We have begun formulating plans for what we want to do on each of our port stops on this cruise.
Ponta Delgada, Azores
The first stop is Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We have been to Ponta Delgada once before on the Transatlantic cruise we did for our honeymoon in September, 2008. On this cruise, we are not in port very long, only seven hours, from 7:00 AM until 2:00 PM. This is also a Sunday, so our current plan is to attend Mass at 10:00 AM at the Church of San Sebastian close to the port. This will pretty much rule out doing much from a shore excursion perspective, the Mass time is right in the middle of time span we are in port, ruling out just about any scheduled port excursion. After Mass, we will just wonder around the town.
If we find out that there is a Catholic priest onboard during the cruise, there is the possibility that there will be a Vigil Mass onboard on Saturday Evening, which will allow us to actually try and see more of the island of
Cherbourg, France
Our second port call is Cherbourg, France, located in the Normandy Province in Northern France. This is a tough port call, there are two different things we have found that we can do, but they are in opposite directions from the port and so we have to pick one or the other, there is not enough time to do both.
Mont St. Michel
We are in port from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and have already made a reservation t pick up a rental car for the day.
The two choices we have for our excursion in Cherbourg is to either visit Mont Saint Michel or to visit the Normandy Beaches, where the D-Day landings occurred during World War II. Both are spectacular sights, and it will be a tough decision to make.
Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial
Both are accessible by rental car, and are about 1.5 to 2 hours drive from Cherbourg. We will continue to do more research and come up with a decision on which sight we will visit, but already having the rental car reserved takes off some of the pressure.
However, we will need to make a decision so that we don’t spend too much time planning for both.
Zeebrugee, Belgium
The third port of call is Zeebrugee, Belgium, which is the closes port to Brussels. Right now, our plan is to take either a ship’s shuttle, or private tour company shuttle to the nearby town of Bruges (Brugge in Dutch).
Bruges, Belgium
It is about a 30 minute ride to the town from the port in Zeebrugee, and Bruges is touted as a very picturesque town, with a lot of medieval buildings. We will most likely have a full day in Chergbourg, the day before we stop at Zeebrugee, so we are trying to plan to have a little bit more relaxing travel day for this port of call.
The other option is to travel to Brussels from Zeebrugee, but that would involve more travel time and more effort, so we most likely will stick to this plan and head to Bruges. We will also have a full day the day after our stop here when we go to Rotterdam, Netherlands, which will be our third stop in three days.
Rotterdam, Netherlands
The next stop in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Right now, we are scheduled to utilize a Princess excursion for transportation to Amsterdam. This excursion titled “Amsterdam On Your Own” is just basic transportation to Amsterdam and back, there are no specific tours that are included. We are in Rotterdam from 7:00 AM until 6:00 PM. We leave the ship at around 8:15 AM for an hour and 45 minute ride into Amsterdam. We will have about 4 hours and 30 minute to tour Amsterdam before we catch the bus back to the ship, arriving about 4:15 PM.
Right now, we do not have a specific plan on what we want to see in Amsterdam, we will be working on that in the next couple of weeks.
Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, and there are some sights to see there, but we may not have enough time to do much when we get back from Amsterdam
Copenhagen, Denmark
Our last port of call is in Copenhagen, which is also the port of our Disembarkation. We will post a specific page on our plans for the three nights we will spend there after we get off of the ship.
Nyhavn
We have a hotel reservation at the Hotel Bethel, which is located in the scenic Nyhavn area. The following is a TripaAdvisor description of the hotel.
- Set in a 17th-century brick building on Nyhavn, the canal waterfront, this casual hotel is a 3-minute walk from Canal Tours Copenhagen, a 5-minute walk from the Royal Theatre and 3 km from Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park founded in 1843.Featuring free Wi-Fi, the relaxed rooms also come with flat-screen TVs and sitting areas.Amenities consist of a free continental breakfast buffet served in a bright, airy cafe.
We will make a couple of other planning posts before we depart, filling in some of the details as we gather additional information.