It's called the Baltic for a reason - a Northern Europe trip report 2017 - complete 6/18

[janiebubble]

When we booked the Northern Europe last year I couldn't find many reports (maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough) so I thought I'd give writing one a try ...

I'm Jane, a long time Disney addict, first went to WDW when I was 19 and was hooked ... we live in the U.K. but that hasn't stopped me! Disneyland Paris is my home park and this was my fourth cruise, all on the Magic, all in Europe. I've cruised with extended family before but this was just me and Helen.

I work in education so am limited to travelling outside term time. So we packed up late Friday and drove the hour or so to Manchester airport, our flight was 7.20am on the Saturday morning and getting up at 4.30am was early enough!

 

[janiebubble]

Oh and the reason for the report title ... we live in the north of England and it's not unusual for people to say "it's Baltic" when it's really cold, and sometimes this cruise it was ....

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[janiebubble]

So the cases were finally packed and we were off ... a very smooth drop off at the meet and greet parking at the airport and we pushed our cases to the Radisson ( we splurged on a room at the one hotel we wouldn't need a shuttle to get to the terminal).

Lovely check in lady confirms our standard room and we get upstairs to see this ....




Result! A free upgrade to business class room. It was lovely but I have no pictures ... I'm not good at this trip reporting lark ...

 

[janiebubble]

so the alarm goes off far too early, I'd done online check-in, dropped bags, security was brisk and before we knew it we were sitting in Pret eating breakfast (a yogurt and a bottle of water for me). Flight was smooth and straightforward and by 10.00 am local time we were in Copenhagen.

Getting from the airport to the city centre was very easy ... in the baggage reclaim area there were ticket machines which you could set to English and the train fare was reasonable (between £3 and £4) for a single trip. Loads of signs to the train station and 3 stops later we were in the city. The train had special carriages which were designed for large luggage, bikes and strollers.

A five minute walk (thank you google maps) and we were at the hotel, although pushing that case in the heat felt longer!

 

[condorthb]

following

 

[jhoannam]

Looking forward to your trip report

 

[janiebubble]

after a five minute walk we arrived at our hotel. I don't know if we were just unlucky or Copenhagen really is a very expensive city (it was a Saturday night after all) but we paid £140 for the night including breakfast, but this was one of the cheapest we could find which was centrally located and had aircon (so glad about that!). We ended up at the Scandi Copenhagen which is located right next to the Planetarium facing some water.

that's the hotel in the background with the planetarium on the right.

Our room wasn't ready but to make this report a bit more coherent, here are the room pictures ...
it had some interesting wallpaper ...


and a small bed ... but this was a compact room ... they did larger rooms which slept more than two but as we were only there for a night this was more than adequate



This was the view from the window ... that's the planetarium on the left


and this was the view of the water from outside the planetarium



It was a great spot and I would stay there again without hesitation. Last time we were in Copenhagen we stayed further out and I appreciated the location and being able to nip back to the room mid afternoon. But as I said the room wasn't ready so we left the luggage with the porter and headed into the city

 

[janiebubble]

We'd been to Copenhagen before for a longer stay and so we didn't make much of an effort to sightsee

We'd been up since early and it was warm ... around 75 degrees, so we grabbed a coke zero each and shared a croissant from the 7-11 round the corner as we walked into the city.

We crossed the square past the City Hall (bad selfie is all I have to prove that but it shows there was sun ...)


then we wandered down the Stroget (the pedestrian street) - we needed suntan lotion given the sun that day, and I wanted to find the Disney store





(apart from a small range of Copenhagen specific merchandise it was exactly the same stock as UK Disney stores)



we also found the Lego store and a cute reproduction of Nyhavn


we grabbed lunch in TGI Fridays (I know not at all Scandinavian but probably the nicest TGIs I've had) - then walked back to the hotel taking in the scenery

 

[janiebubble]

That evening we took the 5 minute walk to Tivoli ... I wasn't feeling great (the early morning and lack of sleep was catching up with me) so we strolled around and took in the sights but didn't do any rides







