DREAMing of the Fjords: 8/19/23-8/26/23 (Completed)

[Geomom]

8/25/23: At Sea, part 6

Ricardo gathered servers around and sang "happy anniversary" to us, asking how long we've been married…30 years this coming October. Ricardo said "that's how long I've been on the Earth!" I did get married young-ish at 23, so this didn't actually make me feel 'too' old. Every time 23 hits a milestone year, I feel old, because, 6 months later, I hit a milestone year! 2020 was a big one!

Celebration mousse cake

We gave the servers their tip envelopes tonight with extra cash in them since it's usually crazy the last morning. We really appreciated all the hard work they did and how they made us feel special and pampered.

Tonight's show in the Walt Disney Theater was "Believe", which we had seen last year on the Fantasy. We sat in the balcony again. I teared up in the same spot I did last year, when the Dad sees the daughter all grown up and dancing with a date and "Baby Mine" is sung. My last 'baby' is 19 now, and it's amazing how quickly the years passed.

After the show, 23 quickly ran to the nearest bathroom. She had been feeling nauseous during the show, got sick in the bathroom, and then immediately felt better, so probably something she ate didn't agree with her…or maybe too many desserts .

We all went back to the room, changed out of our fancy clothes, packed them up in a suitcase, filled out the luggage tags, and got the 4 big bags outside the room before 10:30PM.

We ordered free room service (a typical last night activity for us) and it arrived around 10:30PM and we tipped the delivery person.

All hands on deck cheese platter

Fries and Mickey bars!

23 felt all better!

I thought about it too late, but, on one of these cruises, I might actually order a carafe of coffee on the last night to help us get going early on debarkation day, supposedly the coffee stays warm overnight in the carafe.

Final towel animal: rabbit

 

[Geomom]

The scenery is so pretty in the fjords! I would love to do this cruise!

That’s a bummer about your excursion being cancelled though. I had never considered letting my college kids choose their own excursion (of course, we’ve only been on one cruise with them as adults … and it was a 4 night Wish, so not really an excursion-y cruise), but I think it’s a great idea - nice that they let you use their pictures for the TR!

I swear I want to go on a cruise right now just for the food. Not really a foodie, but I love just being able to have all my meals prepared without even having to think about logistics or prices.

We had discussions as a family about the 'adult' kids doing a Disney excursion together. DH was a bit hesitant, but they're basically on their own at college. I had them promise to stay together, and to stay with your group. I originally thought they'd be doing 2 excursions on their own, but the Rotterdam one DH and I wanted (Kinderdik windmills) sold out before I could book it.

The scenery was beautiful from the ship. We did fewer activities this cruise and just enjoyed the views instead. It's similar to the Alaskan cruise we did.

Obviously, we made the most of Skjolden day, but I made the mistake of looking up the Stave church we were supposed to see in Lom that day, and I'm sad we missed it. 23 wanted to see Jutenheimen (where Loki is from), so she missed that part of the tour. It was going to be a lot of bus time though, so that I don't miss...

I definitely miss going to a restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ordering anything I want, and not paying for it afterwards! I also miss being pampered by the servers...and finding a towel animal on my bed with chocolates every night.

 

[Geomom]

8/26/23: Travel Day, part 1

The only downside of Main dining is debarkation breakfast at 6:45AM. The good thing is we put the clocks back 1 hour before going to bed, so breakfast felt like it was at 7:45AM. We showered/got dressed, and packed up the rest of our stuff into a tote bag (to pack up at the airport.). We brought all our carry on bags to Royal Palace with us for the "See Ya Real Soon" breakfast menu.

I had fresh fruit.

I had a Denver omelet with hash brown.

DH had Nature's Muesli

DH had the Route 66

23 had chocolate chip pancakes

19 had Belgian waffles

We finished breakfast and then it was time to say goodbye to Ricardo and Ratna. We were definitely sad to leave, they were a fantastic serving team.

We went up to deck 4, near Vista Cafe, to wait for our luggage tag character to be called to leave the ship. Tons of people were hanging out in the atrium, making it difficult for the people who 'can' get off the ship already. Eventually the Pluto tags were called, we scanned our cards for the last time, and left the ship. We had arrived at a different terminal from our departure port. We debarked at the QE2 terminal. We gathered our luggage, made a bathroom stop, then went outside to find the Disney bus to Heathrow airport. It's $75/person from Southampton to London. I had added it on before PIF, so it was paid for back in April. We just missed a bus…so we sat on the bus for an hour before it left, but we had plenty of time before our flight.

