Serenade Baltic cruise 5/16/15 review: not bad, but not great

This was my wife and my 18th cruise, 13th with RCCL. Wasn't an awful cruise but I get the feeling Royal is more concerned with their Oasis and Quantum class ships and is letting the smaller ships slide a bit.

Overall, the good:

- Ship's public spaces appeared in good upkeep.

- Staff was good, especially Activies staff (Cruise Director Topi as well as Daniel from Spain). Topi's enrichment talk about his South Pacific catamaran sailing was a highlight of the cruise for me.

- The Windjammer continues to be strong for lunch and dinner; even though only half the stations were in use (I think Europeans like the dining room) the selection was always decent and tasty.

The negative (some of this is more a general gripe with RCCL):

- There seemed to be some confusion about our Diamond status. I think Royal has too many different computer systems and they don't communicate well.

- The dining room service at lunch is slow and shoddy.

- The Park Cafe operation is slow and shoddy (broken grill, workers who should know better than to hand someone an ice cold egg and uncooked muffin, coffee station often out of coffee or cups or cream).

- The rooms are a little shabby (rusty balcony, bathroom fixtures water damaged, furniture chipped, etc.,.)

- The tour debarking system in Russia was awful. We were told to report to the theater. We were NOT told that, once arriving there, we'd have to line up at the starboard door to go down and get a bus number. My wife and I entered from the left door at seperate times, didn't connect up, and almost missed our tour. No reason they can't explain this better.

- The tour food in Russia: we had the 9-hour “Hermitage” tour that also went to St. Isaac's. On the bus, the tour guide asked if there were any vegetarians; six of us raised our hands. I thought, “How nice, they've thought of us, how unexpected.” Yeah, right; the lunch was a plate of plain yellow rice and some chicken stroganoff, so the “vegetarian” meal was literally not putting the chicken on the plate. Yes, for over $150, we got literally a giant plate of yellow rice. Really? That's more insulting than not asking at all.

- The Windjammer continues to be awful for breakfast. This is company-wide and I have no cure for it. The french toast can hammer nails, the potatoes have degenerated to only being Burger King style Tater Tots which are way too oily and overfried, the scrambled eggs are tasteless.

- Pet peeve: if a shrimp is in a sauce, take the tails off. I see tails on shrimp in a sauce, I just skip it. This happens in land restaurants too. Who thinks it's a good idea to make your diner dip their fingers into hot sauces to pull off shrimp tails?

- Coffee stations inside the Windjammer (they set them up in the main entry way between the Purell machines and the first station) as well as just outside the Windjammer were, like Park Cafe, often out of coffee, cups, or cream. I'd understand if these things were on the other side of the ship, but they're right there in the Windjammer surrounded by workers.

- Why does Royal continue to have more activities on port days than on sea days? The rationale I've gotten is “because many people stay behind on the ship in port”. Really? Guess what? On sea days EVERYONE “stays behind on the ship”. Doesn't it make more sense to load THOSE days with activities?

- The Internet service has always been terrible. However, they've gone away from the per-minute system and now use a per-day system so the load is even greater and the service has gone from terrible to nearly laughably horrible. I spent half a day rebooting my phone and forgetting and reacquiring the WiFi network simply to finally check Facebook. Most of the time my mail didn't work at all. For the $29 a day they charge people they should be able to afford better routers and satellite machinery. If you can't do it right don't do it at all.

- Any area on a ship passing itself as a “pub” should have more than 3 beers on tap. And those beers shouldn't be Stella Artois (water), Heineken (water), and Amstel Light (water). How about Guiness? Something unique from England? At least on Oasis they had Hoegaarden (Belgian white) which is a little different.

- The TV service seemed even more limited and repetitive than on previous cruises. No movies aside from TCM Europe. The occasional CBS drama from months ago shown around 8pm on tape. The kids had it worse; every time I passed their channel I saw either the same Bugs Bunny cartoon or the same “Avengers” cartoon. I enjoyed the cartoon but not the 12th time I'd seen it.

Embarking in Copenhagen: we got there early so it was a breeze, but it was a very small room so I don't know what it looked like later on. We didn't get to tour the city but judging from the bus ride from airport to port it looks nice enough.

Stockholm: a great city. I waited in the long line at the terminal to buy a transit pass; it turns out I could've bought them at the bus stop quicker but by waiting in line the helpful girl told me exactly which bus number to take and where to get off. We got off the bus right near the Vasa Museum and walked to the ABBA Museum and did that (cute and fun if you like ABBA), then walked back to the Vasa Museum (impressively large ship), then walked back past the ABBA museum to a small theme park that wasn't open and took the ferry over to Gamla Stan (the ferry was part of the transit ticket price). Walked up the old town to the Royal Palace and toured the Armory (nice small collection of armor and coaches), walked north across the bridge and caught the bus back to the ship.

