The division between Parts I and II of this trip is somewhat arbitrary. We continue while we are on the Disney Dream.
8/6/2026 Thursday. Today’s plan was to visit Briksdal Glacier near the town of Olden. The plan was for all of us, except Everly, to go. Everly could make the trip, but she chose to stay at the Kid’s Club on the ship. The tour involves a 45-minute drive to the “base” (for lack of a better term), then either a 45-minute walk up to the glacier, or a 10 or so minute ride in a “trollcar” about 2/3 of the way, and walk the remaining 15 minutes. Anne and I will do the trollcar, the rest will walk.
I didn’t make it to the glacier. I was glad we chose the trollcar option (quite expensive at DKK300 roundtrip per person) as the climb looked impossible given my current physical condition. What was disappointing was I had to give up after a short climb from the upper station (quite steep, but still). Anne went off to explore some more and decided not to go as it was indeed at least 15 minutes each way to get to the glacier (more accurately the end of the glacier lake).
Our tour guide told the group the bus will leave at 3:40 pm. Our troll car went up the hill at 1 pm, and returned at 2 pm. So, we had a lot of time on our hands. Timing of the tour was such that we didn’t have lunch. Disney reserved space at the restaurant at the base for their guests, and cakes (many varieties) and coffee were served. Anne and I relaxed in the restaurant; it got very crowded at 3 pm as the hikers made their way back. I ate a lot of cake; so did many other people.
Those who made it to the glacier said they saw at best a small slice of the glacier, given the rain and the fog. Yes, it rained most of the morning until mid-afternoon. Things looked a lot better later that day.
I have not been sleeping well the last few days, and had a real nap in the afternoon.
PHOTOS. Troll car,
specially made John Deere . Way to Briksdal, many waterfalls. My “turning point” rock bench
8/7/2026 Friday. Alesund is the northernmost city where the cruise will take us. It is a surprisingly big city of close to 60,000 residents, and it’s climate is relatively mild: an average of 1C in January and 14C in the summer. This we learned from the narration on “The Green Bus” which took us from near the cruise port to the hill (Aksla Utkikkspunkt) with a great view of the surrounding areas. The most prominent structure is the Fjellstua Café which blocks the view toward town and charges DKK100 to access a viewing area. The bus itself costs DKK360. Things are expensive in Norway.
In 1904 a fire swept through the town, destroying 850 buildings, leaving 10,000 people homeless (one casualty). The city was then rebuilt with “art nouveau” style, which I frankly don’t know much of.
There is a “Via Ferrata” path in town. The minimum weight required is 40 kg, so only Emmie could go. The rest walked up the 418 steps to the top.
The seas are a bit rough (as I type this) on our way from
Alesund to Stavanger. Apparent wind is
directly towards us at about 50 knots, and we saw many white caps while having
dinner. There is a fair bit of rocking
as well.
8/8/2026 Saturday. The main attraction at today’s port Stavanger is the Pulpit Rock, from the base it’s a 4 km hike uphill (about 2 hours). And it takes 45 minutes to get to the base. Joe P, Jess, Kuau, Reid and Emmie were up for it. Ellie would take the other 4 kids on a Fjord cruise she booked herself. Anne and I had booked already a Fjord cruise with Disney, at a cost roughly $60-70 (each) more than what Ellie paid. (We couldn’t cancel, ostensibly because the operator would still charge Disney; of course Disney could refund the $60-$70 it pockets for each guest, and that’s assuming it doesn’t get a bulk discount.) We basically shared the same itinerary, but the Disney one stopped at some place to have a Norwegian waffle. Our boat was crowded with close to 100 people, Ellie’s had about 20 (narration by tape). And they are both run by the same company.
The fjords are deep. The guide talks about tunnels that are 300 meters below sea level. Indeed, the seabed can be as deep as 250 meters, and the engineering requirement is that the tunnels have to have 50 meters of rock to prevent collapse (hopefully with a healthy margin of error). Unimaginable, but the Norwegians developed the technology for it.
The cruise boats mainly explored Lysefjord where the Pulpit Rock is. The fjord got its name from the light-colored rocks that may appear as snow under proper lighting. We got close to Whiskey Falls, one of the many we see on this trip. The guide says it’s fed by lakes above.
Stavanger itself is a rather large town (third in Norway, behind Bergen and ahead of Trondheim) if the neighboring municipality of Sandnes is included). The old town still boasts white wooden houses built over 100 years ago. They evidently hadn’t heard of Alesund and the great fire.
Speaking of guides, all the ones we have encountered are foreigners. The one that accompanied the group to Briksdal is French, and today’s is South African. Norway’s work force is 20% foreign, which is not particularly high. Saudi Arabia (which is also oil-rich) has a work force that is 80% foreign.
