Norwegian Fjords Disney Cruise Line Report — Day 5

I have a lot of photos from our Geirangerfjord cruise, but not a ton more to say about them, so I’ll sprinkle them throughout this page of the report without much commentary on them. Instead, I’ll start this page by discussing the connections between Frozen and Norway.

This is notable now because Arendelle bears and uncanny resemblance to the landscape of Geiranger, and that’s pretty easy to spot as you approach Geiranger from afar. The similarities extend far beyond high-level landscapes, and in many ways, Arendelle is an amalgamation of Norway, and Arendellian (?) culture is a pastiche of Norwegian culture.

There was a seminar on these Frozen-Norway connections by the same professor I had praised in an earlier installment of this report…but this one was not very good. The professor was out of his element; it seemed like he hadn’t even seen the movie.

For a cruise that has marketing consisting of Norway intwined with Frozen, it would’ve been nice if Disney Cruise Line brought one of the animators or Imagineers who took research trips to Norway for the film/Epcot attraction.

Based on previous articles I had read and presentations I had heard at various Disney events, I was aware of these connections going into the cruise.

If you’re interesting in learning more about the real-world Norwegian inspiration for Frozen, here here and here are a few good articles. Plenty more are available via Google.

Suffice to say, there’s a lot in Frozen that is directly inspired by real places in Norway. Moreover, Frozen has done a lot for Norway’s tourism industry and Norwegians have definitely embraced Frozen.

Well, at least to the extent that it’s profitable to do so. I don’t doubt that individual Norwegians roll their eyes at the fact that many foreigners visit because a cartoon inspired them to.

I don’t blame them. Then again…I’m one to talk, as I’ve been inspired to visit a number of places by a theme park. To each their own, I suppose.

At some point, you had to expect this conversation to pivot to a discussion of Frozen Ever After in Norway at Epcot. You might also expect that this is the point where I admit to having my eyes opened to just how perfect of a fit for World Showcase Frozen actually was.

Sorry to disappoint, but that’s not happening.

Perhaps I’m too much of an EPCOT Center purist, but I still do not think that Frozen belongs in World Showcase. Arendelle being a de facto Norway makes it less offensive, but the attraction still does not belong in World Showcase, in my opinion.

The film does not purport to be about Norwegian culture nor is it based upon Norwegian mythology.

Frozen just happens to be set in a fictional location that is a stand-in for Norway, and features some art and other characteristics that draw upon real-world Norway for the sake of added depth and texture.

This is all incidental background for a story that has nothing to do with Norway.

While I really don’t want any animated films having a presence in World Showcase, about the only one I could (potentially) get behind is Ratatouille.

This is because (I think) the setting is not merely incidental in that film, and it could be tastefully integrated into the film. (I have a number of different objections to the inevitable plan to add the Ratatouille dark ride to the pavilion.)

I will say that my anti-Frozen Ever After in World Showcase perspective is not because I was a fan of Maelstrom or the Spirit of Norway film.

To the contrary, I only enjoyed Maelstrom for its campiness and quotability, not because I thought it was actually good; once I finally saw it, I only liked Spirit of Norway for its (no joke) quintessentially 1980s score.

Long before Maelstrom closed, I wrote a post over on TouringPlans that referred to the attraction as “A Salute To All Things Norway, But Mostly Trolls, Anorexic Polar Bears, Oil Rigs, and Children of the Corn.”

The article is a funny* read (*by my standards, meaning not really funny) if you want to take a stroll down memory lane and speculate as to why Chuck Norris was featured in the attraction.

One way I always felt Maelstrom and Spirit of Norway were colossal failures was because they never made me want to visit Norway. To its credit, Maelstrom at least shows some neat stuff and mythology, but Spirit of Norway had a chance to actually show some of Norway’s natural beauty, but most of the film could’ve been shot on a soundstage in Iowa.

I get the sentiment that “the people make the place,” but that doesn’t exactly translate to a travelogue.

Our desire to visit Norway had literally nothing to do with Maelstrom or Spirit of Norway. The pavilion’s architecture, shops, bakery, and museum were motivating factors (along with, oddly enough, memories of the Lillehammer Olympics) but not the attractions.

By contrast, Impressions de France is the reason we’ve explored France beyond Paris, and the films in China and (to a lesser extent) Canada have inspired us to spend time in those places.

But I digress…

I think we spent around 4 hours cruising through Geirangerfjord, and during that time, the weather got progressively better and better.

By the time mid-morning rolled around, there were people swimming in the pools and sunbathing. Although the sun was out and the sky was blue, it was still windy (albeit not as much) and freezing.

