Cool Girl & Crazy Mom do the Med-Venice: A (very delayed) review of a Serenade voyage

[Yorkvillain]

Melissa the suspense is killing me!

[kirian]

Hi Melissa,

 

:D:DYou did it!!! I'm so proud of you!!!:D:D

 

...and what a fantastic, addiction-causing start! Like a book you can't lay down which will make you stay up all night reading! Damn, Melissa, this will rock! Can't wait for the rest. Subscribing and eagerly awaiting the next post! You go girl!

 

Stef

 

Stef - this review is allllllll because of you and your encouragement. I learned so many things by reading your review, that I wanted to pay it forward.

 

For those of you who haven't read Stef review, you absolutely MUST!!! It's fabulous. Here's the link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1890431

 

Melissa!!! So happy you started the review! I was just thinking that we hadn't seen many Mediterranean reviews yet this year. Really looking forward to hearing about the adventures of cool you and your crazy-only-in-good-way mom!!

 

And if it makes you feel better, I've posted 6 days of my March NCL Breakaway cruise review but for whatever reason have completely procrastinated on the 7th and last day. So in a virtual way I guess I'm still on that cruise ... And you haven't even started your fun 12 days yet! :)

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Windjamming - I am so happy you found my review! It's really nice to see you on here (especially since I feel like I "know" you since you followed along with me in reading Stef's review :D

[kirian]

Melissa the suspense is killing me!

 

Haha! Ok, Ok, on with the show then :D

 

(the delay was the result of me being a tech idiot and it taking me all morning to figure out the whole "posting a photo" thing :eek:)

[kirian]

Still here, I see…. Whew! I must not be boring you to death (what a relief!)

 

To review:

After Thanksgiving dinner in 2012, Crazy Mom suggested a family cruise. Men in the family are wayyyy too boring to want to do that, so the girls say, “fine, we’ll go without you” (secretly happy about this turn of events) and now have to decide where and when.

 

Now, here is something you must know about Crazy Mom and Cool Girl….

Disclaimer # 6: We are Bargain Hunters (both by choice & necessity). We don’t live within a short distance of a cruise port and we don’t have tons of money. But we LOVE to travel! So, we try to get the most bang for our buck.

 

We narrow things down to the following 2 (general) choices:

1. Cheapy 7 day Caribbean cruise in the Spring of 2013

2. Pricier/Longer Mediterranean cruise in the Fall of 2013 (giving us more time to fatten our piggy banks)

 

Well, as you can guess, based on the title of this review, we chose Option #2. Here’ a breakdown of our reasoning:

1. This would be CM’s (Crazy Mom’s) 3rd cruise… (Disclaimer #7 – I took her on her first cruise (paid for cruise and airfare for Panama Canal Cruise… we are even now…. She gave birth to me, I took her on a cruise)… 1st two cruises covered many Caribbean ports. CM has been to London 3 times, but has never been to the Med.

 

2. This would be my 6th cruise. 4 of my previous cruises hit the Caribbean. I was already burnt out on those stops.

 

3. I had previously cruised the Med (OK, it was on my honeymoon in ’96, but I could block out my now-ex-husband from the memories of that trip) and I had lived in Bosnia for 3 months and visited Dubrovnik a bunch during that time. I really wanted my mom to see all of the amazing things I had seen on my first cruise as well as experience a little bit of what I did in my spare time while I lived in the Balkans.

 

4. Most important – we found a great deal on a Mediterranean cruise :D

 

So, it was decided… we would board the Serenade of the Seas on Oct 22, 2013 for a most amazing adventure!!!!

[kirian]

Ah, the Serenade…. Lovely ship. And, as Crazy Mom points outs the same RCI ship the two of us sailed on the last time when we did the Panama Canal (12nt – 2004; gosh, I hope they ended up fixing the light post we took out when going through lock #2…. Talk about a tight squeeze…. But I digress…. Which I might do a lot (along with the use of “…” …. Seriously, I wish there was a key on my keyboard for “….”)). This cruise would be her 2nd time on RCI and my 3rd (we had previously decided to start banking loyalty point with PRC)

 

So, we start planning the adventure. By “we” I mean “I/me” … which leads me to -

 

disclaimer #7: “we” when related to planning, booking, and/or decisions of any kind mean me (aka Cool Girl). CM has enough trouble with dear old Dad, “bless his heart”, so I am happy to take care of all of the vacation planning since CM has to actually live with Dad 24/7 and I don’t (although I do have direct access to their computer from my home 40 miles away so I can fix things when my dad gets “stuck” on any random screen while playing some free game he downloaded)

 

First off, airfare.

