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My trip report: Serenade 12-night Western Med (Venice) with many pictures

silentbob007
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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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C&A Benefits

 

I believe on one of the compasses it was reported that there were about 730 C&A members on this cruise ... a smaller number than most cruises I've been on out of the US. I'm not sure about the exact breakdowns, but I know that at the top, there was 1 Pinacle Member and 50 D+ members. Because of this number of D+ in addition to 50 suites, the Concierge Lounge was moved to the Hollywood Odyssey in the evenings. It was occasionally decently full, but also there were a few times (with late port days, etc) where there would only be 3-5 people in the room. I have to say that I much prefer the lounge to be up there though where there is plenty of room to sit and a choice between different types of seats. The Concierge, Francois, was extremely polite and efficient. He made sure to talk to each guest every night and knew everyone by day 2. I did not use his services except to buy my Ravenna bus ticket from him. The standouts of the Concierge Lounge in the evening, however, were the servers/bartenders ... Priscilla and Sharmila. These two lovely ladies worked very well together and were also extremely competent in addition to being extremely nice.

 

In terms of other perks, the priority check-in line was actually faster for once. There were two parties ... an "everyone" party and a "top-tier" party (which doesn't make a lot of sense as it is everyone but gold members ... not quite what I'd call top-tier). These parties were as expected ... though the invitation for the top-tier party was mis-printed and last-minute announcements had to be made that is was being held that night as opposed to the next night. I also received several trays of food and the welcome gifts in the cabin, though as usual, there reaches a point where you don't really need more food on a cruise.

 

In terms of disappointments, I never received an invitation for any of the typical behind-the-scenes tours offered to suite and D+ guests. I probably would not have gone, but I don't like feeling left-out either. There was also not a special lunch like there has been on my last couple of cruises ... I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with other guests and an officer to chat. It is that kind of personal interaction I prefer over food in my room or a bottle of apple juice.

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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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Entertainment

 

I'm sorry to say that I really can't give much advice on entertainment for this cruise. The schedule was brutal in terms of wanting to do much at night. In the end, I did not go see a single show. Part of this was tiredness, though I'll admit, another part is that I've gotten sick of cruise shows. I like the trend of full musicals onboard and would have made time to go see something like that (even though I hated Saturday Night Fever). I will say this ... the Centrum band Zig Zag was, in my opinion, quite good and drew a nice crowd every night. This band was actually made up of Americans, so they had an added advantage of pronunciation/diction/accent when it came to most of the music they played.

 

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Departure by cmong, on Flickr

 

I did hear some people complaining about how "dead" the ship was at night, especially the first few nights. This is definitely not a "night life" cruise, though nights before sea days were noticeably more active.

 

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Departure-1 by cmong, on Flickr

 

 

Debarkation

 

Debarkation was one of the smoothest I've experienced in a while. There are no forms to fill out when returning to Barcelona. The only thing that seemed a little odd is that they did not appear to have the correct numbered tags on hand, so it was common to see tags with numbers added with a marker. I decided not to put my luggage out as I could handle it just fine. However, I was sharing a cab with a couple who did put their luggage out, so I just wheeled my stuff to the C&A waiting area and waited with them for their tags to be called.

 

** I went to breakfast in the WJ and it was overflowing by about 6 AM. It is amazing how "fun" people are early in the morning on debarkation day ... I nearly saw a fist-fight over a seat. **

 

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Back in Barcelona by cmong, on Flickr

 

The tags we were waiting for were called on time, and amazingly enough, the Loyalty Ambassador (Cecelia) walked us out of the dining room and to the gangway before they were officially announced, so we were able to walk right off. I really appreciate when LAs do this as opposed to just sending us out with the herd. Once dinged off the ship, we made our way down and found luggage on rotating belts (like at the airport) that were marked by the tag numbers. We were quickly out of the terminal (again, no customs or any need to show passport) and in a cab on the way to the airport. The cab ended up costing about 40 euro for three of us, so make sure you save some money.

 

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Back in Barcelona by cmong, on Flickr

 

We were at the airport by 8 AM for an 11:45 flight, but we were able to check-in (Delta). There was a sanitation strike at the airport, so the floor was littered with garbage and newspaper and the bathrooms outside of security were locked. Check-in was easy (baggage weighed and tagged, carry-ons inspected for size and tagged if appropriate, passport checked). We then headed to security which was pretty standard. Once through security, there are many stores/restaurants in the general terminal area, but for international (non-Eurozone I assume) flights, you have to go through passport control (look at passport, exit stamp it) to get to the gates. This area has a few stores and a McDonald's, but it does not have the offerings of the other area if you still have euros to burn.

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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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I also wanted to make a note about overseas phone use. I have an AT&T iPhone 4. Because I purchased it through my University, it came international-ready. I'm not sure if others on standard plans have to have international activated, though I do know that Verizon and Sprint iPhones are not as easily used overseas because they use a different type of signal.

