June 17, 2016 - Magic goes to Norway and Iceland from Dover

[MeeskaMooska13]

I wanted to start a thread for us to share our excitement, as well as any research and tips (this is my first cruise meet thread starter so bear with me)! This is going to be an amazing trip! Who's joining us!

I will keep a roll call in this post as we go along for quick reference!

Here is a thread that has some outstanding tips!
http://www.disboards.com/threads/norway-cruise-iceland-copenhagen-dover-tips-consolidated.3254799/

This thread is about London hotels!
http://www.disboards.com/threads/london-hotels-family-of-4.3371174/

And another one with clothing advice!
http://www.disboards.com/threads/clothing-to-pack-for-norway-iceland-cruise.3416770/

Can't wait!
Kim

Roll Call:

MeeskaMooska13 - (1 Adult, 2 Teens) - Kim
TravelinCyn - (2 Adults, 1 Teen)
dlhowell - (2 Adults, 2 Teens, 2 Children)
kathleena - (2 Adults) - Nancy and Rod
pepsapeep - (2 Adults, 2 Children)
o&smom - (2 Adults, 1 Teen, 1 Child) - Marni
Bee2u - (2 Adults)
wajones2 - (2 Adults, 1 Child)
tde1969 - (2 Adults, 1 Teen) - Tim, Bill, and Billy
sasmmb - (2 Adults)
seaulater - (3 Adults) - Linda, Jamie and Q
happyrebster - (2 Adults, 1 Child)
ParadiseAngel - (2 Adults, 1 Teen, 2 Children)
Aurora1959
kventventx - (2 Adults) - Karen and Nick
bekkio - (2 Adults, 2 Young Adults) - Bekki, John, Marina, Karolyn
Dan Velazquez - (2 Adults) - Dan and Dana
Terapin - (2 Adults, 1 Child) - Carolynn, Adam and Gwendolyn
sunnyfamily - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Fred, Juanita, Lynette and Stephanie
CherylABQ - (1 Adult, 2 Young Adults)
mom2saminoc - (2 Adults, 1 Child) - Sharon, James and Sammy
Donald's friend - (2 Adults, 1 Child) - Dana, Bill and Madison
Californiacruisers - (2 Adults, 1 Teen, 1 Child)
Just love Eeyore - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Cristina, Rasmussen, Thomas, and Jakob
FrauleinBecca - (2 Adults, 1 Child)
Ofinn
lornak - (2 Adults) - Kermit and Lorna
Peters_Shadow - (2 Adults, 3 Children) - Greg, Missy, Breyton, Marin, and Jareth
TxMermaid1 - (2 Adults, 1 Young Adult) - Jill, Jana and Ashley
Rfamily - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Ying, Johnny, Leo & Sisi
rachelm23 - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Rachel, Kevin, Olivia and Isabelle
Jeff Griffeth - (2 Adults, 3 Children) - Jeff and Amy
Mdmom55 - Mark, Shannon, Paige, Robert, Michael, Rich, Kathy, and Sean
NoWorriesMate - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Michelle, Chris, Nick and Lillian
welchmom - (2 Adults, 2 Young Adults) - Georgianna, Nathan, Blake and Becca
chuckwalla - (2 Adukts, 1 Teen, 2 Children) - Anna, Richard, Billy, Tommy, and Michael
tnluvsmm - (2 Adults) - Tina and David
Florida Babs - (1 Adult, 1 Teen)
Garrie the Unicorn - (2 Adults) - Erin and Mark
CaKaren - (2 Adults, 1 Child) - Karen, Roy and Sierra
MinnieMimMe - (2 Adults, 2 Children) - Lily, Gary, Drew and Luke
Hells - (2 Adults, 3 Children)

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

57 Weeks!!​

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(I'm not clever - I've just copied this idea from another poster!)

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[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list
Have a great cruise
Also, please keep in mind the new DIS policy regarding links/directions to external sites
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=52659395

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Itinerary per DCL's website:

1 Dover, England — 4:00 p.m.
2 At Sea — —
3 Newcastle, England 8:15 a.m. 4:30 p.m.
4 Kirkwall, Scotland 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.
5 At Sea — —
6 Reykjavik, Iceland 9:15 a.m. —
7 Reykjavik, Iceland — 11:45 a.m.
8 Akureyri, Iceland 8:45 a.m. 4:45 p.m.
9 At Sea — —
10 Bergen, Norway 12:15 a.m. 5:45 p.m.
11 Stavanger, Norway 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.
12 At Sea — —
13 Copenhagen, Denmark 7:30 a.m. —
Guest ashore times and onboard times are subject to change without notice.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

56 Weeks!​

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[TravelinCyn]

We just got off the Wonder's pacific coast repo to Vancouver for the summer Alaska season, and are booked on this cruise- me, husband, and son who will be 13 by the time this cruise rolls around. Super excited for it.

 

[dlhowell]

Also booked on this cruise. Six of us total. Me, husband, son (16), daughter (14), daughter (10), and son (6) at the time of sailing. We booked the day the cruises went on sail. Happened to be on board the Dream that day and just couldn't pass it up!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

We just got off the Wonder's pacific coast repo to Vancouver for the summer Alaska season, and are booked on this cruise- me, husband, and son who will be 13 by the time this cruise rolls around. Super excited for it.

Welcome!!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Also booked on this cruise. Six of us total. Me, husband, son (16), daughter (14), daughter (10), and son (6) at the time of sailing. We booked the day the cruises went on sail. Happened to be on board the Dream that day and just couldn't pass it up!

