7 night Serenade Baltics July 3 to July 10th Review

[cruzgryphon]

Hi all,

I found all the previous reviews really helpful so I thought I provide one of my own. Just got off the Serenade of the Seas Baltics cruise Stockholm to Stockholm starting July 3 and ending July 10th. My review will take a little while to put together as starting tomorrow that work thing is going to take up a good deal of my time:( I'll do my best to answer questions about the ports, ships etc. along the way.

 

My itinerary for this trip was as follows:

Pre cruise - June 30th to July 3rd - Stockholm (booked independent of the ship)

July 3rd - Embarkation in Stockholm Frihammen port

July 4th - Helsinki

July 5th and July 6th - St. Petersburg

July 7th - Talinn Estonia

July 8th - Riga Latvia

July 9th - Sea Day

July 10th - Stockholm disembarkation Frihammen port

[cruzgryphon]

Arrived in Stockholm the evening of June 30th. We (myself and 2 other friends) took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm Central Station and then took a cab to our hotel.

 

A couple of thoughts on this:

Being a Thursday we got a reduced rate ticket for 3 people (I think it was about 300 or 400 SEK in total). In hindsight we could have considered taking a cab directly to our hotel as our hotel was away from the Central Station. The reliable 3 taxi companies have flat rates from Arlanda to downtown Stockholm. If you're going this route, the flat rate differs between the 3 taxi companies - Taxi Kurir was the cheapest at 470 SEK. Stick to Arlanda Express if you're staying close to the Central Station however.

 

The Arlanda Express was nice and comfortable however. About tickets - the ticket machines in the Airport will only accept Credit Cards with PIN numbers. So if you don't have a credit card with a PIN - you'll likely have to purchase from the Tourist Information office (you can buy it on the Arlanda Express - however it will cost you more).

 

Also a note about ATM machines. The ATM machines we looked at (at the airport and in the town) had a maximum withdrawal limit of between 1000 to 1500 SEK per transaction. So if you have a card with transaction fees this can add up in a hurry.

 

We stayed at the Elite Eden Park Hotel - about 20 minute walk from the Central Station - more about the hotel and its location in my next post.

Edited July 13, 2016 by cruzgryphon

[stefanny28]

Dear Cruzgryphone;

 

We are also booked on the Serenade but for the 14 days Baltic cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen. I would love to read your review. Hopefully, it will be done before we fly out to Stockholm in 1 week.

 

We are planning to take the Arlanda Express since our hotel is near the Central Station. Thanks for all the useful tips.

Edited July 13, 2016 by stefanny28

[cruzgryphon]

Dear Cruzgryphone;

 

We are also booked on the Serenade but for the 14 days Baltic cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen. I would love to read your review. Hopefully, it will be done before we fly out to Stockholm in 1 week.

 

We are planning to take the Arlanda Express since our hotel is near the Central Station. Thanks for all the useful tips.

 

I'll try to - will have a lot more time on the weekend to work on it. In the meantime if there's any specific topic (ship, port etc.) that you're interested in knowing about - post it and I'll answer.

[stefanny28]

Hi Cruzgryphon;

 

My only concern was the fact that we have to carry our passports with us for the whole 3 days we'll be visiting St-Petersburg. I have heard so many stories about pickpockets :-(

I know people suggest some kind of money belt but it is so bulky and obvious that it just attracts more attention.

 

We are touring the whole 3 days with TJ travels. We are quqite a big group booked with them, over 60 people. They said that we cna leave our stuffs in the van and the driver will watch out for it but I don't think that I can leave my passports in the van.

 

What did you do with yours?

 

Is there any other ports where we need to bring the original passport? Our ports are Riga, Tallin, Rostock, Klaipeda, Fredericia, helsink and Copenhagen.

Someone mention they need they passport to get off in Riga, is that true?

 

Thanks

[carfla7]

Great to see another review - we go for the identical cruise on Sunday.

 

One question if I may - were there attempts to stop you from getting off the ship promptly in St P? I read RCI claim (wrongly) that Russian immigration only lets off the ship's tours first. Did you encounter that on your first day?

