Copenhagen on the Constellation this July 2

[a1dolllady]

The Constellation docks in Copenhagen at noon and departs that same night at 1 AM. Since we have a limited time to see the sights, I was wondering what are the most important/interesting must see things? Are there tour companies we can book on our own? Also, where would you suggest we have dinner in Copenhagen that evening? We would like some excellent Danish fare at a good restaurant. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Helen

[Host CMLA]

When we were in Copenhagen we didn't feel the need for a guide or a tour. We went to Tivoli Garden for a few hours then we strolled down the Stroget and found a place to eat. We also went to see the mermaid in the harbor and bought some Dansk clogs. I think you could do Copenhagen on your own.

[alcman]

We are also on this sailing. I am curious as to whether the sites in Copenhagen are within walking distance of the dock. I am guessing Tivoli Gardens is not, but how about the other recommended sites. At least one review suggested the cruise line ran an evening shuttle for a nominal cost to Tivoli. Anyone know about Celebrity's shuttles?

 

Jerry

[John&Betty]

Hello,

 

Take a look at the Copenhagen and Tivoli pages of our web site under "Maps & Photos" in our signature. Here's the link if you don't have signatures turned on.

http://home.mchsi.com/~jbglenn33/

 

Tivoli is a little too far to walk but the trains look like they will work very well.

 

John

[lysolqn]

There's a hop on/hop off bus that circles the city and can be picked up at the pier. It's inexpensive, gives you a good overview of the "must see" sights and allows you to get off where you please, explore and get back on again.

[jimbo23]

The little mermaid is five minutes away from the ship.Take a left off the ship and walk along the waterfront and you cannot miss it.

 

Five minutes further and you come to a replica statue of Michelangelos David and another five minutes takes you to the royal palace Amelioborg with danish guardsmen on duty.

 

Another five minutes on the waterfront brings you to Nyhaven where you can take a canal tour for about $10 per person and Hans Christian Anderson used to live here.The city is about another five minutes away.

 

Tivoli is best from the ships shuttle which includes a ticket to get in.My advice is not to eat in the gardens as it is very expensive.

 

Copenhagen is very easy to do on your own

 

 

Jim

[celem]

Last year (July, 2004), our Scandinavian & Baltic cruise on the Constellation was in Copenhagen for two days. I ate my most enjoyable meal of the entire cruise in Copenhagen. For what it's worth, here is our journal entry for Copenhagen. Please note that we skipped most of the sights and shopping because Copenhagen was near the end of the cruise and were tired of looking at old churches and shopping so we chose a brewery tour instead.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

July 13, 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark

$1 = 6.107 DKK

- We were scheduled to arrive at 9:30AM but during breakfast, at 9AM, the loudspeaker announced that due to technical difficulties with the propulsion systems (now repaired), our arrival would be delayed until 11AM. To compensate the ship will depart later on the next day, at 4PM instead of 2PM. I suspect that the problem occurred around 3AM last night as the ship was vibrating so much at that time that the rattling water carafe woke us up. We talked about it at breakfast with Quintos, our first waiter, and he says that it is still broken and they are probably flying some French engineers to fix the thruster.

 

- Around 11:30 we caught the ship's free shuttle to "Kongens Nytorv", which is the Northern tip of the pedestrian shopping streets, collectively referred to as Strøget. WE walked down into the subway station at "Kongens Nytorv" to see if we could take it to the central train station, but discovered that the Copenhagen subway is in its infancy and there is only a short route constructed.

- From "Kongens Nytorv" we walked to the Train Station "Hovedbanegården", which is behind Tivoli. We purchased round-trip tickets for Roskilde, which is about 30km West of Copenhagen. Our goal was Vikingeskibsmuseet, the Viking Ship museum. Rick Steves rated this as a three star tour, even higher than the Viking Ship museum in Oslo, which was a two star. It was very interesting with everything printed in multiple languages including English. I never realized how tightly Ireland was integrated with Viking Denmark, but this museum made the point. Several of the five ships in the museum were built in Ireland. The museum is also building a reproduction of the long ship and will launch it in September and in 2007 will "reconcour Ireland".They also had people in period dress at work with period tools making barrels, arrows, etc., much like at Williamsburg, VA.

- We ended up walking back to the train station as the #307 bus was going to be over 20 minutes in arriving. We passed the beautiful old Roskilde church but it had just closed for the day.

- After arriving at Copenhagen Central train Station at 6:30PM, we immediately went to eat dinner at a restaurant near the station and Tivoli that was recommended by Rick Steves, the Bryggeriet Apollo, which is also a micro-brewery. My wife had rump of lamb (Lammeculotte) and I had Plaice, a flat "Danish Plaice" fish (Ovnbagt rødspætte) that tastes more like lobster than fish. Wonderful! The food was the most enjoyable that we have had on the entire cruise. Not fancy, just good.

- After dinner, My wife wanted to go to Tivoli because she said that she couldn't come to Copenhagen and leave without having been to the famous Tivoli. I didn't really want to go since Tivoli is basically an amusement park, much like a Six Flags with some band music and more flowers, but smaller. Its primary claim to fame is its location - within a major city center, and its longevity, dating back to 1843. It was as I expected - basically an amusement park with extra music and flowers. Even if we had wanted to ride one of the roller coasters, the wait in line would have been at least an hour. It is very popular with some people and Rick Steves rates it very high, but then he tends to highly rate most “kid friendly” destinations. Oh well, tastes differ, but in my opinion, it was a waste of $10 each.

- After Leaving Tivoli, we were so tired that we took a cab back to the ship for 77Kr ($12.61).

- My wife wanted to go to the stores at the dock to find a flag pin. Afterwards we walked to the back of the ship to take a photo and noticed a "Free Bike" stand, so we inserted the returnable coin and took turns riding it. This was the only place that we have found the bikes - all other racks were empty.

- Inside our room at 10PM - very tired!!

 

July 14, 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark

- Sleepy today. Had room service coffee at 7:30AM and breakfast yet to do. We got a got a late start today.

- We took shuttle & then walked to City Hall. While enroute we found Rick Steve's favorite bakery (Kransekagehuset) for a couple of danish - very good but the ones that we had in Germany were better. We toured City Hall but didn't find much of interest besides the WC. We then caught the #26 bus to the Carlsberg brewery. The tour was interesting, although you don't see the actual brewery, just exhibits. However, you do get two large sample beers. My wife's favorite was Carl's Special. Our second beer was a wheat beer (Hvede - pronounced veed-la.). We sat and talked with a Danish couple (Bjarne & Anamarie) over our beers beers. They were from Aakborg in Northern Denmark, home to Aalborg Akvavit, Denmark's most famous aquavit. They were very pleasant and we had a nice conversation.

- We took the #26 back , getting off early, to the City Hall area, even though the #26 went all of the wayto the ship. We had a quickie lunch of ristet polse "all the way". My wife wanted to go to the sweater store, among others.

- we caught the 3PM shuttle back to the ship.

- Went to the "Reflections" lounge to watch the sail out. Then, we went to Dick Morris' talk on "who will win the presidential election". He predicts Bush.

- After napping a little in Dick Morris' talk, we remained so very tired that we we went to some lounge chairs on deck 4 to read; and also slept for a half hour.

- We had one dance while waiting for the restaurant to open. Tonight was "informal" and we had, in the main dining room, the same beef dish that was served in the Ocean Liners specialty restaurant. The Ocean Liners' version was definitely of better quality although this was good.

[eileen & jay]

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