Needless to say, we love Viking. We have taken seven River cruises and this is our first ocean cruise. The ship was fantastic with a 2 to 1 ratio of crew two passengers. The food was great with a large variety to choose from. No suits required! Even offered free room service without additional charges. The included shore excursions were a brief overview and we would often ditch the your and strike out on our own. If the boat was Park more than 15 minutes away from the city, they would offer a free shuttle service from the boat to the center of the city. We found that we often had to take the paid shore excursions in order to see the top sites in the city. In St. Petersburg, we found Alla Tours that were about half the price of the Viking tours and were very convenient and our guide Alex was very knowledgeable. They provide the Russian visa needed to tour the city and I would highly recommend them. Due to weather, we were not able to visit the Gunersy or Copenhagen but that’s the risk you take on any sea cruise. On board the ship, they offer incentives to book additional cruises and in fact we booked two new ones.