Copenhagen Cruises Past Competition to Win World's Leading Cruise Port
November 16, 2005
Copenhagen, Denmark was elected for the second year in a row as the world's leading cruise port, beating out New York, Southampton, Barcelona—even ports of call in Hawaii and the Caribbean. The World Travel Awards—think of them as the travel industry's Academy Awards—ran the contest, and thousands of travel agents from around the world took part in the voting.
Certainly, there's no shortage of cruise lines that visit Copenhagen, and no small amount of people getting aboard. Cruise Network offers many cruises (Northern Europe itineraries) that visit the historic city.
The list includes, but is not limited to, P&O Cruises, Costa Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Orient Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Seabourn Cruises, Oceania Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Discovery Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Crystal Cruises—the latter of which won the World Travel Award for the World's Leading Luxury Cruise Line.
"Essentially [Copenhagen] won this award because of the excellent cooperation we have created through the Cruise Copenhagen Network," says Per Schmidt, general manager of Copenhagen's Malmö Port of their previous year's win. "Without this, we could never have created such great conditions for the cruise ships and their passengers. This is a shared effort involving the [harbor], the hotels, the airport, the retailers and the attractions that make Copenhagen so appealing as a cruise ship destination."
Well, the city must be doing something right. 2005 will be a record year for cruises and cruisers visiting Copenhagen. A total of 282 ships with 385,000 passengers aboard—60,000 more than in 2004—will have visited Copenhagen.
It's likely, then, that most of the people who travel to Copenhagen find the same Copenhagen that is described by the official tourism site of Copenhagen, Wonderful Copenhagen (www.woco.dk). It's a city "full of zest and life—a pulsating metropolitan capital yet with a [harbor] clean enough to bathe in, a historical oasis yet constantly moving with the times." Yes, the "historical oasis" certainly has its share of stories.
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark and the largest city in Scandinavia, is the seat of one of the oldest kingdoms in the world. It was founded in the 12th Century and has acquired a rich history since then. During the Middle Ages, it was constantly beset by the Swedes. During the 16th and 17th centuries, famous constructs such as Rosenborg Castle, The Round Tower, and Old Stock Exchange were put up—buildings that still stand today.
The 18th century brought a horrific plague and two devastating fires, yet the city endured. In the 19th Century, the city was attacked by the twice by the British, and it saw the births of writer Hans Christian Andersen and the founder of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard. During WWII, it was occupied by the Nazis, only to be liberated by the city's former attackers, the British.
Copenhagen today is a combination of history and modernity. The new parts of the city were built around the old, rather than over it (many of the houses surrounding the Nyhavn canal are more than 300 years old); you can still get the feel of how the city looked in the 19th centuries, as well as centuries previous to that. Still, there are many modern, metropolitan areas now.
With so much to do, so much to see, and so much of Copenhagen's history and modernity to experience, it's no wonder why it's such a great cruise port. Call 1-888-267-1232 to have a Cruise Specialist with Cruise Network put you on a cruise to the fable city.
