Europe - Northern Europe Cruise Reviews

the ports were good,  the service was good, only one good entertainment BBKing.  The staff listened to concerns but did little about them.  The ship was clean the food was not, everything is served cant pick out which and how much counter staff just did not seem to understand what you wanted.  No sugar or stirrers with coffee service.

I've had a great time but just a little note that it would have been an excellent 7 day cruise if only if it wasn't too cold and it would also been so much better if the excursions were much longer and more time to explore every Scandinavian countries. Almost every excursions except for Estonia were short and I felt like I was more of a tourist instead of a traveler. On top of that the staff were very friendly and the food were very delicious.

The food was very deplorable and the ports of the cities very small and not that interesting... Shows on board as well very average. The crew staff was nice but not in the restaurants  

The destination was fabulous, the trip of a lifetime. Copenhagen was a wonderful city to explore and Tallinn, Estonia was our favorite port. We hadn't been on Royal Caribbean for several years, the last ship being the Allure of the Seas, but found this ship to be a good size, very clean and updated. The Windjammer breakfast buffet was excellent, I've never seen so many options for breakfast before on any other ship. It was unfortunately very crowded on port days, it was difficult to find a table. They even made an announcement that if you were finished with your breakfast to please leave so others could enjoy theirs. The lunch and dinner options in the Windjammer café were also very good. The cruise director Topi was very friendly and talented and really set the tone for an enjoyable time.While I don't spend a lot of time in the cabin, it would be nice if there were more TV channels to watch. The same show episodes were played over and over again the entire week. Embarkation and Debarkation were very organized and ran smoothly. All the shows started precisely on time. I would definitely sail with Royal Caribbean again.

Dining experience has been average on this ship, especially compared with other cruises we have done on NCL and Carnival. It is very difficult to find a table around breakfast and lunch time. We were moved to a different table on main dinning and was asked to move again the 2nd night. One of us had hair in the soup. Food is very average and generally tastes just ok

BALLET IN ST PETERSBURG WAS THE BEST.  ALSO MY TOUR GUIDE WAS FULL OF KNOWLEDGE.

hATED THAT HELPERS ON 6 WERE ALSO COMBATING ALL THE NOISE:  COULD NEVER HEAR THEM

This cruise visits a nice variety of ports but is more of an overview than I expected.

despite booking ship sponsored tours, we got less than expected for our time and investments.

The ship sponsored tour of the Peterhoff in St Petersburg was terrible. We had about 23 minutes in the palace due to long lines and a few other problems that could have been prevented. The guide was terrible, never adding any meaningful history or details. She did not make an effort to schedule bathrooms into the day (there are none on the bus) so people were left running off on their own to find a rest room on their own. It delayed the group and led to confusion and frustration. Many, many people were unhappy. When I complained at the ship tour desk he said he found it hard to believe and was not at all helpful or responsive. I told him I did not expect any refund but wanted him to understand and act to assist future tours of this site. He was totally dismissive. We heard at dinner that another guide had called the bus company to get an extra hour added to their tour due to the delays. We got zero time to shop or use toilets and zero reaction from Norwegian about our bad experience. We felt ripped off, to say the least.

Tour to Hermitage was much better. 

After a disastrous NCL cruise on Epic in Jan 2013, I basically lost faith in NCL all together after 12 NCL cruises.  My friend found this very reasonable Baltic cruise last November on Getaway and asked us to join them.  I gave NCL another chance to see if there is an improvement in four years.  Glad I did.  Embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze instead of a nightmare on Epic four years ago.  Weather was good over all, especially at St. Petersburg; highlight of this cruise.  Service at sit down restaurants was slower than before.  Paid specialty restaurants are down to one item of each category.  Our cruise consultant, Harry, is great.  Will book our NCL Panama Canal cruise next year with him again.

The crew were very friendly and attentive throughout the cruise. Our steward was fantastic. The food was very good with plenty of choices to satisfy any appetite. The water pressure for the shower could be improved. The only shore excursion booked through cruise line for Sweden was fair. Would recommend the ship dock in Stockholm instead of Gothenburg, Sweden. Then on board entertainment was very enjoyable. 

Shore excursion is my favorite part,but I did not choose the shore excursion plan offered by ship, because it is more expensive  than local tour agency. Another thing I think you need to improve. I did not receive my account balance letter that should be sent to me before disembarkation.Could you please send to me by email? thanks.

The cruise ship was great as well as the food. The only problem was the ports of call. We did not have the time to enjoy the cities as the ship docked far away from

the towns and cruise directors were in such a hurry to get us back to the ship.  I will not be taking another cruise as we really didn't enjoy the program.  We have taken a VikingRiver Cruise and that was so much better as the boat was able to stop near towns and we really got a taste of the countries we visited.  You needed to have more entertainment and less selling of certain products....over done by my standards

Food and entertainment was great, very well organized.

