We just returned from a wonderful week aboard the MSC Opera, with ports of call in the Baltic Sea: Kiel, Copenhagen, Visby, Stockholm, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg. This was the 10th cruise for my husband and me, having sailed on Carnival, Holland America, Norwegian, and several times on Royal Caribbean, most recently on the Liberty of the Seas in October, 2007, with our three teenagers. This particular trip on the Opera was an incentive trip offered by my husband's employer, so there was a large group of about 200 people, all loosely connected, sailing together. Travel arrangements were made for us, and there were agents accompanying us all along the way to help make things go smoothly. Also, we are not smokers or drinkers, so I can't comment on those aspects of the ship or trip, although I will mention that we were never bothered by second hand smoke, and the ship and rooms did not have a smoky smell. We were also more interested in the ports and sights than in having fantastic food. We have traveled in Europe before and know that Europeans have different customs and tastes than we do when it comes to food, so we went on the cruise feeling that as long as we could find enough to keep us from being hungry, we would be more than satisfied! I am going to do a review of the ship first, and then the ports of call.

We arrived in Kiel the day before the Opera was to sail. We stayed the night at the Steinberger Conti Hansa in Kiel. It was a nice, if not luxurious hotel, and had a great location. It was just across the street from where the ship was to dock. We also stayed there one night upon our return.

We had been told to expect to board in the mid to late afternoon, but were able to get on the ship at around noon. I have never had such an easy and quick embarkation! We were on board and in our cabin literally minutes after walking into the cruise terminal. We were in a balcony stateroom on the 10th floor, and we absolutely loved our room. It was extremely clean and in excellent shape. We had prepared ourselves to find it somewhat small compared to other staterooms we have had in the past, but were surprised at how big it felt. There was plenty of room for all of our stuff, and the suitcases fit nicely under the bed. I admit that the bathroom was a little on the small side, especially the shower, but we were never inconvenienced by this. Our stateroom attendant, Anna Marie, was polite, efficient, and did a great job of keeping things in great shape all week long. We loved the balcony, and it added greatly to our enjoyment of the cruise. We were happy to spend time in our room whenever possible. The tv didn't have many English speaking options, but there was one English movie channel, and we were able to watch a couple of movies while onboard. The selection was pretty good, with a variety of movies, most of which were fairly new releases. Read more