We had wanted to do a Baltic cruise so the chance to sail from Newcastle was too good to miss. Very handy and well organised. However ough we'd sailed on Celebration two years ago, standards have dropped, in food, service and entertainment. We had upgraded to a deluxe outside cabin and the walls were badly insulated to the extentar we could hear conversations on either side of us. The room was well maintained by our cabin boy but the ship is very weary. Poor bathrooms supplies with soap and body wash dispensers. No shampoo etc. The staff were generally very helpful though getting top ups of drinks in the main dining room was hit and miss. The food wasn't always hot, small portions and no luxury offerings, except lobster Thermidor which was frozen and bland. We paid to eat in the three speciality restaurants but Mistrals was not as good as on previous ships. The hot stone was just outside the lido so not a particularly good spot. The best of the three was definitely Kora La which was splendid. The ship seems to dock in cheap moorings well away from the main highlights more often so we had to walk taxi or pay for the Thomson shuttle. The sun lounge is a nice location if you want a more comfortable sun bed away from the noise of the lido. The entertainment staff worked hard but the shows have been around for some years on Thomson ships and need updating. It was also hard to get a drink in the show bar at night- we'd place an order then never see it or only part of the order arrived. The gym was totally unsupervised and people were using machines wearing flip flops and totally inappropriate wear.