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

[Iluvcruising2]

In this video, I show you snippets of the ferry ride from the Amusement Park stop (near Vasa museum) to Gamla Stan (Old Town) of Stockholm, Sweden. Earlier, we had visited Vasa Museum. It was a beautiful day to be riding on the ferry. We had to buy tickets from an automated machine. A kind local taught us how to do so. I used my credit card, which required a pin.

 

The ferry staff checked our tickets at the point of boarding. There was a group of English-speaking tourists who tried to board the ferry. When asked for their ticket, they claimed that somebody said it was free. They weren't too happy when the ferry staff did not allow them to board.

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We arrived at Gamla Stan and started to walk around, using my phone GPS. We explored the old town on foot. Nice place. Came to this delightful square and saw the Nobel Museum. We didn't plan on entering the museum today. Maybe one day if I win the Nobel Prize, I could come here for dinner, but until then....

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Edited June 30, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[jimbri]

Great videos!

[Iluvcruising2]

Great videos!

 

Thanks for watching! :):)

[Bailey & Sophie]

Thanks for watching! :):)

Thank you so much for posting this.

Quite some time ago you posted a review of your cruise on the Legend...just before we embarked on her.

In a few months we will be on the Serenade.

Since we seem to be following you, what is your next destination? I need to prepare!!

Thanks again!

[afitzpatrick733]

Thanks for all the info. We are travelling on the Serenade in 10 days on the same Baltic itinerary so this is perfect timing for us. Getting even more excited now!

[Iluvcruising2]

Thank you so much for posting this.

Quite some time ago you posted a review of your cruise on the Legend...just before we embarked on her.

In a few months we will be on the Serenade.

Since we seem to be following you, what is your next destination? I need to prepare!!

Thanks again!

 

Thanks for watching! What a coincidence. We don't have any cruise booked till late 2017 and that would be on a new MSC ship out of Genoa. Every tried MSC?

[Iluvcruising2]

Thanks for all the info. We are travelling on the Serenade in 10 days on the same Baltic itinerary so this is perfect timing for us. Getting even more excited now!

 

Awesome. Thanks for watching. Sorry my output of videos is slowing down due to work schedule. Hope you have a great cruise! :):)

[Iluvcruising2]

We made it to the Royal Palace and there was already a very large crowd at the best area to watch the change of guard. This looked to be a popular attraction and due to the crowds we could get into the parade square proper. Anyway, we stood outside and waited, since people were waiting. I guessed we could hope to see some type of march past of the guards. Am so glad we waited. The procession was very impressive. A military band on horseback! Awesome. Check out the video. After watching the parade go past, my kids were tired and wanted to go back to the ship. So we decided to do just that, even though it was still quite early. Plenty more to explore, but no matter, we'll leave that for another trip. We found the public bus and took it back to the ship.

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[Iluvcruising2]

The bus ride was pretty quick, though it would have been too far to walk. After we got onboard, we put down our stuff in the cabin and headed to the Windjammer for lunch. Didn't take much of lunch, other than this footage of getting some stir-fry. Yummy!

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After lunch, it was time to walk around the ship and look at the port. Spotted this red Stockholm bus bringing cruise passengers back to port. Didn't research about them but it sure is convenient for the bus to bring you all the way back here. Also caught the Silja Symphony in the distance - she was a cruise-ferry and is almost 60,000GT. Not small.

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[Iluvcruising2]

While walking around deck 5 outside, I take a closer look at this container ship opposite us. This was MS Heluan, a container ship, about 16,000GT. Plenty of container movement. This is not a dedicated cruise port.

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And docked right behind the Serenade, was another ship! This was the Celebrity Eclipse, the 3rd Solistice Class cruise ship belonging to Celebrity Cruises. She is bigger than the Serenade. (around 122,000GT versus 90,000GT for the Serenade). Look at the two crew doing some painting work from a small boat. A lot of effort is required to maintain such a large ship.

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This footage taken from the Diamond Lounge, Serenade of the Seas, evening cocktail hours. The weather was rather warm outside and the main pool was well utilized. I was in the lounge to get some food and a beer. Nice.

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[Iluvcruising2]

After the drink and food from the Diamond lounge, I headed outside to watch the ship sail away from Stockholm. We were the third ship to leave, at around the same time. The Celebrity Eclipse had departed earlier, she was docked just behind us. Behind the Eclipse, there was a cruise ferry, couldn't get its name. And then there was us. Busy. It would take about 5 hours to sail out of the fjords!