 

Looking forward to reading what I am about to do ..!:)

[hbbio016]

We took the 10 night Baltic cruise last month. We booked with SPB tours for most excursions. There was no problem getting off the ship early with non-RCI tours in St. Petersburg. We lined up about 6:45 near the exit (for a 7:30 tour) and got through immigration fairly quickly. I think the key is to line up early because the line did get quite long to exit. As long as you have a tour excursion ticket, the immigration won't give you any problems.

 

And for the question if we needed our passports anywhere else - no. Just in St. Petersburg. Though I always keep them with me anyway.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[marci22]

I know people suggest some kind of money belt but it is so bulky and obvious that it just attracts more attention.

 

Look at the Eagle Creek moneybelt. It was similar to the one I used on our Europe cruise. We got pickpocketed (slashed our backpack), but our money/IDs were safe. They did get our compass...

 

It is made of a thin fabric. I wore it under the waistband of my clothing, and I pinned it to keep it from slipping. I kept a few small bills in an easily accessible pocket.

Edited July 14, 2016 by marci22

[Durkman]

One question if I may - were there attempts to stop you from getting off the ship promptly in St P? I read RCI claim (wrongly) that Russian immigration only lets off the ship's tours first. Did you encounter that on your first day?

We just got off the same cruise. As I was not at the front of the line I do not know whether non-Royal tours were prevented from getting off before the Royal tours did, but I can say that we were able to get off in a relatively timely fashion in order to meet our third party (SPB) tour.

 

Our anticipated "clear" time was 8:30 a.m., and we lined up around 8-8:10 a.m. At that point the line for those with non-Royal tours was up to Deck 5. By the time 8:30 rolled around it was up to Deck 6 and stretched all around the Centrum. But as I recall we started moving not long after 8:30 and got off the ship shortly thereafter. The border control situation was a mess and took some time; I want to say we finally met our tour guide and got on the van around 9 a.m. We were supposed to meet at 8:30, but the tour guides understand that getting off will take some time and they won't leave without you.

 

One final comment -- there were no shipwide announcements that non-Royal tours were able to start disembarking. One group in our tour was waiting for that announcement before trying to get off (which never came), so by the time they disembarked and met us they were the last ones to meet the tour guide/reach the bus by about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't a big deal though. I would recommend lining up to disembark no later than 30 minutes before your estimated "clear" time and don't wait for an announcement.

[Bailey & Sophie]

Hi Cruzgryphon;

 

My only concern was the fact that we have to carry our passports with us for the whole 3 days we'll be visiting St-Petersburg. I have heard so many stories about pickpockets :-(

I know people suggest some kind of money belt but it is so bulky and obvious that it just attracts more attention.

 

We are touring the whole 3 days with TJ travels. We are quqite a big group booked with them, over 60 people. They said that we cna leave our stuffs in the van and the driver will watch out for it but I don't think that I can leave my passports in the van.

 

What did you do with yours?

 

Is there any other ports where we need to bring the original passport? Our ports are Riga, Tallin, Rostock, Klaipeda, Fredericia, helsink and Copenhagen.

Someone mention they need they passport to get off in Riga, is that true?

 

Thanks

We picked up a couple of small neck pouches. They slip inside the front of your shirt. Ours are made of a soft cloth. One part is large enough for a PP and the other part is enough for sea pass cards or DL and a few spending bucks. If I was really concerned about losing it, I would also pin it to my shirt.

No one should get that close to you!

[LT Hambone]

Just to add some additional detail on disembarking in St. Petersburg.

 

We were on the 16 June sailing, and on our first day aboard received the letter stating that RCCL Tours would have priority disembarking in St. Petersburg. Thanks to the helpful folks on this board, I knew this was a scam to try and sell you their tours, so I chucked said letter into the nearest recycling bin. We had booked all of our tours with SPB (amazing tour company!), so we were all set to go.

 

On the morning of our first day in St. Petersburg, we joined the non RCCL tour line in the Centrum at 7:00, 30 minutes prior to the clearing time. By this time the line was up to Deck 5, and crew members were keeping things orderly. As the line started moving down, we watched a man and his family on Deck 3 try to jump into the line, but a crew member quickly pulled the man out and told him to go up to Deck 5 and join the end of line (the man was NOT happy!). The line was starting and stopping, and when we got off the ship, we realized they were stopping the line to keep the immigration building from getting jammed. Made it through immigration, out the front door, and met our tour guide (SPB Tours) by 7:45. But where were the RCCL Tours????