It's a beautiful park and there was ballet on an open air stage the evening we were there ...



we headed back to the hotel around 9pm (if we could have stayed later there were fireworks and an illuminated lake show) but we stopped at the 7-11 for drinks and a pastry to share (I love cinnamon buns and Scandinavians make such good ones) and off to bed. I was too excited as we'd get on the ship in the morning

 

[janiebubble]

So I woke up early the following morning but not too early. The hotel rate included a full buffet breakfast - I had skyr with granola, and Danish pastries but there was lots of hot food and meats and cheeses too. It was very impressive. They also had a separate gluten free buffet which impressed me.

we went back up to the room and packed up - it was 10am and our PAT wasn't till 11.30 but I couldn't wait. There was a taxi rank right outside our hotel in opposite the planetarium which was super convenient. We jumped in a cab and about 15 minutes later this was my view



want a closer view?



There she was ... see that little pointy roof building in front of her ... that's the terminal ... it's tiny and all on one level, so you enter the ship on deck one.

There was a short queue to enter the terminal (5 minutes maximum) and go through an initial passport and baggage scan check. It was 10.30am at this point. We were told check in hadn't opened yet and to take a seat and wait ..

about 10 minutes later check in opened, and they took the B2Bs over first ... but to start with they didn't open the Castaway club line leaving us to wait in the regular line. We were seen quickly then asked to take a seat back in the waiting area until our boarding number (7 ) was called. There were apparently 90 people doing a back to back with the transatlantic and a large number of platinum cruisers waiting ... they actually called groups 5 to 7 together so we were on the ship by just gone 12 ... we were clapped on but no announcement on deck one.

We stopped by the restrooms on deck three and I took this ... we were finally onboard a year after booking the cruise

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

So excited to read about your ports! Our cruise leaves out of Dover and returns to Copenhagen, but flights seem to be cheaper to do round trip in and out of Copenhagen, so we may still do a couple of days there then hop down to Dover. I love how cheap and easy flights are once in Europe.

 

[janiebubble]

so we're finally on board ...



this was today's forecast according to the Navigator app. I'm afraid I didn't make any notes on this trip so I can't tell you if it was accurate or not! After a short stroll we made our way up to Cabanas. I was worried that boarding at group 7 it would be really crowded but it wasn't. It was calm and pleasant. I haven't been a good dis-er and I don't have many food pics I'm sorry! H then went for her first coffee from Cove Café and then we wandered the ship and took in the views





these were the flags outside the terminal!





Some empty adult area shots!

By then it was 1.30pm so we headed down to find our room. We were in 2141 - we're creatures of habit a 10C deluxe inside cabin. Last cruise we were next door in 2139, our first cruise we were in 2629. Our second cruise we branched out to an ocean view 9B (2600) but it was really noisy under the kitchens. 2141 was quiet from overhead noise (yay!) although I felt the vibrations more ... I think next time I'd move back up the corridor slightly!




our Silver Castaway bag was waiting for us, it was the backpack style from last years European cruises not the sling bag that has appeared this year on the Wonder. I was glad, we have 2 DCL sling bags (admittedly a different design) already and I liked this style much better.

We dumped our carry-ons (as you can see in the picture) and headed back to deck 9




I gave my mum a quick ring, and enjoyed the sun as I read my book (I now realise you can see our reflections in the Perspex, oh well!)

Our Muster was in Animators Palate, and was probably the smoothest and quickest ever. We went downstairs and realised our cases were there so unpacked, yay! That felt like we were really sorted. Up to deck 10 to watch the sailaway - I did take a few pictures on my ipod but I've not uploaded them yet ... and you know the drill ... Mickey dances, the horn blows, Jane cries and we're off ..

We then went for a stroll around deck four ... it's my happy place, I love the steamer chairs, the view, and the ability to walk around.



The sun looked beautiful -but I've hit my image limit so you'll have to wait till the next post ..

 

[PHamrick]

This is wonderful! I'm very interested in the onboarding process. The process in Port Canaveral is crazy...so many people. We had planned to do a little bit of sightseeing Thursday morning before we board the boat. From what you said, it was a relatively smooth and short process. We've waited well over an hour at PC to get on the boat. Thanks for the trip report! I love all the pictures!

