Trip Report -12 day British Isles Cruise on the Disney Magic-June 9-June 21, 2017

[JenTen1585]

Kirkwall, Scotland cont.
So if you've ever toured Europe, you know a lot of the touring involves cathedrals and churches. It's some of the finest examples of architecture and history and it's always enjoyable and interesting ... but cathedrals and churches eventually start to blend into each other (I just realized that this feels a bit sacrilegious to say today as our world just lost the magnificent Notre Dame, which I never got to see).
But after the touring of the beautiful St. Magnus, we went onto the fun of touring the ruins next door. These are the ruins of the Earl's Palace and Bishop's Palace. The Earl's Palace construction began in 1607 after Patrick, the Earl of Orkney decided the Bishop's Palace wasn't good enough for him. Patrick was known as a tyrannical and cruel nobleman. He built the palace largely using forced labor. And he didn't even own the property on which the palace was being built (he actually fabricated charges of theft against the owner and had him executed! That is the horrible man he was!) The Earl was imprisoned and his son led a rebellion in his honor. Eventually they were both tried and executed for treason. The structures then became property of the crown and eventually fell into ruin. These used to be beautiful structures, but are now just outdoor brick ruins, which are soooo much fun to climb around and explore! I felt like I was in an adult playground and we were all laughing and having a great time!!! I have no problem playing on the crumbling structure of what an evil man built in an evil way!

After our adventure, our guide bid us farewell and directed us towards Broad Street, which is a great shopping street in Kirkwall. First we decided to get lunch at a little cafe. We knew we picked a good one when we saw our guide sitting there with a group of older men, having coffee and chit chatting. We figured we had picked a local spot. We had excellent hot sandwiches and pastries. Then we started wandering the street. We found a beautiful jewelry store and my husband bought me a beautiful and special set of necklace and earrings (sterling silver with crystals). I love my treasures from travelling. My daughter picked out a stuffed puffin bird, which the area is known for and I think we also got a serving tray with puffins on it. After shopping, we made our way back to the ship.

Kirkwall is a gorgeous area!

 

[JenTen1585]

Kirwall cont.
I told you about our special send off and sail away in Liverpool. Kirkwall was another special send off. The local dance troop and bag pipers came out and the little ones and bag pipers performed beautifully in the freezing (at least for me) weather! So adorable and special, just for the Disney Magic!!!

Tonight was a magic show: Kyle Knight and Mistie. They were pretty good! Magic comedy is not my favorite, but they were great if you are into that! We of course went to Bingo as well! What a wonderful day!!!!

 

[ChuckElias]

Great pictures! My family was in Kirkwall in 2015 on the Magic. So many of your pictures are so familiar. I think we may even have taken the same tour that you did. And yes, it was very windy when we were there, too. I felt so bad for people who had paid $400 for a golf excursion, because they only got to play 4 holes, due to the weather. And we also had the bagpipe sendoff at the end of the day. That was really awesome. Love the report!

Here's my wife and daughter on the upper floor of the Earl's Palace:

 

[JenTen1585]

Great pictures! My family was in Kirkwall in 2015 on the Magic. So many of your pictures are so familiar. I think we may even have taken the same tour that you did. And yes, it was very windy when we were there, too. I felt so bad for people who had paid $400 for a golf excursion, because they only got to play 4 holes, due to the weather. And we also had the bagpipe sendoff at the end of the day. That was really awesome. Love the report!

Here's my wife and daughter on the upper floor of the Earl's Palace:

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So cool!!! The wind made it so fun, right? I loved it!!! I saw the 7 day this year doesn't get to stop in Kirkwall =(.

