This was our first cruise with NCL and also our first cruise in 8 years. If I had to sum it up in only one word - it would be FABULOUS.

The weather was perfect, although very hot in St Petersburg and Tallin. The ship docks near the old town in Tallin, so we just walked there and had a look around. We did NCL excursions at all other ports and they were all terrific. Most people on the ship probably do NCL tours, but a lot of people on Cruise Critic and other message boards make arrangements to do private tours. We chose NCL tours as they were hassle-free, you just rock up and everything is done for you. But if you want to save money it is a good alternative to meet people here and do private tours. I went to the meet and greet on the first sea day and met some lovely cruise critic members. The funny thing is, the ship is so big that some of the people I met that day I did not see anywhere again! One couple I didn't meet up with until our last port day. It is funny how it works out like that, some people you see everywhere.

All of the ports are just wonderful. The Copenhagen tour we were supposed to do was of the Carlsberg Brewery but this was cancelled so we did a similar tour that went to a small brewery in the Tivoli Gardens. They encourage you to drink as much as you like so maybe this was a good change! We also did a cruise of the city under the small bridges. All tour guides are extremely knowledgeable, the one that took us to the Hermitage in St Petersburg knew the story behind each and every painting. She would walk into a room backwards pointing out all of the wonderful treasures and their history non-stop. Absolutely wonderful. Both of the tours in Russia were all day tours with lunch and wine included. The lunches were a three course hot meal both days, were ok but nothing special. The palaces are a must see, we did two full day tours as I said and they were hot days as the palaces and museums are not air-conditioned, but they were the highlights of our trip. We did a tour from Warnemunde to Rostock by private tram and this was really interesting. I would have liked to go to Berlin but as it is 3 hours each way we chose to do the Rostock tour. You cruise back to the port (again with free beer on the boat) which was really good. The tours in Stockholm and Helsinki were also great, the cities are really clean and very interesting. I particularly loved Stockholm and I am looking forward to going back there one day. There was a wonderful vibe to the place although the traffic around the Vasa Museum was so intense it took about 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Read more