The only part of the cruise that was not good was the music!! The average age of patrons was over 60, WHY ARE YOU PLAYING MUSIC THAT IS NOT AGE APPROPRIATE....AND THERE AS NOWHERE TO GO TO AVOID THE LOUD MUSIC!! 

The customer service desk hid behind "policy", half truths to get me to leave the desk, and excessive delay in assisting a passenger "in distress".

No Manager would speak to us at all.

All our cash and most credit cards were stolen as we started the cruise. It took 3.5 days to cash a check. For 7  days , charges as low as $4.00 were denied until i visited the front desk. Painful process that was 100 % avoidable with a customer focus organization. Port excursions were painful due to crowds, number of people, limited routes. My first choice for debarkation was cancelled

 We really enjoyed this trip. My cabbage place was Berlin, Tallinn, st Petersburg and Helsinki. The only think I coughs say is that we needed more time in Berlin and Stockholm. But, overall we visited a lot of places and we had a taste of each of them. The cruise was great, we had 2 mini suites with balcony, witch really enjoyed them, especially because we were there for 11 nights. The food and service was outstanding! We are a family of 5 with kids between 20 and 25 and even though there weren't too many young people (I think because of the itinerary and the cost of the trip) they still enjoyed it a lot and it was a great and very recommendable family trip. I, also, would like to thank Debra Davis (from AA) who did an excellent job in helping us to organize this trip, also she followed up before the departure to make sure we had all the documents we needed, and to wish us a great trip. She was always willing to help us when we needed before the trip. I will definitely continue working with her for our future cruises!

Every area of service during the cruise proved to be the best in what they were assigned . BEYOUND OUR EXPECTATIONS

A++ for 

FRONT DESK,  food and beverage. Entertainment Shows, on board activities, stores on board, speciality restaurants on board, room stewards, dining staff, art gallery, .    A++ for

overall cleanliness , embankment check in, disembarkment ease, 

one one negative comment would be that Shore excursion prices offered by the cruise line were not compatative with the current market price.  Buying from TJ TOURS online cost us almost half the price  than what cruise line had to offer.  Not recommended buying from the cruise line. 

our only 

The suites are wonderful (huge walk in closet, separate living area from bedroom - very well appointed & thoughtfully laid out).  Service was exceptional (they made cheese danish for my dad everyday because he happened to mention he liked them).  They all seemed to know our names.

The end of May cruise in the Baltic was an excellent choice!  Seabourn delivered a wonderful itinerary of visits to Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Denmark.  This cruise is designed for the adult world traveler who wants to spend extended time in Russia (3 days).   We enjoyed the larger than normal veranda cabin, excellent food, and attentive staff.  The ship was almost full at 435 passengers resulting in a 1:1 traveler to staff ratio. Open dining and Thomas Keller Grille restaurant with all inclusive beverages made everyone happy. We enjoyed the Serenity room at the spa, making us very relaxed after touring.  We were two couples traveling to visit these countries mostly for the first time.  We decided to arrange independent travel and not use the ship excursion offerings.  We planned a pub crawl in Stockholm, biking tour in Tallinn, three-day with concerts in St. Petersburg, and foodie tour in Helsinki.  Luckily we had perfect weather the entire trip in the 60s and 70s with no rain.  While we visited many of the popular sites they were not overcrowded at this time of year.    One final tip:  for those considering considering this wonderful trip, my husband and I paired this experience with a series of audio interviews offered at the Rick Steves "Audio Europe" Scandinavia/Baltic website: www.ricksteves.com.  In particular, Rick Steves dives deep into the differences between these wonderful nordic countries.  

See detail comments below as marked.  It is overall a very pleasant trip for s to visit the cities, except there were a few areas do have room for improvements. We will recommend friends/family members to use Celebrity but if they are visiting cities by themselves, better obtain maps from AAA in advance or valuable time would be wasted.  

The friendly staff are amazing! We enjoyed all the entertainment aboard. Great shows! The Silhouette dining room provides excellent meals and service. We enjoyed the spa services. All the staff went out of their way to may a trip a wonderful experience.

We enjoyed so many aspects of the cruise.  The Speciality Restaurants were delicious.  Everything was incredible, it is hard to focus on any one thing.  My husband enjoyed the scones with jam and cream.  The coffee was great and the staff far exceeded our expectations.  

We are disappointed that on this cruise and the others we have booked we cannot enjoy the Aft Cabin Concierge level with Aqua Class benefits of eating.