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You're quite right. I should have emphasised that while normally St Petersburg is a 2 day stop, it's off limits for the foreseeable future.

I'm with wowzz. There are two principles at stake here. (1) the principle that I don't pay laundry prices for a job I can easily do myself, and (2) the principle that I don't do laundry when on holiday. For me, carrying a 15-day suitcase isn't much harder than carrying a 7-day suitcase.

Most Baltic cruises have a very similar itinerary. You don't get western fjords or midnight sun anyway, because you're the wrong side of Norway. Traditionally, a Baltic cruise lasts about a fortnight, possibly less if anyone does fly cruises out there, and would cover 2 days in St Petersburg, plus Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Copenhagen, and a few other places. Maybe Berlin (or rather the port 80 miles away!), Amsterdam, or perhaps Kristiansand in Norway, or Visby on Gotland, os Skagen in Denmark. I'd concentrate more on the ship and the price, perhaps. There can be a vast range of prices between different ships. (I find the difference in facilities between the cheapest and the most expensive is worth nothing like the cost difference. Others would disagree. Personal preference.) Companies I know about that sail out of the UK are Fred Olsen, P&O, Ambassador, Saga. Others are available.

I'd go for number 3. Cruise 2 has three city stops (Kristiansand S, Stavanger, Oslo) and only 12 fjord stop (Flam). Cruise 3 has two fjord stops and two cities, and the two cities are more distinctive IMO. Of course, if you prefer cities, then cruise 2. Be careful if you do visit Kristiansand (also known as Kristiansand S, to avoid confusion with Kristiansund N) that your port lecturer knows the difference. Ours didn't! I don't know the Rotterdam, but I believe the Iona carries 5,000 passengers. That would put me off. Maybe not you.

That segment won't be full, but they may well have sold all they are prepared to at this time. What they certainly do not want is to fill the ship for one segment and have to turn people away who want to book the full monty. It's possible that more cabins on that segment may appear nearer the time. Depends how well full-cruise bookings go, probably.

Why haven't you said which countries you're visiting? You won't get a useful answer without.

I'd receommend the ferry to Geiranger, a mooch around the village, and the ferry back. No need for a panoramic bus tour because the ferry is as panoramic as you could hope for. I suspect the ship is falling foul of new environmental rules rather than saving money.

I got back last week, from the Norway cruise with families on board. The air conditioning seems to have been sorted out. Ours was, anyway, and I didn't hear anyone else complain. It needed tweaking slightly between day and night, between about 18 and 19 degrees - 20 was too hot, 17 too cold. Fine adjustments weren't difficult. Car parking (for us at least, and presumably for everyone else) was fine. The car park now is literally across the road from the terminal, and it wasn't full. The children were well behaved. Perhaps because of the total absence of children's facilities, it meant that only those children whose parents could bear to put up with them 24/7 were on board! With the pool being unheated, it was mostly children who wanted to be in it anyway. Buffet was very busy, I recommend restaurant dining for breakfast and dinner at least. Service was good. Possibly not as good as if we had paid an extra £1,000 per head, but definitely good. Embarkation was efficient, our time was 2.30 according to our schedule and we were on board just after 3. Our cabin was plenty big enough for 3, larger than most. On P&O's Arcadia they used to have inside cabins at 150 square foot, or large inside at 200 square foot; these cabins, deck 6 outside view, were 190 square foot. Loads of storage space. Whether it's typical or whether we just got a fortunate mix of passengers I don't know. but it was a happy ship.