Dream 10-night July 2023 France/Iceland/Norway from Southampton to Copenhagen

[anricat]

Disembarkation and Copenhagen - August 1, 2023​

In the Caribbean we like second seating dinner but in Europe we prefer first seating. A lot of people are the opposite. This, unfortunately, means early breakfast on disembarkation day. No thanks! We spoke with our serving team and they told us they had an open table in their second seating and we could come for later breakfast. So we slept in and went to breakfast in Animator’s at 8:15. After that we waited to get off the ship. And waited. Apparently passport control was really backed up and they were holding us (growing pains again, apparently). Many people in our cruise group complained about what a mess disembarkation was.

We finally got off the ship and made the short walk to the city bus stop and found a bus there waiting. Only a couple other families were taking the city bus. We got to the metro station and found the train and took it to the central station in Copenhagen. Our hotel was only about a 5 min walk from there. We dropped off our baggage and then walked about 10 minutes to the Budget car rental. It took awhile to get our rental car because their system was offline but we were finally underway at around 10:45 AM. A little later than we wanted, but we would make it work.

First stop was about an hour away to the town of Roskilde, which was a super cute little town. We enjoyed some lunch in town (after having a really hard time finding parking). After lunch we drove over to the Viking Ship Museum which is a huge museum that only holds five things: five viking ships. These ships were purposefully sunk by the vikings to create a barrier in the harbor. They took some old ships out a little ways, filled them with stones and sank them. In addition to these ships, the museum has reconstructions of the five ships outside that you can look at (and one you can climb into).




When we were done exploring there we had a little ice cream from a food truck parked outside before leaving for Lejre Land of Legends which Emmaline called Viking “Pilgrim World” (after the reenactment place from Wednesday). She claims it was dorky, but she actually had a lot of fun. But she had to be a teenager and be too cool for that, so it was silly and dorky. The great hall they built was really impressive. They had a couple of villages and a lot of different activities available. It was peaceful and pretty and we enjoyed our time there.





We made the hour drive back to Copenhagen (during which time I had lights flashed at me and was honked at twice - they were not super kind drivers in Denmark). We returned the rental car (which was quicker than the pick up, thankfully) and went back to check into our hotel room. We did a little reorganizing and then went off to dinner. We had traditional Danish food which none of us were super into but I’m glad we tried it. Then we stopped for a few groceries at a local market before heading back to our hotel room.

We had missed the last few stages of the Tour de France and had amazingly been able to avoid spoilers. We brought our Fire Stick with Peacock on it and eagerly plugged it in. Aaaaand Peacock wouldn’t work in Denmark. Dang it. Well, Netflix did and so we watched a bit of the new Tour de France documentary about last year’s tour. Felt right being in Denmark (where they LOVE all things cycling) watching a show about cycling. We went to bed a little early. It had been a long day.

 

[shosh1530]

Just caught up with your trip so far. Thanks for sharing. I've been looking at a similar cruise for 2024.

I spent almost two weeks backpacking around Iceland in 2002 and it seems like you managed to see a lot of things in those two days!

 

[princesscinderella]

Enjoying your trip report, I too was on this sailing and it so nice to see all the fun places you visited. We had the exact same opinion of the Roller boys and left early too. Greta was absolutely incredible and such sweet person, we bumped into her a few times around the ship. Even though there were so many sea days it didn’t feel like too many somehow. Laundry was definitely the Wild West at one point I had loads going on three different decks. We are a family of 5 and I did three loads at a time, three different times on the ship.

 

[anricat]

Copenhagen - August 2, 2023​

Nobody slept particularly well. The beds weren’t super comfortable and the room temperature wasn’t quite right. I always sleep well on the ship but this bed just didn’t feel right. It was like sleeping on a trampoline. Every time Roger moved, I felt every little tiny adjustment like a ripple across the bed. It was awful.

