The only thing we would change about this cruise is to add a sea day after SPB. It is a very port intensive cruise and by the day after SPB, we were ready for a break. This is rather long as I wanted to include information on many things I had researched myself on these boards.
We took a nonstop flight out of Newark into Copenhagen, arriving early Saturday am. We had planned on taking the train to city center but we ended up taking a taxi to the hotel. You give the taxi driver your charge card and he puts in through the machine at the start of the trip and you sign the receipt at the end. We stayed at the Copenhagen Island, a fairly new modern hotel on the water. It was next to a big mall and a short distance from the new hotel Tivoli. It was nice and quiet but it was a good walk or short bus ride to city center. We took the Hans Christian Anderson tour; it was a very nice introduction to old Copenhagen. You meet in front of the tourist information in city center, the walk lasts about 90 minutes and cost $20 each, able to pay in US dollars or euros or DKK. I think it started at 9:30 am. You can spend hours walking on Stroget and the surrounding streets. We also took the DFDS hop on hop off boat tour, a great value and an easy way to see the sites. We bought our tickets at Nyhaven,, your pass is good for any of the lines and you just get off at whatever area you are interested in and explore. We had the best ice cream with freshly made cones in Nyhaven We went to Christianshavn and walked through Christiania, a modern take on an old hippie commune. Lots of visitors there, when you leave a sign says "now entering the EU". We had lunch at a small restaurant off the Stroget, the 2 of us has smorrebrod, Club soda and coffee, and it was nice to sit outside in the square, lunch total $70! We also had brunch at the famous cafe Norden, it cost around $70 for 2 but the brunch was enormous and we could have easily shared 1. You had a couple of choices to select, ours came with fruit, salmon, cheese, scrambled eggs, bacon, chocolate cake, ham, fresh strawberry preserves. You order at the bar and then sit down; they will bring you the food. Definitely recommend it. Nice again to sit outside and people watch and enjoy the nice weather. Everything we heard about Copenhagen being expensive was true, a cup of coffee cost $ 4-$6, a glass of water in most restaurants cost between $2-$3
On Monday we took a taxi to the pier, a 20 minute trip at the most and got there about 11:30, check in quick and then we waited a solid hour for our number to be called to board the ship. We had booked a sy guarantee and about 2 weeks earlier we received our room assignment, category sy midship, room 6072. Plenty of storage, comfortable bed, a couch and 2 chairs that adjoined the dressing table. Good magnifying mirror and light on the dressing table. Great bedside lamps, double sinks in the bathroom and nice size balcony with 2 rattan chairs with ottomans and a small table with 3 chairs. We had breakfast most days on the balcony and the food was always delivered in the designated time and was always good.