Serenade of the Seas Review, (with pictures) June 10th - 22nd

[lorrdean]

This is my report of our cruise and the ports we visited. I hope you enjoy reading it and looking at the pictures. Any questions; please ask and I will try to answer them.

First a little bit of info about us. We are from Scotland and this was our second cruise. Our first was last year, on Grandeur of the Seas. On our last cruise we, were seated at a table for ten in the MDR. Four couples all got on so well, that when we returned, we decided to book another cruise so we could meet up again. But, one couple had their hearts set on doing a Caribbean cruise, which they did, in March of this year. So that left us and two other couples, on this year’s adventure. Ship and itinerary chosen, we exchanged emails and phone calls all year, deciding on what we all wished to see and do. All couples would be travelling separately to Barcelona, two of the couples from Manchester International Airport, one the day before, one on the day of the sailing, and us from Glasgow via Amsterdam.

I will do this review as though it is “live” with the day to day happenings.

[lorrdean]

Day 1

Airport: Glasgow airport, we were first to check in. While waiting in queue, we got chatting to some folks behind us, four who originated from our home town, and two from Arbroath and also sailing on the Serenade. At the check in, we were advised that we would not be seated together, as it was a block booking. Confused I told her we hadn’t a block booking; it was just the two of us. She explained that RC had made a block booking of 37 seats. She told us that once on the plane we could swap seats so that we were sitting together. This was also told to everyone behind us. We all found this a bit odd as husbands and wives, or travelling companions weren’t sitting together and this was not just seats apart, but rows. However once on aircraft we swapped seats, which did not impress the air hostesses at all. One even remarked, ‘it’s not smart or clever’ even though we had explained were told we could do this. Now before you slate me, or get annoyed, I am aware of the implications of seat changing, especially if there was to be an accident or heaven forbid a crash. However, when you pay to travel as a couple, you expect to sit next to your other half. We all felt that a little bit of common sense should have prevailed, (with those who were checking us in), to make sure that couples were seated together? I’d welcome feedback if anyone can inform me if this is the case or does what I have described happen a lot.

After a short flight we landed at Amsterdam airport. We only had one hour to our next flight onto Barcelona. This short time was taken up, by going through customs and security. Customs control was extremely slow, but we made it in time. Once again not seated together, but as we had all made quick friends on the previous flight, we decided to not change the seating arrangements. KLM staff on this flight was very pleasant. On arrival at Barcelona, we made our way to baggage reclaim. Where, we were in for a long wait. Carousel kept going round and round with only a small amount of luggage on it. It turned out that a number of bags (we later found out it was 17) had not been put on the plane at Amsterdam. We had one case, as did others, but one elderly couple had no bags at all. At the baggage desk, we were informed that we would get them as soon as was possible, they then asked which hotel we were staying at. When we told them it was cruise, they changed their minds and told us it would be the next port of call. Now our next port was in two days time, Split in Croatia. After filling in paperwork we headed, to the exit. Where RC reps took more details about the left luggage, and let us board the bus to the port. No one on the bus could get any real joy out of the seeing the ship for the first time, all were pretty stressed out and worried about coping without clothes and toiletries for two days. We finally got on aboard around 3pm, some two hours after we thought we would. A few, who hadn’t received their cases, approached RC guest relations desk. They wanted RC to accept some of the responsibility for the left luggage. Now I know it wasn’t their fault, they didn’t fly the plane, but others claimed that it was RC who chartered the plane from KLM, therefore they should shoulder some of the blame. We got word that KLM had put the cases onto the next flight that left Amsterdam, and that they hoped we would receive them before we the ship sailed, if not it would be in Venice before we got them. Captain Karin delayed the ship’s departure by about half an hour and our cases arrived safely.

That was me happy, cases arrived my holiday could begin. But still some complained, and after a lot of going backwards and forwards, RC gave each couple a bottle of wine (that would have been enough for me) and a complimentary dinner in one of the speciality restaurants, to aid with guest satisfaction.

If you’re still reading this, thanks for sticking with it, I will get to the cruise and ship and ports. Here are some pictures to be going on with.

[lorrdean]

[lorrdean]

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[lorrdean]

[lorrdean]

will do some more tomorrow

[Avidcruiser]

We are cruising on Serenade next Wed! Can't wait to hear the rest of your review!

[bermuda09]

I am looking forward to reading more! We are on the Serenade in August!

[CyberTag]

We too just got off this sailing. Am trying to clean things up around here before posting a review. Looking forward to reading your perspective,

[lorrdean]

Quick late lunch in the windjammer, honey stung chicken of course with garlic mash yummy!! We then went to find our friends for sail away.