So we slept in a bit and got up around 8 AM and went down to breakfast which was included at the hotel. It was a decent breakfast, actually. Many things about the hotel were great, like how close it was to the central train station. We hopped on the metro and went to get tickets for the 10 AM canal boat tour. I had purchased the Copenhagen Card prior to the trip. With the card we paid around $300 for the three of us for three days to have unlimited public transportation and entrance into just about every museum, castle, and attraction you could imagine in and around Copenhagen. We probably saved close to $100 by using the Copenhagen card as opposed to buying transit cards and admission tickets to each thing. Plus we didn’t have to figure out the transit ticket machines (which we saw several people trying to sort out with frustration) and at some of the museums and attractions there were long ticket lines we were able to bypass since we already had the Copenhagen card (Rosenborg Castle and Tivoli spring to mind). Though some places we did have to wait because we had to scan our cards to get separate tickets for entry. Anyway, if you’re going to Copenhagen, this card is the way to go.




The canal boat tour was actually really nice. It was a relaxing little ride around the city and various things were pointed out to us. It was about an hour long. After that was done we went over to Christianborg Palace and started with the old castle ruins (12th-14th century) underneath the current palace (which was built in 1907). It was cool to see some of the old castle underneath. After that we went up top into the royal reception rooms which were, of course, very over-the-top and lavish.










After that we went to a little burger restaurant for lunch. We were able to eat outside and it was so pleasant and beautiful. The weather on this day couldn’t have been more perfect and everyone loved their burgers. I even liked my veggie burger that was mostly beets and I don’t like beets very much! After lunch we went to a pastry shop. It took forever to get our dessert and the pastries were…fine. I was surprised because it’s a very popular place that often has a line out the door. There wasn’t a line when we got there, but there was when we left. It was also really expensive. We should have skipped.

For the rest of the day we went over to Tivoli, which is an amusement park right in the heart of the city. Tivoli actually inspired Walt Disney as he was building Disneyland. I have to say, it’s a beautiful park with amazing gardens all around. Tivoli is a little strange because you have to pay to get in, but that only grants you admission, you then have to pay for each ride individually (sort of like it used to be a long time ago at Disneyland) or you can get a wristband that gets you on all the rides. Our Copenhagen card got us admission in (without waiting in a long line) and then I picked up our wristbands that I had already purchased ahead of time from a little kiosk once inside the park.


My favorite ride of the day was Rutschenbanen (which translates to “roller coaster”). This ride is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the world and has been operating since 1914. It still has a brakeman that rides in the middle of the train! Emmaline met up with one of her cruise friends and rode a couple of rides with her and we hung out with their family for a little while. I didn’t want to pay the crazy prices at Tivoli for dinner, plus we needed a stop at the hotel, so we went out for wraps for dinner. It was fine. Maybe we would have been better off at Tivoli. You win some, you lose some.




We were back at Tivoli for the rest of the evening until it began to rain and we were all just feeling sort of done for the day. We went back to our hotel room and watched another episode of the Tour de France documentary on Netflix before turning in the for the night.

 

[princesscinderella]

Copenhagen - August 2, 2023​

Nobody slept particularly well. The beds weren’t super comfortable and the room temperature wasn’t quite right. I always sleep well on the ship but this bed just didn’t feel right. It was like sleeping on a trampoline. Every time Roger moved, I felt every little tiny adjustment like a ripple across the bed. It was awful.

So we slept in a bit and got up around 8 AM and went down to breakfast which was included at the hotel. It was a decent breakfast, actually. Many things about the hotel were great, like how close it was to the central train station. We hopped on the metro and went to get tickets for the 10 AM canal boat tour. I had purchased the Copenhagen Card prior to the trip. With the card we paid around $300 for the three of us for three days to have unlimited public transportation and entrance into just about every museum, castle, and attraction you could imagine in and around Copenhagen. We probably saved close to $100 by using the Copenhagen card as opposed to buying transit cards and admission tickets to each thing. Plus we didn’t have to figure out the transit ticket machines (which we saw several people trying to sort out with frustration) and at some of the museums and attractions there were long ticket lines we were able to bypass since we already had the Copenhagen card (Rosenborg Castle and Tivoli spring to mind). Though some places we did have to wait because we had to scan our cards to get separate tickets for entry. Anyway, if you’re going to Copenhagen, this card is the way to go.




The canal boat tour was actually really nice. It was a relaxing little ride around the city and various things were pointed out to us. It was about an hour long. After that was done we went over to Christianborg Palace and started with the old castle ruins (12th-14th century) underneath the current palace (which was built in 1907). It was cool to see some of the old castle underneath. After that we went up top into the royal reception rooms which were, of course, very over-the-top and lavish.










