Not really recent, but still doesn't stop me to say that the Baltic cruise is an excellent choice! There are so many different ports and they all have their own magic.
We did Copenhagen, Oslo, Talinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Warnemunde, and we would go back as many times as we can

My pleasure. Enjoy it. its a great cruise.

Hi,
We are about to start our first Princess cruise onboard the Regal. Embarking on Aug 6 in Copenhagen... cant wait.
It is also our first time going to the Baltic and oh my, so much to see. I can give you some more info once we come back if you like?

BTW many people including some Fodors members have used private Russian tours guides for SPB. By using them or the ships tour your need fora Russian visa is met and from my understanding some of the Russian guides are great. Typically the cost is less, you can tailor your tours better and the number of people they have per vehicle is less too so its worthwhile to look into. Our friends did one day touring and spent one night at the Russian ballet. Just a thought.

We are back home and wow, St Petersburg did not disappoint. We saw so many sights, Hermitage, St Peterhof, Catharine palace, Church of spilled blood… And at night we went to the ballet, fantastic!

In Warnemunde we opted to go to Berlin, I thought we should go there at least once in a lifetime. Stockholm we did a tour to the Vasa Museum, I didn’t expect too much, not really into ships. (Unless it’s a cruise ship) but a must-go-to place. Oh my so many things we have seen.

In most of our ports of call, we decided to use local tour operators to organize more private tours. (Cause the price difference is not that much different than the Princess tours) So this way we could see what we wanted in our speed. And not be waiting all the time in those big tours groups for those few people who are a bit slower or need to use the bathroom all the time.

And after reading a lot of good comments online, we contacted Anastasia Travel. What a difference that made. Katharina helped us create the perfect tour. She was also helpful in answering all the questions I had. Even making good suggestions. And you know what the best part was? Because we took several tours in different cities, we had a little discount (I am a sucker for discounts).

You will not regret doing this cruise and we will definitely go back.

When we were in SPB we chose to do the full two day tour through Princess which was around $350.00 pp. Denrus which is also another Russian co. did the same for around $280.00 but our traveling companions were leery of any Russian co. so we went with the ships tour.
Another Russian co. I've heard great things about is Alla.

Peterswalk also comes highly recommended.

https://peterswalk.com/tours/walking/

We were on this cruise 3 years ago. It was one of the best things we have ever done. We opted to go with St. Petersburg Tours, and used their services in every port save Copenhagen and Tallinn. https://www.spb-tours.com/. They were outstanding in every city, but most especially in St. Petersburg. They handle obtaining the visa. There was a group of about 25 of us from the Regal Princess on these tours, and we bonded instantly. If you have not seen Berlin, do not be discouraged by the length of time to get there from Warnemunde. Again with SPB Tours, we rode in a luxurious Mercedes van and had time to see a number of sights, most notably the Holocaust Memorial, as well as a relaxing biergarten lunch.

Came back to tell you not to miss this, if you have the opportunity. https://fabergemuseum.ru/

We took this optional excursion after a day of sightseeing, and so glad that we did. We had dinner in a decidedly non-tourist restaurant and loved it. Then the museum.

The Eggs are an artistic treasure. Trust me here, you will love it.

We've done the Baltic cruise and very much enjoyed it. Copenhagen and Stockholm are especially worth seeing. Do the excursion in St. Petersburg- it saves you from having to pay for expensive visas, and they take you to all the "must see" sites. I've been back to St. Pete since, and it's much nicer when you're not being herded through the tourist sites, but you really do need to go to them the first time.

True that private tours are most of the time more expensive. We normally ask a quote for both and then decide, sometimes the difference is not even that bad.