Tickledblue does a Trip Report - Norwegian Fjords on Serenade

[CruisinAg]

Following along. I'd love to do this someday. A little off topic, but any plan on doing a review on your Anthem cruise? I'll be doing the same cruise 2 weeks after you.

[Zutcorp]

• You have to know what 'zones' you need tickets for (I never completely figured this out) -- I just bought 24 hr 4 zone tickets that I knew would cover the distance thanks to the aforementioned thread
  

 

Most danes don't really understand the zone system. We just use it :-). Sounds like the 4 zone card gets it done.

 

 

Following along. Looking forward to see what you think of Copenhagen :-)

[tonkie]

I was on the very same cruise and it's nice to see other opinions!!

[kjunea]

I'm following along for the ride! Great review so far. This is one of the cruises we are thinking of doing when my husband retires in a couple of years. We are thinking of doing a B2B, with extra time added in London and Paris. I mean, if I'm flying over there, I'm going to spend more than a week or two!

[TickledBlue]

Following along. I'd love to do this someday. A little off topic, but any plan on doing a review on your Anthem cruise? I'll be doing the same cruise 2 weeks after you.

 

Haven't given any thought about an Anthem cruise review. There are tons of them out there, but maybe not for the Canadian itinerary. We'll see how this trip report goes and I'll decide later. While I appreciate when others do a live report on ship, there's no way I'm 'working' on a cruise by writing a live review.

 

I think no matter what the decision, a trip report will take weeks so if I did, I wouldn't be finished by the time you go.

[TickledBlue]

Following along with interest. Just back off my very first cruise, which was in the Med. Might have the cruise bug now so going to compose a bucket list in case I am ever fortunate enough to go on another one at some stage. Ideally I would love to do a northern lights itinerary but RCI dont seem to do this from what I can see, so that may be part of a different trip. I know I want to do an eastern med itinerary and a caribbean one but would also love to do northern europe and baltic areas. Great to read this review as so few are done in this area. Can you include what weather is like there this time of year. Great photos so far. what class ship is Serenade? Looks quite big.

 

Oh, I forgot to answer your last question...Serenade is Radiance class -- we've been on Brilliance of the Seas (same class) twice. The Radiance class is medium size by today's standards with capacity for 2490 guests and 891 crew. Here is the ewiki page for more information. Just a preview of my thoughts on the ship -- we loved it but it wasn't without flaws.

[TickledBlue]

Another thank you for your review. I was seriously considering this cruise as the Fjords are on my bucket list, but timing didn't work out. Hopefully next year if it's offered. Looking forward to more!

 

Someone will offer Norwegian fjords cruises even if it's not on Serenade or through RCI ;p. Going in the shoulder season had both benefits and disadvantages, but Norwegian fjord cruises are offered all summer long. I assume you have some other criteria or preferences that is holding you back.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Thx for the review...we were just talking about our next booking and I don't feel we can any longer do the Balkans what with all the trouble there, so were discussing possibility of doing the Fjords.

 

Can't wait to see more!

 

I really hate this for you Becci. But of course this is strictly your decision. We're doing the Baltic on the Brilliance next May. We figure there is as much if not more violent crimes here in the states than anywhere in the Baltics. So we're not cancelling going forward. On a different note, oddly enough Belgium is not listed on any of the cruises out of Amsterdam.

 

Sorry to hi-jack the thread. Which BTW we are enjoying immensely !

[TickledBlue]

I'm reading along as I want to go to Norway Soon.

 

You have to set priorities -- there are so many cruises and land vacations to choose from. If Norway is higher on your priorities than other destinations, then go for it.

[TickledBlue]

Most danes don't really understand the zone system. We just use it :-). Sounds like the 4 zone card gets it done.

 

 

Following along. Looking forward to see what you think of Copenhagen :-)

 

Yeah, it seemed like it was just tribal knowledge on what zones were needed from those we asked. Other than the ticketing confusion, the public transportation was easy to use (if you knew your destination's end point) and seemed very well maintained.

[BecciBoo]

I'm just a little scared of Turkey now. But that could change....does this mean you will do a come back review???

[TickledBlue]

I was on the very same cruise and it's nice to see other opinions!!

 

We all have opinions and the right to have them. I'm not keeping it a secret here, I would rank this cruise in our top 5.

[TickledBlue]

The weather in Copenhagen that day was bright and sunny with temperatures in the mid-to-high 50's and quite breezy. A light-weight jacket was needed.

I used Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports book's walking tour as a plan on what to see in Copenhagen.

I'm not going to go into excruciating detail on Rick Steves walking tour, for that, buy the book. Suffice it to say that it was a good starting point for what to see and do in the city. Prior to the cruise, I have entered way points on a map program on my smart phone which helped us to find each sight. On a side note, our opinion on what was interesting to see and what Rick Steves walking tour contained differed a bit.

