July 2019: Our Magical 11 night Iceland and Norway Cruise (Gothenburg + Wrap Up, Update August 18 x 2)

Ladybugx87

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
We've recently returned from the 11-night Iceland and Norway cruise on the Magic as our 5th cruise - I did a pre-trip report with more details on the planning here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...11-night-iceland-norway-on-the-magic.3719908/

Our traveling group
Me: the planner of the group - I'm 37 - this detail will play into the trip report
DH: thankfully he appreciates my wanderlust and the girls love of Disney
DD1 - S: our 9 year old who LOVES Minnie, character visits, and also visiting new places
DD2- C: our almost 5 year old who loves Disney, traveling, and is getting more and more independent - she really enjoyed the Club and Lab this trip

Planning
Much more can be found in the pre-trip report but we booked on opening day and chose cabin 7602 with a verandah. We have always sailed with a verandah. As the girls get older, we have used it less and less (I used to sit out there when they napped, slept early, etc) so ...spoiler alert...we booked non-verandah for cruise 6.

Getting to the cruise
We traveled to London the Friday evening before our Sunday embarkation and spent Saturday in London. Happy to share details on this if people are interested - just let me know. We booked a car via Blackberry cars Sunday morning to the port and were happy with this choice.

Our driver picked us up at 9:30 and we were on track for an 11:30 arrival but hit some traffic for a bad accident and arrived closer to noon. We did a quick luggage drop off and checked in. By happenstance, we met one of S's pen pals in line, which was exciting for everyone. We were given boarding group 6 but they were already on 12 so we were able to board immediately.

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We did our usual routine and went straight to Lumiere's for lunch where we were seated with a nice family of 4 from Australia. After lunch, we went to our room and decorated our door, etc.

The rest of embarkation day went quickly with a few things to note:
1) Laundry rooms were crazy! The launderette was a few doors down and it was a madhouse, so for longer cruises, plan appropriately.
2) my room steward, Claudine, indicated she was not allowed to leave us paper navigators, even upon request so each day I picked one up from Guest Services for DD1.
3) Our dining rotation was LAR LAR LAR LA and we had early dining. We were granted a table just the 4 of us per our request. Kasimir was our head server and was also our head server last summer on the Fantasy. Suttipong was our main server and was also great!

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I am so excited to read this! I made the hard decision to reschedule this cruise and move it to a more local (we're in Florida) cruise to decrease my tuition anxiety (DD is beginning university in 3 weeks). That said, we would have been your down the hall neighbors in 7620. Maybe next time :)
 


Great start! We did this cruise in 2018 and have booked it for 2020 since there are different ports. I’m looking forward to seeing how your cruise went. 😃
 
I am so excited to read this! I made the hard decision to reschedule this cruise and move it to a more local (we're in Florida) cruise to decrease my tuition anxiety (DD is beginning university in 3 weeks). That said, we would have been your down the hall neighbors in 7620. Maybe next time :)

Hopefully next time! and edited to say 7620 was in my FE group, which is ironic.
 
edited to say 7620 was in my FE group, which is ironic.

Definitely not me-the FE concept stresses me out much less the execution. My DD says I'm the worst gift giver ever, lol. Did I read on your blog y'all live in Cincy? I would have never thought to do CLE-YYZ-LHR...I'm impressed with that out of the box thought process.
 


Now onto Sea Day #1 and Formal Night!

I think I included this in my pre-trip report but my husband and I are both runners - and he is in training for a marathon right now so running will play into the report.

I woke early and ran a few miles on the deck before heading back to the room to find my family awake. I took the girls to Cabanas while my husband went off to run - I think today was a longer run for him so you won't see/hear about him until lunchtime.

We did one FE group and one treats group this cruise- we delivered about 1/2 of our gifts today before going on a character carousel (this is what my family calls it when there are characters out in 15 minute intervals).

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Next up was the 7-9 year old girls ice cream social on Deck 9 - our older daughter had two pen pals and someone had arranged an ice cream meet and greet for all of the girls aged 7-9 to meet up. S met her other pen pal here and in the small world that it is, I realized I have a mutual friend with her mom. S went to the Kids Club with her new friends while C insisted on swimming even though it was a bit chilly. Once done swimming C and I visited some characters before a family lunch at Lumiere's.

I really enjoy the sit-down lunches but this was the last one of the cruise - the food is good but today the service was slow, so the rest of my family outvoted me the rest of the cruise.

We returned to our room to find Moana sheets on the girl's beds! We had told Claudine that she could leave the bunk beds down the whole time and we were delighted with these sheets.

Afternoon was more characters, Open House at the Kids Club, and then getting ready for formal night. Before dinner, we met even more characters and S took a photo with Captain Fabian.
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Dinner was in Animator's Palate- I don't have specific notes on dinner but I know they got us in and out quickly as the girls changed and were at Pluto's Pajama Party by 7:30pm.
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While the girls were at the Pajama Party, my husband and I went to the (not so hot) hot tub and then picked up C. I took her to see Donald and ended up with some Disney Magic - she was the only one in line so Donald played with her and her pillow case for awhile- he pretended to take a nap on it, used it for a shark fin, and did some other fun things with it.

Last up, we picked up S from the Kids Club and did one last visit with Minnie before heading to bed.

