7/19/2008

By momwig

• August 7, 2008

After planning this cruise for two years it ended up meeting and exceeding our expectations. Our itinerary included the following ports:

Stockholm, Sweden

Riga, Latvia

Gydansk, Poland

Helsinki, Finland

St. Petersburg, Russia

Copenhagen, Denmark

Oslo, Norway

London, England

What can I say each place was magical in its own way - we took the following ships tours:

Jewish Riga

Stathoff Concentration Camp and Gadansk

Helsinki and Pervu

Viking Heritage in Oslow

Panaramic Tour of London on the way to Heathrow

For the most part these tours were great - even those that visited sad places were worthwhile - we wanted to pay our respects to people who have no one to remember them. I would recommend ships tours when you don't feel like planning and figuring out logistics.

We arranged a private tour of St. Petersburg with Red October - our guide Nelly was fantastic - she is an English teacher at St Petersburg University during the school year and is extremely knowledgable and so personable. We saw everything and we did things not included on our original itinerary including riding the subway - so beautiful not like the NYC or Phila subway stations. The beauty of St. Petersburg is unbelievable - someplace everyone should visit.

In the other ports we wandered around and saw lots of wonderful things and met some wonderful people.

The food on the ship was excellent - substituting the Midnight Extravaganza with a Brunch including Ice Sculptures, carving stations and cooking stations was great for us - at least we were hungry and could stay awake for this meal.

The ship's staff and crew were excellent and the Cruise Director Gary was a really friendly and caring individual - always there to see if you were having a good time.

I highly recommend this cruise - not sure they will be repeating the exact itinerary in the future, but even somthing similar would be outstanding.