Dream Baltic Review/Journal Part 12

The meal tonight was the “Presidents Dinner” and included favorites as prepared from the former White House Executive Chef. They each indicated the President or Statesperson the meal was named after and a brief description of the item and why it was named so. The menu itself was interesting reading. I did notice a couple opposite us ask for a copy of the menu and the waiter immediately brought them a take home copy.

We proceed onto the Stardust lounge to take watch the Not So Newlywed game and are very surprised when my wife and I are called up on stage. It was fun event and based on the answers it was surprising one or two of the couples had even known each other prior to the cruise much less been married for 10 or 20 years. After about 30 minutes of this my wife and I were declared winners (not bad with seven out of ten answers correct) and were presented a champagne bottle and NCL tote bag filled with souvenirs items such as coffee mugs, key chains, etc. We had a wonderful time and decided to skip the evening entertainment that night. We did talk to a few in our group later who stayed on for the production that night “Sea Legs at Sea” and they thoroughly enjoyed the show, so it might be worth a try.

Tonight we are still at sea and heading to Copenhagen. We once again order our traditional room service and enjoying reading our books while nibbling on pizzas and cookies. One thing we have not done to date but are considering for the morning is a room service breakfast order. When you first arrive on board you have a folder in your room with a few pieces of stationary, typical welcome aboard information, etc. and a number of room service order hang tags which you can put on your door up until 4 a.m. and have your order delivered to your room between 6:30 and 9:00 a.m. The choices are fairly good and you enjoy coffee in bed in the morning this is an excellent way to have it delivered without calling each morning. I have been told by some who like this service and have forgotten to hang out their tag, the delivery take a little longer as the pre-order have priority.

The menu is fairly simple and you can order as many as you like of each. Rather than answer a lot of questions over e-mail I figure it would be easier to list everything as the list is short.

Orange, Tomato or Grapefruit Juice

Chilled melon, fruit compote, sliced fresh fruit, or sliced banana

Plain or assorted yogurt

Raisin Bran, Corn Flakes, Special K or Wheaties cereal

Fresh Danish pastry, muffins and rolls, dry toast, or buttered toast

Orange marmalade, grape or apply jelly, or strawberry jam

Coffee, decaffeinated coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk or low fat milk


As always a full breakfast buffet or sit down breakfast is available in all of the other restaurants.

As we turn in the seas have calmed down quite a bit and we are enjoying a quiet peaceful ride to Copenhagen.

Tuesday June 15, 2004. As we awake this morning the seas have obviously picked up over night and while there is no noticeable sway in the boat, you can see some of the white caps from the waves at sea. There is also considerable fog coming in which I’m sure is attributable to the high seas. As my wife sleeps in I begin organizing some of our items from the last several days and read over the disembarkation information left in our stateroom last night. We were given a set of lime green luggage tags and a very detailed information slip about disembarking on Friday. We are scheduled for a post hotel stay at the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel with transfer through NCL. In reading through the information I also found where you could have bought a transfer to London for approximately $75.00 one way.

It appears the first group to leave will be those who are on a NCL Air/Sea Package or have purchased a transfer and their flight leaves between 10:30 a.m. and 12:55 p.m. from Heathrow. This group is supposed to disembark at 5:45 a.m. following anyone going to Gatwick with flight between 11:20 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. The Gatwick group leaves at 6:15. From there it appears there are a number of organized groups and tours such as ours as they are a number listed.

As I walk through the ship it appears there is a fairly good rain coming down, and the inside of the ship is fairly busy. About 11:00 o’clock it is fairly hard to find a single place to sit down but after looking for a few minutes I’m on Deck 11 outside the casino in a small nook enjoying the time pass away. As the lunch hour starts to come about us it’s obvious the common areas are not as much congested and it would be easier to find a seat. I’m sure the bad weather coupled with everyone ready for a fun day in Copenhagen has everyone stirring a little more than usual. We dock at approximately 1 o’clock ahead of our scheduled arrival of 2 p.m. As we were coming into the port the captain came on and was describing why we had slowed down from the 10 plus knots we had been going to the 3 knots we were now moving forward. Apparently the channel we were entering only allowed for about 7 or 8 of depth between us and bottom of the channel and thus we were stirring up mud underneath and we might experience some vibration from this. He also talked about the upcoming windmill site which is located in the ocean and is a site to see. Approximately 10% of Copenhagen’s power is generated through windmills and there is a field of them situated in the ocean. Quite an interesting site.

Each day there are a variety of specials and different offers printed in an insert that goes with the Freestyle that is left in your room every night. For today there is a photo special that lets you essentially buy one get one free. This would have been very useful information had we know it earlier thus we could have held off on buying multiple photographs. If you see a few pictures which you think you will need multiple copies of the same size of different prints, make sure you wait until a special is offered.

After a quick lunch we decided to out and see some of the shops located adjacent to the port before our city tour of Copenhagen later this afternoon. There are about 20 shops located directly on the pier when you come off the ship, depending upon where you dock at. They are in one line and appear to cater not only to the cruise industry but the surrounding business area and apartments which are located very close by. A majority of the shops focus solely on clothing but there are a few jewelry stores intermingled and 2 souvenir shops for things like postcards, magnets, etc. The prices seem to be fair and in line. If you go past the row of shops a little further down and past a bridge you come upon a wonderful outside bistro and a great view of the port, walking a little further you see a local sailing harbor that is very picturesque along with a walking path that you can explore and take in some of the city sights.