Some observations from today:
1) Lots of activities going on, on the ship so everyone easily found things to do.
2) the seas are still calm at this point (yes, a bit of foreshadowing)
3) for longer cruises, the pen pal idea is AMAZING - my older daughter loved that she had a few friends she 'knew' ahead of time and all the girls were kind to my younger daughter and the other little siblings. Speaking of C, she made a friend at the kids club today - a little boy- but she didn't see him any more after this that she told me.
 
Definitely not me-the FE concept stresses me out much less the execution. My DD says I'm the worst gift giver ever, lol. Did I read on your blog y'all live in Cincy? I would have never thought to do CLE-YYZ-LHR...I'm impressed with that out of the box thought process.

Yes Cincinnati - I have a coworker who travels a ton and recommends going through YYZ all the time. I loved the day flight a few years ago so had my mind set on that this time. I was glad CLE worked since CVG prices were so high! are you close by?
 
I was glad CLE worked since CVG prices were so high! are you close by?

CVG prices are crazy, I know. My brother, sil and niece live there and I run into Reds fans all the time who recognize his name (he's a sports writer). My running career ended after doing part of the Flying Pig but before that I logged many, many miles on deck 4. Your DDs look so sweet and happy :)
 
Hi!! We were on board with you and are IG friends and in the same FE group! So fun to see you here!! Can’t wait to hear all the details about your trip!!!

We are in some serious trip withdrawal in our house - legit tears on the regular! So happy to relive the trip through your report 😍
 
Hi!! We were on board with you and are IG friends and in the same FE group! So fun to see you here!! Can’t wait to hear all the details about your trip!!!

We are in some serious trip withdrawal in our house - legit tears on the regular! So happy to relive the trip through your report 😍

Yay thanks for following along!! I’m definitely in vacation withdrawal too.
 
Yes 12 night Med next summer so I’m about to start planning. Do you have one planned?

That sounds like a wonderful cruise :)

Nothing next summer but my parents' 50th Anniversary Cruise over NYE and then Mom's b2b Bahamian cruise for her 70th bday. Neither are exotic nor super interesting but her "happy place" is Castaway Cay!

Non DCL is Viking Australia and New Zealand in February---I was too impatient to wait for DCL to go there :)
 
That sounds like a wonderful cruise :)

Nothing next summer but my parents' 50th Anniversary Cruise over NYE and then Mom's b2b Bahamian cruise for her 70th bday. Neither are exotic nor super interesting but her "happy place" is Castaway Cay!

Non DCL is Viking Australia and New Zealand in February---I was too impatient to wait for DCL to go there :)

These plans sound amazing!! So fun to celebrate with Disney!

And once you do the Viking trip I’d love to hear about it.
 
Kirkwall, Scotland
Today, we arrived in our first port city Kirkwall, Scotland with time in port from 8:30am-4:45pm. I booked KI01- Scenic Tour of Neolithic Heartland from 12:45-4pm for our excursion.

The morning started with a deck run for me and then some verandah relaxing as we sailed in. I also must note that there were amazing bagpipers playing during sail in- I fully enjoyed this!
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Once in port, DH left for a run around Kirkwall - I found an awesome route for him online and he really enjoyed it. The girls and I enjoyed Cabanas in the room and I have noted I did more laundry this morning (I tried to pick times it wouldn't be crowded- sometimes more successfully than others).

We spent some Open House time at the Kids Club before going to play our new favorite game - Who Am I - this round with Dean. S was the best at this game and easily figured out she was Maleficent. I could NOT figure out I was Cruella di Vil for anything!

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Next up was lunch on Deck 9 - a mix of pizza and Daisy De-Lites from my notes - and I am certain some ice cream even though I didnt write this down.

We had a GORGEOUS weather day in Kirkwall and left for our excursion - the drive felt long (and the bus was hot as a side effect of this amazing weather) but then we started to see the Standing Stones plus some areas of excavation. Shortly after, it was time for our main stop at Skara Brae which was just lovely and full of rich history. The girls enjoyed having time in fresh air and my older one really liked hearing the history. Once my little one understood that we were looking at old settlements, her interest grew too.
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The drive back to the ship was much quicker with lots of resting before getting back onboard and meeting the characters in their lovely dress.
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Sail away from Kirkwall was quite nice as well- bagpipers and local dancers came out to wish us well as we sailed away.

Tonight was our first dinner at Rapunzel's but was not the birthday party or show night. The girls headed to the Kids Club while DH and I headed to watch the Inside Out Game - this game would've been much better with the girls in tow or if we had gotten chosen but it dragged on a bit otherwise.

I don't have notes passed this for the evening but it's safe to say we all slept well with a Sea Day awaiting us!


I write a little differently on the personal blog and also have some a few different photos (especially from our Sea Day) in case you want to see those:
https://jmsadventure.blogspot.com/2019/08/disney-magic-iceland-and-norway-sea-day.htmlhttps://jmsadventure.blogspot.com/2019/08/disney-cruise-norway-and-iceland.html
 
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My family of three was on this trip. Highly recommended.
That said, if you're not platinum, good luck getting an on-board tasting.
We handled our the excursions ourselves, except for one booked via a contact in the facebook group.
and I liked having an inside room for this. because it was the only place that was dark.
 

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