DisneyDoc and Family's July 18th Baltic Cruise

[DisneyDoc1895]

DW woke up early to go walking with MIL. The rest of us slept in a bit. Today is a day at sea. We got breakfast and got the kids off to camp, and then DW and I went to the gym. The TVs were not working too well on the cycles. After our workout we went back to the room and got cleaned up, by then it was almost noon. We had lunch at Topsiders and MIL/FIL came in near the end of our meal. We then went the DVC Member Celebration - they give stuff away and tell us about new DVC locations, it is for DVC members only. It wasn't that great so off to pick the kids up for the Mad Hatter Tea party.

The Tea Party was being held in Studio Sea, and was only apple juice and cookies. When we got DD8 she told us she had skipped lunch. This was not good since she missed breakfast too! The problem is they now give the kids the choice to go to multiple events. Previously they were in their group and that was it - they had to do what their group was doing. So this option is good for the kids since they are not forced into doing something they dno't want to, but they need to have responsibility to stop playing and have lunch. And that is tough for an 8 year old in a Disney kids camp! Then DD10 told us that they are not brought to the buffet anymore, but rather lunches are brought to the camp in the form of sandwiches and chips. Faster certainly, but not great for options for the kids. So they want to come out for lunch, which is no problem. It would be if we did a lot of all day excursions in certain ports, but we don't so no biggie.

Anyway, the Tea Party. DD8 was cranky from no food and only cookies so I left and got her some pizza. Then she started to bounce back and be herself. This kid needs a constant supply of sugar or she becomes very unhappy.

At 3pm we went to a DisBoards mixer. The DisBoards are a website (www.disboards.com) that is composed of forums and chats about Disney. We have gotten alot of information from it. Over the past couple months we have posted questions and comments and others have too. It was nice to put some faces to names.

Then we went to sit on Deck 4 which has lounge chairs, and just look out on the ocean. Both DW and I worked on our blogs and then we went to get the kids for dinner. Tonight was formal night in Lumiere's. I'm not a foodie so I'm not going to talk about the food much. I had the chicken and DW had pasta which was actually ravioli. She commented that she wishes DCL (Disney Cruise Line) would just call food what it is instead of trying to dress it up with fancy names.

After dinner DD8 went back to camp and DD10 went with us to see a comedy show by Heath Hyche - very good. She had 2 of the NA drinks of the day and enjoyed being the only kid with us for a bit. Then we went to see Twice Charmed. She went back to the camp and DW and I went to wait in the line to exchange money, then to "TV Tune Trivia" which is right up DW's alley. We came in second. Then we picked the kids up, got them a snack and off to bed. Tomorrow is Oslo.

 

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I woke up around 730am and everyone else was sleeping. So I went up to the top deck to look around and see Norway. We are docked right next to the city and Akershus Fortress/Castle. It has scaffolding on it! Just like London.

There is a German cruise ship here to - the Aida line.

It was cloudy and started to rain soon. I got a little breakfast. I went down to the room and everyone was still sleeping at 8am so I went to the gym to bike a bit. The TVs there are still giving me trouble but I am seeing enough to see the Phillies continue to lose.

Back to the room by 830am and took a shower, then started to wake everyone up. Of course both kids had no interest in getting out of bed. Eventually they did and we went to breakfast. Finally they finished and we headed out as a family to explore Oslo. We walked around the fortress a bit.

There was a ceremonial guard marching with a not-so-ceremonial weapon (as in an assault rifle with a bayonette.) Reminded me of the guard at the Tower of London.

But there is more expensive stuff at the Tower than at Akershus I am sure. We got some good pics of the city and the ship from the top of the fortress.

We then walked to Aker Brygge, which is a harbor front mall. Along the way we sniffed for wifi, and found multiple sites. Unlike London, Oslo seems to have plenty. We also passed several parking spots for electric cars, plugged in. It is nice to see that in such an old city there can be a modern endeavor.

We walked around and looked in stores. We knew from internet research that Oslo was an expensive city, but it is incredible what things cost. 100 Norwegian Krone costs about 16 dollars, so about 1:6 ratio. We found in a 7-11 soda cans that cost 29 NOK - almost $5. Newspapers cost 12-15 NOK. McDonalds meals cost 80-90 NOK ($12-15).

There are alot of small boats docked here - we wonder where they are stored during the harsh winter. There is about 18 hours of sunlight here right now - sunrise is 430am and sunset is after 10pm. There were several restaurants along the water - most had outdoor seating to allow a smoking section. We noted that there were bloankets on most of the seats! I think if you neeed to have a blanket to smoke then maybe you should stop smoking.