 

Here's where RCCL deserves HUGE kudos. Everyone on an RCCL Tour met in the theater, disembarked using the forward gangway, and used a separate section of the immigration building. As a result, the two lines never crossed, and things went incredibly fast and smooth. Awesome job!

 

As for passports and pickpockets - we took our passports with us everywhere, and both my wife and I had hand bags with knife resistant straps and inside zippered pockets. We kept our pockets empty and our bags in front of us. Also didn't hurt that most of the time it was raining and we kept our bags under our coats. Never ever had a problem with pickpockets, even with some of the crushing crowds!

 

Overall - great trip!

[cruzgryphon]

Hi Cruzgryphon;

 

My only concern was the fact that we have to carry our passports with us for the whole 3 days we'll be visiting St-Petersburg. I have heard so many stories about pickpockets :-(

I know people suggest some kind of money belt but it is so bulky and obvious that it just attracts more attention.

 

We are touring the whole 3 days with TJ travels. We are quqite a big group booked with them, over 60 people. They said that we cna leave our stuffs in the van and the driver will watch out for it but I don't think that I can leave my passports in the van.

 

What did you do with yours?

 

Is there any other ports where we need to bring the original passport? Our ports are Riga, Tallin, Rostock, Klaipeda, Fredericia, helsink and Copenhagen.

Someone mention they need they passport to get off in Riga, is that true?

 

Thanks

 

As others have mentioned - the only place where you absolutely need your passport is St. Petersburg to get off the ship. In terms of pickpockets - I don't think the risk is greater than that of any other large city. Although our guide (SPB tours) did warn us to be especially careful in the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood.

I kept my passport either in my breast pocket (I'm a guy) in my shirt (hidden behind some other small papers) or in my neck pouch that I hung around my neck and kept hidden under my shirt. In the past I've tried using a money belt around the waist but found it very inconvenient.

[cruzgryphon]

Great to see another review - we go for the identical cruise on Sunday.

 

One question if I may - were there attempts to stop you from getting off the ship promptly in St P? I read RCI claim (wrongly) that Russian immigration only lets off the ship's tours first. Did you encounter that on your first day?

 

Looking forward to reading what I am about to do ..!:)

 

As a couple of others mentioned - there was no issue with getting off the ship when booked with an independent tour. RCI didn't try to slow you down or anything like that. We docked at 8am and got cleared by around 8:15am. We got off the ship from 2nd deck Centrum (no idea where ship's tours got off - they definitely weren't in our line). I got to the line around 7:50am and it was already up to deck 5. That being said, once we got cleared, the line moved pretty quickly. As someone else mentioned to keep things manageable in customs - they would only let a certain amount get off at a time. That being said - I got off and was through customs by around 8:40am.

 

Day 2 was a breeze - no line up and since customs doesn't have to do the really thorough screening that they did on day 1, it was a breeze getting through customs.

[cruzgryphon]

Weather forecasts: Weather forecasts for Stockholm are unreliable. We checked the morning of our flight to Stockholm and it called for rain that evening and the next day. We got there and there was partly cloudy skies and no rain (it rained overnight). The next day was more of the same.

 

Hotel: Stayed at the Elite Eden Park Hotel - nice hotel about 15 to 20 minute walk away from the Central Station. Although further away from Gamla Stan, it was in the Stureplan with a lot more restaurants and café options than close to the Central Station. Also it was quite convenient to public transportation and only about 10 minute walk to the waterfront. Price was good as well and the hotel itself was great - highly recommend it if you don't mind being further away from Gamla Stan.

 

Day 1:

Visited the townhall - very interesting. It has the banquet hall where the Nobel Prize banquet is held, along with a Golden Room that is just incredible. If you're going to visit, I would highly recommend taking the tour that's offered - they have it in multiple languages and only costs about 100SEK/ adult.

 

It's also on the waterfront and there are boat tours available from the pier there.

