Northern Transatlantic Cruise Live Blog: Day 2

Catch up on the previous day here.

Today we woke up above the clouds on an airplane enroute to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Our kids thankfully fell sleep for the majority of the flight. That has not been the case on some our previous red-eyes, and I must say, that is NOT the funnest way to start any vacation. By the time our kids started stirring it was almost time to land.

Once we landed we disembarked the plane and stood on the jetway for a while waiting for our gate checked stroller. After several minutes we asked how much longer it would be and were informed it would be waiting for us at baggage claim. That was a little jarring to us as in all our travels the stroller was always returned on the jet way. This way you can use the stroller to move your baby or toddler through the airport. Not having the stroller available while walking through an airport would be a significant inconvenience for most parents. Thankfully, Lucy is old enough to walk, so we just forced her to start walking.

However, after we got off the jet way and start walking in the terminal we noticed several small kiosks that have free luggage carts to use and these also come with a kiddo seat.

We immediately snatched one up and started using it. Lucy was also very thankful to be riding in the cart.

I must say that this was a very nice unexpected surprise as we could place our backpacks AND Lucy on them and not have to carry anything through immigration. While the Europeans love to charge you to go to the restroom, they are entirely ok not charging you for a luggage cart.

We then headed off to immigration and noticed some very informative signage on the floor.

They clearly want to remind you to have your passport out,

Open to the page with your picture,

and handed over “like this.”

They clearly wanted there to be absolutely no confusion on this matter. Despite the reminders, there is still plenty of confusion from plenty of passengers.

Immigration was pretty painless, and we then proceeded to baggage claim and picked up our luggage and walked through customs.

We were all pretty hungry at this point and were headed out the door to the taxi stand when we saw a sign for a Danish favorite, Burger King.

Since we couldn’t check in till 3pm, we decided to go ahead and eat so that when we got to where we were staying we could check right in.

We eventually made our way via taxi to our “luxury hostel” in Copenhagen. We normally stay in hotels, but for some reason the hotel prices were insane for this weekend in Copenhagen so we went with a hostel. This is not peak tourist season so I was very confused why it was so expensive as I was booking the hotel and I did not figure it out until the taxi driver mentioned that U2 is having several concerts this weekend. Well… that explained the room pricing.

We checked into our “luxury hostel,” the Steel House and were immediately very impressed. It was extremely modern, trendy, and cleaner than most hotels we have stayed at.

Even the signage was very trendy.

We booked a private room for 6 people even though we only had 4 just to have a little more space, and it was relatively spacious by hostel standards.

In true hostel fashion it was a bunk bed setup.

It also came with an ensuite split bathroom that would be considered spacious by cruise ship standards.

Everyone was pretty tired at this point so we decided to lay down for a short nap. That short nap nearly turned into a full nights sleep as we slept from 3:00PM-7:30PM.

We woke up and showered and then headed out to eat dinner. We didn’t walk too far as we were trying to get back to our hostel at a reasonable hour and try to sleep on the local schedule. After walking by several restaurants, we settled on Cafe Emma.

The atmosphere was very nice and it was reasonably close to the hostel.

Lucy and Kendall split a chicken penne dish, while Zack and I had pulled pork and fries.

The food was very good, and between the four of us we ate everything. This was good, considering that those two dishes and water for our table cost about 415 Kroner, or $68 US. The waitress gave each of the children an Oreo (for their behavior), which they were grateful for.

Lucy entertained the other patrons by doing her ballet moves.