Baltic Cruise Reviews

Had a few problems with the main dining room food. Cabins were clean. The shows were very poor. The speaker was very good. Did not know St. Petersburg was so cold and dark 300 days a year.

Disney knows how to do it right. Kids had a blast -parents had a blast.  Time to be together and times when we could all be on our own.  Perfect family vacation

This was our second cruise on Britannia, in the same cabin grade. In fact, on our last cruise we stayed next door in B719, an identical accessible cabin, but with the layout reversed. On this cruise we were celebrating my retirement and brought along our three adult children and their partners. They all had balcony cabins in the same grade, on deck 11 (D). This cruise was a good choice for our needs, particularly the first time cruisers. Accessibility was good and the crew were excellent.

As a solo traveller I felt very comfortable aboard the Balmoral. Would go with Fred Olsen again.

Overall we really enjoyed the cruise, but 5 trips in 5 days was very tiring.

A fantastic cruise and met new amazing friends. Will be back

We had an amazing cruise and loved every minute! Arcadia is a great ship, great ports, great food, great entertainment no complaints or negatives at all!

The fine weather, interesting itinerary, excellent service & very enjoyable food & drink made for great cruise!

Had a wonderful cruise, brilliant crew, waiting staff, food. Loved Britannia!

Having cruised on the Azura several times before we were not expecting any surprises. How wrong can you be. The biggest surprise was QUEUEING, MORE QUEUEING & MORE QUEUEING. It started with queueing for the Peninsular restaurant on the first night. There was about 50 people waiting for the doors open @ about 5:55pm. That wasn't TOO bad. The worst was when the queue was around three sides of the Atrium. There was no one night when the queue was less than 50 @ 5:55pm. We tend not to go the "West End Style" shows because there are a much of a muchness having seen most of the shows many times before. However we decided to go the new Stephen Mulhern spectacular magic show. Since it was close to the start of the show we didn't expect there to be many seats left. We weren't disappointed with two seats right in the middle of the lower circle. Why are people so inconsiderate. So we left without fighting our way though. We went back out for the later show about 1/2 an hour before the start & guess what there was approaching 100 people already queueing, so we didn't join the queue. You wouldn't think that there would be many more opportunities for queueing, how wrong we were to think that. Two days after we left St Petersburg P&O decided to have their Russian bazaar & this was another opportunity to queue. The final opportunity for queueing was when we were due to collect the drinks we had purchased onboard. Twenty minutes after P&O opened the doors we were still 20 yards from getting into the room & with only one person seemingly coming out every 2/3 minutes we decided not to queue any longer as we had a pre-booked dinner reservation. I know that these queues are not down to P&O but individuals. Every one we spoke to had never experienced queueing seen on Azura or any other cruise ship. Azura is sadly in need of an overhaul & review of management procedures. Have you ever tried to watch a LEGO movie when the outdoor screen has many large black blocks instead of film details. Many of the staff in the buffet restaurant still wear blinkers when it comes to collecting dirty plates or wiping tables. However staff in the Costa coffee bar seem to have the same DNA as they didn't see us trying to get served by waving our hands as they walked by. We did not see many waiting staff walking too far from the bars to satisfy cruisers thirst. Nor do the staff enforce the sanitation requirements when coming onboard or entering the buffet or asking cruisers to vacate dining tables @ peak times. People were left walking around with trays looking for somewhere to sit when people were sat there on sea days playing cards or reading books because there appears to be insufficient places to sit indoors on inclement days. The cabin steward unfortunately did not meet the previous high standards set by others. In this day & age I find it strange that P&O still insist on hearding people around lovely towns & cities on trips without the means of clearly imparting information. Guides using a radio microphone with all the group having a radio receivers to hear what is being said even when not in close proximity to the Guide is becoming the norm. Despite all the moaning I have done overall we enjoyed the cruise

Booked the cruise specifically because it should have been at sea only one day between ports of call and went to all the places in the Baltic we wanted to go to. We were advised that due to holdups entering the Kiel Canal we would miss out Stockholm (+theVasa museum) and the Kiel canal to give time to come back via the longer sea route, 3 days out at sea !!! VERY VERY DISSAPPINTING WE WOULD NOT HAVE BOOKED THE CRUISE IF WE HAD KNOWN THAT TWO OF THE HIGHLIGHTS WERE MISSING AND WE WOULD BE AT SEA 3 DAYS

Overall a very good cruise, with the exception of St.Petersberg give optional trips a miss.