 

Visited Gamla Stan - the usual places - the palace, the church etc. Unfortunately for us there was a Triathlon the next couple of days so areas in front of the Palace were blocked off and there was no changing of the guard. So pictures of the outside of the palace were pretty much impossible unless you go on a boat tour (also a boat tour is one of the only ways to get a true picture of the palace - one of the pictures that typically shows up in tourist guides). One place that a little touristy but I think is worth a look is Alley of Mårten Trotzig - the narrowest street in Gamla Stan. We were advised by a couple of people not to go to the Nobel museum so we skipped that. One thing is to get a good detailed map of Gamla Stan (if you're not doing any sort of walking tour) otherwise it is easy to get lost. There were a lot of eating places but one thing that I really noticed about Gamla Stan and Stockholm in general is that there are a lot of Italian restaurants.

 

We also went to the ice bar that is close to the Central Station. Totally enjoyed it - entry price included the price of one drink - Vodka based or not Vodka based. We had booked online and got a timeslot of around 5:30pm. But walk-ups are also possible especially outside the dinner hour (according to people we talked to).

 

Language: Most if not everyone we encountered spoke some degree of English. A lot of the restaurants had menus/descriptions in English as well in the touristy areas. Personally I always try and learn a few words of the local language like please, hello and thank you. In Swedish "hello" is very easy it sound like the English "Hey" (spelled Hej in Swedish) so don't be surprised to hear it a lot of the time.

 

Next up - Day 2 and the island that has the Vasa museum and the Abba Museum.

[stefanny28]

Thanks Cruzgryphon.

Keep posting please. These are very helpful informations for our upcoming cruise.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[cruzgryphon]

Focus of day 2 was Djurgården with a focus on Vasa Museum and Abba Museum.

Vasa was quite interesting - you have the ship itself and lots of displays with information.There is a short film (free) that I found really helpful to set the stage for touring around the museum itself. A couple of suggestions for Vasa:

1) If you're doing it yourself - get there early before the different tour buses get there and the line gets incredibly long.

2) There is a separate line for people to buy tickets from a machine - if you have a credit card with a pin. Don't get fooled by the longer line of people who don't have a credit card with a pin. Even if the line is super long I'm sure a lot of the people either didn't have a credit card with a pin or didn't realize there was a separate line for people to buy from the machine.

 

Abba museum - if you're a fan of Abba definitely visit the Abba museum. It has a lot of interactive displays (like a recording studio, trivia game etc.) that you can use your ticket as a type of tracker and then you can listen/ see things online (from the interactive displays) using the code on your ticket. One thing to note - they will only accept credit cards to get in - no cash.

 

Afternoon we went for an hour long sightseeing boat tour - it was interesting you got to see things like Djurgården from the water and some of the islands of the archipelago. It was covered, but the windows opened for you to take pictures and had an audio guide in multiple languages. We didn't pick it up from near the Townhall but along the waterfront on the way to Djurgården (when taking the tram leaving Djurgården it was about 2 stops away).

[cruzgryphon]

If you're getting to Stockholm prior to the cruise one thing to keep in mind is that in the evening's the restaurants get quite full. If you can scout out a couple of places you'd like to eat and make reservations - otherwise you could be waiting quite a long time to eat (we typically ate around 8pm and found all the restaurants quite busy - and this was in an area with lots of restaurants around).

[umlaut]

Sounds very strange with the 1000 SEK limit and the ATM. I'm Swedish and have never encountered this. The "Bankomat" which is the vast majority of ATM's in Sweden don't have a limit, it's the debit/credit card that carries the limit, and Swedish cards usually have a limit of 5000 SEK per day. This may sound a little to some, but Sweden holds the pole position of not using cash in the world, only 20℅ of transactions in stores are made by cash and many stores, particularly hairdressers, won't even accept cash.

[cruzgryphon]

Day 3 in the morning spent it at a café with a couple of friends (if you like cinnamon buns - the cinnamon buns at the cafés are great - don't have a lot of goopy sugary syrup pored over them a la cinnabon - but some nice spices and bread (or bun or whatever you call it)).

 

Took a cab to the pier from the hotel - could have taken a bus, but the city buses aren't really conducive to bigger suitcases and I had a carry on and smaller bag to boot. Also it looks like the walk from the bus stop to the actual Serenade berth is quite a hike.

 

Got there around 12:20pm - dropped off luggage. Inside they have two separate queues - one for Platinum and above and one for the rest. I'm diamond and there was no one in the Platinum and above line - so I checked in pretty quickly (the line to drop off luggage was longer) and got on the ship itself around 12:45pm. You gangway to get off and on the ship (embarkation and ports) is on the 2nd deck mid ship. Since I had a late breakfast I didn't bother going up to the Windjammer for lunch.

