Updated 1 Oct London Day2- Our extended family European Fantasy cruise. "Laundry and toilets and busses...Oh My!

[tkd lisa]

Kristiansaand Part 2, Sept 6th.
Once back on the ship I got some lunch for DM, and texted DDIL to see where they were. They were doing some shopping, so I hopped back off and walked into town to meet them (see how convenient this port was???) They were all ready for snack by then, so we grabbed a few sweets at a shop, then went over to the churchyard to eat them. A few pictures taken there.

We the headed back toward the seaside park so the kids could burn off energy. It wasn’t a big huge playground, but there were a few things to play with, plus the weather was nice enough for a little dip in the North Sea (how crazy is that?).







Back on board, the kids went to the club, some of us hit one of the DVC member events, and we started thinking about packing up. But tonight was the day we were all going to wear our matching Disney outfits. I had spent quite a bit of time before the trip putting together family attire, and we this was going to be the family photos for the trip. I did get LOTS of compliments, and think the pictures turned out pretty good.


A final dinner at Enchanted Garden, with the added benefit of the characters visiting. DGS went right to sleep with the bribe of chocolate cake for breakfast, so the end of a picture perfect day!

Up next, Day at Sea, and “just how many poses can one family take?”

 

[tkd lisa]

September 7th, Day at Sea

We woke up to another picture perfect day. We didn’t have anything specific planned for this day. However, it was Churro Mickey waffle day, so I grabbed enough for everyone to enjoy back in the room. We also finished off the Norwegian treats we had brought back on board. At some time this day, DS2s family and I decided to enjoy some pool time. Despite this being our 3rd cruise on the Fantasy, I’ve actually only ridden the Aqua Duck a single time. Our first trip, DGS was only 2 ½, so I spent quite a bit of time with him, although that was the trip where I got my one and only ride on the Aqua Duck, we spent a lot of time in Nemo’s Reef.

The next trip, DGS was about ½ to ¼ inch too short to ride. It also was a pretty windy trip (It was Halloween 2024, and we were dodging hurricanes the entire trip), so there were only limited hours that Aqua Duck was open, and they often didn’t allow single riders.

So today was my planned day to enjoy this! DGS and I headed all the way up, after he was measured and got his wristband. But once we hit the top of the stairs, he balked. I don’t know if he actually understood the ride (Pro tip, we should have pulled up more youtube videos to prepare him), and it wasn’t worth the struggle. So we headed down to the yellow Mickey slide instead. He probably went down that 20 times, and was happy as a clam.

DGD and her parents joined us then. I said “hey, want to ride Aqua Duck with Grammy?” But I looked up to see no water running through the tubes. Thankfully it was BEFORE we climbed all the steps! She joined DGS on the Mickey slide, and the adults just sat in the splash area watching the kids bounce between the slide and the Mickey pool. I did try taking DGS over to the other kids pool (I think it’s the Goofy pool?) but it’s really DEEP! I couldn’t touch the bottom, and I didn’t want to mess with a life vest given how busy the pools were getting. So back to Mickey we all went. I did see people on the Aqua Duck later that day, but it wasn’t worth getting changed and all wet again, especially since we needed to pack up.

I’m honestly not sure what else we did the rest of the day, but I’ll use this section to fill in the things we really enjoyed doing on the ship, without trying to remember exactly when we did it, or who took part in the activity.

We did enjoy the mid-ship detective agency. Both grandkids completed all 3 challenges at least once, and it worked better for us to have them do this activity separately. The 4 ½ year age difference really shows up in activities like this, where DGD gets annoyed with her brother when he wants to take every single step at his own pace. I have to say that the Muppets version is the most engaging, while the art theft is the least engaging. The kids could care less about historic works of art, and there really aren’t a lot of “clues” that contribute to the art story line. Several times throughout the cruise, DGS would giggle and say “Liar, Liar, pants on fire.... Wasn’t that funny?” (In the muppets story, you have the suspect take a lie detector test, and when he fails it, they actually set his pants ablaze). On the last sea day (or maybe the Norway afternoon), DGS drug my aunt all across the ship doing this experience. She hadn’t realized that you should pick one end of the ship and just cover all the decks on that end before moving down the ship, so they probably walked a couple of miles in the space of maybe 90 minutes.