Dinner, as a group we had linked our bookings together. All booking references stated dinner was at 8.30pm but it was actually 9pm. Our waitress Shakota didn’t seem to have sense of humour, but we felt it was the first night she may loosen up a bit as the cruise progressed. As I’ve said dinner was at 9pm we left there at 11pm, very slow service, but food was well cooked and tasty. We both had the onion tart delicious and I then had the prime rib, very tender followed by strawberry Pavlova. OH had quesadilla for his main course, all at the table felt the portion size for this dish, was more suited to a starter, than a main, but he did say it was lovely. Sorry no photos of the food at this time.

 

 

Day 2- A sea day:

We awoke late 10.30am (yikes) a quick brekky in the windjammer, then headed out to the pool deck. It was as you would expect very busy, but we eventually found a couple of sunbeds, and settled down to catch some rays. We didn’t do much today, it was the captains welcome aboard party, free champagne and nibbles and formal night. Now being Scottish, my OH decided when we booked cruise that he wanted to wear the kilt (Scotland’s national dress for men). Putting on the kilt takes a bit of time, special socks, shoes, sporran, belt etc, but it does look smart. We hadn’t told our English friends about this, we wanted to surprise them, and we sure did, the looks on their faces will stay with me for a long time. We only saw one other gentleman wear a kilt on this trip, although a few were wearing the tartan trews (trousers). It was remarkable the numbers of people who stopped us, to say how smart and lovely it was, amazing - took us some time each formal night, fending off the admirers, to get to dinner. The show this evening was an ABBA tribute, not bad.

[lorrdean]

 

 

[lorrdean]

Day 3-sea day:

Today was much like the above. We did have our meet and mingle today. It was originally for 10.15am (yikes) in the Hollywood Odyssey, but our invites gave a new time of 11.00am in the Vortex lounge. When we arrived they had moved it back to the Hollywood odyssey, but at least the time hadn’t changed again. We were given our free gift: a RC wallet with notebook and pen, and our free raffle ticket. The prices for the raffle are a bit naff, (pen, keychain, wallet etc) but it was good fun. The nibbles were non-alcoholic drinks, fruit and cheese. It was nice to put faces to the names that we had been chatting to on the roll call. Also this evening was the crown and anchor society’s meet and greet another chance for free champagne and nibbles. I can’t remember much about dinner, but our waitress was showing more of a smile and was relaxing into her role.

 

 

Day 4-Split:

Ship arrived an hour earlier than anticipated. I think this led to a lot of people thinking we could get off early, not the case, as we are tendered here. Queues started building early for the tender tickets and as expected and as it should be, those with organised excursions tendered off first, at around 10.30am an hour and half after we got there. (Is this normal?) Having had to use tender boats last year, I can’t recall such a delay when getting people off the ship, but there did seemed to be such a long wait between numbers being called. It was 12.15 pm before we boarded the tender, for the 10 min or so transfer. Not 20 min as RC claimed. Beware there is a large step up at the port when you get off the tender. On our walk around the harbour there was a very strange unpleasant smell, don’t know what it was, but it had gone on our return. OH noticed untreated sewage floating in the harbour waters. Loads of tour touts around but we passed them by, as we just wanted to wander around. There are loads of little side streets, the market was on the day we were there. The prices are pretty reasonable, 7 kuna equals 1 euro. Getting off the tender back onto the ship was a little rocky, but plenty of help at hand. Dinner this evening was at chops grille, courtesy of RC. It was delicious. The fillet mignon was cooked to perfection, the waiter brought every side dish there was on the menu to the table. The men certainly took advantage of that. The deserts were huge, and lovely.

[lorrdean]

[lorrdean]

Day 5 &6 – Venice:

We arrived in Venice at 12pm; I would encourage everyone to witness this spectacle. It is a wonderful sight to see. We had lunch in windjammer before setting off. RC offer a transfer to St Marks square, cost $30 for one day pass $50 for two days, you can use it as often as you liked. About 10-15 minute walk is the people mover, this cost €1 it is a very short ride, literally 2-3 mins, into plaza roma station. At the junction to go to the people mover if you carry on towards the left, over the bridge, go past the motorcycle park area walk down the road this brings you out at the bus station near plaza roma. Keep to the right hand side if you’re walking. The local water bus is also at the port $15 return, lots of stops, very busy and crowded. We took the people mover, and then wandered around for a good few hours, getting lost, finding things that we may not have seen otherwise. A very enjoyable few hours spent before we headed back to the ship and dinner.