Tallinn: has a UNESCO old town center but it's no Bruges. Nice enough to look at but not a lot to do unless you want to shop or eat. We saw some guy in an executioner's suit holding a sign for a Medieval Torture Museum so we went to check it out (it's in the hotel the KGB used to spy on tourists in). Nice little two room display of objects if you're into that sort of macabre thing. Back at the ship we splurged on a tethered balloon ride which was nice, as we'd never done that sort of thing and you get a good view of the old town as well as the ship (IIRC it was 25 Euro each).

St. Petersburg: the only place we did a ship's tour, because going on your own is risky both visa-wise and crime-wise. The Hermitage was nice although we were herded through with many other tour groups in the pre-public morning hours (“we're walking, here's the peacock clock, we're walking, here are the DaVincis, we're walking, here's the Raphael statue, we're walking, here are the Rembrandts, we're walking, okay you have 15 minutes in the gift shop now”). St. Isaac's was impressive inside (I didn't know it's the worlds 4th-largest cathedral); if you've never been to the Vatican then it'll give you a hint as to what St. Peter's is like. The Church of the Spilled Blood was pretty outside but we didn't go in. The shopping stop was one store that they have a deal with (the store will take rubles, Euros, or U.S. Dollars) and was good enough if you're looking for the typical fridge magnet, nesting dolls, or fake Faberge egg.

Helsinki: didn't get a fair shake as it was pouring, but it seems like a nice enough working town (not pretty but not horrible). Took the shuttle bus downtown and walked to the waterfront. The market building wasn't really open yet (just a couple of food places inside). Walked past all the closed outside vendor tents and took the ferry to Suomenlinna (cheap enough ticket, you can buy it right there). Suomenlinna is a fascinating little island cluster which is part fortress, part living-history, part working island (it has under 1000 residents). Walked around in the rain and took pictures (I got there before others so it was very private). Would probably be a great thing to do if the weater is nice.

We had never done these ports before. I would easily return to Stockholm. The others, probably not.

As for the Serenade, I think she's been drydocked recenty but we've been on other ships of this class that are older but looked better.

Nothing on this cruise made me say, “I'll never cruise Royal again!” But I just don't have as much fun on the smaller ships for some reason.

Well I now know I made the right decision in not doing the ship tour in St Petersburg. Thanks for the review

Thank you so much for the review. We are sailing on the Serenade in December and are looking forward to doing this class of ship. We just got off the liberty and have also been on the explorer and you are so right about the breakfast. I would have cereal most mornings b/c the breakfast was so bad. Buffet in the dining room was cold sausage and greasy tater tots. We said after this last one that we wouldn't stop sailing Royal but we are certainly ready to see what other lines have to offer. We were looking forward to the Serenade but it looks much different than the liberty and explorer

Well I now know I made the right decision in not doing the ship tour in St Petersburg. Thanks for the review

I still have a difficult time undertanding why anyone routinely does ships' tours; agreed, there are rare times when they are the best, or only choice. We did this itinerary two years ago and DIY or booked all private tours. The quality of private tour companies is vastly superior to what can be offered on the "herd" tours.

Thanks for the review - we will be sailing Serenade in a week. We do love the Radiance Class, and much prefer the smaller ships over the new Mega Classes. FWIW, even the breakfast food on the much touted, award-winning, Disney Fantasy, was poor, IMHO (and the cruise fare was very high). Seems to be a pattern across the board.

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Serenade sailing form Stockholm in July.

Can you please tell me if the shuttle you took from the pier in Helsinki to downtown was the ship's shuttle or public transportation? What was the cost?

Thanks!

Kath

- The Park Cafe operation is slow and shoddy (broken grill, workers who should know better than to hand someone an ice cold egg and uncooked muffin, coffee station often out of coffee or cups or cream).

I was on the 3/14/15 sailing of Serenade and the Park Cafe was really the only place I felt where service was lacking and the staff there was an issue. I think the problem might be the staff there are overworked and have to do 2 jobs at once. They always seem to be back behind that metal door working in a kitchen area instead of out front with the guests.

- The Windjammer continues to be awful for breakfast. This is company-wide and I have no cure for it. The french toast can hammer nails, the potatoes have degenerated to only being Burger King style Tater Tots which are way too oily and overfried, the scrambled eggs are tasteless.