8/9/2026 Sunday. At sea.
Without the drama of a helicopter rescue, the ship cruised along at
about 18 knots most of the time. Luggage
was left out before we went to dinner.
We did the usual ritual of tipping the wait staff and the room
attendant. They make reasonable money;
but life on a cruise ship for months on end can be quite tough.
8/10/2026 Monday. All cruise ships want their passengers off the ship as quickly as possible on disembarkation day as they need to turn things over for the sailing that same evening. Disney does it quite well, I must say. We had breakfast at the sit-down restaurant at 8 am, and took our time to leave (including through customs) and catch the bus to Gatwick (at about $75 per person quite expensive). The bus ride took a bit less than two hours.
I vaguely recall flying through LGW when I flew back to Hong Kong after college. The Gatwick today seems quite modern. Lounge access was a bit of a problem: Anne and I can each bring two guests as Chase Priority Pass holders, Joe P found a valid PP for himself only. The end result was we would just take Everly and the rest would while away the two-plus hours roaming the airport. All twelve of us were on the same BA flight to PMI (Palma Airport in Mallorca).
The three families had car reservations with different companies. I had mine with a company called Centauro that I booked via Chase. It was significantly cheaper than the Enterprise option. But we saw no indication of Centauro at the terminal. By asking around (mostly done by Anne) we found out it is an off-airport location with shuttles that go whenever they fill up. The rental process was straightforward enough. They mark how much gas is in the tank at checkout (40% in my case) and charge for that much gas (44 euros). If I return the car with more than 40% gas then I will get a rebate. The other thing is I decided to buy CDW (other option is to leave a 1700 euro deposit), about 90 euros for three days. While I didn’t have to use it, it did give me some peace of mind. The drive to Marriott Vacation Club Son Antem was reasonably easy. The landscape feels like that of Southwestern US: red rocks, dry, and not much greenery. And hot, the highs were all in the uppers 90s for the days we were here. There were many (mostly) defunct windmills around.
We all had dinner at the MVC café La Terrassa (this is the correct spelling, but I will mess up in later references). Dishes are typically around 20 euros, not particularly expensive.
Kuau rented two 2-bedroom apartments. Two kids will sleep on the sofa bed in the living room. There was some swapping of kids so they could do sleepover nights.
Accommodation. Marriott Vacation Club Son Antem (3 nights).
8/11/2026 Tuesday. The MVC is about 15 miles from downtown Palma, and traffic doesn’t seem to be a big problem. Anne and I gathered up enough courage to drive to a supermarket about 15 minutes away (Mercadona). With a car park (a bit tight) in the basement, shopping and loading were quite straightforward.
The kids decided to visit a beach. “Beach” is somewhat of a stretch, as Mirador des Balconet is at best a rocky area where one could dip in the water. Getting there involves a walk down from the parking lot, and I decided against it. Those who got there seem to enjoy it.
When I searched for top sights/sites in Mallorca, Castillo de Bellver was one of the top choices. It was closed by the time we got there, but the hilltop did offer a good view of the city of Palma and the huge marina. On the way we passed by the Palma Cathedral, which turns out to be the most visited site in the city. (It was also closed when we drove by.) We won’t be able to make it – oh well … In any case, the Palma Cathedral opened in 1228 while the castle was built about a century later.
For dinner we ate at Le Teressa again. Ellie’s family were sitting outside watching a raptor show (and Everly participated); we didn’t realize that until we ordered our food.
8/12/2026 Wednesday. Kuau booked a catamaran to cruise around the Palma Harbor area this morning. Access to the marina is restricted, so we would need to park at a municipal garage, walk to the marina, and perhaps catch a shuttle to the area where the Tortuga is moored. Ellie offered to drop Anne and I off close to the marina, and we managed to catch the shuttle to where the boat was docked. The marina is impressive, with a capacity for 1,000 boats.
Tortuga is an all-electric boat, about 40 feet long. It’s basically powered by solar panels that cover the top of the boat, and Li-Ion batteries. Leonardo, the owner, was explaining to me that at full sun the solar output is 2kW, which is just about enough to run the AC. When he put engine power on, power usage got as high as 9kW. The boat cruised at around 6 knots, and at 3 knots it can go 240 km on battery.
The problem was a cruising speed of 6 knots doesn’t take you far in an hour. And we didn’t go far. The kids (and some adults) certainly enjoyed the water, which was very clear. The use of underwater scooters also added to the fun. We ended up extending the tour by an hour because people didn’t come back to the boat in time.
Dinner was pasta and meatballs made from ingredients bought at Mercadona.