 

[Geomom]

8/26/23: Travel Day, part 2

We were at Heathrow, terminal 5, before Noon. We rejiggered all our luggage to pack up the stuff we took out of the room today. DH had packed an empty duffel bag, and that was going to be our extra carry on (with his backpack as his personal item). We went up to the check in area and sat around for a long time…bag check in was supposed to be 1:55, but we were allowed to do it a little early. DH and the kids went to the coffee shop, got some drinks, yogurt parfaits, cookies, etc. So we had something to eat while waiting. Eventually we could self-check our bags and send them off on the machine. We went through security which wasn't too bad, then we were in the terminal. We rarely fly out of large airports, so we were shocked at the huge mall at the airport. We walked through the Harry Potter store, and a couple other shops, but didn't buy anything.

Then we went to lunch at Wagamama. We got appetizer items to share.
Korean BBQ beef buns

Vegetable gyoza

Chicken gyoza

Edamame with salt

Chicken Yakitori

I had the Ginger No-jito

Afterwards we found a place to sit and wait for a gate to be assigned to our flight an hour before. Thankfully our gate was in the same building, A, but it was downstairs, all the way at the end of the hall…ground level. We needed to take a bus to our plane and walk up stairs again. Eventually our boarding group was called, we scanned our boarding pass/had passports checked…and waited an hour for a bus. There were multiple ones lined up and waiting…and we weren't allowed on. Finally we got on a bus, got TO the plane, got ON the plane, and found our seats…and immediately ran to the bathroom line as we had been stuck in an area with no bathroom for an hour. We left a little late. At some point the flight attendants came by with drinks and I asked for red wine…he handed me 2 small bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon…I asked what else they had…Merlot, so then I asked for white and he gave me Chardonnay…I said 1 bottle is fine.

We all chose the Piri Piri chicken/rice entree for dinner. Dinner came with Couscous salad, cheese/crackers, roll/butter, tangy lemon torte, and a bottle of water.

They came by a while later with Vanilla ice cream.

I watched the last 2 Fantastic Beasts movies on the plane. I have no idea what everyone else watched. I was so involved with the movies, that I missed the fact that they came by again offering some type of sandwich? I did get some sparkling water though.

We landed on time at 7:30PM Boston time, and texted our friend to let him know. We had to wait for a gate, which took 30 minutes. Deplaning took another 15 minutes. 20 minutes to get through passport control (and with nothing to declare with Customs). It was another 25 minutes before all our luggage came out…it was just so slow. Finally, we were outside the terminal and at our friend's car by 9:15PM, 1hr 45 minutes after landing! He drove us to his house, we moved the luggage to my car, drove home, and we were finally back home by 11PM…Boston time…4AM England time…we were up for 22 hours…so we had no trouble falling asleep!

 

[Geomom]

DVC Notes:

As DVC members, we had a DVC magnet on our door and we went to the DVC desk across from Guest Services for daily gifts. We received 4 lanyards, 2 cinch bags, 2 sling bags, 2 prints, 2 pop sockets, 2 ChapStick, 2 DVC member pins, 3 Disneyland resort pins, and 2 DCL 25th anniversary pins.

Sarah at the DVC desk told 'jokes of the day'. While on the Pulpit Rock hike, DH saw Sarah, said hi, and she told us a joke there! We were talking to Alan at the DVC desk later that day, mentioned seeing Sarah at Pulpit Rock and he said ALL the DVC crew were there, but people only recognized Sarah. He showed us a pic of them all. Poor Alan!

*************
Other Notes:

*The Dream's captain for our cruise was Jason and our Cruise Director was Carly.

* Soft serve ice cream flavors: vanilla, chocolate, mango, strawberry, banana

*Free port shuttles: Disney doesn't advertise these before the cruise and shoreside says Disney won't have them. The cruise director will talk at the end of the theater show and mention if there is a free shuttle. There were shuttles at Rotterdam, Skjolden (AM only for those with canceled excursions), unsure about Nordfjordeid, Mekjarvik DID have shuttles going to Stavanger...and not enough coming back around dinner time according to what I heard.

