SERENADE Sept 17-28,2014 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

Continuing on, I again took a slightly different route and ended up entering St. Mark's square from the rear side of the Cathedral just back from the Clock Tower. I made it here within 15 minutes of leaving Rialto, so it's just before 9am I think. As you can see, and especially in the third photo below, the square is eerily empty with not many people at all. Note in the second photo in front of the Cathedral there's elevated walkways set up about 2 feet high... this is a very important thing I will talk about a little later.

 

 

 

 

As I took those shots and walked through the square, I noted a line starting to get into the Bell Tower and it was growing as the doors had opened. As this was my #1 thing to do before my 10:45am tour I went in line... for 8 euro this is an easy and must-do activity when visiting Venice. The views are amazing! The line-up went very quickly and I was up the elevator looking out at the views within 15 minutes. In the 1st picture below, see the 4 black openings at the top? That's where you end up.

 

 

 

[DanTheCruisingMan]

Beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Hoopster95]

In my Kotor review yesterday, I had a segment where I didn't say anything as pictures are worth a thousand words.... I think this segment deserves this as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

It was time to make my down from the tower, and still having a good 45 minutes before the start of tour I decided to take a walk to the water and head north up the boardwalk which I hadn't done yesterday farther past the Bridge of Sighs.

 

 

 

The viewpoints are beautiful looking out over the canal and going over the various pedestrian bridges. There's plenty of vendors and things to see as you make your way. Note this particular bell tower... it's leaning! I didn't know this prior to this trip but there are 5 leaning towers in Venice. Most all structures in Venice were built with pylons inserted deep down, but obviously the ones on this tower did not hold up as well. They have been fortified long ago to prevent further leaning, but they left the towers in this leaning position.

 

 

 

And of course once again the famous Bridge of Sighs. I'll have pictures looking out from these windows at the exact spot I'm taking this photo from coming up during the Doge's Palace Tour

 

 

[Hoopster95]

There's a ton of info on-line about the Doge's Palace. Bottom Line is that the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style and was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice. The history here is somewhat morbid, as it includes torture/imprisonment, and of course the excesses of greed and wealth.

 

Needless to say the grandeur inside the palace with the art and gold filled walls/ceilings should be a must for any newcomer to Venice. You can also do the Doge's Palace DIY which allows you to stay longer within the palace and take your time without being "herded" through by the guide, and you can do it with an audio tour for less money. Note you won't get to go through the bridge of sighs.

 

 

 

The first shot below is the Scala d'Oro (Golden Staircase)

 

 

 

 

 

Note the clocks: on the left side clock is horoscope, the right clock is the date of the month... and yes, both are running and working!

 

[Hoopster95]

There's a fabulous museum area half way through that depicts the weapons and armory of the Venetian soldiers of the day. The size of the armor and swords are awesome!! Makes you wonder how any man could have even wielded one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

And below is the room which truly defines the Doge's Palace: The Higher Council Hall (or Sala del Maggior Consiglio). This room is GINORMOUS. Here you'll find the largest oil painting in the world "Paradise" approx. 74ft by 30ft... just unreal!! On three sides of the hall there are the 76 portraits of the Doges who ruled. They sum up the history of Venice, including the tale of Marin Faliero, the Doge accused of high treason whose portrait is covered by a black cloth. We only had 5 minutes to spend in here... I could've stayed a 1/2 hour

 

 

 

 

On way out of the room and towards the final areas of our tour, we walked through the outside promenade area where I snapped this shot of the courtyard, and the the side of the palace which connects to St. Mark's Cathedral.

 

[Hoopster95]

We are now on or way to The Bridge of Sighs to retrace the steps of so many unlucky prisoners of the past. Built in 1600, The Ponte dei Sospiri is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment.

 

It's dark and dreary, with not the greatest photo ops... just as a prison/dungeon/interrogation area should be, yes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

How would you like to get your food served through here every day for the final tears of your life?

 

 

 

And here's the last outside view the prisoners see through the "stone bars", this looking out to the Grand Canal from where my previous pictures looking up at the bridge were taken

 

[Hoopster95]

Water, photography, time... three major issues I now had after the great Doge's Palace Tour. Allow me to explain.

