Our Magical "Fjords, Vikings and Castles" Norway Cruise - June 2015 - w/ pics - Completed!

[disneyfaninaz]

Continued. . .

We then made our way back onboard.

A little after 5:00 PM, we stood on Deck 4 and watched them fold the Sea Walk back up.

With that, the Magic headed back up the fjord. Goodbye Geiranger. Thank you for sharing your little corner of the world with us!

The town of Geiranger offered us a “TNT” salute just outside of town as we sailed by. We caught the puff of smoke after it went off. The picture shows where the puff of smoke was.

Dinner tonight was The Captain’s Gala. We were scheduled for Lumiere’s. However, the 6 “adults” in our merry little group had reservations at Palo tonight with the intention of watching us leave the fjord while we ate. The girls ate in the MDR by themselves. We had a great view of the fjord as we sailed out of it. It seemed like the rain and low clouds were following us out.

Andrew from the Phillipines was our server. He was excellent. I order mixed greens salad and the Lobster Ravioli. It was wonderful and just the right amount!

Of course, for dessert I had the Chocolate Soufflé. After 4 cruises, this was the first time I have had it. All previous accounts are true; it was to die for!

After dessert, Andrew brought out a plate with Happy Birthday written in chocolate.

The Magic of Light show did not appeal and there really wasn’t anything else that interested me. When we got back to the room, I had a message from Shorty from White Caps regarding the Inaugural T-shirt, so I went down to talk to her. I have to say that 9:00 PM is my favorite time on the ship because there is nobody around decks 3 and 4. They are all either at the show or at dinner. Anyway, Shorty had so many requests for the inaugural shirts that DCL was offering to ship them to us. I thought that was fair.

After getting up 2 early mornings in a row and touring for 3 straight days, we called it an early night.

Our towel animal tonight was a bear.

Breathtaking, awe-inspiring, beautiful, incredible, spectacular and stunning are just a few words I would use to describe Geiranger. We had a wonderful time visiting there and felt so fortunate to be able to take it in. It would be nice to go back some day and stay for a few days to really absorb its charm.

Next: Bergen

 

[JCinMN]

I was on the 6/20 Fjord sailing and I am enjoying your review and awesome photos. Please know that the Seven Sisters waterfall did get a bit more impressive on our tour (while the snow piles on top of the mountain shrunk). Thanks for sharing!

 

[Flossbolna]

I still love reading along, it is so nice to read someone else's experience from the cruise that we were on. We watched the sea walk coming into place as well!

And we originally had the same idea as you to eat at Palo on the Geiranger evening. But then decided to cancel it as we were planning to go hiking that day and did not want to commit to a big meal. However, we then opted to eat at Cabanas were we had a window table and therefore were enjoying the same spectacular view during dinner!

I was on the 6/20 Fjord sailing and I am enjoying your review and awesome photos. Please know that the Seven Sisters waterfall did get a bit more impressive on our tour (while the snow piles on top of the mountain shrunk). Thanks for sharing!

I meant to comment on the Seven Sisters as well. We noticed that it was far more impressive when we left Geiranger and my explanation is that due to the cool nights there was not enough snow melting, but during the day it got the water flowing down.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Hey faithful followers. I haven't forgotten about you. I just got back from the most magical girls-only trip to Disneyland to celebrate their 60th Anniversary. It was truly awesome. You'll never guess who we ran into while we were there.

Anyway, I hope to have Bergan up today, if not tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Thanks!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I still love reading along, it is so nice to read someone else's experience from the cruise that we were on. We watched the sea walk coming into place as well!

And we originally had the same idea as you to eat at Palo on the Geiranger evening. But then decided to cancel it as we were planning to go hiking that day and did not want to commit to a big meal. However, we then opted to eat at Cabanas were we had a window table and therefore were enjoying the same spectacular view during dinner!