DD8 was dragging from lack of sleep so we took the kids back to the ship for lunch and got her a coffee. Yes she drinks coffee, expresso, etc. And squid. Quite an adventurous eater. She started to perk up. There was a fire drill in the morning and I had noted that there were 2 Oslo fire engines parked near the ship. At lunch I saw that their crews were on board, probably to observe the drill. I think that is very cool that Disney facilitated that. They were having lunch.

We took the kids to camp and then DW and I headed out to explore a bit more of Oslo. It was drizzling pretty steadily now. We walked toward the main train station called Sentralstasjon. We walked around the shops of the station and used some free internet to upload blogs, update weather and receive emails. We found a supermarket and looked around a bought a few local beers to try later. All were just Ok. We shopped in some touristy shops and didn't find anything good, and then headed back to the ship. The ship sailed promptly at 430pm and I was able to video it and take some pictures on the way out of town. It was very scenic as the cruise line had advised.

On the way out about 4-5 speedboats with sightseers came towards the ship and used the wake to get some air. I as thinking that if we had been a military ship they would have gotten some warning shots near them - they were very close. It is said that we think about terrorism and stuff. Reminded me of the USS Cole in Yemen. DW told me that if they capsized (on the wakes) I was not allowed to first respond (I'm a doc, former medic and firefighter). I agreed to video it instead for YouTube or CNN.

Then we went to dinner and I ate too much. Gave the one DD a shower after dinner and then both to camp. DW and I went to Diversions - the main show tonight was a magician (Jason Bishop) that we didn't have too much interest in and neither did the kids. DD8 paged us from the camp (they give the parents alpha pagers) to say she wanted to come out because another girl was being mean to her. DW talked to DD8 and the counselors, and she agreed to stay. Good thing because DW and I wanted to go to the comedian, Heath Heach in Rockin Bar D.

Glad we did - he is funny. Although he does make fun of different people - last time he did the south. Come to find out he is from Alabama - does that make it OK? It is good natured, not sure if people take offense. But this time he had shticks that included Japanese, Brits and gays. Last time he talked about the wait staff on cruises with long and difficult to pronounce names. He liked it and said he thought they were classy or something like that.

We went to pick up the kids and when we got to the camp DD8 was playing WITH the girl who was "being mean" to her. Why can countries make up the way kids do?

Tried to get to sleep early for Copenhagen tomorrow, but the kids are always wound up so that didn't really happen.

The pearl of the day from DD10:

"Are we going to go anywhere not near the water on this cruise?"

Sigh. Brilliant and a bimbo at the same time.

Other images of the day:

 

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July 21st

Today is Copenhagen. I woke up and took a look around up on deck 10 while the kids were still sleeping. What a difference a day makes. It is sunny with scattered clouds, and much warmer. Should be over 80 F this afternoon.

We had breakfast and then headed out with the kids for a bit. There is a walking path along the harbor into the main part of town. We didn't think we would make it that far with the kids (and we were right) but we did what we could. Across from the dock there are a few stores, but nothing that great.

The buses stop right out side the dock - both Hop-on-Hop-off, and public.

About 1/4 of a mile from the dock is where the Little Mermaid would be, but the statue is in China for an exhibition of some sort. The Danes have set up a video screen showing it in China. Not the same, but kinda cool anyway.

We walked a bit farther and saw several fountains, a windmill, etc. By this time, even though it had been less than an hour, the kids were bored and tired of walking. Frustrating, but whatever. We took them back to the camp and in they went around lunch time. DW and I had a light lunch too and headed back out.

Now we were a little concerned about the amount of time that it would take to get to the center of town as well, just because we wwanted to maximize our time there. We had noted that bus #26 stops right in front of the dock, and I had a map in PDF format on my iPhone (program called Transit Maps, you can load any pdf map onto it) that showed the route of bus 26. So we were going to consider it and look at the map at the bus stop when it promptly arrived so we had to make a decision fast. We gave it a try.

We got on and the bus driver did not speak much english, but had a chart of the prices in Danish Kroons, Euros and Dollars. The cost for the 2 of us was 47 DAK or $10 or 7 Euros. In current rates 47 DAK would be only $8.17, but I guess this table used old rates. Anyway, we paid the 47 DAK and got on. I followed along the route to make sure it wasn't heading out of town - it wasn't. After a 10-15 min ride we arrived in the northern part of the the center of town, Nyhavn street and the begining of the Stroget, which is a pedestrian street with lots of stores, etc.