 

(1) Water - While predominantly inside Doge's Palace, it rained outside. Remember the earlier photos of the ramps 2 feet high off the ground at St. Mark's? Well, now leaving Doge's Palace there was water all around the Cathedral and the line-up of people to get in were on the ramps. The Cathedral is the lowest point in Venice so guess where all the rain water goes? It pools all around the base of the cathedral. To make things worse my meeting point for the 12:15pm tour I had booked is behind this ramp/line past the water by the church, and obviously no one was there. It was 12:05 already... I tried my best to figure this out and find someone else on the tour but to no avail so after 10 min (and the supposed start of my tour time) I saw my previous guide with her new tour group on the ramp and asked her for help. She yelled at at the tour operators at the door of the Cathedral about 100ft away, and that lady called for me to come as soon as possible. I took that as "right now" as to not miss the start of tour so I jump off the ramps and began to jog through the 1 inch of water which had collected. I heard many groans and some yelling from the crowd (I thought later they were probably saying "no" or "stop") but at the time I just kept going so as not to miss the tour. Well, as I approached the Cathedral, the water got deeper, up to about 10 inches at the door of the Cathedral as I sloshed and splashed through it and then jumped up the ramp. Needless to say I was fully wet almost up to my knees and I had to live with my runners and socks being saturated for the rest of the day! In fact, water also gets into the church itself

 

 

(2) Photography. Our tour was only me and another couple. We were told right off the bat no photos period, or else, for this tour which was a total bummer! I was getting upset at no photos, so I took this one in the artifiacts vestibule as we were leaving. This room also had the head dresses of the pope, full gold dress, etc. Beautiful room

 

 

(3) Time. The tour was for an hour, 45 min of it behind closed doors in the locked and private side chapels which was interesting, but not in the main areas of the Cathedral which I really wanted to see again... the issue being all aboard to the Serenade was quickly approaching and I didn't think I had any extra time after the tour to stay within the Cathedral for another hour after the tour.

 

So coming out of Doge's Palace thinking I had everything in order with St. Mark's next door, all of the above 3 issues hit me right away. I had to make the best of it. The entire "Secret" Tour of St. Mark's is truly a secret as I have no photos!!! The history was too much as well for my liking as the areas we were able to get into we stayed much too long. Obviously I didn't enjoy this tour very much. We were escorted up to the altar to view the Pala D'Oro close up, but that was only the last 10 min of the tour. This is when I said the hell with it and brought out my camera as everyone else out in the main areas were snapping photos

 

 

 

My camera battery was dying and my time to stay was extremely limited as it was time to start getting back to the cruise terminal, so I did not go up to the second level of the Cathedral. I think being wet, upset at the lack of photos and not having a good tour, it just came on to me that I was done.... done! Too much site seeing and I needed a break. So I made my way out of the Cathedral to head back to the ship.

 

For those of you who have never seen the Cathedral, you can google many photos. Here are a couple of mine from 3 yrs ago on the 2nd level. The outdoor pictures are also fabulous. The St. Mark's cathedral, like the Doge's Palace, is a must do, but this is very easily pre-booked on-line as a DIY "skip the line" ticket as I did 3 yrs ago.... you can spend as much time as you want and see everything no problem

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Coming out of St. Mark's, with my soaking wet feet, I had the choice of taking the Vaporetto as I had the night before (wait for the Vaporetto, about 1 hour ride, then People Mover + walk) or just start walking right then and there and probably get back to the ship in less than an hour without stopping. I chose the latter. And I did get to the Piazza Roma in brisk approx 45min and back on the ship in almost exactly an hour. Obviously I headed to my room to take off my drenched socks/shoes/pants, get changed and charge my camera for Sail-away. While walking by terminal 107 I saw that the Equinox was preparing to leave, and once in my room I saw it already on it's way out in the channel when I took this picture out my stateroom window

 

 

 

I had some time to chill out and allow my camera to charge up as Venice sailaway was about to happen and I needed plenty of battery power to video our departure, however I wanted to get up to the helipad early as I wanted a spot right at the front Leonardo DeCaprio "Titanic Style". So I made may up to deck 5 and out to the helipad. There were many fellow cruisers beginning to gather and take spots at the railing up there, and luckily for me there was room for one person at the very very front alongside another serious photographer (who obviously wanted to score that very spot). Within 15 minutes, the entire railing of the helipad was full with cruisers awaiting sailaway, as the ropes were let go from the pier

 

 

And without any other ships left in port, we were on our way

 

 

 

The port authority and tugs were ready and waiting to lead the Serenade out to sea

 

 

 

 

And I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get any of these rare pictures of a tug tying up to the front of the ship had I not scored this prime front seat view on the helipad. I was very fortunate... "I'm the King of the World!!!"

