Our Scandinavian Adventure

My husband and I went on an 11 night Scandinavian cruise with my mother and my aunt. Join me as I recap our Scandinavian adventure.

This Scandinavian cruise included the countries of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. We did not visit Finland.

Our Scandinavian Adventure

This was part of an extended trip for Hubby and me. We went to England, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Netherlands, and Belgium on this trip. The first portion of the trip was with my mother and aunt, some time in England and then Scandinavia. In Scandinavia we went to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

My mother turned 80 this year. She had not been on a long trip in years except for a short jaunt to the Caribbean on a cruise with us the prior year. She and my father were world travelers, but traveling became difficult after he became ill, and then she did not go anywhere after he passed away.

She had a knee replacement two years ago, and that was what the Caribbean cruise was all about… she wanted to see if she could travel.

She did quite well on that cruise, so she decided that Scandinavia, via a cruise ship, was doable.

My mother’s sister went with us, and I am very grateful to her for being willing to bunk with my mother. Nothing bad happened this cruise, but you never know and it was nice to have someone so near to my mother in case of emergency (my aunt is much closer in age to me than she is my mother).

Another aunt and some of her friends also took the same cruise, although they were not part of our party. Still, my mother got to spend some time with both of her sisters this trip.

As I explained previously, we flew to London, took a car to Southampton, and did some touristy things in the area prior to our cruise.

Even though we stayed at a hotel in Southampton within walking distance to the cruise port, and our ship was in the dock closest to the hotel, I was outvoted on walking to the ship and we took a vehicle to the dock.

The embarkation area was a total madhouse outside of the cruise terminal, but eventually our luggage was taken and we were off to get checked in.

The check in process with Celebrity was smooth and easy and before we knew it we were onboard!

Our trip destinations were Skagen, Stockholm, Visby, Copenhagen (where I had been before, but I was the only one), and Oslo.

Denmark

Skagen is northern most point of Denmark. Looking at google map street view for Skagen was interesting as the google map is very outdated. We expected nothing to do at that port and no way to get anywhere, and nothing to visit or see, but that was not exactly true.

The round trip bus from the cruise port into town was a cost and we chose to do that. Many people walked into town and that was fine too if you have decent mobility.

The old google map street view showed nothing there and it being very industrial, but it was wrong! There was local shopping, a lot of restaurants, boating, and beaches.

Since we expected nothing and thought the port was industrial, and we did not find any ships tours appealing, Hubby made a lunch reservation at a local restaurant that was unique and delicious. The floor inside the restaurant was sand!

We also shopped our little hearts out. I was very surprised at how charming the town was.

I can clearly see what this port will be in 10 years by comparing it to what it was in those old google street views versus what it is today. And it is going to be fabulous. It was pretty good right now. It simply needs more interesting tours to local sites.

Sweden

Our next stop was on to Stockholm and wow did we love that place!!

The stop after Stockholm was Visby which is a little island with not much to do on it. However, Visby is a tender port and the weather was expected to be too rough to tender, so we got an extra half day in Stockholm.

This made a real difference to us as we got to stay in the city much later in the day/evening than we expected. That was the first time we ever had a cancelled port that resulted in a total upgrade in the ports visited!!

My mother and husband (yes, my husband) are big ABBA fans loving their music and having gone to listen to cover bands together, so we booked the ABBA tour with the ship. It was a tight squeeze on time (remember, we did not know we would get an extra day in Stockholm until the night prior), and this was something my mother really wanted to do.

I came *this close* to not booking with them, but decided to go. I am glad I did as things turned out, and I lasted nearly an hour in the ABBA museum!

Stockholm is an easy city to get around if you take the ferries, trains, or a bike. It is not an easy city to get around on a tour bus or by some other automobile.

Once the tour was over, we met up outside with my other aunt and her friends and decided to take a ferry to the old town and check it out.

My mother decided she was tired and headed back to the ship.

She should have come with us.

There was a bike race that day that closed off a ton of streets and it took the tour people a long time to walk back to the bus. Meanwhile, our group wandered down the street to the ferry terminal and were in old town in less than 30 minutes.

Once off the ferry, we split from my other aunt and her friends (they wanted to go to some yarn stores … pass) and we walked into old town where we shopped. I bought that cool wax candle spindle, a lovely scarf that I wore the entire trip because the weather was cold and clammy, and I got my mother a beautiful purple shawl.

Hubby, my aunt, and I went to a local restaurant where they had an extremely interesting and delicious menu.

We drank local beer, ate some delicious food, and then saw a market, and eventually walked back to the cruise ship.

Stockholm is very walkable, was very clean in the touristy areas, and we enjoyed it immensely. Hubby and I have already discussed the possibility of heading back there for a week. It really was a terrific vibe and a very interesting place.

Denmark

After that, we went to Copenhagen.

We did not choose wisely here. We had a boat river cruise booked via the cruise ship and it was a terrible tour. It was a short boat ride and unless you were in an outer window visibility was not very good, and the tour guide was not very informative.

Live and learn.

We did get to shop, see the (teeny-tiny) Little Mermaid statue, and had a short bus tour around the city.

We took the (free) bus from the port into downtown, saw the buildings, had lunch, shopped, and then took a taxi back to the ship to make that crummy tour. We would have done better taking the river cruise on our own and spending more time in port shopping and seeing the sites.

Norway

Our other stop was an over-nighter in Oslo, Norway and that was very nice. It also had the best tour we took on this Scandinavia trip.

Hubby booked us a dinner cruise via Viator. The dinner cruise was several hours long and we were able to see Oslo and the surrounding areas from the water which I highly recommend doing.

The food was also very interesting and quite good.

Since Oslo was an overnight stop, the next day I was going to shop with my mother (she was looking for a sweater) and my aunt and Hubby were going to walk into town (only about a 15 minute walk from the ship). At the last minute my aunt decided to shop with us and Hubby walked in alone. Since it was a Sunday and nothing was open, he said she made the right decision to bail on him and shop with us.

A lot of places still have limited Sunday hours for shopping, even in a fairly large town like Oslo.

All-in-all this was a pretty decent cruise. Laid-back, not port intensive (which was good for my mother), and we got to see some beautiful scenery while sailing. The weather was cold and damp, but clear for three out of four of our port stops, so it would be difficult to complain.

Would I go again? To Stockholm, most certainly and I hope we get the opportunity. Oslo? No. I am not an outdoors woman, and that is really key there. The city of Oslo is nice, but I did not get the “must return” vibe. Copenhagen? Nope. Been there twice, I am good.

When we returned to Southampton we had a car to take us back to London. Only problem? We had to wait a good while after disembarking as we factored in time for customs and there is no customs there! Oh well, we lived and learned and it was good to know on our UK back-to-back cruise.

Needless to say, disembarkation itself was a breeze.

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