Tickledblue does a Trip Report - Norwegian Fjords on Serenade

That white stuff was only around at Geiranger and only at altitude. If you want to avoid it, it's easy to do. I was actually looking forward to it in the Twizy since we had an extremely mild winter in Indiana and I didn't shovel or snow blow once.

I have spent the last 4 winters in Las Vegas enjoying our grandchildren and the rest of the family. After 66 years in the Northeast I am happy to report that you really do not have to shovel sunshine and if I really really want to see snow, I can head up to Mt Charleston and see lots of it. We even took our then one year old granddaughter up to see it. She was not impressed. Touched it once and walked away. Lunch in the lodge was more fun in her book.

Thanks again for all of the info.

I was envisioning a small American-sized RV. But this make sense, given the cost of hotels, fuel and all of the vacation time that Europeans enjoy.

I asked a couple of my Danish family members to gauge interest in a cruise out of Copenhagen. The Norwegian fjords was greeted with a "you couldn't pay me to use my vacation for that" and the Baltic cruise was an "meh, who would want to go to those ports?". I was kind of hoping for a positive response as I think I'd love the baltic cruise. They all want to fly here for Caribbean cruises. Do you notice many Scandinavian people on these cruises or is it mostly travelers from further away?

Do you notice many Scandinavian people on these cruises or is it mostly travelers from further away?

Not sure if there were many, but an elderly Swedish couple sat by us in the main dinning room.

So there were at least 2 :D

I asked a couple of my Danish family members to gauge interest in a cruise out of Copenhagen. The Norwegian fjords was greeted with a "you couldn't pay me to use my vacation for that" and the Baltic cruise was an "meh, who would want to go to those ports?". I was kind of hoping for a positive response as I think I'd love the baltic cruise. They all want to fly here for Caribbean cruises. Do you notice many Scandinavian people on these cruises or is it mostly travelers from further away?

Funny, grass is greener...

We've been to the Caribbean many, many times so been there, done that. I'm sure we'll go again (many more times) but it was great to go to Norway and the Baltic ports. Would we want to go again? Probably, but after we see a lot of other parts of the world.

American was the largest group and there were fairly large contingents of Spanish, German, and English people. I don't remember many Scandinavian.

Geiranger is coming soon, life has been keeping me busy recently to complete this at the moment.

You probably figured it out by now, I lack the wit and humor of Cheapo Dad as well as his expediency. I've been so caught up with life, I forgot about the audience here. As compensation for your patience, here is some eye candy.

Back to the trip report...

Dinner in the MDR was formal dress. If I recall correctly, I had prawns for the main course. It was seafood night in the Windjammer and I kind of wished we ate there instead. It was a good thing that I skipped dessert in the MDR because my dessert was king crab legs in the Windjammer. Mmmmm.

That evening, the 4 Stations appeared in the Tropical Theater. They were touted as a tribute to the famous music group, Il Divo. Never hear of Il Divo? Me neither. Maybe I'm just showing my ignorance here though and music is a really subjective thing. They started the show with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and for a short while there, I thought they'd stop in the middle of the song and say they were just kidding - it was that awful. I wanted to give them a fair shake, but I couldn't make it through that first song.

Day 6 - Geiranger

Despite the cool rainy weather, Geiranger was the highlight of the trip. This port had what we were thinking about when we decided to go on a Norwegian Fjords cruise. We have went through Milford and Dusky Sounds on a New Zealand cruise before and Geiranger topped them.

On the cruise itinerary, it said that Geiranger was tendered; however, I was pleased when they pulled out the floating dock for us. The Aida ship that came a little later had to tender.

As soon as the ship was cleared at about 7:45, we walked off and went to the Twizzy rental place. There was another couple waiting there already and the rental guy pulled up right at 8:00 am (when they were due to open) in a Twizzy. A Twizzy is a small electric car where the driver and passenger sit in tandem. The rental guy showed us the car's controls which were the same as a regular car except there were buttons for Forward/Reverse and a different control for the parking brake.

He provided blankets and gloves which was great since there are no door windows so it gets pretty cold and wet in the back where MDW was.

The original plan was to go up to the peak of Dalsnibba; however, the rental guy told us that the last bit of road was not open due to snow. So we were only able to make it up to the snow covered lake.

This place was on the lake and closed.

The Twizy had a talking GPS that would tell us a little bit of the sites in an English accent. We went both under and on the bridge below.

After coming down from the from Dalsnibba, we were told by the Twizy rental guy that we could continue past the rental place to the twisty road up to Eagles Bend viewing point. The water flowing over the glass platform was diverted from a waterfall a short distance away.

Got a picture in just before a cloud came and obscured the view. The Seven Sisters waterfall is on the right shore just past the bend. That cloud did go away after 10 minutes or so but we were ready to head back at that time.

