COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: LITTLE MERMAID AND TIVOLI GARDENS--EXQUISITE! NOT FINISHED

Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Copenhagen, Denmark
63F and rainy

The Little Mermaid

I started the day at 6 a.m. BECAUSE I could not find MY medallion last night and I knew that since today was a “turnaround” day the front desk would be very busy and I better get moving early. My medallion was in a Princess bracelet that I have had for years and the whole bracelet must have fallen off in my short trip from dinner back to the stateroom last night.  Evidently the Princess medallion printer was not working, so they gave me an old-fashioned key card like hotels use. I knew this was going to be an interesting day.

Every single passenger was required to disembark for immigration purposes, so at 8:15 a.m. TK and I headed to the port area to catch the Princess bus for the City Tour and Tivioli Gardens.  There are 1089 guests going on to Boston---I mentioned yesterday that it was suggested we take a tour because lines would be long in the morning for guests boarding the ship.

Denmark has a population of over six million and is about the size of Wisconsin, according to Natalya, our guide for the day. It has 1400 islands, but only 70-75 are permanently inhabited.  Denmark is a Constitutional Monarchy, but the king as no political power.  The monarchy is over 1000 years old.

Domed building is the King' s palace

Many "canals" in Copenhagen

Copenhagen seems to be a series of islands with dozens of bridges. Its core population is 660,000 residents.  As we drove along, the streets were clean, bridges all over, old and new architecture, bicycles everywhere, even in the rain.

Natalya said that bicycles are more important the car and she told us to be sure to stay in the pedestrian sidewalk area. She also said that Danes are not afraid of the cold and even swim in the winter.

Hans Christian Andersen is one of their beloved story tellers—e.g. The Ugly Duckling, Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes—and our first stop was the iconic Copenhagen bronze statue, the Little Mermaid, on the Langeline Promenade. Some say the statue is over-rated, but I definitely wanted to see her, as it evokes strength, love, and dignity to me. Created in 1913 by Edvard Ericksen, it has been vandalized and recreated multiple times. She endures!

Little Mermaid
Iconic statue in Copenhagen

We stopped by the Copenhagen Opera House, the most expensive to build in the world ($370 billion in U.S. dollars). Finished in 2005, it has five connected stages and seats 1500-1700 people. We did not enter.

Copenhagen Opera House

On our way from the port

Magasin du Nord

A shopping center I did not go to!

Tivoli Gardens—nothing like taking 30 senior citizens to an amusement park for 1.5 hours in the rain. That said, it was beautiful! Natalya said that Walt Disney visited Tivoli in 1951 and the park inspired Disneyland. It was built in 1853, 183 years old—the 2^nd oldest operating amusement park in the world! (Number 1 is Dyrehavsbakken (aka Bakken) located in Klampenborg, Denmark, which opened in 1583!)

Entrance to Tivoli Gardens

Gardens all over!

I had a burger here-very tasty!

Those round objects

hanging from the tree are

hanging flower baskets

A few rides we saw

Fountains galore!

Peacock #1

Merry Go Round

Peacock #2

He even posed for me!

Tivoli has one of the world’s oldest operational wooden roller coasters, called Rutsjebanen.

Goodbye, Tivoli!

We could definitely see what might have influenced Walt Disney—the perfect gardens, food halls, fountains, elegant restaurants, clean walkways. Tivoli was beautiful.

When we returned to the ship, the lines were unbelievably long, and we waited 1.5 hours to board, even though we were “In Transit” guests. We have never experienced such a kerfuffle on Princess before. People were irate/furious—both those people boarding for the first time and those in transit. It will be interesting to see how Princess tries to smooth this over.

We are ready for a sea day. And no Starbucks mug nor LEGOs. Our tour did not stop to shop…