*Supply issues: The Dream had some supply issues on our cruise from Southampton, most noticeable at the beverage station on deck 11. There was NO lemonade anywhere on the ship. No Vitamin Water or Ginger Ale or unsweetened iced tea at the beverage stations, basically all the stuff my family drinks, they didn't have at the beverage station. There was sweetened iced tea though and you could get freshly brewed unsweetened in the main dining rooms. Ginger ale was also available in the main dining rooms. Hot cups/lids and tea bags would often be low due to the number of British passengers (and the colder weather cruise). I also heard that they did not have Uncrustables on the ship.

*We had $200 in on board credit (OBC) from the Dreams Unlimited travel agency for booking through them.

*Due to our canceled Skjolden excursion, we ended up with a $400+ credit which went back onto our Disney
Visa Rewards card to use on a future Disney trip. It was nice to end a cruise with no bill to pay, just expenses from our time in Southampton and souvenir purchases in ports.

*We've really enjoyed the last 2 cruises as a party of 4 adults, since we can ALL enjoy the adult areas/activities.

*While we've liked all of our servers, this is the first time that I'd be interested in requesting a server again, that's how much we liked Ricardo (and Ratna).

*We have NO idea what our next cruise will be. We're waiting for the Summer 2025 cruises to be released in Spring 2024. The next cruise will be #5, 'maybe' (if I can convince DH), DH and I will take a shorter (discounted) one to be Gold before a Summer 2025 cruise…we'll see!

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

Enjoyed reading this, it was really interesting seeing how different it was from the 2022 Norwegian Fjords on The Magic.

In Nordfjordeid the ship docks right at the town, so theres no need for a shuttle. I did DIY , this is my port day https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...updated-final-thoughts.3926775/#post-64972753 We had the same amount of time in port as you 8am to 4pm. I walked into the town and got some amazing photos of the ship with the mountains in the background.

Its such a pity that you couldnt dock in Stavanger and had to go to Mekjarvik. The Magic was right in the town and I got some amazing sunrise photos as we turned in the harbour. I did the Hop on Hop Off bus, which was right there at the harbour, I didnt pre book in advance. Stavanger is a modern Europe city and has a great shopping area, as well as some beautiful scenery.

 

[Geomom]

Enjoyed reading this, it was really interesting seeing how different it was from the 2022 Norwegian Fjords on The Magic.

In Nordfjordeid the ship docks right at the town, so theres no need for a shuttle. I did DIY , this is my port day https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...updated-final-thoughts.3926775/#post-64972753 We had the same amount of time in port as you 8am to 4pm. I walked into the town and got some amazing photos of the ship with the mountains in the background.

Its such a pity that you couldnt dock in Stavanger and had to go to Mekjarvik. The Magic was right in the town and I got some amazing sunrise photos as we turned in the harbour. I did the Hop on Hop Off bus, which was right there at the harbour, I didnt pre book in advance. Stavanger is a modern Europe city and has a great shopping area, as well as some beautiful scenery.

Thanks for reading! Apparently there was an anti cruise ship protest in downtown Stavanger the day we were in Mekjarvik, so its actually better that we docked in Mekjarvik. We were originally scheduled for Sandnes, which would have had some attractions in walking distance, but 3 fewer hours in port.

Thanks for the info on Nordfjordeid. It was drizzling that day, so we just hurried to our excursion bus, and all we saw afterwards was the shop at port right before getting back on the ship at 4PM.

 

[Flossbolna]

I loved reading your report! Very different ports than what we did in 2015. Then we did only one Disney excursion, but that had similar issues as the one your daughters did. We thought it was because it was DCL’s first season there. But I now start to see that some of it is maybe caused by there just being too many cruise ship passengers.

This dish had me laugh out loud:

23 had the Nurnburger (sausage in a pretzel roll)

I live in Nuremberg in Germany, in German the town is Nürnberg. And it’s famous for its sausages. So some years ago, McDonalds in Germany came out with a Nürnburger. It was a traditional roll with three Nuremberg sausages. Like you can buy all over the city here. The sausages are very short, so they but three in a bun. Here is a picture:


As you can see - very different from what they served in the Dream. But I am sure that that’s what they went for as Nuremberg is in Bavaria and that’s why they went for pretzel bun (pretzels are a Bavarian thing) and even served some coarse mustard with it (also typical for Bavaria).

