We expected the Regal Princess to look a million dollars since she is so new, and she met expectations - great cabin, beautiful public areas.
We enjoyed our cruise because of the itinerary - there were only a couple of sea days, so it didn't really matter that the activities were limited. However, we have fond memories of the lively party atmosphere on our last cruise (on Royal Caribbean), so we were a bit disappointed at the quieter, flatter feeling of this one.
EMBARKATION/DISEMBARKATION
Spacious cabin with plenty of storage space. A decent-sized shower (unlike the tiny one we had on Royal Caribbean). Others have complained about the balcony depth - it's true that it's not possible to sit squarely facing the sea, but we put the chairs diagonally into each corner and it was very comfortable.
This was a debark tour. When you consider the cost of a transfer, the debark tours are good value and a great way to do something useful with your trip to the airport
As the ship doesn't leave Oslo till late in the evening, we felt totally secure with doing our own thing. We used the Hop On Hop Off bus which was waiting right at the port when we got off the ship.
We could not see the point of spending three hours on a coach there and back, just to have a few hours in Berlin. If we had really wanted to visit Berlin as part of the cruise, we would've booked a couple of days before or after. The area around Warnemunde port may not seem to have much to offer, but our Friends of Dave excursion was the best excursion of our trip!
There is not a great deal to see in Tallinn - one suspects if it wasn't on the way to St Petersburg, it wouldn't merit a visit from the cruise ships. We took the Hop on, Hop off bus which was standing right at the port when we got off the ship, because it wasn't much more expensive than the shuttle into town.
Helsinki is a small place and it's a fairly short stop. It's a nice place to wander on your own and the markets are well worth a visit.
Stockholm is awkward because the port is such a long way from the city. In hindsight we wished we had taken a tour with the ship as the distance made us a bit anxious about getting back on time.