DS2 and DDIL definitely enjoyed the various trivia games and activities, particularly in the lounge area. They won several medals (I know for sure that DGD won the Frozen trivia, essentially getting all the answers right without any assistance), and DDIL won at least one other trivia. They also did Match Your Mate early in the cruise. This is where being repeat cruisers on the same ship comes out. Yoyo made sure that they were picked for the Match your Mate show, because he knew it would be entertaining! A number of the crew remembered my family. In particular, the entertainment staff remembered DS2 and DDIL because they essentially were in CosPlay most nights, and our Halloween cruise was particularly costume heavy (a few pictures below). It turns out that Yoyo was DS2’s kids club counselor way back in 2004 on our 10 day Christmas cruise on the Magic. Mom and I did a couple of the craft activities, and we all went to some of the family entertainment including the guest Broadway performer’s cabaret act. Mom and I found time to play a few games of cards throughout the week, and DS1 and DS1S spent a lot of time watching movies, mostly in their stateroom.



One of the best things about a cruise is the variety of choices which means that everyone can kind of do their own thing. No one was forced to wait on someone else, and even the kids had their own preferences. For us, we used the morning breakfast time and the evening dinner time to catch up with the people we hadn’t done things with otherwise, which let it still feel like a family vacation – just without the forced togetherness.

Back to Day 7. As we finished up packing, DDIL asked for us to try to do a Mickey picture with at least a portion of the group. DS2 went down and got in the line while Minnie was still there, and I picked up DGS from the kids club. As we walked through the lobby, he noticed the light saber pictures and wanted to get in line for that. He even looked at the wait and said “Come on Grammy, it’s not that long!” But I told him we had to do Mickey first because that was Mommy’s request. We timed it pretty well, getting a few good shots with about 15 minutes to go until our dinner doors opened. So we headed down to the light saber line, which had about 5 families waiting.



The rest of the family came up when there was one family in front of us and we told them to go ahead and get started with dinner, because we’d be right there. Right, famous last words. The family of 5 that was in front of us literally had to do every single combination of pictures that could be had. There were only 2 light sabers, so they had three different sets in multiple poses with the kids so that each child was in two sets. Then the parents had to do all the poses, then all 5 of them. I kid you not, the took literally 25 minutes!

When it was our turn, I told the photographer, “faster is better than perfect!” Unfortunately, the light sabers were a little hard for the kiddos to handle, so it wasn’t just click click. But I do have to say the pictures were great. One of them is my new phone background.


Finally into dinner, which was Lobster night. We did get a picture with Paul, once he came back from back of the house duties. We didn’t plan on breakfast in the dining room (in order to avoid the chaos of the atrium on departure day), so we told them goodbye and thanked them for being a great team.



One last visit to the kids club while I got luggage out, and we were all tucked into bed for the last time.

Up next – Disembarkation and London part 1. “And just where is that driver anyway?”

 

[tkd lisa]

September 8th, Disembarkation Day and London Part 1

The dreaded day had arrived where we had to leave the relaxing portion of the vacation. Given the situation with my family, with several neuro-divergent family members we try to avoid the crush in the atrium. Added to that, since at least part of the family really aren’t morning people/breakfast eaters I haven’t eaten in the MDR on disembarkation morning since my first cruise back in 2002. I had booked two “hire-cars” (essentially vans with drivers) via Booking.com to take us to our London lodging (more to come on that in a bit), and the were scheduled for a 9:30 pick up. We had to be out of our rooms by 8, and Cabanas opened with limited access and service at 7:30 (if I remember correctly). DS1 and DS1S were up early and decided to go ahead and do our MDR seating since they were ready to get out of their room. I got DM and DA up to Cabanas around 7:30 to get us an inside table, while DS2s family hung on basically until the last minute in their room. They started calling out luggage tags a little late (around 8:15ish), and I had gotten a message from one of the 2 drivers that he was enroute to the pickup. We targeted leaving the boat by 8:45, which is essentially what we did. Although some people are unhappy with the lack of porters in Southampton, having self-service luggage carts worked for us. We loaded up two separate carts, and easily walked out through customs.
The smaller of the 2 cars had already arrived at the port, interestingly enough that WASN’T the one that had said he was en route. I packed up DS2’s family into that one, and they headed toward London. I ended up contacting booking.com customer support to track down the 2nd driver, who had gone to the wrong terminal.