After that we went to a little burger restaurant for lunch. We were able to eat outside and it was so pleasant and beautiful. The weather on this day couldn’t have been more perfect and everyone loved their burgers. I even liked my veggie burger that was mostly beets and I don’t like beets very much! After lunch we went to a pastry shop. It took forever to get our dessert and the pastries were…fine. I was surprised because it’s a very popular place that often has a line out the door. There wasn’t a line when we got there, but there was when we left. It was also really expensive. We should have skipped.

For the rest of the day we went over to Tivoli, which is an amusement park right in the heart of the city. Tivoli actually inspired Walt Disney as he was building Disneyland. I have to say, it’s a beautiful park with amazing gardens all around. Tivoli is a little strange because you have to pay to get in, but that only grants you admission, you then have to pay for each ride individually (sort of like it used to be a long time ago at Disneyland) or you can get a wristband that gets you on all the rides. Our Copenhagen card got us admission in (without waiting in a long line) and then I picked up our wristbands that I had already purchased ahead of time from a little kiosk once inside the park.


My favorite ride of the day was Rutschenbanen (which translates to “roller coaster”). This ride is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the world and has been operating since 1914. It still has a brakeman that rides in the middle of the train! Emmaline met up with one of her cruise friends and rode a couple of rides with her and we hung out with their family for a little while. I didn’t want to pay the crazy prices at Tivoli for dinner, plus we needed a stop at the hotel, so we went out for wraps for dinner. It was fine. Maybe we would have been better off at Tivoli. You win some, you lose some.




We were back at Tivoli for the rest of the evening until it began to rain and we were all just feeling sort of done for the day. We went back to our hotel room and watched another episode of the Tour de France documentary on Netflix before turning in the for the night.

Were you staying at the Tivoli Hotel too? Our beds were just as you described and the first night my husband and I had a giggle fest moving around the bed making the other feel like they were in the bounce house in the lobby. I picked that hotel because thats where the ABD group was staying too figuring it was well vetted but we were not impressed.

 

[anricat]

Were you staying at the Tivoli Hotel too? Our beds were just as you described and the first night my husband and I had a giggle fest moving around the bed making the other feel like they were in the bounce house in the lobby. I picked that hotel because thats where the ABD group was staying too figuring it was well vetted but we were not impressed.

No. We stayed at the Anderson Boutique Hotel. We were actually moved to a different room our last night due to an issue with the A/C leaking water all over the floor in our room (and our suitcases, which were thankfully hard-sided and closed) and they moved us to a junior suite and the bed was SO much better.

 

[hmsTigger]

Austin to Southampton - July 19/20, 2023

We are back to Europe for another adventure. As seems to be our lot in life lately, we figured out how to pivot and roll with the punches. I’m sure my trip reports would be quite dreary without a bit of drama! But we still had fun, of course. Traveling on this trip is Roger (my husband), Emmaline (our 15 year old) and me. For the first leg of the trip, we will be joined by my friend Dru and her husband Nils who live in Geneva. You may recall Dru from our 2018 European adventures. She was supposed to be with for our adventures in Europe in 2020 but, well, we know how that worked out. So I’m super excited that we were able to coordinate some time together for this year.

I wish I could say that our travel was uneventful, but it turned out to be quite the event. Our direct flight to Heathrow was scheduled to take off at 6:10 PM and it was slightly late departing (maybe 15 minutes) but we made up the time in the air. None of us slept very well on the flight and by the time we made it into Heathrow at 9:30 in the morning local time, we weren’t real cheery. Roger was even less cheery on account of a crazy huge yawn he had on the plane. He yawned so big that he felt something pop in his jaw and then was in agonizing pain after that. Passport control, bag claim and customs were super efficient and easy, but Roger was feeling worse and worse. We made our way to a cafe to sit down and have a sack and coffee. Roger decided to get up and go use the restroom and a couple minutes later a flight attendant was in the cafe area calling out “Summer? Summer?” Roger had felt dizzy and they helped had him onto the floor.

