August 9-16, 2018: The Northern European Cruise is MAGIC! (Completed!)

[Geomom]

Wednesday 8/8/18: Copenhagen Day 3—"How scary could that ride be?” Part 4

We watched the parade with a float sponsored by Disney World (Tivoli is celebrating 175 years!),



Disney's "It's a Small World" float, congratulating Tivoli on 175 years!


went on the trolley car…and then DH and I decided to brave Rutschebanen…the 104 year old wooden roller coaster that has a brakeman to slow it down as needed. How scary could it be? Scarier than we thought! Despite the lap bar, DH felt himself leave his seat multiple times. Then there was the pitch black area…thankfully there were no dips there! It was fun though, glad we can say we rode it!


After that excitement, we stopped for some dinner. One of the parade floats had a sign saying ‘Tivoli World Menus’…and I noticed that it had Currywurst listed for Germany. DD18 LOVED currywurst during her trip to Germany…so, of course, we had dinner at Biergarten! DD18 got the currywurst with sauerkraut, fries, and a roll. (Sorry…I took the food pics when we were mostly done!)


The rest of us split the charcuterie with pretzels, cheese, and cornichons. DD14 ate almost all the cornichons…I snitched one before she ate them all!
I had a can of ginger beer and DD18 had a carton of water




DD18 bought an umbrella in one of the shops, so she’ll have a Tivoli one for college! We then sat on the grass by the Pantomime Theater and watched the show ‘Pierrot at the Deer Park”. We loved it.




I was hoping to stay for the next show, but DD14 was done—too hot/humid and she was tired; so we walked back to the hotel. We got back early enough to pack up our bags…tomorrow we’d be boarding the Disney Magic!

 

[mmmears]

Great trip report! I'm really enjoying it. We were on the cruise that started the day you disembarked and also spent some time in Copenhagen before boarding. I am impressed with your 1 1/2 hours at the Glyptotek - I think we only lasted an hour there because it was just too hot for us. Looking forward to seeing the ports you visited.

 

[Geomom]

Great trip report! I'm really enjoying it. We were on the cruise that started the day you disembarked and also spent some time in Copenhagen before boarding. I am impressed with your 1 1/2 hours at the Glyptotek - I think we only lasted an hour there because it was just too hot for us. Looking forward to seeing the ports you visited.

Thanks! Lol, maybe it only felt like 1 1/2 hrs due to the temps in the Glyptotek...but with the amount we saw, it probably was close to that! I hope you'll be doing a trip report as well. The Iceland/Norway cruise was also of interest to us, but the timing didn't work out (both school-wise and it was just past our placeholder date.) We loved our cruise though! It really was a great way for us to sample 5 countries while unpacking once!

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 1

We had our final ‘european’ breakfast, finished our packing, checked out, and ordered a taxi to take us to Oceankaj Port for our 11:30-Noon PAT. It cost about $40 USD from our hotel, and the taxi accepted credit cards. Dropped off our bags at port and checked in. Very easy—no customs, just the standard metal detector/bag x-ray. As this is our second cruise, we got silver lanyards. We got boarding group 7. We took an embarkation picture with Minnie (and discovered I needed to clean the camera lens on my phone…)


Then we sat down and looked at the Personal Navigator while we waited for boarding to begin.


Sadly, they are still doubling up on shows…I was not happy about it, but at least we knew it was a possibility going into our cruise...thanks to the DISboards and disneycruiselineblog. We had Twice Charmed and Dreams doubled up. With St. Petersburg right in the middle, they had a variety act at 7:30PM that night instead of doing Tangled twice.

When boarding group 7 was called, we bypassed the boarding photos, and were welcomed onto deck 1 forward (all the Northern European ports used deck 1 forward AND aft to get on/off the ship.) Then we walked up to deck 3.

Porthole seats in the After Hours area.


(During the cruise, DD14 spent a lot of time in these with a friend she met in Vibe.)


Deck 3 Atrium with Captain Mickey statue!

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 2

We decided to go to Lumieres for the sit-down embarkation lunch.



