For me this was a trip of a lifetime! The cruise experience itself (my second cruise) was beyond my expectations; the ports of call were always interesting, if at times rushed and incomplete; and the service we experienced was outstanding. Truly we were blessed.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Embarkation at Southampton was smooth and timely (no delays)
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We experienced only 3 venues: main dining room, windjammer cafeteria and promenade cafe. In each place the food and drink were excellent - we’ll prepared, delicious to eat, and great variety. Although not gourmet quality, the food was much above average.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
We are not late nighters, so limited our activities to thos scheduled before 10pm. We also like to find quiet places and read or just enjoy the ambience. We enjoyed quizzes, listening to music, reading, shows in the theatre, and just relaxing. We were never bored.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Absolutely outstanding! Our room steward cared for us and about us. Our servers in the dining room were attentive and personable. At the end of the cruise it was hugs all the way round.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
All facilities were easily accessible, and, though the ship shows signs of wear, cleanliness was obviously a priority.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Ship tip
Relax, and don’t get caught up in hard timelines. There is time to do all you want to do and relax while you’re doing it. For example, if you have a relaxing early sitting in the dining room and suddenly find the show is starting in the theatre in 5 minutes, continue to relax and take in the later show.
Our tour took us basically to 2 museums - Thor Heyerdahl and the Vikings. While both these museums were quite interesting, they left me with little sense of the city itself and the people. Although we got back to the ship early, our tour leader was not willing to stop the bus downtown and let some of us off to just enjoy Oslo.
The boat tour was excellent. The problem here was that the time we spent waiting for other groups to fill up the boat meant a somewhat rushed trip through Tivoli Gardens (especially as we were very hungry by then and stopped to eat.) and again a trip directly back to the ship without any time to experience downtown Copenhagen.
We took a shuttle bus into Tallinn and visited the old town on our own. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and just walking the streets, although the climb from the lower to the upper town was quite challenging.
The highlight of our trip! We took an independent tour with SPB Tours, and, with a smaller group (16) and an excellent tour guide (Maria) we spent 2 packed days seeing the highlights. At the end we were exhausted but had a wonderful sense of the culture and history of this remarkable city. We also had the opportunity to have a couple of authentic Russian lunches, including the mandatory tumbler of vodka.
We had a great tour of Helsinki, including a visit to the outdoor museum. The main problem was again one of time. Our RCI tour group was once again very large (40), and, although the guide was excellent, by the time she herded us through the various venues, made sure that we all got a needed bathroom break and enjoyed the coffee and sweet roll prepared for us, much time was lost and our visits to the actual sites seemed both rushed and incomplete.
It helped to realize that Skagen is a summer resort location, but the number of restaurants and craft shops gave it a kind of tourist trap atmosphere. Once again we went on our own and walked both into town and back to the ship. The exercise itself was good, but I found Skagen itself almost overwhelmed by around 3000 people visiting from the cruise ship.
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