Trip Report Finally Back in Our Happy Place. A Three Week Trip With a Cruise Included. Now with a Norway Cruise on the Disney Fantasy *COMPLETED*

We’ve been back for just over a week from what was a wonderful three weeks. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part Disney World was just as we remembered it.

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice (18) and Lexi (15)

We stayed at Pop Century from July 7th-20th, then sailed on the Disney Magic from July 20th-25th, then French Quarter for the last three nights, July 25th-28th. For the Pop Century part of the trip we had the UK 14 day park tickets which included the waterparks.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Final Thoughts

Resorts: Pop Century is great for a trip where we were mostly in the parks. Our room was one of the recently refurbished ones and was clean with comfy beds. The ongoing room refurbishments there weren’t noisy and didn’t impact us. I loved the easy journey to two parks with the skyliner and we had pretty good bus service. I’m not keen on value food courts, they’re too noisy for me, but we didn’t eat there very much.

French Quarter I love as a resort but I’m not sure I would stay there at that time of year again. I’d booked it to have a relaxing few pool days after the cruise but it was just so busy. We probably should have walked over to Riverside to use the quiet pools there

Parks: nowhere near as busy as I thought they were going to be, my recent November trip was much busier. Lightning Lane worked well for us on the days I got it, we always managed to book extras, I think the most we got in one day was eight. And the days I didn’t get it we enjoyed as well, just going on a few rides and exploring more. Even with a long trip we didn’t do everything we set out to do. We didn’t ride Seven Dwarfs, we didn’t see the new Villains show to name a couple. I also meant to visit Toy Story Land at night which I’ve never done even though the girls have

Food: good to excellent in most places (not Crystal Palace) but wow is it expensive now. It was probably more noticeable because we used to have the Tables in Wonderland card. I was also very impressed by how my allergy was catered for (again not Crystal Palace), this was my first time travelling anywhere since I’ve developed it and I’m a lot more comfortable with eating out now

Cruise: it’s a Disney cruise on a beautiful ship, what more can I say. Loved it

Hopefully we’ll be back sooner than five years this time. One little thing that I used to do I’ve started doing again. When my husband and I first started visiting Disney, before we had the children so about 30 years ago, I would always keep a one dollar bill in my purse afterwards. So I had to go back to Disney to spend it, then I would bring a different dollar bill home the next time. And then we always seemed to have another trip booked and I just stopped doing it. I’ve restarted that tradition after this trip, and the girls also have a one dollar bill each that they need to spend. I’ve already spent my first one and have another one that needs to be spent.

Thank you again everyone for following along. I’m going to carry on in this thread with my Norway cruise in the next few days, I just need to sort through my photos

Thanks for bringing us along! Great TR!

 

[BrerWayne]

Final Thoughts

Resorts: Pop Century is great for a trip where we were mostly in the parks. Our room was one of the recently refurbished ones and was clean with comfy beds. The ongoing room refurbishments there weren’t noisy and didn’t impact us. I loved the easy journey to two parks with the skyliner and we had pretty good bus service. I’m not keen on value food courts, they’re too noisy for me, but we didn’t eat there very much.

French Quarter I love as a resort but I’m not sure I would stay there at that time of year again. I’d booked it to have a relaxing few pool days after the cruise but it was just so busy. We probably should have walked over to Riverside to use the quiet pools there

Parks: nowhere near as busy as I thought they were going to be, my recent November trip was much busier. Lightning Lane worked well for us on the days I got it, we always managed to book extras, I think the most we got in one day was eight. And the days I didn’t get it we enjoyed as well, just going on a few rides and exploring more. Even with a long trip we didn’t do everything we set out to do. We didn’t ride Seven Dwarfs, we didn’t see the new Villains show to name a couple. I also meant to visit Toy Story Land at night which I’ve never done even though the girls have

Food: good to excellent in most places (not Crystal Palace) but wow is it expensive now. It was probably more noticeable because we used to have the Tables in Wonderland card. I was also very impressed by how my allergy was catered for (again not Crystal Palace), this was my first time travelling anywhere since I’ve developed it and I’m a lot more comfortable with eating out now

Cruise: it’s a Disney cruise on a beautiful ship, what more can I say. Loved it

Hopefully we’ll be back sooner than five years this time. One little thing that I used to do I’ve started doing again. When my husband and I first started visiting Disney, before we had the children so about 30 years ago, I would always keep a one dollar bill in my purse afterwards. So I had to go back to Disney to spend it, then I would bring a different dollar bill home the next time. And then we always seemed to have another trip booked and I just stopped doing it. I’ve restarted that tradition after this trip, and the girls also have a one dollar bill each that they need to spend. I’ve already spent my first one and have another one that needs to be spent.

