Having just completed my first Baltic cruise on the Jewel of The Seas and my 3rd cruise with R C I. I can honestly say I always get looked after like a king by the staff, both in the Tides restaurant by Dennis and Anntionete and by our stateroom attendant Russel who was a fantastic girl from the Philippines, nothing was too much trouble for any of these cruise staff. The food in all restaurants was excellent and was something for everyone, these people who complain about he food must be eating at a Michellin restaurant every evening, I thought it was first class as did all of the people on our table of six. The entertainment was first class and the royal Caribbean singers who did a west end to broadway show were fantastic especially the lead female singer Stephanie I think, what a voice this girl had, we also had Dougie Brown of The Comedians a 70s comedy show on uk tv who was very good,there was also a great guitarist up in the small bar next to the oddessy bar on deck 13,if you like a bit of rock-blues Howard from Leeds is a top guy and can play most thing on request, lots of other things going on all over the ship too many to mention. Copenhagen and Stockholm were my favorite ports of call, do the canal trips if you get chance fantastic, we took the shuttle option in all but St Petersburg as we like to do our own thing and have the freedom to come and go, if there is a particular place or museum out of town you want to visit then an excursion is worth doing but they are quite expensive and many can be reached on public transport anyway, for those of you who like a pint be warned you will pay about £5.50 for ½ liter[pint] of beer in all these Scandinavian countries with Tallinn being the exception where uk prices are the norm, having said that you don't have that much time ashore to do have a session, My only complaint on the arranged excursions was to St Petersburg where unless you have a Russian visa you have to go on a block visa with a party from the ship, we did the Hermitage and Gold room and whilst we enjoyed it we found it very rushed as was the canals and Peter Hoff palace, I challenge you to try get a smile from the customs staff as you get off the ship to go ashore, I'm sure they aren't allowed to smile, still seemed a bit austere to me but maybe we caught them on a bad day. Tallinn was a lovely place and very nice people, the old town is very quaint and the new part has all the big stores you normally see in major cities and are reasonably priced compared to all other ports visited. A tip I was given by a seasoned cruiser was rather than exchanging your cash everyday into all the various currencies i;e crowns, kronas, kroons etc just use your bank debit for a coffee, beers and food, most will accept these and the only cash you will need is for street stalls and they all accept dollars and euros anyway. One thing Royal Caribbean need to get a grip of is the habit of passengers putting towels on sunbeds then disappearing for breakfast only to return 2 hours later despite signs saying no reserving the sunbeds, this caused an argument or two and should be stamped out and there wasn't a german in sight, I guess it,s a problem on all ships and not just R C I. Finally we have booked another cruise already, we will be sailing out of New York on Dec 14 to the eastern Caribbean on the Explore of The Seas so R C I must be doing a great job and hopefully will continue to do so, I'm looking forward to trying one of the really big ships after the Explorer, happy cruising.