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The Princess Star in dock at Oslo, Norway

Seven Countries in 10 days on the Princess Star

It's a much needed rainy winter day here in Georgia - a good day to try to get our Scandanavian Cruise on VT. I've completed my journal and have an atlas handy, plus the daily newspapers we got on the Star Princess so I think I'm ready to share our days at sea.
The Star is so big that we never could get a full picture of her. Because of concern with the airlines we left a day early and had an overnight in Copenhagen before we embarked from there. I'm really glad we did because we had most of the afternoon the day we arrived and a great deal of the next day to explore Copenhagen on our own. I took full advantage of VT and asked several members about different things to do during our time there.
We visited Stockholm Sweden, Helsinki Finland, St. Petersburg Russia, Tallin Estonia, Gdansk Poland, Oslo Norway and of course, Copenhagen Denmark.

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The Princess Star in Oslo, Norway

The Princess Star

We had a balcony on the Aloha Deck. It was an upgrade from a balcony stateroom on another deck that I had initially chosen. Our new stateroom was right below the Horizon Court, Deck 14 and we could hear the scraping of the chairs and tables through our balcony ceiling and stateroom ceiling. After a day the purser did take care of this problem for us at night, but we could hear the loud sounds continually during the day, depriving us of quiet time on the balcony we had paid extra for. The cruise was sold out so we could not be moved to another stateroom.
Captain Philip Pickford was in Command of the September 9th Baltic Cruise from Copenhagen to Copenhagen. We sailed a total of 2,383 nautical miles or 2740.45 Statute miles. There were three special highlights for me while on the ship: I enjoyed seeing the Stockholm's archipelago and the magnificent view throughout the "Soderhamnfjarden" passage, sailing up Oslo's fjord "Oslofjorden" and crossing under the Osterrenden bridge, linking Denmark and Norway.
The Star was very clean and we saw constant maintenance work going on during the trip. They had hand sanitizers near all the restaurants and the buffet area. The beds were comfortable and our room attendant was prompt and efficient. We were charged $10 a day each, for tips for the various people that helped make our visit such a pleasure.
We had great weather and our ship was able to enter every port, where we were docked. We never used a tender. Some ports were quite close to the downtown areas. This cruise included an overnight stay in St. Petersburg, Russia and was certainly the highlight of the shore excursions.
We enjoyed two days at sea. The one at the beginning gave us plenty of time to explore the Star Princess and by the time the last day at sea came along we were relaxed enough to really slow down and enjoy it.
The last morning we had plenty of time for breakfast and yet we didn't have to wait too long until we were taken by bus to another area where we located our luggage and then we were taken to the airport. It was all done very smoothly and we were quite comfortable during our embarkation time.
We had a late seating for dinner with 3 other couples at a table for 8. We did not know each other when the cruise started, but we hit it off wonderfully because not one couple made a reservation for an evening meal at another restaurant on board. The shows on this cruise were great! Even though we had the late dining we enjoyed them enough to miss a little sleep a few mornings.

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Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel in Copenhagen

Our Day in Copenhagen

We had no trouble with our flight on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Atlanta into Amsterdam and then on to Copenhagen. Princess had their people watching for us as we claimed our luggage and we were soon on our way to the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel in downtown Copenhagen. They had a Welcome Letter ready for us which had information about our transfer, embarkation, tours and general information about the city.
Our room was ready as soon as we arrived, and all our luggage was accounted for. I was very pleased with the efficiency that Princess used as they took care of this booking. We were processed quite quickly after we were picked up the next day and were onboard in time for lunch buffet while we waited for our luggage to arrive in our room.
The Radisson Scandinavia was about a 15 minute walk to the downtown area. I walk 1.2 miles every day so it must have been just about a mile.
We were able to enjoy the City Hall Square and the pedestrian street "Stroeget". The pedestrian street is the world's longest shopping street. At the other end of the pedestrian street, "Stroeget", is Nyhavn (st Kings New Square). This is the place with cafes and restaurants.
I hope I've captured your interest in our visit to Scandanavia and will check out my new pages.

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Pretty Nyhavn - The Venice of the North

Copenhagen Canal Cruise

Explore this Venice of the North on a canal cruise that passes by the city's principal sights. It was a beautiful day when we saw the Amalienborg Palace, St. Saviour's Church, Little Mermaid statue, Naval Church, Old Stock Exchange and Christianborg Palace on this cruise. I'm really glad we came in a day early and were able to do some exploring on our own. It was very easy and fun!

Since I've been retired I've done more reading. Here's a few of my favorites.
"The White City" by Eric Larson (about Chicago and the 1893 Columbian Exposition)
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseine
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseine
"North River" Pete Hamill
"Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky * * * incredible reading
"Jackdaws" by Ken Follett
"A Place Called Freedom" by Ken Follett
"The Bone Garden" by Tess Gerritsen
"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards
"Split Second" David Balducci
"Into the Wilderness" by Sara Donati
"The Smoke Jumper" by Nicholas Evans
"The Loop" by Nicholas Evans
"Sarum" by Edward Rutherford
"London" by Edward Rutherford
"The Collectors" David Balducci
"Stone Cold" David Balducci
"The Camel Club" David Balducci
"The Winner" David Balducci
"Compromising Positions" Susan Isaacs
"The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls * * * quite incredible
"The Constant Princess" by Phillipia Gregory
"The Mulberry Tree" by Jude Deveraux
"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett
"Time & Again" by Jack Finney
"From Time to Time" by Jack Finney * * also wrote the movie "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
"Silent Snow" by Steve Thayer
"East of the Mountains" by David Guterson
"Snow Falling on Cedars" by David Guterson
"Chiefs" by Stewart Woods
"The Testament" by John Grisham
"Texas" by James Michener
"As the Crow Flies" Jeffrey Archer
"Three Fates" Nora Roberts