feels like "home"

 final cruise blog--  Warnemunde/Rostock, Germany and Tallinn, Estonia

Warnemunde and the North Sea

At the half-way point of our cruise we stopped at Warnemunde, Germany.  The cruise lines have dubbed Warnemunde the "Gateway to Berlin" and 90% of the passengers dutifully trekked to the train station at 5AM  for the 2 hour train ride into Berlin.  We watched them all pour out of the trains 14 hours later, exhausted.  As D and I have already been to Berlin, we skipped the fun and stayed in port.   Our table-mates (who live in Landsthul)  also skipped  Berlin. They ventured to the beach.  D and I grabbed B and bopped over to Rostock, the area's historic county seat.

Rostock Market Square

As we left the port, we had to pass through customs control.  They had two lines: one for passengers and one for crew members.  The lines, however, were not clearly marked. (Surprise surprise -- Europeans, even the super orderly German variety, can't queue).  D and I ended up going through the crew turnstyle.  The German bean counter nearly had a meltdown.  Welcome "home", I thought.

Shopping and the big red balloon

It happened to be market day in Rostock, so we bought cheese and bread and fruit for lunch and strolled the main shopping district.  If we hadn't been living here for the past two years, we would have marvelled at the quaintness of it, but Rostock's market is like any other market in any other town.  We did, however, get to get our shop on at the T.J. Maxx buying a winter coat for C and some fill-in clothes for D.  See, upon leaving Dover, D and I had a misunderstanding.  I had packed for the boys and I had packed for myself.  I packed for our weekend in Dover separately.  I thought I had explained perfectly well that the dirty clothes from Dover were spending the cruise in the car.  D missed the memo, and by our halfway point he was running out of clothes, even though I had already done laundry once.  The rest of us could get home without doing more wash, so I couldn't help but laugh when I found him in the men's department with a shopping basket full of underwear, socks, and t shirts.   I guess he didn't want to do laundry either.

the shipyard

  The best thing about Warnemunde is that it made me feel better about my limited German language skills.  Most of the time, here, when I try to speak German, the locals look at me like I have horns growing out of my head.  In Rostock, however, every market vendor, barrista, and store clerk understood me.   I'm not sure whether the difference is dialect or if in a tourist area the locals are more willing to roll with an outsider's slight mispronounciations and figure things out.  Probably a little of both.

It's not a bad thing, to stay on the boat when every one else goes exploring.  There were no character meet-and-greets in port, but there were still activities, demonstrations, movies, and other fun to be had.  As we left Warnemunde that evening the boat --the Disney Magic-- sailed right past the shipyard where she was built.  As a side note, Disney's newest cruise liner, the Disney Dream, is being built in another German shipyard, in Papenburg, about 3hours from us.  It's due to leave dry-dock this weekend and then float out to sea in the next couple of weeks.


Tallinn, Estonia

Of the 7 ports of call, Tallinn was the one I was most excited about.  The thought of going to St. Petersburg was cool, but going to Estonia sounded downright exotic.  I mean Estonia of "Estonia-Latvia-and-Lithuania" fame, one of the big three Baltic rebels that told the USSR to stuff it.  We've seen a lot of Europe, but I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow going to Estonia would make us world travelers in a way that going to Italy, Austria, or even Poland just couldn't.



Except...
No one ever told me and I never bothered to learn that Estonia spent much of her life under German rule, was established by Germanic peoples, and looks and feels a lot like any other German city.  I kid you not, if you blindfolded me and plopped me in the middle of Tallinn's historic district, I could have been in Heidelberg, Rothenburg, Monschau, or any other historic German city.