That was the first time I had seen tater tots on a breakfast buffet too. However, somewhere around day 4 or 5 they added hash brown patties. They looked like the triangle ones that they sell at Arbys but were better than the ones Arbys makes.

To me, I think they put drugs in that corn beef hash because it was awesome and I loved it. Funny thing is that my wife loves corn beef hash and she didn't really care for the Windjammer corn beef hash. I on the other hand am not a big corn beef hash person but ended up having it everyday I went to Windjammer for breakfast as it was awesome.

Regarding the eggs: 2 Words: OMELET STATION :)

- Pet peeve: if a shrimp is in a sauce, take the tails off. I see tails on shrimp in a sauce, I just skip it. This happens in land restaurants too. Who thinks it's a good idea to make your diner dip their fingers into hot sauces to pull off shrimp tails?

I know, right? Glad I am not the only person on the planet who thinks this is a bad idea.

- The rooms are a little shabby (rusty balcony, bathroom fixtures water damaged, furniture chipped, etc.,.)

For something that is at sea 365 days a year (for the most part) I'm surprised we do not see more rust. I thought it was minimal and acceptable. I also don't consider a little chip in a piece of wood furniture to be an issue. (but to each their own) :)

- Why does Royal continue to have more activities on port days than on sea days? The rationale I've gotten is “because many people stay behind on the ship in port”. Really? Guess what? On sea days EVERYONE “stays behind on the ship”. Doesn't it make more sense to load THOSE days with activities?

Exactly. My biggest issue was when they listed things as activities in the Compass that were things you could go do anytime you wanted.

With all that said, like you, I had a good time and will be going on another RCCL cruise in the future.

Finally, for some reason the other Radiance class ships seems to get better feedback here on cruise critic than the Serenade but not exactly sure why that is the case.

We were in 9078. Great location extra large balcony. Right off Centrum, even with the door closed the noise was really bad at night. But, that we knew was going to be an issue. When you look out onto the balcony and you see all the touched up places of paint and all the places missed and huge chunks of peeling paint it's time to paint correctly.

We were in 9078. Great location extra large balcony. Right off Centrum, even with the door closed the noise was really bad at night. But, that we knew was going to be an issue. When you look out onto the balcony and you see all the touched up places of paint and all the places missed and huge chunks of peeling paint it's time to paint correctly.

We were at the back of the boat. Quiet as can be. A little rust on the ship back there that you can see in my video. (but nothing that concerns me)

Direct Link:

NightOne - Thanks for the video - we'll be in 8170! (Booked too late to get a corner aft this time! :( ). Hmmmm, someting's wrong with my countdown clock!

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Serenade sailing form Stockholm in July.

 

Can you please tell me if the shuttle you took from the pier in Helsinki to downtown was the ship's shuttle or public transportation? What was the cost?

 

Thanks!

Kath

It was a local company running it for a fee. I think it was 10 Euro for a roundtrip ticket. It's way too far from downtown to get there otherwise, though.

If you're sailing from Stockholm I highly advise planning to see the city before or after. Beautiful place.

We were at the back of the boat. Quiet as can be. A little rust on the ship back there that you can see in my video. (but nothing that concerns me)

 

 

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The post in blue type was my wife. I forgot to mention the cabin location and the noise, which was definitely noticeable. But I think it was worth the convenience tradeoff. Being on Deck 9 near the Centrum it was only a quick walk past the elevators and two floors up the stairs to the Windjammer.

Well I now know I made the right decision in not doing the ship tour in St Petersburg. Thanks for the review

Yes, you absolutely want to do a private tour in St Petersburg. We were there in 2004 and used Denrus. Our tour was customized, we went to the front of all lines, and visited places the skips' tour didn't go. The second day we had a wonderful lunch at a hotel.

Well I now know I made the right decision in not doing the ship tour in St Petersburg. Thanks for the review

I still have a difficult time undertanding why anyone routinely does ships' tours; agreed, there are rare times when they are the best, or only choice. We did this itinerary two years ago and DIY or booked all private tours. The quality of private tour companies is vastly superior to what can be offered on the "herd" tours.

