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Old 7 Aug 16, 02:07 PM  
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#1
Stewboy
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No Trolling: A Norwegian Saga Day 5 - Geiranger

Thursday 2nd June 2016

The sky's awake, so I'm awake
It was 5:15am when Jo woke up this morning. Yes, you read that right, 5:15am!

“Why Jo why?! ” I hear the Dibb cry.

Well, as we were making our way to our next port of call - Geiranger - we were making our way down the 15km long Geirangerfjord, and along the way we were passing the (other) famous Seven Sisters and their Suitor (the waterfall on the opposite side of the fjord). Jo decided to go and see Norway’s 39th tallest waterfall for herself, which meant waking at the aforementioned ungodly hour to be up on deck in time.

Unfortunately only one of us would be able to see us pass this wonder (there was no way Isabella would be getting up at that time), and I had absolutely no intention of it being me I’ll be content with seeing it on the way out of the fjord this evening.

On deck they were handing out egg and bacon sandwiches but Jo needed caffeine not food and there was only decaf coffee left - what use is that at 5:30am?!

Jo soldiered on regardless and got some great shots of the Seven Sisters and the Suitor; worth getting up at 5:15am for after all


Up on deck














Geirangerfjord






The Seven Sisters


The Suitor

Back in Stateroom 2576, a wake up call had been scheduled for 6:30 ahead of our usual Room Service. Jo got back to the room just as Room Service arrived and the phone rang for the wake up call - a convergence!

We had coffee, woke Isabella and then got ready; there’d be no repeat of yesterday’s rushing around for us this morning, we prefer a more leisurely start to the day.


Out of bed and into a pillow case(!)

By 7:30 we were in tucking into a lovely Cabanas buffet breakfast. We finished up, collected our stuff from the room and made our way to the D-Lounge for today’s excursion meet. Today’s adventure involved another coach trip, this time up Mount Dalsnibba for some outstanding mountaintop views, weather permitting.




Breakfast

We arrived at D-Lounge at 8:30, and after a short wait, left the ship and headed to shore via the remote controlled floating dock, of which there is only one. Fortunately, the Magic got there first; the other ships had to transfer passengers to shore via tender boats. Ner ner, in your (Boaty McBoat) face other ships!




Ready to go


Floating dock


Goofy doing a bit of painting while we're docked


Remember where we parked
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Old 7 Aug 16, 02:08 PM  
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#2
Stewboy
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Take me up the North Mountain
Once on shore we were in the beautiful village of Geiranger. We boarded our coach and were soon on our way. Our tour guide, being a last minute replacement for a sick colleague, apparently hadn’t slept for 24 hours as she’d been on the night shift in her usual job. She works in a local care home and, like most tour guides, does this job part time as a hobby. Fair play to her though, she was an excellent guide despite being sleep deprived!


On dry land




Bye bye Magic, be back soon

The drive up the mountain took about half an hour and consisted some of the most hair-raising hairpin turns and scenery! There were houses in beautiful valleys, empty and isolated summer farms, waterfalls running down mountain sides, lush green hills, and distant (and not so distant) snow capped mountains; upon which the sun shone warmly, laughing at us tourists sweating in our multiple warm layers.










Views from the coach








Summer farms

As we got higher and higher the turns got tighter and hairier, and the scenery ever more steep and snowy - we had made it onto the mountain. We passed Djupvasshytta lodge beside a frozen Djupvatn Lake next to the Blåfjell Glacier - we’d be stopping there on the way back down for refreshments. We then left the main road passing through a toll and onto the private - Nibbevegen - road that leads up to the summit of the mountain.


Djupvasshytta


Nibbevegen


Djupvatn
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Old 7 Aug 16, 02:09 PM  
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Stewboy
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Do you want to build a snowman?
About 10 minutes after the toll we were at our destination. We unloaded and spent some time admiring the absolutely stunning views down into the Geiranger valley and the Geirangerfjord to the north, and numerous snow-covered peaks in all other directions. We could see the Disney Magic down in the fjord - it looked a looooong way away!

Isabella had wanted to make a snowman, but without gloves she instead settled on making a cairn to join the hundreds of others scattered all over the mountain top. When you see the amount of cairns there are, you realise just how many people have been to the top of this mountain; there are usually 80-100 coaches a day going up and down!




