Norway cruise- how was the Dream?

[peig]

Rotterdam was excited to see us - first time there for DCL that's why so many people turned out. It was on the news for weeks apparently. We were outside at Meridian when we departed and one of the tugboat played the opening to the Lion King. The people of Rotterdam were cool.

Real talk - this has been a bucket list thing for us and it was always going to be hard to live up to expectations but...I wouldn't do a Disney cruise to Europe again. It's not like Carribbean or Alaska where Disney is there a ton so they have familiarity and priority with the ports. Skjolden was beautiful but all excursions except RIB were canceled and that town exists literally as a gate way to park tours. there was almost nothing in the town and the town wasn't prepared for the inundation of tourists they got. I felt bad for the lady at the campground they were bussing people to. This was result of local company basically no showing that day - something that wouldn't ordinarily happen but there was basically one vendor and it wasn't tested.

The reason we got switched to Merkjavik was because the German version of carnival took the main port in Stavanger. Which caused the absolute total clownshow with the buses back to the ship. We waited 90 mins starting at 430 to take the 20 min ride to the ship. Nuts.

The ship was at 3900 people and it was always always crazy. I talked to cast members who said the week prior wasn't like this and they had seen less frenetic cruises at 4100. It was a zoo. It felt incredibly crowded all the time except at like 4am when I was doing laundry. Packs of I kid you not unsupervised 5-6 year olds roaming the ship. The lines for character photos rivaled park lines. Maybe everyone wants to do Norway now idk.

No Elsa freezing the ship felt incredibly disappointing. Disney massively screwed up our transfer to the ship. Very limited merchandise for 25th anniversary though that's all the ships right now.

There were some high points. The RIB in Stavanger was incredible (but that isn't a DCL thing). Hiking to Briksdal Glacier was exactly what we hoped for (not a DCL thing). Cast members we interacted with were great. For some reason the rainforest room was really uncrowded a lot of the time (pulling away from Nordfjordeid at night with the cold rain and sea spray on my face while in the hot tub was a vibe). The secret dining room menu...was something I will be doing on every ship. Watching women's world cup finals on the big screen on pool deck surrounded by skyscrapers in Rotterdam was very cool.

My verdict - I'll be on the treasure. I'll do Disney Alaska. Or Caribbean. But if I were to sail in Europe I will pick a company that has a steady connection over there. This cruise lacked that Disney extra touch for me. None of the super positives were disney specific.

Can I ask what the Secret Dining Room menu is? Thanks for all of the detail and honest insights

 

[elsawasajedi]

secret dining room menu is curry. if you like Indian food there is legit awesome different curries every nite.