Baltic on the Veendam?

[Joal]

We are planning a cruise to the Baltic in August 2007. Undecided between HAL's Veendam and Celebrity's Constellation. We were on the Statendam last October to Hawaii and loved it. Have also been on Celebrity, and liked it too. Leaning towards Veendam at this point since it is in the same class as the Statendam. Has anyone done this itinerary, either on the Veendam or any other ship? Any comments will be much appreciated.
Thank you,
JL

[RuthC]

I did the Baltic as part of a longer cruise on the Rotterdam in '03. Fabulous.
It's port-intensive, and very, very exhausting, but worth every tired bone and muscle in my body. It's one itinerary I would gladly repeat.

I think the opportunity to do this route on an S-class ship should not be passed up.

[dakrewser]

WE just finished the Baltic on the Prinsendam. Best cruise ever....

[lb0103]

We did the Baltics on the Westerdam. Fantastic, but very tiring as stated about, but again well worth the effort.

[Aussie Gal]

We did the Baltic in 1999 on the Maasdam which is a sister ship to the Veendam. We loved the itinerary and had a great time. It was our first time on HAL and we loved the ship and the crew and have returned many times since then.

It is a very port intensive cruise. We left from Harwich and went to Oslo, Arhus, Warnemunde, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg (overnight), Tallin and finished in Copenhagen.

The ports are fabulous and most of them you can do by yourselves as the ship ties up right in the centre of the city. We only did a couple of the ship's excursions. We did the big one on the train to Berlin for the day and also when we were in St. Petersburg. At the time there were no private guides there and the ship's excursions were the only way to go. One of the highlights was the Folkloric show especially put on for the ship's passengers at one of the theatres. It was fabulous.

With all the clock changing each day and rushing around trying to see everything, when we left the ship we felt we needed another holiday to get over the cruise!

[Joal]

Thank you all for your replies. As always, the folks on this board are really helpful. Everyone seem to love this itinerary. It surely looks port intense, but it is probably the only way to see that much. Glad to know most of the shore excursions can be done on your own. We love to walk around, explore, and find out things by ourselves.
Thanks again,
JL