Which is the Best Cruise Line for Northern Europe? Need Suggestions.

[Lovincruisin1321]

My husband and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2007. Which cruise line offers the great services, good entertainment, good food without being to stuffy?:confused:

 

Has anyone done this itinarary? I would love your comments and suggestions. :rolleyes:

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I think it depends on your budget. Have you cruised before? I have not done that itinerary, but I am a fan of Radisson. It's pricey, but the staterooms, food, service, and small-ship feel is worth its weight in gold. Definitely anniversary-worthy--we've spent both our 20th and 25th on Radisson ships. So if it's in your range to consider Crystal or Celebrity, have a look at Radisson too.

[Bruin Steve]

My husband and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2007. Which cruise line offers the great services, good entertainment, good food without being to stuffy?:confused:

Has anyone done this itinarary? I would love your comments and suggestions. :rolleyes:

First, there are different "Northern Europe" Itineraries...I assume you mean the Baltic...which is the more common one...but there are also British Isles/Norwegian Fjords and even some that do more of a coastal Western Europe...and various combinations...

 

We've taken two: A 10 night Baltic, Copenhagen round trip on Princess and a 14 night British Isles/Norwegian Fjords on the Celebrity Constellation...We also sent my parents (as a gift) on the Constellation last year for a Dover-to-Stockholm 14 night Baltic on Constellation...My sister is doing the Baltic this summer on the Celebrity Century at my recommendation...

 

Here's my take:

First, I know everyone has preferences in cruise lines and all of our opinions are based on our own criteria and our own experiences and that any of our opinions may be based on a small sampling of cruises...So, consider that what I say is based largely on my experiences...

 

We were very disappointed with our experience on Princess...Not the ports, of course, we'd visit--and probably WILL visit--those ports again, but on another cruise line...Here is what I disliked about our Princess experience (other than comments relating to the specific ship since the ship we were on has since been "retired"): First, we were not happy with Princess' use of Nynashamn as the port for Stockholm...tendering in there meant a LONG and expensive bus ride into Stockholm itself, not to mention shaving hours off of our port time...When pricing the cruise originally, we found Princess' fares for their shortened 10 night version were actually higher than a Royal Caribbean 12 night...plus, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity run theirs out of Dover while Princess goes out of Copenhagen--It is far easier to find flights--and lower cost flights--from the US to London than to Copenhagen (We ended up taking Princess because the dates on the other lines that year conflicted with personal commitments back home)...And, our Princess cruise had to have an average age demographic of about 85 and the ship virtually shut down by about 10 every night...

 

I MUCH prefer Celebrity...Food and service were FAR better...and the demographics spanned a much larger range of ages...plus there was just more happenning at night on board...

 

I really recommend the Constellation as it is one of the more spacious ships afloat, running with only around 2000 passengers in a 91,000 gross ton ship (the space-to-passenger and crew-to-passenger ratios are simply superior)...

 

Good luck...

[Bruin Steve]

Ooooooops...Double post!

[dbh62ark]

You'll receive a lot more information on this subject on the Baltics boards section of this site. I prefer to choose a cruise by itinerary because that's most important to me, but all the ships in the Baltics are great except for the Norwegian Dream. You can check my post history for comments on that ship (I've sailed it in the Med, and it's awful and continues to have engine problems that affect itineraries). Other than that, you'll choose from a number of cruise lines. My favorite in Europe is Holland; we sailed the Celebrity Constellation Baltics itinerary two months ago and like it too but found Holland to be superior for our tastes and needs. But I've mostly sailed the mass market lines (Princess, Holland, RCCL, and Celebrity) and not the luxury lines (Radisson, Crystal, Oceania). Our tastes and needs may be much different than yours are, so the more information that you can give, the better the advice you will receive.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[LHT28]

We found Oceania more to our liking, not stuffy , no formal nights, port intensive, no kids programs (=few kids)

good food , good crew, smaller ship

 

We just sailed on Princess and the food was so-so , ship too big for our tastes

[Tropic]

We sailed on Celebrity's Constellation (Stockholm-Dover) about 3 years ago... this had to be our most memorable cruise of all. The 14 days are port intensive and test your stamina, but a wonderful experience. For most ports we just used the free shuttle into town and then played it by ear on sightseeing from that point. Our only complaint was that the cruisine for some reason starts to become "tired" during the second week. In fact my wife jokingly asked our waiter for a tuna sandwich... to his credit he produced one for her... a funny example of service that we have enjoyed on our two soon to be three (Millie in May- Med cruise) cruises on Celebrity including a eastern carribean for our whole family of 21 infant-grandparents (Millie). We have been on Princess-Holland America-Carnival. The balconey rooms on Celebrity are great as are Holland America... Princess is disappointing except for mini-suites and Carnival is ok (we really enjoyed the Panama on the Spirit). In summary the Baltic is not to be missed and for value I would recommend the Constellation. Hope this helps.

[Lovincruisin1321]

I'm really surprised, but I'm being hearing alot positive reviews on Celebrity and more negative RCI. The itinarary will be the Baltic. Anyone else?

[Pugdog007]

You'll receive a lot more information on this subject on the Baltics boards section of this site.

 

Where can I find the Baltics board? I can't seem to locate it.

[Juliadlf]

Where can I find the Baltics board? I can't seem to locate it.

 

Cruise Critic Message Boards> Ports of Call> Baltic Ports

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=192