This was the second of back to back cruises on this ship. The first was around the British Isles and this one was to Scandinavia. Both cruises started and ended in Dover. Transit arrangements were seamless, there were no custom clearance requirements at Dover. We could stay on the ship or walk on and off anytime we pleased.
As I reported on my British Isles cruise review, the ship is great. The small ship means everything is close, the crew seem less stressed than on the larger ships, and the food is also just that little bit better than on the larger ships.
The highlight of the cruise was St Petersburg. We were right near the end of the tourist season, which meant less crowds at the popular attractions. The weather was cold, but there was no rain. We did a private tour through Viator, which used local company SPB tours. We had a small group of 14 which made it easy to get around to all the attractions