Norwegian Fjords Disney Cruise Line Report — Day 7
After an excellent port day in Bergen for Day 6 of the our Norwegian Fjords cruise aboard the Disney Magic, Day 7 was our final day at sea. I’ll wrap up the cruise report with this installment, covering both this day and the following spent in Copenhagen.
Since it was our day at sea, the plan was to sleep in. Naturally, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Rather than “accidentally” making a bunch of noise in the room so Sarah would wake up, a strategy I’ve perfected over time, I quietly headed up to the deck without disturbing her. Aren’t I so sweet?
Unsurprisingly, no one else was up there. It was a considerably nicer morning than the previous day, albeit overcast. I had a couple cups of coffee, and wandered around for a bit. Finally, I decided to go grab my camera and take some stock photos of the ship for potential future use.
You’ll probably see some of these in future posts about Disney Cruise Line; I’m sure you’re sitting on pins and needles at the prospect of seeing a photo of Cove Cafe without people in it!
Joking aside, I was able to get photos of the atrium lobby without anyone in it. Here are a few of those photos:
After what seemed like an eternity (but was probably more like 30 minutes), I went back to the stateroom to see if Sarah was up. She still wasn’t, so I debated Plan B (the one with accidental noise) but decided to check the Daily Navigator first. I saw that Beauty and the Beast was starting soon, so I decided to go watch that. (Hence my recent Beauty and the Beast 2017 Review months after the movie came out).
Sarah was up once this was over, so we headed up to Cove Cafe, this time for more than just photos.
As mentioned in an earlier installment, this intimate cafe is one of my new favorite spots on Disney Cruise Line. Definitely a place to take a book…or heavily illustrated magazine…on our next cruise.
We finished up there and made our way out to the deck, where the Frozen show that was delayed the previous night was set to begin.
For anyone over the age of 5, this thing was offensively bad.
Didn’t someone wise once say: “You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway”? Eh, probably not.
It befuddles me that Disney Cruise Line can do such a great job with the Broadway style stage shows, but do such an atrocious job with everything else featuring Disney characters. I’d say these scripts are “written” by manatees pushing around idea balls, but I think that’s insulting to manatees.
After that, we went to a magic show. This was not particularly good (…although compared to the Frozen thing, it was a masterpiece). Not because the husband and wife duo were not good at magic (they were quite talented), but because they took themselves way too seriously. I’m guessing that’s not the first time they’ve heard that critique, as there were a few moments of self-deprecating humor, but they quickly back-peddled afterwards with a “…but seriously” type of transition.
At one point, the female magician read this cheesy inspirational quote about perseverance while the male magician rearranged puzzle pieces. This is the type of thing that would’ve been rejected during an Arrested Development roundtable for being too on the nose.
We did some other stuff following that, but nothing of consequence. Later, I decided to go see Born in China while Sarah got ready. Being in documentary showing in late afternoon, I figured it’d be playing to an empty house. Not the case. There were only a few empty seats, and I had to sit in the front row between two groups.
Nevertheless, I managed to fall asleep about 5 minutes into the film. I woke up a couple of times as my head nodded to the side before deciding to leave. Being a dude by yourself–wearing an Olaf sweater and falling asleep–at a movie screening surrounded by families is not a good look.
The most exciting part of the day, for us, was our anniversary dinner at Palo. Sarah surprised me with this the day before we left (so I could pack appropriately), and I was really looking forward to this meal. It had been a while since we had done Palo, and I’m not entirely sure why.
Here’s a look at some of what we had:
For one of our courses, our server brought out a container of truffle oil. As huge fans of truffle anything, this was arguably one of the best things that has ever happened to us.
Truffle oil is basically “pixie dust” for adults, and I would strongly encourage Disney to start serving it as “Liquid Pixie Dust” in their restaurants.
Although it was only supposed to be used on a couple of our dishes, we kept that truffle oil for the rest of the meal, using it as necessary. (AKA always.)
Our meal at Palo was fantastic. Absolutely, unquestionably worth the surcharge. Not as good as Victoria & Albert’s, but I would say the gap between normal Disney Cruise Line rotational dining and Palo is larger than the gap between California Grill and V&A’s. Palo is seriously that good.
We still have not done Remy–the cost has always scared us away–but it’s definitely a must do for our next cruise. So many people have told us that it’s significantly better than Palo, a claim I have a difficult time wrapping my head around, because I think Palo is that good. Still, triple the cost is a tough sell. Is LeBron worth triple the salary of Steph Curry?