I tried to capture some photos of the ship with the Norwegian landscape in the background:

It was so nice out, the characters made unscheduled appearances on the deck. Based on what the character attendant was saying, it sounds like this was not a normal thing, and none of them stayed in one spot for very long.

After a while of fjord-watching, we decided to eat at Cabanas. The ‘special’ station for lunch was food inspired by Tangled, and if you’re wondering what that means…it means sausage.

Perhaps I fell asleep during the scene where Rapunzel and Flynn fulfill their dream of opening a food truck devoted to sausage, but whatever. It was good sausage.

I ate two full plates of the dessert (let’s call it research), and I don’t regret that decision for a second. The “downside” was that this put me into a bit of a food coma, and I fell asleep on one of the lounge chairs for a while.

When I woke up, the sky was totally overcast.

Entertainment options had been added to the Daily Navigator, but most things were packed with people. We noticed a Disney Vacation Club event had been added, so we figured, what the heck–free drinks.

Even though we have zero intention of adding on, I enjoy these seminars to see how DVC is pitching itself. Unfortunately, there was no pitch…it was just free drinks and the room. (Actually, that was a pretty nice move on the part of DVC.)

As we sat there finishing our drinks, the couple next to us asked about DVC. They were thinking about buying and wondered what we thought about ownership.

If anyone from DVC is reading this, you’re welcome. We did your job making the pitch; when they left they told us they were likely going to buy-in thanks to our conversation.

However…we convinced them not to buy directly from DVC and instead buy via resale. (So maybe we should walk-back that ‘you’re welcome.’)

After that, we noticed the weather was getting progressively worse…

We did some other stuff that afternoon, but nothing of consequence, so let’s fast forward to Tangled: the Musical.

Quite simply, this was the best Disney Cruise Line show we’ve seen. It reminded me a lot of Frozen Live at the Hyperion (at Disney California Adventure). Basically, it follows the exact formula, except with a different movie.

In both cases, I suppose you could critique the productions as being nothing more than truncated versions of the films, but I think both do an exceptional job of tightening the story to suit the Broadway format, adding their own twists, and presenting the story as a live version with excellent production value.

While I love the Frozen show at DCA, we both preferred Tangled: the Musical. It was exceptionally well-done, there’s a ton of heart in it, the pacing is great, and the visuals are wonderful. This is exactly what Disney Cruise Line shows should be. Do one montage show as the ‘grand finale’ (or whatever), but have the rest be like this.

In our 3-Night Bahamas Disney Cruise Report, I did a lot of complaining about how the montage show style made the productions all run together, with too much in common. I also predicted that the addition of the Beauty and the Beast musical would help remedy that. If Beauty and the Beast: the Musical (or whatever it’ll be called) is as good as this, we’re in for a treat.

For dinner, we were back at Lumiere’s. It was another great meal–perhaps our largest yet. I’ll spare you photos of all the carnage and just share a couple…

After dinner, we noticed Mickey Mouse in his formal attire (it was semi-formal night), so we stopped for photos.

There were several times on this cruise when we encountered characters with absolutely no line. I don’t know if this was just because we were routinely seeing them after dinner (~10:00 p.m.) or if they’re less popular on this itinerary, but it was far different than on our last cruise to the Bahamas, when there were always long lines.

This evening’s towel animal was my favorite of the cruise.

A final, unrelated note before we conclude this installment of the cruise report. First, a thanks is in order to so many of you who provided feedback about the Alaska cruise. Very helpful and very much appreciated. Since you’re probably (possibly?) curious, we decided against booking it. Even though we think we have a pretty good excuse, it seems a bit impulsive, even for us. We’re still scheming about a way to do this in the near future, but it’s not going to happen this year. We really do appreciate the feedback, though!

All in all, we had a really good day on the ship cruising through Geirangerfjord. I’m sure it would’ve been even better if we were off the ship enjoying that wonderful weather on our hike or seated in a kayak, but it felt like Disney Cruise Line made the most of a bad situation. I think that’s probably a minority opinion among those who were on this cruise, and maybe I’m giving Disney too much benefit of the doubt here, but to me, it seemed like a no-win scenario for DCL. I’m glad we at least got to spend extensive time slowly cruising through the fjord, and have some nice photos to show for it.

Click here to continue reading Day 6 of our Disney Cruise Line Norwegian Fjords Report!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

If you’ve done Disney’s Norwegian Fjords cruise, what did you think of Geirangerfjord? What would your reaction be to missing one of the ports on your cruise itinerary? How do you feel about Norway as represented through Maelstrom or Spirit of Norway? What about Frozen as a “Norwegian” film/attraction? Thoughts on anything else we did or mentioned in this installment of the cruise report? Anything else to add? Hearing from you is part of the fun of these posts, so please share your feedback and questions in the comments below!