Sweater Wall -- stall after stall of knitted items

 We took B with us into Tallinn so we wandered the historic district, followed along with a walking tour, climbed some old ruins, drank some good beer, and ducked into a local church or two, one of which was the picturesque Russian church, which apparently the Estonians hate, but  keep  around as a political and cultural peace offering to the Russian minority that still calls Estonia home.   Before heading back to the boat, we detoured to an Estonian grocery store to buy diapers.  I had brought plenty, I thought.  But B spent a lot more time in the nursery than we anticipated and I think they changed the kids hourly, whether they needed it or not, and I was running low.  Diapers on board cost a whopping $1.50 a piece.  I'm happy to report that Estonian pampers are just like the German ones.  As we re-boarded the ship each day we had to pass through metal detectors and have our bags x-rayed.  I caused the crew members manning the machines to chuckle as I sent my mega-pack of 100 Pampers through to be scanned.  (It was the smallest bunch they had in B's size) --  Good Times!

View to the port from the ramparts

Tallinn's New Town

The Russians are coming; the Russians are coming!

still cruise blogging.... next up,
ST PETERSBURG

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

I'm just about convinced that cruising is the best way to see the Baltic/North Sea/ Scandinavia.  There are downsides, mainly that it's crowded. You can only cruise in Summer and that's when everyone else, crusiers or no, head north.  But the upsides are worth considering.

It's expensive, with a big 'ol "E", to travel in Northern Europe.  It's expensive to sleep and it's expensive to eat, let alone expensive to do things.  (Dinner for two, no wine, at a moderate eatery --easily 100 Euro).  Book the right cruise and cruising can be a good value as you eat and sleep on the boat.    Cruising is also the most hassle free way to see a little snippett of Russia.  Russia requires US citizens to obtain a visa,  an expensive and sometimes a lengthy process. I know people who have done it, but it does require planning and leg work.  If you travel last minute, like we so often do, both of those things can be difficult.  If you cruise into Russia, you do not need a Visa.  The only catch is you *must* disembark with an organized and prearranged excursion/tour. 

When we booked our St Petersburg excursions online, we simultaneously tried to book B into the Nursery, to no avail.  Our philosophy on Europe with little ones is this:  It's not that we don't  do things  b/c of the kiddos, but we almost always do things a little differently with the wee set than we would on our own. We don't plan more than one event each morning and one event each afternoon. We respect lunchtime, pack oodles of snacks, and make sure there is a stroller available come afternoon nap time.  So, that was the plan.  We scheduled museums in the AM (when B's at his best), walking tours in the afternoon when we hoped he'd crash in his stroller, and D quickly volunteered to stay on board with the boys while I went to the ballet.  But, a sprinkling of pixie dust later, turns out the nursery had space for him on our St Petersburg days after all. SCORE! (Though D still begged off the ballet, so the kids wouldn't be up past their bed times.  Took one for the team, he did.)

First up was an afternoon walking tour full of churches, palaces, Russian history, and BRIDES -- lots and lots of brides.  Because St. Petersburg is such a beautiful city, it's a popular destination wedding spot for Russian couples.  Marriage in Russia is still largely a state thing and sprinkled all over the city are wedding halls that seem to function kind of like wedding chapels in Vegas with ceremonies scheduled every 15 minutes in high season.  Apparently summer is high season.  During our three hour walking tour we saw 25 brides and grooms posing for pictures in local parks.  (One of the teenage girls on our tour was keeping track).

St Petersburg is a beautiful beautiful city, but other than an onion-domed church here and there and the magnificent Church of the Spilled Blood , it doesn't really look "Russian".  Peter the Great built St Petersburg, from scratch, out of the marshlands in the 1700s, so it's not a very old city.  Peter was a well-educated, well-traveled man, who loved Amsterdam. Lo and behold, St. Petersburg looks a lot like Amsterdam, more ornate, but with the same general character.