 

Typically I do not use my phone on a cruise, but since I was traveling alone and would be doing some exploring by myself, I wanted to have some phone/GPS available. Before I left, I logged into my AT&T account and added 50 MB of international data for $25. A la carte, data is about $2/mb, so this is substantial savings if you are actually going to use any data. While I had wifi in my hotel in Barcelona and other places around Europe, I had no problems while in France, Italy, or Croatia with connecting my phone to the cellular network and using my data to pull up maps, send data-texts, and check email. I reset my phone statistics on the plane to Barcelona, so I could keep track of my cellular data usage and make sure that I did not go over. It was nice to sit on deck and leisurely download and read email without worry about the "time spent" online as you must do with the ship's wifi.

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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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Thank you for this great review. I'm considering this cruise next year, and really appreciated all the practical information you gave.

 

No problem. If you have any specific questions about anything I didn't mention, please let me know.

 

Also, as I mentioned earlier, I've updated the picture link in my sig to include my album for this cruise. There are quite a few other shots I did not use in this review.

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Iamthesea

Iamthesea

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** I went to breakfast in the WJ and it was overflowing by about 6 AM. It is amazing how "fun" people are early in the morning on debarkation day ... I nearly saw a fist-fight over a seat. **

 

Note to self...eat in MDR on disembarkation day. Any idea what time they start serving?

 

Thank you again for this review! ;)

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Cat54

Cat54

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Note to self...eat in MDR on disembarkation day. Any idea what time they start serving?

 

Thank you again for this review! ;)

 

MDR usually doesn't serve breakfast on disembarkation day...

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Iamthesea

Iamthesea

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I think technically it was supposed to open at 6. They definitely had food out early and passengers grabbing it.
I hope that passengers were not grabbing food in the MDR? :eek:

 

MDR usually doesn't serve breakfast on disembarkation day...

 

News to me, when did this change? We have always eaten our last breakfast sitting down in the MDR. In fact, it is one of the few times that we do so on a cruise because we are usually in bathing suits for seas days or water excursions. I order French Toast and DH orders Eggs Benedict. The other mornings, we either order room service or eat in the Windjammer.

 

Thanks Bob! Good thing I checked back to see if anyone posted while I was typing. :)

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Iamthesea

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:D Maybe just barely.

 

As I said, we always eat in the MDR on the last morning of the cruise except for one fatal morning when we misread the times on a Celebrity ship last May. We arrived at the MDR just as the doors were closing. No exception, we had to go eat in the Cafe. So sad. :(

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Anguillafan

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I also wanted to make a note about overseas phone use. I have an AT&T iPhone 4. Because I purchased it through my University, it came international-ready. I'm not sure if others on standard plans have to have international activated, though I do know that Verizon and Sprint iPhones are not as easily used overseas because they use a different type of signal.

 

Typically I do not use my phone on a cruise, but since I was traveling alone and would be doing some exploring by myself, I wanted to have some phone/GPS available. Before I left, I logged into my AT&T account and added 50 MB of international data for $25. A la carte, data is about $2/mb, so this is substantial savings if you are actually going to use any data. While I had wifi in my hotel in Barcelona and other places around Europe, I had no problems while in France, Italy, or Croatia with connecting my phone to the cellular network and using my data to pull up maps, send data-texts, and check email. I reset my phone statistics on the plane to Barcelona, so I could keep track of my cellular data usage and make sure that I did not go over. It was nice to sit on deck and leisurely download and read email without worry about the "time spent" online as you must do with the ship's wifi.

 

I'm just trying to make sure I understand this correctly. When you purchase an international data plan from AT&T, does that protect you from all the horror stories of phones downloading data in the background while traveling internationally? I understood AT&T to tell me that it did, whether in port or at sea, but a family member insisted that even with such a package, the phone keeps roaming and downloading so that it must be turned off whenever not in use since you will inadvertently go way over the limited data plan. It would be great if your actual experience will clarify this for me. If we are able to stay within our limited data plan in the US, will we, using the same services, stay within the international limited data plan? Thanks for any help. Also, what kind of music did Zig Zag play?

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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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I normally have my phone set to not pull data unless I tell it to (ie, I ave email on manual instead of push). As a precaution, I did leave my phone in airline mode when I wasn't using it for cellular data. With that being said, I left it on a couple of times throughout the day by accident, but since I don't have it set to fetch data, it was not a problem. Buying the plan takes a little worry out of it, but I would still recommend a bit of caution including turning off cellular access when not in use and keeping up with your usage statistics.

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Shaheen

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Hi Bob, Fabulous review with loads of useful info. I am going on this cruise with a group of friends leaving Barcelona on 14th September and am really looking forward to it.

Just one question, what was the prices of wine in the restaurant? I understand that there is a wine package but not sure whether it is worth while buying this in advance. I cruised with MSC last year and they offered a very good 'house wine' which was a lot better value.

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silentbob007 "Live from...." Rare

silentbob007

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Personally ... I wouldn't buy the wine package in advance. It is still pretty pricey and unfortunately you cannot (or are not supposed to) bring wine from the ports or at embarkation. By-the-glass can be something like $5 and up while bottles are $30 and up. I'd get onboard and see what they actually have in stock for the wine package and make a decision then based on pricing.

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