LIVE from Scandinavia on the Voyager of the Seas July 31-August 10, 2022 with Dragon of the Seas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

18 hours ago, colsky said:

Staff at my time dining desk said this sailing is less than half full!

 

Enjoy your cruise and the sun 🙂☀️

Yes, the weather here in Stockholm has been glorious since we arrived.  It looks like today will be nice, too. 

 

I am going to ask what the final number of guests is and post it tomorrow after we sail.  However, it is a noticeably empty ship.  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

The plan today is to take ferry # 80 to the Stop at Allmanna Gran [Djurgarden] to go to the Abba Museum. The museum is just across the parking lot from the ferry.  

 

You know traveling in a foreign country does not always go as planned.  😊

 

 

Rick Steves does not give The Abba Museum high marks, buts acknowledges that Abba fans love it. I have always liked Abba so we are going to give it a try. 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

For those of you who have children here are a few pictures of the adventure ocean area.   I took these before open so I wasn’t able to show any inside but I wouldn’t of been able to walk in these areas anyway. 
 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are several of the papers from the cabin. 
 

The first two are from the cruise compass

 

 

 

this is the list of benefits for the diamond plus.

 

this is one of the two sheets of benefits for the suite guests.  I must’ve forgotten to take a picture of the other one I’ll get it for you later. 

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are a few more random things I took a picture of.

 

this is the antique car that is right beside the Promenade Café

 

 

here are the steps leading down to the casino  from the promenade

 

this is the seating area by the sky bar

 

 

i’ve never seen one of these water fountains on the ship before. It’s on deck 12 and it’s probably the only place you can get anything to drink on that deck

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

The Abba museum is a lot of fun.
 

There is even a hotel that’s attached.

 

Every nook and cranny you go to play the different song.
 

 

You could probably run through it in a half an hour or 40 minutes if you wanted to. However, it takes a good hour or so to see everything not including the movie, which takes a little longer. I did not do that.
 

There are also several things that you can participate in and they will add a little time. I only did this one. You picked the song—either Mamma Mia or Dancing Queen and then got on stage and sang and danced with the hologram. (The music was loud so no one can hear you) This is not my best look but I thought this was an interesting picture. Ha ha ha ha

 

 

 

The museum opens at 10 o’clock and you are supposed to buy your tickets online. But I wasn’t the only one there who bought a ticket at the gift shop before we went out. $28 for adults and $25 for seniors.

 

In one room they had a whole selection of the original costumes they wore. It’s so funny now to look at those.

 

 

 

This famous photo of the group was taken on a bench right here in Dijurgarden. They suggest you go out and take your own picture of the same post.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I wanted to comment on my SL card for transportation. I think it has been a really good help for us. At about US$30 for the seven day ticket, it paid for itself. Today alone I took two ferry rides and a tram ride. 
 

 

 

it is very convenient to just tap your card and go.

Edited August 1, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I have passed by a fountain statue along the way at the Necka Stand ferry stop. It was created by Carl Milles and finished Buy one of his students. It was originally supposed to be put in front of the United Nations building and I don’t know why it wasn’t.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statue is “God our Father on

the Rainbow.” On top of the arch is an angel putting stars in the sky.His  house Millesgarden, is very close to the cruise ship stop. But it is closed on Mondays and today is Monday. 
 

Someone told me that the reason is located there is that that is the gateway to Stockholm. In other words that’s where Stockholm starts. It’s hard to figure that out when it’s a series of islands you don’t know where it starts and stops. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[John&LaLa]

6 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

The plan today is to take ferry # 80 to the Stop at Allmanna Gran [Djurgarden] to go to the Abba Museum. The museum is just across the parking lot from the ferry.  

 

You know traveling in a foreign country does not always go as planned.  😊

 

 

Rick Steves does not give The Abba Museum high marks, buts acknowledges that Abba fans love it. I have always liked Abba so we are going to give it a try. 

 

 

ABBA and Starbucks are our two planned visits. ABBA for Laura and Starbucks for my mug collection

[kccrzr]

4 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

ABBA and Starbucks are our two planned visits. ABBA for Laura and Starbucks for my mug collection

Starbucks is on my list too, if we have time.  I’ve got a collection of You Are Here mugs from various trips. 

[John&LaLa]

55 minutes ago, kccrzr said:

Starbucks is on my list too, if we have time.  I’ve got a collection of You Are Here mugs from various trips. 

