Having cruised only the mainline cruise lines before Holland and Princess, we looked forward with great anticipation to joining our friends, Phyllis and Phil, who had only cruised the higher end lines: Crystal, Silverseas, and Seabourn. Phyl and Phil traveled separately to Copenhagen (they used frequent flyer miles on American, and had a tortuous route from Los Angeles to Boston to Zurich to Copenhagen). My wife Peggy and I took advantage of a half-price business class sale on Air France, and overnight to Paris and had an easy transfer at CDG, thanks to directions from Cruise Critic member/posters Globaliser and Flyertalker--my sincere thanks! We took the train from Copenhagen Airport to the city center for less than $5.00, and it was a short and reasonably priced cab ride to the Marriott, which we loved. Our friends had the canal view and we had the city view, with sights of Tivoli all lit up at dark (which is not til after 10pm in the late summer!) The hotel is convenient (only two blocks to Tivoli and a bit further to other city sights and restaurants. The breakfast buffet was excellent, but quite expensive (about $50 for two).

We spent three days pre-cruise in Denmark, and it was delightful! We tried the hop-on hop-off bus, which got us to several sights, but the recorded highlights were pretty basic. Be sure to bring guide books; we used Lonely Planet and Rick Steves. The concierge directed us to two very nice restaurants. The first, Cafe Nytorv was simple, but good food. Service at the outdoor cafe took quite a while as they only had one waitperson bringing the food from the restaurant across the street. The other restaurant recommended by the concierge, Gammel Strand was simply magnificent. Amazing food, wonderful wine and excellent service.

Morning of the cruise we had time for the Hans Christian Andersen tour. It was entertaining, informative and I highly recommend it. We cabbed from the Marriott to the pier, quick and easy. Check in was a breeze. As the rooms were not ready at 2:00, we went up to La Veranda for a late lunch. Plenty of food, but I would say nothing more than the usual buffet fare, which caused us to avoid it til the last evening of the cruise, when we were pleasantly surprised--more on that later. Afterwards, we headed to our suite. It certainly exceeded our expectations. The room was quite large, well appointed, with a nice large walk-in closet and a large marble bath. We met our room stewardess, Prisilla, who was charming and efficient. We took advantage of the time before sailing to do a couple of loads of laundry, then up to Compass Rose for dinner. No waiting for a table for four. The food was good, but I couldn't really say that it was outstanding. Two ongoing sour notes. One of our traveling companions prefers the sweeter white wines. He asked for a Reisling and was told there was none on the ship, but that they would see if they could get it at the next port. This turned out to be a running joke, as we asked every night, and the Reisling was never available. The same thing occurred with a request for strawberry ice cream: None available, ever. Read more