Sensational Serenade 12 night Med with Venice overnight and Montenegro Review.

[Irish Cath]

Love it!

 

Great review and awesome photo's. Thanks for posting.:)

 

Thank you both, the nice comments are always very much appreciated :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

You look like you are suffering from my common cruise malady: cruise feet!:eek: I actually talked to a trainer onboard the Jewel (14 nights) in May and he told me to avoid soups, seafood & pasta:( due to the high sodium content aboard the ships. Plus, eat two large leafy green salads a day and to drink lots of water. I also resorted to wearing knee high compression socks at night. Not real sexy...but neither are swollen feet and ankles! It all did help, but I couldn't give up my lobster on formal night.;)

 

The review is wonderful. I am hanging onto every word!:cool:

Edited September 2, 2014 by Sunny AZ Girl

[Irish Cath]

You look like you are suffering from my common cruise malady: cruise feet!:eek: I actually talked to a trainer onboard the Jewel (14 nights) in May and he told me to avoid soups, seafood & pasta:( due to the high sodium content aboard the ships. Plus, eat two large leafy green salads a day and to drink lots of water. I also resorted to wearing knee high compression socks at night. Not real sexy...but neither are swollen feet and ankles! It all did help, but I couldn't give up my lobster on formal night.;)

 

The review is wonderful. I am hanging onto every word!:cool:

 

Thanks Sunny AZ Girl, your post made me giggle. Yes I do occasionally suffer with cruise feet or granny ankle as its called in our cabin ! I have a very low sodium and little alcohol diet 50 weeks of the year so I think its a combination of both, together with higher temperatures than what i'm used to.

I might be tempted to try the compression socks as I agree swollen ankles are far from sexy!

 

Finally thank you for the kind words and i'm glad you are enjoying :)

[epixx]

FYI: We just returned from SOS and also took the ferry from Salerno to Amalfi. For other readers: note that you do not need to travel from Via del Molo Manfredi to Piazza Concordia, as Irish Cath did, in order to catch the ferry. We walked about 2 minutes from the port shuttle drop off point on Via del Molo Manfredi to Molo Manfredi, which is another dock where ferries depart to Amalfi. The ferry ride is actually shorter (took 25 minutes) from here than from Piazza Concordia.

 

Also for anyone interested, ferries to/from Capri depart from Molo Manfredi.

[madra2112]

Cath, greetings from Donegal, and congrats on one of the best reviews I've seen in a long while.

 

I wouldn't mind picking your brain re : Cinque Terre if I could, my better half and I are there next month on Liberty.

 

My e-mail address is donalkav@eircom.net. or alternatively, I'm on the site founded by Mr Zuckerburg at www dot aghaidhleabhar dot com forward slash donalkavanagh.

 

Some stunning photographs there - I'll come nowhere near matching them.

[Irish Cath]

FYI: We just returned from SOS and also took the ferry from Salerno to Amalfi. For other readers: note that you do not need to travel from Via del Molo Manfredi to Piazza Concordia, as Irish Cath did, in order to catch the ferry. We walked about 2 minutes from the port shuttle drop off point on Via del Molo Manfredi to Molo Manfredi, which is another dock where ferries depart to Amalfi. The ferry ride is actually shorter (took 25 minutes) from here than from Piazza Concordia.

 

Also for anyone interested, ferries to/from Capri depart from Molo Manfredi.

 

Thanks so much for this info epixx. Why on earth did I not know this ? Ya know I have just gone and looked at the http://www.travelmar.it/en/ website where I had printed the timetable from and yes there it is Salerno Manfredi. The crazy thing is that I confirmed my plans on tripadvisor and no one mentioned that option to me.

Again, i'm grateful for the info next time i'm in Salerno i'm definitely trying that option.

[Irish Cath]

Cath, greetings from Donegal, and congrats on one of the best reviews I've seen in a long while.

 

I wouldn't mind picking your brain re : Cinque Terre if I could, my better half and I are there next month on Liberty.

 

My e-mail address is donalkav@eircom.net. or alternatively, I'm on the site founded by Mr Zuckerburg at www dot aghaidhleabhar dot com forward slash donalkavanagh.

 

Some stunning photographs there - I'll come nowhere near matching them.

 

Hey Donal,

 

Have sent you an email from a dcu account. Thanks for saying such nice things about my review!

 

Hope you do a review when you're back from the Liberty.

