Serenade of the Seas picture heavy fun review–12 day Med cruise incl DIY port trips!

[worldbound30]

Love this review & your writing style! Can't wait for the next installment!

[toocruisin2]

All in all the park Cafe for us was a nice and mostly fast and convenient way to grab some yummy stuff for in between meals. I already miss those parma and brie baguettes.

 

Hi Stef, if you ever have a chance to chance to board Allure or Oasis you'll find the Park Cafe to be a much different (I think better) experience.

 

Royal came up with some great ideas for the Oasis class ships, and while they get credit for trying to retro fit some of them into the older ships, I guess we're finding that some work better than others. Paul

[kirian]

"Yay" for seeing some pics of the spa (even if it's just the freebie parts :D). My mom and I rarely visit spas at home, but always make this one of our treats on cruises. Thanks for sharing all of your beautiful pics and for doing such an awesome review. Can't wait for the next part :)

 

Melissa

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

"Yay" for seeing some pics of the spa (even if it's just the freebie parts :D). My mom and I rarely visit spas at home, but always make this one of our treats on cruises. Thanks for sharing all of your beautiful pics and for doing such an awesome review. Can't wait for the next part :)

 

Melissa

 

Hi Melissa,

 

Thank you! You're welcome! Sorry its only the freebie part.

 

I'd love to see what the other parts of the spa look like as well....maybe since you'll be cruising soon you'll be able to take some pics?

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef' date=' if you ever have a chance to chance to board Allure or Oasis you'll find the Park Cafe to be a much different (I think better) experience.

 

Royal came up with some great ideas for the Oasis class ships, and while they get credit for trying to retro fit some of them into the older ships, I guess we're finding that some work better than others. Paul[/quote']

 

Hi Paul,

 

you mean it's even better there? I'd love to try.

 

But I also really enjoyed the "ship" feeling on the Serenade. All the ocean views on the Radiance class....I really don't know if I could return to a more "inside" oriented ship after this one -- even considering all the spectacular stuff the Allure or the Oasis might have -- I'm not quite sure if it would be our kind of deal. But never say never! I heard the Oasis will go to Europe for the very first time next year..................

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Love this review & your writing style! Can't wait for the next installment!

 

Hi worldbound,

 

thank you so much! I'll try to keep up the pace (but please don't forget I have a life besides this:o)!

 

Lol -- according to Tanja and Tarik I don't do anything right now but to upload pictures and write this stuff for you guys (no worries -- I absolutely LOVE to write this....it's like reliving the whole cruise.....nothing can stop me ...muhahahahah)

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Lets have some fun after all that working out in the gym and sweating in the steam room!

 

Towel animals!

 

Whoohoo! Is there anybody who is not happy to see on of those cuties waiting for you in your cabin? This cruise we were treated with 5 of them. Here you go:

 

This was the first.... a swan without wings? a snake? a worm? I have no clue....we were excited anyway!

 

 

 

now this --- ???? We never figured out what it was (Ameisenbär?) --- or of what material he made the eyes.

 

 

 

whoohoo -- another monkey-- we already knew this one from the Adventure!

 

 

now this mysterious animal was the coolest. We were speechless when we opened th door to the cabin and the TV was on with this little fellow sitting there holding the remote. This was so cool it is worth one more picture with my loved ones:

 

 

 

 

 

and this was at last a new animal which we would recognize...and our cabin-angel even added some of the shells that Tarik collected the day before (no worries -- I'll tell you all about it when we get to the ports).

 

more to come!

[kirian]

Love the towel animal photos! I don't care old you are, if towel animals don't bring a smile to your face when you find them waiting in your cabin, nothing will :D

 

And yes, if I find myself in the more "secret" :p areas of the spa with my camera, I will be sure to take some photos and post them here on my return :)

[JasonTehGreat]

If you leave a pair of sunglasses out in your cabin, such as on the night stand, they will put them on the animals. So cool!!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

And yes, if I find myself in the more "secret" :p areas of the spa with my camera, I will be sure to take some photos and post them here on my return :)

 

Hi Melissa,

 

much appreciated ---thank you:p!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

If you leave a pair of sunglasses out in your cabin, such as on the night stand, they will put them on the animals. So cool!!

 

Hi JasonTehGreat,

 

Those pictures are too cute! Thanks for sharing:)!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

The cabin (stateroom)! Part 1

 

You’ve already seen glimpses of our cabin in the last post with the towel animals, so without further ado…here’s our report on our cabin.