In Russia we just decided the triple threat of needing visas, it being Russia, and the ship's tours knowing where we were, all outweighed it. I had already done research on the other three ports and knew it was easy enough to get around with public transportation or walking. The Hermitage was definitely crowded with tour groups but there was also a big line of public waiting to get in once we left; I'm not sure what it looks like in the afternoons when the tours are gone and the public are in but I'd think that based on the season it could be a lot better than the tours or a lot worse. (I'm picturing the non air-conditioned Hermitage on a summer Saturday packed with tourists... eesh!) It's probably a crapshoot as to how many ships are in port, too. From what our tour guide told us, when there are a lot of ships in port, they don't even bother because they know they'll spend more time in line getting in and out of the Hermitage than seeing anything. Don't get me wrong, even with the herding, I'm glad we went, as we did get to see those big-ticket items, but I think the best bet would be to find a time of year when you know it's slow public-wise and take a private tour once the cruise groups have gone away in the late morning to early afternoon.

Thank you for your review. Good information as this was one of a few ships/itineraries we were considering for the Baltic next summer.

A few questions if you don't mind

Pre cruise in Copenhagen? Your experience

Money used on cruise....how did you get different currency? Does the ship offer exchange?

Taxis to the ship and ship to airport? Your experience ?

Disembarkation?

Thanks!

OP, thank you for your review.

Regarding the eggs: 2 Words: OMELET STATION :)

Thank you! Exactly. Best place for breakfast - get your eggs cooked to order however you want them, fill up the rest of your plate with a yogurt, good fruit and maybe one pastry. :)

A few questions if you don't mind

 

 

Pre cruise in Copenhagen? Your experience

Our flight arrived around 7:30am and we decided to use the ship's transfer because we didn't want to drag our luggage around town looking at stuff (and we like to be on board ASAP). The first bus left at 8:30am so we had a short wait. We got to the port by 9 and IIRC we were let on board around 10-10:30am. Looking out the window of the bus (which drove through town) Copenhagen looked like a nice enough city. I wish we'd had more time to check it out.

Money used on cruise....how did you get different currency? Does the ship offer exchange?

I believe the ship does but we didn't use it. The currency breakdown is:

Copenhagen = Danish kroner

Stockholm = Swedish kroner

Tallinn = Euro

St. Petersburg = ruble

Helsinki = Euro

I'd read that chipped credit cards are the easiest thing to use in most countries. The credit card readers over there look like ours (number pad, swipe groove on the side) but they also have a slot at the front to insert your chipped credit card. (I did not try to use my regular unchipped credit card.) Since two stops took Euro I picked up 200E before leaving the States. Arriving in Copenhagen at the airport I used my chipped credit card at a sundries shop with no issue. In Sweden, likewise, chipped credit cards were the easiest method (used it to buy our metro passes, entry into ABBA Museum, entry into Vasa Museum, entry into Royal Armory, no issues). In Tallinn I used my Euro, so I don't know how easy credit cards would've been. In Russia we were on a ship's tour so we didn't have to worry (the only shopping stop took ruble, Euro, and USD). Helsinki, again, I used Euro so I don't know about the ease of credit card use. Back at the airport, I had some leftover Euro and found out that they'll take Euro in the airport (bought food, drink, some cold meds) but they give you change in Danish kroner.

Taxis to the ship and ship to airport? Your experience ?

We used the bus transfer both ways. From what I read and heard, you can use public transportation but you have to take the train into town first and then transfer to a bus. That's easy enough, as both the metro and train terminals are literally dead-smack in the middle of the international air terminal, but you definitely need to know where you're going. Taxis, from what I've read, are expensive (I think the price of the taxi might've been more than the two transfers for my wife and myself).

Disembarkation?

 

Thanks!

Disembarking was a breeze. Walked off, luggage was out there, and I think we just walked out (I don't remember stopping at a passport window so if we did it was very quick). No customs forms to fill out because they didn't care about that until you got to the airport and on the plane.

We were also in 9078 on the May 23 sailing. I agree about the touch ups on the balcony, but it wouldn't keep me from booking again. There was really minimal noise from the Centrum as far as we were concerned. On Disco night it was loud, but we didn't stay in our room. The noise was over by the time we went to bed at 11, or at least it didn't bother us. Great location! We question whether we would get a balcony on this cruise, or in this weather. There were oceanview rooms with Giant windows, which gave lots of light. We spent our time walking deck 12 or sitting in the Schooner Bar or Vortex lounge looking out at sea while reading.

We took the metro to Norreport. VERY easy. Landed at 10, took the metro, went over to Torvehallerne Market for a duck confit sandwich at Ma Poule. So glad we did that. We go to an old market in Cleveland often, and it was interesting to see this one. Very easy to catch the 25 bus to the port afterwards. We got al our info from reading Danish viking's posts. Stayed one day in Copenhagen, then grabbedt he metro back to the airport. We bought a 24 hour card for transportation, so all our transport was very reasonable and easy.

We had euros from a previous trip.

