Norway Cruise 2015 – Part 3, Embarkation and Sea Day

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Disney Magic Norway Cruise

Saturday – Embarkation and Sailaway

As I mentioned in Part 2, we were very happy to get to the port and see the Disney Magic waiting for us! Though we really enjoyed Copenhagen, we were ready to begin our cruise to Norway.

Disney Magic Norway Cruise

Disney had added a few touches to the generic cruise terminal they are using in Copenhagen to make it more Disney-like. Captain Mickey was out greeting guests but we didn’t wait in line.

As we were checking in they called boarding groups 1-8, so we were able to board as soon as we finished check-in. Love that feature of having Platinum status!

We boarded on deck 1 and not deck 3 – that was very odd. Boarding loses a lot of the “magic” when you don’t enter into that beautiful atrium. It ended up that none of the ports we visited had elevated docks, so we ended up always boarding on deck 1.

Disney Magic Norway Cruise

There was cruise staff dressed in Norwegian costumes greeting us as we boarded in Copenhagen, and that was a nice touch.

Disney Magic Norway Cruise

Our first stop was up on deck 3 at Guest Services, since we wanted to check out the available beverage seminars. We were surprised (and disappointed) that there were no wine or champagne seminars. It was hard liquor, like mixology, tequila, port, and even a whiskey and chocolate tasting. And some of them were on port days, which was quite strange. So we didn’t sign up for any of them.

We had a nice leisurely lunch in Cariocas. We both had the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app on our phones, so we went through the activities to see what we might want to do on-board over the course of the week. The app worked very well for us during the cruise, and we even used the chat feature a couple of times.

Disney Magic Cariocas

We knew we definitely wanted to see two of the movies that were offered: “Avengers Age of Ultron” and “Tomorrowland.” There was also going to be a series of lectures on Norway and the ports we would be visiting. And there were the various “Frozen” activities, too – after all, Disney Cruise Line was visiting Norway for the first time in forever. 🙂

By the time we finished lunch it was after 1:30 and we could go to our stateroom. We had a very nice surprise from Jan, our MEI Travel agent – our room had been “Frozen!” Among other things there were snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, and a lovely soft, plush throw on the bed.

Frozen stateroom amenity

Frozen stateroom magnet

We relaxed a bit before the lifeboat drill, and then went up to the Sailaway Party after the drill. No streamers for this party – we received special bottles of bubbles instead. We pulled away from the dock around 5:30.

Disney Magic Norway bubbles

Disney Magic Norway Cruise

On the way out of the harbor we had a good view of some of the windmills and the Øresund Bridge in the distance.

Oresund Bridge

We had the early dinner seating. As usual, we were in Cariocas the first night. I don’t know why, but we always get the same dining rotation – Cariocas (or equivalent) the first night, Lumiere’s (or equivalent) the second night, and Animator’s Palate after that. We were seated at a table for 8, but there was only one other couple at our table. Terrie and Paul were wonderful table companions for the week. We enjoyed their company and we always had plenty to talk about. Our serving team was Darma, from Indonesia, and Liliana from Portugal. They made a good team.

After dinner we went down to the shops to check out the new merchandise. It was obvious that there had been quite a run on the shops when they first opened that evening, but the staff had been doing a good job of re-stocking, and there still seemed to be plenty of merchandise available.

Disney Magic Norway Cruise merchandise

Disney Magic Norway Cruise merchandise

Disney Magic Norway Cruise merchandise

Disney Magic Norway Cruise merchandise

Disney Magic Norway Cruise merchandise

We tried to make it an early night, but we were both still adjusting to the time and, although we were tired, we weren’t really sleepy until almost midnight.

