We picked this cruise for the ports of call and they didn't disappoint. We especially enjoyed St Petersburg and Tallinn Estonia.
We spent a few days before the cruise in Amsterdam and had a fantastic time, easy city to get around with a tram or combo pass. We purchased the IAmsterdam 48 hour card and went into some museums that we wouldn't have thought of such as the canal museum which was very interesting. We enjoyed the Hermitage in Amsterdam way more than the one in St. Petersburg. The exhibit on the Romanov family was very informative. We also did a free walking tour through Sandemans and it was excellent. I would definitely recommend using them. (www.neweuropetours.eu/Amsterdam).
We found the vibe on this ship to be off from the get go. Crew not as friendly as on other ships, the captain definitely should be on a way better ship than he's on as he is fantastic. We liked his singing, his birthday announcements and his announcing the names of the guests who were late getting back to the ship.
Cabin was very noisy. Heard noise from the solarium area until 2am and it started up again around 5:30/6am. Our stateroom attendant was very nice and friendly and brought us ice every day.
Loved Amsterdam. Very nice city.
Not much to do here. Pretty little village.
We took the ship shuttle to town and walked around on our own. Very nice place to walk around and very picturesque.
We took a non-ship excursion that took us to the Vasa Museum and city tour. Loved the Vasa Museum and the ship. We wanted to go into the Royal Palace but they no longer have a day pass so we didn't feel it was worthwhile spending the money for four hours for a 7 day ticket.
An okay city. We used the hop-on hop-off bus as we wanted a guided overview of the city which we got on this bus. Getting off the ship was a bit of a mess though as everyone gathered around the stairs and to get onto the bus there was no line ups.