Review - 7 night Scandinavia and Russia cruise

Just back from Serenade of the seas and a 7 night Scandinavia and Russia cruise. I thought I should share some thoughts from my week.

With three Caribbean cruises on large ships behind me the major difference was of course the size of the ship. Serenade of the seas is a beautiful ship and everything feels so close and accessible.

It struck me how I kept running in to the same people over and over. On Allure and Oasis I've had a hard time finding people even if I wanted to. I put this feature in the bowl of pro's when comparing Serenade to previous ships.

With only four cruises behind me it might be a bit to early to get some relevant statistics. But I felt that the level of service from the crew was much higher on Serenade than on Allure and Oasis. Freedom was okay, but I still have to rank Serenade as the best ship so far when it comes to service level.

Several staff members told me that they prefer working on smaller ships since it's a way more humane work load for them to carry comparing to the mega ships operation.

Embarkation went very smooth. But maybe I should add that I traveled with my father who has a walking disability. We had a accessible stateroom and once we passed security at the port in Stockholm we were guided to priority boarding and skipped the whole line of people. I think it took us like 20 minutes from entering the terminal building to our stateroom.

Our stateroom was on deck 2. The accessible staterooms has an automatic door opener. Once you put your card in the hole the door swings open. My father loved this feature since he could enter the stateroom with both hands on his walker.

The stateroom was quite spacious with good enough room to operate and turn his walker around. The bathroom was excellent and actually bigger than my father has at home. The shower has a fold down bench to sit on which was a killer feature for my dad. He has the same thing at home and this was one of his greater concerns ahead of the cruise.

Of course the stateroom has no thresholds. He could roll his walker in and out of both the stateroom and bathroom without any problems.

We spent most of our time in the Solarium, in Schooner Bar or in the Centrum on deck 4.

The Solarium was great with its closed glass roof since the weather treated us the way to expect during the Scandinavian summers. 60° F and rain is not unusual and the Solarium helped us feel almost like we were on a Caribbean cruise.

My father could sit in a normal chair at Park Café while I could go lay down in a deck chair. We had all our lunches at Park Café since they have a variety of salads, fruits and sandwiches. The famous Kummelweck Roast Beef Sandwich is an old favorite of mine from the Oasis class, but my father preferred the grilled paninis.

The staff at Park Café were great and gave my father a treatment he's likely to talk about for the rest of his life. They provided him the best first cruise experience I could imagine.

My fathers disability made us stay onboard for most of the port days. We've been to both Helsinki and Tallinn countless of times before so we had a great time onboard with almost the whole Solarium to our self.

We went for a guided tour in St Petersburg. It was nice even if it wasn't the kind of tour I would have gone for if I had traveled with my wife. Of course we just happened to make a stop by the local knick-knacks souvenir store with Matryoshka dolls made in China. But I guess you have to take it for what it is.

Tallin was a great stop. While I had parked my father in the Solarium listening to an audio book I went for a walk in Tallinn. You can tell Tallinn has taken their cruising industry seriously. They have built a great port on walking distance from their beautiful old town. No less than eight cruise ships lied in port at the same time.

The port provided a free and fast internet connection. Once the cruise ship next to us left we could reach the ports Wi-Fi from our ship. Unfortunately we were scheduled to leave just after it so the luck only lasted for a short while.

While Tallinn must have spent millions of dollar on the expansion of their port, the same thing can not be said about Riga. The ship literally docks at a lumber yard a 30 minute drive from the city. Walking is impossible and no taxis were available. The only way to get to town was buy booking a tour or paying for a shuttle bus.

Not that my father complained. He was to tired to go to town so he had a blast overlooking the lumber workers during the day. Quite a difference from Tallinn on the previous day.

The last sea day made the ship feel a bit crowded. But that's only because me and my father got used to having the ship to our self when most of the people were a shore.

At lunch they fired up the grill on pool deck and offered a chicken and ribs buffé. That's something I haven't seen on the bigger ships. It was great!

As we got closer to Sweden the ship speeded up while the captain informed us of a medical emergency. After a while a Swedish rescue boat boarded us to evacuate the sick passenger. Hope he or she is doing well.

To sum it up i have to say my general expression of the ship is that I think I prefer the smaller ship to the mega ships Oasis and Allure constitutes. I think I will end up on them again but I will definitely go for the smaller ships to. The service level made all the difference and if it has to do with the size of the ship I'm all about small ships from now on.

We also loved the outdoor seating in Windjammer. We had two great mornings when the weather allowed us to use it. This is a real gem on this ship. Especially since not many people discovered it.

Our accessible stateroom.

Windjammers outdoor seating as ships enter Tallinn.

Brilliance of the seas came to join us in Tallinn.

Busy day in Tallinn.

Welcome to the lumber yard of Riga.

Our favorite spot on the ship - Park Café.

I even got my father to try the sunbeds and even go for swim.

Yes, the roast beef sandwich is alive and kicking.

How I miss this place.

Enjoyed your report. Sounds like you had some good quality time with your dad!

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Very succinct and well done review--I also very much enjoyed the pictures you posted and was surprised at the size of your stateroom.

Thank you and I really appreciated your well done review.

Thanks so much for your review. I'm on this cruise in a couple weeks. Too bad about the port change in Riga. I was hoping it was a one time thing, but it seems all the royal ships are being diverted to this industrial port instead of the nice one right in town.

Our RC Serenade of the seas will dock at the same place this summer. Please let me know how much it cost for the shuttle to go into town. Is this a round-trip ticket or just one way? Where did the shuttle drop you off? and, how do we get back to the ship from there?

Thank you.

Hmm. When I visted Riga on a Royal Caribbean tour in 2014, the cruise port was about a 15-minute walk from the old town. Very easy to do on foot and I don't remember there even being a shuttle. Sounds like maybe they are temporarily using a different port for some reason.