As others have said, this is a beautiful ship. Even with 930 passengers it was always possible to find a quiet and relaxing space to read or just watch the world go by. The service in all areas from restaurants, cabin maintenance and embarkation was excellent. Others have commented that the food wasn't that great; I found it to be very satisfactory - lots of choice and beautifully presented, particularly in the specialty restaurants and the Restaurant. We only ate in the specialty restaurants once and would have liked to go back to Manfredi's but wanted to try them before reserving another time. By the time we wanted to rebook there were no availalbe reservations, even early in the cruise. There are many comments about the staterooms - yes a bit more storage space would have been nice (we were in a deluxe veranda on Level 4) but overall it was comfortable. I agree with many of the negatives expressed about the shore excursions particularly in comparison to the Viking river cruises; however, the staff did a superb job with the logistics of moving large groups of people off the ship for the included tours. The quality of the excursions was fine - just groups that were too large and therefore somewhat unwieldy. In my evaluation I suggested that this itinerary should skip Berlin given the requisite long train into and back from the city. Instead of Historic Berlin I would rename our optional excursion "Berlin by bus" - driving by many of the key sites. When we booked with private companies such as Alla in St. Petersburg, we had a much better experience for much less cost. As much a I loved the ship and the exceptional service provided by the staff I will likely return to river cruises or go on land tours with smaller groups
Cabin is near the rear (aft) of the ship so when the seas were a bit rough we felt it but since we were in bed it wasn't a problem.
A lovely city - would have really liked more time here. Tour gave a good overview but not much beyond that
Went on the tour that included the historic Flom railway. Gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately the connection at Myrdal went awry as the train was delayed by the national train. The guides had to really scramble to figure out how to get 170 people back to the bus meeting point. They did a superb job but it added quite a bit of extra time to the day