 

Catherine :)

[Hoopster95]

Hello IrishCath,

 

Did your cruise take you to Dubrovnik? I leave for the Serenade in a little over a week and trying to figure out whether I need to have kunas or not. I understand the wall and cable car may not take credit card nor Euros. If you have any insite I would really appreciate it.

 

Thank you! :)

[Irish Cath]

Hello IrishCath,

 

Did your cruise take you to Dubrovnik? I leave for the Serenade in a little over a week and trying to figure out whether I need to have kunas or not. I understand the wall and cable car may not take credit card nor Euros. If you have any insite I would really appreciate it.

 

Thank you! :)

 

Unfortunately we did not go to Dubrovnik on this cruise so I do not know what the up-to-date situation is. We did visit Dubrovnik on our honeymoon cruise in 2007 and I remember at the time we could only use Kuna - no where we shopped were taking euro. I remember reading something quite recently that these days many of the souvenir shops and some restaurants will accept Euro and Sterling set at their own exchange rate. I suppose they would set a rate that is ultimately good for them and bad for you! I remember there were many small bureau de change places within the walls where you could exchange a small amount of euro into Kune.

 

Hopefully someone that has been there recently will come along with a definitive answer for you.

 

Catherine :)

[critterchick]

Hello IrishCath,

 

Did your cruise take you to Dubrovnik? I leave for the Serenade in a little over a week and trying to figure out whether I need to have kunas or not. I understand the wall and cable car may not take credit card nor Euros. If you have any insite I would really appreciate it.

 

Thank you! :)

 

We had purchased some kunas upon our arrival in Dubrovnik in 2009, before Croatia had joined the EU, and were told at the wall that we could have paid in Euro. Our guide in Split for our upcoming cruise told us that Croatia is still officially on the kuna but that virtually all of the merchants will take Euro. Government sites still want kunas, though. I don't know about using a credit/debit card, though.

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='critterchick']We had purchased some kunas upon our arrival in Dubrovnik in 2009, before Croatia had joined the EU, and were told at the wall that we could have paid in Euro. Our guide in Split for our upcoming cruise told us that Croatia is still officially on the kuna but that virtually all of the merchants will take Euro. Government sites still want kunas, though. I don't know about using a credit/debit card, though.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the more up to date info Critterchick. Hope you're avoiding that tequila!! :D

[luvincruzin]

Catherine!
How are you??? I just happen to be on our old Serenade thread and saw that you had a review. So here I've been sitting reminiscing about the good times we all had on the Serenade cruise!
Jodi, Rich, Dave and I are going on 12 day Vision of the Seas Oct 7, 2015. Some of the same ports (Rome, Amalfi coast, Florence) but gain Santorini Greece, Pireaus Greece and Kusadasi Turkey. (I know I'm forgetting one of them....).
Come join us!!!!

[crvng4mr]

[quote name='luvincruzin']Catherine!
How are you??? I just happen to be on our old Serenade thread and saw that you had a review. So here I've been sitting reminiscing about the good times we all had on the Serenade cruise!
Jodi, Rich, Dave and I are going on 12 day Vision of the Seas Oct 7, 2015. Some of the same ports (Rome, Amalfi coast, Florence) but gain Santorini Greece, Pireaus Greece and Kusadasi Turkey. (I know I'm forgetting one of them....).
Come join us!!!![/QUOTE]
Cannes?

[Hoopster95]

[quote name='critterchick']We had purchased some kunas upon our arrival in Dubrovnik in 2009, before Croatia had joined the EU, and were told at the wall that we could have paid in Euro. Our guide in Split for our upcoming cruise told us that Croatia is still officially on the kuna but that virtually all of the merchants will take Euro. Government sites still want kunas, though. I don't know about using a credit/debit card, though.[/QUOTE]

Thank you both criterchick & IrishCath.
I still hear the same, and sometimes currency rules ever changing there, so to be safe I think I'll be bring some kuna with me. I would be beyond pissed-off standing at the entrance to either the wall or cable car not being able to go up because I didn't bring kuna!! :p

Looking forward to the rest of your review IrishCath. Sorry to interrupt :)

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='Hoopster95']Thank you both criterchick & IrishCath.
I still hear the same, and sometimes currency rules ever changing there, so to be safe I think I'll be bring some kuna with me. I would be beyond pissed-off standing at the entrance to either the wall or cable car not being able to go up because I didn't bring kuna!! :p

Looking forward to the rest of your review IrishCath. Sorry to interrupt :)[/QUOTE]

Absolutely no need to apologize for interrupting, the whole purpose of this review is definitely to help fellow travelers. Dubrovnik is a fantastic walled town. In my humble opinion if you can spare 15 minutes or so I would pay a visit to a little museum, or memorial room I guess is more apt, to the Defenders of Dubrovnik. This is an unassuming little place dedicated to those who fell while defending the town in 1991. Their is a poignant display of their photo's. I remember being very moved here in particular when remembering that it only happened a little over 20 years ago.