 

 

We resided on deck 8 in stateroom 8087. This is one of the new cabins they added during the refit….and I really have no clue what was occupying this space before it became our cabin. Kind of scary! It belongs to the cheapest category there is! Category Q – inside stateroom to be exact. The only cabin of this cheap category on this deck. Before we cruised – we started to get a little nervous because of this.

 

When you look at the new deck plans, you’ll see that our cabin is located right next to the Centrum and that you can actually walk all the way around the entire cabin! We were a little worried (no – that’s downsizing it – we were really afraid) that it would be a little noisy (LOUD AS HELL). As a precaution we brought ear plugs. Would we need them?

 

The first impression of the cabin was --- wow, we’re there already? You step out of the elevator, turn left and you basically stumble into your cabin…that was really cool, since last time on the Adventure I remember loooong walks to and from the cabin many times each day.

 

Then we met our cabin steward…..his name is Nazareth Fernandez and he was a sweetheart.

 

 

….we really felt bad for him though because it became clear, that he got our cabin additionally to all of his other cabins, which are actually on the other side of the centrum….poor guy, now he had to leave his “territory” just to take care of one more measly inside cabin. Ouch! Poor organization skills on the RCI part if you ask me. We were glad we got him though, since he was so nice!

 

The room itself was sufficient for three people. When Nazareth prepared Tarik’s bed in the evenings it got a little more difficult to crawl in and out of my bedside, since you would have to duck.

 

But it really wasn’t a hassle. Tarik soon figured out that it was much easier to get out of his own bed by jumping on my bedside rather than using those stairs. ….good for him he didn’t attempt that while I was sleeping!

Sleeping --- ahhhh once again I was in heaven! There is no place on this Earth I would rather sleep than on a cruise ship! The slight movements of the ship don’t bother me a whee bit when I’m lying down! I really feel like being rocked into sleep instantly! All three of us slept like babies…Tarik a little longer than us … but I guess the unconscious excitement of a new fun day ahead just tickled us awake around 6 – 7 a.m. each morning without any alarm clock what so ever (we used Tanja’s cell phone for that purpose on some real early port days and disembarkation).

 

Space for clothes. This was a mess. I HATED this wardrobe. First of all it only had these miniscule shelves

 

 

…barely fit some socks and underwear there and even they fell down constantly because of lack of space.

The hangers in this were plentiful, but you could only use half of them….

 

 

…..because the second half looked like this:

 

They never stayed on the rack – we took them all out and tried to shove them on the life jackets –but even here they were a nuisance – whenever you opened the door you pretty much were attacked by a flying hanger. Arrggghh! I guess we could have asked Nazareth to remove them and I really don’t know why we didn’t. One more thing to rant about this wardrobe … when you opened the left door the metal thing on the top got twisted in the wrong direction automatically and you couldn’t close the door anymore until you stretched your arms up there to manually shove the metal thingy back to it’s original position … difficult and annoying for us --- virtually impossible for Tarik! Really annoying! Rant over.

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

The cabin (stateroom)! Part 2

 

I have absolutely nothing to rant about the bathroom.

 

 

 

It was much nicer than on the Adventure. It had blue tiles on the floor (rather than worn out plastic) and a pretty mirror decoration on the top to the sides of the light. There was always enough towels, toilet paper and tissues. The space to put some stuff behind the right mirror wasn’t enormous but it was just okay for three people. We are very easy here though…if any of us would use make up, crèmes or any of such sheeshee we would have had a problem. Even the little device to hang up wet clothes up in the shower was pure white (brand new!).

 

The tv was a new flatscreen tv…speaking of new --- since they had just put in this cabin half a year ago…everything was brand new! That was sooo cool! The sofa, the floor, the table with the drawers --- all brand new and spotless.

 

We ended up using these drawers for clothes as well, since there just wasn’t any space in the wardrobe. We used the top of this table as a recharging station for our three cameras. I’m really happy I brought the extension cord!

 

 

We never managed to use the menu button on our remote contol. It was broken – or at least we assumed so after hearing the awful crackling sound when you shake it. One more thing we didn’t talk about with Nazareth…we really have to improve our communication skills I guess. But it was supposed to be possible to book excursions, order room service and check your onboard account on there. For us it was a plain old tv. We enjoyed the morning broadcast of Casey Pelter --our cruise director...