We had Sumpong from Thailand? as our waiter for lunch.


DD18 and I had the Beef Empanadas (I also had the Leek and Potato Soup.)


DD18 had the sliced roasted beef sirloin.


DH had the grilled salmon salad.


DD14 had the kids chicken strips.


For dessert, I had the Welcome Aboard Sundae,


DH had the carrot cake.


DD18 and DD14 had the cookies and cream cheesecake.

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 3

By the time we finished lunch, it was after 1:30PM, so we went to our stateroom on deck 2—2108.




Unfortunately, this is one of the rooms with air bubbles in the porthole glass. It didn’t end up bothering us at all for this trip though.


Room Service Menus:


After checking out the room, we took pics around the ship.






We talked with the DVC desk staff on deck 4 to see if we were on their list as we didn’t yet have a magnet on our door—they just flew into Copenhagen today, so it would be done later that day. (They also hadn't unpacked lanyards yet to hand those out. We never actually asked for lanyards as we got the Silver Castaway ones this trip...for our first cruise though, the DVC ones were very welcomed by us!)

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 4

Some pics from deck 10:






We grabbed our first soft serve ice cream (waffle cones in Europe!), and checked out both Vibe and Edge with DD14. I took DD18 around some of the adult areas, showed her where the pastries were in Cove Café. The kids had a snack of some sort, and I headed over to Signals to get a Passion Fizz and sit in one of the 'comfy' chairs! We had our Muster drill, then we went up to deck 9 for some snacks. DD18 expressed interest in the Sven container at the smoothie station…and later that day DH indulged her…much to my dismay, lol.

‘Adventures Away’ sail away deck party


We took some pics on/from deck 4.






“Goodbye Copenhagen, see you in a week!”




Then we went back to our room and met our stateroom host Calvin Williams (Calvin Klein as he joked.) He was very personable and did indeed have ‘a black belt in towel folding.’ Our bags arrived before dinner, so we started unpacking and the kids decorated our door with magnets.

 

[#NotMyName]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with this report. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 5

Our rotation was RLARLAR, as we requested! So, off we went to Rapunzel’s Royal Table.


Our servers said it’s a hard restaurant to have on the first night of the cruise due to the show. We had Henry from Jamaica as our main server, Tiago from Portugal as our assistant server, and Mavis from St. Vincent as our head server. We were pleased with all of them, they didn’t do any magic tricks, but Henry did give our table some crayon puzzles a few times. Service was a bit slow at times due to the party of 12 that they were also assigned to. After the first day, Tiago normally brought us a couple Lemonades (for DH and DD14), and a soda water with lemon for me. DD18 normally just had water. It was our first time having an assistant server bring drinks to the table without asking.

The first night in Rapunzel’s was ‘Thug’ night, celebrating Rapunzel’s birthday.



We were at Table 22—the prime spot. Far away from the stage—but right at the end of the aisle…we had the perfect view…



and the perfect spot for the Thugs to stop and talk to us. They were so funny. Hook Hand stopped by the table. Then, Attila came by…he said he was born in this bucket and some day he’ll…graduate in this bucket, and get married in this bucket. Then he asked me to marry him. I said, no…then he got all sad, so I added that I was already married, lol.





Rapunzel also went to all the tables.

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 6

Dinner menu:


For dinner, DD14 had the Slow Roasted Breast of Chicken with BBQ sauce on the side. (sorry no pic!)
I had the Green and White Asparagus Spears (apparently, they only had green…),


I had the Coronation of Mixed Leaves,


DD18 had the Lentil Soup


DD18 and I had the Portobello Triangoli as our entrees:

DH had the Gravlaks


DH had the Pumpkin Stroganoff

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 7



Dessert Menu:


For dessert: I had the Sacher torte.


DH had the Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding.


DD18 had Attila’s Sublime Cupcake.


DD14 had the Blueberry Streusel Cake.

 

[Geomom]

Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 8

We decided to see all the stage shows at their ‘normal’ time of 8:45PM…so we saw them on their ‘second’ day…which made the first night a little odd…I liked the ‘welcome aboard’ show we had 2 years ago…it was a good introduction to what we’d be seeing during the cruise. Oh well! Luckily the DVC Members Welcome reception was from 7:45-8:30PM in Fathoms, so we had something to do!