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='luvincruzin']Catherine!
How are you??? I just happen to be on our old Serenade thread and saw that you had a review. So here I've been sitting reminiscing about the good times we all had on the Serenade cruise!
Jodi, Rich, Dave and I are going on 12 day Vision of the Seas Oct 7, 2015. Some of the same ports (Rome, Amalfi coast, Florence) but gain Santorini Greece, Pireaus Greece and Kusadasi Turkey. (I know I'm forgetting one of them....).
Come join us!!!![/QUOTE]

Hey Bonnie,

I hope you and Dave are both good. Funny thing - you are about to get a mention in my next post! How spooky that you should come along and post now!
Yes I had seen that you 4 are off on another adventure. How lucky you are to have this to look forward to. We have been to Santorini, Athens and Kusadasi ( a few times now) and each has its own charms. You will love them. How I would love to come join you but of course Ger being a teacher would of course be in the thick of things in Oct ( maybe I need to marry someone else with less restrictive holiday time - how utterly mean of it :D )
We were so impressed with this 12 night itinerary we are very tempted to repeat it next Summer ourselves, but then I also want to do Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Bermuda etc etc etc.....

Anyway, lovely to know you are following along and please feel free to correct me or add your opinion on something at anytime

All the best,
Catherine :)

[Irish Cath]

Finally, a day at Sea. Despite having left a little piece of my heart in each of our stops so far I was so looking forward to a day at Sea. There’s nothing quite like it. A day to fight over sunbeds by the pool, prove you’re not completely past it and still have the upper body strength to climb the rock wall or attend a seminar on cellulite solutions or secrets to a flatter stomach. For us it’s usually a day to sleep in, over indulge on food and alcohol and laze around generally doing very little. And today I’m proud to say we achieved our goal.

Breakfast was had in our favourite spot in the Windjammer and lucky for us it was also a favourite spot of a very lovely couple from our CC roll call called Bonnie and Dave. It became a regular occurrence to see them here at breakfast (regardless of what time we happened to be there) and it was just great to catch up with what each other had been doing. Great big shout out to Luvincruzin.

While we’re on the subject of breakfast and food in general I wanted to ask about a special something that I discovered this morning and I’m hoping someone knows what they are! In general when I board the ship I start off with the best of intentions and do well the first few days. Breakfasts, during the first few days, were either oatmeal and fruit or a plain omelette. By day four I was starting to cave and probably snuck in some bacon, day five a small croissant and you get the general idea. Well today was the day that I spotted these chocolate covered pastries that looked too good to ignore. I’m really not sure but I wonder could these be something I have only ever read and dreamed about called a Cronut. The outside certainly was like a donut but the inside was almost hollow but not quite. What were these exquisite pieces of chocolate covered deliciousness? These were the best thing I ate on board the entire time and my mouth is watering right now just thinking about them. Oh sweet mother why am I thinking these thoughts while trying to give up sugar for September, oh the torture.
OK I have composed myself again (almost). After stuffing myself it was time to attend the meet and mingle get together in the Crowne and Castle pub. There was a good turn out and many people exchanged gifts, I was sad that we didn’t have packing room to participate and couldn’t get involved. I’m not missing out next time. There was a raffle of the usual caps, wallets and other pretty useless RCI items and of course the two unluckiest people on the cruise didn’t win anything.

After the meet and mingle we had to make a special trip – to guest services. We had sent a bag of laundry included in the fill the bag for $30 deal which were sent on day 3 or 4 and were received back the following day. Well this morning Ger decided to put on a T Shirt which had been washed in the bag deal but unfortunately he almost caused himself an injury getting it on as it had shrunk about 5 sizes and no it wasn’t because he had overeaten! I almost caused myself an injury laughing. When we composed ourselves after this ridiculously funny situation Ger was actually a little peeved as it was a new T Shirt which he had only worn once on day 2 when we visited Villefranche. So anyway he had called guest services and they told him to bring the T Shirt to them whenever was convenient. So that’s what we did, Ger filled out a claim form, they took the T Shirt and after a day or two they credited our account with the cost of the T Shirt. No biggy. Although personally I think it would have been a nice touch if they had given him a plain RCI T Shirt as he was now down one to wear to the gym.