Winter Palace

Every excursion we went on  began with a guided bus ride narrating the sights we passed.  Curiously, not a single guide pointed out any  revolution/communist era sights. They gave us current information concerning demographics and daily life in St. Petersburg, but no 20th century history --at all.  We drove past Lenin's command post, churches used to store/hide huge repositories of art and other  valuables during WW2 when it was clear St. Petersburg would come under siege, and old KGB headquarters, yet the guides said nothing.  When asked directly about life in soviet-era Russia, the guides quickly brought discussion back around to Peter and Catherine's eighteenth  century heyday.  Disney offers lectures before each port of call, providing guests with historical overviews.  I didn't attend any of the lectures --too much other stuff to do. But, fortuitously, the guy who gave the lectures happened to be on our tour, and he filled us in as we drove past.  I'm sure many Russians simply don't know very much(having never been taught) about Russia's embattled past.  Really, what society --anywhere-- wants to highlight again and again the darkest days of their history.  It's not so much that the guides denied Russia's bleak years, they simply had no interest in discussing it.  I would leave it at that.......

Except.....

St Isaacs Cathedral

All of our guides spoke excellent English and all were university  educated.  Two of them were teachers who picked up tours in the busiest tourist   months for extra income.  All were significantly younger than D and I (10 years, give or take).

Hmmm??????

I was 10 when the Cold War started thawing.  I was 15 when the Soviet Union collapsed and  20 when the former Soviet republics  first competed under their own flags in the Olympic games.  That means our guides were babies, preschoolers and  tweens and have spent much of their lives in an, presumably, increasingly "free" Russia.  Consider too that one of the guides explained to us that just like America,  Russia is a large country divided into states because smaller states are easier to control.  Yep, control was her word.  Maybe she meant govern and the word choice got lost in translation? Maybe she's only had a brief primer on American government and  legitimately believes that improving administrative logistics is the main impetus behind statehood?  I realize it could take more than a single generation to undo years of  entrenched thought  and maybe today's Russian tweens (the ones who will be tour guides 15 years from now) have a markedly different perspective,  but I thought the statement telling nonetheless.

Back to touring....

Summer Palace

The next morning, we boarded buses and rode about an hour outside of St Petersburg to Catherine the Great's summer palace.  Palatial is indeed the right word.  Stunning.  We saw the outside of the Winter Palace during our walking tour but didn't go inside.  We chose to tour the inside of the summer palace because of the Amber Room-- an entire room with floor to ceiling Baltic Amber siding.  The current room has been recreated. During the war  the palace was occupied, bombed, and burnt and the siding was not removed for safekeeping.  Presumably there's some Nazi treasure chest somewhere stuffed to the brim with Catherine's amber.

Ballroom -- look at all the people!

As we drove to the outskirts of the city, we learned that 95% of St Petersburg's residents live in apartments and that real estate is expensive, Southern California kind of expensive.  What was not clear is whether there are any subsidized paths to home ownership or whether most Russians in the city rent because that's the affordable way to do it, which of course begs the question:  who exactly owns all the property--corporations, businesses, government or the Russian nouveau riche? 

It happened to be Naval  Day in St Petersburg the morning we went to the palace, so our bus ride back to the boat took close to three hours. We had to wait for parading sailors, cheering crowds, and booming canon as St Petersburg put her naval might on display.  As an outsider how do you see such a display and not call to mind news footage of May Day parades and  tanks rolling through Red Square?  Just another instance how St Petersburg, as an example of both historical and modern Russia, leaves me scratching my head.  I can't shake the feeling that it's a city stuck at a crossroads, a city that wants to be progressive but just isn't sure how. Other than our guides we didn't get to interact with any "real" Russians. We didn't get shoot vodka with a local or breathe any local air, so there's much I didn't get to experience.  Even the performance of Swan Lake  I attended  was scripted for cruise passengers.   Don't get me wrong, it was an AWESOME performance, by a respected Russian ballet company in the oldest theatre in town, but there wasn't a Russian in sight -- by necessary design, I imagine.  After all, what do so many tourists, me included, want to do in Russia? What do they view as the quintessential Russian experience, if not attending the ballet?   It makes sense, then, that the ballet company would simply contract with the cruise lines to fill the theatre with ballet-seeking  passengers. All in all, St Petersburg was my favorite port city of the cruise, so definitely go if life ever hands you the chance.

