Serenade of the Seas 7N Baltic Cruise Review Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallin, St Peter

[Iluvcruising2]

Again on Day 2, I look around some of the shops at Centrum. They were always having some form of sale on other, especially on a sea day. There was a watch sale going on. I also look at the duty-free alcohol and it occurred to me that I bought Johnny Walker Gold Label Reserve at a better price recently at the Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Duty-Free Store. I include both videos for your reference.

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Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 DFS.

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[queeniessister]

How old are your kids? Were there any activities in port that they really enjoyed? I'm traveling with teenagers in a few weeks.

[Clinpsy13]

Again on Day 2, I look around some of the shops at Centrum. They were always having some form of sale on other, especially on a sea day. There was a watch sale going on. I also look at the duty-free alcohol and it occurred to me that I bought Johnny Walker Gold Label Reserve at a better price recently at the Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 Duty-Free Store. I include both videos for your reference.

[YOUTUBE]gS8qnEsQgHM[/YOUTUBE]

 

Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 DFS.

[YOUTUBE]k4F7PmOrQe4[/YOUTUBE]

 

Thanks for your review- I'm following with great interest! I'm just wondering what the weather was like? Did you get to use the swimming pool and sunbeds or was it too cold?

[Kellie in Texas]

We were on this cruise as well and I have a 14-year-old. It was much warmer than I expected (like around 80 a lot of the days) so the pools were definitely in use.

 

My 14-year-old didn't initially sign up for the teen group, but when he went to the first rock wall climbing instruction session, he ended up finding out about some of their activities and did a lot of stuff with that group in the evenings during the week. They had putt-putt tournaments, soccer tournaments (on the sport court, there is a basketball goal but they also had four small soccer goals -- like futsal, if you're familiar with that), free games in the arcade one evening, they had dinner together in the Windjammer one night, etc. He really had a blast with them.

 

If your kid really isn't a "group" person, there's still plenty to do with the putt-putt course, sport court, rock wall, pools, etc.

[CRUISEBOY305]

Great review. Love your videos.

[queeniessister]

Thanks Kellie in Texas, that's great to hear.

[dupe1_Risteilijä]

Here you can plan your routes in Helsinki using public transportation: https://www.hsl.fi/en

 

The address of the terminal is Hernematalankatu 6, Helsinki. City centre stop is for example Kamppi.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Edited June 21, 2016 by Risteilijä

[Iluvcruising2]

How old are your kids? Were there any activities in port that they really enjoyed? I'm traveling with teenagers in a few weeks.

 

My kids are below 12. Well, when it comes to port days, they just follow us around. We have conditioned them to do that - no complaining! :D:D

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for your review- I'm following with great interest! I'm just wondering what the weather was like? Did you get to use the swimming pool and sunbeds or was it too cold?

 

The swimming pools and sun beds were well used, though I didn't use them because I'm not a swimming-pool type of person, usually. :)

 

Here are two videos that give you a glimpse of the activities in the Solarium as well as the pool deck. The first video is to show you the famous roast beef sandwich from the Park Cafe. It was awesome. In the same video, you can see that the Solarium was very well utilized indeed.

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In this other video, I fast forward to the day that the ship was docked in Helsinki. There was a poolside BBQ for lunch, which was great since the all aboard time was fairly early. You can see the BBQ food as well as the pool being used by some passengers.

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[Iluvcruising2]

Great review. Love your videos.

 

Thanks for watching!

[EJ33333]

Kudos again to your videos.

It's as if we are on the cruise now and it will continue until we board in Sept.

Thanks again

[Iluvcruising2]

Kudos again to your videos.

It's as if we are on the cruise now and it will continue until we board in Sept.

Thanks again

 

Thanks for leaving a nice comment!

[Iluvcruising2]

In this video, the Captain was giving his daily update, which was at noon each day. I was on Deck 10, at the elevator area. You can hear the Captain saying that the winds were very strong.

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And I was playing around with the electronic touchscreen on Deck 10 too, checking out the Cruise compass. There was supposed to be a Poolside BBQ on Day 2, which we didn't attend, because we decided to have lunch in the MDR. I'll put up that video after this.

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[Iluvcruising2]

Now, Day 2 lunch. We decided to lunch in the MDR, since this was a sea day and we had more time. The lunch menu looked the same as what we had previously on many cruises (from as far back as our 2012 Voyager of the Seas cruise), which was ok for us. They had the Tutti Frutti salad bar, which was good. But what was awesome (for the kids) was this live pasta station during MDR lunch that we hadn't seen on any of our previous Royal Caribbean cruises. I don't know if this is the norm on Royal cruises these days, any clue? Anyway, we really enjoyed the pasta. (well, my kids like pasta very much) Here is the video, much of the video is on the live pasta station plus the salad.