Thank you again everyone for following along. I’m going to carry on in this thread with my Norway cruise in the next few days, I just need to sort through my photos

Thank you for the trip report! As always it was so well done, and I really enjoyed following along. Can’t wait for Norway!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Thank you for taking the time to make your report! I enjoyed following along and interested in your Norway journey.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Thoroughly enjoyed this trip report. Love the 1 dollar note story. We are staying at POFQ again in November as it’s our favourite hotel now, and hopefully quiet at the pool if its not too cold.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thanks for bringing us along! Great TR!

Thank you for the trip report! As always it was so well done, and I really enjoyed following along. Can’t wait for Norway!

Thank you for taking the time to make your report! I enjoyed following along and interested in your Norway journey.

Thank you all for reading.

Norway coming soon, spoiler: it was amazing

Thoroughly enjoyed this trip report. Love the 1 dollar note story. We are staying at POFQ again in November as it’s our favourite hotel now, and hopefully quiet at the pool if its not too cold.

Thanks for following along. The weather for November last year was perfect, hopefully it will be for your trip

 

[cgersic]

Thank goodness we have Norway to look forward to, because I got a little sad when you were waiting for the bus Such a joy to see your girls as littles as well as older. As a person who didn't have children, that's one of my favorite things about these trip reports. I've been on here long enough that I've gotten to see a lot of them grow up through the photos. So all of you parents that are reading, keep on including the old and the new! And I'm pretty sure your Norway report is going to make me book a trip

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thank goodness we have Norway to look forward to, because I got a little sad when you were waiting for the bus Such a joy to see your girls as littles as well as older. As a person who didn't have children, that's one of my favorite things about these trip reports. I've been on here long enough that I've gotten to see a lot of them grow up through the photos. So all of you parents that are reading, keep on including the old and the new! And I'm pretty sure your Norway report is going to make me book a trip

Thank you for your lovely words, and thank you for following. I think I dragged out the last few posts because I was sad that this was over, I’ve really enjoyed reliving it. I’m glad you liked the old photos, I decided to include them as a way of showing how much Disney has meant to us over the years. And I’ve loved looking through the photos, although sometimes I’ve been so caught up in them that I ran out of time to write anything. I also love all the other trip reports with the littles, brings back happy memories and I like seeing their big Disney milestones

 

[rshell68]

Thank you so much for sharing you and your girls' adventures with us!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thank you so much for sharing you and your girls' adventures with us!

Thank you for joining in

 

[TheMouseFan]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! I loved following along and was sad to see it come to an end.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! I loved following along and was sad to see it come to an end.

Thank you for reading, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m loving your report as well

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Norway Cruise: 15th - 22nd September

Cruise itinerary:

15th: depart from Southampton
16th: day at sea
17th: Fjords viewing (like a sea day but with lovely views sailing through the fjords)
18th: Olden
19th: Alesund
20th: Stavanger
21st: day at sea
22nd: back to Southampton


I did not take any notes on this trip, so this is all from memory. I did take plenty of photos, especially of waterfalls, so hopefully they will serve as a reminder

A Norway cruise is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but because they always seem to be in the UK school holidays they are expensive. I’ve often priced them up, and realised that I could do two weeks at Disney including flights for the same price. The cruise next summer with a similar itinerary to mine is currently over £10,000 for two people in a verandah room. Then last year the Disney Fantasy was due to go into dry dock. After its initial itineraries were released the dates of the dry dock changed by two weeks, this meant that the date of the transatlantic cruise had to change and that DCL had two weeks before the dry dock where there weren’t any cruises. So two cruises were added and one of those was a Norwegian Fjords cruise, and the prices, being outside of school holidays, were so much cheaper. I booked about four weeks before sailing and got a guaranteed verandah room, I didn’t choose my room but was assigned it later, for just under £3,000 (I was solo but the room price is the same for one or two people, the only price difference is port fees and taxes)

The downsides to taking a Norway cruise so late in the season are that I couldn’t take the girls with me because of school, and the weather. I’d been checking out the predicted weather and it was looking a bit chilly, mid teens Celsius, and rainy. Also in the week leading up to the cruise I wasn’t 100% sure the ship would be going to Norway. The cruise the week before mine was supposed to be a British Isles cruise, but because of a bad storm predicted to hit the Northwest of the UK it was changed with two days notice to a Norway cruise. It looked like some of that bad weather might be then heading to Norway the week of my cruise, I was checking the predicted conditions in the North Sea and it was looking rough. So right up until we sailed I was worried our itinerary would change, maybe this would be a British Isles cruise or it could possibly get changed to Spain. This meant that I packed a ridiculous amount of stuff, cold weather and warm weather clothes, I had two suitcases just for me for a week. I ended up not needing a lot of it, mostly just the cold weather clothes. Obviously I did actually go to Norway or I wouldn’t be writing this report but there was a little bit of a change in the itinerary.