Scandinavian Cities

view of Oslo harbor from our porthole

Our  dash through Northern Europe in August was dubbed a "Capitals" cruise with ports of call at all three Scandinavian Capitals.   It's now two months later and my take on Oslo, Copenhagen, and Stockholm still holds:  I'm glad I visited, but if I'd gone through the hassle and expense to connect the three on my own without the cruise experience thrown in, and if those cities were all I saw of the region, I'd have been disappointed.   Some of that stems from what I fear is metropolis fatigue.  We've crammed alot in over the last 2 years and sometimes one European city really does blend into the next. Now that I've seen the cities, I'm pretty sure Scandinavia's treasures lie in getting out and enjoying the natural beauty--cruising the Fjords in Norway or the Archipelego's in Sweden (two things I would definitely go back to do).

OSLO
Oslo was my favorite of the three cities. We walked from the cruise terminal to the main railway station (the beginning of Rick Steve's walking tour).  We followed Steve's path ducking into churches and pausing in front of monuments to read more about Norwegian history.  We eyed the cafe famous Norwegian playwrite Henrik Ibsen frequented and meandered a sculpture garden dedicated to the works of  Gustav Vigeland.  His most famous work might very well be the screaming baby.  Legend has it he gave his model candy, and then quickly took it away to encourage toddler rage.  Yep, I'd say he got it about right.

Then we popped into the National Art Gallery to see their Munch  collection.  Next, we grabbed a ferry across the bay and toured the Viking Ship Museum, with two remarkably well-preserved, Leif Ericsson era Viking ships.  The ships were likely grave ships, burial sites set adrift in the sea and were rather neat to see up close.  After a quick and expensive lunch (25 USD for a reindeer burger and baked potato), we hit the open-air Norsk folk museum which houses a 12th century Stave Church, the most architecturally unique church I think I've ever seen, but apparently a style common in old Norway.  Also,  lots and lots of sod houses.  The museum has recreated Norwegian village life through the centuries by trucking in restored buildings from elsewhere in Norway and is a great way  to get an overview of  everyday life in Norway from the middle ages all the way up to present times.

I liked Oslo, and while expensive, the Oslo Pass provides a good value including all public transport and museum entrance fees. The city is relatively compact so with only one day to sightsee we could cram alot in.  Not so much with our next stop and least favorite port of the entire cruise (not simply my least favorite of the Scandinavian big three): Copenhagen 

Copenhagen = urban sprawl and sprawl and sprawl.  We used public transit in most of the ports and the Copenhagen system was by far the least user-friendly.  Supposedly you can rent public bikes, picking them up and dropping them off at various points around the city.  Um, yeah. There were never any working bikes available.  BUT we did see numerous blue Copa-bikes chained with private bikes in bike racks.   The public bikes have a unique design and cannot be serviced using regular bike parts, which was supposed to keep people from pedalling off with them.  However, that doesn't take into account how to keep people from monopolizing them until they break.    So, yeah, getting around was a bit difficult.

the Little Mermaid site

View from our table at lunch

The port is right next to the Little Mermaid's  home; however, the famous princess of the deep is currently on loan to Shangahi.  In her place, they have erected a screen, playing a live video stream from Shanghai, a system which really had the potential to be cool.  BUT, the technology stunk and you saw nothing more than a vague, grainy blob, sigh.

Christiana

In between a walking tour of the historical highlights, the most prominent of which was Rosenborg Castle, we did have a lovely traditionally Danish lunch at a local eatery and fun stop into the Ice Bar, so all was not lost.  We also wandered Christiana -- probably the world's most well known commune and Copenhagen's second most popular tourist destination.  Originally Christiana grew up on the grounds of an abandoned military facility.  Homes are ramshackle, without running water or electricity... and there's a waiting list to move in. New residents are voted on by the populace and they are, for the most part, a self-sufficient community, living "free" (complete with the smell of burnt tea bags permeating the air and an awful lot of brownies for sale).  As you leave Christiana there's a sign over your head reminding you that "You are now entering the EU", which pretty much sums up the attitude of Christiana residents to the Danish government.