The six of us had decided we wanted to do a gondola trip. The only thing we were unsure of was “when”. We took the decision to go at night on the first evening. So we had an early dinner in the windjammer then headed out. We walked into the city this evening, a pleasant walk, found a gondolier agreed a price $150 for an hour, split three ways we felt that it was a reasonable price. We had few laughs getting into the gondola, as did the diners at the restaurant above watching us. It was still light when set off but it very soon became dark. Our gondolier kept bursting into song, pointing out buildings and explaining what they were. There were not many boats or gondolas around the Grand Canal and none at all down the back side canals. We ended up with 1hr 15 mins. Would I do it again, no, I feel it’s a once in a lifetime experience, made easier as the cost was shared. It was magical, peaceful and very atmospheric.

[lorrdean]

 

 

[lorrdean]

Venice day 2

We chose to get the RC transfers today. Mainly due to the fact that by the time we got to St Marks square on day one, it was very crowded (as expected) and we were tired. When we arrived the queue to get in was already very long, (9.15am) so we took pics of the outside admired the buildings, then wandered around the little streets and alleys, before heading back to the ship mid afternoon.

 

 

 

[lorrdean]

Day 7 – Ravenna:

This now seems like a “why do RC stop here?” Apart from the churches and mosaics, there is not a lot else to see or do IMHO. The men in our group had chosen to do the RC excursion to the Ferrari museum, cost $99 each. The journey took 2hrs there and 2 hrs back with approximately 45 mins to 1 hr time in the museum itself. All three men enjoyed viewing the cars, but felt that it was a very long way for a very short time. They also felt that RC charge was a bit excessive; as the entrance fee into the museum was only €13 ($16) thus leaving the travel costs at $83!!! A little bit expensive for a bus ride. While the men were off car spotting us ladies went into Ravenna to do some shopping. The town is too far away to walk, you NEED to take the transfer that RC provide, at a cost of $15 return and takes about 20 mins to get there. There is nothing at the port; in fact a lot remarked that the ship looked out of place here. Maybe RC knows something we don’t, and that Ravenna will soon be an up and coming hub of delights.

This was also formal night.

 

 

 

[lorrdean]

Day 8: At sea.

We spent a relaxing day, had a game of crazy golf, good fun. We got ready early for dinner, and went to the show, a female singer/comedienne.

Day 9: Salerno.

We had booked a private tour for here, with Joe Banana tours. Our trip was to include Pompeii, Positano and Sorrento, €400 between 3 couples, very reasonable and well worth it. Our driver Laolo was passionate about his country and home town of Sorrento. He advised and organised a tour guide for us in Pompeii. I would advise anyone to do this, so glad we took his advice, otherwise we would have been wandering round not really seeing what we were looking at. Our guide brought Pompeii to life. As there was just the six of we were able to bypass very long queues to get into some of the buildings. The entrance fee into the ruins is €11 each. It was very hot, dusty and out in the open, so take a bottle of water with you. Laolo then drove us to Positano, stopping along the way for photo opportunities down the Amalfi coast. We decided to have a quick lunch in Sorrento, Laolo told us of two places that were good and we chose one of these. Lovely, authentic pizzas, which even I enjoyed and I’m not a pizza lover. We had a few hrs to wander around Sorrento, it is beautiful, I want to go back. Laolo then took us back to the ship in plenty of time. We were given a bottle of limoncello as gifts. Well worth the money, a great day.

[lorrdean]

 

 

[lorrdean]

Dinner this evening was a bit of a disaster. OH ordered pate as his starter, it was frozen in the centre, and he immediately sent it back and ordered something else, which was fine. One of our friends ordered the chicken breast from the vitality menu. She was only about a quarter of the way through it when she cut into the middle, it was still RAW!! We complained again, our waitress was very apologetic and immediately contacted the head waiter, who in turn heard our complaint, saw the chicken for himself. He sent the chef out to our table, he apologised also, but his manner left a lot to be desired. He seemed to find it funny! When we broached the subject of our friend possibly becoming ill through eating some of the chicken, he laughed and quite disparagingly said, ‘oh I doubt that’. His attitude and demeanour left us angrier than the uncooked chicken and frozen pate did. Head waiter came back to see if we were all right, when we explained about the chef’s attitude, he went off, returned some 10 mins later and offered us a free dinner in Portofino’s with wine included. Now just to make it clear we weren’t after anything free, just a little bit of compassion and understanding, but who are we to turn down a free meal. We later found out that there had been problems at the earlier sitting, and these hadn’t been ironed out by the time we got there. Our waitress was extremely upset and angry for us, she kept apologising, saying that they were to serve the guests and to make their holiday a happy one. We never once had any complaints about her (apart from the first days lack of humour).

