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As people who pack the most into their travels, our travel personality is unique to us. Your ravel personality should be unique to you as well. While some people are looking for a chance to unwind and relax with a cocktail on the beach, others may want to spend hours on end in a museum. For us, we like to get in with the locals, see the sights and get a good taste of what a region’s culture really is.

Many cruise ships do not allow for this kind of activity as they have private islands, special resorts or hotels and trains booked for their passengers and require tendering into port as the ship is too large to dock at a pier. Tendering involves being ferried from your cruise ship to the dock on a smaller boat further reducing your time in port.

For this trip there will be two other couples traveling with us including our parents who will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the trip. With many variables coming into play, the decision was narrowed down to a European cruise. Would we want a river cruise or a sea cruise? River cruises typically allow for less time in port and that is not something that any of us wanted. So, we were able to narrow it down to either a Mediterranean cruise or a Baltic cruise. There are several other options available, but based on where we had already been, these two options seemed closest to what we were wanting.

Our final decision was to go with the Baltic Capitals cruise with Celebrity because it involved a port intensive itinerary that allowed for multiple days in some of the top cities on the cruise.

Here is a look at the Baltic Capitals itinerary.

Date Port/City Activity
Day 1 Stockholm, Sweden => Docked All Day
Day 2 Stockholm, Sweden => Docked - Depart at 3:00PM
Day 3 Helsinki, Finland => Dock at 10:00AM - Depart at 5:00PM
Day 4 St. Petersburg, Russia => Dock at 7:00AM
Day 5 St. Petersburg, Russia => Docked All day
Day 6 St. Petersburg, Russia =>Docked - Depart at 6:00PM
Day 7 Muuga (Tallinn), Estonia => Dock at 7:00AM - Depart at 5:00PM
Day 8 At Sea
Day 9 Warnemunde, Germany => Dock at 7:00AM - Depart at 9:30PM
Day 10 Copenhagen, Denmark => Dock at 12:00PM
Day 11 Copenhagen, Denmark => Docked - Depart at 3:00PM
Day 12 At Sea
Day 13 Amsterdam, Netherlands => Dock at 6:00AM

With overnight stays in Stockholm, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen, amount of time in with the locals is maximized, while the travel is taken care of at night while enjoying the comfort of a 4-star hotel. Further, each of these ports is large enough that tendering is not required and only in Russia are we required to take a tour. We’ll get to that a little bit later in this series.

When it came time to book the cruise, there were several possible companies that once we began talking to, each offered to sweeten the pot with more extras to have us purchase the trip through them. One word of advice, never settle for just one quote, much like buying a car, take your time, be informed and shop around for several rates and offers. Once you narrow it down to the top three vendors, let them know and request their best and final offer. Make sure that you are able to add more perks on if they become available later through the cruise line.

We chose to go with Costco Travel (www.costcotravel.com Visit Costco Travel Here). Why? They provided all of the best perks from Celebrity, plus added a few extras that surpassed the other offers and rates from the other travel agents. Our package ended up with a Pre-paid gratuities, a classic drink package, and $300 on-board credit all provided by Celebrity. Costco Travel more than doubled the on-board credit plus provided the best price for the cruise.

Coming up, we’ll talk about the ports that we’ll be visiting, the ship we'll be on and offer some tips for preparing for a port intensive cruise.

When an opportunity to travel arises, there is no good reason not to. That is the motto we have adopted and based on that statement, when asked if we wanted to go on a Baltic cruise, it did not take long to make the decision, let's hold off on the trip to Thailand and Vietnam and visit the land of the midnight sun.

Although we are not really cruisers, the planning for the journey has been enlightening and we have discovered a number of things about cruising that differ from a normal travel plan. During the next couple of posts we'll introduce you to the itenerary, talk about some of the tips and tricks we have learned from our research and finally include some highlights from the trip while we are travelling.

First off we had to decid on the boat. While many companies offer Baltic cruises, each cruise line has its own personality. Unlike a regular trip, where you are going to be staying at Hotels, AirBnB's or a variety of accomodations, on a cruise, the dhip is your base for quarters, food, and some entertainment. Based on this, it's important to decide what typ of trip you want. Typically the ships are as follows:

Upmarket
Celebrity Cruises - Sails the world - Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond. Attracts couples, with and without their children. Ships carry on average about 2,000 passengers, though its Xpedition ship in the Galapagos Islands accommodates only 92.

Hapag-Lloyd Cruise Line - This high-quality, century-old line has four small-to-medium-sized traditional style cruise ships offering refined service and style. (Hapag-Lloyd also operates an airline and an extensive fleet of container ships). Cruise destinations include the Mediterranean, Baltic, Arctic, Antarctica, Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific. Most passengers are German-speaking.

Holland America Line - The onboard atmosphere is more traditional, less contemporary than most other cruise lines. Cultured clientele. Food and service are refined and exemplary. Worldwide destinations. One trip circumnavigates the planet, visiting 38 ports in 26 countries (prices start in the neighborhood of $20,000 per person).

Mid-Priced
Carnival Cruise Line - Ships are large (up to several thousand passengers). They sail to North American and Mediterranean ports. Carnival Cruise Lines is widely popular and has a party-boat reputation. It's the most glitzy Vegas-like cruise line afloat and is fun for the right audience. Appeals mostly to mid-income couples, singles and families.

Costa Cruise Line - This Italian line sails the world with a strong Mediterranean-itinerary presence. Costa operates over a dozen big ships. Most passengers are European. The line appeals to mid-income families and young adults. It is part of the Carnival family of cruise lines.

Disney Cruise Line - Pleasing kids is the obvious priority, but there are onboard facilities and activities designed for the parents. You can book a seven-day land-and-sea vacation package. Your family spends half the time enjoying Walt Disney World in Orlando, the other half on the Disney Magic or Disney Wonder ship cruising to the Bahamas.

MSC Cruise Line - It's an Italian line with over 10 big ships. It focuses on European (especially Mediterranean) destinations, but also sails to ports in the Americas. Passengers are mainly middle income European families and young adults.

Norwegian Cruise Line - This large cruise line sails worldwide. One ship, the Pride of America, has a Hawaiian themed cruise with shore excursions to various Hawaiian Islands. Norwegian Cruise Line innovated the "freestyle dining" concept (you have the option of dining in different onboard restaurants).

Princess Cruises - Global itineraries. Caribbean and Mexican west coast cruises are popular. Princess Cruises has a dozen cruise ships (mostly quite large) and an imaginary one (the "Love Boat" of TV fame). Its overall quality level is the highest in the "$$ Mid-market" category.

Royal Caribbean International - Its large cruise fleet sails worldwide, with a Caribbean emphasis. Some ships carry 3,000 passengers. Royal Caribbean appeals to middle income families (with children and teens) and young couples. Organized activities are many and varied.

As you can see, each cruiseline has a distinct personality that will certainly the makeup of the passengers onboard. Ifyou are looking for a party on the seas, you go with Carnival, if you are looking for a kids focused cruise, go with Disney. Wit the type of travelers we are, we were looking for a port intensive cruise that would allow for plenty of time to get in the the locals and not be shipbound or herded around with large groups of other tourists.

Based on the personality of the various line, we chose to cruise with Celebrity on their Baltic Capital Cruise. In the next few blogs will continue with more on Celebrity and their itenerary.