I meant to comment on the Seven Sisters as well. We noticed that it was far more impressive when we left Geiranger and my explanation is that due to the cool nights there was not enough snow melting, but during the day it got the water flowing down.

Our room was on port side so we had a great view of The Suitor, but because we were getting ready for Palo, we missed the 7 sisters going out. On the photos my DD took on our rib boat, the falls did seem to be flowing more.

 

[alabalacoo]

New to the boards, and to your trip report. I am enjoying reading, and all of your photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[elena_n2o]

Hey faithful followers. I haven't forgotten about you. I just got back from the most magical girls-only trip to Disneyland to celebrate their 60th Anniversary. It was truly awesome. You'll never guess who we ran into while we were there.

Anyway, I hope to have Bergan up today, if not tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Thanks!

Lucky you!!

Who did you run into??

Looking forward to Bergen!! (and a bit sad too because it means the trip is coming to an end....)

 

[disneyfaninaz]

New to the boards, and to your trip report. I am enjoying reading, and all of your photos. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for joining. I'm glad you're enjoying my report.

Lucky you!!

Who did you run into??

Looking forward to Bergen!! (and a bit sad too because it means the trip is coming to an end....)

Thanks, we had a wonderful time. It was a surprise trip for DD. I'll explain later in my report.

Well, since you asked. Of all the people you wouldn't expect to run into at Disneyland; we ran into our cruise director Brent! He was in California Adventure enjoying the park with his family. "It's a Small World, after all . . ."

Don't worry, I have 3 more days in Copenhagen to report on too.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Day 8: Bergen

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Sunrise: 4:13 AM

Sunset: 11:04 PM

Temp: Sunny 54˚F

All Ashore: 7:45 AM

All Aboard: 5:15 PM

Today’s Plan: Bergen Highlights Tour (DCL), Mr. Floyen and walking around.

DNDDC would be joining us for our Bergen tour today. DD was thrilled as DNDDC is kind of like the big sister DD never had. Our Dneighbors were taking the farm tour later in the afternoon with DNDDM. DsisterJ and DcousinC were doing the Hardanger Fjord tour.

I was up a bit before 7:00 AM to watch us head into Bergen. I stayed on our verandah this morning. It was an overcast day with clouds hanging in the peaks above the city. Unlike in the other ports, the Magic headed in stern first this morning.

We actually sat outside for breakfast this morning. This guy was waiting for a handout. “Mine, mine, mine!” It is actually the same in both English and Norwegian.

Some view from the deck.

We met in the D Lounge at 8:45 AM for our Bergen Highlights tour and were given stickers with number 14. DNDDC came in a bit later and was given the number 15, since no 14s were left. DNDDC told the CM that we were together so we exchanged our 14s for 15s. That sealed our fate for the day. There were 3 buses for our tour today. We were in the middle. We were taken off the ship on Deck 1 Forward and taken to our busses.

Important information for the day.

We were near the back of our bus. We then proceeded to drive through Bergen.

I found Cinderella in Bergen.

I have to say that our tour guide was only fair to midline. He was nice, but I didn’t get the impression that he was enthusiastic about his job. Once again, we heard how fire pretty much devastated Bergen way back when.

A statue of Ole Bull, a famous Norwegian violinist.

Our first destination was Troldehaugen, Edvard Grieg’s (The famous Norwegian composer) home. The home is situated on Nordass Lake in a residential area.

We parked a ways from his actual home and walked down a lane to get to it. We were given about 15 minutes to go through the exhibit and the gift shop.

During the cruise, DCL played music in the halls and elevators. It wasn’t your traditional Disney music, however. They played Norwegian folk music. Earlier in the week, Marvin Slind had told us about the Hardanger Fiddle. Basically, it’s a fiddle with 4 underlying strings that cause a constant hum in the music. It was actually very nice music and I enjoyed listening to it. It almost sounded Celtic in its origin. Anyway, here is a picture of a Hardanger Fiddle.

Then we met at the actual house. It was very quaint.