Today was also full solar eclipse day. This last major one happened in Spain over
100 years ago, so it was a big deal. People
were worried that there would be massive traffic jams and assorted
problems. The full eclipse was to start
at around 8:31 pm, and would last only 1 ½ minutes. Since sunset was around 8:48 pm, the sun
would be low when the total eclipse occurred, and the skies wouldn’t be that
bright before and after the event. We
weren’t about to go out of our way to find a good viewing location, thus my
expectations were low – perhaps just experiencing the darkened skies, as we did
last time in upstate New York. We went
to the location Kuau thought would be a good place as he drove around the resort;
and it was a good choice, we enjoyed the view of the full eclipse as it
happened.
8/13/2026 Thursday. Today is travel day. Joe P and his family left at about 8:15 am to get to the airport for their 11 am flight to LHR, and they will connect to a 6:55 pm VS flight to Boston.
We decided to take it easy. Our flight BA469 from PMI to LHR would arrive at about 2:30 pm (London time), so we should be able to make a late United flight back to NJ. Since the flights were on different airlines, and would involve a change in terminal, we decided to stay at a LHR hotel and fly back to NJ on Friday.
The car rental agency Centauro is about a mile form the PMI airport, and looks easy enough to find on a map. But my unfamiliarity with how circles work in Spain resulted in several wrong turns, so it took a bit longer (extra 10 minutes) than expected. The rental return was straightforward, and since the car was returned with more gas than it started with, I got back the charge against what was in the tank (and the agent said we put in too much gas).
We had to check in luggage, and had to wait for 30 minutes in the business class line (regular line was even longer). There were these two photographers that had about 10 pieces to check in, which didn’t help. The rest of the process (security and immigration) was quite straightforward. The Priority Pass lounge was not busy, and we grabbed “lunch” there.
BA469 was smooth, and despite departing about 40 minutes late, we arrived on time at about 2:40 pm. During the flight we were served a hot lunch. Then the wait started. First it was for a gate – the pilot said waiting gave us a jetway gate, which was nice. But luggage was slow to arrive. It was about 4 pm that we finally got the three pieces we checked in (we had one of Ellie’s). The many announcements on delayed luggage cited the hot weather. Today was indeed the hottest day of the year so far in London.
Hoppa bus H5X runs every 30 minutes, and cost 7 GBP per person. We managed to get on the 4:30 bus, which was quite convenient for the Heathrow Renaissance Hotel.
Our “upgraded” room has a view of the runway, and we see (and hear) these planes that rumble down the runway on takeoff, including that of Joe P’s family (VS11). (Turns out the window wasn’t completely closed, it would have been quieter had we closed it.)
The Executive Lounge at the hotel offers a snack in the afternoon. Interestingly the food is “standard” (we were served rather than picked our own). We are calling that dinner. Perhaps some potato chips later this evening.
At around 8 pm we decided to walk to the neighborhood McDonald’s. It was a short 0.2 miles per Google.
Accommodation.
Heathrow Renaissance Hotel (1 night).
8/14/2026 Friday. So we are going home. In hindsight, we could have booked ourselves on an earlier flight, although price and upgrade availability were considerations when we picked the 4 pm departure. Renaissance offers free breakfast to Platinum members, the quality not quite up to other Renaissance properties I have stayed at. It was easy enough to while away the time until it was time to go to the airport.
Hoppa H2X got us to Terminal 2. After dropping off the 3 pieces of luggage, and going through security, we stopped by the Plaza Premium Lounge in the main terminal to get something to eat. Then it was the long trek (1/2 mile, 15 minutes) to the B gate area. The United Club there has a section (probably) for Polaris travelers, it was quiet and served hot food. I had only a scone with clotted cream and jam.
UA941 departed a few minutes ahead of schedule. The Polaris section has a few empty seats; the other cabins were full. As I type this (about 2 hours from landing) it has been a pleasant flight. United has introduced this “Chef’s Table” for Polaris, and I “inadvertently” picked it because I pre-ordered the roasted lamb. The appetizers were nice, but the main course was just so-so.
We landed ahead of schedule at 6:49 pm, but the pilot said the assigned gate wouldn’t free up till 7:10 pm. That didn’t happen, as the 777-200 (going to LHR, as a matter of fact) had maintenance issues. (It took off at 7:58 pm, so not a long delay in the scheme of things.) We waited for the neighboring gate to be freed up, which took a while. Immigration for US citizens is now simply face-recognition (MPC is not needed).
Newark Airport now directs all shared ride pickup for
Terminal C to be from the garage. It is
quite a walk from the terminal, but surely traffic wasn’t busy. In any event, we got home a little after 8
pm.
