After many years of looking at various Baltic Cruise possibilities, we finally chose the Celebrity Constellation 12-night itinerary sailing out of Amsterdam. We have taken many cruises all over the world--mostly with Holland America--and have had many great experiences. But this one ranks right up there as one of our favorites.

We mostly chose the Constellation because of their 123 Go promotion in which you can choose from getting all gratuities paid, a drinks package and/or on-board credit. Also there was a deal where outside cabins and verandas were nearly the same price. So we ended up in a very nice veranda room and "free" wine with dinner as well as all gratuities paid.

We flew into Amsterdam a day ahead and spent two nights and a day walking all over Amsterdam with the help of Rick Steves' Audio tour which we downloaded free from his website. Very helpful info. In fact, we used his Baltic guide in all of the ports, both in planning and in visiting each city. We stayed in a rather "sketchy" hotel (which is a whole different review I won't get into here) but it was in a very handy location. And very near the central taxi stand. So it was easy to drag our suitcases over to the taxi stand and take the short trip to the ship on the morning of embarkation. Read more