7-Night Northern Europe Cruise from Copenhagen

[linetbo]

Iceland Air lets you do up to a 7 day stopover to Europe then you can fly straight home. We arrived late afternoon, had a full day there, then left the next morning. Not ideal, but all we could do with school finals, etc. We did a south coast guided tour with Goecco, and did family pictures with Mink photography. We stayed at Reykjavik Residence Hotel, which has regular rooms and full on apartments. There were 8 of us total, our family of 6 and 2 grandparents. We had a great 3 bedroom apartment. It's one street off the main street, so quieter than main street, and centrally located. The service is great and you can get breakfast delivered to your room for $10/day/person which is actually enough food for breakfast and a decent lunch, and includes a fresh loaf (or two) of bread.

Iceland is getting busy during tourist season. If you are interested in stopping over there, make hotel reservations by early spring at the latest to get your first pick. Iceland is also cracking down on unlicensed airbnb's so there are fewer of those available now.

I loved Iceland so much I went back with my friend in March. We did a two day overnight tour to Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon with Goecco (which included lodging and dinner that night), and a day at the Blue Lagoon. It was, again, awesome.

We stayed at the Scandic Palace in Copenhagen, which is at the foot of the central pedestrian zone and across from Tivoli. The rooms were very nice and huge by even American standards. We did the free walking tour, which gave us a good lay of the land, then just did our own thing after that. We saw the Paris Opera House Ballet premier Copellia at the Royal Opera House there, sitting about 10 rows behind the Queen. We spent a day at Tivoli, which the kids loved.

Some Viking portraits:

We stayed at Scandic Palace too, we really like our room but not a/c and I asked for a fan and they brought one to my room.

 

[aggiedog]

We had A/C. This was last summer, and I'd heard they'd done a renovation. Dh is a prima dona and won't stay somewhere w/o it. Excepting Iceland, which surely doesn't need it!

 

[KDG]

Anyone ever do: 7-Night Northern Europe Cruise from Copenhagen?

Looking at doing this for 2017. Curious on thoughts on how it has gone in past...pros/cons

Assistance with must do excursions.

We just returned from our amazing Northern Europe cruise. You will love yours. For Tallin, it is easy to do a self-guided walking tour. We bought the Rick Steves Northern Cruise book, followed the very easy and detailed self guided tour plans and it was perfect. The ship docks just a short walk from Old Town. No need to take a shuttle bus or a group excursion here.

In St. Petersburg, please consider booking a small group tour. We used Anastasia Tours and I give it 5 stars! We had an 11 1/2 hour tour along with another couple we hadn't met before and a guide and driver in a Mercedes van. The 4 of us were able to see so many things! All the major sights plus the old cemetery with the gravesites of Russian composers and poets. Didn't have to return to the ship to catch an evening excursion, which saved a lot of touring time. Anastasia arranged all the paperwork. We had no issues with passport control, and the guide and company owner (Anastasia herself) met us just past the control area in the terminal. You are even provided with snacks, water, a travel bag and a surprise gift at the end. For all we saw and did, it was worth every penny. Since we were a small group, we waited in no lines and saw much more than we would have as part of a larger group.

We took Disney tours in Helsinki and Stockholm. We had such a short time in these two ports, we were a little disappointed in these group tours. We took "city highlights" tours and we did see the highlights. We were given the option of being dropped off downtown at the end of the tour to explore on our own. We enjoyed that. The tour guide gave us easy instructions for catching a shuttle bus back to the ship, which worked well.

I would recommend the Tivoli hotel in Copenhagen. Great service and breakfast buffet. We walked to the pedestrian shopping street but didn't have time to visit Tivoli Gardens (a short distance from the Tivoli Hotel) due to travel delays. I hear a canal boat tour is a great way to see the sights, too, but we just didn't have the time.

Be sure to pack some warm clothes! This cruise was not one for sunbathing and working on your tan. Take advantage of the laundry rooms on the ship to pack half as much to save room for lots of souvenirs.

Here's a tip: we purchased handmade juniper wood trivets to being home for friends and family in Tallin. There is a "made in Estonia" store on the shopping street downhill from the Old Hansa restaurant. The trivets we bought there were half the price of the juniper trivets we saw for sale in Helsinki and Stockholm. Take advantage of that store. They have things from food products to woolen items. A great place to shop.