After a brief tour we were given time to check out his writing cabin which was closer to the lake. It really was a beautiful area.

The glass area encloses a small concert hall for piano concerts.

DD and DNDDC walked down to his final resting place.

We then walked back towards the bus.

Remember when I mentioned the tour stickers at Carlsberg? Well, here is another example. We kept ours.

Afterwards, we got on our bus and headed back towards Fantoft Stave Church.

Next: Fantoft Stave Church, Bryggen & Mt. Floyen

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Day 8: Bergen (Continued) – Fantoft Stave Church & Bryggen

Afterwards, we got on our bus and headed back towards Fantoft Stave Church.

We walked through a tree canopied path to the fenced off church. Look a hidden mickey!

This is a reconstructed stave church after the original relocated church was destroyed by fire in 1992.

Our guide gave the briefest explanation and history of the church, but most of the time we waited for the tour ahead of us to finish. The church is fenced and only so many are allowed in at one time. Finally, we were allowed to enter the church, but no tour was provided. It was cool to see the intricate wood workings.

We walked around the outside of the church.

The church was a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

Afterwards we were bused back to the Bryggen. Since the bus driver couldn’t find a parking place, we were let out on the Bryggen.

Some people opted at this point to leave the tour and venture out on their own. The tour was supposed to include a 45 minute walking tour through the streets of Bryggen and a tour of the Hanseatic Assembly rooms. Basically, the people that remained were taken down one narrow alley between buildings where we got a brief description of how the Hanseatic workers lived.

He then let us go. To say the least, I was a little disappointed in our tour and our guide.

After the tour was abruptly ended, we walked behind the Bryggen buildings where we found a nice little park and headed towards the funicular to Mt. Floyen.

An antique shop.

The local McDonalds.

And, while I don’t have a good picture, they did have Starbucks too.

The line was down the street so we headed towards the Fish Market for some lunch. We ran into our neighbors and they made a lunch recommendation for us and told us they had gone up the funicular and that the line on the left was for single riders, not tours.

As we entered the fish market, we stopped at one vendor and tasted some sausage. They had reindeer, moose and whale. We tasted the whale, I really couldn’t tell you if I liked it or not, but I know I could never eat it. They use Minke whales which are plentiful in the North Sea and not endangered. We bought some really good reindeer sausage and went to find our lunch.

We ordered our food. I had a traditional Smørrebord with grilled shrimp. Basically I got 2 pieces of bread, a skewer with deliciously grilled shrimp; some lettuce and hamburger sauce (basically 1000 Island Dressing). It was really good.

Fish and chips.

After lunch we made our way to the funicular.

A Norwegian mail carrier’s cart.

A local school.

Next: Mt. Floyen

 

[elena_n2o]

Another great update, thank you

The Fantoft church looks really beautiful. We did our own thing in Bergen, but otherwise we would have done the same trip as you. I really need to do this cruise again

Love the pictures of the fish market. We also ate there, and loved it! The smell of the fish being cooked was mouth watering!!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Day 8: Bergen (Continued) – Mt. Floyen

The line had diminished and it didn’t take us but a few minutes to purchase our tickets. However, once we got inside, we had a bit of a wait. We saw several of the DCL show people in line as well. Once we got on a car, we headed up. There are 2 cars. One is express and goes from top to bottom with no stops. The other one is like a city bus, or subway, as there are 2 stops before we get to the top. We saw 2 school boys use it on their way home from school.

Once we reached the top, the views were spectacular.

Once we had spent some time taking pictures, shopping in the gift shop, buying some final items from Norway and mailing my postcards, we headed back down.

We saw Brent and his family (such cute boys) waiting to go down the funicular. (I’m not stalking him, really!)

Once down, there were a few shops that we had seen that we wanted to look in and a bakery that was calling our name. So we headed by to the Bryggen.

I bought a nice water color rendering of the Bryggen. At the bakery we each bought a Cinnamon Swirl roll and sat outside to enjoy it.