When we brought back the Twizy to the rental place, the rental guy was apologetic about the weather. He said the weather was great the day before (when we were in Ålesund enjoying the nice weather there). I told him that he need not apologize, we had a great time.

We walked back to the ship and had lunch at the Windjammer and MDW took a nap. She was still cold from riding in the back of the Twizy, the nap warmed her up. Meanwhile, I hit the hot tub for awhile and then went to the store hung out with my fellow internet junkies.

After my fix, I went back to the ship to gather MDW and we explored the port town. The town has quite literally, a raging river running through it. There is a nice metal stairs/walkway that goes up along it so you get an incredible experience. The whole way up (and down when we went back to the ship), you heard the roar of the river and felt the mist coming off of it.

Back on the ship, leaving Geiranger, the weather cleared up a little bit.

The snowy lake picture reminds me of this one, lol. Little guy wasn't sure what to think during his first Norwegian winter.

Love the trip report. I don't think I've ever seen king crab on a cruise, is that a European cruise thing? I'd destroy that!

The snowy lake picture reminds me of this one, lol. Little guy wasn't sure what to think during his first Norwegian winter.

 

Love the trip report. I don't think I've ever seen king crab on a cruise, is that a European cruise thing? I'd destroy that!

 

When I was a little older that that little guy, I had to walk to school with waist high snow and up hill both ways :D

So I said there wasn't going to be much food porn, but here are the last of the food pictures that I took...the king crab along with other seafood at the Windjammer:

And the appetizer in the MDR that was advertised as bay scallops but ended up with sea scallops...this was an nice upgrade in my book:

Tickled blue

I really enjoyed reading your review. The pictures are awesome. Some remind me of Alaska, the waterfalls reminded me of Hawaii. I'll never get to do this cruise. Thanks for sharing. Love your humor.

Hope you felt like you got your money's worth :).

The road up to the Eagles Bend viewing point

We went by the Seven Sisters Waterfall on the way out -- it was very impressive. Pictures don't do it justice.

The Suitor waterfall on the other side of the fjord was pretty impressive too

That evening we went to the production show Vibe*ology which was OK but definitely not one of our favorites. We usually like production shows a lot but this one was mostly a show for the singers which we didn't care for too much. Sure there was dancing too but it wasn't as prevalent. We didn't go to it on the next cruise. After a busy day we were pretty tired, but the next day was a sea day to rest up.

Day 7 - Sea Day

The sea day heading back to Copenhagen was just as foggy as the sea day going from Copenhagen to Norway. I presume it was just that time of the year. The ship had its fog horn going all day long. The temperature was pretty much the same everyday - highs in the low to mid 50's but with wind, rain, fog, it felt much colder than our sunny days in Stavenger and Ålesund.

We had breakfast in the Windjammer as usual and I had my usual omelet. At the omelet station, they had small samples of what you could have in it -- those samples were old and needing to be refreshed, the diced ham looked like diced turkey. At first I wondered why they needed them there but it became clear when non-English passengers would use them to indicate what they wanted in their omelets. I wondered why anyone would want diced turkey in an omelet :rolleyes:. Lines were never that long and they usually had 2 cooks which made Joe a happy cruiser.

So more pictures around the ship...a foggy wake

The unsung hero of each day

The feel good 'wish the world could work together as good as the international crew' show in the Centrum:

The off-the-wall blue cows on deck 13 that you see out the glass elevators (what's up with those?):

In the middle of the day, I went the Cinema movie XXX: The Return of Xander Cage. This was the empty cinema experience except for me and the 2 guys who sat right next to me that I mentioned in post 46. Give me some space! I know this is CRUISE Critic but I'll mention that I thought the movie wasn't very good and I don't think it was just because of the close company.

The bartender show in the Centrum, the crowd was urged to cheer so that they may get the drinks that were made. With all of the dropped bottles and cups, I thought the bartenders were better to keep their day (and night) jobs.

Serenade's I-95? or Rt. 66? On large Quantum and Oasis class ships, the large passage on a low deck that goes the length of the ship is named after a US interstate. On a Radiance class ship like Serenade, I have no idea what it was called. There were no tours offered either. They left the doors open on deck 2 so I snapped a shot.

We had the consecutive cruisers meeting in the Safari Lounge that day. I already shared the information provided in posts 52 and 54. It did feel really good to know that we wouldn't be disembarking for the last time the next day.

That evening, we had the last dinner of this cruise in the MDR again and attended the show with the Phillip Brothers. They are a juggling act that were pretty entertaining. I liked it so much, I went to their show again on the next cruise.