 

[Hoopster95]

Sail away as viewed from the helipad is turning out to be just as spectacular as the sail in as witnessed up on deck 12 forward yesterday. I had in front of me an absolutely unobstructed 180 degree view forward, left to right, as we sailed up the channel. How cool is this to have this front of the ship view!?!?! Shooting video, I also captured many stills

 

 

 

 

 

And of course the much awaited moment of sailing right by St. Mark's Square was just about to happen as we continue up the channel and the Bell Tower comes closer and closer in site. We could sail in and out of Venice a hundred times and I would never get bored of this... these pictures just do not do this experience justice

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

No words needed here... just the buzz of the cruisers beside me, and the oohs & aahs of the outrageously beautiful experience we're having there on the helipad

 

 

 

 

The moment has arrived

 

 

 

 

I take a quick shot back at the Serenade after we had passed St. Mark's to prove that the video and captured images I had just filmed were actually done by me and my camera, not some file photos on the internet!!! lol

 

 

 

I headed back down from the helipad starboard side as from deck 5 we can still see the Bell Tower at St. Mark's as it gets farther away in the distance. As the tug pulls away, I bid farewell to Venice and specifically this sailaway and sail-in, a very long dreamed of bucket-list item to experience and witness. It was everything I had hoped for and an awesome memory. I am so very grateful and thankful to have these kinds of experiences.

 

Edited October 13, 2014 by Hoopster95
grammar

[Hoopster95]

Tonight was a great night on board the Serenade. After anther wonderful dinner and service, our group headed down to the Centrum for the "If you Know it Dance It" game show which is a ton of fun... the Centrum is divided in half, Team 1 and team 2. As songs are played, we have to dance the "main" famous part of the dance. Ie. Macarena, Footloose, etc. The team with the most dancers get most points and win. There were people dancing on deck 6 lol. Good fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The headliner show tonight was awesome! Maestranza focused on Spanish dance and Flamenco, traditional tap and castanets. It was just excellent. Near the end of the show one of the mail dancers came down to pick a lady to come up to dance with them and chose my friend and MDR tablemate S! She had a blast and kicked butt up there

 

 

 

Of course one of the female cast members came down to the crowd and guess who she picked.... yep, me lol! That was fun, wish someone took a pic of me up there dancing like a fool haha.

 

Then unknown to me (because I'm a man and I don't read directions, right guys??) it was written in the Compass that I was supposed to by a mask in Venice for the Masquerade Ball held in the Safari Club. That was a packed and was a well attended event. Besides some dancing, Patricio hosted an excellent best mask contest with crowd participation.

 

This went on until about 11:30 where most of our group headed up to Vortex for the rest of the evening. Many of us stayed up quite late as it was an excellent and fun night all around and Vortex was hopping. It was time to get to bed thought in the early hours, and I came home to this guy. lol. Time for shut-eye

 

[lemonade-sails]

Hoopster, I may have missed it if you mentioned it, but what sort of camera are you using? Your photos are so great. I love the panoramic shots!

[Hoopster95]

Hoopster, I may have missed it if you mentioned it, but what sort of camera are you using? Your photos are so great. I love the panoramic shots!

 

Hi Lemonade... I use a "cheapo" hand held fit-in-pocket Sony Cybershot. It has a great movie mode & panoramic shooting mode which you mention, and manual settings which I also use for indoor/night shots. I think most (if not all) cameras have this now. As far as less expensive hand helds go, it also supposedly has the best low light filter and lens for evening and lighting-challenged photography. Those panoramic shots are incredible on my desk top, and I've printed a couple out... very very cool. :D

Edited October 13, 2014 by Hoopster95
spelling

[maxs mom]

You certainly get the most out of your tours in each port!!! I loved your day in Kotor. Isn't it the best!! When we were there we rented a yacht for the day and it was the most incredible experience I have ever had in a port anywhere. The next time you go back.....get in touch with me....and I'll put you in touch with our Russian Sea Captain that entertained us for the day!

