We were apprehensive about cruising - mainly because of the crowds found on the larger ships. My husband uses a wheelchair and the idea of navigating through crowds was daunting. However, the size of this ship was just perfect for us, as we had discovered on an earlier SilverSea cruise to Alaska. The staff were all very helpful and the accessibility for a power wheelchair user was very good overall There was an issue with one port where we could not disembark due to the steepness of the ramp which even had stairs at the end! The staff were willing to carry the chair and my husband down, but we didn't feel comfortable with that as the chair weighs 350 pounds empty and we didn't want to risk it being dropped - or someone being injured.

One highlight was dining in Le Champagne, an intimate setting, with a 6-course meal. The food was exquisite and the atmosphere warm and romantic. We primarily ate in The Restaurant and found the food choices adequate for our picky appetites and the preparation always quite delicious.

We arranged our own private tours in Tallin and St Petersburg with agencies that had wheelchair accessible vans and knowledgeable vans. SilverSea would have arranged these for us, but we found the cost was higher through their concierge service and we didn't feel confident that they would make arrangements appropriate to our needs. We suggest that SilverSea invest a little time and energy in finding wheelchair accessible tour providers for their regular shore excursions. None of the Silversea excursions were accessible and we were unable to use our considerable shipboard credits for any such tours which was disappointing. We've rated the shore excursions low because of our lack of access to any of them.