 

[janiebubble]

out there in the distance is the bridge between Copenhagen and Sweden ... but I shouldn't have relied on an iPhone to take this picture!

And all of a sudden it was dinner time ... we had early seating ... 6pm, and we had ACLACLA as our rotation (the same as our last cruise). This meant it was show night in Animators. Now dinner was a different experience for us. Twice we've cruised in a large group and sat with family. Our second cruise our table mates never turned up ... so we sat alone! I'd requested a table on our own that time which ironically they couldn't provide - and yet that's what we got! Sothis time we left it to the gods of Disney table assignment and hoped. We didn't get the magical 'they matched our family perfectly' experience ... the other three couples all had children (3,5,5 respectively) and were all American so had more in common with each other than they did us. And it took us to night 5 to meet everyone ... but that was partly our fault. So tonight we met two of the couples eventually ... one were there when we arrived, the others arrived about 30 minutes in to the service (this was a common theme, they arrived late so service was interrupted and slower than it needed to be). Our Server, Anita was great, but our assistant server wasn't up to much, didn't interact or speak to us really - took away drinks glasses but didn't bring a refill unless prompted, in the end Anita was doing his job too, which didn't seem fair. Again I was a poor trip reporter and didn't take loads of food pics but here is the obligatory butter knife

me at dinner



and my regional inspiration desert



Ligonberry crumble tart ... it was lovely

Our food and one of the couples had come out quicker than those who arrived late and we made our excuses as we wanted to catch Moana in the Buena Vista theatre. It was on at 5.30pm (which clashed with dinner) and 8.15pm tonight. We hadn't seen it, we'd left in deliberately to see on board, and it was only actually one four times all cruise ...the other two were during the afternoon in Tallin (and we only docked at 10.45am) and the morning of St Petersburg. We knew we wouldn't make either of them so we decided not to see opening night show (Walt Disney the Dream Goes On) and watched the movie. We thoroughly enjoyed it but probably over estimated the demand for the film! We arrived about 20 mins before the show


Tonight was an early night and the clocks went forward and I didn't want to miss too much of our day at sea

 

[janiebubble]

This is wonderful! I'm very interested in the onboarding process. The process in Port Canaveral is crazy...so many people. We had planned to do a little bit of sightseeing Thursday morning before we board the boat. From what you said, it was a relatively smooth and short process. We've waited well over an hour at PC to get on the boat. Thanks for the trip report! I love all the pictures!

it was smooth and seemed quite straightforward once they got going, it was just waiting for check in to open that was slightly frustrating, they were trying to encourage us to sit and wait but people were queuing so we joined the queue! I think if you arrived later after sightseeing you'd probably walk straight on after 12 noon

 

[janiebubble]

Day 1 Navigators


















The quality of these isn't good! I'm going to take the rest to work tomorrow and use their better scanner! Hopefully this may give enough info for now though!

 

[cheermom2four]

Oh the navigators are different than the ones I'm used to getting at PC! We are doing Northern Europe next summer and doing med cruise this september. I can hardly wait!

 

[janiebubble]

Oh the navigators are different than the ones I'm used to getting at PC! We are doing Northern Europe next summer and doing med cruise this september. I can hardly wait!

we only got the traditional six pages on the first day. As you'll see from then onwards there was a one page two-sided navigator. To be honest we relied on the app mainly!

 

[janiebubble]

Day two ... at sea



we woke up late ... and I think we managed to get out of the room and up to Cabanas about 9.45am ... by then it was probably the only place open for breakfast! I was surprised my phone connected when we got upstairs and I took a screenshot of our location ... clearly sailing between the island and the mainland was advantageous from a 4G point of view!



I'd had a door magnet crisis, left them till the night before we left to print mine, and the paper wouldn't go through the printer. I was sad every time I saw the blank door ... so I bought these



so talking of shops ... the Northern Europe logo was rather nice ... all we ended up with was a fridge magnet but this is what it looked like