We chose this cruise to see the Baltic area. We loved all the places we visited and all the excursions we took. We loved all the activities on the ship (even though we could never have attended even half of them). The Mojito tasting in the Sugarcane Lounge was so much fun and delicious! The dinners in the main dining rooms were so excellent that we felt no need to eat in any of the specialty restaurants. We especially enjoyed the staff and the service received in the Taste restaurant. Mary Ann, the wine steward, Ashwin, our waiter, Benjie, the head wine steward, and Platini, the assistant maitre d all treated us like we were beloved family! As a result of this we ate dinner at Taste almost the entire cruise! We did have a great time at the other restaurants (because the menu is the same - delicious) but the level of personal care and service was just a notch above at Taste!

We loved our SPB tours to Berlin and St. Petersburg. Heather, our tour guide in Berlin, was phenomenal! So knowledgeable, personable and able to be flexible to change things up a little to give us the best tour possible even with the rain (which was drenching at times). Heather always gave us the decision if we wanted to brave the weather to walk around and see the sites or not (she did not mind getting a little soaked to show us the sites). Naturally, we all felt that we were there to see the sights and did what was necessary to stay as dry as possible. We enjoyed Berlin so much. Then we had Elena as our tour guide on our 2 days in St. Petersburg, who was also phenomenal Again so knowledgeable, personable and considerate of all of us. We saw so many amazing sites and felt that 2 days was definitely not enough. We enjoyed the itineraries of the tours, we loved the more manageable group size of the tours, as well as the price which was a tremendous value for what we received. But all of that would be only good if it wasn't for our phenomenal tour guides who really pushed our enjoyment over the top! We also loved the City Food and Bike tour we took in Tallinn. Christian, our guide was awesome and we really had an opportunity to learn and understand what it is like to eat and live in Tallinn. Such a great experience. Then we did Heather's Helsinki food tour in Helsinki and had such a great time. Heather is so wonderful and again we felt like we were spending the day with a beloved relative showing us inside their beloved city! The food was awesome but learning how it is to live in Helsinki as a regular person (not a tourist) was so exceptional! Our day in Stockholm was fun. We took an NCL tour to the Old Town, Ice Bar and the Vasa Museum. It was a good tour but unfortunately, we did not get away from the tourist areas to experience Stockholm like we did in the other cities. We did had an awesome traditional Swedish lunch and tried some delicious beers and even a moose burger (which was really good)! We ended our cruise with a day in Copenhagen where we took another food tour (as you can see food is our way of connecting with different people and cultures - we truly live to eat!) which was just as phenomenal as the other food tours. Gita, our tour guide was beyond phenomenal and again took us around her city like we were her beloved relatives! She was so knowledgeable and fun to be with. We were actually sad when our tour was over. We wanted to spend more time with her learning about life and the people of Copenhagen! All in all all the tours we took (that were not NCL tours) gave us such a warm and wanted feeling while we were on them and it wasn't an act - these people (Heather in Berlin, Elena in St. Petersburg, Christian in Tallinn, Heather in Helsinki, and Gita in Copenhagen) all gave us a piece of their hearts and showed off the beauty and wonder of their city! We will definitely be back!

We also loved spending time on the ship but doing all these long day tours we did not get to experience as much as we would have liked. We still needed a vacation from our vacation. The staff on the ship we all awesome. Our cabin steward Marjan was exceptional. We had everything we needed without having to ask. He was there when we needed him but invisible when we didn't need him. Such a great time that we were sad to go home. But we will be back on a NCL cruise and specifically to the Baltic cities!