The Best of Scandinavia Cruise – June 2024

Sailing on the Celebrity Apex, one quickly learns that there are the haves and have nots. The haves are the ones with a different color room key, private entrance to a secluded area called the Retreat that has their own specialty restaurant, pool and cocktail lounge. If you’re traveling with friends, you might want to consider signing on for the same class level so that you can go to these places together. The rest of us have-nots get the standard offerings, which is really not bad: 4 different dining rooms featuring French, Greek, Italian and Cosmopolitan cuisine. One buffet restaurant, a poolside grill serving burgers and hot dogs, a juice bar with light, healthy plates. What I particularly like are washing stations at each entrance to the buffet restaurant and an attendant reminding people to wash their hands. There are 5 specialty restaurants that, for an up charge, will give you an above par dining experience. This ship had 2900 passengers with a crew of 1300. Celebrity cruises are considered mid luxury and owned by the same company that owns the mega ships Royal Caribbean and the ultra luxury Silversea. They recently announced that they are combining loyalty points so if you’ve sailed on any of their three lines, you can elevate your status and get freebies and perks. Apex’s lowest level rooms are quite large for two people. I found the closets to be small, though. We were happy to be on this cruise with two of our closest friends. They upgraded their cabin to include the Retreat class, so we saw them mostly at dinner and the shows.

As we sailed through the Atlantic Sea our first port was Denmark’s Copenhagen. Nyhavn is a must on the list. It’s an area noted for rows of colorful buildings along the canal, and bustles with street food stalls. It’s a great place to catch a canal boat ride to see the waterways of this port city. Hygge, a term used to describe the Danish feeling of happiness is evident throughout this city. The people of Copenhagen really do seem happy here. Their economy is doing very well, currently having high wages and low unemployment. Can’t blame them at all! The bicyclists do not seem to be in a hurry to get to their destination.

The Hop On Hop Off bus first took us to see the statue of the Little Mermaid. The story written by Hans Christian Andersen was the inspiration behind Disney’s movie of the same name. She sits prominently on a rock in the water. Walking back toward Nyhavn, we stumbled upon a replica of Michelangelo’s David, a gift from Italy to Denmark in 2015. He faces the water, and is tucked away out of sight from the masses of people taking photos of the Little Mermaid. It’s as if the people of Copenhagen were embarrassed to be given such a gift that they found the least visible and oddest place to put it. Or perhaps it’s because they misspelled Michelangelo’s name by putting a space between the L and A, so it reads Michel Angelo.

Because the canal waters are super clean, you can expect the freshest seafood here. We enjoyed a lovely light meal of turbot on an open faced sandwich (smørrebrød), and lobster bisque at a restaurant called Fishmarket.

And while Copenhagen is highly known for their seafood, we had to stop and get a burger from “world famous” Gasoline Grill. I heard about this place on Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil. As the story goes, Klaus Wittrup was an exchange student in the US and his host family introduced him to a hamburger. Upon returning to Denmark, he couldn’t find a burger place that made burgers like the one he tasted, so he opened his own business. The first was at a gasoline station, hence the name. Today he owns 7 establishments in Copenhagen. His delicious burgers are made by grinding fresh beef, hand forming and grilling on the spot. The large patty fills the entire bun so you get a bite of bun and burger to the very end. It’s served with crisp iceberg lettuce, a thick slice tomato and red onions. The secret sauce creates a goopy, dripping mess but it’s well worth the 30 minute wait and eating on shared tables. It’s like a combination of West Coast’s In-N-Out and Hawaii’s Teddy’s Bigger Burgers.

We then enter the Baltic Sea with stops in Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia. The beautiful port city of Tallinn was occupied by Russia until 1991. The Estonians are happy to be free from Russia, and became members of NATO in 2004. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Estonians are a peaceful and reserved lot. The buildings in the Old Town are being preserved to reflect the medieval architectural designs as it was back in the 13th century. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a beautiful ornate church built in 1894-1900. It is not a working church and they allow visitors. In Tallinn, the tourist economy has declined probably due to the proximity of Russia. Handcrafted wood items and amber jewelry are the best souvenirs from this country.

In Stockholm I visited the ABBA museum. The band won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and was known for their unique style and flashy outfits which were on display in the museum. I regretted not going to the Vasa Museum to see the warship that sank on her maiden voyage over 330 years ago. To get to the port, the captain sailed through the archipelago made up of over 30,000 islands. It took 4 1/2 hours to complete the entire journey. It was incredibly smoothed and felt like I was on a river cruise. Then as we left Stockholm, the captain did a 360 turn in the harbor. If he didn’t do that, I would’ve missed seeing the water fountain. If you look closely, you’ll see a man on top of the statue.

Upon arriving in Skagen, Denmark the first thing to hit you as you get off the ship is a strong smell of fish in the air. Understandably as this port is known for exporting herring. Skagen is the northernmost tip of Denmark and is where the North and Baltic Sea meet. Even in summer, the water is colder than Hawaii, and it was filled with harmless jellyfish. It felt very weird to step on one and feel the gel like body squish between my toes. I took a tour to see the St Laurence church which was built in the 14th century. Due to shifting sand, the church would constantly get buried and the townspeople had to clear the sand away so they could use it. Finally they gave up and now all that’s left above ground is the steeple.

A final mention and props to Captain Nikolas, who was experienced, humorous and always visible throughout the ship. He provided additional touches such as expertly cruising through the Stockholm archipelago, making a 360 turn of the ship turning the ship in the Stockholm harbor to see a water sculpture so all passengers could see a water sculpture, officiating a wedding for 6 crew couples on board ship, and proficiently sailing under the Great Belt bridge in the Baltic Sea coming within 7 meters of the underside of the bridge.

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