Cruising the Norwegian fjords without Disney! COMPLETED - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I've posted here and on Cruise Critic-- no luck so far! Maybe I'll be lucky like you and will run into some nice people before the cruise! I'm sure it'll work out in the end and I'll be seated with strangers who will turn into friends. Hope so!
How about trying those OTHER boards (Disboards)? They have a thread for just about every Disney cruise. Did you say you're July 30th? I just looked and there are threads for every July cruise on the Wonder. We've signed up for FE exchanges there on both of our cruises.
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How about trying those OTHER boards (Disboards)? They have a thread for just about every Disney cruise. Did you say you're July 30th? I just looked and there are threads for every July cruise on the Wonder. We've signed up for FE exchanges there on both of our cruises.
On the Panama cruise I took in 2008 I went on the Disboards and signed up. There was a HUGE group for that cruise and the boards broke out in terrible, rude arguments all the time. I went to the first meet they had on board, was smiling and introduced myself to several people. Let's just say they weren't exactly friendly or welcoming. They just kept themselves to themselves. I know there are a lot of really friendly, nice people on that board (and some of them are here, too!), but I'm not looking there for companionship.
Just dropping in to say how much I've been enjoying reading your TRs this week. After hearing your voice on podcasts and reading your many articles and blog entries, it's like having a friend tell you about the trip they were just on. All the photos and your personal anecdotes take me right there. I'm loving it!
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Your cabin looks wonderful - I know what you mean about comparing everything to DCL... I am a little worried about that for our Princess Cruise in 2 weeks... I hope I won't compare everything to DCL and ruin the trip.
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On the Panama cruise I took in 2008 I went on the Disboards and signed up. There was a HUGE group for that cruise and the boards broke out in terrible, rude arguments all the time. I went to the first meet they had on board, was smiling and introduced myself to several people. Let's just say they weren't exactly friendly or welcoming. They just kept themselves to themselves. I know there are a lot of really friendly, nice people on that board (and some of them are here, too!), but I'm not looking there for companionship.
(Sorry for the sidebar, Cheryl!)
No worries. I must admit for a split second, I thought about going to the DIS Boards for our December cruise, but I then decided against it, pretty much for the experience you just listed. I just don't find them that friendly at all and it worries me that would be the case in "real life" as well.
Just dropping in to say how much I've been enjoying reading your TRs this week. After hearing your voice on podcasts and reading your many articles and blog entries, it's like having a friend tell you about the trip they were just on. All the photos and your personal anecdotes take me right there. I'm loving it!
Your cabin looks wonderful - I know what you mean about comparing everything to DCL... I am a little worried about that for our Princess Cruise in 2 weeks... I hope I won't compare everything to DCL and ruin the trip.
I was worried I'd do that and actually I didn't, nowhere near as much as I thought I would anyway. I found that the ship had charms of its own and some things were (shock, horror!) actually better than on board Disney. I'm sure that will be your experience as well.
Sunday 29 April – part five: maybe they specialise in fish here?
Once we got past the end of Isle of Wight, and considering it’s not that big an island, it seemed to go on forever we were out into the Channel. I must admit I was dreading this, as I figured that the Isle of Wight had been shielding us nicely. Now we’d see how rough it really was.
And the answer? Well, it actually wasn’t too bad. As the shipping forecast had forecast earlier in the day, the winds had dropped dramatically and, rather than looking at gale force, instead we were now looking at moderate to rough, which was much more bearable.
Soon, I was seeing more land in the distance, and figured that it might be France. A sighting of Brittany Ferries, which runs between the UK and France, confirmed that. Cool! I wasn’t expecting that, given how hazy it was. However, my trusty camera still managed to capture it for me. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my camera?
As we went along, the sky did grow more ominous, although it never actually rained. Here’s where we were by now:
We talked a bit about how disorientating the ship is, at least on day one anyway. Disney is much easier to navigate and I don’t think that’s all down to the fact that we know where we’re going on it. This just seems a lot more confusing. However, perhaps realising that, they’ve produced a credit card size fold-out map, which is an excellent idea. It would be really nice to see Disney perhaps doing that as well. It was very handy to keep with us, so that we could try and get our bearings while we were out exploring.
The further we went into the evening, the more dingy and murky the sky got outside. You could certainly feel the movement of the ship, but it was nothing too terrible.
Finally, the time neared for dinner, so off we went.
There was a long line to get into our restaurant, the Peninsula, and at first we waited to see if we could see Cheryl and Adrian. I went and had a quick browse of the shops and was pleasantly surprised by the cost of some of the items, with T-shirts coming in at just £15 ($24) and long sleeved tops and polo shirts at £25 ($40). I may have to invest... we’ll see...