 

[Karin1984]

This dish had me laugh out loud:


I live in Nuremberg in Germany, in German the town is Nürnberg. And it’s famous for its sausages. So some years ago, McDonalds in Germany came out with a Nürnburger. It was a traditional roll with three Nuremberg sausages. Like you can buy all over the city here. The sausages are very short, so they but three in a bun. Here is a picture:


As you can see - very different from what they served in the Dream. But I am sure that that’s what they went for as Nuremberg is in Bavaria and that’s why they went for pretzel bun (pretzels are a Bavarian thing) and even served some coarse mustard with it (also typical for Bavaria).

I have that with what they have on the world menu of longer cruises 'Dutch spea soup with knockwurst'. In the Netherlands it should never be served with knockwurst. We use a smoked sausage that is three times as thick as a knockwurst. I haven't been able to find pictures of it on DCL, but it better be so thick you can stick your spoon in it upright. If it is thin and watery ...

It is far from a Dutch pea soup!

 

[Flossbolna]

I have that with what they have on the world menu of longer cruises 'Dutch spea soup with knockwurst'. In the Netherlands it should never be served with knockwurst. We use a smoked sausage that is three times as thick as a knockwurst. I haven't been able to find pictures of it on DCL, but it better be so thick you can stick your spoon in it upright. If it is thin and watery ...

It is far from a Dutch pea soup!

It sounded familiar and I actually had this soup in 2014 on the Panama Canal cruise. But there it was called German Green Pea Soup with Knockwurst. That’s why I got it. It was actually quite ok. But not very thick!!



(Sorry @Geomom for taking your Thread off topic, I hope you can be a but amused about it!)

 

[Geomom]

@Flossbolna
Thanks for reading! No problem with going off topic, especially with the trip report completed. Always interesting to read about how the food would usually be prepared in its native country. 23 really enjoyed her 2017 school trip to the Bavaria region of Germany (did not go to Nurnberg though) and loves Currywurst... we've had to buy curry ketchup for her ever since.

I was happy to see you're back to writing your May trip report...I had forgotten that you hadn't even boarded the cruise yet! Hope your foot is doing better!

 

[Skywatcher1206]

Loved your trip report!

 

[Geomom]

Loved your trip report!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Elleinthecity]

8/26/23: Travel Day, part 1

The only downside of Main dining is debarkation breakfast at 6:45AM. The good thing is we put the clocks back 1 hour before going to bed, so breakfast felt like it was at 7:45AM. We showered/got dressed, and packed up the rest of our stuff into a tote bag (to pack up at the airport.). We brought all our carry on bags to Royal Palace with us for the "See Ya Real Soon" breakfast menu.

I had fresh fruit.
View attachment 795397
I had a Denver omelet with hash brown.
View attachment 795400
DH had Nature's Muesli
View attachment 795398
DH had the Route 66
View attachment 795399
23 had chocolate chip pancakes
View attachment 795395
19 had Belgian waffles
View attachment 795396
We finished breakfast and then it was time to say goodbye to Ricardo and Ratna. We were definitely sad to leave, they were a fantastic serving team.

We went up to deck 4, near Vista Cafe, to wait for our luggage tag character to be called to leave the ship. Tons of people were hanging out in the atrium, making it difficult for the people who 'can' get off the ship already. Eventually the Pluto tags were called, we scanned our cards for the last time, and left the ship. We had arrived at a different terminal from our departure port. We debarked at the QE2 terminal. We gathered our luggage, made a bathroom stop, then went outside to find the Disney bus to Heathrow airport. It's $75/person from Southampton to London. I had added it on before PIF, so it was paid for back in April. We just missed a bus…so we sat on the bus for an hour before it left, but we had plenty of time before our flight.

I just booked this itinerary for next year when DH and I celebrate 30 years married. Such a great trip report. Thanks for all the info.

 

[Geomom]

I just booked this itinerary for next year when DH and I celebrate 30 years married. Such a great trip report. Thanks for all the info.

Congrats in advance! I hope you enjoy your cruise. Thanks for reading the trip report.