I had a free alcoholic drink, DH and the kids had the non-alcoholic punch. As we arrived a bit late coming from dinner, I’m not sure if they had a character Meet and greet first. Afterwards DD14 went up to her club and made some friends. DH added our Disney Rewards gift card to our account—it was enough to cover most of our 3 DCL excursions…we’d been saving it up for 1 ½ yrs!

We did some shopping with DD18 (there was merchandise specifically for DCL Europe,

DCL Northern Europe (a pin, a shirt, and an ornament),


and for the 20th anniversary of DCL.





We also looked through the Sea Treasures shop which was full of goods from Russia. (Matryoshka dolls, Lacquer boxes, Faberge style eggs, amber, etc.)



We picked up a few small things—I found a barrette that would go perfectly with my dress for semi-formal night. We spent enough to get to the $50 minimum to get 10% off with either our DVC membership or the Disney Visa.

After shopping, DD18 went to the 1820 society meeting in Signals. Afterwards, DD18 joined us for the Hector is Magic adult only show in Fathoms—we all really enjoyed it! DD14 was very responsible this trip, used the DCL app to text us about where she was, asked what time she should be in the room, etc. We got more texts from her on the ship than we got when she was on a school trip to D.C. this year! Apparently, she needs to have Disney emojis on her phone!

When we entered our room, we discovered…SHARK! But he’s a friendly shark with edible eyes!

 

[Geomom]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with this report. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for reading it!

 

[Maplered]

I love reading this as it brings me back. (I too was on that very same cruise). Keep going this is fantastic!!!

 

[disneycruisegirl]

love your trip report!

 

[scrappydew]

Enjoying your report!

 

[Geomom]

love your trip report!

Enjoying your report!

Thanks for reading it!

I love reading this as it brings me back. (I too was on that very same cruise). Keep going this is fantastic!!!

Thanks! I hope you had a great cruise! This was one of our best vacations--everything went as planned and we never really had any 'bad' moments--no fights between the kids or anything!

 

[Geomom]

Friday 8/10/18: DCL Day 2: at sea—"I’m all a muddle.” Part 1

The clocks went forward 1 hr overnight…now we’re 7 hrs ahead of our normal time zone. I caught the end of the Kirov Arts Amber Lecture in Promenade Lounge as I ate my breakfast (coffee from deck 9, pastries and Mango Mountain Smoothie from Promenade Lounge.) DH joined me after the lecture ended, had his breakfast, then we fetched the kids some pastries and tea before rousing them enough to go to our ticketed 11:30AM Frozen Gathering in Animator's Palate. We were surprised to see Kristoff with Anna and Elsa this time!





We got out of that in time to watch Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash while standing in line to meet Minnie. They only had 1 crawling contestant, so they had a cast member compete against the baby…the baby was doing fine until he looked at the cast member…he was so confused by a big person crawling and acting like a baby, lol. Next, they had a competition for toddlers…but they had to crawl and would be disqualified if they stood up. It was fun to watch…because of course half the kids stood up and walked the rest of the way!



We took pics with Minnie.



Then, the kids separated from us after that, DD18 to meet the 1820 society for lunch at Cabanas, and DD14 went up to get herself some food and meet her LA friend somewhere. Today was LAUNDRY Day…along with tons of other people! This was day 6 for us, so we had 5 days of laundry. We did 2 loads that really needed to be dried as 3 loads…oops. You buy credits from a machine that you can use at any of the laundry spots. $2/load. The app is supposed to tell you when the laundry is done…but it’s a little slow, so people removed our laundry to start theirs…as DH said, he couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes late! Ug. After laundry, DH and I went to the Shawarma station, had that and some pizza. (Butternut squash, Margherita, and a BBQ chicken pizza!) I made sure I ate enough as I was heading to a tasting class I had booked on my online check-in date—Mojitos and Caipirinhas! ($20) DH and the kids went to The Magic of Hector is Magic in the Walt Disney Theater at 2PM—said it was a great show!