 

OMG, smack me upside my head,,,, it costs a FORTUNE to cross the pond (which is what we had to do since we live in southeastern North Carolina and the ship was leaving from Barcelona).

 

Disclaimers #8-9

8 - I HATE flying. I’m not going to go into all the reasons why, but suffice it to say, I would donate every bit of extra money I had available to the research of wormholes if it would help to get me where I wanted to go without having to be on a plane.

9 – Growing up, I never had to pay for a flight, not only because I was a kid without a job, but because my dad was a “ramp rat” for USAir (yes, I still call it USAir and will always do so) and we always flew free…. On standby.

 

Wow – I totally digressed there…. Sorry…..

 

So, after being resuscitated after finding out how much it would cost to fly over the teensy, tiny Atlantic Ocean, we decided it might be worth it to add a couple of days before and after our stay. So, let’s start at the beginning…..

 

(see what I mean, there needs to be a “…” key on my keyboard. I “…” so often to would just save e a ton of time…. Just saying :p)

[kirian]

On October 20th, 2013 we headed out for our adventure. Since you have yet to “see” us… here we are

 

 

(I‘m the tall one…. CM is the munchkin… and yes, I thank God every day I didn’t get her side of the genes when it came to height)

 

This is the munchkin…errrrr… I mean CM and my luggage:

 

 

Now, before you say anything, YES, I KNOW…. Wayyyyyy tooo much luggage. Believe me though, this was a coup d’état on my part getting it down to just 3 checked bags. You don’t know CM. The woman irons underwear!!!! Just trust me, this was as light as we could pack on this trip… 12 nt cruise plus a total of 5 extra night on land (but FYI – I “explained” that on our upcoming 2015 TA, there would be no 3rd checked bag).

 

Disclaimer #10 – we did actually use almost every single thing we packed…. But after schlepping it across Barcelona, I would have insisted on using an abacus if we had packed one.

 

We left my house at 9:25a for a 10:50a flight to ATL.

 

Disclaimer 11: the airport in Wilmington, NC (ILM) is less than 10 miles from my house and only has about 4 gates (despite the fact that the airport might call them gates 4-8…. There are only about 4 jetways). You will need to leave more time if you are flying out of a “real” airport like JFK :p

 

BTW – my dad (aka “bless his heart….”started driving us insane at about 9:15a…. get in the car, you’re going to be late….etc, etc….)

 

We checked our 3 bags (yes, paid for the 3rd… $100 on each of three different legs throughout the journey)… all three were well under the 50# limit. On-board the plane, we each took a small suitcase (yes, in this case, they really were small….. we each could have squeezed them under the seat if need be) and one “large” purse/personal item each.

 

When we first booked our flights, the route across the pond was ILM(Wilmington)>Atlanta>Barcelona. Perfect!!!! However, a few months before our departure, Delta removed the direct flight to BCN from ATL, so we had to add a dreaded stop at JFK (ugh!). I HATE takeoffs more than anything, so having an additional one definitely was not pleasant… but nothing an extra Xanax couldn’t take care of (yes… I hate flying that much that I need drugs)

 

I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details of all the flights. Let’s just say we had the usual run-ins with people that had carry-ons that were wayyy too big, passengers that didn’t think the rules applied to them, yada yada….. but BONUS – free wine on the transatlantic leg (I am not a wine snob, I mean, I drink 3 buck Chuck from Trader Joe’s daily, so I was completely satisfied washing my Xanax down with some free boxed wine). Suffice it to say, we landed relatively on-time and unscathed in BCN :D

[barbienj]

I'm in, subscribing to the review!

[ParadiseTattoo]

This is a fun read........so go on.....

