Air travel to Copenhagen was great with SAS and boarding was uneventful. We found out near the end of our cruise that over 30% of the crew was already reporting symptoms of respiratory flu when we boarded in Copenhagen. The 9-day Baltic portion was pleasant. Excursions booked through NCL are two the three times the cost of booking the same excursions yourself. Helsinki was our bright spot and as usual, we chose a dockside hop-on - hop-off bus to tour the town and then we walked the delightful waterside market. We were unable to dock in Stockholm, ostensibly because of high winds and adverse weather, but many of us wondered if the Swedes found out how sick the ship was and denied docking. About 30-50% of the passengers were stricken with this debilitating respiratory flu during our 16-days aboard. The ship's staff seemed to want to keep this situation quiet.

Activities aboard ship included trivia, ring toss, bingo, shuffleboard, TV game shows, cards and lots of spa centric activities. The pool and hot tubs were underutilized due to chilly weather. Entertainment was average for cruise ships, some productions were well done and others a bit lame. The cruise director's staff ranged from poor to good and the cruise director himself seemed more of a sophomoric clown that did magic tricks than a real cruise director. The Shore Excursion desk was typically open only three hours per day and the excursions were hard to find any reviews to base a decision on which to buy. NCL missed no opportunity to try to sell their spa services, faux art, and casino.

The 7-day Norwegian portion was marred by all four of our party succumbing to this respiratory flu and missing two of the four port calls in Norway. The crew is friendly and works well together and the service was generally good, but the food is subpar in many categories. The "Market" on deck 12 has some of the strangest concoctions of food any of us have even seen and we're not fussy eaters. We kept trying to guess whose palette they were trying to appeal to. Dining room portions were large, but often unappealing and over or underdone. Freestyle dining is pleasant as you can chose your time and dining companions.