The meal was also long and drawn out, which was enjoyable. The downside of this is that we had to rush to the Walt Disney Theatre to make it to “Disney Dreams – An Enchanted Classic.” I enjoyed this show quite a bit last time I saw it, and was really looking forward to it.
My opinion of it was not quite as high this go-round. New Frozen scenes have been added to it since I had last seen it, and these stretched the show out a bit too much. The show was a bit redundant before, but that’s worse now. There’s nothing wrong with any of the scenes (in isolation, they’re all great), but I had the sense of “c’mon, get on with it” towards the end of the show each time the little girl talks about believing.
And that was more or less how our Disney Norwegian Fjords cruise ended. This final installment has not exactly been the most upbeat, so I’ll end with a few parting thoughts that are. This cruise was absolutely a game-changer for us in terms of how we view cruises. It was the perfect intersection of real world and Disney travel, and offered greater bang for buck than I ever could’ve expected. It exceeded my expectations in most regards, and overall was a very good experience.
While doing this unique Disney Cruise Line itineraries with regularity is not in the cards for us since we’re too frugal, I see this becoming our “big splurge” Disney travel experience, especially in the long term. Forget Adventures by Disney or staying at Deluxe Resorts (well, not entirely since we usually do that via DVC); this is the best big-ticket Disney vacation as far as I’m concerned. We already mentioned that Alaska is on our radar and a cruise we’d like to do sooner than later, but that itinerary is not the only window-shopping we’ve done. We’ll probably end up doing more Caribbean cruises first (because of deals), but it’s still fun to daydream about more of these longer, unique itineraries! On Page 2, we’ll briefly discuss our day in Copenhagen, including a visit to Tivoli Gardens (one of Walt Disney’s inspirations for Disneyland), and more flight troubles on the way home.
just found this today linking in from Tammy’s trip report. All I can say is go back to Scandinavia! We spent a weekend back in 2005 in Copenhagen but I don’t think we appreciated at the time. A week in Stockholm in 2016 blew me away. Last year we were on the Northern Europe Disney Cruise immediately before your cruise, Tallin and Helsinki totally exceed expectations and we’re heading on a Norwegian Fjords cruise this summer. My only reservation is its not Disney! (I’m a teacher and can’t take vacation when Disney are heading to Norway). As a European who has been to WDW 14 times and DL 3, I can’t agree more that DCL cruises are my ideal big ticket – can’t wait for my fifth next Summer!
I stumbled across your blog and then got stuck reading the entire cruise article because I was on the same cruise as you! And I actually recall seeing you taking photos when we pulled into Stavanger. Sorry that I was (probably) the annoying chick standing in the very center! In any case, I loved loved loved this article. I chuckled many a time through it.
A few comments that I’ll leave with you:
1) I passed on the Pulpit Rock hike as I enjoy hiking but I do not consider myself fit enough for a “strenuous” or “intense” hike and had chickened out on booking this. Perhaps one day.
2) I have never heard of School Bread?? So I guess I need to look into this.
3) Your luggage and airline situations seem AWFUL. So sorry to hear you had to go through that.
4) It makes me happy that you ordered so many plates at dinner. Thanks for posting the photos. I’m drooling. My favorite is the Truffle Pasta. I always order 2 plates of it. Now I’ll have to ask for Truffle Oil as well I guess.
5) I was most looking forward to Geirangerfjord on this cruise and was one of the people highly disappointed we did not disembark. It really did affect me, as that was my main reason for spending the money on this cruise in general. That said, I agree with all the points you made in your article. But I was most looking forward to going up to Mt Dalsnibba in the snow.
6) Jealous that you got on the Path of the Trolls excursion. Both were sold out before I got a chance to book.
7) Alesund ended up being my new favorite port though.
8) We were in that long Mt Floien line in Bergen, but thankfully it looked worse than it was – only took 20min actually.
9) I always suggest eating at the Fish Market in Bergen – SO GOOD.
10) I’ve been to the Leprosy Museum in Bergen and although it’s right up my alley, the museum itself is nothing to write home about, so you’re not missing out on anything.
11) I actually cried when I read the part about DCL staff offering a tailor to you. It made my heart melt.
Thanks once again for writing this! It helped me relive the cruise all over again.