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[jessief]

I have just paid the deposit for the May 2016 DCL trip to Norway on the Disney Magic and am sooooo excited !! As this is my first Disney cruise any information or advice would be greatly appreciated, especially about dining attire. Thanks, Jess.

[HildeKitten]

I think you're better off asking in the world wide trip planning section of the forum to be honest, because this is for Disneyand Paris trip planning only.
Good luck finding info!
Sadly I've not been on a Disney cruise so I can't help you out, but I'm sure someone else can

[never2old]

I have just paid the deposit for the May 2016 DCL trip to Norway on the Disney Magic and am sooooo excited !! As this is my first Disney cruise any information or advice would be greatly appreciated, especially about dining attire. Thanks, Jess.

I'm incredibly jealous. I'm just back from doing the Norwegian fjords cruise and it was AMAZING, I hope we can do it again in the future. Our cruise left from Copenhagen but otherwise I think it's the same itinerary (Stavanger, Alesund, Geiranger and Bergen, is that right?). It was also our first Disney Cruise, so I know just how you feel

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have  I will say that it was one of the most magical holidays we've ever done, that we came back in love with Norway, and in love with the Disney Magic. We've booked another cruise for next year (August 2017 in the Med), I can't wait to be back on board!

[never2old]

Oh, regarding your first question about dining attire, it's very relaxed. There were a few people that seemed to dress up regularly, but personally I wore jeans every night except on Gala Night (when I had a short evening dress). I had a few t-shirts and a couple of nicer tops, but it was jeans every night. And a jacket or jumper, it can feel a bit cool in some restaurants (and if you go outside to admire the view and the never ending days, it can feel rather cold!!). Though walking around the ship (inside) never felt cold. Think in layers!! As I'm sure you'll see everywhere, layers are key!

What type of cabin do you have? If you wake up easily with the light, I recommend getting something to cover your eyes (sorry, I don't know the word, you know those masks that cover the eyes, like you get in flights?) Nights are very very short, when we went to bed after 11pm it was barely getting dark, and day started again a bit after 3....

Oh, I'm so jealous, it's such a wonderful trip!!

[jessief]

Sorry for posting on the incorrect section, I suppose after all the trips to Disney I just went to the usual trip planning page.
Thank you so much for answering my question. You have made me even more excited about the cruise !! We have booked a veranda cabin to give us a bit more room as there are 4 of us. We have stayed in all the park and Val de France hotels numerous times and love them all and wonder which hotel standard you would compare the state rooms to. We seem to have the same itinerary except for departing from Dover. Did you do many of the excursions? Thanks again for your help and I hope you enjoy your next cruise. Jess.

[never2old]

Oh, nice!!

We had a oceanview room, so slightly smaller than the verandah ones, and it was plenty for the 3 of us. Rooms are really beautiful, and very comfortable. For a cruise ship, the room felt fairly big - we definitely did not feel crowded in there. The space between the main bed and the wall was not very big (you have enough room for 1 adult to walk comfortably, but not much more), but that's my only criticism. In terms of decoration and finishing, I would say it compares to the New York Hotel.

The split bathroom is really useful, you have a little bathtub and sink in one, and a toilet and sink in the other, so two people can get ready at the same time without issues.

To be honest we didn't spend much time in the room, there were so many things to do elsewhere! But I think that if I had a verandah I would have made the effort to make more use of it. In which side of the ship are you?

We did 3 excursions with Disney. I have to admit that they were difficult to choose, because they had so many interesting ones in each place!! For that reason alone I would love to be able to do the cruise again, and try some of the other excursions...

In Stavanger we went for the Lysefjord cruise (SV01). It was beautiful! Stavanger is quite small, and easy to explore by yourself. The excursion was about half a day, so we had plenty of time to go and visit Stavanger by ourselves before our meeting time. It's a really nice place worth exploring. The excursion itself was good; in the boat there was a large inside area (with plenty of windows) so if the weather is bad you can still enjoy it. Or you could go upstairs to the open deck, where you could really appreciate the fjord! It did get quite cold up there though, when the boat was moving fast. Totally worth it though. And the Norwegian waffles were really good I met a few people who did Pulpit Rock hike, apparently it was beautiful but extremely tough, a few guests on the hike did not make it to the top.

Alesund is another nice little town, very easy to explore by yourself, and again the ship docks right next to the center. There we did the Alesund Highlights (AL01), where you visit the Sunmore Museum (really beautiful and interesting, feels like you've travelled back in time), then you go up to Mount Aksla for the beautiful views. I think this was one of my favourite excursions! If I had had the money (and it wasn't fully booked by the time I was able to start booking), I think I would have done the Sunmore Village Celebration (the one with Anna and Elsa). Everyone who came back from it loved it

Next day was Geiranger. It's the most stunning place of all. The ship starts getting into the fjord around 5am I think it was, they had a few announcements the day before telling people, and I think around 6am they were distributing coffees and hot drinks to the people who were up admiring the view. We didn't get up early, but when we woke up and looked up our window....  It's beautiful.

Geiranger itself is a very small town, there's a beautiful waterfall and a few walks around to really admire the place. Here we did the Herdalsetra Farm (GE06). Because it was still too cold for the season the summer farms were not yet open so instead the took us to the winter farm, not quite so high up the mountain, but still in a beautiful place. We chose that one because of our 4 year old daughter, we thought she would like seeing the goats (she loved it). The trip to the farm and back is quite something, you go up and down the mountains, the views are great. It was raining almost all day long (can't complain, it's was the only day with rain for our whole trip) but it was still very good. My parents did the Views of Norway, they went even higher up a mountain and they had snow falling on them...

If you didn't admire the fjord on the way in at 5am, you can admire it on the way out. There were quite a few of us on the top decks when the ship left Geiranger, it was one of my favorite moments of the whole cruise. Particularly when we were by the Seven Sisters waterfall and the Disney Magic sounded its horn.... I have a short video on Instragram of it. It was really a magical moment

Last stop was Bergen, and here we hadn't booked any excursions, we just went to discover the town by ourselves. Particularly after Geiranger it looked huge, but it's actually quite easy to navigate, and all the points of interest are quite close to each other. The ship was docked a bit further away from the center (it was a 10 minute walk maybe). The only negative point was the funicular up Mount Floien, I think we got there at rush hour and there was quite a wait - apparently later in the afternoon it was much better. But once we got to the top it was really beautiful. Next time maybe I would do the excursion to the Fantoft Stave Church, or maybe the Ovre Farm (I heard really good things about this one, particularly for families with younger children)

Sorry, this has ended being quite a long answer... But I could go on for hours about the cruise, I loved it so much!!

[jessief]

 The state room sounds perfect and the excursions are just what I was hoping for. We have been to Bergen before so we might just enjoy the ship that day. I am so glad that you had such a great holiday and I appreciate you sharing so much invaluable information. Jess.

[never2old]

My pleasure

Any questions, don't hesitate!