Which ship for a Baltic cruise?
 

I am having a hard time deciding whether we should do a cruise on Emerald Princess, which has 3100 passengers, or Azamara Journey (Celebrity) which has 691 passengers. There isn't very much information on cruise critic about Azamara Journey, but I like the idea of a smaller ship. Will we miss all the activities a larger ship has to offer? Would the extra money for an Azamara cruise be worth it?

bumping...

Azamara Journey is a rather new ship, therefore you will not see that many travelreports about it.
It has many balcony-cabins, upscale service with butler etc. No formal nights. It has a casino, theatre etc. Apart from that the schedule will involve many days ashore.
I saw the ship in Amsterdam port just this week. If I had to choose, mine favorite is Azamara.

You can get a lot of info on www.cruisecritic.com that has a specific Azamara forum. If you're looking at that line, you should also compare to Oceania. I have taken one of their cruises and people I talk to say their Baltic cruise is great.

I have never been on either ship but sight unseen I would always opt for the ship with the fewer passengers. I have NOT enjoyed the mega ship cruises we've been on with anywhere close to that many passengers. It is more like a city than a cruise ship IMO.

Never been on Azamara, but did a Baltic cruise on Oceania and loved the compact size, the intamacy and the ability to dock closer to the center of town in places such as St. Petersburg. So I would avoid the 3,100 passenger ship if it were me.

Thanks for your replies. I decided to book a Azamara cruise. I also looked at Oceania, but it was a great deal more in price than Azamara. The ships are basically identical.