Here’s my sidebar about the booking.com difficulties in London. I had booked this apartment about 6 months before the trip, and there was no address provided. From the reviews, I was able to determine that it was very close to the Edgware Rd tube station, and the listing description said it was “near Marble Arch”. As I got a couple of months out, I started to lock down transportation, and saw an option in my lodging booking to attach transportation directly to it. So I did, and it actually pulled up a street address along with that transportation booking. Unfortunatey, I have no idea what that address was because it wasn’t the apartment. It also wasn’t the location we had to go pick up the one set of keys, and this error created a LOT of problems for us. I actually messaged my drivers, and booking.com during the trip to try to correct it (you’ll see on the last day that failed miserably), and tried to follow up with booking.com several times on my return. I did put that inforation in my online review of the apartment, but this sidebar is kind of a “pro-tip” to always double check addresses. Side-bar over.
We finally got our driver to the right terminal about a half hour after the others had departed. By this time, I’d gotten a revised address for the apartment and the key-pick up which I texted DDIL, and told our driver. As we headed into London, the impact of the transport strike provided it’s first indication. What was supposed to be a 90 minute ride ended up taking 3 hours. We were literally crawling through back neighborhoods for the last hour, with the GPS trying all kinds of alternative routings. The driver was really mad about it, telling me “well, I just had to hand off my next job which is costing me a lot of money”. By this time, DS2’s family had picked up the key, and DDIL was trying to get the first set of luggage into the apartment. I asked our driver to take us there instead of the key pick up, and he refused, so I had DS2 meet us to help move the luggage and the wheelchair over.

Once at the apartment, although they gave us the keys it was still not ready for occupancy, with a non-English speaking cleaning crew still working. We were splitting up 3 ways for this first day. DS1 and DS1S were going to the London Zoo (they ended up just walking which was about a mile and half trip). DM, DA, and I had planned on hitting up the Windsor Castle area, with a hop on bus, afternoon tour of the castle, and potentially a side journey to the Abbey Road cross-walk. DS2 and family were going to decide what elements of their London Pass worked with the weather once they got off the ship. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get good internet coverage, and couldn’t connect to the apartment wifi, creating a bit of a challenge.

DM, DA, and I went over to the Marks and Spencer food court to pick up a light lunch of sandwiches while DS2 tried to get internet access. I eventually sent them to the Starbuck’s which was across the street and the settled on the Zoo as well. But they took the city bus over. Meanwhile, when I mapped out public transit, it was going to take 2 hours + due to the transit impact. So I booked a Bolt (like an Uber), which was operating at surge pricing rates, but got us where we were going. It cost us almost 90 pounds for the trip, which was more than double what we paid for the return. We got to Windsor Castle around 1:30, and I again battled the cobblestones and steep hills. In the main portion of the castle, the staff was extremely helpful about identifying the wheelchair accessible pathways. Below are some of the external pictures, because no photos are allowed inside. We were able to see Queen Mary’s dollhouse, as well as the historical rooms of state and the armory. It took us probably 90 minutes to cover the 2nd floor, and we headed down to see the chapel, which is where Queen Elizabeth 2 and Prince Phillip are buried.



For anyone who has a mobility challenge, this portion of Windsor is EXTREMELY challenging. I went in and found a docent, who took us all the way around to the back side entrance (where the priests enter). Once inside, literally every location required them to bring out a temporary wheelchair ramp. Unlike the other historical locations we visited, there wasn’t professional staff in the chapel, only docents who were primarily focused on other things. But by the time we realized this, we were halfway through. So at least 4 separate times, we had to wait about 15 minutes to get the ramp so we could move on. And in several places, that meant we were blocking access for anyone behind us given the narrowness of the passageways.

By this time, it was about 4:30, so we left Windsor Palace, did a little shopping at the tourist places nearby, and found a quieter area to pick up a return Bolt back to the apartment. By this time, DS1 was back (he had taken the single set of keys since they weren’t planning to be out too long), and he and I went back over to Mark and Spensers (M&S) to get something quick for dinner. This is where the oddities of our apartment came to light.

The apartment had 4 bedrooms (one of which had two queen sized beds), 2 baths and was advertised as sleeping 10. Yep, that checked. But the kitchen was truly strange. It had 2 sinks, 2 stoves, 2 washing units all in one room. Then in the hallway by one of the bathrooms, there were 2 refrigerators, which were half filled with leftover food from who knows how long? The bathrooms had no trash cans, no place to hang towels, the one with a shower had the soap on the floor, and the one with a bath literally had no place to set down a toothbrush. The neighborhood was a little skeevy. When we were dropping the luggage we literally had to step over a homeless guy sleeping on the step. And the worst part was that despite being billed as “ground floor”, there were 5 steps to get to the outside entrance, 2 steps in the entrance, and 2 more steps up to the actual apartment door. Thankfully, DM could handle this, but again it became a 3 person exercise, with one person handling the wheelchair, a 2nd providing stability for mom, and the 3rd holding open the doors.