 

[JenTen1585]

Day 10-Invergordon-Lochness
Day 10, Boo! It was on this day that I could feel that sad feeling of the end of the trip coming. I didn't want it ever to end!
So what do you do in Invergordon-Lochness? Well, I figure you have to try to see the Lochness monster right, and of course, since you're in Scotland, tour some ruins, so Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle it is. Today we decided to take a small group tour and paid a little extra for it. I DO NOT recommend this on this tour. I saw no difference and our guide was not really all that helpful or interesting. She brought us to the Castle, told us a little bit about it, and then let us explore it all on our own. Lucky for her, Urquhart Castle is a pretty cool castle to explore. It sits right on Loch Ness so you can explore while watching for Nessie at the same time =). Urquhart was raided over and over again during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and all through the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet in the 17th century it was abandoned and INTENTIONALLY destroyed in 1692 so Jacobite forces could not get it!!! The ruins are somewhat like the ruins of the Earl's Palace in Kirkwall, just a lot bigger!

Look, there is no such thing as a bad time in the ruins of a Scottish castle on a gorgeous Lake, but I was a little disappointed in the tour itself. I like to hear about the weird details and great stories of a place. I like a good tour led by a person (or at least a good audio tour) who gives me details and perspective. This was a drop off, and it was not worth the price of the tour. But the site was magnificent!
After our "tour" we were dropped back off at the ship. My daughter and husband decided to hang out on the Magic while I went into Invergordon to see what I could find. It was a quiet town, not too many stores, but I still found things to buy of course. I went to a small craft fair where I bought a homemade plaid sunglass holder which I still love. I also bought some little tea towels from a gift shop and a weird leather flower necklace that caught my fancy. After my shopping, I walked easily back to the ship.
This evening we had a performance of an Abba cover band. So Much Fun!!!! What is not to like about dancing and singing to Abba songs? They also told the history of the group, which was really interesting!!

 

[nickys]

Day 10-Invergordon-Lochness
Day 10, Boo! It was on this day that I could feel that sad feeling of the end of the trip coming. I didn't want it ever to end!
So what do you do in Invergordon-Lochness? Well, I figure you have to try to see the Lochness monster right, and of course, since you're in Scotland, tour some ruins, so Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle it is. Today we decided to take a small group tour and paid a little extra for it. I DO NOT recommend this on this tour. I saw no difference and our guide was not really all that helpful or interesting. She brought us to the Castle, told us a little bit about it, and then let us explore it all on our own. Lucky for her, Urquhart Castle is a pretty cool castle to explore. It sits right on Loch Ness so you can explore while watching for Nessie at the same time =). Urquhart was raided over and over again during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and all through the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet in the 17th century it was abandoned and INTENTIONALLY destroyed in 1692 by Jacobite forces just so no one else could get it!!! The ruins are somewhat like the ruins of the Earl's Palace in Kirkwall, just a lot bigger!

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Look, there is no such thing as a bad time in the ruins of a Scottish castle on a gorgeous Lake, but I was a little disappointed in the tour itself. I like to hear about the weird details and great stories of a place. I like a good tour led by a person (or at least a good audio tour) who gives me details and perspective. This was a drop off, and it was not worth the price of the tour. But the site was magnificent!
After our "tour" we were dropped back off at the ship. My daughter and husband decided to hang out on the Magic while I went into Invergordon to see what I could find. It was a quiet town, not too many stores, but I still found things to buy of course. I went to a small craft fair where I bought a homemade plaid sunglass holder which I still love. I also bought some little tea towels from a gift shop and a weird leather flower necklace that caught my fancy. After my shopping, I walked easily back to the ship.
This evening we had a performance of an Abba cover band. So Much Fun!!!! What is not to like about dancing and singing to Abba songs? They also told the history of the group, which was really interesting!!

I love Urquart Castle. Haven’t been for a while but I must do so (being from Scotland it’s somewhat easier for me lol!).

Just one correction, you had the wrong destroyers of the Castle. It was destroyed by the forces stationed there, to prevent the Jacobites from using it.

 

[JenTen1585]

I love Urquart Castle. Haven’t been for a while but I must do so (being from Scotland it’s somewhat easier for me lol!).

Just one correction, you had the wrong destroyers of the Castle. It was destroyed by the forces stationed there, to prevent the Jacobites from using it.