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[zebstriped]

Thanks for all of these videos! I will be sailing Serenade in September and these are just getting me all pumped up (and hungry).

 

What was your favorite experience on the ship during this cruise?

[carfla7]

I am really enjoying your videos. Am on Serenade in four weeks so the info is really useful. Thanks!

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for all of these videos! I will be sailing Serenade in September and these are just getting me all pumped up (and hungry).

 

What was your favorite experience on the ship during this cruise?

 

Glad the videos were useful.

 

Favourite - cabin 1054.

[Iluvcruising2]

I am really enjoying your videos. Am on Serenade in four weeks so the info is really useful. Thanks!

 

Glad you found the videos useful. :):)

[Iluvcruising2]

Day 2 evening was formal night. But we decided to skip formal night. Serious. We didn't bring any formal wear, though I think we could have just attended formal night in smart casual wear (I brought pants and a nice shirt), but since we bought the $100 package, we would have to consume those. Tonight, the plan was to dine at the Izumi speciality restaurant. For the dining package, if you dine at Izumi, you get a $30 credit. The four adults would get $120 credit, and that was enough to get food for the 6 of us! The plan was to get dessert from Windjammer after Izumi. So we had sashimi, noodles, and the hot rock. Kids loved it. Here is the video.

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[Iluvcruising2]

After the good food at Izumi, we still had space for dessert, so we went to the Windjammer. Here, we got crepes from the live crepe station as well as waffles which was also made fresh. A jolly good time! Plenty to eat on a cruise ship, no doubt about that!

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[Ladyarli]

While watching them, we're getting excited for our cruise in August.

[Iluvcruising2]

While watching them, we're getting excited for our cruise in August.

 

Hope you have a great cruise ahead! :):)

[Iluvcruising2]

Finally, we get to Day 3 of the cruise, our first port. Apologies for the slow progress of the review. Been busy and also the videos take a bit of time to process. The Serenade was scheduled to arrive in Stockholm at 9am, giving us plenty of time to get a leisurely breakfast at the Windjammer. I was not previously aware that the sail in would be so beautiful. Look at the glorious sunshine! And there was a ship behind us, also sailing into Stockholm. She turned out to be the Celebrity Eclipse. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Windjammer and it was warm enough to sit outside to enjoy the views and breeze.

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[Iluvcruising2]

I later found out that Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden, was made up of 14 islands of the Stockholm archipelago on the Baltic sea. This place has a long history and plenty of water plus boats. The city's population was about 900,000. And our first place to visit was a museum built for just one ship, the Vasa museum! After we got off the ship, the plan was to take a taxi to the museum. We had a bit of difficulty finding a taxi (there weren't that many), though there was a bus stop and you could buy bus tickets from the machine. After waiting around 10-15 minutes, we finally managed to hail a taxi who said all 6 of us could squeeze in but he would charge a flat 300 Swedish Krona (or USD 35) for the taxi ride to Vasa Museum. We knew this fare was very high, but whatever. We had kids and didn't want to take two taxis, so be it. The taxi ride itself wasn't long, probably around 15 minutes. We got to the museum early (it only opened at 10am) so we decided to walk around and look for the ferry terminal to bring us to central Stockholm first, before heading back to join the line. And this was the line that greeted us closer to 10am! Yes, plenty of people waiting.

 

Frankly, I had little clue what we were visiting. So what is Vasa museum? Well, i it is literally a 'One Ship Museum'. Was the visit worth it? Well, yes, because I have seen anything like it. The museum displays the almost fully intact 17th Century ship that has ever been salvaged, the Vasa - sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The ship was only salvaged about 50 years ago, i.e. she was under water for more than 3 centuries.

 

The museum was specially built to house this 17th Century vessel. You couldn't enter the ship, but you could look at it from many angles and many floors. The entire place was a little dark (not sure why they liked this dark feel) and you can see from the videos that it was dark. Overall, I thought it was worth a visit, though I probably wouldn't go again.

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[Iluvcruising2]

After visiting the Vasa museum, we walked towards the Amusement park, but not to enter the park but to find the ferry stop to take the ferry to the old town of Stockholm. Walk was very pleasant.

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