Background information: The participants: Myself, DW, Son (15), and seven additional friends and family, ages ranging from 10 to 70.

Hotel information: Launching pad, Hotel Bethel, Copenhagen. I can't say enough about the people of Copenhagen and the Hotel Bethel in particular. Nothing fancy about the hotel, but the people were fantastic. We had a possible tragedy when we lost a backpack containing medicines and other vitals. Thanks to the tireless work of the Bethel staff and a local pharmacy, the cruise was rescued.

Ship Info: We embarked on June 21 sailing. The taxi from the hotel to the ship was a little less than quoted. I can't recall the specific amount but it was around $20 for the three of us and three suitcases. The embarkation process was smooth, having arrived around 2:00. It took about 30 minutes. Upon arrival on the ship we went up to the Horizon Court and had sandwiches and pizza. Pizza was very good, the sandwiches were adequate. Luggage arrived within an hour. We had an inside cabin on the Dolphin deck. The size was a little bigger than we remembered (having taken the same ship for an Alaskan cruise 7 or 8 years ago). Throughout the cruise the assigned porter was very efficient. For those inclined to use the TV, there was MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, ESPN International (mostly Wimbledon and day old baseball games), and a bunch of movie channels (showing mostly year old movies) as well as Princess channels for port previews,etc. Some World Cup soccer games were shown both on the cabin TV and on the big screen on the pool deck. I should note that the Mexican passengers were quite upset when their games were not shown. It appeared that there was some internet/satellite coverage in one of the rooms. Read more