Princess Cruises, Star Princess, Baltic

This was our first cruise and was selected primarily to enable us to see and visit all the Baltic capitals, but in particular our dream location of St Petersburg, Russia. The scheduled flight from Manchester to Copenhagen was well organised by the Princess team but even they could not have predicted, or allowed for, the chaos at the airport baggage collect. Ourselves and many other Princess passengers had to wait for almost one and a half hours before we could retrieve our cases due to a failure of the airport facilities. It was then only thanks to a rescue by Princess that we were able to embark, complete with our cases. To recover from this bad start it was a great relief to sit back and relax on our balcony with gin and tonics quickly served by the Princess Service team. This efficient friendly service was typical of that experienced by us throughout the cruise in all areas of the Star Princess, but in particular the cabin and dining room staff. The balcony cabin on Baja deck was very comfortable and of a reasonable size but the noise generated by the "Aircraft" type toilet flushing system came as quite an initial shock (and remained so throughout the cruise!). Choice and quality of food in the main traditional Amalfi dining room was excellent every day, (as was the service), and the variety available in the 24 hour buffet was very wide but on some occasions not quite as hot as it might have been. Entertainment was of a good general standard, but it is worth highlighting the superb performance by the visiting Russian dance team during our stay in St Petersburg. In our planning stages we initially considered that the two day Grand Tour of St Petersburg was quite expensive, but after experiencing the superbly organised visits to some of the worlds most beautiful and historic locations it was cheap at the price. Although many people claim that shore excursions are much cheaper using local taxis, our own experience based on many years of long haul holiday all over the world has been that in terms of value for money (£/quality location visited), organised excursions generally win hands-down. This principle we followed on this, our first cruise, and enjoyed every one of them, but there are always exceptions and Tallinn was one of them! As our photo shows the Star is berthed within easy walking distance of the beautiful town of Old Tallinn. Overall a very enjoyable first cruise with Princess, and it will not be our last!