Apologies for the wordiness, the rest of the posts will have plenty of photos

 

[Baron Von Capybara]

#1 on the Norway section

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm in!

 

[littleroo]

 

[MickeyPretzelEnthusiast]

Just binged your whole report, what an amazing time you all had together! I leave for my first mother/daughter trip with my oldest (who is 4) on February 2nd, and I SO look forward to trips like yours with both of my girls some day!

 

[cgersic]

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Just binged your whole report, what an amazing time you all had together! I leave for my first mother/daughter trip with my oldest (who is 4) on February 2nd, and I SO look forward to trips like yours with both of my girls some day!

Wow that’s a lot, thank you for reading. We really did have such a good time, the girls were wonderful company. I’ve been lucky to have quite a few mother/daughter trips over the years, some of them with all four of my daughters, and they’ve been such good fun (we do let my husband join us occasionally ). I hope you have a wonderful trip, I’ve loved reading your reports so hopefully you’ll be writing about this one. And I look forward to reading about your future trips with both your girls

 

[BrerWayne]

Norway Cruise: 15th - 22nd September

Cruise itinerary:

15th: depart from Southampton
16th: day at sea
17th: Fjords viewing (like a sea day but with lovely views sailing through the fjords)
18th: Olden
19th: Alesund
20th: Stavanger
21st: day at sea
22nd: back to Southampton


I did not take any notes on this trip, so this is all from memory. I did take plenty of photos, especially of waterfalls, so hopefully they will serve as a reminder

A Norway cruise is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but because they always seem to be in the UK school holidays they are expensive. I’ve often priced them up, and realised that I could do two weeks at Disney including flights for the same price. The cruise next summer with a similar itinerary to mine is currently over £10,000 for two people in a verandah room. Then last year the Disney Fantasy was due to go into dry dock. After its initial itineraries were released the dates of the dry dock changed by two weeks, this meant that the date of the transatlantic cruise had to change and that DCL had two weeks before the dry dock where there weren’t any cruises. So two cruises were added and one of those was a Norwegian Fjords cruise, and the prices, being outside of school holidays, were so much cheaper. I booked about four weeks before sailing and got a guaranteed verandah room, I didn’t choose my room but was assigned it later, for just under £3,000 (I was solo but the room price is the same for one or two people, the only price difference is port fees and taxes)

The downsides to taking a Norway cruise so late in the season are that I couldn’t take the girls with me because of school, and the weather. I’d been checking out the predicted weather and it was looking a bit chilly, mid teens Celsius, and rainy. Also in the week leading up to the cruise I wasn’t 100% sure the ship would be going to Norway. The cruise the week before mine was supposed to be a British Isles cruise, but because of a bad storm predicted to hit the Northwest of the UK it was changed with two days notice to a Norway cruise. It looked like some of that bad weather might be then heading to Norway the week of my cruise, I was checking the predicted conditions in the North Sea and it was looking rough. So right up until we sailed I was worried our itinerary would change, maybe this would be a British Isles cruise or it could possibly get changed to Spain. This meant that I packed a ridiculous amount of stuff, cold weather and warm weather clothes, I had two suitcases just for me for a week. I ended up not needing a lot of it, mostly just the cold weather clothes. Obviously I did actually go to Norway or I wouldn’t be writing this report but there was a little bit of a change in the itinerary.

Apologies for the wordiness, the rest of the posts will have plenty of photos

Can’t wait for the Norway part of the trip report. My daughter got seasick on the sea day of our Alaskan cruise. One of the things that make me nervous about the cruise to Norway is the North Sea. I know it can be rough.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Can’t wait for the Norway part of the trip report. My daughter got seasick on the sea day of our Alaskan cruise. One of the things that make me nervous about the cruise to Norway is the North Sea. I know it can be rough.

Travelling towards Norway was a bit on the rough side, I know some people were ill on the first sea day including one of my table mates who didn’t make it to dinner. I do tend to get some motion sickness and I took some bonine and was fine. Coming back the sea was much calmer