DNDDC headed back to the ship to start laundry as she was spending 2 more weeks backpacking through Europe with her cousin after the cruise. We walked around some more.

The skies started to look threatening and the wind was picking up so we decided to head back towards the ship. On the way was the Rosenkrantz Tower. The current tower was built in 1560. We decided to investigate.

Unfortunately, they were having some sort of event that you had to pay to get in so the grounds of the hall were closed off. The tower was open but involved climbing stairs. After four straight days of touring, none of us wanted to climb anymore stairs, so we headed back to the ship.

Next: Animating & Freezing the Night Away

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We interrupt this trip report to . . . . .

WISH DISNEYLAND A VERY HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY! ​

​

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We now return to our regularly scheduled trip report.

Day 8: Bergen (Continued) – Animating & Freezing the Night Away

We got back onboard at about 3:15 PM. At all the other ports, after you went through security upon reboarding, a table had been setup with hot chocolate and cookies. We must have been too early today, so we headed up to Deck 9 and straight for the hot chocolate. First, we stopped to notice the decorations in the atrium for Frozen night.

Neither DH nor I had tried any ice cream yet and the cruise was almost over. So we headed to Eye Scream and I put some ice cream in my hot chocolate. Yum!

They also had delicious oatmeal raisin cookies at Daisy’s De Lites.

They were setting up for the Frozen deck party. As you can see by the lifeguard, it was not a balmy day.

At 5:20 a tour was late getting back and there was a line through security.

We headed back to the Atrium to see the Oaken’s May Pole in the atrium. It was very cute and the CMs were in character Yoo Hooing everybody and calling them “cousins.” All the CM’s wore authentic Norwegian costumes.

Right before 6:00 PM, we started sailing away from Bergen.

Dinner was in Animator’s Palate. It was also Frozen night.

We had a Prix Fixe menu for the appetizers and salad courses. Our only choice was for our main entre. I ordered the Specialty Drink, a Midnight.

I skipped the appetizer, it was mostly fish, and had Macaroni & Cheese and Baked Potato Soup. Yum! I also had Kristoff’s Rosemary Marinated Striploin. It was delicious. Kids were offered a souvenir Olaf cup for their beverages and everybody was given a light up snowflake for the deck party later.

For dessert, if I remember correctly, I had a Mint Chocolate Chip Sundae.

I was pleasantly surprised to see drawing paper on the table.

I had heard about this on the new ships, but I didn’t realize that the Magic offered the animated drawings. Everybody at the table had to draw a picture within the given frame. You could draw anything, remembering of course that it was a family audience. Once you finished, our server took them away before appetizers were served.

After dinner, an animated show was presented using all of the drawings received. It was awesome! Here are our drawings.

At the end they rolled credits.

After dinner we went up to our cabin to change and looked outside our verandah.

After changing, DD and I went to see “Walt Disney – The Dream Goes On.” I thought the show was well done with a mixture of live performances and movie clips. It was very enjoyable.

Yoo Hoooo! Cousins!!! At 10:15 PM, they had the Freezing the Night Away Party. It was weird that it was still light outside, but overcast so not as bright as it could have been.

DD and I bundled up in our new knitwear and headed up to Deck 9 to stand with our neighbors in the handicapped area. They had Shutter’s going around taking pictures with a “Frozen” frame, which was very nice.

We were right next to the stage.

Here’s Oaken’s cousin Oscar, he was the Emcee of the show.

They had the pool covered and reserved for all the kids to dance. The premise of the party is that the royal party planner and assistant were to plan a party. These guys were a riot.

We were all “Cousins”. They taught the kids dances, and played reindeer games with Sven. We even sang along with Olaf to “Summer.” One by one, Kristoff,

Anna,

and finally Elsa arrives to help.

The performer playing Elsa was very good and had an incredibly strong voice when she belted out “Let it Go.”