They called the airport paramedics and a young woman arrived shortly thereafter on a bicycle. She took all sorts of vitals and Roger was perfectly normal for everything. He said his stomach was really upset, maybe from the pain and the stress and not eating a ton and not sleeping. I travel with a pharmacy so I gave him some Zofran and Gabapentin to try to help with both nausea and pain. Eventually he was able to get up and get into a wheelchair which is basically where he stayed until we got him onto our coach to drive to Southampton. I just knew that if we could get him onto the bus and he could crash out, he’d feel better on waking. Which…fast forward, is exactly what happened. Our coach arrived pretty much on time at 12:20 PM and we arrived in Southampton around 2:20 PM or so.

In the midst of all this, Dru and Nils arrived and I pretty much teared up when I hugged Dru because it’s been 5 years since I’ve seen her and she’s basically like a sister to me and SOOOOOO much has happened in my life since 2018. (The pandemic, death of my dad, death of my mom, death of my step-mom, and breast cancer. In that order.) It was just so amazing and wonderful to hug her again.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Southampton we walked the 15 min walk from the coach station to our hotel and arrived around 2:40 but we had to hang out because check-in time was 3 PM at the Premier Inn Southampton Cumberland Place. After we were able to check in, we freshened up and made our way to the Sea City Museum which was right around the corner from the hotel. We were there for a little over an hour. The museum is primarily exhibits about the Titanic with lots of really interesting stories and items from the ship and Southampton at that time.





We left there at 5 PM and stopped into a grocery store to buy some bottled water as well as some local items that Emmaline wanted to try (Monster Munch and Cadbury dairy milk chocolate). She wasn’t so into the Monster Munch and we ended up tossing the rest of the bag. After that we passed by a couple of the Titanic memorials in the park near our hotel, as well as a war memorial. After that we went to dinner at a little pub about 10 minute walk from our hotel called Smugglers. We all enjoyed our meal but we were starting to fade. Well, our family was. Dru and Nils only had about an hour and fifteen minute flight from Geneva so they were doing fine.







We went back to the hotel and got everything ready for our tour the next day before we all fell into bed and crashed.

Stonehenge and Bath - July 21, 2023​

Breakfast wasn’t included at the hotel, but it was pretty cheap and seemed easiest so we just did that (breakfast for our family of three for two mornings worked out to 38 GBP, which seemed like a steal). Roger’s jaw was feeling a little better and unlike the previous day, he was able to eat more normally, but he still took some Tylenol. After breakfast we were picked up by our guide for the day, Jo from Undiscovered Cotswolds. She was right on time for our 8:30 AM pickup and we drove straightaway to Stonehenge, arriving a little before 10 AM. We started by going through the visitor’s center which was nice and informative before boarding a shuttle bus to take us out to the stones. I had heard you couldn’t get close to the stones, but honestly, I was not at all unhappy about our distance from them in the slightest. Some people may feel that they are just big rocks stacked, but I really enjoyed seeing them.




We left Stonehenge around 11:15 and drove to Bath. Once in Bath, Jo took us past the Royal Crescent and gave us a little more information about Bath, which was really a cool looking city. She then led us to a great pub called The Raven where we had some pies for lunch that were absolutely amazing. After we were stuffed, she led us over to the Roman baths and set us loose. I have to say that the Roman baths were actually a little underwhelming. Maybe after seeing Roman ruins in, well, Rome, anything else is just a little less exciting. But it was still pretty cool to see how it was all laid out and especially how they had the little stacks of rocks that the floor would have rested on to make a heated floor.






We finished at the baths and grabbed a coffee and did some quick shopping, where Emmaline discovered the joy of Primark, and it quickly became her new favorite shop. She bought several things and would have gladly spent more time shopping. But at 4 PM it was time to meet back up with Jo for the drive back which was about 2 hours. We arrived back to our hotel, freshened up and went shopping! Roger went to a wine shop and Emmaline, Dru and I went to the Primark in Southampton. (Nils stayed behind at the hotel.) We all left Primark with lighter wallets and met up at Nando’s for dinner (on the way to which a large group of naked people passed us on bicycles - no joke). After dinner, we went to a gelato shop, which was good but took entirely too long to get gelato. We returned to the room and did a little repacking to prepare for embarkation the next day.