This pretty much wraps up the trip report for this cruise (whew!). I'll provide some final thoughts about it in the next day or two. Thanks to everyone who stuck around this long.

Serenade of the Seas is a Radiance class ship, if you’ve been on one, you’ve seen them all. The ship is really nicely laid out and you rarely feel crowded except during the sea days, the Centrum was a little congested since it was pretty cold and windy on deck. The ship was in good shape as far as everything functioned well. It was showing its age in the minor details like a broken bathroom tissue holder in our stateroom, delaminating wood at the back windows in the Safari lounge, some rust in the corners. These imperfections made the ship feel more homey rather than detract from the cruise. The ship was impeccably clean -- there were always someone cleaning everything.

Of course the ship didn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Quantum or Oasis class ships so sea days were a lot more laid back with fewer activities. But on this itinerary, that was a good thing because we felt the need to relax and recharge.

Americans formed the largest group probably around 40 percent with large contingents of Spanish, German, and English people. There were many other nationalities in smaller numbers. The average age was probably in the late 50’s and there weren’t many children.

Food is subjective and we aren’t foodies. I cannot taste the food presentation so that had little importance to me. What I can say is that it seemed like RCI raised their food budget on a per person basis for the raw ingredients than on many of my recent cruises. In my opinion, the food was generally well-prepared and arrived hot (with an exception or two) in the MDR. We did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants because, frankly, we didn’t see the value in it.

The breakfast in the Windjammer seemed on par as with most ships and (to my delight) they almost always had lots of crisp bacon. The omelet line was seldom long. We could always find something in the Windjammer on port days that was pretty good even though a couple of days, I resorted to pizza and bratwurst but those were actually pretty good.

On sea days, we at lunch in the MDR which had the options of spare ribs, garlic shrimp, freshly-made pasta, and a salad bar on top of the menu that you ordered from. Being the spare ribs and shrimp fan that I am, I had those each day as an ‘appetizer’ and was very pleased with how hot and flavorful they were.

We ate dinner in the MDR every night and pleased with our 2 top table (near the windows) and the service. There is no lobster night on European cruises (which I missed) but that was expected. Instead, there was plenty of other seafood to choose from. The lamb chops were absolutely delicious; however, I wasn’t a fan of the lamb shanks.

Overall, we thought the entertainment was good. The Tropical theater shows were:

• Duo Gold Art, an aerobatic dance couple - they were entertaining to watch
  
• Production shows: ‘Stage to Screen’ and ‘Vibe*ology’ - we liked ‘Stage to Screen’; however, ‘Vibe*ology’ not so much - had too much singers (which were only fair) and too little dancers.
  
• The 4 Stations (and Il Divo tribute), i.e. 4 guys singing...I thought they were awful.
  
• The Phillip Brothers, jugglers - funny, entertaining
  
• Brett Sherwood, a magician - very good
  

Loved them, especially Geiranger. We love natural beauty and Norway has it in spades. The cities of Stavenger, Bergen, Alesund are beautiful and the people are friendly. Geiranger is great and sits in a really awesome fjord that just takes your breath away. Pictures don’t really capture it, you need to go there to experience it.

This concludes my trip report. Thanks for reading.

Thanks so much for your excellent trip report. I enjoyed it very much, and especially enjoyed your photos. Glad you had such a good time!

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This concludes my trip report. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for a great trip report - we are doing the same trip on August 19 - lots of very helpful information and ideas on what to do in each port.

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This concludes my trip report. Thanks for reading.

Excellent job and great pictures. Have several pages of notes now for our B2B2B coming up in August and you changed our "to do" list for 2 ports based on what we saw.

Thanks for taking the time to do this, your attention to detail and your willingness to let us pick your brain.

Thanks for a great trip report - we are doing the same trip on August 19 - lots of very helpful information and ideas on what to do in each port.

 

 

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Excellent job and great pictures. Have several pages of notes now for our B2B2B coming up in August and you changed our "to do" list for 2 ports based on what we saw.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this, your attention to detail and your willingness to let us pick your brain.

Thank you for the compliments about the pictures. I enjoyed taking them.

You are very welcome. Glad it helped.

Thanks so much for your excellent trip report. I enjoyed it very much, and especially enjoyed your photos. Glad you had such a good time!

 

 

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You are very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

large contingents of Spanish, German, and English people.

Great trip report. Enjoyed reading about your cruise. Just an FYI (and this isnt supposed to be snarky or anything, just letting you know for future reference - as currently it could offend some) the term used should be "British people" unless of course there were no Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish people on board, then you would be correct in saying 'English'.

Thanks so much for a fabulous trip report! I love seeing places I can put on my bucket list, it's a long way from country South Australia but having seen and loved the NZ Sounds, it seems like the Norwegian Fjords may be somewhere to aim for!