I wanted to visit Russia and I like cruising for a long time. Food was excellent, could not fault and I felt it had a lot of variety. Service was great by cabin steward and waiters. Felt customer relations could have been a lot better, not very knowledgeable people felt often and many felt the ship could have been run better, mostly small things on my part but I did hear of a couple of complaints. Saying this we had a wonderful time and sadly its coming to an end. People mostly were great to be with, as the staff and good entertainment. Would do it all again tomorrow. Excursions were of course overpriced and I tended to book with Alla when I could. Often you can pick up cheaper venues of seeing things in the port and I would recommend that for first timers. I would bring less clothes on a world cruise as you tend to buy more and then have the problem of bringing it back. If you do craft join the knitting group as you can make a lot of friends and have a great time.