Wonderful Baltic Cruise - Great Ship and Great Destinations!

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 both loved it so much that at the end of the cruise we put down Cruise Next deposits to save on two future cruises with NCL. South America is our next destination planned!

We really enjoyed the free/included specialty sit-down restaurants and the flexibility of NCL's Freestyle Dining approach. We liked them so much we never ate in the buffet (which looked quite a bit more busy/hectic.) The included main dining rooms (Savor, Taste and Tropicana Room) were great for dinner and offered lots of choices with many entrees, appetizers and desserts that changed each night (along with some standards like steak, etc. that were always available.) We also enjoyed O'Shanahan's pub and the Shanghai noodle/dumpling restaurant. Also the included continental room-service breakfast was a great way to start the morning each day.

The destinations lived up and exceeded our expectations -

- for St Petersburg - we did a third-party (Alla) tour two-day excursion for St Petersburg which was absolutely great and covered our need for a visa as a guided tour. The guide was excellent and the included dedicated van whisked us to many sights in a very well-thought out and efficient full itinerary over two days.

- for Warnemünde - we walked into town and visited Warnemünde harbor town and beach and then bought a Mecklenburg state day rail pass and visited Schwerin and its castle and castle gardens. We didn't go to Berlin since it's about 3-hours each way and we had been there three times before.

- for Tallinn - we just walked into the Old Town (upper and lower) using Rick Steves Baltic Cruise guidebook Tallinn walk to see the highlights

- for Helsinki - I caught the city bus from just in front of our pier to the center and did the Rick Steves walk including the Church in the Rock which was really neat to see

- for Stockholm - 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.

- for our two sea days - we took advantage of the the Thermal Spa and enjoyed sun and views from the deck chairs outside on the waterfront deck bar areas

- in Copenhagen we stayed at the Ibsens Hotel which was very nice and rented bikes to tour around

The main theater shows - Millon Dollar Quartet and Latin Dance Show were both great. I'd say at Broadway touring quality production values.

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!