Yay or Nay- 11 night Iceland and Norway

[cruiser21]

I am also interested in this cruise. There will be lots of choices for flights, Norwegian Air and Icelandair are good choices for cheap flights to Europe and it is easy to book one way flights with them. IMO longer cruises are better, the extra 4 days will fly by on a cruise like this. The only con will be the price. I was checking to see the cost in 2017 for the same cruise and the prices were high. The cruise in 2017 was late June and this one is late July, I think it will be popular.

We sailed in 2016 and the cruise started mid June I'm guessing that's why it didn't sell very well. The price never went up after opening day. We booked an IGT at a great rate, and got a secret porthole room on deck 5. We really lucked out. I guess Disney learned from that mistake, and move the cruises back to July when all kids are out of school.

 

[RedSox68]

The con of booking a longer cruise is that a 7 day will seem much too short after it.

Yep. After doing many 7-night, two 10-night, a Transatlantic and PC, when we did the 4-night on the Dream it seemed like a blip! It just flew by.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

omg, do it! We were on the very first DCL Magic 9-night Norway cruise in 2015. We loved it so much we booked the very last stateroom for the next cruise (the 11-night Norway/Iceland) while we were on the 9-night! 20 AMAZING nights on the Magic. We were lucky that DH actually had some business he could get done in London so his company told him to go for it. The 11-night is so amazing. You will see amazing ports and it is so nice to really relax and settle in on the ship. It really spoiled me in that I now think 7-night cruises are too short!

Don't worry about the flights. Simply price out a multi-destination trip with one airline and the cost should not be any more than if you booked a round-trip to one destination. At least that has been our experience and we've done a number of these multi-city flights at his point. We typically fly Delta to Europe (out of NYC), but the other airlines that have been suggested are good and will probably offer better pricing.

I hope it's a go for you and your family!

 

[Ladybugx87]

All- you’re amazing - we are a go! I’m sure I’ll have tons of questions as it gets to planning this amazing trip. Thank you.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

All- you’re amazing - we are a go! I’m sure I’ll have tons of questions as it gets to planning this amazing trip. Thank you.

Awesome!!! I'm so happy for you!

 

[o&smom]

Do it! We did when our kids were 11 and 5 and we all had a blast! We used frequent flyer miles and got to Paris for $25 per person. We spent three days in Paris and one at Disneyland Paris. We then took the train to London for a couple of days and enjoyed the Harry Potter studios. We took the train to Dover the day before our cruise and stayed overnight before boarding the ship. After the cruise, we spent three days in Copenhagen which we had visited the year before and loved. Tivoli Gardens is a must do! We spend a whole day there from open to close and cannot wait to go back. We flew home with Iceland Air as they were the best priced airline.

 

[disneymath]

We were on the inaugural Iceland in 2015 as well .... another vote for best cruise ever!
It was the first cruise for 5 of the 8 in our party .... no “too long / too much” issues for anyone, including 3 boys who were 8, 6 and 6.
We had three cabins ... 2 inside, one verandah. I was in an inside with 2 of the boys and it was just fine. I did visit my parents verandah a couple of times and know they used it daily, but honestly not a necessity in my opinion especially if budget is a consideration.
We flew into Copenhagen and out of London ... price was maybe $100 more than flying round trip out of either city.
Totally recommend planning to arrivie 2 to 3 days pre-cruise ... our firsthand experience is that only a day before might not be enough of a cushion if things go wrong with your flights.

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Do join us, loads booking next week.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-magic-july-21st-2019-dover-scotland-iceland-sweden.3663201/

 

[Ladybugx87]

Do it! We did when our kids were 11 and 5 and we all had a blast! We used frequent flyer miles and got to Paris for $25 per person. We spent three days in Paris and one at Disneyland Paris. We then took the train to London for a couple of days and enjoyed the Harry Potter studios. We took the train to Dover the day before our cruise and stayed overnight before boarding the ship. After the cruise, we spent three days in Copenhagen which we had visited the year before and loved. Tivoli Gardens is a must do! We spend a whole day there from open to close and cannot wait to go back. We flew home with Iceland Air as they were the best priced airline.

This sounds amazing. We love Tivoli. I’m going to try to save up our airline miles (I travel for work a lot) to see if I can pay for at least one way that way.

 

[Ladybugx87]

Okay one more question - Starboard or Port side verandah?

 

[Pens Fan]

Okay one more question - Starboard or Port side verandah?

I'm not sure how much it matters, but we were in 7594 and had pretty fabulous views throughout the cruise . We spent a lot of time on our balcony. Yes, it was cold but we're from PA so we are used to it, and the views were worth it.