traditional lunch -- lots of pickled items

I kind of wanted to pop into Tivoli Gardens -- the Danish amusement park that inspired Walt Disney as he created Disney World but we didn't make it to that side of town until late in the afternoon and feared we wouldn't make it back to the boat on time if we lingered too long -- not a good thing, considering both kiddos were on board that day.  My gut thinks they would have waited for us. Otherwise they would have had to take charge of the munchkins.  But, they did not wait for everyone.  We ran into someone in Stockholm (last stop) who had missed the boat in Tallinn (next to last stop) and made his own way to Stockholm in order to catch up.

 Speaking of Stockholm.....

 

Stockholm was fun.  Disney Cruise Line provided transportation from the port to a centralized drop off station, but we walked to the local bus stop and made our own way into town.We started the morning  at the Vasa Museum:  In 1625 King Gustav commissioned a warship to be built. The ship was poorly designed, too top heavy, and sunk within 15 minutes of sailing.  In  the1960s the ship was found, completely in tact, off the coast of Sweden and forms the entirety of the Vasa Museum.  It's a good thing we made it our first stop, because by the time we left 90 minutes later, the tour buses had arrived and the admission lines were huge.

After the VASA, we meandered the old town with our handy Rick Steves walking tour and then back to the boat for an early afternoon boarding time.  We only had a short day in Stockholm and although there was more to see, I don't feel the need to go back just to see it.   As we cruised out of Stockholm to begin making our way back to Dover, we cruised through the island chain known as the Archipelagos.  The scenery was stunning, and I would definitely go back to spend a few days island hopping, especially if we weren't still taking a stroller with us everywhere we go.

Travelling in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, especially moving quickly as we were, is more cumbersome than travelling in other parts of Europe, simply because each country uses its own currency.  We had to change Swedish Krone, Norwegian Krone, and Danish Krone, as well as Russian Rubels, Estonian Kroon and British Pounds.  We obviously had plenty of  Euro in  Germany, and we could have easily used Euro in Estonia because as of January 2011 Estonia is changing to the Euro.  Disney Cruise Line offers a helpful service in that  they will change money on board for you and then let you turn in any unused currency at the same rate you bought it.  Their exchange rates weren't the best, but you weren't paying fees or losing money both directions.  However, they only offered the service to and from US Dollars, and I think we only had 30 USD on hand between us.  So yep, we kept changing that same 30 dollars all week long and then hit an ATM as soon as we found one in each port.   It wasn't all bad, however. I ended up with amber earrings from St Petersburg, a limestone mortar and pestle from Estonia, and yummy snacks from the Stockholm market just 'cause we had money left to burn.

In Stockholm our bus had to pull over to let the marching band through. Happens in Germany all the time.

a great market in Stockholm

Dover: Second Chances

Our summer cruise through the Baltic Sea, departed from Dover, England, so although we didn't board the boat until Sunday we headed to the UK on Friday afternoon in order to spend Saturday in Canterbury, correcting an oversight my teenage self made nearly 20 years ago.

We took the ferry across the Channel from Dunkirk, way way way cheaper than the Channel Tunnel and this way, D didn't have to drive and the boys could frolic on the ferry rather than being cooped up in the car.  Including the crossing (but not the time change), the trip took about 6.5 hours.   C was convinced for the first half of the ferry ride that he was on "Mickey's Boat" and he was distressed that Mickey himself was nowhere to be found.  [just imagine how much more impressive Mickey's actual boat was for him when we pulled up to the port Sunday afternoon.]

We spent Friday and Saturday night in a Holiday Inn in Ashford, about halfway between Dover and Cantebury.  During cruise/summer sea season, hotel rooms in Dover itself are as scarce as they are pricey, so either book way ahead or be prepared to sleep in the surrounding towns. 