Once we had gotten something quick to eat (it was probably nearly 8pm by this time), I checked in with DS2’s family. They were eating near the zoo, then going to take a return bus to the apartment. Again, the transit strike affected them. They had to wait through 4-5 busses in order to get on one. DDIL said that people were literally shoving the kids in order to get on board. I had to wait up because I needed to let them in. Thankfully, the homeless guy had moved on sometime in the afternoon, and they were able to safely return about 9:30.

Up next – London Day 2: Tower of London, St. Pauls Cathedral, Globe Theater (or do they?), and “how long were you on that bus?

 

[tkd lisa]

Sep 9, London Day 2

Plans for the day:

DS1 and DS1S were planning on visiting the Globe Theater. They were also interested in the Physic Botanical Garden (basically a garden specifically used for medical purposes), but given the transit challenges, they dropped this idea. After we had returned from Windsor the previous night, DS1 looked into using Bolt to get to the theater. It’s a challenging location because it’s right on the river, but not easily walkable.

DS2s family was planning on maximizing their city pass options. They wanted to start at the Tower of London, then do the Tower Bridge experience (you go inside the Tower Bridge, and can see through the transparent floor down to the river), followed by the Globe Theater (by Uber boat), ending with a run past Big Ben and the outside of Parliament and Westminster Abbey via the hop on bus.

DM, DA, and I were planning on paralleling DS2 part of the Day, with Tower of London and Globe Theater. But we were doing St. Pauls instead of the Tower Bridge. Plus I didn’t think our city passes included the hop on bus (the app told me I had bought the wrong version and Booking.com wouldn’t revise my order), so we were going to use city passes and Uber boat for transport.

Everyone was up and moving before 8, and we had breakfast in the apartment. The Tower of London groups headed out to the bus stop for a city bus pickup across town. The first bus was fairly straightforward, although this was the time I had to ask someone to move out of the wheelchair area so I could use it for the folded up chair. DGS was LOVING the bus ride, and was super excited to press the STOP button for us. DS2 and DGD rode up on the top deck. We got off at the transfer stop, and the troubles started. Because of construction, our next bus wasn’t going to stop at the designated stop. We all started walking to the re-routed GPS location, and found one of the unexpected highlights of the trip.

We came to an open space, which turned out to be Trafalgar Square. DGD had just finished a history lesson on Nelson and the Square, so we all enjoying looking at the lions, etc, while DGD explained the significance of it all. There was a strange looking set of tubes in front of the pillar, and a young lady came up and explained as a part of the London Design Festival, they were providing the chance to get a physical and AI assisted view from the top of the London pillar. The team was finalizing the exhibit and generating social media content, and asked if the grandkids would like to be part of that. Um, YES! Here’s a youtube video that shows the details. They part the grandkids were in is part of the festival’s report, so I didn’t see them in the video.

And pictures we took while there.




From there, we headed down to the next bus stop. But as we were walking we could see that every city bus we passed was completely full. DDIL said “rather than the city bus, why don’t we use our hop on bus tickets?” I explained that I didn’t think we had them, but actually we did. So we backtracked about a block, to activate the 2 day hop on passes (which gave DS2’s family transportation even after their city pass had expired), and away we went. Given the route, DM, DA, and I got off at St. Pauls while the others kept going to the Tower. We were pointed to the accessible entrance, signed out an elevator key, then headed in. St Paul’s was one of the more accessible locations, and we got some great pictures.





Down in the crypts, there are a number of monuments (and burial sites) for famous people. The one picture I took was Horatio Nelson, quite fitting given our Trafalgar Square experience. Finished here, we were ready for lunch, and went looking for fish and chips. The staff member at the hop on bus stop recommended that we get this at the Tower of London, since there wasn’t anything close to St. Pauls. A quick hop over to the Tower hop on stop, and we headed down the fairly steep hill to the square in front of the Tower. There were a couple of Chip shops right next to each other, and we picked up two typical take away meals, which we shared on a bench. Meanwhile, I texted DDIL who said that they were in the gift shop. There’s a gift shop out in the courtyard, so I went to find them, but they were actually still inside.