I got to Keys early and sat in one of the window seats! And…what do you do when you’re sitting there by yourself waiting…take selfies! As the pics of my face look like I’ve already been drinking…here’s one of my toes!



For my tasting, as I was by myself, they sat me with another ‘solo’…and then her 2 friends joined her…awkward! It was fine though! We started the tasting with 3 glasses with stuff in them, and 3 shots of alcohol behind them. We would be making and tasting 5 drinks, but the 10 glasses/person is too much for the table!



We started with the glass on the left which had limes, mint, and sugar syrup. We learned how to properly muddle it—press the fruit to release the juice, do not press so hard that you release the oils of the skin or it will taste bitter. Then we added ice ½ way up the glass. We had to taste the shot and guess what it might be before adding it to our glass, then add some club soda and stir the drink. (We repeated this method for all the drinks.) The first drink turned out to be their standard mojito…call it Mickey’s Mojito—Bacardi Limon is the alcohol in it.



Drink 2 had raspberry puree in it as well as limes and mint with Bacardi Silver and the club soda—Raspberry Mojito.



Drink 3 had limes and sugar, no club soda, and Cachaca—it was a Caipirinha.



Now my memory gets hazy…and my picture taking slowed down…lol. Drink 4 had mango puree and limes and vodka…not sure what they called it and not sure I cared at that point! (In the pic of drink 3, you can see orange liquid in the glass to the left…that was the mango puree.)

The 5th drink was their version of a Mint Julep—with a sugar syrup to make it sweeter.



I added even more club soda to it, and then took this glass with me when the class ended, and went over to O’Gills for part of the Matryoshka Lecture…I was pretty out of it though! I got a text from DH and DD18 that they were about to play Bingo in Fathoms if I wanted to join them…so I brought my drink with me and joined them. It was our first time playing Bingo. DH bought the family pack for $80—2 electronic handsets w/ 24 cards each, and 2 6pk of papercards. We lost the first game…but DH won the 2nd game with a paper set--$267! Then DH wins the 3rd game with 1 of the electronic handsets--$306! At this point Timmy is saying we’ll need to go into the Bingo Protection plan if we win again! (Luckily?) We did not win the 4th game. But wow, we won 2 games in our first bingo session--$573! DD18 went to O’Gills for the 1820 Society crafts, and made a 3D model of the Magic, then left early to get ready for Formal night!

 

[Geomom]

Friday 8/10/18: DCL Day 2: at sea—"I’m all a muddle.” Part 2

Dinner tonight was in Lumiere’s.



DD18 and I had Fried Pierogi,


I had the Farmhouse Salad,



DD14 had the kids’ salad.



DH had Escargot



DH had Trio of Smoked Salmon, Gravlax, and Salmon Lefese



DH had the Ahi Tuna Nicoise



DD14 and I had the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak,



DD18 had the Mini Potato Dumplings

 

[Geomom]

Friday 8/10/18: DCL Day 2: at sea—"I’m all a muddle.” Part 3

Dessert!

I had the Grand Marnier Souffle.



DH had the Summer Berry Pudding.



DD18 had Tahitian Vanilla Crème Brulee.



DD14 had Apple Tarte Tatin.



Henry also brought our table a Strawberry Shortcake Sundae.



After dinner we went out to the atrium for the Captain’s Welcome reception. I grabbed a free drink…it was blue and yellow…not sure what it was…but it was free!



We took pics with Formal Minnie:



Then we went to Twice Charmed show in the Walt Disney Theater. While this was the second night of this show…they seemed to treat it like it was the first night of the cruise. They gave all the introductions, talked about our cruise, (There were 2580 passengers.) etc. We enjoyed the show. I thought it was nice to see a twist on a classic tale.

After the show, we went out to watch the sunset,





Then we gathered some snacks for the room from deck 9—ice cream, pizza, Cove Café meats/cheese/olives/breadsticks, etc.

Tonight’s Towel Animal—2 swans forming a heart!