Captain - Bill Kent Cruise Director - Richard Joseph Maitre D' - Mario Propata Apologies before I start! I had intended this to be a 'live from' but the internet has not been kind this cruise, everytime I try to go on line it seems to be down and then as soon as it's back up, the cafe is full, haven't had time to look for internet ashore so this has turned into a review. I hope the internet improves for following cruises. So apologies for the format of this review. We, Bill and Beth (late fifties) were staying in Europe prior to the cruise and were scheduled to fly to Copenhagen on May 11th.. Flight was delayed due to the ash but we finally made it to Copenhagen near to midnight. We stayed at the Scandic Sydhaven which according to its website was close to the airport, this is not really the case it was a good 15 - 20 minutes away, the hotel is quite basic but clean and does include breakfast in the rate. We woke to rain, grey skies and general gloom, but never mind we had made it. We arrived at the ship around noon and there was only a short line for the check in, we were on board by 1pm. The ship looks very nice, the International cafe is smaller than on the other ships - can you tell that this was our first stop. We left Copenhagen and hopefully the grey skies behind, but the fog descended the next day - things can only improve can't they?

Day 1 We attended lectures today, we had fortunately bought John Lawrences DVD before our trip, but we also went to see him in person to get the updated information, he is an excellent speaker and very funny, so armed with all our knowledge we confirmed the tours that we had pre booked and went over our other itineraries. Still very foggy. We also checked out the Russian souvenirs in the shop, they have a great selection and 10% off for one day only, so we did most of the gift buying, more time for sightseeing ashore we hope. We had intended to do the Trivia but didn't get round to that. Also meant to go to dinner in the dining room but fell asleep after sampling a martini - didn't fall asleep in the bar of course!! So we opted for the buffet which was ok - not great but ok - so didn't see the show either, hope to do better tomorrow

Day 2 Woke this morning to yet more fog and an announcement from the Captain that we would not be travelling through the 'leads' to Stockholm - presume he meant the Archipelago - as the authorities would not allow us to enter. So we are now anchored in Nynasham - a small town about 60km from Stockholm. We will go ashore in the ships boats and then by bus, taxi or train to Stockholm. The weather has now worsened and the boats to the shore have been suspended for the time being, so it looks as though Stockholm will not be viable. Shame, but these things happen, I'm sure that there will be a full programme of activities for us on board. Will keep you posted. Didn't have time to post the above so here is an update. Ships boats to shore resumed again so off we went, following John's instructions (which were spot on by the way) to the rail station, managed to get the 9.05 train which arrived in Stockholm Central at 10.11, so we didn't really have to revise our plan as I think we were probably there earlier than if we had gone right into Stockholm. We went first to the Vasa, what an amazing ship that was, then to the Royal Palace and then to the Old Town, we caught the 3.19 train back and we were back on the ship by 5, so it turned out to be a good day after all. So glad that we got to see Stockholm even if it was gloomy rather than spending a day at sea. Looking forward to Helsinki tomorrow where the temperature is rumored to be in the 70's and no fog! Read more