Northern European counties are a part of Europe we've never visited before and we've had two previous river cruises with Viking, so when we read they'd launched several ocean ships for small ship ocean cruises we decided to take the plunge. What a delight. The river cruises are much more intimate and it is easier to make new friends, but with only approx. 900 passengers on the Viking Sea we enjoyed the ship a great deal and highly recommend it to all of our friends. The dining experience was world class, the entertainment was enjoyable, and the port tours were all enjoyable. The staff was world class with staff from over a dozen countries on the ship. They were very focused on making our trip memorable. This was definitely like living in a five star hotel for 18 days and the food could not have been any more spectacular. Every city we visited was terrific. St. Petersburg was a highlight of our daily shore excursions. The only excursion change I'd make is to not take the train from the port into the city of Berlin. While Berlin was interesting, we spent a total of approx. 8 hours "commuting by train" and I wish we'd stayed closer to the ship for our days excursion. There were other tours available near the port of Warnemunde, Germany. The only other change I'd recommend is to start the tour in Bergen, Norway and end in Stockholm, Sweden. We did it the opposite direction, and you have very limited flights back to the USA from Bergen, Norway.