Copenhagen & Transatlantic Cruise
September 6 - 24, 2016
(by Dave)

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trip by clicking the icon below.

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Copenhagen

The Cruise

When finished, click the "Back to Intro Page"
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Videos

In September 2016, Patty and I flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet the Regal Princess for a 14--day Transatlantic cruise from Copenhagen to New York City.  The cruise included ports-of-call in Norway, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Boston before arriving in New York City.  

Copenhagen

Using AAdvantage miles, we flew to Chicago O'Hare and from there to London Heathrow and on to Copenhagen.  Using the miles was a good decision as we were able to do the long leg of the trip (O'Hare to Heathrow) in business class on a British Airways Boeing 747.  On that plane, business class is located both in the upper deck and the main deck.  We took the upper deck which only had about 20 seats and 3 dedicated flight attendants.  What a way to go!

After we reached our hotel in Copenhagen and a brief rest, we hit the streets to begin seeing Copenhagen.  That evening, we visited the Rundetaarn (Round Tower) for a panoramic evening view of Copenhagen.  On the way back to the hotel, we found a great little place to enjoy some frozen yogurt.  We spent the remaining 2 days checking out many of the points-of-interest that can be found in the city, starting with a canal tour of the city (click here).  Patty had read about and obtained Copenhagen Cards (click here) for us to use.  For an appropriate fee, these cards provide free admission to 73 museums and attractions (including the canal tour); free transport by train, bus, harbor bus and Metro in the entire Copenhagen Region; and discounts on restaurants, attractions and entertainment.  This card enabled us to see and do all we wanted to do without the need to exchange any US currency for Danish krones.

Our impression of Copenhagen was that it was a friendly, safe, and very interesting city to visit.  There was lots to see and do and getting around was relatively easy.  The Copenhagen slideshow includes photos of many of the places we visited and things we saw.  For more about places and things depicted in the Copenhagen slideshow, click any of the links below:

The Cruise

After 2½ days in Copenhagen, on Saturday morning we loaded up our bags in a taxi and headed to the cruise port to embark on the Regal Princess (click here).  The Regal Princess is a sister ship to the Royal Princess, on which we've cruised twice, and the two are presently the largest ships in the Princess fleet (each one is 0.2 miles long).  We departed Copenhagen on Saturday afternoon and sailed toward our first stop in Norway.  After dinner, Patty and I went out on deck and enjoyed "Rain", a dancing fountains light show on the Regal Princess (click here for video).

Before heading out into the open seas of the Atlantic for the crossing to North America, we visited ports in:

  • Norway -- we had two stops in Norway, on the first Sunday and Monday of the cruise.  On Sunday, we stopped in Kristiansand where Patty and I found a church to attend.  After church, we walked around town some and found a McDonalds to get a quick refreshment.  The following day, we were in Bergen where we took a trip up Mt. Fløien via a funicular (click here for a video).

  • Scotland -- we docked to the sound of bag pipes (click here for a video) in Greenock (Glasgow) and then headed out for a picnic and tour of Culzean Castle.  On they way back to the ship, we spent about an hour in the town of Ayr, where Patty finally was able to by some much-needed Scotch tape (get it? ... we bought Scotch tape in Scotland).

  • Northern Ireland -- We next stopped at Belfast, Northern Ireland where we toured Hillsborough Castle which is the official residence of the Royal Family when in Northern Ireland.

  • The Republic of Ireland -- out last stop before beginning the Atlantic crossing was at Cobh, Ireland.  Formerly known as Queenstown, Cobh was also the last stop of the RMS Titantic on it's ill-fated maiden voyage.  We spent the morning in Cobh at the Titanic Experience, an interactive museum that retells the Titanic story.  In the afternoon, we took a train to nearby Cork where we did a little shopping.

  • The next five days were spent at sea doing the Atlantic crossing.  The captain took us on a slightly longer southerly course to avoid rough seas resulting from  significant storms along the usual route.  We still experienced some rough seas, but, for the most part, that just made for nice rocking motion at night while we slept.  Since we were sailing west from Europe, we also enjoyed five 25-hour days as we crossed 5 time zones on the way to North America.  One evening, Patty and I competed in the "Marriage Match" game show which was filmed in the the Princess Live! studio.  Something like the old "Newlywed Game", "Marriage Match" pits 3 couples against each other:  a "newlywed" couple, a "middle-wed" couple, and an "oldie-wed" couple.  Patty and I were the latter, and we won, answering all of the questions correctly.  The next day, we were able to watch the show on our stateroom TV.

  • We stopped for a day in Boston, MA, where we were scheduled to take a city tour on a "Duck" vehicle.  After waiting 45 minutes for our "Duck", we canceled our participation and enjoyed the rest of the day on ship while most of the other passengers were off touring Boston.

  • After leaving Boston, we enjoyed one last full day at sea before cruising into New York Harbor to disembark and fly home.

For more about places and things depicted in the Cruise slideshow, click any of the links below:

Photo info.  Please enjoy the slideshows.  Simply click the slideshow icon to see the photos.  Once done, click the "Back to Intro Page" link at the top of any page to return here.  All photos were shot with Patty's Canon PowerShot ELPH 130 IS or Dave's Canon EOS 7D MK II and Sony DSC-WX50 cameras. All images were shot as JPG (130 IS & DSC-WX50) or RAW (7D Mark II) and adjusted as needed in Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® CC.  Additional photo data is provided below each photo in the slideshow.  Enjoy the photos!

All photos are Copyright © 2016 David & Patty Boston