This is a review of the September 6, 2013 sailing, round-trip Copehagen to Norway and the Fjords. We are Josie and Al, semi-retired Realtors from Houston, TX. This was somewhere around our twelfth cruise together in the six years we've been married ... at our age, who's counting? It's likely to be a bit lengthy, so please bear with me. I'll break down the review into components ...

PRE-CRUISE: We arrived in Copenhagen two days prior to the cruise to take in a bit of the city ... well worth it, although be prepared for sticker shock. Scandinavia is among the most expensive places in the world to live ... $27 hamburgers, $53 admission to a movie, and so on. We were forewarned, but were still taken aback. We did both "hop-on, hop-off" tours ... land and canals ... both worth every penny. Do them. We stayed at Wakeup Copenhagen, a "budget" ($170/nt.) hotel ... very new, very clean, very Danish (minimal, but every inch utilized). Google it to see what I mean. Credit cards are widely accepted, and we didn't need to obtain Danish or Norwegian currency ... but be aware that PINs are widely used there, and not every individual can operate the machines to convert to signatures. Debit cards work fine ... but we preferred our Capital One card, since there's no foreign conversion charge. Let the merchants (even taxi drivers) know in advance that you'll be using a credit card with signature. It may be a hassle once in a while, but eventually they'll get it.

EMBARKATION: As easy as it comes ... didn't even have to use the preferred boarding line. We arrived about three hours before sailaway, and were aboard in less than fifteen minutes. The embarkation point is on Deck One, which eliminates that long, uphill hike necessary to board other ships. The cruise was not a sellout, but there were no upgrades available ... apparently there were a number of interior staterooms available, and given that the scenery is the primary attraction, it's understandable. We numbered around 2000 passengers of about fifty nationalities ... met some really great people from all over. Read more