Dinosaur towel animal

Sunday – Sea Day

Sea days are supposed to be days to relax, but our day was quite full. We started with the DVC Member Celebration – at 8:30 in the morning. Much too early. But there were almost 500 members on board and it was the only time they could get a large enough room! It cut down on the number of attendees, though…

We were in the North Sea, and there was some ship motion, but it wasn’t too bad. The weather was partly sunny but it was quite windy and cold on deck – according to the “current conditions” channel on our stateroom TV, the “Apparent Wind”, which takes ship speed and wind speed into consideration, sometimes approached 40 knots! The Aqua Dunk was not in service. 🙂

Later in the morning was the first lecture of the cruise: Welcome to Norway, by Dr Marvin Slind – Dr. Marv for short. He gave us an overview of the ports we would be visiting – most importantly, how to pronounce the names!
Stavanger = Stuh-VON-gur
Alesund = OH-leh-sund
Geiranger = Geh-RON-ger
Bergen = BEAR-gun

Apparently the kingdom of Arendelle did not figure prominently into Norwegian history, as he did not mention it. I suppose that’s not surprising for a kingdom of isolation…

He also told us about Norwegian sweaters – that when you find the right one it will “speak” to you. 🙂

After the lecture we wandered through the shops. I found a nice fleece headband – I’d lost mine in Tokyo Disneyland last year. As the week went on I was very happy to have it! We also bought some t-shirts. I just loved the design of this one – it’s very cute and clever the way they gave classic sweater designs a Disney touch.

Disney Magic Norway Cruise t-shirt

Lumiere’s was just opening for lunch as we walked by, so we ate there. We had a lovely assistant server named Julia. She’s the only assistant server I’ve ever had who has been so diligent about keeping my tea cup re-filled with hot water! Usually I’m lucky to get even one re-fill. As it turned out she was on our same dining rotation, and her tables were not far from ours, so we saw her often throughout the cruise. She was always smiling and she brightened our day every time we saw her.

Disney Magic Lumieres

After lunch was another lecture, this one on Stavanger and Alesund, the first two ports we would be visiting. We learned a little bit about herring canneries, salted cod, the Vikings, and the construction of Viking ships. And now we understand why the discovery of oil in the North Sea was so important to Norway that they made it part of the Maelstrom attraction in Epcot. Oil has brought in a huge amount of money and had a tremendous impact on the standard of living in Norway. Stavanger is considered the center of the oil industry in Norway.

Alesund is known for its Art Nouveau architecture. Much of the town burned down in 1904, and when it was rebuilt it was all done in the Art Nouveau style. Lots of brick and stone with ornamentation reflecting things from nature such as flowers and leaves. Most of those buildings are still there in the downtown area.

After the lecture we took a brisk walk out on deck 4. Unfortunately, due to work in the stern area and the teen club making a movie in the bow, we could only walk back and forth on the starboard side. Oh well – still got a little bit of exercise.

That night was formal night. We dressed up some, though for this cruise we’d tried to travel somewhat light so hadn’t brought our usual formal gear that we would only wear once. Our clothes were a little more multi-purpose.

After dinner we went down to Keys, the piano bar. We were shocked to see that it was PACKED – we’ve never seen that many people in there! They were all paying rapt attention to the woman who was playing the piano and singing. We found a couple seats at the bar, and recognized the bartender, Fletcher – he was working in Keys the last time we’d cruised on the Magic in October 2013. He told us the reason it was so packed was because of the pianist, Clara Oman. She’d been on the Magic for the Transatlantic cruise, the Baltic cruise, and now the Norway cruise, and had developed quite a following, especially with the passengers (around 200) who had also done all three cruises. She really was very good, with an extensive repertoire, and quite a vocal range.

Disney Magic Keys wall art

Still, it was a relief when her set ended and most of the audience went off to dinner or the show, and the bar was pretty empty again.

We had a nice sunset that night – at around 10:00. And it was just going to get later as we went further north – we were still south of the 58th parallel (Stavanger), and would be traveling north of the 62nd parallel (Alesund). By comparison, Copenhagen is 55.6, San Diego is between the 32nd and 33rd, and Anchorage, which is the furthest north I’d ever been before, is just above the 61st.

Disney Magic Norway Sunset

Jet lag was getting better, but it was still hard to sleep at 10:00. Since we had an early day the next day we needed to try. At least the motion of the ship was nice and soothing…

Teddy bear towel animal

Coming next: Stavanger

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Laura Gilbreath is a native of San Diego, CA. She has been making the trek up Interstate 5 to Disneyland since she was a small child and terrified of talking tikis and hitchhiking ghosts. She and her husband Lee enjoy trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as sailings on the Disney Cruise Line.

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