We were also on the inaugural sailing in 2015 and it was definitely one of our favorite cruises to date. I haven't actually looked that closely at the new itineraries, but assuming the new offerings are pretty similar to ours, the highlights for us were Iceland, Copenhagen and Kirkwall. Kirkwall really surprised us. Originally we were supposed to go to the Faroe Islands, but Disney switched it not long after the cruises were released. At first we were disappointed and wondered how much there would be to do in Kirkwall. Boy were we wrong! Loved, loved that port. One of the best days of the cruise (second only to flying across a glacier in Iceland in a super jeep ).

Enjoy!

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Okay one more question - Starboard or Port side verandah?

Not a lot in it, We discussed this on our cruise meets, slight preference for starboard re route.
The View at Dover if castle, (s), Kirkwall, we should get a send off by the Islanders (s), going up to Iceland and around anti clockwise (s), but Norway, either (p/s) going in and out of fjords.

I'm not sure how much it matters, but we were in 7594 and had pretty fabulous views throughout the cruise . We spent a lot of time on our balcony. Yes, it was cold but we're from PA so we are used to it, and the views were worth it.

We were also on the inaugural sailing in 2015 and it was definitely one of our favorite cruises to date. I haven't actually looked that closely at the new itineraries, but assuming the new offerings are pretty similar to ours, the highlights for us were Iceland, Copenhagen and Kirkwall. Kirkwall really surprised us. Originally we were supposed to go to the Faroe Islands, but Disney switched it not long after the cruises were released. At first we were disappointed and wondered how much there would be to do in Kirkwall. Boy were we wrong! Loved, loved that port. One of the best days of the cruise (second only to flying across a glacier in Iceland in a super jeep ).

Enjoy!

Agree.

 

[coloradocutie]

We are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited about this cruise!!! I am hoping the cost is not too prohibitive. We are silver and suspecting there will be a price increase by the time we get to book, but this looks so exciting!

 

[Pens Fan]

We are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited about this cruise!!! I am hoping the cost is not too prohibitive. We are silver and suspecting there will be a price increase by the time we get to book, but this looks so exciting!

I think you will be surprised. While this was definitely the case the first year that they offered this cruise (prices were literally rising by the hour on day one), I doubt that you will see much, if any, change right off the bat with this one. The pricing the first year was kind of weird. We were actually surprised how low they priced it initially and then the prices just rose and rose to a point that I couldn't believe anyone would actually pay that. The second year they started out much, much higher than the 2015 prices but didn't rise as much. This will be the 5th year that they have offered some variation of a Norway/Iceland cruise, and while it won't be cheap, I doubt the prices will rise significantly in the first few days. I seem to recall one of these cruises even going into *GT status a couple of years ago, though I could be wrong about that.

 

[coloradocutie]

This is really encouraging! Other day we saw an ocean view cabin pop up on this cruise and the price did not seem that bad, even a few months out. Hopefully you are right, Pens Fan! Really good information!

 

[pearljammer]

Hoping to be joing the lot of you! Hitting a milestone birthday next summer so want to do something memorable so looking forward to Tuesday but may not be looking forward to the mild coronary when advised the price! Hoping with help from others, we can get helpful info on how to get cheapest flights, etc. pretty stoked!

 

[HakunaMatataNoWorries]

Hoping to be joing the lot of you! Hitting a milestone birthday next summer so want to do something memorable so looking forward to Tuesday but may not be looking forward to the mild coronary when advised the price! Hoping with help from others, we can get helpful info on how to get cheapest flights, etc. pretty stoked!

Hopefully you will join us.

 

[Shanti]

so the Norway cruise has been on my list for awhile but the 7 nights always conflict with school schedules so....what are the pros and cons to upping to the 11 night Iceland and Norway cruise besides cost?

My travel group is husband and me with our kids who will be 9 and almost 5 at time of the sailing. We have already done 7 night Med (with only older daughter), 7 night Alaska, 7 night Baltic, and will do 7 night western Caribbean this year. I really want to do the 2019 11 night but know hubby might have concerns about that long of a cruise (plus different start and stop points for flights).

Appreciate any thoughts you all have.

If I were traveling all the way to Europe from my home state of Texas, I'd opt for the longer cruise to make it more worthwhile (& worth the high price of the flights to Europe from middle America).

Maybe book your flights via DCL, to cause less stress in this area?

 

[coloradocutie]

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

 

[coloradocutie]

Do join us, loads booking next week.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-magic-july-21st-2019-dover-scotland-iceland-sweden.3663201/

So cool!!