 

[closetmickey]

Small tidbit- request a dining rotation that will put you somewhere other than Animators Palate on your Stockholm night. I was disappointed that we were in a room without windows while sailing out of the Swedish archipelago. I never I thought to request that!

 

[KDG]

Small tidbit- request a dining rotation that will put you somewhere other than Animators Palate on your Stockholm night. I was disappointed that we were in a room without windows while sailing out of the Swedish archipelago. I never I thought to request that!

I'll second that! We had booked Palo that evening and really enjoyed the views of the archipelago during our leisurely dinner. We passed through a pretty heavy rain shower, then were rewarded with a double rainbow out the starboard side of the ship, where we were sitting. Many of us grabbed our cameras and stepped out on the deck to get breathtaking pictures. One of our magical moments!

 

[closetmickey]

I'll second that! We had booked Palo that evening and really enjoyed the views of the archipelago during our leisurely dinner. We passed through a pretty heavy rain shower, then were rewarded with a double rainbow out the starboard side of the ship, where we were sitting. Many of us grabbed our cameras and stepped out on the deck to get breathtaking pictures. One of our magical moments!

Thanks for rubbing it in!

 

[michellekcm]

Not sure if you will have kids with you or not, but in Stockholm we did the Skansen museum and Astrid Lindgren museum (through DCL) and our kids loved it.

In Tallin we did our own walk through Old Town, then DH and I did the KGB Hotel tour. That was really good, and easy to book - just go to their website and prebook. You do need to prebook - we had people come up to try and get on it but it was full.

 

[Anisum]

I went last summer and had a great time. I will say that I am normally a fan of booking tours through Disney for the sole reason that they are responsible if the tour runs past the port departure time (which happened to three buses on my most recent cruise) so they will either wait for you or make sure you meet the ship. That being said, I understand the appeal of saving money and in my experience for this itinerary most of the excursions we took we could have done on our own. As others have said, you must be on a tour for Russia so keep that in mind.

Here's the excursions I did:
Tallinn - We did Old Town, Fishing, and Mini Zoo. This is actually the place I had the most fun and I would say for children this tour is worthwhile. Heck, we went as two adults and had fun but it wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea. The walk through Old Town is beautiful. Tallinn is such a wonderful city. Following that they drove us out to the 'Mini Zoo' which was a farm where you could pet animals. It wasn't that exciting as most of the animals are the sort you can find at home (Horses, pigs, sheep, goats) but there was a reindeer. When you get to the Fishing this tour takes off. They take you to a 'Viking Village' where they show you various viking artifacts and tell you about Vikings in Estonia. The village leader gives every family a fishing rod that is literally a stick with a string and shrimp tied at the end to catch fish. We had so much fun. There are plenty of fish but they know about the shrimp so we had to lure them in and scoop them in a net. They then 'cook you a lunch of the fish you caught' or so they say. I think they already had the lunch and the fish get thrown back in.
St. Petersburg - We did two tours here, The St. Petersburg Shopping Experience and the Evening Canal Boat Tour. They take you to a single shop on the shopping tour (though you're free to wander on your own as long as you're at the meet up in time) so you could get the cities Starbucks cup if you collect them or walk around on your own (you only have an hour though) the shop is like a large gift shop and items there range from tourist knick-knacks to a few nice items. I got my White Nights Matryoshka there and there was far more selection and varying levels of quality than in the shops they have at the port before you reboard the ship. While I love my nesting doll the tour itself was not worth the money. The evening canal boat tour was interesting and something I would consider worthwhile but again could probably be booked outside of Disney. I heard great things about The Fabrege museum as well.
Helsinki - Helsinki from Land and Sea. This is a tour I would recommend but I will say the portion at the market square was about 15 minutes and many of the crafts were similar to those in other ports. The real highlight was the sea part which was wonderful. I enjoyed seeing the archipelago and hearing about all of the islands. You could probably find another tour group to do the tour though.
Stockholm - They don't have the tour we were on anymore which is good because I wouldn't recommend it. The tour was supposed to be about seeing Stockholm, visiting the food market in the Ostermalm section, and then seeing the Vasa. The walking tour was interesting and we actually got to see the Royal family as they came back to the Palace and the changing of the guard. It was neat but we were just in the right place at the right time. We then visited the food market which is good but we didn't have enough time to actually order food since we were there for 15 minutes. The Vasa is so cool and I would recommend going there and learning the history of it regardless of what else you decide to do.

 

[bksaffle]

We just returned from the Baltic Cruise....AMAZING. I just have to reiterate what previous posters have already said. St. Petersburg was the highlight of our trip, and I believe it was because we used Anastasia Tours. It was so very easy to schedule the tour, and they were there waiting for us as we got off the ship and went through Passport Control. We saw so much more using them to go through St. Petersburg (I tried booking DCL for multiple tours, and we were not able to coordinate the timing to see everything. Using Anastasia we saws everything we wanted to, but it is a LONG day - 12 hrs, but very much worth it). They would stop and allow us to get out and take pictures. It was great how they just maneuver you through all the long lines....they were able to skip to the front of the line and we bypassed SO MANY people....the lines were long trying to get into the various places.

Sweden was our next favorite stop over, beautiful area to cruise through all the islands. We enjoyed the Skansen Open Air Museum and the Vasa Museum.

 

[MUN]

In Copenhagen we did the hop on bus one day and canal boat tour , Malmo another day and the Castle tours with Stroma tour company. In Tallin we did the medieval castle tour which was good, it was a Disney tour, we drove about and hour and a half to a medieval castle and have lunch there, they have activities for kids some with extra charge. After that we walked to Old Town it was a pretty city.
Ino Helsinki another disney tour , not my favorite, we did land and sea tour, didn't love it, it was just ok, my friend did the one with old town and porton I think and he like it .
In Stockholm, which is a beautiful city we did the Royal Palace, city hall and old town. We were rushed all the time, now that I know I would take the free shuttle to the city and walk there. Didn't have the best experience there but if was just because the tour guide.
Anything you want to know just ask and I will be happy to help you.

Did you like Malmo?

MUN

 

[linetbo]

Did you like Malmo?

MUN

We did the canal tour, we liked it, and walk the city, but we used a tour company and not had enough time to see it all. It was like been there done that.

 

[scgustafson]

Anyone ever do: 7-Night Northern Europe Cruise from Copenhagen?

Looking at doing this for 2017. Curious on thoughts on how it has gone in past...pros/cons

Assistance with must do excursions.

We (my wife, then ten-year old daughter, and I) did it last summer and enjoyed it greatly. We arrived in Europe a few days early and did two full days in Amsterdam and then had a full day in Copenhagen before the cruise. On our full day in Copenhagen, we went to Tivoli Gardens and had a great time. Post-cruise, our flight was the next morning, so we did the Hop-on/Hop-off bus to tour Copenhagen after getting off of the ship. As for excursions:

• Tallinn, Estonia - we did the Marzipan Workshop which included a bus/walking tour. It was a great experience and a bit off of the beaten path. Estonia was definitely much different than I expected it, in a very pleasant way.
• St Petersburg, Russia - we did the Catherine's Palace and Hermitage Museum. It was another great experience with a very knowledgeable guide with terrific English. Due to the immense crowds, we had to stay with our guides, but due to wireless headsets, we could easily hear her and she did a great job of making sure everyone got to see of what she was speaking. However, due to having to stay with the guide, we did not get to all of the areas in the Hermitage due to time, but she made sure we hit the big highlights. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a souvenir shop which had reasonable prices. Remember in Russia, you can only go off of the ship with a tour group or if you have a tourist visa, which is quite pricy to apply for and not guaranteed. We only did a daytime excursion, but since we left around midnight, many people did a nighttime excursion, usually a ballet.
• Helsinki, Finland - we did the Helsinki for Land and Sea excursion, which included a bus tour followed by a boat tour. This was our least impressive tour, especially the boat as it was quite long and not overall incredibly interesting sightwise.
• Stockholm, Sweden - we did the Ice Bar and Old Town. The Ice Bar was second on it and was a definite check-in-the-box experience that I am glad I did, but would not necessarily repeat. The tour was quite good and covered quite a bit of ground. Since this excursion was in the afternoon, we had gotten off the ship in the morning and explored a bit of the city ourselves using the free Disney shuttle. We did see some great things on the outside like the Royal Palace and Nobel Museum, but since we had to get back to the ship to make our scheduled tour, we did not go into any of them, but wished we could. While this was an enjoyable excursion, we wish we could have found a way to do the Nobel Museum and the Vasa, which are on our list of things to see if we go back, which is something we definitely want to do. Stockholm and the rest of Sweden is top of our list for a return trip.

My advice is to definitely bring layers as we were not expecting summer temperatures to be that low in many places. Granted we are from Arizona and some of their summer temperatures are a lot lower than our winter ones. It did literally snow on our Frozen Deck Party as we departed Stockholm, but then again, it was just as cold as we sailed out of Dublin on the 12-night British Isles cruise this June.
As far as travel to and from the cruise, we flew non-stop from Phoenix to Heathrow and connected to Amsterdam, all on British Airways. In Amsterdam, we stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Amsterdam Centraal Station in a King City Suite, which was an incredible corner room with a great view of the Centraal Station area. It had 1 1/2 baths and separate living area with a pull-out sofa for our daughter. It was conveniently located to many great things and transportation. We flew British Airways from Amsterdam to Copenhagen via Heathrow on British Airways, and then stayed at the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers both pre and post-cruise in a Family room, which was two connecting hotel rooms, one with a king and the other with two doubles. They had a free airport shuttle and we were conveniently located to the train into the main city by Tivoli Gardens. We used a cab to go to and from the port from the hotel. Post-cruise, we flew home via Heathrow to Phoenix on the non-stop. The reason we booked all of our flights on British Airways was it a single flight itinerary and our two checked bags each applied to all of our flights, which is quite useful on a two week-plus trip.

 

[GrantFam]

For those of you who stayed at the Scandic Palace in Copenhagen, how far in advance did you book your room?

 

[ldo]

chiming in, just back from Norwegian cruise + 2 weeks DIY Disneyland Paris and France. We took our 2 youngest kids and stayed at Copenhagen Plaza and would recommend it. They have rooms that sleep 4 persons. Nice staff, secure baggage storage (they even let us store our bags when we returned, as we had a 7pm flight to Paris). Price was $300 for a room for 4. It is next door to central train station and across the street from Tivoli. We chose it for location. It is very easy to just take the train from CPH to the central station, if you can manage your own luggage. It takes 7 minutes. I debated staying at Airport Crown Plaza, but wanted the ease to just pop over to Tivoli. I would do it again, esp. for storing our bags after the cruise, for those who end up having a later flight. Cabfare from Tivoli area to cruise port is about $45 for 4 persons with bags, plus a little tip. Hotel can call a taxi for you. Taxis are plentiful. Getting a cab after the cruise is much harder. DCL sold $8PP transfers to central train station at the port when we debarked. We were in the cab line, but took them up on their offer for the $8 deal. Don't know if they offered this deal earlier if pre-booked --I thought it was more.
The Norway cruise was awesome. We have also done Baltics in 2010. Both are great in different ways. We used TJ Tours in Russia and our friends used them last month and had rave reviews. The one thing I am so glad I brought was low hikers. I used them all over Europe, even walking around Disney Paris. It saved my feet, legs and back. Worth the extra space in the luggage.
For those going next year, I recommend tacking on at least a few days pre and post cruise. It's a lot of flying to get there. CPH is easy to fly into/out of on both Norwegian Air and SAS. Family of 4 fly for under $400 from Frankfurt and $250 CPH-Paris. So, don't feel you need to limit yourself to only staying in CPH. Elaine

 

[doriemg]

We also just finished the Disney Northern European Cruise on the Magic and had a great time. So much so that we booked our next cruise for next summer while we were onboard. We’re doing the 11 day Dover/Norway/Iceland/Invergordon trip. I can reiterate what everyone else has been saying about the Northern European cruise. St. Petersburg was also our favorite port. We booked with Anastasia Travel Group and it was wonderful. They were waiting for us right as we walked out of customs and the rest of the day was great. Our guide spoke almost perfect English and was able to navigate us around all the crowds. Totally worth it and if I ever go back to St. Petersburg I’ll definitely book with Anastasia again. I think one of the many things that impressed me was at the end of the day when we got back to the dock, our guide got out of the car with us and made sure we got through customs first before she left. Tallin was our next favorite and we also booked a private tour there with EST Adventures. For Helsinki and Stockholm we did Disney port adventures and we were very disappointed in those. I guess after you’ve been on a small private tour, a big bus tour doesn’t cut it. If you don’t want to prebook your tours, the Hop On/Hop Off buses seemed to always be waiting at the dock trying to drum up business. If I had it to do over again I would not have booked the Disney port adventure for Helsinki and Stockholm. Instead I’d just walk off the ship and jump on the Hop On/Hop Off.

For those that asked about Iceland, we flew Icelandair and took advantage of the stopover in Iceland. We spent 3 nights and 2 days there and really enjoyed it. Iceland is a beautiful country. For the person who asked earlier where everyone stayed in Iceland, we stayed at the Reykjavik Residence Suites. We took the Geothermal helicopter tour with Nordurflug (awesome!) and did a private jeep tour of the Golden Circle with a stop at a Glacier with a company named Iceland in a Day (also awesome!). Both tours were spectacular and I’d highly recommend both tour companies.

 

[aggiedog]

For those of you who stayed at the Scandic Palace in Copenhagen, how far in advance did you book your room?

I don't know exactly, but I'm a planner, so probably at least 6 months in advance.

 

[linetbo]

For those of you who stayed at the Scandic Palace in Copenhagen, how far in advance did you book your room?

About 3 months, but so it as soon as you can, I booked the Superior room. Let me see if I can find my pictures.

 

[linetbo]

chiming in, just back from Norwegian cruise + 2 weeks DIY Disneyland Paris and France. We took our 2 youngest kids and stayed at Copenhagen Plaza and would recommend it. They have rooms that sleep 4 persons. Nice staff, secure baggage storage (they even let us store our bags when we returned, as we had a 7pm flight to Paris). Price was $300 for a room for 4. It is next door to central train station and across the street from Tivoli. We chose it for location. It is very easy to just take the train from CPH to the central station, if you can manage your own luggage. It takes 7 minutes. I debated staying at Airport Crown Plaza, but wanted the ease to just pop over to Tivoli. I would do it again, esp. for storing our bags after the cruise, for those who end up having a later flight. Cabfare from Tivoli area to cruise port is about $45 for 4 persons with bags, plus a little tip. Hotel can call a taxi for you. Taxis are plentiful. Getting a cab after the cruise is much harder. DCL sold $8PP transfers to central train station at the port when we debarked. We were in the cab line, but took them up on their offer for the $8 deal. Don't know if they offered this deal earlier if pre-booked --I thought it was more.
The Norway cruise was awesome. We have also done Baltics in 2010. Both are great in different ways. We used TJ Tours in Russia and our friends used them last month and had rave reviews. The one thing I am so glad I brought was low hikers. I used them all over Europe, even walking around Disney Paris. It saved my feet, legs and back. Worth the extra space in the luggage.
For those going next year, I recommend tacking on at least a few days pre and post cruise. It's a lot of flying to get there. CPH is easy to fly into/out of on both Norwegian Air and SAS. Family of 4 fly for under $400 from Frankfurt and $250 CPH-Paris. So, don't feel you need to limit yourself to only staying in CPH. Elaine

Which tour company you used for Norway, Disney?

 

[linetbo]

For those of you who stayed at the Scandic Palace in Copenhagen, how far in advance did you book your room?

 

[ldo]

we did DCL to Norway. We booked with Rodne.no for Stavanger fjord cruise, geirangerfjord.no for kayaking (DCL was booked up) and also for bus ride to Mt. Dalsnibba (they have fjord cruises also), walked on our own around Alesund and then did the 400 step walk up to look out point (many from DCL did this DIY, even with small children), walked into Bergen (raining) and went to Hanseatic Museum. We had pre-booked tickets on funicular up to mountain ($14 for 4 persons), but bagged it due to rain. Shore excursions thru above were very cheap (bus tour $30PP, kayaking $50PP, fjord cruise $35PP). Fabulous cruise. Good mixture of active exploring and sight-seeing. More laid back than Baltics, which is more city sightseeing.