wet weather, the next 1.5 hours were truly spectacular. The landscape was really great and we were very happy that we had followed Commodore Tom’s orders

I can see why!!!

I think there were even some servers roaming the deck with pastries. Very nice!

For sure! Nice touch!

You could tell that for many of the crew this was incredibly exciting.

That's neat to see their enthusiasm of travel and appreciating the fringe benefits of their job.

To be honest, we thought it was pretty, but we also were a little underwhelmed as there was so little water and we had seen plenty of other neat water falls already.

Still pretty, but yeah, I can see that... not so much water there.

the Disney Magic was playing its horn and it was quite fun as there was a respectable echo coming off from all the mountain walls around us.

Ok, THAT would be very cool!

Geiranger does not have a dock, but for us it still was not a tender port. They have something called a sea walk. So, the ship is anchoring like it would for tender, but then this walkway swims out to the ship and you can walk to land. We found that fascinating and were quite intrigued what this would look like. But first we were going to turn so that the bow would be positioned toward the exit of the fjord.

Fascinating! I'd have been glued to the process as well. Had no idea there was this sort of system out there.

The pilot was not in the hut, however. He was mobile and running up and down the sea walk steering with his remote control:

Kinda like a drone pilot, but for a gangway system. Neat!