[Hoopster95]

You certainly get the most out of your tours in each port!!! I loved your day in Kotor. Isn't it the best!! When we were there we rented a yacht for the day and it was the most incredible experience I have ever had in a port anywhere. The next time you go back.....get in touch with me....and I'll put you in touch with our Russian Sea Captain that entertained us for the day!

 

Well that is super kind of you, thank you :)

I can just imagine a yacht tour in and out of the bays would be totally unbelievable! A new bucket list item for me is to rent a car and hang out in Croatia/Montenegro for a week driving down the coast, definitely to visit Kotor & Dubrovnik again for sure.

[Irish Cath]

Hey Hoopster,

 

Although I've just found your review I have to tell you I am loving it - especially your pictures. I am also currently writing a review of our 12 night Serenade trip which is dragging on for much longer than I had originally hoped ( although not as long as Cool Girls :D ).

 

Anyway I really appreciate the amount of effort and time you are putting into this. Oh and Kotor is also one of my favorite ports ever!

 

Thanks again,

Catherine :)

[Hoopster95]

Today we are to tender in Split, but this city unfortunately lived up to it's name :eek:.....

 

As per usual, I was up at the Windjammer deck 11 aft having my breakfast outside, this time on the port side so that I can see land as we approached Split. We were getting quite close and slowing, and I also needed to go pick up tender tickets at the Safari Lounge so I took this quick shot to start my day of photos

 

 

Today I was involved with a private group tour through our CC friends on the roll call. We needed to be off the ship asap, and most of us were at the Safari Lounge just before Patricio showed up to hand out the tender tickets. We got our tickets and I headed back to my room to prepare to get off the ship as soon as we cleared. It was then I noticed when looking out the window that we were turning, and soon my starboard window was facing the port. I figured it was to position the ship for the tenders as it did in Kotor....

 

It was when the Serenade started moving forward I immediately got worried, As I sat on the bed looking out we began to move a little faster and farther away from the port over the next couple of minutes. Right at that moment my gut told me we were screwed....

 

About 5 minutes after that Capt. Anders announced that the tendering operation cannot be safely done, and we cannot stop in Split! The winds coming off the mountains in conjunction with the activity of the sea currents make tendering today very unsafe. He unformed us that regrettably this will be a sea day. My my second and last image of Split was this as we were pulling away

 

 

While I cannot underestimate the Capt nor have the knowledge needed to make a call like this, a NCL ship was already tendering I believe before we got there. I went out to deck 5... the winds were minimal. I have a feeling that the call was very borderline, but if you start to tender and a not so mobile elderly cruiser falls in the ocean or breaks bones somehow, I assume it's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Personally, I don't think it looked any worse than what we had in Kotor, and I've been on tenders in other parts of the world (Rhode island comes to mind) with a 2-3 foot constant chop and the tender bobbing up and down. To put it mildly, there were many upset cruisers as the Capt announced a couple of times during the morning his apologies to those that have shared complaints with further explanation of why the decision was made.

 

This was too bad, but what do you do? Jump ship and swim? Profess to "never sail RCL ever again!!"? No, you make the best of it! And truthfully this trip has been super tiring with the highly busy days and long nights or partying. So I looked forward to a no commitment day of nothing but easy pool deck and hanging out with friends. A shortened 2 page compass was put into staterooms shortly thereafter offering a revised schedule with daytime activities.

 

 

 

So off I went to a very long and good workout, hot-tub break, early tanning/dozing, lunch and then a Flash Mob rehersal... then it was poolside for the whole afternoon lazying with everyone & hanging out. Turned out to be a great day! Capt Anders announced while we were up at pool deck that the Serenade had increased speed and was heading to Dubrovnik early, docking at 8pm instead of tomorrow morning, and that we would be allowed off to explore this evening if we wish as an overnight stop! A few of us decided that's exactly what we were going to do this evening

[Hoopster95]

The day was a very nice and needed... a total energy recharge type of day. And soon it was dinner time for formal night. We had a table of 11 booked for Giovanni's as we all wished to experience the Specialty Dining (I sold everyone it with the "family style" that Giovanni's serves for big tables). We all decided to dress formal for this night. Everyone looked awesome and the food even better. I had planned to take pictures of the the food throughout but forgot after the appies! lol. I warned everyone that they'll have to have wheelbarrows ready to carry us all out of there with the amount of food we're about to eat, and sure enough we could've used that.

