Copenhagen

Captain’s Log, October 20th: We docked at Copenhagen in the early morning, and then passengers were free to walk into the town, or else take our special luxury ‘all-inclusive’ tour of the city, modestly priced at $120. Unfortunately, there were problems on this tour. The itinerary included a visit to the famous Tivoli gardens, and that’s where difficulties arose. The tour bus dropped the passengers off at the entrance to the gardens, and our guide told them they could spend an hour visiting the gardens, before the coach continued. That’s when the passengers almost started a riot, making ridiculous and outrageous demands that they expected to be actually taken into the gardens. Our guide pointed out that at no time did our company ever imply that the tour included admission into the gardens. In fact, if we’d covered the admission charge, the tour would be barely profitable. Needless to say, our guide did his best to calm the situation, but in the end had no choice but to warn the passengers that if there was continuing hostility, he would have the driver return the coach to the ship immediately, and leave the passengers to make their own way back. That did calm the situation, although I now have a sheaf of complaint cards on my desk. I’ve read a few, but they’re more or less saying the same thing, so I’ve logged one of them in the ship’s files, and shredded the rest.

The good news is that the dining problem has been partly resolved. We’ve had a number of passengers finally open their wallets to pay for premium dining, and that’s cut the wait times at standard dining down to a tolerable half-hour. So at least the day has ended well. Another sea day tomorrow, which I’m hoping will go better than the last one.