We are a family of 4, my wife and two girls of 6 months and 4 years. We love to go on cruise for our holiday and for my oldest daughter this was here 6th cruise. We traditionally cruise with Celebrity cruises and 8th of our latest cruises has been with Celebrity cruises in the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean. For this summer we choose to go cruising in the Nordics (Baltic and Kattegat Sea) with Holland America on-board the MS Zuiderdam.

This was our very first cruise with Holland America and we had high expectations to this cruise liner as advertisements and cruise critics reviews discuss HAL as a 5 star cruise liner. We expected to have the same level of service and standard on the cruise ship as we experience on-board the Celebrity Cruises. For the booking we selected a balcony stateroom (class VB) as these rooms were brand new (added to the ship in 2015) and that by ship maps looked larger than other balcony staterooms – perfect for a family of four. The cruise we selected was a 12 day cruise from Copenhagen to two ports in Germany (Warnermünde and Travermünde), Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Helsingborg and back to Copenhagen.

The taxi ride from Kastrup (Copenhagen airport) takes about 25 minutes and cost about 500 Danish kroner and the taxi cue was well organized so there was minor waiting time to get a taxi to hold the four of us. We had brought child seats with us from home. Child seats a mandatory also in taxis in Denmark, so if you do not bring it from home, remember to book a taxi with child seats prior to arriving at Kastrup. The cruise pier is located at the most remote place possible in Copenhagen and the best way to reach the pier is by Taxi. We were met by check-in personnel at the pier. Their only concern was that we left the luggage outside the terminal building and they were pointing in the direction of a long line starting outside the terminal building. With 4 suitcases, a large buggy, and additional small suitcases, we had to drag ourselves to the end of the line were we had to load the luggage at the security luggage belt (in best Danish manner). After waiting in line for 30 minutes to offload the luggage in the belt the rest of the check-in process and boarding went very smooth. Read more