First we walked over to Nyhavn Street, which is along a canal.

There are a ton of restaurants here with alot of outdoor seating, but very expensive.

There are several areas where people can relax around a square, listening to live music from street performers.

There is no open container law here so people have cans or bottles of beer or even glasses of wine and just enjoy the day.

The restaurants sell beer to go for about 35-45 DAK which is $6-8. Or you can go to small stores called Kiosks which are usually a block or 2 off the main drag. These places seem set up to primary sell soda, beer, candy and cigarettes. The cost here is 12 DAK of $2.

We walked along this street and then walked to the Stroget. I had read that the northern part of this street seems to be designed to solely separate cruise ship passengers from their money. I believe this is true. All high end stores. (Who goes on a cruise and buys a $400 purse anyway?) The southern part of the Stroget has lower end stores from what I hear.

We walked around town a bit and then hung out at Nyhavn a bit.

We then headed to the bus stop we mapped out and had timtables etc. We were standing at the stop when a British women came up to ask if this was the stop for bus 26 back to the cruise ships. We said we thought so but as we said that we saw bus 26 go past us on another street! We ran to the next stop around the corner and re-assessed the situation. Then we noticed a yellow sign written in Danish. The only thing we could make out was another street name that bus 26 normally does not go on. We looked around and there was construction on the entire street. They moved the stop due to the construction!

We ran to the street indicated and waited at a stop, hopefully the one we wanted. There are 2 bus #26s - one that goes to the port and one that does not. Fortunately a bus 26 came soon. Unfortunately it was the one that does not go to the port. But, the 2 different ones split off only about 5 minutes before the port so we took it anyway. When we got on to ask how much to the point, the bus driver said 'nothing!' Finally something goes right. We got back to the ship with time to spare and had a good adventure in Copenhagen.

This city is very bike friendly. There are bike lanes wherever possible, and bike racks are often full. There are even bike taxis and a free bike program. Reportedly, there are 1000 bikes around the city that are free to use and then just leave for the next person. These are distinctively marked.

We took DD8 swimming as the ship disembarked - DD10 wanted to stay in the camp. Remember DD8's nemesis from camp? She was there and they played together the whole time. Then we got her cleaned up and went to dinner, which was fine. My steak was a bit undercooked but not enough to send it back. After dinner kids went back to camp. DW and I took a little catnap before the show which was "Once Upon a Song."

This was basically 5 actors from the theatre troupe singing different songs from Disney movies and shows. I didn' really like it, DW did. This was the first time in a Disney show that there was a steady stream of people leaving during the show that I had ever seen. Most of these people had kids, and the kids really were not into it all, and I can understand that. But also, the show was not full at all.

After the show we watched a little karyoke and then picked up the kids. Tomorrow is Warnemunde, Germany, and there are alot of people (reportedly) going to Berlin on the train. The train leaves at 630am, so breakfast is schedule to open early, and then close early too. So we gave the kids the option of skipping breakfast or getting up earlier than normal. They chose getting up earlier so we will see how that goes!

A few observations.

After a few days on our 3rd Disney Cruise (including the 15 day Panama crossing in 2008), things don't seem quite up to par. The evening adult entertainment seems lacking. If you don't want to listed to the Piano in the Piano Bar or the House band (The Right Stuff) in the Rockin Bar D, there seems less to do than previous cruises.

There are subtle attempts at cost savings, which is understandable. For example at 1145am today there was no pizza already made at the Deck 9 pizza place, and then when it was requested they only made a half pie of cheese. This has always annoyed me, like when McDonalds runs out of fries at 530pm. You know you are going to need it very soon, just make it! The problem was the restaurants were all closed including the buffet until 1230pm, so there were not many choices if you wanted to get something to eat. I guess they figure most people are off the ship on excursions, which is true. We don't mind waiting for food at all, but then make enough for the people that are waiting.

Pearl of the Day from DD8: We wake her up at 9am and the first thing she says is "I am so damn tired." We almost laughed in her face while telling her she should not talk like that.

 

[DisneyDoc1895]

IMHO It's a matter of taste. We had Rachel and Brent as CD's before, but we like Peter more. He's very good with the kids.
Rachel & Brent run like on speed the whole day.

Hello! It was great to meet you. I agree, Christian was very mellow at the right time, but a great performer. We never had Rachel or Brent so I don't know about them.

Ken