You will certainly enjoy the cruise as the itinary is one of the best I have experienced in the 6 cruises we have been on. I would certainly recommend that you do tours in St Petersburg if you don't have a visa (or you can arrange a private tour and will be allowed through imigration, Carnival of course don't tell you this! Look out for the old Russian naval base as you leave St Peterburg (about 1-2 hours out of port). It has old submarines and warships and is certainly a remnent of the cold war and quite a site and the cruise ship will pass by very close to this. Also the suspension bridge you pass under which bridges Denmark and Sweden was a great experience. Unfortunately they won't publicise either of these on the loud speaker, so best to ask one of the crew. If you want to tour the cities of Amsterdam or Tallin, you don't need to pay the hugely inflated prices that Carnival charge and particularly as you are docked close to the centre of each of these cities and can very easily walk round them. We had a hairdryer, but not sure if this was standard or because we upgraded to a suite where we had a separate dressing area. Try looking at the Carnival website as it provide some useful information regarding some of the facilities. There are 240 volt plug sockets for instance which is obviously helpful if you are English. Have a great cruise and enjoy the shows, including "Dick Little", assuming John Heald is still doing this routine. Kind Regards Tony ps. one more thing and that is that it is definitely worth paying the $30 extra per person to go to the Pinnacle Steak House (assuming you like steak of course!) as the service and food quality was outstanding and definitely worth the supplement.