Oh!!!! Thank you so much!!!! I corrected it. I loved Urquhart Castle!

 

[nickys]

Oh!!!! Thank you so much!!!! I corrected it. I loved Urquhart Castle!

And I can’t even spell it I love it’s setting, there’s a reason it appears on almost any calendar of Scotland.

 

[JenTen1585]

Day 11-Newcastle, England
Last Port Day and I was feeling it. My beautiful trip was coming to an end and the melancholy was setting in. Luckily, this was a great day! I have always loved Colonial Williamsburg and other open air museums, so for today, we picked Beamish and the Angel of the North. Beamish is an open air live museum which is a whole small town set in different parts in the 1820s, 1900s, and 1940s, showing both urban and rural living in North East England. It's a large complex with different fascinating and amazingly preserved buildings. It's got a working tram car, which we started on, which takes you to different parts of the museum. It's got a little town, complete with stores, houses, offices, a bank, a newspaper office, and a yummy cafe to have lunch and tea in, all in the style of the 1900s (specifically 1913), and it's got a 1940s style farm. It's got an amazing motor garage, complete with really cool vehicles, a stable, a coal yard and Iron works, a school ... it's amazing! Honestly, it's one of the coolest things I've ever visited. We had so much fun going from place to place and had a good 4 or 5 hours or so to explore, which was a good amount of time to get to see almost everything in pretty good detail. Here are a sampling of pictures. It was a cold, rainy (really misty) day, but that's just the British Isles for you ... it just adds to the atmosphere. I think you can tell from our faces that we were having a wonderful time!!!

(the tram coming to the stop!)

on board the tram

 

[JenTen1585]

Day 11-Newcastle, England cont.

So, so, so much fun!!!!!! I LOVED this experience and highly, highly recommend it as a port adventure!!!!

On the way back to the boat, we stopped at the Angel of the North.

(my picture)

A much better professional picture showing the true Majesty of it:

The Angel of the North is a sculpture completed in 1998. It was commemorative of the coal miners who worked for two centuries under the site where it stands, and it is meant to show the transition from an industrial to an information age, and is to be a symbol of "our evolving hopes and fears." Honestly, it's one of those cool sculptures where the meaning is not to esoteric for us normal people to understand. You can look at it, it moves you, and you get it. It's magnificent and I'm glad I saw it.


This was a truly fantastic last day in port!!!!



So this evening on the ship we had Stars Set Sail- Alton Fitzgerald White. Mr. White played Mufasa on Broadway's Lion King. He's got a beautiful baritone voice, and sings a mixture of Disney songs. He's .... let's say ... very confident in his own abilities. His commentary was interesting, but definitely showed that he thinks he's all that ... and a bag of chips! He's good, don't get me wrong, and it was entertaining .... but I saw better shows on this Cruise. =)

 

[JenTen1585]

Day 12- Day at Sea
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Is there anything worse than the last day on a Disney Cruise? The melancholy really set in that my beautiful cruise was over and after 12 wonderful days on the Disney Magic, we had to pack up and leave the next morning. Added to the fact, I made the mistake of trying to do a little bit of laundry on the last day of a cruise (FULL laundry rooms!) But I managed it, even if I did have to go from floor to floor searching for open dryers. I don't know why I did laundry. I know better. I know not to do laundry on vacation, but it's like I just wanted to add misery to the last day.
I don't remember really what else I did except stuff like close out our account and buy our picture package (we bought the package with every single digital photo after much debate). After 12 nights, we had a ton of great pictures with characters and otherwise. Here is a sampling of the great character opportunities they have:

Anyways, after doing the laundry, repacking, photo buying and "business", I think we also chilled in the movie theater and maybe there was a session of bingo and trivia. The last night's show is beautiful and bittersweet. I didn't want to go home.

