Geomom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
August 9-16, 2018: The Northern European Cruise is MAGIC!
Welcome to our trip report!
On this journey were myself (Geomom), DH, DD18, and DD14. Our first cruise was the Disney Wonder to Alaska in August 2016 (trip report is in my signature). We booked a placeholder while on that cruise and were awaiting the opening dates for Summer 2018…of course they opened up while we were actually at Disney World! So, we booked Stateroom 2108 (cat 9C, oceanview room on deck 2, port, aft) on 2/24/17 through our Dreams Unlimited Travel Agent. Yes…almost 18 months of WAITING and driving DH crazy with all my planning! This would be the first time to Europe for all but DD18 (who did a school trip to Germany 4/17.) Months passed before I could book anything else…finally on 9/25/17 I booked airfare. We went with Delta—Boston to JFK (in New York) to Copenhagen. Main cabin was $617/person roundtrip—included 1 checked bag/person, meals, and seat selection! We were going to fly in 3 days before the cruise. With my dates now set in stone, I could book the hotel for our pre-cruise stay in Copenhagen. Well…anyone who has looked for rooms for 4 in Copenhagen knows that it is an expensive city and hard to find rooms for 4 at $200/nt. We finally decided upon Wakeup Copenhagen Carsten Niebuhrs Gade (right next door to the Tivoli Hotel that Disney uses.) I’d call it a ‘micro-hotel’, with very small rooms…but the ‘family’ room is 2 standard rooms with a connecting door…so we’d get 2 very small rooms. I added on the breakfast plan so that we could eat and then go explore each morning. I did the pre-pay option and our total came to $591 USD for the 3 nts. Yes, I got it for under $200/nt with breakfast. Score! The hotel also had air conditioning—which was fantastic with the hot summer they’ve been having in Europe this year! I then bought trip insurance while my oldest was still 17…kids under 18 are free—so we saved some money that way! We went with Travel Insured International, Worldwide Trip Protector. I set the coverage to $3500/person which would cover the excursion costs as well. We paid $320 for the 4 of us…since the kids were free. Next came the fun planning! I bought the Copenhagen Card on 2/5/18 and paid to have it shipped to us so we wouldn’t have to deal with that upon arrival. The Copenhagen card includes admission to 79 attractions and train/bus/metro transportation. We bought the 72 hr. card for $378 for the 4 of us. Then I bought the 24 hr Stockholm Pass for our port day there…and also paid to have it shipped to us. The Stockholm Pass includes HOHO buses/boats as well as 60+ other attractions. It cost $246 for the 4 of us. For both the Copenhagen Card and the Stockholm Pass, DD14 got the ‘child’ rate, so we paid for 3 adults and 1 child. Somewhere along the way our Delta flight home got moved from 3PM to 1:30PM, so we decided to book Disney ground transportation from the port to airport to make sure we got to the airport in a timely fashion. Disney transportation was $40/person each way in Copenhagen. We made our final cruise payment, requested a dining rotation (the kids wanted to be in Rapunzels 3x) and then booked Disney Port Adventures for the first 3 ports. We arranged for the neighbors to watch our pet rabbit, and for our friends to drive us to the airport. We got our Dreams Unlimited gift basket in the mail...the cruise is getting closer! And FINALLY the day arrived!
Trip Report Links:
Welcome to our trip report!
