My wife and I had previously taken a Viking River Cruise and we had a wonderful time. Everything was well planned and the staff and crew were exceptional. Food, beverages, schedule and excursions were outstanding. Therefore, when we received the notice of a new Viking ship to cruise the Baltic Sea we immediately signed up for one of the top suites.
The Viking Star is a great ship - comfortable, well equipped, and very easy to get around. Everything functioned well except the TV and internet - a problem I am sure has been taken care of by now. We enjoyed boarding our small ship at our leisure in every port while watching passenger from those mega-ships waiting in long lines on the dock.
The excursions seemed to be a work in progress. The included shore excursions were not well planned and often seemed to be an after thought for the contract operators. We were given the opportunity to reserve excursions early due to the stateroom level we had booked but that was not necessarily an advantage since numerous excursions were added almost up until the day of departure. It was also difficult to get much information regarding excursions beyond the very short descriptions available on-line. Some were great, especially St. Petersburg which was led by a Viking Riverboat staffer. Others seemed rather "canned".