In article , Jim Watkins
wrote:

All three of these lines have attractive itineraries. We'd like to
visit St. Petersburg and Amsterdam as a start or finish would be
great. We're talking 10-12 days. We not picky, but enjoy luxury and
can afford most at the Concierge Veranda Level. Any advice?

Also excursion advice? Thanks

(Two couples traveling together, fit but 61-63 years old). Haven't
cruised in 20 years, but safari, other land stuff almost yearly.)

I did a 12 day Baltic cruise last year on Celebrity. It was great.
Spent pre cruise time and post cruise time in Amsterdam. St.Petersburg
was the highlight but most of the ports are excellent. Amsterdam,
Copenhagen, Tallinn, Berlin, Stockholm. Helsinki just OK.

I am sure Crystal and Oceania would be great too but expect they would
be more expensive than Celebrity.

For excursions I recommend private tours for St. Petersburg. We also
did a private tour to Berlin. The company we used for St. Petersburg TJ
Travel arranged our Berlin tour at a discount for using them for St.
Petersburg. I recommend them highly but there are several other
companies that offer private tours to pick from that also have
excellent reputations on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor. We arranged a
group of eight for the tour on the sailing's roll call on Cruise
Critic. The rest of the ports you don't really need excursions.

--
Charles