Saturday we headed to the Medieval mecca of Canterbury.  I spent several hours in Canterbury in 1991 as a quick side trip between Calais and London with a tour group of high school students.  We didn't get to tour the Cathedral because it was closed for an event, and I made the mistake of not buying a copy of Cantebury Tales, even though the thought crossed my mind.  Fast forward a few years: I declared myself an English major in an undergraduate English department heavy in Medieval, Rennaisance, and British Literature classes. Canterbury Tales ended up on a class reading list at least three or four times.  Each semester I studied it, I wished I had bought a copy while I was in Cantebury--not necessarily a leather-bound, fancy copy. Heck it could have been the same Penguin translated copy in the campus book store, I simply wanted a copy that came from Canterbury.

BUT, unless you're a serious British history student or have enough time in your London itinerary to make Canterbury a day-trip, it's not really a destination of itself. I doubted we'd  get back.  While the other members of the family might have preferred spending Saturday exploring Dover or climbing castles, I invoked mama's privilege and they never seriously got a vote. We were doing Canterbury on Saturday and they could like it or not.  

I quickly ducked into the Cathedral while D and the boys walked the street; then I found a bookstore to buy my copy of the Tales, then we picknicked and walked the old wall that surrounds the city learning more about Medieval Canterbury's history before heading back to the hotel to let B grab a nap.

That evening we journeyed to the seaside resort town of Folkestone. Folkestone's heyday was during Victorian times but in recent decades the town has revitalized its sea front and restored a few of the old hotels.  It's easy to stand on the sea wall,  close your eyes, and imagine the promenade filled with hoop skirts and parasols as the turn-of-the-century elite took the air and spent the evenings strolling the garden paths to see and be seen.
 

The next morning we lazily made our way to the port, stopping to pick up a few things we had forgotten and took these pictures of the famous White Cliffs of Dover and the Dover Castle from the boat while we frolicked on deck.   The plan was to hit Dover Castle the morning we arrived back in port before heading home to Germany, but both kiddos were worn out from two weeks of playing hard, and turns out B was fighting the sniffles, so rather than  kill the close to two hours before the Castle opened, we skipped it and got an earlier ferry back across the Channel.   The Castle looked grand. All summer they have special performances and festivals on the grounds.  The day we were to go,  they were performing Shakespeare's  Tempest on the grounds followed by evening fireworks.  Would have loved to have hung around for it.  Maybe we will............   20 years from now, on Dover's third go 'round.

Tales from the Baltic...

So, a mouse walked onto a cruise boat...


Disney branched out into the cruise industry a little over a decade ago.  Now, they're just getting ready to bring their 3rd boat online, the 4th is in the shipyard, and they've added Mexican riviera and Alaskan cruises to their Carribean and European offerings.   Thanks to a fantastic military discount, the family Mc just spent 12 nights cruising Northen Europe with Mickey and his pals and all I can say is WOW!

Each port of call will get a blog entry, eventually (there were 6 -- Oslo, Copenhagen, Warnemunde, St Petersburg, Tallin, Stockholm, plus Dover where we began and ended) but the boat itself was the truly fabulous part of the vacation.

We had never cruised before and while we far prefer to do our own things while in port (instead of buying excursions and following guides), the experience on board was right up our alley, and yep, it is typically Disneyfied.  Whatever kool-aid they drink in Orlando that enables costume-clad cast members to be chipper and cheerful while selling ice cream to sniveling kids in 100+ degrees of Florida heat and humidity, they drink it on the boat too.   No one was ever less than helpful or less than happy.  At the buffet restaurants I never had to balance a tray while corralling a youngster; a crew member magically appeared at my side to do one or the other. I never had  to wiggle the stroller out the door as I propped it open with my hip; the guy sanding the deck, painting the porthole or polishing the elevator doors stopped what he was doing to hold the door for me.  I never had to change my schedule to work around housekeeping and my room was cleaned twice a day. I never had to ask for extra towells or clean crib sheets or diaper genie refills (heck I didn't even have to ask for the Diaper Genie).  Changing stations were stocked with diapers and wipes, so I didn't have to fret that I left the diaper bag in our cabin.  The restrooms were never out of soap, towells, or paper.  Special ordering from the menu was never questioned.  Coffee was always waiting. Room service orders always correct and the front desk always helpful.

