Our cruise started in Copenhagen where the embarkation process was very slick as we were on-board within 10 minutes of arriving at the ship at about 1.30pm. After lunch we went to our cabin to find our luggage waiting for us.

The cruise called at 8 ports with the highlight being St Petersburg where we moored for 3 whole days. Being a relatively small ship, Journey was given a berth in the heart of the city which meant little time was spent getting anywhere (except Peterhof which is an hour outside the city anyway). We had chosen the Journey's 3 day excursion which covered the major sights, costs $350 per person which proved to be good value as it was three full days (with 2 lunches) and an excellent guide called Tatiana. Not only was her English good, she was very knowledgeable and spoke with tremendous enthusiasm about the city and it's history. These 3 days were exhausting though fascinating.

We enjoyed visiting all the other ports - Travemude (which by chance had a sea shanty choir festival), Wismar, Bornholm, Gdansk, Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm some of which we would never have otherwise visited. In Gdansk, we attended the AzAmazing Evening which was a Classical Concert at the Poland Baltic Philharmonic hall which was exceptionally good. Gdansk was a complete surprise as it's old town has wonderful historic building's. Read more