Yay or Nay- 11 night Iceland and Norway

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Hakunamatatanoworries, thanks for the information on the meet! Such great people here on the boards!!!

Thanks.

 

[TestingH2O]

We are also thinking about this cruise. I seem to remember a Frozen themed excursion somewhere. Is that still a thing?

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We are also thinking about this cruise. I seem to remember a Frozen themed excursion somewhere. Is that still a thing?

It was in 2015 and it looks like they are still doing it. It's in Alesund at Sunnmore Village. We went to Sunnmore, but on a regular excursion (not Frozen themed). It's amazing and I HIGHLY recommend going to the village. I just couldn't see spending almost $400 a person to see Anna and Elsa there when we could easily see them on the ship. The regular excursion to Sunnmore was around $55 per person - so a big savings!

 

[closetmickey]

(second only to flying across a glacier in Iceland in a super jeep ).

Enjoy!

Elaborate please!! Sounds like something my family would love!

 

[i18mulan]

We were on this cruise last year and it was the best ever! I thought at first that our 2 boys, 9 and 7, would get bored coz of the length of the cruise and no aquaduck but I was wrong. They totally loved it! The ports are all amazing!
We booked an oceanview and no regrets. I love the fact that i can enjoy the view without freezing my face.
Iceland is my personal favorite! There were 7 of us and booking the port adventures with DCL would cost so much so we ended up renting a van in Reykjavik for 2 days and did our Golden Circle tour and Blue Lagoon ourselves. It was totally worth it and we saved so much $$$. We did go to the glacier as well. Booked directly with Into The Glacier. We made sure we got the van as soon as the Magic disembarks guests at the port to make it on time for our Langjokull glacier tour. You board an 8x8 jeep going to the glacier then you go inside a man made tunnel going inside the glacier 25 meters below. It was absolutely amazing!

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

We were on this cruise last year and it was the best ever! I thought at first that our 2 boys, 9 and 7, would get bored coz of the length of the cruise and no aquaduck but I was wrong. They totally loved it! The ports are all amazing!
We booked an oceanview and no regrets. I love the fact that i can enjoy the view without freezing my face.
Iceland is my personal favorite! There were 7 of us and booking the port adventures with DCL would cost so much so we ended up renting a van in Reykjavik for 2 days and did our Golden Circle tour and Blue Lagoon ourselves. It was totally worth it and we saved so much $$$. We did go to the glacier as well. Booked directly with Into The Glacier. We made sure we got the van as soon as the Magic disembarks guests at the port to make it on time for our Langjokull glacier tour. You board an 8x8 jeep going to the glacier then you go inside a man made tunnel going inside the glacier 25 meters below. It was absolutely amazing!

Agreed.

 

[Pens Fan]

Elaborate please!! Sounds like something my family would love!

We used Discover Iceland https://www.discover.is for both of the days in Reykjavik. They offer numerous tours in their big super jeeps that can go pretty much anywhere. They were fabulous to deal with before the cruise, offering all kinds of suggestions and were always very quick to respond to our questions. Both of the guides we had were great. We had such a terrific time, and would recommend them completely.

The glacier I spoke of was an add on to their golden circle tour. So much fun!

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Extreme Iceland, Saga of Akureyri, are both good.
Care rental an option.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We were on this cruise last year and it was the best ever! I thought at first that our 2 boys, 9 and 7, would get bored coz of the length of the cruise and no aquaduck but I was wrong. They totally loved it! The ports are all amazing!
We booked an oceanview and no regrets. I love the fact that i can enjoy the view without freezing my face.
Iceland is my personal favorite! There were 7 of us and booking the port adventures with DCL would cost so much so we ended up renting a van in Reykjavik for 2 days and did our Golden Circle tour and Blue Lagoon ourselves. It was totally worth it and we saved so much $$$. We did go to the glacier as well. Booked directly with Into The Glacier. We made sure we got the van as soon as the Magic disembarks guests at the port to make it on time for our Langjokull glacier tour. You board an 8x8 jeep going to the glacier then you go inside a man made tunnel going inside the glacier 25 meters below. It was absolutely amazing!

My DS was 7 when we did this cruise and he loved it as well! It was actually warm enough one day to go on the AquaDunk and he did so repeatedly! The Golden Circle was AMAZING!

OP, one word of advice - if you are going to Kirkwall and you want to do a private tour with a car and guide, look into booking it NOW! There are only so many licensed guides there and they book up fast. We stayed concierge on that cruise and had booked completely last minute (literally on the cruise before). One of the concierge CM's must have pulled every string she had to find us, what was most likely, the LAST tour guide available on that port day. The Orkney Islands are AMAZING! Go to Skara Brae! Boy, now that I'm writing about this, I want to go back!!! LOL!

 

[Pens Fan]

@DisneyWishes14 :

Concerning, Kirkwall tour guides - This is so true! We hadn't even begun researching tour guides when about 14 months prior to the cruise someone on here posted that tours in Kirkwall were already getting sold out. I then started checking out tour companies, and we booked with Orkney Aspects and the were fantastic. We had the owner of the company as our personal guide in 2015. When we were touring with her, she told us that they were almost entirely booked for 2016 already - a year in advance. Her company was running some of Disney's tours as well, but they only offered short 3-4 hour tours through DCL so that they could accomodate more people. The only way to book a full day tour with them was to book independently of Disney. (Hint: Do it! There is so much to see, you need a full day)

For those of you heading to Kirkwall, be aware that a lot of the companies required payment in full in advance with no refunds. I called our travel insurance company (booked independently from Disney) and added the cost of any nonrefundable shore excursions to our policy. It didn't cost much to do that, and we were covered had the ship not been able to dock.

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

@DisneyWishes14 :

Concerning, Kirkwall tour guides - This is so true! We hadn't even begun researching tour guides when about 14 months prior to the cruise someone on here posted that tours in Kirkwall were already getting sold out. I then started checking out tour companies, and we booked with Orkney Aspects and the were fantastic. We had the owner of the company as our personal guide in 2015. When we were touring with her, she told us that they were almost entirely booked for 2016 already - a year in advance. Her company was running some of Disney's tours as well, but they only offered short 3-4 hour tours through DCL so that they could accomodate more people. The only way to book a full day tour with them was to book independently of Disney. (Hint: Do it! There is so much to see, you need a full day)

For those of you heading to Kirkwall, be aware that a lot of the companies required payment in full in advance with no refunds. I called our travel insurance company (booked independently from Disney) and added the cost of any nonrefundable shore excursions to our policy. It didn't cost much to do that, and we were covered had the ship not been able to dock.

Orkney Aspects ceased trading in 2016, but were good.

 

[Pens Fan]

Orkney Aspects ceased trading in 2016, but were good.

Wow! What a shame. Pat Stone was fantastic - one of the best guides we've ever had. She knew everyone on the island and got us into a lot of places the other tours couldn't go.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Wow! What a shame. Pat Stone was fantastic - one of the best guides we've ever had. She knew everyone on the island and got us into a lot of places the other tours couldn't go.

Thanks for the heads up.

Pat Stone is as you say a wonderful guide, I noted her website and FB were down, and when I contacted another operator they said she ceased business, I do not know anything more, there are redirects to Visit Scotland.