In short, consistent 5 star treatment from every crew member, for every guest on board, even the temper-tantrum-throwing, mess-making guests (especially those guests)

The boat had a lot to offer adult guests: Bingo; beer, whiskey, and wine tastings;  art auctions, shopping briefings; historical lectures;  piano playing lounge singers; towell folding, animation, and dance lessons; spinning yoga and stretching classes,  plus any for-purchase spa service you can imagine.   I've already decided once D retires Dr. Mc is gonna get the gig giving the historical lectures for each port of call.  The boat also had a lot to offer tweens and teenagers including age-appropriate, out of the way hang-out spaces (although no rock wall).

BUT... for the elementary/preschool/toddler set, I don't think any other cruise line can top it.  I know from my own research that Disney is the only major cruise line to offer anything for children under three who aren't potty trained.  They call it Flounder's Reef nursery and,yes, you do pay extra for it (6 USD per hour) but the counselors are fabulous, and they're consistent so your child gets to know them over the course of the cruise.  The play space is incredibly fun.  Characters visit.  They even managed to get my child to nap for them.  B spent a lot of time at the nursery and the night before we disembarked they delivered him a scrapbook full of pictures they had taken of him  and crafts he had made, even a handprint.   (Our table mates had a nine month old and they too were way-impressed).

For C, he spent his days (and his nights, or any waking moment we'd let him) in either "the lab" or "the club" --spaces specifically designed for 4-10 year olds.  The club is more playground, game, open space centered.  The lab has more organized activities or stations that kids can set themselves up at (lego station, art station, computer station, etc).  Upon boarding C was given a armband, we were given a pager.  When we checked him into the club/lab they scanned his armband.  If he was ready to leave or if they needed us, they paged us.  The kids can move back and forth between the two spaces simply by asking a counselor to take them.  (Parents can grant older kids the right to check themselves in and out and kids younger than 4 can visit too as long as a parent stays with them).  If your kid is there during meal time, they feed him.  If your kid wants to rest, he stretches out on a bean bag.   They keep a counselor stationed outside the bathroom door to make sure each exiting child has washed his/her hands.  At the chek-in desk, the put a squirt of soap in each arriving kid's hand and send them immediately to the bathroom to wash up.  Characters visit here too and the counselors engage with or leave the kid alone to whatever extent the kid needs.  No child plays by himself if he doesn't want too.  A shy child wants to play Jenga, there's a counselor.  A techno-loving 5 year old (ahem, C)  really wants to play the lego Star Wars game on the computer but doesn't know how, there's a counselor.   A child  only speaks German, there's a counselor.  (The crew is remarkably international.  Two of the club counselors were from German speaking countries.  We ratted C out and told them to get C to play with the German kid 'cause he could understand him).   Mornings in port the kid spaces openened early so that shore-going adults could get a jump start.  Mornings at sea they didn't open till 9AM and C was always chomping at the bit to get there.  

C'll tell you he went to Norway and Sweden and Russia, but truth is, he never left the boat.  Every day we'd tell him what we were gonna do and ask him if he wanted to come, but he never did.   In his defense, however, he's already  seen a gazillion castles, gone on a gazillion boat rides, rode a gamillion trains, but.....  the Oceaneer Club and the Oceaneer Lab, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto, that's not something he gets to see and do everyday.  Some of the other moms and dads on board thought we were depriving him of the chance of a lifetime by leaving him on the boat, but as I told them: we've drug this child around Europe for the past 18 months, we will drag him around for the next 18 months, so why force the issue.   If he never gets back to Scandinavia, then so be it.  (And at least he has green-screened images of him in all the Scandinavian capitals from when if was 5  :)

