Celebrity Baltic cruise

At Thanksgiving dinner a year ago with our friends Vicki and Stewart, we heard about the 14-day Baltic cruise that they had just signed up for on the Celebrity Eclipse of Celebrity Cruises (800/647-2251, www.celebrity cruises.com). It included ports that my husband, Jerry, and I wanted to see, such as St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tallinn, Estonia, so we  considered joining them.

I did have some qualms about the size of the ship (2,850 passengers), but the price ($1,714 per person, double occupancy, for an inside cabin) and the wonderful port stops won out.

An email to Vicki and Stewart’s travel agent, Greg Parker (greg@dvacations.com), and a $450 deposit were all we needed to book the trip. Greg also booked our flights — New York-Edinburgh and London-New York at $1,333 per person.

In addition to St. Petersburg and Tallinn, the full itinerary, July 25-Aug. 8, 2015, included stops at Zeebrugge, Belgium; Warnemünde/Rostock, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as a few days at sea.

This trip had many pluses.

The ship docked at all ports, without the need for tenders.

With few exceptions, disembarkations and reembarkations went very smoothly, considering the number of passengers. This allowed maximum time for visiting each port.

The food was varied and delicious, and service was excellent.

However, there also were negatives, at least for me.

The ship was huge, without any quiet spaces for reading. The open-center design meant that even the library was open to the music and activities taking place in the center of the ship.

Some ports required bus transportation, at an additional cost, to reach the interesting town nearby. The worst port was Zeebrugge because it was a container port and required a 45-minute bus trip to the Old Town. Consequently, we were limited to only two hours in town.

The tours were expensive. The 70-mile, 90-minute bus ride to Heathrow Airport from the ship in Southampton at the end of the cruise was convenient but cost $101 per person. The bus/walk into Brugge (from Zeebrugge) with a guide (but not guided once we were in town) cost $79.75 per person. It was expensive, but the alternative was to not see Brugge.

The 2-day St. Petersburg tour cost $582 per person, but the guide was excellent, and lunch and site-entry fees were included. In addition, since we were on a tour, we had early access to the Hermitage and Catherine’s Palace, two hours before the public was allowed in.

I’m glad I went on the cruise, but I doubt that I would take another cruise on a large ship.

NILI OLAY

New York, NY