Loved this Baltic cruise itinerary. Communication (except for Helsinki) was good though you had to either put on the TV quickly or put your head outside your door to hear as there were no speakers in the cabin. Balcony cabin was well appointed (robe hook near door, adequate space to unpack). Balcony narrow; no room for more than 2 chairs. Our Steward Randy kept us entertained with a new towel animal everyday.

In Helsinki, there were hop on /hop off buses right at the dock. By the time we exited the ship around 10am, the busses were sold out for the day (this doesn't happen in most cities where we've done hop on hop off). Would have been good if the Breakaway let us know in advance.

We're not really "show" people so we booked the Thermal Spa for the duration of the trip. It was described as a quiet, theraputic oasis with hot tub, treatment pool, waterfall, steam room, sauna etc...The most disappointing thing was the hot tub which was neither hot nor theraputic (weak jets). The tub performance was similar to the ones that are outdoors (lukewarm and weak jets). I understand this for outdoors since children go in them but for something I paid almost $300 for, it's totally unacceptable. Mgr. of spa and customer service on deck 6 were totally unhelpful. A group of 6 were talking loudly in the treatment pool and staff in the spa didn't tell them to lower their voice. I did enjoy the heated ceramic lounge chairs which drifted me off to a nice nap till I was awakened by the loud people. Read more