All and all, an enjoyable 30 minutes.

It was late and we were ready for bed. I could hardly believe that we had just left our last port of the cruise. The time just went by soooo fast. Norway was wonderful and the people were all so nice and welcoming.

Our towel animal tonight was an angel.

Bergen had a different feel to it. Maybe it was the congestion of people that we didn’t encounter at our other ports. Maybe it was the tour that left a bitter taste in my mouth. All that aside, I’m glad I went there. I loved all of the buildings and the quaint side streets. As usual everybody was very welcoming.

Next: Our Last Sea Day

 

[lucky1]

Wow.. on the 9 night Noway our Frozen night was earlier in the evening, it was between the 2 dinner's... I was very surprised to not have it after the later dinner.

 

[elena_n2o]

Yo-hoo!!! Cousins!!

Great update and beautiful pictures!! Including one featuring my little princess... (she's the one with the yellow jacket )

We all really enjoyed the Frozen night; Oaken's cousins were really good fun; our daughter really liked doing the Maypole dance, and then loved the deck party (she also went on stage at the start of the show). It's a bit of a shame than Olaf only appears on the screen, but other than that it was fun.

I know what you mean about Bergen. It felt quite different, i thought that maybe because it was fairly crowded and had a more urban feel to it (particularly after Geiranger). But still a beautiful town, and some interesting things to see!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Wow.. on the 9 night Noway our Frozen night was earlier in the evening, it was between the 2 dinner's... I was very surprised to not have it after the later dinner.

Wow, I'm guessing there wasn't a stage show that night for them to be able to do between dinner seatings.

Yo-hoo!!! Cousins!!

Great update and beautiful pictures!! Including one featuring my little princess... (she's the one with the yellow jacket )

We all really enjoyed the Frozen night; Oaken's cousins were really good fun; our daughter really liked doing the Maypole dance, and then loved the deck party (she also went on stage at the start of the show). It's a bit of a shame than Olaf only appears on the screen, but other than that it was fun.

I know what you mean about Bergen. It felt quite different, i thought that maybe because it was fairly crowded and had a more urban feel to it (particularly after Geiranger). But still a beautiful town, and some interesting things to see!

Too funny that I would catch a photo of your daughter. I'm glad somebody else had the same feelings I did about Bergen. Maybe it because it was last port and we were tired that we didn't enjoy it as much, but we did see some great things!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Day 9: Sea Day 2

Friday, June 12, 2015

Sunrise: 4:20 AM

Sunset: 10:28 PM

Temp: The forecast was overcast, but it was sunny! 64˚F

Well, the final day of our cruise had arrived much too quickly. For over a year we had researched, planned and anticipated this cruise and it was over in a flash of an eye.

Since we didn’t have anything planned today, we slept in! We eventually made our way up to Cabana’s for breakfast, just so Inky could make up our room.

DD participated in Anna’s Chocolate Chase. For 3 days, 3 different clues appeared in the Navigators. She had to figure out the clue and find the place on the ship and then write down what you saw on a special form. As instructed, we had placed the clue form on our bed for Inky the night before.

When we got back from breakfast, this is what we got for a reward.

The next order of business was to pack. We kept pretty organized so packing didn’t take too long and we put the luggage back under the bed to finalize later. It was a good thing I had brought an extra carry-on duffle for all of our souvenirs to carry home on the plane. They weren’t going in our luggage and still meet the weight requirements. Fortunately, we weren’t catching a plane the next day so we didn’t have to worry too much about packing neatly or within weight.

After we did our preliminary packing, DH and I wandered around the ship. Upon our wanderings, this is what it looked like outside. You can barely make out land. But it was a beautiful sunny day and the pools were busy.

At 11:30 AM I found DD down in the atrium to watch Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash. If you haven’t seen it before, it is very cute watching babies crawl (or be bribed to crawl) to the finish line.

