Disney Cruise--11 Night Northern Fjords July 2019 #4 Kirkwall and day at Sea

Texas Twin Sis

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Kirkwall, Orkney Islands Scotland—July 23, 2019 and day at Sea July 24, 2019
After a restful night at sea we headed a hearty breakfast in Cabanas on deck 9. We are early risers so we had coffee and hot tea and waited for the doors to open at 7:30 while watching the several islands pass by. It was a little chilly so we stayed inside but had great views from the window seating area. After breakfast we went to deck 4 starboard to watch the docking process. We got there just in time to hear and see the air cannon shoot the lines to the dock. As we were maneuvering parallel to the dock we watched the dock hands tie us in and then attach the gangways. They were also putting out flags of all the nations, we presumed,were represented on the ship in standards along the security entry/exit. Then we saw the bag pipers and they started to play and continued until we left the ship for our excursion.

We like to pick early morning excursions to allow us time to return to the ship to layer off clothes, jackets etc before venturing out again after lunch. Today we started with a t-shirt covered by a long sleeved shirt, jacket, jeans and hat. Also we needed to carry our Disney Magic our key to the world card, government issue ID and a copy of our passport (Disney copy--since we had not gotten our passports back yet). We were also told credit cards were accepted, our visa (with no international fees) was accepted everywhere we shopped.
The excursion today was the adult only K123 Orkney's Neolithic Heartland. We had only recently started taking the adult only tours and ours was near capacity. We enjoyed this option of adult only throughout the trip. The buses were great and had easy entry and two doors, one front and one mid bus which really cut down waiting time for all to gather up. The hardest thing was to remember to board the bus on the opposite side as the driver was on the right. We were fortunate to have an archaeologist as our guide who was full of lots of information. It was a bit of a drive to our destination of Skara Brae but not the least boring as he was full of knowledge and information. Although the roads were narrow the driver was a master of the short pull outs labeled “pass places” and tight turns.

Our tour took us in a circle from Kirkwall to Skara Brae and back again rarely repeating a road we traveled before. The landscape was beautiful and bordered by dry stack rock walls and locs of beautiful water. There were sheep and dairy cows and a lot of grass, which is their top crop used as feed in the winter for livestock.
The Neolithic village was near the coast of a circular bay open to the sea. Although there were paths to completely see the site a person needed to traverse stepping stones and rock stairs. If you occasionally walk with a cane bring it or a walking stick, ours helped us greatly. The site included a small visitor center and gift shop/cafe with restrooms as well as a reconstructed stacked stone home, based on an example of the ruins we were to see. Also on the tour was a manor house, a short walk from the village. It was a house fully furnished and decorated to the 1700's time period and held such treasures as Captain Cook's china. It can get quite crowded at the Neolithic village as the paths to see it are narrow and many buses arrive slightly after ours, also from the Disney Magic and other tour groups.

Back on the bus we passed by two sets of standing stone circles (no stop) and another archaeological dig. Further on we viewed and learned about Kirkwall's part in WWI and the sinking of enemy ships many still lay in a harbor and make excellent scuba diving excursions since the water is so clear. As well as a few of the whiskey distilleries and dairy farms where they make Kirkwall's famous ice cream. The bus proceeded back to the ship. We grabbed lunch and took off layers as it warmed up nicely with a bright sunny sky.

After lunch we had plenty of time to jump on the free cruise ship shuttle that took 5 minutes to get to the Kirkwall city center. Here we wanted to visit the St. Magnus Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace and get a taste of the Kirkwall ice cream the morning's guide had told us not to miss. All were a short walk from the transportation center drop off. The cathedral was founded in the early 1100's that stands in the center of a street full of historical buildings and is still used today. The Bishop's Palace was a standing ruin across the side street of the cathedral. Also here was an ice cream stand and yes it lived up to its hipe and enjoyed on this warm day. We enjoyed walking on the historic streets but if you take a taxi your need British pound sterling for currency some didn't take credit cards. Walking back to the transportation center we boarded the shuttle for the Magic which was clearly marked. We were back on the ship before our 4:45pm all aboard time and went to deck 10 to watch our departure as the wind was picking up.

That evening we were in Rapunzel's Table restaurant and the dinner had a new menu (they were trying out many new menus on this trip) as well as a great Birthday show featuring Rapunzel and her Snuggling Duckling friends. After dinner we heard the captain announce to expect “movement” of the ship to continue through the night. As we pulled into the open ocean heading towards Iceland we were starting to experience rolling seas. So before the show I returned to the cabin to put on one of my sea sick patches. I had brought them as a precaution.

The show in the Walt Disney Theatre was Ice! Fire! Strings! Featuring Greta Salome a wonderful violinist from Iceland. At times, during the show, the movement of the ship increased and the entertainer had to steady herself. During the evening the seas continued to increase with a 59 knot near broadside wind. We asked the room host for extra pillows to help bank us up in bed and hit the sack.

Day at Sea.
We awoke to 10 foot swells but now had the headwinds that had dropped to 31 knots. The captain did a good job keeping the ship atop the waves throughout the day, but we did experience movement. Many on the ship were not feeling well. Thank goodness none in our party suffered.

Today's schedule was trivia games, napkin folding, pictures and our character breakfast. Even as adults we really look forward to this one-on-one with the characters. We loose an hour tonight and had to set our clocks back. It was announced before the evening show, Tangled the Musical, that since we were overnight in Reykjavik supper tomorrow would be open seating, no scheduled locations. This made a lot of sense. We had nearly 22 hours of sunlight, so many excursions were arriving back and leaving late into the evening, especially for those who booked private tours. We chose Rapunzel's Table as it was new to us and had a private table for the 3 of us. The menu was also different than any we had experienced, but as always good with a variety of dishes.

That evening we went to customer service and retrieved our passports. Each person had to be present from the room group but only one in the party had to sign the receipt. Upon returning to the room for the evening the seas started to get calmer. We had another towel animal and chocolates. But also experienced a run in with the “hidden people” the elves/fairies we had heard about on our tour. Getting our things together for the next day we couldn't find our hats. We looked the room over twice, all the drawers and cabinets and finally went to lost and found. No hats. Finally we got a flashlight and looked behind the drawers in the chest. The bottom drawer being higher off the floor has space below it. Our hats that had been in the drawer fell out at the back and dropped under the drawer. So check there if you loose anything.

Next day Reykjavik, Iceland and our 8 hour Golden Circle tour.
 

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