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DFDS Crown Seaways Oslo-Copenhagen review


lstone19
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Last month, my wife and I had a cruise booked out of Copenhagen. We wanted to spend some time in a couple of other Scandinavian cities pre-cruise so ended up with the plan of being in Oslo, then taking the overnight DFDS cruiseferry to Copenhagen, and boarding our ship. We thought of it as an extra cruise night.

 

DFDS has two ships that alternate nights going each way. We were on Crown Seaways; the other is Pearl Seaways which is somewhat larger. The ships run on the same schedule both directions: boarding starts at 3:15pm and ends at 4:15pm with the ship departing at 4:30pm. Arrival is 17:15 later at 9:45am with passengers asked to be off (as announced on the ship) by 10:15. They then have five hours to prepare for the next trip. Both are what are referred to as "Ro-Ros" for roll-on, roll-off for their vehicle decks. Both carry vehicles but the passenger capacity exceeds the vehicle capacity so they need foot passengers to fill the ship (in addition to one-way passengers, they market it as a two-night round-trip mini-cruise).

 

We booked it many months in advance through their website. Interestingly, the website (at least the one in English) prices the trip in Euros even though the Euro is not used in either Copenhagen or Oslo.

 

Check-in was somewhat hectic, primarily due to the lack of an organized line at the Customer Service counter for those needing to go there. There are self-service check-in machines but when I tried, we were directed to Customer Service since as U.S. citizens, they needed to see our passports.

 

Regardless of how you check-in, you are printed a paper boarding pass and room key. They're the same style as the plastic mag stripe cards many hotels have except it's card stock. But since it's just for one night, that's good enough.

 

There are a wide variety of cabin categories. We went with the top level "Commodore DeLuxe" (which I'll abbreviate CDL from hereon) - we went oceanview - balconies are also available. On Crown Seaways, the CDL oceanviews are at the front of decks 7 and 9 with forward facing windows. The CDL balconies are on deck 11 but are side-facing.

 

All CDL rooms include access to the CDL lounge on deck 11 - more convenient to the balconies that to us. The lounge has complimentary beverages and snacks but no view, it basically also being the lobby serving some of the balconies.

 

Unlike a cruise, there is no baggage handling so we were on our own to get our luggage to and from the room. But it was all ramps and then elevators on the ship so no problem despite having 29" suitcases - TG for wheels these days.

 

We enjoyed having the forward facing view as we made our way out the Oslo fjord. It did give the perfect view.

 

We then went to dinner (not included in the fare) at their buffet. There are other options as well. We had pre-reserved and paid for it when we made the reservation. Very good with lots of variety.

 

The next morning, a separate breakfast buffet is included for all Commodore (a step down from CDL) and above cabins. Again lots of variety.

 

Shortly after that, we were approaching Copenhagen. To facilitate vehicle loading and unloading, the ship is bow in at Oslo and stern in at Copenhagen so just before reaching the dock, the captain spun the ship and backed in.

 

One big difference between this and cruise ships is we never saw a cabin steward until we arrived in Copenhagen. I assume since the ship is in one of their two ports each night, most cabin cleaners are local and do their work while the ship is in port, and then go home. I assume the ship has a few cabin stewards on board to deal with any enroute issues.

 

Other than the buffets we ate in, the CDL lounge, and the duty-free store (I wanted to get a couple of bottles of wine for the cruise), we did not explore the common area of the ship but there seemed to be a lot to do including a lot to keep kids entertained.

 

Since they announced we didn't need to be off until 10:15 (and they also say B2B passengers need to disembark as well but they can re-embark at 11:00), we waited a few minutes for the crowd to thin out since we had the big suitcases. A good move since we could then get an elevator and off with no delay.

 

We then found our way to the taxi line - fairly long and not a lot of taxis coming by but after a wait, it was our turn and it was off to Oceankaj, the cruise terminal (DFDS uses a pier much closer to city than the cruise ships) in plenty of time to check-in, board, and have lunch on our ship.

 

I'd recommend this as a way to get between Oslo and Copenhagen. It was relaxing and the cost, even in a top-end cabin, was comparable if not less than another hotel night and a train and probably much less than a hotel night and flying.

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