One of the things I had purchased onboard was a cool map showing the itinerary of our cruise. It looked kind of 3 dimensional and was matted. Today at 12:15 PM, the Commodore was having a signing in White Caps. I wanted to get the map signed, so I went down to start waiting in line. I was second. The signing went quickly. I ran into DNJ standing in line further behind me and he had said that everybody was at lunch. I went back to the stateroom to drop off my map and ran into DH. We went and had lunch together. DD had gone off with DNDDC to go swimming and ride the AquaDunk again.

After lunch DH and I went back down to Shutters.

During the week we had been stopping in and checking out our photos. I never had so many photos taken on a cruise before this one. DH insisted that he could narrow it down to 20 photos, for the package. Me, not so much. We actually decided that if we purchased 23 photos, it was just as much to buy them all. So we did!

At 2:45 I met DD, DNC, and DNDDC for Disney Music Trivia in the Promenade Lounge. We didn’t win, but it was fun. CM Brian had 5 teams tied for first place and had to do 3 tie breakers before somebody finally won. After trivia, DD, DNDDC, DNC and DNDDM went to do the Ultimate Quest, a type of scavenger hunt using the wave phones. Our team came so close, but came in second.

At 3:30, we met in our neighbor’s stateroom for a wine and cheese party, which has started to become a “last day of cruise” tradition. They had a huge verandah on deck 6 Aft with their HA room. We couldn't believe how big it was!

It was a beautiful sunny day to reminisce about our wonderful cruise. Wish I was going where this cruise ship was.

The very tip of Denmark.

Our Til’ We Meet Again dinner was in Carioca’s.

All I remember ordering was the weinerschnitzel. It was very good. After dinner, they had the parade of nations where all the servers went around the room with flags representing all the nations aboard the ship.

Raphael looked so tired.

The one thing that they didn’t do, however, was bring out the flaming Baked Alaska. I don’t know why. Regardless, I ordered Baked Alaska for dessert.

On a side note, DD is a huge Disneyland fan (of course I brought her up that way, so I am totally to blame). Anyway, we took DD and her BFF to Disneyland last December for her 5 year Diaversary. When we got home, we told her we probably wouldn’t go to Disneyland in 2015 because of the cruise. She was not a happy camper. I know, she’s spoiled!

Fast forward to February. DNC and I started talking about going away for a girls trip this summer while our daughters were at their camps (we had done it a few years ago, reference trip report below). So we talked and decided that we would take the girls with us to Disneyland in July (between camps) to celebrate the 60th Anniversary. A trip was set. We didn’t tell DD any of this. In the meantime, I was being lobbied, begged, whined to, and everything in between by DD to be taken to Disneyland this summer. It got so bad, she would turn off the radio and TV when Disneyland ads came on because it would upset her so much. What can I say, she’s 14! I was bound and determined to wait as long as possible to tell her. Perverse of me I know. (Insert evil laugh here).

Meanwhile, back on our cruise, DH thought it would be a good idea to tell her at the end of the cruise to save the tears and whining about not going to Disneyland all the way home from Europe. So, I penned a note. Basically it said “You have just finished your Disney cruise to Norway, what are you going to do now? . . . . You’re going to Disneyland in July.” We gave it to Raphael to give to her with her dessert. Raphael placed it under her plate. She didn’t see it so we had to prod her to look under her plate. She was flabbergasted and actually speechless. That was a first! Needless to say she was very excited and thankful.

After dinner we thanked Raphael and Tomasina for their, dare I say, “Magical” service, with their tips. I also gave each of them a Tagxedo button (see post # 10) that I had made for our party with the date of the cruise and places we went to. They were very appreciative. We also took their picture.

After dinner, we headed back to our stateroom to finalize packing, so DH could put our luggage out in the hall, and change clothes. We wore what we are wearing off the ship the next day.

