We chose this cruise for the chance to go to several Scandinavian/Baltic destinations we hadn't been to, including St Petersburg, Russia, at a great price.
Twenty years ago we did an Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Cunard and concluded we weren't really cruisers as we enjoyed all inclusive Caribbean vacations better and liked spending more time at a destination.
We decided to give cruising a second chance with this NCL Baltic cruise since the itinerary gave us a chance to visit several places in Scandinavian we really wanted to visit but weren't on my normal work or vacation European trip itineraries.
We originally booked the least expensive interior cabin category but we took advantage of NCL's upgrade bidding process to upgrade to a Spa Balcony room (cabin 14120) at a great price and we were really glad we did. Having a balcony to watch the sea, islands and coasts go by was really nice and having unlimited access to the Thermal Spa was really awesome. The combination really made the cruise special. The room was really nice and plenty of space for the two of us and our stuff. The cabin steward kept the room very nice as well - servicing both in the morning and evening. We'll definitely upgrade to spa balcony cabins again in the future!
Loved Copenhagen, our friends from Belgium who now live in Paris met us there the day before our cruise and we enjoyed riding bikes all around the city and through its bikes. The bike infrastructure there is great and very easy to do - flat everywhere and very safe. Loved the smorrebrod open-faced sandwiches and other choices at the Norreport food halls.
We just walked into the Old Town (upper and lower) using Rick Steves Baltic Cruise guidebook Tallinn walk to see the highlights. Beautiful medieval town and churches and square. Wonderful felt/textile handmade crafts - available right at the pier front market and in town at the artist studios.
Enjoyed wandering around Warnemunde harbor canal town and beach in the morning and then taking the train (with a Mecklenburg state two-person day pass) to Schwerin to visit its castle and castle garden. We didn't do Berlin excursion since it was 3 hours one way and we had already been to Berlin three previous times.
I caught the city bus from just in front of our pier to the city center and did the Rick Steves walk including the Church in the Rock which was really neat to see
we caught the train in from Nynashamn and did the Rick Steves Gamla Stan walk including an extended visit to the Nobel Prize Musuem which was really cool to see.