Welcome!!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

55 Weeks!


Newcastle

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[TravelinCyn]

Well, we pulled the trigger on serious planning for this trip!
Our loose plan: 3 days in London prior to cruise, followed by 3-4 days in Copenhagen afterwards (so long as we're all the way over there....)
Kiddo has been out on summer vacation since May 13; every summer we pull together activities for him to keep him from getting bored and antsy. This year we themed them around next summer's trip- he will not have studied significant European history at school before then, so we developed a bunch of materials to get him excited for (and knowledgable about) where we're going. By the end of the summer, we'll have a family meeting about his recommendations for port adventures, stuff to do, and where to stay. I've offloaded the first phase research, muahahahaha.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Well, we pulled the trigger on serious planning for this trip!
Our loose plan: 3 days in London prior to cruise, followed by 3-4 days in Copenhagen afterwards (so long as we're all the way over there....)
Kiddo has been out on summer vacation since May 13; every summer we pull together activities for him to keep him from getting bored and antsy. This year we themed them around next summer's trip- he will not have studied significant European history at school before then, so we developed a bunch of materials to get him excited for (and knowledgable about) where we're going. By the end of the summer, we'll have a family meeting about his recommendations for port adventures, stuff to do, and where to stay. I've offloaded the first phase research, muahahahaha.

Our loose plan is similar - 3 days in London and probably 2 days in Copenhagen. I've kind of narrowed the search for our hotels for the pre-stay but not on the post-stay.

I love the idea of the summer activities you planned to educate your child! Please share if you get a chance (for those of us who are not so creative)!

I have to admit, that I already have my Kirkwall tour booked (that's the only one so far). We are heading to Disneyland in a month so lately my planning has been mostly for that.

 

[TravelinCyn]

Much of it's Q&A, short answers kind of thing. (Note: he's on math team and academic bowl, so a LOT of this is geared towards his head for numbers and love of trivial knowledge) Loosely organized as:

1. General travel questions. If this is the route we're taking, how many miles are we traveling? If this is the cruise route, how many nautical miles is that? What's the exchange rate in each country and what's their form of currency? What kind of documentation do you need to get into each of the countries we're going to?
2. Specific history of each country, starting with early civilizations. Questions are phrased to keep a 12 year old's interest (examples: "Aethelred the Unready is possibly the best insulting nickname for a ruler, ever. Why was he deemed to be 'unready'?" and "Describe 3 awesome ways the Vikings totally messed with London during X time period"). Each question is phrased to give him a keyword that he can use to target his research/note taking as he reads (we have a lot of history books lying around!)
3. Tourism specifics for each country/city: what port adventures are interesting to you and what are the time/money considerations? We'll be in X town during lunch, where do you recommend we eat and why? What are some local things to do that aren't port adventures that we should consider? What's the best way to get around in Copenhagen?
4. Maps maps maps maps maps. And maps.

And then there are the project based learning things. These are longer term projects that involve him deep diving a little more. He's got to make a music playlist and explain the concept behind it (is it a comprehensive history of music from the British Isles? The most popular songs of each time from each country?) We will actually make the playlist(s) and bring them with to play on the trip. He'll be writing poetry in the styles of 3 different major poets of the regions (his choice, he's got a list, and naturally involves reading the poetry), and he will be designing a new ride as if he were an experience designer working for Tivoli: concept, sketches, model build.

He does very few summer camps because of his age- largely 3 half weeks of robotics team camp- and I telecommute so I can't have him whining he's bored and interrupting me. I refuse to have him parked on the computer or PS4 all day, so he's used to some structure: he spends X amount of time per day reading, practicing his guitar, flipping between summer project binder and messing around on Khan Academy, and does TKD practice. That all takes only a few hours. Other than that and chores, he gets to do as he pleases so long as the house doesn't burn down and he doesn't bleed out.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Wow!! I'm so impressed, TravelinCyn!! Those are all wonderful ideas/activities! Thanks so much for sharing!

Both myself and my youngest also practice TKD! We just received our black belts last month. She will spend most of her summer helping out at our dojang's summer camp program. She's still too young to be paid for it but she doesn't mind.

 

[TravelinCyn]

Congrats on earning your black belts! That is quite an achievement.
We're coping with catching up from a year's worth of orthopedic disaster- kiddo is 2 pips in to second dan on his black belt, and if all goes well he will be second dan by the time we're aboard ship. Which means another vacation of him attempting to practice forms in a cruise ship cabin!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Congrats on earning your black belts! That is quite an achievement.
We're coping with catching up from a year's worth of orthopedic disaster- kiddo is 2 pips in to second dan on his black belt, and if all goes well he will be second dan by the time we're aboard ship. Which means another vacation of him attempting to practice forms in a cruise ship cabin!

Thanks for reminding me that I should be practicing my forms right now!!

 

[TravelinCyn]

Hah! Sorry?

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

54 Weeks!


Orkney (Kirkwall)

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[MeeskaMooska13]

Added a link in post 1 for clothing tips! I've also added the itinerary in post 4.

 

[TravelinCyn]

Believe it or not, we did stuff this week re: planning for trip.

Kiddo sat us down and patiently explained he was concerned about the port adventures in Kirkwall, and not getting to do everything we wanted. We all made our lists of what we really wanted to do, prioritized them, researched private tour guides, and voila, we've booked one. Less time on busses, less time 'driving past' sites, more time actually seeing the stuff we want. Yay.

And, if you're looking for travel gear, Container Store had a pretty big sale on, and eBags has their packing cubes discounted right now. Cough.