Hello Which coach from Heathrow to Southampton?
Were you happy with the ride and price? Promptness?
Thank you

 

[anricat]

Hello Which coach from Heathrow to Southampton?
Were you happy with the ride and price? Promptness?
Thank you

We took the National Express coach. I pre-booked tickets online before the trip and we were very happy with the price, the ride, and the punctuality. It was very easy to find and easy to board. They stowed the luggage in the bottom of the coach for us. I would definitely use them again. A lot of people in our cruise group booked private transfers, Disney transfers and other things for MUCH more money. This was just as easy as any of that, I felt like.

 

[anricat]

Copenhagen - August 3, 2023​

For our final morning in Copenhagen, I booked us a time slot for Rosenborg Castle. Timed entry is required for this castle, even with a Copenhagen card. It didn’t cost anything and I just had to show verification of our timed entry upon arrival and then our Copenhagen cards. I chose the first slot at 10 AM when they opened and it was absolutely the right call. We practically had the place to ourselves and by the time we were leaving, the place was starting to get really busy.

We spent about an hour at Rosenborg and we all agreed that we liked it better than Christianborg. So if you are ever in Copenhagen and you only have time for one castle, pick Rosenborg. It’s older and somewhat smaller, but still really impressive and beautiful in its own way. There’s also a vault in the basement with an impressive array of royal…stuff, including the crown jewels of Denmark. I have pretty mixed feelings these days about crown jewels (colonizers, yay…) but they were still interesting to see.












We left there and walked the short distance to the Round Tower, an observatory built in the 17th century by Christian IV to continue the work of astronomer Tycho Brahe. The cool thing about this tower is that it doesn’t have any steps until you get almost to the very top. It’s just a wide sloping spiral pathway. We enjoyed the view from the top and then descended back down, stopping at a nearby juice bar to get some sandwiches and juice which we enjoyed in a park back near Rosenborg called King’s Park.









Then we took the train back to our hotel to relax for awhile and recuperate. We did a little packing and I worked some on my trip report. After awhile we felt refreshed and made our way back out to one of Emmaline’s picks, the Glyptoteket museum, which houses Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Mediterranean sculpture and artifacts as well as Dutch and French paintings. We spent most of our time in the Roman section marveling at all the statues. They have one of the largest collections I’ve seen outside Rome and I again had that sort of weird feeling that I did when regarding the jewels. Do these objects really belong here? Why were they there? How did they come to be there? On the one hand, it’s nice for people local to the region to see the history and artifacts of other regions and people’s as they may not have the opportunity to visit those places to see them. On the other hand, do these things belong in a Danish museum? It’s complex. And if you’re interested in more of this discussion, I highly recommend the podcast “In Search of Black History with Bonnie Greer” specifically episode 8, though the whole podcast is really good.









We hadn’t gotten very far into the French and Dutch paintings when we were just…done. Done with history, done with museums, done being on our feet. Just…done. So at 4 PM we found ourselves back at our hotel. When we arrived back there was water dripping from our A/C and onto our suitcases (thankfully shut and hard side plastic so everything was fine inside). I called down and told them about it and they said they would send someone. Then the phone rang a few minutes later and said that nobody would be available until the next day and they offered to move us to another room. Roger was reluctant but I didn’t want to deal with a mess of water and it had been making odd noises. We were mostly packed and so I told him that Emmaline and I could take care of it while he was out buying some wine he wanted to go pick up.

So he left and they got our new room ready and as I was finishing packing up, I slipped in a giant puddle of water that we hadn’t even noticed. The A/C had been leaking worse than we had realized and there was a variable river of water flowing across the room. We made the right call! The room they moved us to was a junior suite and was so much nicer than our other room. We considered booking it but had decided to just book a standard room to save money. I wish we had booked that room because it was so much more comfortable with more space for all of us and a more comfortable bed. The only issue with it was that the TV was in an odd location and we couldn’t see it from the bed so we had to get creative with chairs later that night when watching our TV show (yes, the Tour de France documentary again).