In addition to the Club and the Lab, they had movies.  C saw  UP and Oceans.  He saw Toy Story 3 twice (once with mom and once with dad).  D and I each saw the Sorceror's Apprentice (which has a great homage to Fantasia, btw).   They had broadway-like live action performaces every evening and a slew of on deck activities -- sail away parties, beach parties, pirate parties.   They had designated character meet and picture times, character breakfasts, and plenty of characters just roaming the ship.  Let's see if I can remember them all. We met:  Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Mr. Snee, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Suzy (one of the mice in Cinderella), Belle, Beast, Tiara, Snow White, Dopey, Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, Chip, Dale, Lilo, Stitch, Jesse, Woody, Captain Jack Sparrow. And we met various incarnations of some of the characters. For example, we saw formal Minnie, princess Minnie, Bavarian Minnie, pirate Minnie, Nautical Minnie, and the list goes on and on.

The best part.... the lines for the characters are a fraction of the lines at the theme parks.  When we took C to WDW this winter he didn't get to meet any characters or get their autographs b/c time was short and lines were long.  On the boat he didn't have to choose between riding Big Thunder Mountain and meeting Goofy.  And the same crew members evidently donned the same costumes day after day because Minnie (B's favorite) quickly learned he loved to play peek-a-boo.  And Goofy remembered B was partial to chatting on the floor .  C wore a Peter Pan style hat most of the trip but on the days he left it in the cabin, the characters would pat his head as if to ask, "where's your hat"?  The handlers and the photographers quickly learned and remembered names, making it a little easier to not only keep the character queue moving, but get distracted kids to smile at the camera. 

Cruises are synonymous with plentiful food, and the food was incredible with lots of variety.    Each evening you and your tablemates as well as your servers were assigned to one of the three main dining areas: Lumieres, Parrot Cay, or Animators Palate. Your servers stayed the same throughout the cruise and moved with you has you moved through the three restaurants. Each evening's menu was different with a selection of appetizers, soups, salads, main courses, and desserts that you could combine in whatever way you wished.  The kids could order off the kids menu or off the adults menu or I could pick out ingredients of the meals and ask for that (sweet potatoes from the beef plate, bowtie noodles, plain, from the pasta plate, watermelon from the fruit bowl, a banana for good measure).    And, on the evenings that you didn't feel like being social, getting dressed, or eating at your assigned time, you could always go to the buffet restaurant on the top deck and help yourself to many of the same items on the evening's menu.  At lunch time the same buffet was themed -- tex mex, British favourites, seafood, etc.   Breakfast was also buffet with all your standard breakfast offerings (American, British, and European style breakfasts) or a table service brunch.  Somehow I managed to not gain any weight --maybe it was the no-sugar-added desserts (which were the best I've ever had, btw)

In addition to the main dining there was a fast-food snack bar with just average pizza, nuggets and burgers.  The "healthy" snack bar was somewhat better with salads and deli sandwiches.  But there was always self-serve pieces of fruit, cookies, and ice cream to be had as well as  a 24hr drink station with milk, coffee, water, tea, and sodas.  No juice in the self serve beverage station, but I simply got two extra juices each breakfast and stashed them in our cabin fridge.  I did the same thing with milk cartons, so I didn't have to go from deck 5 to deck 9 every time a munchkin declared he wanted milk.  Room service was available 24 hours a day and we frequently ordered room service breakfast so that D and I could get everyone fed, watered, and dropped off at their respective kid spaces in a timely manner.

We were cruise newbies and we loved it, and I'm pretty sure it's the little Disney touches that made it so special, things that I'm not sure other cruise lines do:  napkin animals or origami toys for the kids each evening, elaborate towell animals and sleepy chocolates each evening and all sorts of TLC for the little ones, all over the boat.  We're already planning our next cruise and might space-A home for a visit next spring simply so we can cruise back to Europe with the Mouse.