Mountain top cairns




Isabella making her own cairn


Mountain top selfie


I can see the Magic from here!

After about 20 minutes we were back on board the coach and heading back down to Djupvasshytta for our tea break. As we entered the restaurant a child, not from our coach, pushed past me to avoid a face full of snow (more like ice) from his slightly older brother, which meant I got hit, thankfully not in the face. Sheepishly the boy slunk away, no apology though… little c*ckw*mble.

Once inside the restaurant we grabbed a table, some tea and a pastry. We were joined at our table by a friendly American couple, who were sweet to Isabella. We talked to them about whether a Disney Cruise or Disney World was better. Both is the answer

After refreshments we had a quick look around the shop then headed outside to look at the frozen lake. We got a few photos and Isabella almost ended up with a face full of snowball thanks to, yep you guessed it, the same brats as earlier. I gave them a filthy look and they slunk away. The dad had seen them and jabbered away at them in Spanish. Once again, no apology was forthcoming though. Grrr.


Stopping for refreshments

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
Back on the coach, we continued down the mountain until we reached our last stop: Flydalsjuvet. This is a rest area and viewpoint which offers yet more great views down into the Geirangerfjord. We got off the coach and by this point the day had gotten really hot - we were so overdressed! We spent some time admiring the view and getting a few photos and then it was back on the coach for the last short leg back down to Geiranger.












Views from Flydalsjuvet

All in all the trip up and down the mountain had taken about three hours and cost about £175 for the three of us; it was well worth it but we were definitely lucky with the weather - if it had been cold and misty we would have seen nothing, especially at the top of Dalsnibba, and we’d have been really disappointed. Another benefit of visiting in the spring was that we got to see lots of wonderful waterfalls coming down from the mountain as the snow melted.






Some of the many waterfalls close up

The cold never bothered me anyway
Back in the village it was busy and hot. We had a brief browse in one of the shops where Isabella bought a purse and then we headed back to the Magic for some lunch. Back on board, Jo and Isabella headed to Cabanas while I dropped the stuff off at the room. Today’s lunchtime buffet included some Indian dishes, and like any self respecting Brit we had missed our national cuisine so tucked in accordingly.

With lunch done we headed back to the room so that Isabella could have a nap. As it was now getting on for 1:30 she would only be getting an hour as we had mixology booked for 3 o’clock.




Lunch

At 2:30 we woke her up and got her ready for the kids club. We dropped her off and made our way down to Keys for the mixology seminar. In contrast to when we did this seminar on the WBTA it was a lot less busy with only three other couples, meaning we were all seated at the bar. Our seminar host was Andy from Indonesia and he was really good - even better than the host on the WBTA seminar.

He gave us some insight and background to Keys, especially the atmosphere and feel that they try to create. For example, all of the glasses they use in the bar are extremely high quality and expensive; some of the wine glasses are in the region of $100 each and they have glasses specific to every kind of drink - no drink in Keys will be served in the wrong type of glass!

The cocktails we made were all really nice (and strong), and Andy’s assistant Yvet (or Ygritte as I kept calling her - I know nothing!) was also really good. Between them they made it a lot of fun and the smaller group definitely made it more intimate and personal.


Our tools!




Return of the Many Drinks of Jo


Cheers




Down in one










Making and drinking a raspberry mojito








Making a B52

After an hour we were finished so we went for a little wander on deck, got a few photos, then went to pick Isabella up from the kids club. I popped back to the room to get today’s Frozen scavenger hunt clues while Jo got us some melon to share. I met them overlooking the atrium and after we ate the melon we found the Frozen scavenger hunt items and headed back to the room for a rest before dinner.




Up on deck


Want some melon?

Isabella watched a bit of TV and then it was time to get ready and go for dinner. While we got ready the Disney Magic left Geiranger and we passed the Seven Sisters again. As I was in the process of getting ready I decided against rushing out on deck in my pants and settled for watching through the porthole. Tonights dinner was the Captain’s Gala dinner in Cariocas as it was semi-formal night. Once ready we made our way to the restaurant and ordered the following for dinner:
  • Me: Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell / Pan-Seared Venison Medallions / Bananas Foster Sundae
  • Jo: Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell / Oven-Baked Lobster Tail / Warm Chocolate Lava Cake
  • Isabella: Captain Mickey's Surf and Turf / Strawberry Ice Cream

During dinner Isabella asked Hayley (not her real name remember) if she wanted to go the club with her. I told Isabella that if she was going to go with Hayley they should stay together rather than split up lose each other like they have been.


Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell


Oven-Baked Lobster Tail


Pan-Seared Venison Medallions


Warm Chocolate Lava Cake


Bananas Foster Sundae


Dinner photo - this is currently on our wall

Big summer blowout
We parents dropped the kids off, made arrangements to meet in O’Gills for the quiz, then Jo and I went to look at the art in the Vista Gallery next to Shutters on deck four. There were a number of Thomas Kinkade pieces that we liked, and after a lot of deliberation and a quick chat with the CM we ended up buying the Tangled 14″ x 14″ Gallery Wrapped Canvas which now sits proudly in Isabella’s bedroom.

I dropped our purchase back at the room and then made my way to O’Gills to meet Jo and our table mates (fresh from booking their next Disney Cruise) for the 90s quiz. The quiz was fun but we didn’t win, which is a complete travesty as Jo is a 90s music expert! Even with a highly respectable score of 48/53 - there were a couple of American specific questions and some dubious previously unmentioned bonuses. How we lost is beyond me, the team that claim to have won (it was self marked) had been shouting out the wrong answers all the way through the scoring - clever ploy or stupid people cheating? You decide! However, turns out the prizes had been stolen(!), so perhaps it was a good job we didn’t win anyway!

With the quiz and four drinks of the day done (between us, not each - we’re not THAT bad) we collected Isabella and headed back to the room where, after putting Isabella to bed, we ordered room service… what? The Captain’s Gala wasn’t that filling, and we’d had a LOT of alcohol this afternoon/evening! Jo ordered mac & cheese and I had a hot dog - they were nice. After eating, we showered and went to bed sated.


Towel bunny


Second dinner


Day 5 by Isabella

Next up: Bergen and a ride on the funicular. What’s a funicular? Find out tomorrow (well, next week probably, or in a minute if you’re reading them in one go).

TFR
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Old 7 Aug 16, 03:37 PM  
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Unexpectedpenny
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Another great day
The photo of the 3 of you at dinner is lovely!
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Old 7 Aug 16, 08:44 PM  
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Scruffette
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Some stunning views. I'm a big fan of late night room service!

Thanks for sharing
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Old 7 Aug 16, 10:05 PM  
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Cutiepie
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Stunning views and love the waterfall. Very similar views to parts of our Alaska cruise last year. a good day
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Old 8 Aug 16, 12:28 PM  
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disneyme
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Amazing scenery- glad you got lucky with the weather!

Mixology class looks like a lot of fun
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Old 8 Aug 16, 12:57 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Wow, what beautiful scenery! And I especially enjoyed the accompanying Frozen quotes

And because I have to and would be ashamed of myself if I didn't:

Oysters in the half-shell! Mollusc power!

(Sorry, not sorry)
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Old 8 Aug 16, 08:49 PM  
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Stewboy
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Originally Posted by Unexpectedpenny View Post
Another great day
The photo of the 3 of you at dinner is lovely!
Thank you I had to take it off the wall and photograph and because the frame is mirrored I had to do it at a funny angle - not the best photo!

TFR

Originally Posted by Scruffette View Post
Some stunning views. I'm a big fan of late night room service!

Thanks for sharing
Late night room service... it'd be rude not to wouldn't it?

Originally Posted by Cutiepie View Post
Stunning views and love the waterfall. Very similar views to parts of our Alaska cruise last year. a good day
Thanks for reading. I bet Alaska was amazing?!

Originally Posted by disneyme View Post
Amazing scenery- glad you got lucky with the weather!

Mixology class looks like a lot of fun
Scenery was great, mixology class was brilliant! TFR

Originally Posted by nanasamboy View Post
Wow, what beautiful scenery! And I especially enjoyed the accompanying Frozen quotes

And because I have to and would be ashamed of myself if I didn't:

Oysters in the half-shell! Mollusc power!

(Sorry, not sorry)
Thanks for noticing the Frozen quotes, that took a long time to get those in there!

Oysters in the half-shell! Mollusc power!

Brilliant!

TFR
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Old 9 Aug 16, 12:57 PM  
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Seeley
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Stunning Photos I love the mountain top selfie of the three of you; gorgeous backdrop!
Thanks for sharing
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