 

 

 

Antipasti, bruschetta, seared scallops, Melanzane Alla Parmigiana (eggplant), pasta arriabiatta, mushroom risotto, linguine puttanesca ... we were all done already and we hadn't even got our main course! I had the lamb and it was to die for, just awesome. Others had my prev favorite Ossobucco and also raved... not done yet!!! The home-made Tiramisu and Cannoli's blew me away. YUM YUM YUM!!!

 

Well, we rolled out of Giovanni's. As mentioned, several of us had alresady decided to visit Old Town Dubrovnik tonight. Unfortunately we would miss the show as well as The Quest this evening which is a real bummer... I love the Quest!! But how many times have I ever been or will be in Dubrovnik? Simple decision here. We had planned to meet in the Centrum and head out as the ship had cleared just after we finished dinner. After a couple of awesome salsa dances with good friend T (Brazilian, man can she dance!), our group of 5 made our way out to the pier to grab a cab, set rate of 10 euro to the old town gate. An easy 10 minute drive and we were there.

 

 

 

And through the main gate we went to enjoy the sites of Old Dubrovnik at night!

 

 

[Hoopster95]

On the cab ride over, I had asked the cabbie about nightclubs/bars in town. He mentioned "Revelin" was the place to be, an extremely popular nightclub. Found out after the place is quite well known world wide as famous DJ's regularly visit and perform here. So we grabbed "free entry" tickets that get us in no cover charge if we enter before 12:30am and we continued to site see a bit, we also had a beer at one of the local cafe's on the street and then headed to the nightclub for the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

If you're youthful and interested in the European nightclub experience, this place is awesome! The size of the stage/DJ booth and the light shows are amazing! This place is nuts with it's sheer size inside, the amount of people, go-go dancers & aerialist (of course not wearing much clothing), the cool ice bar, etc and just the entire atmosphere was electric. Within about an hour of us getting there, looks like most of the Serenade staff also came through the doors as this was the place to be that night! We got to hang out with several staff, great fun and great music.

 

 

 

 

 

I really wanted to be awake enough to enjoy Dubrovnik in the morning while the rest of the clan wanted to continue to hang out, so I left alone just about 2:30am... still plenty of people in the streets and at least 10 cabs waiting for riders at the main Pile Gate. From the nightclub to walking to cab (10min) to driving to ship (10min) it was a total of 20 minutes tops, very easy. The cabs are able to drive right up to the tent where the RCL security await right at the gangplank. So off to bed I went and I was ready for that early wake-up call as I wasn't going to miss Dubrovnik in the morning for anything!

[Hoopster95]

I am also currently writing a review of our 12 night Serenade trip which is dragging on for much longer than I had originally hoped ( although not as long as Cool Girls :D ).

 

Anyway I really appreciate the amount of effort and time you are putting into this. Oh and Kotor is also one of my favorite ports ever!

 

Thanks again,

Catherine :)

 

Hey hey! Yes, I saw that you're back and I was looking at your new posts. It's tough to get those night shots in Venice, isn't it? Thx for the kind words... Kotor is totally awesome :D:D

[rcclfanbp]

Great review and pictures! Thanks so much -- I know a tremendous amount of time and effort went into this!

 

Ditto. This is a wonderful review and the Kotor pictures are stunning.

[cricketts]

Awesome review - thanks for sharing :)

Can't wait to be on Serenade again!

[Hoopster95]

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay. a couple of very heavy/long business days have kept me from continuing this review as I had been. Will try to post awesome Dubrovnik with great pictures tomorrow :)

[Danish]

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay. a couple of very heavy/long business days have kept me from continuing this review as I had been. Will try to post awesome Dubrovnik with great pictures tomorrow :)

 

Okay - will try to be patient and wait :cool: