A Sisters‘ Summer Sailing to Scandinavia - update: After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli

[Steppesister]

Need to make a mental note of this... However, I am afraid that we will first plan a spring trip to Yosemite to see the waterfalls there before we make it to Oregon (even though the Pacific Northwest is very much on my list of places I want to visit).

Perhaps you could time it for when/if @Captain_Oblivious and his family make it up this way in Summer, 2019??

It does remind me of a scene from an Astrid Lindgren novel (Swedish children books writer, I loved her Bullerby series).

I'll have to look her up.

Haha! It is actually not nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge. And far more modern, it opened in 1992.

And yet, the same suspension idea. Pretty!

EEEK!!! I have never seen one that is yellow!! Are they dangerous?? Here they are either black or brown.

Oh, no. Just as slimy as all the rest of them. Are you familiar with the town Santa Cruz? I believe it's their sports teams whose mascot is the banana slugs. LOLOL! It's true!

This was funny! I can read Cyrillic somewhat and was able to make it out!

It was funny!! And really it was a turning point in my language learning as it was then that the phonetic nature of spellings was cemented.

That is odd, considering that it is treatable now.

Yes, but their medical system is about 50 years behind the world's standards.

I really appreciated the effort they put into those new CM costumes. It definitely helped make us feel like this was a special cruise.

It really showed!

I can imagine! The dinner we had at my parents house when you were in Nuremberg was kind of a version of this. And I remember that your family really loved it (despite some of you having just gone through some tummy upset).

We absolutely loved it! Such an incredible treat for us- something we will never forget. And yes, a return visit is definitely on my list of things to do again. At the same time, I'd like to head south for some time photographing Southern Italy and France. I will always remember the berry pudding for dessert, but my special favorite was your dad's acorn-fed ham that he was especially fond of. What a night to look back on!

Never had mustard with my liverwurst. Sounds interesting! You really need to come back to Germany to try more of the really authentic stuff. I think you might be even courages enough to try what is called "slaughter bowl", which has freshly made liversausages that are served warm. Very delicious!

Yes, I certainly would! That sounds delicious! I've had headcheese and love that too. Something that we ate in Kaz was called Khourdak- fried organ meats in oil. It took getting used to it, but I really liked it.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

There is fatty bacon in it (the white parts)

Sounds wonderful!

there is normal meat in it

Works for me.

and then there is tongue in it.

If you are the type who orders the snails when they are on the menu to try them, this really is not worse.

I'll give you three guesses as to whether I fit into this category or not.

Maybe a towel flower?

We were not fans of the party at all. It was really quite boring in our opinion. We are not the biggest fans of Disney shows in the first place, but this just seemed to be mainly showing clips of the movie on the screen.

Seems like most Disney evening shows are just clip shows now.

However, we witnessed something really strange: In the dry sauna there were some people sitting in there who were not only wearing their bathrobe, but even had jeans and shirts on underneath

That's just weird!

However, I am a water rat and the idea of getting off the ship without trying out the slides was not something that I wanted to happen!

Makes sense to me! Maximize the value of the money spent on the cruise.

Yes, I am good at inventing the scariest ways of how things could go wrong!

I think maybe you and Julie should never meet! She's great at that, too.

The next stop was the port adventures desk. While we were there, there was a couple in line that had been on our excursion bus as well and it turned out that they had also contacted the Port Adventures staff about the issues we had experienced. They had the same message as us and in the end them and us got to speak to the CM who had contacted us together. We were told that they did appreciate all our feedback and that they would refund 20% of the price of the excursion to our onboard account. Not only for us, but for everyone who had been on our bus. We thought that was fair.

Glad they made it right for you.

Can you see the thin yellow stripe between the two ships? That’s it!

Thanks! I'll be sure to recognize it from now on.

And then the “Oh No, the cruise is nearly over, I need more pictures of the ship”-phase started.

We all have been there.

I like this photo a lot!

Now I need to find your other TR!

 

[Pinkocto]

Last days creep up way too quickly!

I had to read the sauna story twice and then read it to mom who's down visiting. We can't believe someone would wear jeans in a sauna, that is so dangerous!

Odd that you got rice crispy treats for the chocolate hunt.

That aquadunk scared the liver out of me! I will only do it again if I've somehow forgotten how scary it was by the time we finally get on the Magic again.

What rubbish about the agave nectar.

Yes, that print would look nice framed.

Glad they refunded you some of the excursion.

 

[glennbo123]

Sorry, I'm still back on page 13.

But overall we felt that after three days in port we would have preferred a sea day as a rest day. The way Norwegian geography works, this was not to be though.

Curse you Norwegian geography! You are a cruel taskmaster!

I think the speed they gain from such a launch helps them to overcome any strong currents and waves that might be around in bad weather (i.e. the conditions you need a life boat). But this one was quite impressive!

Can you imagine launching in one of those?! Wow!

Tschuu-Tschuu is German for Choo Choo.

Finally -- some useful information from this trip report!

And then we found my street!

That's awesome!! Magdalenagangen-style!

And our treats:

Ooooh, that looks great. Now I'm hungry and want a coffee.

 

[glennbo123]

So, all in all, we did enjoy this appetizer and I can assure you there is nothing totally bizarre about it. If you are the type who orders the snails when they are on the menu to try them, this really is not worse. You might not like it, but there is nothing to lose. If you want a rather authentic example of German sausages, this is a great opportunity.

That's good advice -- try it, you might like it. You have nothing to lose, especially on a cruise...are you afraid you're going to go hungry?!

There we saw the most bizarre towel animal of the trip. We have no idea what this could be:

It looks like something being held hostage.

There was some singing as well and the party ended with Queen Elsa singing Let it Go and snow falling down on us.

Didn't see that coming!

However, we witnessed something really strange: In the dry sauna there were some people sitting in there who were not only wearing their bathrobe, but even had jeans and shirts on underneath!

If you're that much of a prude, you probably should avoid the sauna.

When we had enough of the rainforest, I decided that I wanted to try out the water slides. It was a sunny day, but still a bit chilly. However, I am a water rat and the idea of getting off the ship without trying out the slides was not something that I wanted to happen!

I'd be the same way.

We were told that they did appreciate all our feedback and that they would refund 20% of the price of the excursion to our onboard account. Not only for us, but for everyone who had been on our bus.

That seems very reasonable. I doubt that many companies would do this.

It was so quiet that Katharina took a little nap:

It looks like the chair is enveloping her.

At some point it was time for the one excitement of the day: Our Mojito and Caipirinha tasting!

Now we're talkin'!

“Disney wants to be a health conscious company and most DCL guests are very health conscious. Therefore the company has decided to not use any sugar in their drinks, only the far more healthy agave syrup.”

I quoted this section before I read what you wrote afterward, but I agree with you totally. A few years ago Judy had switched to agave syrup as a more "healthy" choice. But then I read a few different articles disputing that, and pointing out the high-fructose content, and convinced her to switch back. For herself, she's using Stevia now (on the rare occasion that she sweetens something), but the rest of us just use plain ol' sugar.

the thing you do in Skagen is to stand there in the water with one foot in the North Sea and the other in the Baltic Sea. You can tell that two different seas meet there as the waves come from both sides.

That sounds cool.

And then the “Oh No, the cruise is nearly over, I need more pictures of the ship”-phase started.

Yes, I'm familiar with that phase.

While I had the regional inspiration: Veal Schnitzel, breaded Veal Cutlets, fried in butter served with Roasted Bacon Potatoes and Green Beans:

I had no idea that our cruise went to Austria – this was obviously a Vienna Schnitzel, inspired by Austria. Which is pretty far away from Norway and Denmark.

I was confused by your "regional inspiration" comment before I got to the sarcasm in the next sentence. That is kind of strange!

Then we quickly moved outside to see the sunset. Of course for the sunset the clouds had come out to prevent really good pictures. But I am still happy with what I got:

That's a beautiful shot!

 

[Flossbolna]

After Cruise Day 1: Exploring Copenhagen

The cruise was going to end today, but we had some more fun planned. We arrived back in Copenhagen on a Saturday morning and since neither of us had to be back at work until Monday morning, we decided to add another night and take a late flight on Sunday back home to get another two days of touring in Copenhagen. Katharina’s DH decided that he would join us for the weekend and he had arrived the evening before already and was going to meet us when we got off the ship.

We woke up to a last view of the map of the cruise:

As you can see, we actually travelled quite far by ship in comparison to our home towns. Berlin, where Katharina lives, is far closer to Copenhagen than our first port stop in Norway and my hometown Nuremberg is kind of where the imaginary lines straight up from Munich and horizontally left from Prague would meet.

We got ready and had some time until our breakfast time (I seem to remember that it was later than on my other cruises) and we ventured up to the pool deck for some tea and a view.

You could see that there were a lot of taxis lined up to pick up passengers:

We then headed to breakfast and I am sure we had more to eat, but I only took pictures of our pastries. I guess it just got a bit hectic as the last breakfast usually is:

And then we left the ship. I don’t remember any large lines like we had on our Panama Canal cruise and we quickly were off the ship. It became quite clear why there was no line: no immigration or customs to go through. Remember what I wrote before about there being no customs between Denmark and Norway. For the purpose of the cruise this was really great!

There was a long line to the left of the terminal building and I was wondering if this might be some kind of check point, but it just turned out to be the taxi line. That line was really long now. Not sure I would have wanted to wait in it. Our plan was to get on a bus anyway. We had hoped that Katharina’s DH (we used to refer to him as “Remy” in previous TRs and I think we will pick up that tradition again to make it easier for me with the typing) would be here by now, but he was still somewhere in transit.

If I remember corecctly, we initially planned to meet him at the hotel. When we realized we might be at the hotel earlier than we had thought, I texted him. And that was when we found out that he had planned to meet us at the ship, but had somehow got a little lost on the way. We gave him some advice and I hoped for the best. I was of course happy to see him sooner than expected but felt like disappointing Magdalene, as we now would be delayed.

I was not too disappointed!!

Our first stop was to buy a bus ticket. There is a small area just opposite that first docking station for the cruise ships where there is a kiosk selling bus tickets.

I think we got the 24 hour city pass for Katharina and me so that we could travel as much as we wanted on that day. Remy had gotten the 72 hour city pass at the airport Friday evening as that would take him through the weekend and back to the airport without worrying about any fares. Lots of great info on Copenhagen public transport can be found here: http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/transportation/public-transport and it seems that there are now possibilities of buying those tickets via mobile. Might be a good option when one gets off a ship!

Katharina and I went to the bus stop and saw a bus depart. I think there was a 20 minute wait for the next bus, but we still had no Remy anyway! Katharina got a cryptic text about him being on the direct free shuttle to the ship. We had seen those busses that had “Disney Magic” displayed on them and had no idea what they were. It turned out that he just boarded one asked if it went to the ship and they said yes and took him with them, he was the only one. I still have no idea what these busses were, maybe they were for the crew? I could see some crew members only having like 2 hours in the morning before they had to be back on the ship and DCL providing shuttles for them? They were definitely not the shuttles for the passengers as there was no place to put luggage, it was more a typical public transport bus. Anyway, he arrived and Katharina and him went to the viewing tower that we had explored on our embarkation day and then we got on the bus back into Copenhagen.

We were staying at the First Hotel Mayfair again. I checked in at the hotel (Katharina was already checked in via Remy, who arrived the evening before) and we left our stuff in Katharina’s and Remy’s room before we ventured out again.

We walked through the city, passed the city hall where we found an interesting waymarker:

Well, mainly of interest for me as the second town that is mentioned here (Kalundborg 102 km) is where I spent my year as an exchange student.

We found a nice café for a break:

We were very impressed by the healthy snack choices they had. Remy has to be careful with his blood sugar and is very good at keeping a low carb diet. They had some very interesting nut and wole grain bars there that were his cake substitute while Katharina and I shared a muffin.

One of the things we wanted to do was to take one of the many boat tours that are offered in Copenhagen, so we headed to Nyhavn (Danish for new harbor, but now it is really the old port of the town). On the way there we saw the Royal Guard coming from the Royal Palace:

There are several tour operators at Nyhavn and we picked on that seemed to have the soonest departure time at a reasonable price and got on the boat.

This is the view down Nyhavn (behind me the water ends and the city starts, it is kind of one longish canal) from the boat:

The tour was really interesting and took us through various areas of the city. At the end of Nyhavn there is this old storage building:

Then there were some new buildings like the theatre:

We passed this island called Papirøen (paper island):

We had actually thought about visiting there as it is a large food market in this old warehouse. You can take a water bus that is part of the public transportation system over there. But we never made it there.

And then I saw the Disney Magic in the distance!

The building to the right is the Royal Opera house.

I tried to zoom in as much as I could and ended up with a lot of really crappy pictures, but this ended up the best of them:

We really enjoyed the boat tour. I have done it so often now, but I really like it every time. It is a great way to see some of the city and get a good overview.

After the tour, we went to look for some lunch. We had spotted a place that looked like a nice café from the boat when we returned to Nyhavn and went to check it out. It was a modern café that also had classic Danish Smørrebrød. The word Smørrebrød means buttered bread. However, it has evolved into something far more complicated than just bread and butter. It is always served as an open faced sandwich, but mainly the bread is just a small portion of the meal and the emphasis is on what is draped on top of the bread. There are some traditional toppings and combination (for example liver pate is always combined with a cucumber salad). And the whole things is served in a way to look as pretty as possible. There is a more down to earth version of it as well in the packed lunches that kids get to take to school with them (or got when I was there in the late 80s). The thing that baffled me then was that even for packed lunches the sandwiches were open faced and the lunch boxes were designed in a way that you several compartments to fit those open faced sandwiches.

Remy was very excited about all the pickled herring he could get in Denmark and chose that:

Katharina and I had no interest in such things
They eat weird stuff in Northern Germany
and went with chicken salad and frikadeller and shared those between the two of us:

Frikadeller are pan fried meatballs. I think the closest thing in the USA would be meatloaf. But instead of a large one, make small individual portions and fry them in the pan.

We all enjoyed our lunch and I can definitely recommend this place for getting high quality Smørrebrød without breaking the bank. Denmark is nearly as pricey for food as Norway and expecially Smørrebrød is not cheap.

Another view of the lovely Nyhavn houses:

(with a slightly skeptical looking Katharina on the bridge. She and Remy wanted their picture taken and she was standing there for Remy to figure out how he wanted the picture to be framed before I took it, she did not know I was taking a picture of the houses.)

That year we took a picture of us each month from some place we travelled to or did at least visit and made a calender out of it. As Remy doesn’t like to give his camera to strangers, we usually did this ourselves with the help of the remote control release or a timer. Quite often it took as longer than expected, because we had to decline so many offers of assistence from strangers.

We walked some more and passed the theater again on land:

And the Royal Palace:

While we were in front of the Royal Palace our check in window for our flight home opened up and we had fun trying to check in for our flights via the app to secure seats next to each other since we had not payed extra for assigned seats. After some difficulty at first, we managed to get it done.

We also wandered through a beautiful park which unfortunately was taken over by some big event, so I did not take any pictures.

And then we ended up at the Rundetårn (Round Tower). This is a tower in the city that was built as an astronomical observatory and has a very special feature: an equestrian staircase. This means that inside the tower is not a typical staircase, but rather a spiral “road” going round and round until you get to the top. This was so that they could have horses pull up the heavy equipment.

There is a nice view from up there:

I could even spot the Magic again:

Originally our plan had been to visit Tivoli, the amusement park in the middle of the city, this evening. However, the weather forecast was that there would be rain starting in the early evening and that just did not sound like it would make the Tivoli very enjoyable. Also, during the Summer they have a concert series every Saturday with big names in Denmark. So Saturday evenings are the most crowded times to visit. We wanted to see the park lit up that’s why we originally chose to go regardless of the crowds. But in combination with the weather, we just thought it would be better to postpone and go on Sunday before our evening flight.

So, we headed back to the hotel and then tried to find food close by while we were walking through the drizzling rain. We were very happy that we weren’t at the Tivoli. We found a place where we had burgers. It was ok, nothing special, but then we continued on to a place that actually is quite famous: Mikkeller. http://mikkeller.dk/brewery/ This is a Danish craft beer brewery. And they are very serious about their craft. They have several locations in Copenhagen of their own bars and one was a couple of streets from our hotel. http://mikkeller.dk/location/mikkeller-bar-viktoriagade-copenhagen/ So, the plan was to try some interesting beers after dinner. This bar always has 20 different beers on tap.

Of course the bar was rather crowded, people standing everywhere, but we found the corner of a table and settled in. Luckily it got a little emptier as the evening went on and we found a table at some point. We all got different beers:

Mine and Katharina’s were very tasty, but Remy was a bit too adventurous for his own taste and had to get something else to chase the first one. And then there might have been a second round for all of us.

It was really a fun place and definitely something different. Mikkeller seems to be a big name in the craft beer scene, I have seen the beer in craft beer shops here and they have quite a few international locations, of course in Berlin (which opened after our visit in Copenhagen), the hipster capital of Europe, but also in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego in the US.

I remember this evening as fun, but I was not sooo much impressed by the beer. We still have the coasters though that somehow fell in my handbag….

Up Next: After Cruise Day 2: We finally get to Tivoli!

 

[Flossbolna]

That is one bad example of our national dish! And good to know that Austria now seems to border Scandinavia (somewhere)

Well, since there once were some Spanish Netherlands, I would not be surprised if there once was a Habsburg who held land bordering onto a Scandinavian country. I just had a friend visit from the US and we were in Regensburg and I tried to explain the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, so that whole chaos is still very much in my mind.

Inspiration from planet Chocolate ............ not Austrian this time.

 

[Flossbolna]

I've sort of lost the novelty of ordering room service on the ships. The coffee is horrible and the only thing I really like is the boxed cereal, so I just go up and get stuff at Cabanas, if you hadn't figured that out yet!

Yes, that is what I usually do as well. But it just seemed so convenient... Especially when you are all the way forward. And once you have to throw on clothes to go to Cabana, I could easily just eat there and enjoy my food warm and fresh and not after a 5 minute trek back to my indoor cabin. See, this is where our different cruising styles again lead to different behaviors!

Thanks for the honesty on the RfR, I loved it on the Fantasy, but may skip it on the EBPC. We are getting close I hope we make it!

I saw in the pictures on the Wonder refurb that the one on the Wonder was updated. So, while it is still small and all indoors, it is at least less out of date. You can always tour it on the first day and decide from thereon. Or just get at least one one-day pass. The EBPC should be long enough to have the time for it. At least I hope you made it! I am totally behind on all my threads, so not sure if you have posted any updates on this.

That bit about the agave is bull. Some drinks are meant to be made with sugar.

Exactly. And even if the sugar were really bad. One drink is not going to kill you. And the alcohol is not exactly health food either.

Dinner looks good, I would have enjoyed the Austrian Wiener Schnitzel! The trip is almost over, but you have another report going!

Yes, and once again totally got behind on both... This was supposed to be finished before the two year anniversary of the cruise. Well, I guess I failed in this regard... Tuesday it is two years since we boarded the ship.

 

[dizneeat]

Love the update, but I am not happy your cruise is already over. It was so fun following you two around.

That harbour cruise you took would be just what we would have done. So interesting to see a city from the water. Food looked good - Tom would definitely have ordered what your brother in law had - the pickled herring.

How nice to end the evening by having a nice beverage.

 

[Flossbolna]

After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli - Part 1

We had a good night sleep – better than the night before our cruise. No music festival disturbing the sleep. We then enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel again before checking out and leaving our luggage in lockers at the Main Railway Station where it would be easy to pick up when we leave Tivoli (next to the railway station) and take the train out to the airport.

Our first stop was in Christianshavn, which is a very nice part of Copenhagen. It actually is an island, separated from the mainland by a few canals and we had travelled through there the day before. Christianshavn is also home to the Free State of Christiana, which used to be a hippie commune and now is an autonomous area within Denmark. Kind of an anarchist state within the state. It is tolerated by the authorities despite there being a lot of debate about the sale of Cannabis that is going on there. But this is not where we went. We were going to visit a church, or better a church tower (so not as pious as that statement first made us sound).

We were going to Vor Frelser Kyrken (Our Savior Church). The tower is very special as it has a spiral staircase on the outer side of the spire that you can climb. Well, you not me definitely. I have fear of heights. This is not my cup of tea. I managed to get up there once in 2009. I also had a back issue that had gotten worse and worse over the course of the trip and by now I was really hurting. So, climbing all those stairs was something for the young people (i.e. Katharina and her DH).

This is the tower:

We were there just before opening and by the time Katharina and Remy came down there were large crowds. It did pay off for them to go up there early.

Copenhagen in general was very crowded and I guess it helps to apply some modified park touring plans: Get up early and do first what you want to do most...

I just sat in a very nice café at the next corner, https://goo.gl/maps/ggWAuxptgXK2 which seemed to serve good looking food. The area there is really nice:

After they came down we made our way to the Tivoli. Or to be more precise. Tivoli Gardens. But everyone just calls it Tivoli. On the way we saw this interesting bin:

The special shelf is for bottles (I think there are no cans in Denmark) that have a deposit on them (all do). So, the people who in other places go through the trash cans to find stuff with deposit on it can just take it off the shelf and lose a little less of their dignity.

We got back to Tivoli and passed the side entrance on our way to the main entrance:

The mountain you can see here is part of a roller coaster called Rutschebanen. The name is actually the German word for a slide (as in a playground). And it is a roller coaster without wheels, instead it does slide on its track. It is a wooden coaster from 1914. And when we visited Copenhagen for the first time in the summer of 1984 or 1985 Katharina and I loved this ride and went on it over and over again. Until then I was scared of roller coasters. This is the first one that I saw that was all built up and you could not see down to the ground from your track, it was like being on a train on a mountain. Just like on Big Thunder Mountain. That made such a big difference for me. We will come back to the Rutschebanen when we enter the park.

Tivoli has an interesting ticketing system. You can get just entrance to the park not including any rides for 120 DKK (about 18 US$). If you want to go on rides, you can get tickets and depending on the attraction you will have to use a certain number of those tickets. One ticket is 25 DKK (about 3.60 US$). The Rutschebanen for example requires 2 of those tickets. Kind of similar to the old ticket book system Disney parks had a long long time ago. However, you can also get an unlimited ride ticket. This will give you a wristband and you just show your wrist band and get on any ride as often as you want. This is 230 DKK (about 33 US$). So if you add up entrance and unlimited rides it is about 51 US$. Kids under 8 are cheaper. The good thing about this is if you have someone in your party who is not that interested in many of the wilder rides, they can get in for cheap. And the park itself is really beautiful on its own, too.

One tip: I just went to the official website https://www.tivoli.dk/en/ to check current pricing and saw that they have something called PULS package. This has entrance, unlimited rides and a meal and it is 370 DKK in total. So, you only pay 20 DKK for a meal and to me this might be a good deal if you plan to eat there anyway. However, it only seems to offer specific meals at the casual food places. Tivoli also has many really nice sit down restaurants that can be part of the experience. I just found this interesting and wanted to mention it.

So, we got our tickets and wristbands (I think I had purchased the tickets before online as that was my birthday present to Remy, but we still had to get the wristbands).

The first thing you see once you enter is the Pantomime Theater:

Here they have regular classical pantomime shows with a Harlequin clown.

The next thing you notice is how gree it is everywhere and how garden like it is:

There are plenty of peacocks roaming:

The white building in the Nimb Hotel. For us it was one of the hotels that DCL would book guests into. It is very very pricey though. But has a great location definitely. The building also has several high end restaurants and such.

Our first stop was the Rutschebanen:

The have a height requirement:

And this was our train:

Can you see the guy in the pink sun glasses in the middle of the train? He is the breaker. Because of the train sliding, it can get too fast if people on the train are heavy. So, the breaker is there to ensure that the train never gets too fast.

The ride was great fun! It is still a pretty neat coaster despite being over 100 years old.

Next we went on the Ferris Wheel:

This is really nice as you get a good overview of the park:

In this corner is also a very narrow street with restaurants and shops:

When I was in Copenhagen in 2009 they had the most amazing candy shop there, but unfortunately that was no longer to be found. I tried my best.

We explored a little bit more:

And then decided to have a coffee break at this coffee house:

We had some brief moments of sunshine, but otherwise it was a rather cool day. I think high temperature was in the lower 60s. We were really happy that it was dry and that we had changed our plans.

The building with the flags above is the concert hall that has various events there. They all cost extra admission. There is also an open air stage that has the weekend summer evening concerts that I mentioned before.

A lot of the rides are really more standard fair ground rides that are made prettier to fit the environment they are in. The one ride that sticks out is the next one:

Den Flyvende Kuffert – The Flying Suitcase. This is a dark ride about the different fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen. He was a Danish author (one of the best known ones, others you might have heard of are Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen, who wrote Out of Africa, or Søren Kierkegaard, the philosopher). The Danish word for fairy tale is “eventyr” which is derived from the same Latin word as the English word “adventure”.

So, this attraction is a dark ride, similar to Spaceship earth. You are sitting in an open suitcase and travel past several displays about the fairy tales. You can choose to listen to it in English or Danish and you will get some info on what you are seeing. I thought it was quite charming and very well done. Of course one of the displays is for the fairy tale The Ice Queen – which was the basis for Frozen. Yes, they used a Danish fairy tale, not a Norwegian one.

There is a Chinese area:

That is home to a big steel roller coaster that winds through the Chinese area and is dragon themed.

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

After Cruise Day 2: Tivoli - Part 2

We continued on and came upon this charming lake:

The house on the right bank of the lake is a restaurant and we were heading there for lunch.

All along the main walkways there are signs that tell you about the history of Tivoli. This is the one about the lake:

The tower you can see to the left is the scariest ride I have ever seen in my life! Do you see the two light blue poles? On the bottom there are two air planes (they are currently loading). Once the ride starts, the blue poles move in circles. But the air planes are moving as well around that pole. Difficult to understand and photograph. So, I looked for a video:

It has the longest lines because it has a really low capacity. But even without any lines, this does not look like fun to me AT ALL!!

You can also see the loop of the China roller coaster in the distance.

We headed for lunch instead. The restaurant we went to was a traditional Danish inn. http://streckers.dk/project/faergekroen/ We went for smørrebrød again.

Remy had more pickled herring (it is called sild in Danish):

Katharina had some fried plaice:

This is delicious and typically Danish. My host family used to go to the little fishing port nearby on a Saturday morning to buy the fish fresh off the boat. Not sure how much fish you can still get locally, there are huge issues with overfishing in all European waters.

I had the chicken salad:

It was all really good, but not cheap. However, we thought that compared to other Copenhagen prices it was not that much of an upcharge for being inside the park. There are a lot of restaurants inside Tivoli and people do come here in the evenings for a nice dinner. We could definitely see that.

There is a pirate ship in the lake:

And then we came across a new area that was themed to a popular children’s book character:

Rasmus Klump (that’s the Danish original’s name) was called Petzi the Bear in German and Katharina and I loved him! He had all kind of adventures with his friend the Sea Bear, Pingo, a penguin, and Pelle, a pelican. And at the end of the book they always end up at Mother Petzi and are being served a huge stack of European pancakes (thinner than American, thicker than crepe) that they roll up with jam inside.

So, of course they had a pancake restaurant there! And a kiddie ride:

We continued through some really nice gardens:

They have a tiny streetcar going around. Remy really wanted to go on it, but we convinced him that he would be uncomfortable. There were adults riding. But the dimensions were more fitting for a 6 year old than a 40+ year old.

We came across the marching band they have there:

They marched out of the main entrance gate and played a little outside the park on the sidewalk and then turned around to come inside again:

And then it was time for us to leave.

Tivoli had been great fun. It would have been nicer in warmer weather, but the cloudy cold weather did keep the locals away, it never was that crowded.

Tivoli is also of interest to Disney fans. Walt Disney visited Denmark in 1951 and toured through Tivoli. He really enjoyed the place and he drew quite a bit of inspiration from it. While Disneyland is very different, especially the hub area has some of the elements from Tivoli with the gardens and the fairy lights at night. Also, the ticketing system and the marching band seem familiar. Of course, the Tivoli of 1951 was different in many ways, there are lots of new rides there. For example Katharina and I loved a kiddie coaster when we were there in the 1980s. That is no longer there. So, you can imagine how much it has changed since 1951. But the love of detail and creating beautiful little spots in corners and such is definitely something that translated to Disneyland.

Actually, if you are on a cruise that has a port day in Copenhagen, DCL offers an excursion “The Footsteps of Walt Disney at Tivoli Gardens“. For the low price of 354 $ you get a 7 hour excursion that includes a guided tour of Tivoli, lunch and a meet with an employee who met Walt on his visit in the 1950s.

We were happy with our (cheaper) time at Tivoli and sadly left to pick up our bags, get on the train to the airport and checked in for our flight. We were all on the same flight to Berlin where I then had to catch a connecting flight to Nuremberg. All the travel went well and I got home tired, but happy.

I was very happy with our time in Copenhagen and I think we managed to see a lot and also had time for Tivoli. But I also remember that we walked really quite a bit and I was quite exhausted!

Up next: Final Thoughts

 

[Flossbolna]

I know I owe some of you replies and those will come. But today is the two year anniversary of Katharina and me departing on our wonderful cruise and I wanted to finish the main part of the trip report within that deadline. So, you get the last update, but replies will follow. As will our final thoughts about the cruise!

 

[englishrose47]

What a Great update !! I did not know that The Frozen Queen from Copenhagen was the inspiration for Frozen !! I agree that Plane ride is beyond scarey !! My all time favorite fish is plaice , always ordered plaice and chips in England .

 

[franandaj]

Nice that you had a little extra time to explore the city. If I ever visit there I will have to study up on the culinary offerings.

Sounds like you made a good call on the evening activities. I looked up that bier hall, it's right in DTLA. Sounds trendy!

 

[Geomom]

Thanks for all the details on Tivoli. There is so little info on the Tivoli site about the actual rides, especially things like The Flying Suitcase which is inside of a building. This will help us figure out how many rides we might go on next summer. Also, your description of Rutshcebanen leads me to think my family would be willing to go on it. DD17 will go on Big Thunder and 7 Dwarves mine train, and we just got DD13 on 7 Dwarves--so I think they'd be okay on this one! We are not into any of the crazy thrill rides--so this was a very helpful post for us!

 

[Pinkocto]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your post cruise adventures

How lovely to have such an easy disembarkation.

Glad Remy found you without too much trouble.

The boat tour looks splendid.

The Tivoli Garden looks lovely and such fun! I kept thinking how much it reminded me of Disney and no wonder!

I forgot to comment on that scary plane ride. That looks like way too much spinning!

 

[figment52]

just an FYI and buyer beware - the Tivoli employee that met Walt when he visited there retired 4 years ago. A friend of mine booked and went on that cruise tour a couple weeks ago at the $$$ and was not exactly pleased when they were told that when they were at the Gardens. I know they went to guest services/port adventures when they got back on the ship but I didn't hear the outcome.

 

[rndmr2]

Nice day at Tivoli, it is a really pretty park with all the gardens.

When I watched the video of that crazy ride I was saying "No, no, no" to myself! I am not much of a thrill ride person but I will go on some things, and while it didn't look like it went too fast I can't do upside down.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am all caught up again.

But overall we felt that after three days in port we would have preferred a sea day as a rest day.

I hear you on this. Our last cruise had a massive amount of sea days, but all the port days came bunched together.

A quick look on the TV however told us that the view did not seem to live up to the hype our Commodore had try to create the evening before

What a shame that this did not live up to expectations.

We decided that we needed to get some hot drinks to warm us up and tide us over until it would be time for breakfast and as we approached the drinks station we saw that Cabanas (on the Magic and Wonder the drinks station is next to the entrance to Cabanas) was already open.

That was lucky that Cabanas was already open.

The strange thing was that even though the buffet had just opened, the food was a bit cold.

That seems very strange, but the explanation why this was happening makes perfect sense.

It is also one of the ships that once featured as the “Traumschiff” (German for Dream Ship) in the German TV series of that name.

I never would have made that connection even though I just watched a fairly recent episode of Traumschiff.

So, we started looking into the Bergen Card which gives you free entry into a number of museums, discounts for some others and also a discount for the tickets to go up to Mount Fløyen. It also gives you unlimited trips with all public transport within the city.

That sounds like a fantastic deal.

I think it was transporting people from the ship to the port exit, but it was not far and we were fine walking. The amusing thing was that this was a German train – from a small town very close to where I live:

They even have one of those in New Caledonia.

We went to explore and there were many really pretty houses. A lot of them were open to visitors and done up in the style as they would have been in the 19th century.

That sounds really interesting and I really enjoyed the photos.

We were pretty close to the water and once we had turned around a corner, we could see the Magic in port:

I really like this photo. It is just a shame that it was so gloomy.

A dentist’s office:

I rather not go to this particular dentist.

By 9:30 am other tourists started to arrive, quite a few tour groups from various cruise ships. I think when we were there, there were 6 ships in total in port and I had read in a local newspaper (that was available online) that this was the new record for cruise ship passengers in town.

That sounds like a potential for a lot of people.

Interesting street art:

This really struck a chord with me as the bee is a symbol of my home town Manchester.

Katharina had a drink called Coco Royale: 1800 Coconut, Moet Ice Champagne and Coconut Flakes.

That sounds absolutely delicious.

It started with the speciality bread being crisp bread (or in Swedish: Knäckebröd):

It did amuse me that they passed this off as speciality bread.

The next smaller pink slice with darker rim is called Mettwurst here in Bavaria

We call it Mettwurst in Hessen, too.

There we saw the most bizarre towel animal of the trip. We have no idea what this could be:

It kind of looks like an Angel to me.

Going there relatively early was a good idea as it was quite empty in there. However, after having been on the Fantasy I have to say that the Rainforest Room on the classic ships really are a bit of a letdown.

I have never been on the Dream or the Fantasy, but I have kind of outgrown the Rainforest Room on the Magic and the Wonder.

However, we witnessed something really strange: In the dry sauna there were some people sitting in there who were not only wearing their bathrobe, but even had jeans and shirts on underneath!

That is really strange.

I first tried the Twist’ n’ Spout water slide, which is your standard slide.

I love that slide.

Then I ventured on to the Aqua Dunk. This slide is a bit scary. You step into a tube that is going nearly vertically down. There is a platform for you to stand on and you get into position. Once you are in there and standing as required, leaning onto the back wall of the tube, the CM starts the mechanism and the floor you are standing on disappears and you go into free fall down the tube. After the initial shock it actually was not so bad and it was over quickly. I actually quite enjoyed it! The scariest part to me was the floor disappearing.

The dropping floorwas the reason why I never tried this.

The next stop was the port adventures desk. While we were there, there was a couple in line that had been on our excursion bus as well and it turned out that they had also contacted the Port Adventures staff about the issues we had experienced. They had the same message as us and in the end them and us got to speak to the CM who had contacted us together. We were told that they did appreciate all our feedback and that they would refund 20% of the price of the excursion to our onboard account. Not only for us, but for everyone who had been on our bus. We thought that was fair. Katharina and I still had enjoyed the day a lot and there was a lot of value in just having the bus take you to all the places. So, for the discomfort and the odd tour guide, we thought 20% off was a good reflection of what we had missed out on.

I am glad that this was resolved to your satisfaction.

The we got to the caipirinha. There the lack of sugar became really obvious. There is no mint in the caipirinha, only lime and raw sugar. However, we got to muddle the lime on its own swimming in the syrup. The result was a really not very tasty caipirinha.

That explains why I have always been disappointed in the caipirinhas on the ships.

Then a Celebrity ship passed us:

I am going on a ship visit on that ship next week,

We had gotten a special print for the cruise being the inaugural Norway sailing:

I love that print.

Katharina had the Grilled Potato and Goat Cheese Napoleon with Balsamic-Basil Vinaigrette:

I have had this dish a number of times before and it looked very different.

While I had the regional inspiration: Veal Schnitzel, breaded Veal Cutlets, fried in butter served with Roasted Bacon Potatoes and Green Beans:

That looks delicious. You may just have provided inspiration for dinner.

What a beautiful sunset.

We arrived back in Copenhagen on a Saturday morning and since neither of us had to be back at work until Monday morning, we decided to add another night and take a late flight on Sunday back home to get another two days of touring in Copenhagen. Katharina’s DH decided that he would join us for the weekend and he had arrived the evening before already and was going to meet us when we got off the ship.

That was nice that you all could spend the weekend together.

Originally our plan had been to visit Tivoli, the amusement park in the middle of the city, this evening. However, the weather forecast was that there would be rain starting in the early evening and that just did not sound like it would make the Tivoli very enjoyable. Also, during the Summer they have a concert series every Saturday with big names in Denmark. So Saturday evenings are the most crowded times to visit. We wanted to see the park lit up that’s why we originally chose to go regardless of the crowds. But in combination with the weather, we just thought it would be better to postpone and go on Sunday before our evening flight.

That was a shame that the weather threw a spanner in the works.

We were going to Vor Frelser Kyrken (Our Savior Church). The tower is very special as it has a spiral staircase on the outer side of the spire that you can climb.

That would freak me out.

And it is a roller coaster without wheels, instead it does slide on its track. It is a wooden coaster from 1914.

I really like the look of that. I am not good with coasters, but I think I would enjoy this.

Actually, if you are on a cruise that has a port day in Copenhagen, DCL offers an excursion “The Footsteps of Walt Disney at Tivoli Gardens“. For the low price of 354 $ you get a 7 hour excursion that includes a guided tour of Tivoli, lunch and a meet with an employee who met Walt on his visit in the 1950s.

The price is ridiculous, but I think it would be really interesting.

I really loved all the photos around Tivoli. This looks like it is well worth a visit.

Corinna

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

You could see that there were a lot of taxis lined up to pick up passengers:

It's like a feeding frenzy!

Remember what I wrote before about there being no customs between Denmark and Norway. For the purpose of the cruise this was really great!

That really would be wonderful!

Katharina got a cryptic text about him being on the direct free shuttle to the ship. We had seen those busses that had “Disney Magic” displayed on them and had no idea what they were. It turned out that he just boarded one asked if it went to the ship and they said yes and took him with them, he was the only one. I still have no idea what these busses were, maybe they were for the crew?

Goodness. I'm glad he didn't end up consigned to slave labor on the ship!

We really enjoyed the boat tour. I have done it so often now, but I really like it every time. It is a great way to see some of the city and get a good overview.

Looks great! If you're ever in Chicago, they give boat tours of the city and talk about the history and the architecture of all of the buildings. We loved it as well.

They eat weird stuff in Northern Germany

I have to agree.

Beautiful shot, even if Katharina is skeptical.

This is a tower in the city that was built as an astronomical observatory and has a very special feature: an equestrian staircase. This means that inside the tower is not a typical staircase, but rather a spiral “road” going round and round until you get to the top. This was so that they could have horses pull up the heavy equipment.

Fascinating!

Our first stop was in Christianshavn, which is a very nice part of Copenhagen. It actually is an island, separated from the mainland by a few canals and we had travelled through there the day before. Christianshavn is also home to the Free State of Christiana, which used to be a hippie commune and now is an autonomous area within Denmark. Kind of an anarchist state within the state. It is tolerated by the authorities despite there being a lot of debate about the sale of Cannabis that is going on there. But this is not where we went.

Surrre. We believe you...

Copenhagen in general was very crowded and I guess it helps to apply some modified park touring plans: Get up early and do first what you want to do most...

Rope Drop works everywhere!

The mountain you can see here is part of a roller coaster called Rutschebanen. The name is actually the German word for a slide (as in a playground). And it is a roller coaster without wheels, instead it does slide on its track. It is a wooden coaster from 1914. And when we visited Copenhagen for the first time in the summer of 1984 or 1985 Katharina and I loved this ride and went on it over and over again. Until then I was scared of roller coasters. This is the first one that I saw that was all built up and you could not see down to the ground from your track, it was like being on a train on a mountain. Just like on Big Thunder Mountain. That made such a big difference for me. We will come back to the Rutschebanen when we enter the park.

My first thought was that it had to be the inspiration for the Matterhorn.

Tivoli has an interesting ticketing system. You can get just entrance to the park not including any rides for 120 DKK (about 18 US$). If you want to go on rides, you can get tickets and depending on the attraction you will have to use a certain number of those tickets. One ticket is 25 DKK (about 3.60 US$).

Like the old E-ticket system, as you pointed out.

So if you add up entrance and unlimited rides it is about 51 US$. Kids under 8 are cheaper. The good thing about this is if you have someone in your party who is not that interested in many of the wilder rides, they can get in for cheap. And the park itself is really beautiful on its own, too.

Sounds like a fairly affordable and family-friendly system.

Can you see the guy in the pink sun glasses in the middle of the train? He is the breaker. Because of the train sliding, it can get too fast if people on the train are heavy. So, the breaker is there to ensure that the train never gets too fast.

I think my oldest son (David) would be happy to see him!

The ride was great fun! It is still a pretty neat coaster despite being over 100 years old.

Cool!

So, this attraction is a dark ride, similar to Spaceship earth. You are sitting in an open suitcase and travel past several displays about the fairy tales. You can choose to listen to it in English or Danish and you will get some info on what you are seeing. I thought it was quite charming and very well done. Of course one of the displays is for the fairy tale The Ice Queen – which was the basis for Frozen. Yes, they used a Danish fairy tale, not a Norwegian one.

Oh man, my world is now shattered!

The tower you can see to the left is the scariest ride I have ever seen in my life! Do you see the two light blue poles? On the bottom there are two air planes (they are currently loading). Once the ride starts, the blue poles move in circles. But the air planes are moving as well around that pole.

Yeah...I won't be doing that.

And at the end of the book they always end up at Mother Petzi and are being served a huge stack of European pancakes (thinner than American, thicker than crepe) that they roll up with jam inside.

So, of course they had a pancake restaurant there!

You can never go wrong with pancakes!

Tivoli had been great fun.

It looks like a beautiful park!

Tivoli is also of interest to Disney fans. Walt Disney visited Denmark in 1951 and toured through Tivoli. He really enjoyed the place and he drew quite a bit of inspiration from it. While Disneyland is very different, especially the hub area has some of the elements from Tivoli with the gardens and the fairy lights at night. Also, the ticketing system and the marching band seem familiar. Of course, the Tivoli of 1951 was different in many ways, there are lots of new rides there. For example Katharina and I loved a kiddie coaster when we were there in the 1980s. That is no longer there. So, you can imagine how much it has changed since 1951. But the love of detail and creating beautiful little spots in corners and such is definitely something that translated to Disneyland.

I thought I had read something along those lines. Thanks for the background!