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[Iluvcruising2]

So, it was time for dinner. Tonight was one of the few nights (or maybe the only night) that we had dinner in the Main Dining Room. Well, since we bought the $100 speciality dining package for 5 dinners, that wouldn't come as a surprise. Still, we enjoyed the MDR, though we didn't stay for dessert. The menu items were very familiar as we have had meals in MDR many times in the past. This video shows you snippets of what we ate. My shrimp with rice wasn't too bad.

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After dinner, I was chilling out the Centrum, listening to the live music for a bit. I was enjoying our 3-drink Diamond perk and got myself some whiskey on ice. Very nice.

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[Iluvcruising2]

Mentioned earlier that we did not stay in the MDR for desserts as my kids wanted to head to the Windjammer to get their favourite waffle with ice-cream. When I got there, I discovered that tonight they had a live fruit skewer with white chocolate or dark chocolate station. This was awesome - the first time I have seen this on all my Royal Caribbean cruises. Had quite a few of these fruit sticks, though not all with chocolate. Then, I checked out the Scandinavian food section (this is the section of the Windjammer that they change the food every evening) and the selection was most interesting. For the live station, it was Pyttipanna. At that time I had no idea what it was, but tried it anyway. Now that I'm home and did some research, I know that Pyttipanna is Swedish for 'small pieces in pan'. A hodge podge type of dish, and often has a fried egg. Cool!

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And for my final video while the ship was will in Stockholm waters, we go outside to the helipad after all that food and drink to admire the scenery. The time was about 2000hrs local time and it was still so bright! Come out to enjoy the views. Awesome.

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[teese]

Love the review, I so enjoyed the videos. We'll be sailing on her April '17.

[Iluvcruising2]

Love the review, I so enjoyed the videos. We'll be sailing on her April '17.

 

Thanks for your kind words. What is your itinerary come April '17?

[Iluvcruising2]

Yesterday, we were in Stockholm. Today, the ship was docked in Tallinn, Estonia. There were at least 2 other cruise ships in port. Our plan was to walk, and walk some more. We relied heavily on Rick Steves Northern European Ports guide for how to walk, as well as navigated with my smartphone GPS. In this part 1, I show you how we walk from the cruise port all the way to the Fat Margaret Tower, which houses the Estonian Maritime Museum. We didn't visit the museum today. The walk took about 15 minutes, max. It felt good to walk. The weather was gorgeous.

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[Iluvcruising2]

We continue our journey. Using the Rick Steves travel guide, we start at Fat Margaret Tower and walk along Pikk Street. Fat Margaret was built in the early 16th Century. Called fat because she was the largest part of the city wall's fortifications, and also built to impress visitors coming by ship. So we just followed along Pikk Street till we came to the town square. It was early, around 1000hrs, and many shops were only starting to open.

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[Cat54]

Enjoying your videos. We are doing the Ultimate Baltic cruise next year. It is great to get so much information in one review.:)

[Iluvcruising2]

Enjoying your videos. We are doing the Ultimate Baltic cruise next year. It is great to get so much information in one review.:)

 

Thanks for your comment and glad you are finding the information useful. :)

[Iluvcruising2]

Continued from the previous video, from the Tallinn old town square, we headed in the direction of Olde Hansa, which is a restaurant featuring the medieval way of eating. This was a restaurant recommended by the cruise ship, so we came to take a look, though we decided not to eat here. Just outside the restaurant, there was this lady selling some spiced sweets/nuts, at 4 Euros per packet. She said it had medicinal value! Well, it tasted like sweet stuff to me. We followed the walking directions in the Rick Steve's guide and headed up this smaller and narrow walkway, towards the upper part of the Tallinn. This would bring us to a place called the Danish King's Garden (with plenty of shade) and we took a rest near the flower bed. Then, we headed towards the Orthodox cathedral, called the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, went inside briefly to take a look. And we walked on. To be continued in the next video.

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[cruisingbajan]

Really enjoyed your review and videos. Thanks for sharing:).

[Dr.A]

Thanks for your comment. Plenty more videos and info to come. I just need time to sort them out. Cheers!

 

We just watched most of your videos on YouTube last night! Thanks for posting them!

[Iluvcruising2]

Really enjoyed your review and videos. Thanks for sharing:).

 

Thanks for watching!

[Iluvcruising2]

We just watched most of your videos on YouTube last night! Thanks for posting them!

 

Thanks for letting me know!

[Iluvcruising2]

Near the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, there were several very good viewpoints to see the lower city. We visited two of them, and to get there, you walked past many foreign embassies. This area was near the Parliament and the Government center of Tallinn. After taking in the sights, we started to make our way back down to the lower city center. We found a cafe that we walked past earlier this morning, and decided to stop there for some coffee and beer!

 

The Tallinn Old Town, including Toompea, is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Her old town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.

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