On this journey were myself (Geomom), DH, DD18, and DD14. Our first cruise was the Disney Wonder to Alaska in August 2016 (trip report is in my signature). We booked a placeholder while on that cruise and were awaiting the opening dates for Summer 2018…of course they opened up while we were actually at Disney World! So, we booked Stateroom 2108 (cat 9C, oceanview room on deck 2, port, aft) on 2/24/17 through our Dreams Unlimited Travel Agent. Yes…almost 18 months of WAITING and driving DH crazy with all my planning! This would be the first time to Europe for all but DD18 (who did a school trip to Germany 4/17.) Months passed before I could book anything else…finally on 9/25/17 I booked airfare. We went with Delta—Boston to JFK (in New York) to Copenhagen. Main cabin was $617/person roundtrip—included 1 checked bag/person, meals, and seat selection! We were going to fly in 3 days before the cruise. With my dates now set in stone, I could book the hotel for our pre-cruise stay in Copenhagen. Well…anyone who has looked for rooms for 4 in Copenhagen knows that it is an expensive city and hard to find rooms for 4 at $200/nt. We finally decided upon Wakeup Copenhagen Carsten Niebuhrs Gade (right next door to the Tivoli Hotel that Disney uses.) I’d call it a ‘micro-hotel’, with very small rooms…but the ‘family’ room is 2 standard rooms with a connecting door…so we’d get 2 very small rooms. I added on the breakfast plan so that we could eat and then go explore each morning. I did the pre-pay option and our total came to $591 USD for the 3 nts. Yes, I got it for under $200/nt with breakfast. Score! The hotel also had air conditioning—which was fantastic with the hot summer they’ve been having in Europe this year! I then bought trip insurance while my oldest was still 17…kids under 18 are free—so we saved some money that way! We went with Travel Insured International, Worldwide Trip Protector. I set the coverage to $3500/person which would cover the excursion costs as well. We paid $320 for the 4 of us…since the kids were free. Next came the fun planning! I bought the Copenhagen Card on 2/5/18 and paid to have it shipped to us so we wouldn’t have to deal with that upon arrival. The Copenhagen card includes admission to 79 attractions and train/bus/metro transportation. We bought the 72 hr. card for $378 for the 4 of us. Then I bought the 24 hr Stockholm Pass for our port day there…and also paid to have it shipped to us. The Stockholm Pass includes HOHO buses/boats as well as 60+ other attractions. It cost $246 for the 4 of us. For both the Copenhagen Card and the Stockholm Pass, DD14 got the ‘child’ rate, so we paid for 3 adults and 1 child. Somewhere along the way our Delta flight home got moved from 3PM to 1:30PM, so we decided to book Disney ground transportation from the port to airport to make sure we got to the airport in a timely fashion. Disney transportation was $40/person each way in Copenhagen. We made our final cruise payment, requested a dining rotation (the kids wanted to be in Rapunzels 3x) and then booked Disney Port Adventures for the first 3 ports. We arranged for the neighbors to watch our pet rabbit, and for our friends to drive us to the airport. We got our Dreams Unlimited gift basket in the mail...the cruise is getting closer! And FINALLY the day arrived!
Trip Report Links:
- Sunday 8/5/18 and Monday 8/6/18: BOS to JFK to CPH, and Copenhagen Day 1: “To Infinity and Beyond!” Part 1, Part 2
- Tuesday 8/7/18: Copenhagen Day 2—"A Day of Royalty!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
- Wednesday 8/8/18: Copenhagen Day 3—"How scary could that ride be?” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Thursday 8/9/18: DCL Day 1: Copenhagen—"A Magical day!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
- Friday 8/10/18: DCL Day 2: at sea—"I’m all a muddle.” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Personal Navigator
- Saturday 8/11/18: DCL day 3: Tallinn, Estonia—“A Fairy Tale come true!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
- Sunday 8/12/18: DCL day 4: St Petersburg, Russia: “Use Your Elbows!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9
- Monday 8/13/18: DCL Day 5: Helsinki, Finland: “Reindeers are better than people!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
- Tuesday 8/14/18: DCL Day 6: Stockholm, Sweden: “Yo-Ho? Heigh-Ho? HO-HO!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
- Wednesday 8/15/18: DCL Day 7: at sea: “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes!” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
- Thursday 8/16/18: DCL Day 8: Copenhagen, Denmark: “I hate society.” Part 1, Part 2
- Final Northern European Cruise Notes
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