 

Instead I had a cold café mocha at Caffe Lattitudes on deck 5 instead. They have coffee cards where you get 6 and get the 7th for free.

They have 3 tiers of coffee card depending on how much you were going to pay for your drink - I spent about $30 US for a coffee card that let you get any drink priced $5 or less (that was the middle tier - I think there was one for drinks $4 or less and one for drinks $7 or less).

Also about Caffe Lattitudes - the days in port right before the ship gets cleared to start letting people off the ship - the line is super long - so factor that into your timing.

 

Cabins opened at 1pm.

 

Muster drill was at 4:15pm. One thing that surprised me was how long it took to get the bags delivered to the cabin - mine was there around 4:50pm (and from what I heard from others that was about the norm unless you were in a suite). So don't be concerned about how long your bags take.

 

One note about the port - both HoHo buses make stops at the Serenade's berth.

 

I won't go to much into information about the ship during my review unless people post questions about it.

[cruzgryphon]

Sounds very strange with the 1000 SEK limit and the ATM. I'm Swedish and have never encountered this. The "Bankomat" which is the vast majority of ATM's in Sweden don't have a limit, it's the debit/credit card that carries the limit, and Swedish cards usually have a limit of 5000 SEK per day. This may sound a little to some, but Sweden holds the pole position of not using cash in the world, only 20℅ of transactions in stores are made by cash and many stores, particularly hairdressers, won't even accept cash.

 

Maybe it was because we were using foreign bank cards (German and Canadian) even though our cards had withdrawal limits in excess of the equivalent of $1000 SEK?

[umlaut]

Maybe it was because we were using foreign bank cards (German and Canadian) even though our cards had withdrawal limits in excess of the equivalent of $1000 SEK?

Well maybe they have an in built limit which they don't advertise, as US$1000 is about 8000 SEK and most banks have a limit of 5000 SEK per day. I probably misread your post as you were only able to withdraw 1000 SEK and not US$1000 in SEK. Or maybe CAD instead of US$, but still over 5000 SEK.

 

As I mentioned, Swedes usually don't carry large sums of money. We use debit/credit card, even for small transactions of US$1, in the EU the shops are not allowed to charge you extra for using cards, and the card companies are not allowed to charge the shopkeepers more than a set percentage. And for private transactions we've a phone app (Swish) that is supported by all major, and most minor, banks that is free and let us transact up to 5000 SEK instantly.

[cruzgryphon]

Day 4 brought us to Helsinki - first port of call on our itinerary. You lose an hour of sleep going from Stockholm to Helsinki, but fortunately it didn't matter too much since we docked around 11am :)

 

I booked a private tour through SPB - their Panoramic Helsinki tour. Even though the weather was iffy (very overcast with a chance of rain) I found Helsinki quite nice. We visited the usual places, Senate Square with the Helsinki Cathedral (which was quite nice), Sibelius Monument, Market Place, Olympic Stadium, Rock Church (very, very interesting) and a couple of stops along the waterfront.

 

We had 45 minutes at the Market Place. It was smaller than I expected but quite nice. You could try local delicacies such as Elk Sausage, Reindeer hot dogs as well as the usual fresh fruit stalls, souvenir shops etc.. A lot of the fresh fruit (lots of Strawberries) places would let you try one or two - and they tasted really, really good. One thing about the market place - if you don't have Euros they will offer a really, really bad exchange rate. Being a market place, not a lot of places that I could see accepted credit cards. My recommendation is to have some Euros with you if you plan on buying anything in the Market.

 

Oh one thing about the weather forecast on the cruise compass - if it says cloudy interpret it as rain and prepare accordingly.

 

I'm glad we went to Helsinki - it was quite nice.

[stefanny28]

Thanks for all the inofrmations. I am ready this and getting prepared to leave in 4 days to start the cruise.

 

Just a question: how much type did you give the luggage handlers at the pier? In the US and Puerto Rico, we usually give $1/bag. How much is the norm here in Stockholm?

[stefanny28]

Dear Cruzgryphon;

 

You mentioned a "Coffee Card" in your previous post. What is that?

Is it in the beverage package? Or something you get directly at the Cafe-Latetudes?