As I came out of the shop, I found the end of the line for the restaurant, so I got in line, and Mark joined me as I passed him. We were taken to our room, which was in a little room at the side, which I thought was quite nice and cosy.
We were the first ones there, which felt a bit weird. I don’t know if there’s anything worse than sitting at your dining table on a cruise, wondering if you’ll get on with your dining companions. We knew we’d be fine with two, but what about the four? Well, we found out soon enough....
Cheryl and Adrian were first to arrive, followed by Michael and Madeline, who were an older couple, who came from Ramsgate in Kent. This is literally five miles away from where I worked for 15 years. Altogether now, it’s a small, small world... The other couple were Mike and Sandra, and he had a wicked sense of humour. So if you’re keeping score, there were two Cheryls and two Mikes/Michaels. Confusing, huh?
We settled down to peruse the menu. There wasn’t much choice, three options for appetisers, two soups, although about seven entrees.
We both started off with the classic Atlantic prawn cocktail with cucumber, lettuce, and wholemeal treacle bread. It was very nice, but nothing spectacular.
For soup, I went for minestrone garnished with pesto oil, which Mark also tried a bit of. It wasn’t bad at all.
It was about this point that our bottle of wine, a Riesling was delivered to us. It was a little drier than we usually go for, but it went very well with the food. A word here about the wine. It wasn’t badly priced. The bottle we got was £18 ($29) which is about what you’d pay for a bottle of wine in any restaurant at home. Once it’s opened, if you don’t finish it all in one night, which we didn’t, then you can just have it the next night as well and so on until it’s finished.
For entree, Mark went for the roast English leg of pork with crackling, sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes, pan gravy, and apple sauce, but disappointingly he said it was overcooked. He wasn’t alone. Mike wasn’t at all impressed by his steak and said it was very dry. Adrian’s chicken, which came out for me first of all (bit of a shock ) also looked very dry. It didn’t look as if the meat eaters did very well.
As for me, I went for the rolled fillet of plaice in duglere sauce, with brown crab timbale, new potatoes and braised fennel. I had never heard of duglere sauce, so I asked what it was and our server, Daz as he later told us his name was, it’s a seafood sauce. It went perfectly with the plaice, which was beautifully cooked. However, the brown crab timbale was slightly odd and I wasn’t 100% convinced it went with the rest of what was on my plate. Despite that, it was a superb dish and I think I did better than many of the others on our table.
For dessert, Mark went for the sticky stem ginger and sundried fig pudding with an aromatic vanilla pod and bay leaf sauce, which he enjoyed.
I decided to get two desserts, because heck it’s a cruise and I can! The first was the tropical mango sorbet....
... along with the kiwi fruit Pavlova with passion fruit nectar. They went very well together and I’m glad I got the two of them, as they helped to fill me up nicely. All in all, I felt like the portion sizes were very well done, and I felt just comfortable at the end of the meal.
We did get introduced to our servers at the end of the meal, and they seemed very nice, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Getting the chicken put in front of me, and being asked at least one other time (and I think Mark was asked as well) what I’d ordered didn’t instill confidence in me somehow.
Dinner:
Appetiser 7 6
Soup 7½ 8
Entree 9½ 7½
Dessert 9 8½
Average score: 7.88
By the time we finished eating, it was 10:30 pm and although some of our table were off to check out the entertainment, it was past our bedtime for us, so we headed back to the room. We were actually amazed at how well we’d lasted with our late meal, so didn’t want to push it any further.
The weather today was wet and windy when we left home, still wet when we got to Southampton, but it dried up and the wind died down as the day wore on. Temperatures were in the low 50s. The best thing today was our lovely room and meeting some great people. The worst thing today was the relentless rain and wind. The funniest thing today was discovering another Cheryl! Today we tried sailing from Southampton And the result was it was a very smooth process, and we were particularly impressed with being able to leave the luggage with the car parking people and not see it again until we got to our room. The most magical moment today was passing by the Isle of Wight and people able to see the villages and castle there.
Next: that’s not what I expected to see when I woke up!
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it's great to know you feel that way. 
I found that the ship had charms of its own and some things were (shock, horror!) actually better than on board Disney. I'm sure that will be your experience as well. 
The other couple were Mike and Sandra, and he had a wicked sense of humour. So if you’re keeping score, there were two Cheryls and two Mikes/Michaels. Confusing, huh? 
The bottle we got was £18 ($29) which is about what you’d pay for a bottle of wine in any restaurant at home. Once it’s opened, if you don’t finish it all in one night, which we didn’t, then you can just have it the next night as well and so on until it’s finished. 
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