I really loved this cruise and this ship. I would have preferred to not have the "at sea" day, as this just seemed to be an excuse to get you to spend money, as nothing in this area is really very far away from anything else - could have easily added another stop instead..... We also had to miss the Helsinki port and go to Poland instead - this was awesome, but I probably would have preferred the Helsinki itinerary (not sure why our cruise did this). The food was good on this ship, but the buffet gets really tiresome quickly and it is frequently very, very crowded. The dining rooms need to have some variety - same thing over and over and over in each dining room. Definitely spring for the upgraded dining package so you have some variety.
The focus of this cruise is your port stops - these are really awesome and we had a great time visiting so many places!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Super easy to embark - we had a lot of issues because we were traveling with five people spread across three staterooms and they could not figure out how to arrange the charges, but the process of embarking was easy. We arrived after the crowds and would have been done in just a few minutes if not for our billing issues!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Not the best food - all main dining rooms serve the exact same menu (to encourage you to buy dining at the premium restaurants no doubt) and the buffet restaurant was great, but got old quickly. I highly recommend the Premium Teppan restaurant - best food of the trip and well worth the cost!
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
the focus of this cruise is the itinerary, so the ship itself is pretty boring. No real shopping, relatively small casino (and noisy and smokey), some good entertainment but not much. Also there is literally NOTHING to do on the "at sea" days - especially if it is not sunny - SO many people sitting around bored to death. I would bring a very good book or something, as we were bored to tears on one at sea day - the weather was too cold to do anything outside and the ship seriously lacks any other diversions.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
great shows - just not enough of them. And the bars and dance places are quite small.
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
everyone really seemed to love the kids program on board.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The staff seem very stressed - maybe they are consistently understaffed? But they are all quite nice.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
This is a very nice ship overall. Very clean and quite easy to navigate around.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
we had two mini-suites combined together to make one "large" connected room. This was great - the bathrooms are HUGE with a shower you can actually love! The beds were great and comfy and there was plenty of room in the cabin. The balconies are great too - small, but quite manageable. our friend had an inside room and was not at all in love with it.
Ship tip
Get a mini-suite if you can and avoid inside rooms.
We were the largest cruise ship to every dock there, so the whole town came out to watch! Very inexpensive port with a great "old town" very close by - no need for excursions at this port!
Awesome port - wished we had one extra day there - so MUCH to do. Hire a private tour guide rather than go on a ship or other large excursion - you get more done in a shorter time.
As everyone else says - there is a huge need to extend the time in this port - so much to do and so little time to do it. Great port - we used the hop on/ hop off boat to get around and did not need to use any ship excursions. Definitely needed more time here though.
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