I had been looking forward to seeing “Dreams” this year. It is hands-down my absolute favorite show on all of the ships. I knew that they added a “Frozen” segment as well as some new lighting features. What I didn’t expect is that it would make the show even better! Anyway, we were going to sit with our neighbors so we had to meet them at Keys at 8:15 PM so we could take the secret wheelchair access to the front row of the theater. Before they arrived, we went to the old Duty Free shop that now held souvenirs from the Baltic and Norway.

DD and I also checked out the padded portholes.

While we were waiting for Brent to come introduce the show, Greta Salome came out on the balcony above us to play her violin. She was a musical performer that Disney hired to play on the ship. She was phenomenal, and was a little thing, but she could play like nobody’s business. She proceeded to serenade us with “When you Wish Upon A Star” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” It was a very special pre-show treat.

Brent came out to give his introduction and ask how everybody enjoyed the beautiful sunny day for their last day onboard. He then proceeded to tell us that we board the ship as passengers and leave the ship as cargo. Ha ha!

Dreams was as fantastic as ever. They added projections and lighting effects to Beauty and the Beast and Lion King segments. The Frozen segment was wonderful. It started out with Anna singing and then Olaf sang “Summer” and of course, Elsa came out and sang “Let it Go.” She had a wonderful voice. Brava! Brava!

After the show, DD and I wandered the ship. We got a last picture with Inky and took some pictures from outside. The dusk sky was lovely.

We then went to the Atrium for the “Til We Meet Again” show a little before 10:15 PM. DNDDM was hoping to see Peter Pan, but neither Peter nor Anne-Marie made an appearance. We did see our “cousins” who planned the Frozen deck party and he danced with DNDDM.

It is always a bitter sweet moment when all the characters sing M-I-C…..K-E-Y. M-O-U-S-E! See you real soon!

The aftermath.

After the show, it was time for bed. One last view of the sea before bed.

We had 7:15 AM breakfast tomorrow morning.

Our towel animal for tonight was a cobra.

Next:Statues, Fountains and Jewels, Oh my!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I'm back. Sorry for the delay. Had to get DD to band camp! Back to the trip report.

Day 10: Copenhagen

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Today’s Plan: The Little Mermaid, Gefion Fountain, Changing of the Guards, Rosenborg Slot

We were up at 6:30 AM. We were approaching Copenhagen. We got dressed and put everything in our bags. Since, we had main seating; our breakfast was at 7:15 AM in Carioca’s. The other restaurants had 7:00 AM seating. We checked with Inky and left our carry-ons in our room to pick up after breakfast. Our luggage tags were Gray Daisy.

Since I ran out of time the night before, I filled out the customer survey at breakfast and turned it in. Raphael was leaving for vacation today so he was late getting to breakfast having to deal with immigration. He looked tired and I think was very excited to be headed home. We were just sad to be leaving the ship.

After breakfast we headed back up to our room. I took some final pictures from our verandah. It was a beautiful sunny day in Copenhagen.

We then collected all of our bags and headed to Deck 1 Forward to disembark. They did not call luggage tag colors; you just disembarked when you were ready. There was no line to get off the ship and our luggage was very easy to find in the warehouse. However, all of the porters were taken so we schlepped our own luggage to the taxi line, which was long. We had noticed before we got off the ship that there were a lot of taxi’s in the parking lot. They were separating everybody by party size. If you needed a taxi van, you would get into a line in front of the terminal building, smaller parties stayed in the main line. We had 3 people and lots of luggage so we needed a station wagon. By the time we got to the front of the line there were no taxies left. Helloooooo? (cue crickets)

Seriously, there were like at least 5 cruise ships in port today and transportation was being stretched. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for one to come along bringing some excited cruisers for the next Disney cruise.

Bye Magic, thanks for a wonderful cruise, as always!

We were spending 3 additional days in Copenhagen and were excited to see some more sites. We had reservations at The Admiral Hotel. We arrived at the Admiral at around 9:30 AM. The Admiral is a repurposed grain warehouse.

