It may have been somewhat of a gamble to cruise on Mein Schiff 3, from a German port (Bremerhaven) that isn't even listed on CruiseCritic ... but we sure enjoyed it and would do it again in a flash. My wife and I are Belgian, so we understand German and speak it a little - but we are far from fluent. Then again, we reasoned that a lot of the staff- and crewmembers would not exactly be native ...
Our German cousins asked us to cruise with them to Norway. We let them do all the planning and they chose Mein Schiff 2 sailing out of Kiel. We arrived 4 days early and stayed at the Nordic Astor hotel in Kiel. It's a nice clean hotel with a great buffet breakfast on the top floor with a wonderful view of Kiel.
Two days prior to our cruise, my wife who speaks fluent German called TUI Cruises to ...