 

We can share duties. Need Helsinki as well

[westwood65]

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

ABBA and Starbucks are our two planned visits. ABBA for Laura and Starbucks for my mug collection

Its funny to see other people doing a Starbucks mug run on there stops. Thought we where the only ones. 

 Our last cruise was a Baltic one, Our first concern was getting to a Starbucks to get our mug or mugs. Had the shops all mapped out.😀

A few places we had to make a choice whether to get both the city and country or just one. We came home with 6 in total.  Our luggage was getting too heavy and we had to leave room for other things.

  My only regret was not getting to the Starbucks in St Petersburg.  

 

 I am enjoying reading this as it brings back memories of one of our favorite cruises. 

[John&LaLa]

35 minutes ago, westwood65 said:

Its funny to see other people doing a Starbucks mug run on there stops. Thought we where the only ones. 

 Our last cruise was a Baltic one, Our first concern was getting to a Starbucks to get our mug or mugs. Had the shops all mapped out.😀

A few places we had to make a choice whether to get both the city and country or just one. We came home with 6 in total.  Our luggage was getting too heavy and we had to leave room for other things.

  My only regret was not getting to the Starbucks in St Petersburg.  

 

 I am enjoying reading this as it brings back memories of one of our favorite cruises. 

 

I only got Copenhagen on our trip 4 years ago.

 

Wished I could have gotten St Pete. Still on schedule for the World Cruise, but doubtful we'll see changes in 2 years

[Another_Critic]

34 minutes ago, westwood65 said:

Its funny to see other people doing a Starbucks mug run on there stops. Thought we where the only ones. 

 

I try to do Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses, when I remember.  Need to pick one up in Copenhagen and Reykjavik on the TA.

 

Last time I was in Dublin, I tried to pick one up, but it was closed for renovation.  I'll need to go back to get my shot glass.  😄

[westwood65]

57 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I only got Copenhagen on our trip 4 years ago.

 

Wished I could have gotten St Pete. Still on schedule for the World Cruise, but doubtful we'll see changes in 2 years

Well you never know, but yes I do agree with you about things not changing in the next few years. It would be a very rare mug to get.  Starbucks may not even be there in the next few years, if it already has not pulled out. 

[kccrzr]

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

We can share duties. Need Helsinki as well

Deal! Which city do you want to take?

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, kccrzr said:

Deal! Which city do you want to take?

 

We can discuss on roll call

[kelkel2]

Thanks for doing this wonderful review. I’ll be following along!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

9 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

We can discuss on roll call

John--I did a speed test this morning.  

 

I am using Surf

Ping 940

Download 4.2 Mbps

Upload 311.36 Kbps

Edited August 2, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Sunrise on day three. This might be the only day that I actually get a sunrise picture today sunrise was at 4:30 but we moved ahead one hour and it was really 5:30 ship time. 
 

it is another beautiful day 72° and perfect

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Since I was up at an ungodly hour and I could take pictures with no one in them I went by the casino. Here are a few pictures of the casino. DH and I went by last night and I made a small donation he came out even.

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Look at these two pics of the windjammer cafe. I took these at 1pm yesterday. When have you ever seen it look like this?

 

 

 

 

There were almost as many staff as guests. 

 

Since we had a big breakfast this morning we went there for lunch again today. There a few more occupied tables. But, not many.

 

This was The “My Time Dining “ last night at 7:15.

 

I asked the Next Cruise officer last night if he knew the number of guests. He said last cruise was 2500 but “thought” this one is 2000. If so they are hiding in their cabins.

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DELTABLUE]

Nice that you don't have to fight for a table and have lots of choice on where to sit.  Continuing to enjoy your wonderful pictures!  How do food choices in Cafe Promenade compare to what is available in the Park Cafe?

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 minute ago, DELTABLUE said:

Nice that you don't have to fight for a table and have lots of choice on where to sit.  Continuing to enjoy your wonderful pictures!  How do food choices in Cafe Promenade compare to what is available in the Park Cafe?

We have gotten a window seat both days. 😃

 

The food choices in the cafe seem the same to me.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

As we left Stockholm yesterday we sailed through the Stockholm Archipelago. We left at 4:30 pm but did not get out to the open Baltic Sea until 9:15. It was so beautiful. 
 

There lots of big and small islands. There were houses on almost all of them. 

 

This island had tunnels through the rock. We did not notice roads on any of the islands. (Too small to need them) So this was likely the way they got from one side to the other. Most of the islands looked very rocky. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the end of the archipelago the smaller islands look windswept.