Northern Europe Disney Cruise 2022: LEGO House

I had really hoped to be finished blogging about our trip before this but work has been insane. It's getting a little better, in some ways, and a little harder, in others, now that the students are back. Last Wednesday, I got home shortly before 5 and I was in bed by 6. And I slept through until 5:30 the next morning. So yes, it's been a bit of a week and blogging has not been high on the priority list. Nor has tidying the house, doing dishes, or cooking :) Shout out to Dave for carrying the load while I've been focused on work. It's Friday night and I'm currently watching the Blue Jays' game and writing a few posts.

Okay, back to our Europe trip, and specifically the cruise. I am about to write about one of my favourite days on the cruise. Remember how I've been saying all along that I don't know which was my second favourite day? This one would definitely win except Rachel was starting to get sick, which started as her being extremely exhausted. So I was worried about her, and at one point, wondered if we should even do this excursion. She perked up somewhat and powered through but it did put a damper on the day. It's hard having a sick kid when you're away from home.

Anyways... before our super fun day, we had an "at sea day". This is the day the red crayon went through the dryer with the white load and it looked like someone had splattered blood all over our clothes. I started the day sobbing hysterically, thinking half our clothes for the trip had been ruined. Thankfully, a kind passenger suggested washing it again, and the Disney laundry service assisted with some of the tougher stains, and it all came out in the wash (hahaha -- mostly) so it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but it was not a great way to start the day.

Then we had a quiet afternoon and Dave and I started to pack. That evening was our turn for the dinner at Animator's Palate where we got to be animators.

First though, Sam practiced his napkin folding. He was making a duck like one of our servers showed him.

I cannot say enough good things about the customer service on Disney cruises. Our servers discovered how much I enjoyed the onion soup and, by this time, were bringing me two bowls every supper. It was what I ate as my main course for the last three nights in a row. French Onion Soup and a salad and I was one happy camper cruiser!

Here are all four of the characters we drew. It was so fun to see them dancing.

 

The next day we headed off to Lego House in Billund, Denmark. We ported in Fredericia, Denmark and then had an excursion to Billund. Billund is the home of Lego and we were all really excited about this day. You may have heard of Legoland, which is the amusement park, but we chose to go to Lego House, which is more of a hands-on opportunity to play with Lego, while learning more about it. You can read more about it here and, once again, I wish our excursion had been longer so we could have explored more outside. We got to the yellow stairs on the right hand side of the picture, and the big Lego blocks, again on the right hand side, but didn't get to explore from the outside.

Our tour operator was really interesting. He brought various grains which Denmark grows. Here is Rachel with some wheat and some canola.

 

When we finally reached Lego House, Sam and Rachel just wanted to play on the big blocks. We eventually convinced them to head inside.

This Lego tree, made up of over six million Lego blocks, is in the middle of the stairs taking you to the different levels. It stands 15m (45 feet) high.

I loved seeing the creative things people made out of Lego, like these dinosaurs...

... the toothbrushes, and, of course, the flowers.

 

We got to get our portrait done in Lego blocks which was really fun! Does it look like us?!?!?! 

I loved all the ways we could play with Lego. including in this room with the Lego waterfall.

 

This room was celebrating 90 Years of Lego. We were provided with a 16 by 16 square and one piece Lego blocks to create whatever we wanted. I attempted to make the Disney Magic and Rachel made a beach scene.

While we did this, Sam stayed in the waterfall room, and made an axolotl, a type of salamander he's been a little obsessed with lately. He also demonstrated the proper way to wear his Port Adventure sticker. Most people choose to wear it on their shirts but not Sam :) 

I loved how Lego, and Duplo, was used to decorate. This was above the area where we could create our own flowers. Again, we couldn't do this because we didn't have enough time but it was really pretty.

Who needs fresh flowers when you can have Lego ones?!?!? And yes, we each bought a set of Lego, and yes, I bought flowers!

Rachel thought this Lego dog peeing on the post was hilarious!!!

This was such a fun area because you could see Lego bricks being produced and packaged. We each got our own individual six brick combination with a bag of six red bricks. It was soooooo cool! My combination is #512,621,978!

Sam loved making fish out of Lego. After you made a fish, you'd take a picture of it, digitally add eyes and a mouth, and then it would swim in the huge fish tank. It was so cool. Rachel was too exhausted to have much fun by this point, and just wanted to nap.

This was from the museum of Lego history in the basement. Again, we really didn't have enough time to appreciate this fully.

Once again, Denmark reminded me of Saskatchewan. I really missed our annual visit to Saskatchewan this summer so looked for glimpses of it everywhere in Europe :)

 

Remember how I wrote that the ship being in port was a celebration for the town of Skagen, Denmark? Well the same held true for Fredericia. I felt like royalty, or a celebrity, as we stood on the top deck, listened to the band play, saw the three cannon salute (they were small but very loud), and waved to all the people. There must have been over a thousand people who came to see us off.

 

Since it was our last night on the cruise, we had to pack. We didn't participate in any fish extenders this time around and Sam suggested that we buy a magnet in each port to decorate our door. We also picked up some Disney themed magnets from the gift shop. I loved our collection of port magnets, and love that Sam chose most of them.

Since it was our last night, we got a picture of the kids with our amazing servers. Kabelo and Agung took such great care of us.

 

The next morning we got up way too early, ate a last breakfast, and left the Disney Magic. We had more of Europe to discover but our cruise was over.

 

Honestly, while the kids loved the longer cruise, Dave and I were less excited by the last few days. It felt like a bit too much of a good thing. I think we'll stick to shorter cruises for the next while. But we were so happy to be able to do this cruise and to explore all these amazing ports.

 

To read about Day 17, go here.