The 1st days aboard MSC Poesia and port #1 - Copenhagen!

Embarkation Day

Up at 4:00 am is not usually the best way to start a vacation but we had to catch a super early train from Enkenbach to Bad Münster to Frankfurt to Hamburg to our port in Kiel, Germany.  There really isn't a good way to get Northern here efficiently but all in all the 4 trains went great!  On our final train to Kiel we sat next to a couple from Miami who was on the cruise.  More Americans....really??...I posted on Cruise Critic months ago to try to find fellow travelers for excursions and only communicated with one couple in Canada so I was totally shocked to meet USA travelers!  The double decker train was full with other MSC cruise goers so I was pretty excited to see what was going to happen when we got into the Hbf in Kiel.  It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the Hbf and we could see the huge ship waiting for us ( as well as a few others that were in port.).

The MSC Poesia at port in Kiel, Germany

The check-in process literally took maybe 10 minutes and then we walked onto the massive ship.  Our first big cruise ship, it was so exciting!  There was plenty of staff showing guests to their room and our housekeeping man, Gusti, gave us the mini tour.  What a great room, we were on the 14th deck with a balcony for amazing views! 

Cabin 14044 with balcony and great view!

The cabin was pretty good size, we didn't bump into each other too much :).  All of information in the room was in Deutsche...guess they were testing our knowledge :) but that night Gusti replaced everything in English during the turn-down service time.   We explored the ship that afternoon, purchased our drink packages and attended our mandatory safety meeting (with our life vests on and all) before heading into first seating (6pm does that really surprise anyone? :) for dinner.  Our table mates were Birgit and Lee from Wiesbaden, Germany - Lee is American and Birgit is German.  Then Jeff and Colette (she is originally from Paris!) from Connecticut.   There were two empty spots at the table.  It was good conversation and good food.  After dinner we had a drink in the Zebra Bar before heading to the overly purple theatre.  The entertainment was a variety show with fun dancers who did Michael Jackson tribute dances as well as others, two Cirque du Soliel type actors, three hip hop dancers dressed in ballerina tutus and a lovely singer. 

The theatre and first night's show

This was our deck (14) with easy access to the outside

The night-time was so beautiful and peaceful!

A pretty decent bedtime view!

We were tired so we sailed the night away into Copenhagen.


Copenhagen Sunday June 10th

After we were rocked to sleep by the cruising ship and a good nights sleep we hit the buffet breakfast (Dave made it to the fitness room first) and were off the ship by 9:00 on our own to explore Copenhagen.  It was about a 30 minute walk down to Kastellet Park where the Little Mermaid Statue is from our port, Nordhavn, and we only had to follow the tour buses to get there.  We found that she was exactly what she is called...little! 

The 'little' Little Mermaid

The Kastellet Park is pretty neat with it's star shape since its construction in the early 1600's it has been integral to the defense of the city's port. The angled bastions effectively deflected cannon fire and allowed more lines of sight to pick-off soldiers sieging the walls. It fell to the British during the Napoleonic Wars and the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, when Denmark's empire also included all of Norway and parts of Germany. Kastellet also fell during World War II and was occupied by the Nazis as a regional headquarters.

We were using a map that I received from the Tourist Info to walk the streets of the Old Town to the grounds of the Rosenborg Castle where we just snapped some pictures without going inside. 

Rosenborg Castle houses the crown jewels and 500 years of royal knickknacks

We walked through the University District to the west side of the Old Town to the Rådhuspladsen or the City Hall square.
 

City Hall

This I would compare to most European cities' Markt Square that we like to see.  The entrance to Tivoli Garden is right across the street here, the worlds oldest and grandest amusement park from 1843.  We didn't pay the admission to go in but it looked super fun and we probably could have spent a whole day in there. The gardens are supposed to be really lovely inside Tivoli.

Tivoli Gardens Amusement Park Entrance

Instead we ate at The Hard Rock which was right next store.  I've said it before in blog posts - we always like going to HRC's in new cities, it's probably one of the most "American" things we do!

We followed Ricks walk after lunch that took us along the pedestrian and shopping street, Støget but since it was Sunday most all shops were closed.  Not only on Germany!   This is also a popular place for the street performers.  In this same area is the Old Square - Gameltorv where we wanted to see the Fountain of Charity.  A pregnant woman squirting water from her breasts next to a little boy urinating - this fountain has provided drinking water to the locals since the 1600's!  Too funny!  This was better than the Mannekin Pis in Brussels!

The Fountain of Charity

Next stop was Nyhavn and is probably one of the most famous places in Copenhagen, an adorable harbor area with colorful houses, many restaurants and amazing old boats. 

Nyhavn - established in the 1670's it is now filled with old and new sailboats and tons of trendy cafe's

We could have spent a lot of time sitting there people watching and taking advantage of the cheap take away beers!  We were pooped, had walked nearly 10 miles and were ready to rest our feet.  We went back to the ship and immediately went in the hot tub and pool before getting ready for dinner.   We didn't really like the menu at the main restaurant so we went to the Pigalle Bar on ship showing the Italy and Spain Euro Cup game where we were probably the only Americans and had a bucket of beers before going to the buffet. 

The bars on board had bucket of beers promos for the Euro Cup games

The entertainment that night was called "Sam" a dedication to the USA and was pretty good showing  dances from the different decades.  We were cruising overnight and the next day to Stockholm so after a day of 25338 steps we let the boat put us to sleep again.  

Link to Copenhagen Pictures

Monday - Cruising Day
It was a leisurely, do whatever we want kind of day.  We spent time out on the deck in lounge chairs that morning after breakfast.  It was a beautiful day. 

There were activities planned throughout the day including  a Beer Fest, dance lessons, games, demonstrations of cocktails and food and others.  We played Bingo in the Zebra Bar and were only 1 number away from €340!  So close! 

There were so many nationalities on the ship and we were definitely in the  minority.  It is an Italian cruise line.  Every announcement, activity, etc., was spoken in English, Deutsch, Spanish, French and Italian and sometimes Russian!  It was kind of interesting and kind of annoying.  Out of the 900 some ship employees there were 62 nationalities represented though, and I thought that was pretty cool.  For the most part everyone spoke English.  That night was the first of two gala nights for dinner.  We weren't dressed in a gown and tux but we did get dressed up enough!

It was fun and people weren't nearly as dressed in gala gear as I would have imagined they would have been. We enjoyed our table mates again and afterwards we met Susan and Mike (who I had been communicating with on cruisecritic.com) in the Zebra Bar for a drink before the entertainment began. The theatre was packed that night and the dance team were dressed as chess pieces which was kind of interesting. There was a beautiful singer again, a girl who did an acrobatic type of routine on the bands that are suspended from the ceiling, a man that did the type of routine you would see on the pummel horse in gymnastics but instead he balanced on two posts that actually rotated. His strength was amazing, the picture shows it in detail. Finally there was an international dance team of 3 men and 1 woman that did flips and balancing acts with their own body strength and who were not afraid of heights!  They were phenomenal!

It was a pretty good entertainment night again.  We walked around the upper deck afterward because the sky was absolutely beautiful.  It was after 10:00 and the sky was illuminated with the sun set and was so picturesque!  We were in bed by 11:00, the next morning we were docking in Stockholm.

LINK to pictures from the first day and our day at sea.