 

 

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[Stallion]

Hum-You'd think a Munchkin would have teeny tiny clothes too.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Stallion
Obviously Dad and brother didn't want to drag 6 suitcases around the Med

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[kirian]

Hum-You'd think a Munchkin would have teeny tiny clothes too.

 

Lolololol!!!!!! Yes, you would think, wouldn't you!

 

You might be right about dad and brother not wanting to play the role of porters throughout the trip with our luggage.... they do know us rather well :D

[celebrity]

Lolololol!!!!!! Yes, you would think, wouldn't you!

 

You might be right about dad and brother not wanting to play the role of porters throughout the trip with our luggage.... they do know us rather well :D

 

Loving the purple luggage!

[squadron]

Subscribing!

Can't wait for your recap of adventures. :)

 

How do you subscribe?

[Clarea]

How do you subscribe?

Click on Thread Tools at the top of the page and choose Subscribe.

[KeywestK]

Great blog! Thanks for taking us along this very fun ride!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

[marci22]

I like the purple luggage.

[kirian]

Loving the purple luggage!

 

I like the purple luggage.

 

Why, thank you both very much :D

 

Crazy Mom and I both needed new luggage. Here old set was breaking zippers left and right (nothing at all to do with her constant overpacking or anything, I'm sure :p) I was still using luggage I had bought for my first cruise in 1996 and while it still functioned fine (and looked decent), it was HEAVY even when it was empty. Time to get some new, lightweight stuff!

 

Neither of us wanted black.... we wanted something that would be easier to spot on the luggage carousels. We also both wanted to find something where the carry-on was on the smaller side so that it could fit under the seat if it absolutely had to (you know how hard it can be to find the coveted overhead bin space). It was a total coincidence that we both ended up buying purple luggage!

[relaxlynn]

Why, thank you both very much :D

 

Crazy Mom and I both needed new luggage. Here old set was breaking zippers left and right (nothing at all to do with her constant overpacking or anything, I'm sure :p) I was still using luggage I had bought for my first cruise in 1996 and while it still functioned fine (and looked decent), it was HEAVY even when it was empty. Time to get some new, lightweight stuff!

 

Neither of us wanted black.... we wanted something that would be easier to spot on the luggage carousels. We also both wanted to find something where the carry-on was on the smaller side so that it could fit under the seat if it absolutely had to (you know how hard it can be to find the coveted overhead bin space). It was a total coincidence that we both ended up buying purple luggage!

And now so many people have Purple luggage that we have put Zebra striped duck tape on our purple luggage so that we can spot it on the luggage turnstile at the airport!! Must be a trend

 

Lynn

[kirian]

And now so many people have Purple luggage that we have put Zebra striped duck tape on our purple luggage so that we can spot it on the luggage turnstile at the airport!! Must be a trend

 

Lynn

 

You know, all the cool kids have purple luggage... purple is the new black :D:p

 

I actually remember now that you and Karl also were part of the "cool-purple-luggage gang." Maybe, just maybe, it was the 4 of us that started it all :cool:

 

At least the zebra duck tape only adds to the coolness of the purple luggage. Maybe Crazy Mom and I will have to find some equally cool duck tape to "decorate" our bags with so we can easily spot them in the sea of purple bags :D

[voyager70]

Loving it, keep it coming :D

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Hi, interested in reading your review...thanks for sharing. I have a friend who is from and who lives in Venice, so can't wait to see some pics.

[kirian]

First off - Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow Americans!!!

 

Second, thanks so much to everyone who is following along on the review. Knowing that you are "out there" definitely inspires me to keep at it :)

 

Tomorrow should be a busy day. Together, we will tour the sights of Barcelona and hopefully, by the time the clock strikes midnight, we will be on board the Serenade!!!

 

So, stay tuned.... the fun is only just beginning:D:D:D

 

Melissa

[maureencruiser]

Looking forward to more! And, yes, I have purple luggage, as well.....:eek:

[lisiamc]

I'm really enjoying your review/blog. More, please!!

[NS Girl]

Love your review and can't wait to read more. That was our fifth and favourite cruise. We had do much fun with all of you in the posts leading up to the cruise, the sail away party, the meet and mingle.