We did the Baltic Capitals last year on the Celebration in August. I have to say the weather wasn't brilliant - grey and overcast most of the time with a touch of light rain here and there. It was sunny for the last couple of days, though, so not all doom and gloom. All you can really say is that the weather will be similar to Brirain, ie unpredictable. Despite the weather, the cruise was brilliant and you'll have a great time. After all, if you were planning on sunbathing you probably wouldn't have picked a cruise in the Baltic!

I've no idea why an AI drinks package isn't available. That said, we didn't drink that much; certainly not as much as we have done on Mediterranean cruises. The cool weather does have its advantages!

We were thinking it would be about the same as here. Like you say we are not aiming to sunbath all holiday. Our ports of call are as follows, Gothenburg, Travemunde, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm, Warnemunde and Kalundborg I am guessing yours were similar. We are going to do trips at St Petersburg, Warnemunde (Berlin) and Kalundborg (Copenhagen) we think we will do the rest ourselves, any tips / advise.

Also when you boarded the ship in the uk, were you able to get back off after you had checked in. I see checkin is between 2-4pm, but i can't see any time for sailing. We sailed on the Spirit from Majorca a few years ago and after we had checked in we got back off and popped to the supermarket to get some bottled water and a few beers for the cabin, was hoping to do the same in Harwich.

If you go into the "DIY Shore Excursions Baltic Area" thread, which you will see just a few lines above the thread you created, I did a report on exploring in the Baltic ports a couple of years ago. You may find this useful.

I posted a review of our cruise in the Cruise Review section. Just go to the section for the Thomson Celebration and scroll down a few reviews until you find one by "Mark", travel date 08 2008. You will see our ports of call were slightly different to yours.

From what I recall, we boarded around 2 o'clock and the ship sailed around 4:30. It certainly wasn't a late sailing as it is with Mediterranean cruises. There was a brass band to see us off as well!

Thanks for the replies, i have had a read of both, and got a few tips.

Hi, we have just come back from the Baltic Capitals Cruise on the Thomson Spirit. It was from the 14-28 August and the weather was absolutely fabulous....a lot better than we'd expected. I believe it is pretty much the same as British weather.....very unpredictable but we were really lucky. Every day was warm and sunny with temperatures of around 20-25 degrees, apart from one morning of light drizzle in Riga, Latvia, but it was stilll warm then. We sunbathed on the deck on all the days at sea (except the one coming back to Harwich as it was a bit cooler and overcast) and not once did we feel cold at all. We took clothes for all weathers but the jumpers and fleeceys remained unused
I must add that even if the weather isn't great, there is plenty to do aboard the Thomson Spirit.......the daytime activities are fantastic as well as the great shows, quizzes and game shows in the evenings. We participated in loads of quizzes during the day as well as evenings and found them great fun and entertaining. The entertainment team were great!
All in all this was a fabulous holiday and cannot fault it at all......would thoroughly recommend it!!

Not sure why the all inclusive package isn't available for this one...it may be that the offer is for holidays in 2010 but I'm not totally sure on that but we have booked two future cruises for next year on the same ship on all inclusive!