The Cruise Report With Cruise Specialists Cruise Reporter Ralph Grizzle

One of the great advantages of cruise ships is that experts frequently travel with you to help explain what you are seeing and visiting. When cruising in culturally significant places like Europe or in natural wonderlands like Alaska, the cruise lines will schedule sessions with experts who can add meaning and understanding to the visit.

Chris, a young contractor who did some work on my home last summer, told me about his most memorable cruise. It came as a result of a question he had asked his wife: “What’s your dream?”

“A Caribbean cruise,” she replied. It was a dream that Chris was determined to make come true: his wife, suffering from Cystic Fibrosis, had only a few months longer to live.

The headline above could lead you to believe that this story was posted a few months late. After all, the last cruise ships that sailed the Baltic this past season threw off their bowlines and sailed away in September and October, right?

Wrong. Two ships were in port in Copenhagen this week, and from our view the Baltic cruise season ends today, when Fred Olsen Cruise Line’s Balmoral visits - and departs — Copenhagen on a Christmas cruise.