HOME > VACATIONS > 2003 > CRUISE > COPENHAGEN

Norwegian Dream Cruise : Trip Report

Copenhagen, Denmark

After a nearly full day cruise we arrived in Copenhagen in the late afternoon. There was just enough time to catch the bus to Tivoli Gardens, the world's first amusement park. It's said that Walt Disney got the idea for his theme parks from this park.

Besides Tivoli we saw very little in Copenhagen. On the second day on our Castles of North Zealand tour we made a brief stop to see the Little Mermaid statue which happened to be pretty close to where our ship was docked. It was raining anyway so I didn't stop to get a good look anyway. We also made a brief stop at Hillerød Castle as part of that tour but didn't go inside.

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Tivoli Gardens

The park is only about 15 minutes from the pier and pretty much in central Copenhagen. I'm sure it was outside of the city 160 years ago when it was first built.

The park was very nice. There were the usual rides, ferris wheels, roller coasters, bumper cars, etc. There were also several venues for outdoor shows and something like 38 restaurants. Very few of the restaurants were of the fast food burger, fries and a soda type. Most were fairly nice sit down restaurants.

One thing that confused us was that our tickets would only get us into the park. Once there you needed to buy an unlimited pass or buy ride tickets that could be exchanged for rides. The rides used anywhere from 1 to 4 tickets, depending on the ride.

And finally, it's not called Tivoli GARDENS for nothing. Besides the rides there are some very nice gardens surrounding everything. Makes for a more more relaxing experience than Six Flags or Disney.

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Next Section: Please continue with a description of our short visit to Castles of North Zealand.