The only thing that saved our spirits a tiny bit, and got my daughter off the boat, was that the next day, our last day in London, we would be going to Harry Potter Studios. Is this "going to the dark side?" I'm not sure, but my family are all huge fans of Harry Potter. I read all the books and am obsessed. When we were getting ready to go to Universal the year before, it happened that there was a marathon of Harry Potter movies on so we taped them (or DVR'd them I guess) and they played on repeat at our house for weeks. My daughter basically has them memorized. So going to Harry Potter Studios was a big deal and I'm really glad we saved it for our last day! At least it was a tiny light at the end of the dark tunnel of leaving the Magic.

 

[JenTen1585]

Disembark-Last Day in London- Last Day of Vacation

So we woke up early and had one last breakfast in the dining room. Hugging our fun table companions goodbye and exchanging email addresses.
We again took a cab to the train station in Dover, and then the train to Gatwick Airport. This all went very easy and smooth. We had booked a night at the airport hotel at Gatwick, since our flight left early the next morning. But here is the annoying and horrible part. We got to our hotel about 10am, and check in wasn't till 3pm, but they would not store our luggage for us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They made us go to the luggage storage place at the airport, where we had to pay the equivalent of 150.00 American to store our luggage! Horrible!!!!!! I do NOT recommend staying in the airport hotel at Gatwick for this reason. It was comfortable enough I suppose, but what a horrible thing to not have a back room to keep luggage in!!!!!!!
So my husband was lived, but we already had our tickets for our tour of Harry Potter Studios, along with bus transportation, set to pick us up at Victoria Station in London at 1pm. So we caughed up the money and then took the train from Gatwick to Victoria. We had a quick lunch at a coffee shop at the Station and then met our bus. The bus ride is a little less than an hour and they play Harry Potter movies on the way, so it's a comfortable ride.
Harry Potter Studios is fabulous! It's well organized and stocked full with scenery, costumes and props! It takes about 2-3 hours to go through and there is a cafe (and of course gift shop). What's really cool is that while they were filming the movies, Ms. Rowling was still writing the books, so they didn't know if they would need the sets again, so where as normally they would strike sets and get rid of them quicker, they tended to preserve the sets in case they needed them again. This lead to the huge boon of having so many wonderful sets preserved, from Hogwarts Hall, to Privett Drive, the bus, the Hogwarts Train (which had a car set up for each year the kids were travelling there), Gryffindor common room. We GEEKED out!!! Seriously! You can tell from our faces in the following pictures. We were squealing and jumping up and down. We had so much fun!!! I HIGHLY recommend it!

After our tour, we took the bus back and had a quick dinner at our hotel, followed by SLEEP! We had a 6:30am flight the next morning.

 

[ChuckElias]

I LOVE your daughter's pose on the Knight Bus!!

Really fun report, thanks!

 

[JenTen1585]

So I very belatedly finished my report. It was such a wonderful trip! It was my second time on the Disney Magic, but I truly fell in love with the ship. I loved the itinerary of the British Isles Cruise and every single day was a wonderful dream. I miss it and feel so blessed to have gone on such a wonderful trip.
I know you pay more for a Disney Cruise, but I didn't realize how much more you get until I went on a 7 day Norwegian European Cruise this last September. The itinerary of the Norwegian Cruise was great, but after 2 cruises on the Disney Magic, the service, food, entertainment, and rooms were not even close to being on the same level. I kept having to tell myself, "But you paid more for Disney" ... almost as a mantra, so I wouldn't get annoyed at the Norwegian Cruise. But hey, there's no such thing as a bad cruise in my book, so I still had fun ... it just hammered home that while you pay more for Disney, you get what you pay for, and there is truly magic on the Disney Magic. =)
We looked into the itineraries for this year, but it just wasn't in the budget, so we booked an Alaskan Cruise on the Disney Wonder for June 2020!!!! Life is just better with a Disney Cruise to look forward to and plan for .... even if it's a year away. So till then .....

 

[KellBelle]

What an awesome adventure you guys had, I loved your report! Your family is beautiful, thank you for sharing this with us!

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Thanks for the cool trip report

 

[MaryJaneP]

Thank you for a wonderfully descriptive trip report accompanied by outstanding photos.