After finishing lunch, we headed down to the river entrance, and met up with DS2’s family. Of course, DGS decided he had to potty right then, despite having just declined to go to the one inside the Tower which wasn’t a paid toilet. We ended up taking DGS back in with us to use the bathroom, DS2 met us for the kid swap at the exit (just like Disney World’s ride swap!), and DDIL and DGD went to get something to eat at the food trucks by the river.

I’m going to break this day into two due to the photo limit.

 

[tkd lisa]

When I left off, we had just completed a potty break at the Tower of London. This stop actually took nearly 30 minutes because the Tower was our least handicapped accessible location the entire trip. There is absolutely nothing level, the cobblestones are very rough, the only building with access is the Jewel House, and there are curbs everywhere. Just manhandling the wheelchair the 250 feet from the entrance to the bathroom, getting in and out, and walking DGS to the exit took all that time. Whenever people think that “hey using a wheelchair means you get to cut in front of everyone else”, remember that that same wheelchair means that simple 5 minute tasks can take a tremendous amount of time and effort. OK, rant over.

This is probably where I should point out that for DM, DA, and me, our London itinerary was focused on the things we HADN’T seen during our 2021 trip due to COVID limitations. We had seen the outside of the Tower after our boat trip down the Thames, but on that trip, DM was walking, and there was no way she could make it through the inclines to get into the Tower. Windsor Castle, Kensington, and Westminster Abbey were also only open limited hours then. I had done a couple of days in London attached to a work trip, and picked out the things I knew DM would really want to see. I am disappointed that in the Tower she wasn’t able to see the Chapel, the bloody tower or the white tower due to accessibility challenges. We did get to see the Crown Jewels, which she enjoyed.We also got to see a raven close up Apparently he likes people because DDIL has pictures of him there too. Pictures of the Tower below.






After about an hour there, we manhandled our way to the exit. DM was pretty tired, and wasn’t up to visiting the Globe Theater, so rather than going down to the river to catch a boat, we went back up to get on the hop on bus, which actually had a stop about ¼ mile from our apartment (Pro-tip – we should have taken the boat down to the area by Big Ben).

Transportation strikes again. We literally spent 2 ½ hours on the bus in order to travel approximately 2 miles (as the crow flies). There were striking workers outside Parliament, which created a 40 minute backup. And the bus route definitely doesn’t go a straight route. I was texting DDIL, telling her how to skip the out of the way stops and cut off some time. We ended up getting off at Marble Arch, which was about ¾ of a mile from the apartment, but it was a straight shot down Edgware Road. Due to construction, mom had to get out of the chair several times for me to lift it across curbs and torn up pavement, and this was the day when she cursed at someone who just stood in the middle of the sidewalk and wouldn’t move out of the way.

We were back at the apartment by about 5, and I fixed a couple of pizzas that I had picked up at M&S yesterday. DDIL said that they were staying for a show at the Globe Theater, and would be quite a bit later. I asked DA if she was still interested in seeing the Abbey Road crosswalk, but once she realized it was about ¾ of a mile walk each way (the busses were just out of the question), she decided it wasn’t that important.

DS1 and DS1S had ended up not going to the Globe. When they tried to order a Bolt, they hit the surge pricing impact, and weren’t willing the pay the cost. Instead they walked down to Marble Arch, and got a pub lunch at the “Globe Pub”, so they could say that they’d at least seen A Globe. We talked about how they could have pre-ordered a car, and gotten a guaranteed rate, which is what they were going to do for their Phantom of the Opera show the next day.

DM, DA, and I decided that Mom could really only do one thing a day, so she decided that Kensington Palace was more important to her than Westminster Abbey (probably a good call since I remember Westminster being a lot like the Windsor Chapel when it comes to accessibility). DS2’s family made it back around 10:30, by taxi because busses were still crammed full.

A bit more about DS2's family's day. They really enjoyed the Tower Bridge experience. There was a kid friendly program which used a cartoon cat as the guide to age appropriate information and things to do. The boat ride to the Globe was a hit, and the Globe Tour was even better. The kids were able to generate special effects, and explore costumes and other back stage areas. It was so fun, that when they offered ½ price tickets they stayed for the show. DGS made it through the first act, but they left ½ way through the 2nd because it didn’t hold his interest that long. DGD loved all of it, and was a bit disappointed to miss the end.

Up next – London Day 3. Kensington Palace, Natural History Museum, a melt-down, and the theater.