 

(anybody seen the video of the day? Remember this? -- "Allan, Allan, Allan ...Steve,Steve Steve!!!!!" it cracked us up!)

...and the channel where they show you where you are on a map and a view of the helipad.

 

(see the little spot on the Heli Pad? That’s Tarik waving his arms …. Whoohoo – the kid is on tv).

 

Otherwise we didn’t use it. They did have two German channels though!

 

The one true negative about this cabin: It is ridiculously loud when something is going on in the Centrum. Thank God this trip isn’t really laid out for party people. The whole ship was pretty much deserted by midnight – the pool and skybar where closed well before 10:00pm. The Centrum would be quiet at the lastest at midnight…but before that you basically couldn’t speak to your loved ones in a normal tone of voice. We retired to bed usually before midnight…actually around 10:30 most of the nights. I mentioned it was loud and I mentioned we brought ear plugs – we didn’t even use them! We were so pooped after the port days we basically fell into a comatose sleep even with this racket going on. But if you’re a light sleeper --- steer clear of this cabin!

 

We would book it again in a heartbeat. For us it was more than perfect. You just can’t beat this price and the close proximity to life on board! And we knew what we would get!

 

More to come!

[Wriggler]

(see the little spot on the Heli Pad? That’s Tarik waving his arms …. Whoohoo – the kid is on tv).

 

Fabulous that you got a picture of Tarik on the helipad!!

 

The whole ship was pretty much deserted by midnight – the pool and skybar where closed well before 10:00pm.

 

We used to go up to the Viking Crown Lounge most evenings after our food (we were early seating in MDR) and we used to take bets at what time these bars would close. The latest that the shutters went down on them was 8.45 (if I remember correctly) and that was the night we sailed out of Venice. We've been on cruises before and these bars have been the life and soul of the ship with people mingling around in the warm evening air...such a shame that they closed so early :rolleyes:

 

Carol

Edited August 11, 2013 by Wriggler

[Mycraft]

this place was before the revitalization "The Explorers Lounge" and it used to look like this...

 

[Bykrunski]

Thanks for your comprehensive and detailed review... very informative and has eased my concerns. Your pictures and commentary are delightful.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

We've been on cruises before and these bars have been the life and soul of the ship with people mingling around in the warm evening air...such a shame that they closed so early :rolleyes:

 

Carol

 

Hi Carol -- I totally agree. Tanja and I wanted to watch a movie out there on the big screen under the stars one night -- and an open bar would have been nice for that. But everything was dead well before the film started. We watched some of it anyway (we pretty much were the only ones) -- but got too sleepy to watch it all so we left to the cabin early.

 

The only ones to take over deck 11 after dinner time are the teens. They roam and take over the otherwise "adults only" solarium. Lol -- ask your younger one -- he had a pretty good looking date in the solarium pool with him one night! Go Ryan!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Thanks for your comprehensive and detailed review... very informative and has eased my concerns. Your pictures and commentary are delightful.

 

Hi Bykrunski,

 

:pthank you!:p

 

...but what concerns did you have?

 

Stef

[Wriggler]

Hi Carol -- I totally agree. Tanja and I wanted to watch a movie out there on the big screen under the stars one night -- and an open bar would have been nice for that. But everything was dead well before the film started. We watched some of it anyway (we pretty much were the only ones) -- but got too sleepy to watch it all so we left to the cabin early.

 

The only ones to take over deck 11 after dinner time are the teens. They roam and take over the otherwise "adults only" solarium. Lol -- ask your younger one -- he had a pretty good looking date in the solarium pool with him one night! Go Ryan!

 

Stef

 

I wondered when they were going to get a mention :):p

 

She followed him EVERYWHERE!! But she was very pretty :)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

this place was before the revitalization "The Explorers Lounge" and it used to look like this...

 

 

:DThank you so much!!!!! LOL -- it sure has changed since the refit:D!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Okay – just talked about teen dates in solarium pools – why not cover the pool deck in general during the day time as well?

The pool deck

 

You basically have 4 different options if you want to get wet. 1. Choose one of the two hot tubs next to the main pool, or the one next to the “adult only” solarium pool.

 

These were pretty nice – we tried them all! They were heavily visited, but still most of the times you wanted to soak in one of the three, there’d be at least a little space in one of them.

 

2. The main pool. We were in here only once on the very first day. It is overly crowded with kids splashing around. The salt water being gushed everywhere burned in Tarik’s eyes and from there on he wasn’t to be seen in any water venue on the ship anymore. Sigh. He’s not into water that much anyway. The area around this pool would get hilariously crowded on sea days.