It was actually a rather warm day and I decided to change shirts at the hotel to shorter sleeves. We got pre-checked-in since our room wasn’t ready and checked our bags. Good thing we had locked our bags, because basically they were stacked in the lobby and attached together with a locked cable. Our neighbors were also staying at The Admiral and weren’t too far behind us. DcousinC and DsisterJ were staying at the Radisson Blu and had taken DCL transportation to their hotel and then a taxi to meet up with us at The Admiral. By 10:00 AM we were all ready to hit the streets for some serious sightseeing. We decided to walk along the waterfront. We thought we had toured the previous week, we hadn’t seen anything yet!

Our first destination was The Gefion Fountain working our way down to The Little Mermaid.

We walked past this fountain with a view towards The Opera House on one side and Amalienborg on the other.

We came upon the Statue of David and the Royal Cast Collection building.

We came across this masted sailing ship. In some sort of commemoration of the ship, Denmark had issued a new stamp and it was being released that day. There was a private event onboard, but DH probably would have toured it. My DH, being the philatelist (stamp collector) he is, bought a first day cover. He goes for the more unusual souvenirs.

Along the way, we caught glimpses of The Magic.

Next we came upon the entrance to Kastellet Park. We walked between Mercury and Poseidon.

Then we saw St. Alban’s Church.

We reached Gefion Fountain. The fountain depicts “the myth of the goddess Gefion who was given one night to carve a hunk out of Sweden to make into Denmark’s main island. Gefion transformed her four sons into oxen to do the job.” It is truly a magnificent fountain. It is also a very picturesque site.

After walking through the park,

we spotted this Swan family in a nearby pond.

We approached The Little Mermaid. Carl Jacobson ordered the statue and donated it to the city. Unfortunately it has seen much mutilation and vandalism over the years. It was once thought the city would move it further out in the water so people couldn’t walk up to it. Anyway, it is very crowded as every hop-on-hop-off bus and tour bus stops there. It takes some creative framing to get a picture without a crowd.

We then walked back towards Amalienborg to watch the changing of the guards at 12:00. We walked by the Gefion Fountain and St. Albans again.

Amalienborg Palace is four buildings on four sides of an octagon. One building (the Queen’s residence) is going through major refurbishment and is behind scaffolding.

Here is the statue of Amalienborg’s founder, King Frederick V, in the middle of the plaza.

Guards are performing their duties.

We made sure to get our picture near one.

Continued on next post.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Continued.

We were a bit early so we were standing in the middle of the plaza when a very nice older Danish gentleman asked if we were waiting for the Changing of the Guards. We told him we were and he became our very gracious guide for the entire event. He told us what to expect and the best place to stand to see everything. He told us that the Queen and her immediate family were actually in Sweden for the Swedish Prince’s wedding that day. He also told us that by law, a royal had to be in residence when the Queen was out of the country, so her sister came from Germany. He could tell because the curtains were drawn open in one of the palace buildings.

He also told us about the Order of the Elephant. It is Denmark’s highest order bestowed by the Queen.

Anyway, the guard approaches from Rosenborg where they are housed with a police escort. They enter in front of the Marble Church and into the plaza and around the statue. While we didn’t expect it, they had a band today with the guard and came marching into the plaza playing a John Philip Sousa march. I’m such a sucker for a marching band (see signature below). The guards took their position and the band played 3 more songs.

The guards to be replaced standing at attention. The guards do 24 hour shifts, standing guard for 2 and then shifting inside the palace for rest.

Our guide then told us that the replacement guards would start going around the buildings to each guard post. 2 guards would go inspect the red coat inside the iconic red guard house. He told us they were looking for “tobacco, alcohol and warm women on a cold night.” “Of course, they never find any”, he said, but it’s tradition.

Afterwards, we thanked him profusely and our guide bid us a good day and left. He is truly a patriotic Dane who takes pride in the traditions of his country and we were fortunate to have made his acquaintance.

Next: Marble Church and Rosenborg Slot