We had lunch today in Brasserie 30 (dining room). We sat with a table of 3 American couples and really had great conversation. In fact I believe we were the last table to leave. I had the fish enchilada which were as good as I remembered. I love that portion size is quite small at lunchtime. After lunch we made our way to the Schooner Bar for afternoon trivia. Here we met our Australian friends that we had walked with in Salerno and formed a team. Also we made a very important discovery today. The time of this discovery is etched in my brain – 2.45 p.m. ALL BARS SERVE BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ON ALL DRINKS BETWEEN 1 AND 3P.M. Tell me how did I miss this in the compass? So after winning trivia, yes honestly we all won a very useful pen, we enjoyed our cocktails and sat chatting until we realised that it was 5.30p.m! We were tempted to stay for the nest trivia but felt we should maybe stretch our legs. I was slightly annoyed with myself for not having spent any time on the pool deck today but hey there were another 2 sea days to come surely I’d get out there then.

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Feeling a little too informal for tonight's formal suggestion. That's the problem of trying to travel light I guess!

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T Shirtless Man.

Tonight was formal night and we had dinner reservation in the main dining room at 8.15 p.m. as we wanted to catch a glimpse of Captain Anders at his Gala reception in the Centrum at 8 p.m. We found a seat with a great view of the action and when a bartender from the R Bar came around we decided to have one of the fabulous Mojitos that we had previously sampled. Well, how disappointed we were. I won’t go into the details here but the bar tender served us 2 mojitos that tasted of just lime juice, they were terrible and honestly we’re not that picky! We returned them and he basically insulted Ger very abruptly to his face. We settled on a free glass of fizz from the captain’s gala and made our way to the dining room now 5 minutes late a little taken aback by the whole situation. Well these 5 minutes of a delay meant that we had to stand waiting for an available table for 25 minutes. Oh we were not happy campers. The dining room was very very busy to the point of being hectic tonight. I think maybe everyone on M.T.D waited until after catching a glimpse of the captain to dine this evening. I can’t really recall much about the food but I know it wasn’t as delicious as what I’d had at lunchtime.

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A French themed intro before the captains arrival.

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The man himself.

The headliner show time tonight was a lady called Toni Warne who had participated in the Voice UK. She had an absolutely stunning voice and it was a very enjoyable show.

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A terrible picture of tonight's singer.

Afterwards we had a little flutter in the Casino and we left $10 down. Not too bad I guess. We stayed up late tonight because I knew I would not be able to sleep. The excitement of tomorrow was too much for me. We would be arriving into Venice around lunchtime and I was beyond excited. We had sailed out of Venice on our honeymoon 7 years previous and had spent 4 nights there at the time as well. I loved the vibe of this magical floating city so much and could not wait to see it again.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

well I think you both looked wonderful for formal dinner! Love the cut of the dress and you look really fantastic in it. Probably not a dress one can wear at the END of such a cruise though:D. Okay, Ger is looking pretty handsome as well. Poor t-shirtless man. You should have taken a picture of him when he put on the way too tiny shirt....must have been quite a sight:D.

Stef

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='Kreuzfahrtneuling']well I think you both looked wonderful for formal dinner! Love the cut of the dress and you look really fantastic in it. Probably not a dress one can wear at the END of such a cruise though:D. Okay, Ger is looking pretty handsome as well. Poor t-shirtless man. You should have taken a picture of him when he put on the way too tiny shirt....must have been quite a sight:D.

Stef[/QUOTE]

lol lol lol now why didn't I think of that at the time, not that he would have allowed me to put the picture on here of course :rolleyes:

Actually I wish I knew what RCI do with such items - i'd hate to think they just bin them. I would have happily taken it home to Ger's younger brother who it would have fit perfectly. Anyway, i'm rambling.