[lorrdean]

Day 10 Civitavecchia:

We had already decided that we didn’t want to go to Rome this time. We want to go back there, but for more than 7-8hrs, more like a few days, to see it properly.

We had a leisurely breakfast; we then took the free shuttle bus into town. It is a bit far to walk but less than 5 mins on the bus. It’s a very nice little town, plenty of shops, a lovely paved area by the shore to walk along. Market was on today, the fruit and veg looked tasty, large and very plentiful. A lovely few hours spent wandering around here. Last formal night was tonight.

 

 

 

[lorrdean]

Day 11 Pisa:

We chose to be a bit adventurous here and took the train to Pisa. It’s very easy to find the station in Laspezia. Once we had queued for our train tickets we found our train and jumped on. Word of warning: validate your ticket. (Do this by inserting your ticket into the track-side machine – it prints today’s date on the ticket) We didn’t, and incurred a €5 fine. After just over an hour travelling we arrived at Pisa centralle. Once again a very easy walk to the tower, it is impressive. IMHO once seen not a lot else to do, so we headed back to the station, validated our ticket this time and got the train back to Laspezia. Wandered back down through the main shopping area and headed back to the ship. IMHO Laspezia was a pleasant surprise.

 

 

 

on the way to the station in laspezia

 

the ceiling in the ticket office

 

[lorrdean]

Day 12 Monte Carlo:

Now our original literary did not include Monte Carlo. We were in fact meant to go to Cannes on day one, and our last two days (11&12) were to be spent at sea. We arrived at 7am, docked. This proved to be a surprise to our waitress when we mentioned it the previous evening. It seems to be very expensive to dock here, so they tend to tender instead. However, as we only had a limited time here some 5hrs, RC had obviously taken the decision to dock, as ferrying everyone in would take some time. IMHO the view from the ship did not impress me, Monte Carlo just looked like it had loads of skyscraper types buildings very closely built together. I was so wrong; it is beautiful, lush and extremely clean. The cathedral where Grace Kelly and Prince Reiner are buried is serene. The gardens are gorgeous. The Monacans take great pride in their country and it shows.

 

 

palace

 

[lorrdean]

Day 13 Flight Home:

Relatively un-eventful. KLM were just starting a new computer system that morning. It took forever to get checked in, but as RC had us off the ship way to early, IMO, at the airport 7am for an 11am flight, we had loads of time to spare. We did take off late, but as we had a 2hr window in Amsterdam not a great deal of worry. Once through passport control, our gate was right in front of us. Or so we thought. A crowd had gathered, waiting to check in when KLM changed the gate number. We were in 03 but now had to make our way to 024, the other end of the terminal. Anyhow we all got there in plenty of time and set of home to rainy Scotland.

To summarise.

We had a fantastic cruise, and here I will try to fill in points that I may have missed.

I had to have 6 sea pass cards, they just kept de-magnetising. They were kept away from phones, cameras etc. They were only kept with OH card, which never had a problem. I gave up after the 6th one and just used his to open the door. The menus in the MDR I felt could have been better, a lot of fish based starters and main courses, I’m not a fish eater, and usually ended up with Aberdeen Angus steak - which was always cooked the way I like them. Our room steward Iputu was a delight. The Sea View cafe very popular, why are they getting rid of this? The outdoor seating at the back of windjammer was also popular, well once folks found it lol. The centrum shops always had specials every night, usually watches or jewellery, some good bargains. The photographers were out every night, prices $19.95 for one. They did offer packages one was $149.00 for 10 pics. Shows - we only saw two of these, due to our late dinner sitting. To see more meant we had to get ready really early, and if you had been out all day the last thing you want to do is hurry getting ready, IMHO. We spent a lot of time in the Schooner bar; it was quiet, most of the time. The piano player, who was there most nights, is dreadful. He can’t sing usually off key, is very loud, and his piano playing leaves a lot to be desired. On other evenings, the guy playing the violin was fantastic, a joy to listen to.

 

yes the ship looks a bit tired in places but nothing that would put me of sailing her again. The staff always pleasant and cheerful. Reading parts of this back, it looks like we did a bit of complaining, but it really wasn't like that at all. We had a fantastic time, enjoyed meeting our friends again, and meeting new ones.

[lorrdean]

 

tiramisu in a chocolate basket at portofino's

 

 

chocolate covered strawberrys yummy!!