Cruise Summary

I figured I should try to put some perspective on our Baltic cruise. As I've probably noted and told people directly, a cruise ship is an excellent way to go on an extended holiday to multiple locations. You only have to unpack once, the cruise takes care of or gives you a default of not needing visas for the countries being visited. The housekeeping and other things that you'd hope not to need (such as medical care) are delivered at a level well beyond land equivalents. The food options include self-service buffets with attendants fetching drinks available almost all hours as well as full table service dinners with allowance for any dietary need variations. For those whom they suit there are cruise-arranged tours for every shore stop. Often there are days at sea to punctuate the shore stops. There are entertainment and activity options at almost all times. There are plenty of places to relax around the ship. There are staff willing and able to help almost all of the time. The scale of logistics behind the scenes enabling all this is mind boggling but rarely of concern to passengers. I do feel all the above should be borne in mind when I report that there were some issues that we faced on this particular cruise. Our previous cruises have certainly been of exceptional quality, both on Star Cruises out of Singapore and the one Princess cruise out of Melbourne. It is comparing to those standards that we compare this one, in a very different part of the world, with a noticeably different base clientele demographic on board. All businesses must train their staff and all staff will make some mistakes as they learn. From our very first cruise we have been struck by a general sense in which, while using modern methods themselves, have a presumption that their passengers are not users of information and/or technology. In general, over the cruises we have done, they done better than they used to. Indeed we have been impressed enough to want offer feedback so they can continue to improve. I've chosen to record my frustrations with the situations where this cruise fell short of our desires. In my travel notes I left those unfettered from how I felt them at the time. When I have time I will use them to compose my feedback and will at that point try to judge their significance.