After settling into our new room, we went off in search of dinner. Roger had found a pizza restaurant recommended on a list of top pizza places around the world. We headed over there only to be turned away because we didn’t have a reservation. So for those of you who have been lauding my planning skills, know that sometimes I do fail. I quickly got on Google and found a different pizza restaurant that was highly rated and only one metro stop away. But before making our way there, I called and asked if they had a table. Could we get there in 15 minutes? Yep! So off we went and it was a cute place with good pizza so it all worked out in the end. We got back, watched the aforementioned documentary on Netflix, finished packing up and went to bed early to get ready for our flight home the next morning.

 

[anricat]

Copenhagen to Austin - August 4, 2023​

We woke up at 3:15 AM to be out the door by 3:45 AM to make it to the airport at least two hours early for our 7:25 AM flight. Yay. While I was finishing up the last of the packing, Roger said that we had an email from British Airways. Our flight was delayed by two hours. We all piled back into bed with our clothes on and set an alarm for two hours later.
We woke up (again) at 5:45 and hauled our stuff to the train station. There was a 6:27 train to the airport so that worked out really well. We were at the airport by 6:50 but the checkin wasn’t open and things were confusing because they had us stand in a line to “rebook” us and I kept telling them we didn’t need to rebook and I finally heard them letting other people check in for our flight and I asked why we couldn’t and she said, “well, we need to rebook you because you’ll miss your connection.” I explained that, no, we wouldn’t, as our connection wasn’t until 11:45 AM so then she finally let us check in and go to the gate to sit down and eat something.
The flight from Copenhagen was uneventful (other than being 2 hours late). When we got to Heathrow it was a complete zoo and we had to show our passports and boarding passes at various times to about 80 different people. We didn’t have to reclaim luggage or go through any official passport control but we did have to go back through security, which was weird. We had a lot less time than we had anticipated which was good and bad. I had hoped we could sit down and eat something, but we really couldn’t so we just picked up some sandwiches at a shop.
Then just a 9.5 hour flight home! The flight home felt like it took FOREVER. I alternated between working my trip report, watching Ted Lasso, and working on my BODYCOMBAT choreography and scripting. When we got to Austin, they told us there was a problem with the luggage on the flight and only about 2/3 of the luggage had made it onboard from Heathrow. They had a giant list about 5 pages long of people who had missing luggage. We were, thankfully, not on the list.
By the time we got in the front door we had been up for almost 24 hours and it took us a few days to finally get back sorted out on the right time zone, but it was all definitely worth it and a fantastic trip all around.

Final Thoughts​

We are all in agreement that our favorite day overall was in Reykjavik. The weather, scenery, and activities all just worked out really well for a great day of sightseeing. Iceland was incredible overall and definitely the highlight of the trip. I think the trip overall was a really nice mix of beautiful nature, history, and activities. I’ve talked in the past about having “old building burnout” but we didn’t experience that until that very last day in Copenhagen and I think having the other parts of the trip be more about nature and scenery really helped with that (vs. the Mediterranean cruise in which that happened more quickly).
I was really worried about the number of sea days on this cruise, but in the end, I really don’t feel like it was an issue. It was actually really nice having a day at sea in between each of our port days to keep things from feeling overly full and intensive. Some of the sea days were better than others, for sure and I feel like all the really interesting activities, for the most part, occurred on one really jam-packed sea day. I don’t know if that was our interests in particular or if somehow that sea day was just extra packed for everyone, but we had that perception.
We had a really great cruise group for this one with lots of really wonderful people. Emmaline made some incredible friends. I feel like this is the first time she’s really had a close group that she made friends with and wanted to be with them from the start. We’ve come a long way from her being glued to our sides on earlier cruises and not wanting to do anything without us.
If I had it to do over again, there isn’t much I would have changed. I would have been better at vetting the restaurants in Copenhagen. We had some really mixed bags there and some were too pricey for what we got. And I probably would have just dealt with the extra money and booked that junior suite at the hotel. I had a really hard time telling the difference in room types on the hotel website but I think it was about $50/night more, which is a little more than my usual budget, but I think we would have slept better and been more comfortable. That said, the hotel location was fantastic being about five minutes from the central train station.
I hope that we can go back to Iceland some day. Maybe for just a land trip. We didn't have enough time there. And we knew that. That's one thing we do like about cruising. We can sample different places and see how we like them. And if we like them, we can perhaps try to return for a longer visit some day.