 

 

Also all other sun beds on this deck and on deck 12 were helplessly overflowing with towels – not necessarily all with actual people (grrrrr). If you’re just looking for a nice quiet place to chill, try out deck 5. They don’t only have chairs there but also a couple of sunbeds!

 

3. The solarium pool. We LOVED this place! Since Tarik couldn’t be convinced to go in the main pool anymore and rather did “dry” activities, Tanja and I were free to jump into the solarium pool every day. And we did swim here every day of the cruise. Even when we returned from long, strenuous port days we enjoyed to feel the water around our sore limbs here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really a nice place. The only thing I thought could be better: You have the shallow parts on the side – these are way too big – half of that area to both sides would have been enough but for that they could have an in-between area, where most people would be able to stand in the water…The water was 1,85m deep. Too deep for most people to reach the ground. Nice for swimming, but sometimes it would have been nice to linger and just hang out with your feet touching the ground. There was only this tiny place on the steps leading into the pool where this was the case – and of course a lot of people would linger there. Annoying, since this is the main way into and out of the pool. We just used the shallow parts instead and just slided in.

 

 

 

At night the whole solarium area would be embedded in this mystical light. We loved it. Really quite romantic.

 

4. If you travel with little kids you have to go up one deck. Here you find the Adventure ocean pool with the water slide.

 

 

It looks quite nice, but we weren’t around this area much and therefore can’t really say a lot about it.

 

More to come!

[crusinpeg]

Okay – just talked about teen dates in solarium pools – why not cover the pool deck in general during the day time as well?

The pool deck

 

You basically have 4 different options if you want to get wet. 1. Choose one of the two hot tubs next to the main pool, or the one next to the “adult only” solarium pool.

 

These were pretty nice – we tried them all! They were heavily visited, but still most of the times you wanted to soak in one of the three, there’d be at least a little space in one of them.

 

2. The main pool. We were in here only once on the very first day. It is overly crowded with kids splashing around. The salt water being gushed everywhere burned in Tarik’s eyes and from there on he wasn’t to be seen in any water venue on the ship anymore. Sigh. He’s not into water that much anyway. The area around this pool would get hilariously crowded on sea days.

 

 

Also all other sun beds on this deck and on deck 12 were helplessly overflowing with towels – not necessarily all with actual people (grrrrr). If you’re just looking for a nice quiet place to chill, try out deck 5. They don’t only have chairs there but also a couple of sunbeds!

 

3. The solarium pool. We LOVED this place! Since Tarik couldn’t be convinced to go in the main pool anymore and rather did “dry” activities, Tanja and I were free to jump into the solarium pool every day. And we did swim here every day of the cruise. Even when we returned from long, strenuous port days we enjoyed to feel the water around our sore limbs here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really a nice place. The only thing I thought could be better: You have the shallow parts on the side – these are way too big – half of that area to both sides would have been enough but for that they could have an in-between area, where most people would be able to stand in the water…The water was 1,85m deep. Too deep for most people to reach the ground. Nice for swimming, but sometimes it would have been nice to linger and just hang out with your feet touching the ground. There was only this tiny place on the steps leading into the pool where this was the case – and of course a lot of people would linger there. Annoying, since this is the main way into and out of the pool. We just used the shallow parts instead and just slided in.

 

 

 

At night the whole solarium area would be embedded in this mystical light. We loved it. Really quite romantic.

 

4. If you travel with little kids you have to go up one deck. Here you find the Adventure ocean pool with the water slide.

 

 

It looks quite nice, but we weren’t around this area much and therefore can’t really say a lot about it.

 

More to come!

 

Absolutely loving your detailed review. We have never been on a Radiance class ship but will be on the Serenade in October..your pics have given me so much to look forward to. I especially love the ones of the outdoor Windjammer..oh and also the Parma/Brie sandwich!! Looking forward to more..thanks again for a great review. Question...were there any "late night snacks" available?

[Mycraft]

c'mon folks don't do unnecessary full quotes...keep it clean...

[marci22]

c'mon folks don't do unnecessary full quotes...keep it clean...

 

I am guessing that people who do this don't know there is a 'post reply' button at the end. They think you have to click on the 'quote reply' button to post.

[crusinpeg]

c'mon folks don't do unnecessary full quotes...keep it clean...

 

I am aware...just made a mistake...IT HAPPENS!