We exchanged money at the Toronto airport so we had enough to purchase our transport stuff in Copenhagen and for the hop on hop off boat in Stockholm(they take euros as well as Swedish money). From reading, we knew how much the transport would cost, and it did make it less stressful for us. We didn't realize we had a credit card with a chip, but we had registered a pin at some point so credit cards were easy to use.

Embarking took forever, as the computers were having issues. Disembarking was a breeze,as we only had carry on. Very easy to walk to the bus 25 back to Norreport.

We were also in 9078 on the May 23 sailing. I agree about the touch ups on the balcony, but it wouldn't keep me from booking again. There was really minimal noise from the Centrum as far as we were concerned. On Disco night it was loud, but we didn't stay in our room. The noise was over by the time we went to bed at 11, or at least it didn't bother us. Great location! We question whether we would get a balcony on this cruise, or in this weather. There were oceanview rooms with Giant windows, which gave lots of light. We spent our time walking deck 12 or sitting in the Schooner Bar or Vortex lounge looking out at sea while reading.

Never said it would prevent us from booking another cruise. Serenade was already dry docked. It just seems that they would replace or touch up private guest places as well as Public spaces.

We were also in 9078 on the May 23 sailing. I agree about the touch ups on the balcony, but it wouldn't keep me from booking again. There was really minimal noise from the Centrum as far as we were concerned. On Disco night it was loud, but we didn't stay in our room. The noise was over by the time we went to bed at 11, or at least it didn't bother us. Great location! We question whether we would get a balcony on this cruise, or in this weather. There were oceanview rooms with Giant windows, which gave lots of light. We spent our time walking deck 12 or sitting in the Schooner Bar or Vortex lounge looking out at sea while reading.

How'd you like that balcony? Not quite a hump since the elevators are there, but leaning over the left edge of the balcony you had probably the best view possible.

Did we forget anything in the room? :D

We were on the same cruise. First time on a cruise without a boardwalk. I thought the Centrum was way to small for what they use it for. A few chairs and people 6 deep fighting to see what's going on. Even from 2 floors up. And if it was formal night photographers taking up even more space in that tiny area. I enjoyed the heck out of the cruise but the OP was spot on with the review. Windjammer for breakfast once was enough the MDR every morning after that with hash browns. BINGO has turned in to be a real joke any more.

Haha...nothing left behind! I liked the balcony, and great viewing, but with the chilly weather, we only sat out once. We really liked walking on Deck 12...made it easier to rationalize eating a little more than usual. Like I said, on this itinerary, I could just get an oceanview with a big window, but I really liked being mid ship close to elevators. We liked the easy stair access to deck 11 and Deck 5.

We were on the same cruise. It was the last week of a b2b. We have been on the Serenade several times. I did not like the changes RCI made to her. The atrium used to be so pretty. Although they talk about aerial preformances in the atrium, during our two weeks on board they never had one. I had heard from PAX that had been on since New Orleans that the cables did not work.

We had an oceanview cabin as we knew that the weather would not allow much usage of the balcony. It worked out fine. RCI did try to move us to a different cabin on the second cruise (explained as an upgrade...not to us) totally unbeknownst to us. We found out when they handed us our new room key that had a different muster station. What a mess. Guest services had to let us in the cabin that had our belongings. I sat in there for 2 hours while my husband and friends try to get our old cabin back. We had booked the cabin over a year and a half ago. All of our paperwork dated two weeks before we sailed had us in the same cabin. Didn't matter. They needed the permission of the "new" occupants before we could keep our cabin. What?? No one asked our permission to change us. We had even indicated on our profile that we wanted no upgrades. It all worked out, but left a sour taste in my mouth.

We toured St. Petersburg on a private (just 4 of us) tour with TJ Travels. I can't say enough about them. We covered a lot of ground and they tailored the tour to what we wanted to see. Best day of the cruise.

The Diamond Lounge is very nice. We used it as a quiet place to read and enjoy the views. Fabulous place to sit while sailing through the fjords and archipelagos.

Disembarkation was very easy. We had a flight at 10:05A from CPH to FRA. We did self disembarkation. Sailed through the terminal and were in a cab in a matter of minutes. We were at the airport by 7:45A.

All in all a good cruise, but looking forward to our Celebrity cruise in the Caribbean.

Serenade was already dry docked. It just seems that they would replace or touch up private guest places as well as Public spaces.

That was our experience on the Legend after dry dock! The hard furnishings in our cabin were in deplorable condition and some were non-functioning. The room steward and her supervisor said cabin conditions were reported prior to dry dock but repairs were not made to any cabin fixtures.