Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Cruising with Kids (part 1)



This past August we had the opportunity to go on a cruise with my Dad to the Baltic Sea.  We went on an 11 day cruise and visited 7 countries Denmark, Norway, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden.  We added on a couple of extra travel days to Denmark and we really did have a fantastic time. We took two carry-on suitcases and two backpacks for the four of us.

 Diapers, food, and wipes for the entire trip

 clothes for all 4 of us for 14 days!!





Traveling over 12 hours on a plane with two kiddos is not for the feint of heart (especially when one of them is a lap child) but we were lucky that they both slept for parts of the trip 😉.  The craziest part of our whole trip was getting to Copenhagen, once again the flights that we chose had a very short layover time in Paris.  We had to go through security where they made us take out all 120 baby food pouches that we brought for Finnley to test and then when we got in line for customs there was an "emergency" and all but one of the agents left their stations.  So the process went excruciatingly slow...thankfully the couple in line in front of us had hours before their connecting flight so they let us cut in line in front of them (and that was our saving grace) we then had to run through the Paris airport trying to find our gate (with baby attached to my body) rode the wrong elevator and once we arrived at the gate they had already closed the boarding!!! I swore very loudly and elbowed my way past the line of people to the ticket counter and learned that we weren't the only ones in this predicament and they hadn't actually closed the plane door yet and we were all able to board!!  We finally made our way to Copenhagen, located our double stroller and made our way to the taxi line.  Our taxi driver was the best ever and gave us all sorts of information about all of Copenhagen, helped us to schedule our taxi for the following day to get to the boat and was just an overall stand up guy.  We actually rented an Air bnb and it was so lovely to have an apartment for the 5 of us rather than just a double room.


 passed out in the taxi on the way to our airbnb

Once in Copenhagen we walked around the city found a great spot for lunch, saw the house of Hans Christian Anderson and then made our way to our Air bnb since it was finally time for "check in".  The place was great and fit our needs we were all pretty exhausted, so we all laid down for a quick nap.  I kept waking up because I didn't know how long we were supposed to be napping for and gave myself a migraine.  We ended up sleeping through to the very early hours of the morning (3am) and all that was available to eat was some spaghetti noodles, so I cooked those up for the girls (myself included) and we just goofed around until it was an acceptable time to venture into the city...turns out the city is still asleep at 7am and not much action happens until 9am when the coffee shops open 😒...however the lack of people made for some awesome photo ops. We also walked over to the Rosenborg Castle and Grounds which were stunning.  There was a playground of sorts for the girls, a free public restroom, and the Castle itself was gorgeous...especially the Crown Jewels.  Once we got our fill we realized it was time to head back to the Air bnb to meet our taxi to take us to the boat.

 delicious burger and curly fries at Cocks & Brews



(Ellie was so exhausted she was passed out in the stroller, while Finnley was in the ergo with me...and then she peed and I got completely soaked.  And of course the bathrooms in Copenhagan are the size of a toilet with no surface to change a diaper...so I had to change her on the floor - good thing I've gotten used to these sorts of quirks while out traveling. Also thankfully we still had our luggage with us so I was able to change)



 cute little train they have that gives tours around the city center

 at Nyhaven

 Hans Christian Anderson's old residence is now a restaurant

 finally in our AirBnb...passed out for the rest of the day!!  All four of us managed to sleep on the queen bed.


 empty streets of Copenhagen at 7am

empty streets of Copenhagen at 7am

empty streets of Copenhagen at 7am




Rosenborg Castle Gardens




Kids play area in Rosenborg Castle Gardens


Statue of Hans Christian Anderson

 more gardens at Rosenborg Castle Gardens

 from the Rose Garden looking at Rosenborg Castle



Then we were back to our Airbnb to wait for the Taxi to go to our boat.

We managed to get pretty lucky since we had the girls with us and got moved to the front of the line, then to the priority check in, and finally we got on the boat in record time.  Our room was a great size and we were able to push the beds together to make a King size bed for us.  Finnley had a pack'n'play they delivered to our room as well.  Then we got out of our room and explored the boat a bit.  It was huge, had a large dining area, a bit outdoor pool (that was hardly heated) several "hot tubs" and a private adults only pool area.  It was evident that this boat was geared towards the retired demographic as there weren't a whole lot of activities available. However, they did have a kids club where we could drop off Ellie or stick around for Finnley to play too, which was so nice for the girls.  We then had our mandatory emergency procedures gathering and then back to our room to try and get some sleep.  We woke up just in time to make it to dinner (my dad chose to pass on dinner and continue sleeping) which was delicious and then back to wandering the boat, hanging out in our room watching movies and finally to sleep for the night.

 first dinner on the boat, Ellie ordered a hotdog..get it girl! Thomas and I both had the Prime Rib - delectable!

Playing air hockey in the Kids Zone!
I'll be back later to share about our ports and excursions as well as some other fun bits about the boat!

♥ Ashley





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♥ Ashley