Due to a storm in the North Sea Columbus was approx 8 hours late docking. Not the fault of the company, but a decision by Thames pilots to suspend boarding ships until storm had died down. Columbus due to leave port at 15.00hrs, actual leaving 23.00hrs. Each passenger given £25 on board spend as compensation. Although we arrived early for embarkation the company had laid on buses to take us to Lakeside shopping centre, as Tilbury terminal has limited facilities. Embarkation went well at approx 17.00. Due to late embarkation we were unable to arrive at Copenhagen in time and had an extra day at sea. Although Columbus is an older ship, first launched in 1988, it is a lovely ship and has some character which can be lacking in some of the newer ships. Cabins were spacious, clean and comfortable. Public areas were good and furniture up to an acceptable standard. There were one or two areas which were a little tired, but I am being picky here and these areas did not spoil the enjoyment of our experience. Food in the Waterfront restaurant was excellent, and none of the people we shared a table with felt the need to try the pay for speciality restaurants, although I heard from other passengers that the were very good. I will not comment on the buffet as we did not use it very much, but it seemed popular. The on board entertainment team were excellent and put on 5 shows ranging from Rock and Roll, Broadway, Queen tribute, musicals and opera, all were good. Four shows were put on by a comedienne, 2 shows and a magician/comedienne 2 shows. There were also lectures and other events on sea days which I found enjoyable. I have read some negative comments about the cruise director, but I can only praise him and his team for a job well done. The highlight of the cruise was an overnight in St Petersburg well worth a visit. My only negative was the amount of piped music throughout the ship and the huge TV screen above the pool area which played all day, something which I found distracting. NB other people did not agree with me. We met some really nice people on board and everybody was friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and I believe the cruise director was right when he remarked "This is not a cruise ship it is a friendship"

Great Experinse. Great locations very good ship and cabin. Food and service are great and staff were veruy freindly and helpfull. Shows are first class!

Overall it was a amazing cruise and the ports were fun to explore.

One of the best cruises we have done, very relaxing and excellent staff. One missed port and another closed on a sunday, but it didn't really matter.

Warning: On last day of cruise I was taken ill at Zeebrugge. My wife and I are pensioners. Told I should go to hospital. After having been advised by the emergency doctor and neurologist at Knokke-Heist hospital that I was fit to return to the ship that day, the doctor on board refused to allow me back, but that was after we had been charged by the ship's medical centre £550 for a blood test and scan. My time in the medical centre was just 55 mins. We were told in no uncertain terms that we would not be allowed back on the ship and we would have to make our own way home, knowing that all our suitcases and major credit cards were on board the ship. This is 3 days before Christmas. Never travel with P&O if you expect compassion or help if you are ill. They just want you off the ship so you are no longer their responsibility. We were met by two big burly security guards to make sure we did not try to get back on board. Don't get ill on a P&O cruise. It's £50 just to walk through the door of the medical centre. From now on P&O means profit and overcharging. We will never travel with them again.

This was a short 5 night trip to Brugge and Amsterdam. Weather was excellent, as were the two citys we visited. Aurora was to the usual P&O standard, with a lovely cabin and food to spare. All in all a very enjoyable trip.

Excellent cruise great itinerary, be very wary in St Petersburg other than that, enjoy.

Our first experience and not going to be the last, already booked for next year back on the Arcadia, can"t wait.