Yes you're absolutely right there's no way I would have worn that dress at the end of the cruise - i'm sure i was breathing in as it was in this pic :D
Finally thanks for saying such nice things about you, you know how to cheer a girl up ;)

[critterchick]

[quote name='Irish Cath']Thanks for the more up to date info Critterchick. Hope you're avoiding that tequila!! :D[/QUOTE]

I haven't had a shot of tequila in 20 years, just mixed into the occasional margarita!

I think you looked fabulous in that dress and I'm envious that you can suck in your tummy like that!:p

We are also planning on packing light, carryon only if we can manage it. Don will rent a tux onboard if he wants to dress up and I will have one (two if I can manage it) maxi dresses that I'll glam up with sparkly shawls and call it good. This weekend is going to be our first attempt at assembling clothing for the trip.:D

I can't wait to hear about what you did in Venice - we love it there, too - so ancient and filled with ghosts. Walking in the evening is a great treat - there's no better place to be lost as long as you don't walk to briskly and fall into a canal!:eek::D Edited September 5, 2014 by critterchick

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='critterchick']I haven't had a shot of tequila in 20 years, just mixed into the occasional margarita!

I think you looked fabulous in that dress and I'm envious that you can suck in your tummy like that!:p

We are also planning on packing light, carryon only if we can manage it. Don will rent a tux onboard if he wants to dress up and I will have one (two if I can manage it) maxi dresses that I'll glam up with sparkly shawls and call it good. This weekend is going to be our first attempt at assembling clothing for the trip.:D

I can't wait to hear about what you did in Venice - we love it there, too - so ancient and filled with ghosts. Walking in the evening is a great treat - there's no better place to be lost as long as you don't walk to briskly and fall into a canal!:eek::D[/QUOTE]

wow , packing gets me so excited, it means the trip is just around the corner. Hours of fun right there! Good luck with just doing carry on's - I really envy anyone that can make that work.

Not long now until I get to Venice post - o think you might be surprised with what we do !!

Oh and thanks for the compliment re the belly sucking - years of practice :D

[windjamming]

Irish Cath, I'm just back from a Canada/NE cruise and looking forward to catching up on your fun review!! Scanning through the pictures, it looks like your day on the Amalfi Coast was amazing. I didn't know there were Cloisters in St. Andrews Cathedral! (When we were there, I think Mass was just starting, so we left.)

And I agree with everyone - you look stunning in that dress!!

[critterchick]

[quote name='Irish Cath']wow , packing gets me so excited, it means the trip is just around the corner. Hours of fun right there! Good luck with just doing carry on's - I really envy anyone that can make that work.

Not long now until I get to Venice post - o think you might be surprised with what we do !!

Oh and thanks for the compliment re the belly sucking - years of practice :D[/QUOTE]

I can't wait to find out! We're going on a pub crawl with a local who presumably will keep us all from falling into the canals.:D

And I am happy to report that our initial packing efforts were successful - we even got Don's tux, shirt and accessories into one suitcase.:D:D Edited September 8, 2014 by critterchick

[Irish Cath]

[quote name='windjamming']Irish Cath, I'm just back from a Canada/NE cruise and looking forward to catching up on your fun review!! Scanning through the pictures, it looks like your day on the Amalfi Coast was amazing. I didn't know there were Cloisters in St. Andrews Cathedral! (When we were there, I think Mass was just starting, so we left.)

And I agree with everyone - you look stunning in that dress!![/QUOTE]

Awh thanks for the kind words, you'll have me blushing:o

How was your cruise ? We will all want to see photos and a review soon please :D

Yes those cloisters were so lovely and we were lucky that there was not a service on as it was a Sunday when we were there.

[Irish Cath]

I awoke feeling rather like a child on Christmas morning. I was so excited to be just hours from Venice now. Our usual morning ritual of breakfasting outside in the company of Bonnie and Dave was followed and then we enjoyed a leisurely morning enjoyed. Again we joined our Australian friends at the morning trivia (which we were getting very good at) and decided that we would walk off the ship and make our way as far as St. Mark’s Square together later. As neither of us was doing any particular excursion and so was in no rush we decided to allow the maddening crowds off before us and would leave at 4p.m. We were scheduled to dock at 2.30p.m.

Around 1p.m we initially went out onto deck four but realising we were closer to the city than expected decided we should go up onto deck 12. It was already packed with people up here but we found ample space to enjoy the sail in. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with a couple of ladies whom were experiencing the city for the first time. Again it was great to be with a group of people in such high spirits all anxious to catch a glimpse of St Marks from this vantage point whether it was for the first or tenth time!

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