We're Rookie Cruisers and always wanted to see Russia, plus my wife has Norway relatives so the Baltic Cruise fit our needs and wants.

Arrival/Embarkation - Tropical Storm Hanna delayed our connecting flight in Newark NJ and we just made it for our SAS flight, but our bags didn't make it to Copenhagen. Thanks to reading these blogs, we weren't that surprised and since we connected through Stockholm which was our first port of call, we got our bags while docked in Stockholm. With the travel insurance we were covered for the extra clothes we bought in Copenhagen and Stockholm. My wife was accosted by a pickpocket near the Copenhagen train station but the victim turned out to be the punk - my jet-lagged, tired, hungry, nicotine-deprived wife body slammed him and all he got out of her backpack were her cigs before he fled the scene! We let our guard down in the busy Copenhagen train/Tivoli area - beware extra in this area. We got on the ship just fine, arriving just an hour before deadline 8pm, so no lines at all, most had already embarked before us.

The ship was impressively designed. We felt it had all the features/comforts of one of the Las Vegas strip casinos, which was fine for us. I liked the fitness center and got my value out of that with daily workouts. The food was 4 out of 5, enough variety to keep it interesting, with all the staples to stay fueled. We pretty much ate Anytime and for dinner and enjoyed meeting and talking with different couples in the DaVinci and Michelangelo dining rooms for dinner. We rarely ate during our land excursions since we fueled up so well for breakfast and dinner on the ship. I do agree a self-serve soft ice cream or frozen yogurt would be a nice touch, for free, but the free popcorn made up for that. I do agree with some of the other bloggers that the extras do add up to $1K average extra spending unless you are vigilant about only eating the free food and not buying/spending extra on clothes, souvenirs, gifts, etc. But there shouldn't be any cost surprises Read more