 

 

 

When we got to Nyhavn, we caught a sight-seeing boat that was just about to take off. The tour was 1 hour long and we were glad that the boat was covered because that wind got pretty chilly.

Shipping containers that were re-purposed into water-front apartments:

[TickledBlue]

 

 

 

 

[TickledBlue]

Little Mermaid from behind and all of the crazy people taking it's picture (I was in that crazy crowd a week later :rolleyes:):

 

 

[TickledBlue]

Back on land:

 

 

 

 

By this time we were pretty hungry and the boat tour ticket included some coupons (MDW thrives on coupons!) with 10% off dinner at TGI Fridays -- yes folks, we are part of the few that eat at chain restaurants and not the local mom-and-pop restaurants :eek:. Did I mention that MDW is a sucker for coupons? Pick your battles boys. The ribs were great:

Don't expect much food porn here...it will be few and far between.

After dinner, the jet lag caught up and we went back to the hotel. Got a pretty good night sleep despite that portions of my body was super-hot (under the comforter) and cold (with no top sheet to use).

[reader8855]

Thanks for the great information and pictures.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[TickledBlue]

Thanks for the great information and pictures.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

You're welcome. Haven't even gotten to the cruise yet, but it will be here soon.

[TickledBlue]

EMBARKATION DAY

The Clarion has complimentary breakfast for SOME guests, we weren't part of that 'some'. It was something like $20 pp for what looked like a good meal which was to rich for our blood -- all we wanted was something light that will get us through till we could pig out on the ship.

So we went for a walk to the local McDonalds just down the street which was very pedestrian-friendly. The weather was beautiful and in the low 50's with a brisk breeze.

Looking back at the hotel:

 

After the quick breakfast, we did a little walking and discovered a nice neighborhood so near the airport:

 

A fellow roll call member got us a ride to the cruise port in a 8 person taxi for $14 pp paid in US. This was a great deal considering going in a taxi as a couple would have been over $60. We met in the hotel lobby at 10 am and the driver was prompt, got to the port at 10:30 or so.

Once we got to the port, there was the baggage drop off. This is where having pre-printed tags paid off -- didn't have to mess around with writing them here. Just went inside and put them on the conveyor belt.

 

Check in was quick with just a short wait, we are Emerald C&A level which helped since it looked like maybe a dozen were in the newbie line. Other than the newbie line, all lines were very short at that time. We were on board a little before 11 (would have been quicker but the check in guy seemed to have some problems with his computer).

A quick walk across the pier and we were on the ship! Like all of the ports, we got on (and off) the ship on deck 2. This was handy since we were in cabin:

[TickledBlue]

As most people do, we headed directly up to the Windjammer. The crowds weren't too bad, I suspect a lot of people were still exploring Copenhagen. We may have shown up later as well if I didn't have plans on doing that at the end of this cruise. We walked around the ship until our room was available at 1 pm.

More port pictures:

Terminal 1 (terminal 2 in background, terminal 3 is out of picture, they all look the same)

 

 

Notice the UNICEF building to the left of the road -- some of the city buses has the word UNICEF so you know that is the right bus to port

 

[TickledBlue]

Now for ship pictures since that was what we are all here for:

 

Cinema -- Went to a movie here on the last sea day and the place was completely empty. Right as the movie was starting, 2 non-English speaking gentlemen sat right next to me when there were > 40 empty seats around. This does not conform to US culture (well at least Midwestern US culture) so get use to the foreign cultures, there's lots of them on board.

Safari Club:

Chef's Table:

 

Hallway on deck 2 -- notice the watertight doors that were only on this deck. My thinking at the time was that if the ship started sinking, they'd close these -- just hoped that we'd be on the right side of the door.

This is by no means a comprehensive collection of ship photos that I have, I'll mingle more in later.

[mek]

We were on Serenade last June for the 11 night North Cape itinerary. I'm enjoying your photos and review.

[TickledBlue]

Now about cabin 2001, home-sweet-home. I'm sure we were assigned this bottom-of-the-line cabin because I booked the cheapest cabin at the rock-bottom price (and I monitored the price for quite a while). Did I mention that I was cheap? The cabin was conveniently placed for all port stops (at least on this cruise) but obviously not so convenient when you wanted to visit the Windjammer/pool on deck 11.

The cabin was the standard interior size and pretty quiet except for a low volume whirling sound. It reminded me of a grinder changing pitch when sharping a lawn mower blade, but wasn't nearly as shrill or loud as that (yeah, I mow my own lawn at home). Only light sleepers (such as me) would probably give the sound much notice.

Our cabin attendant did a great job at keeping the place clean, bed made, and the ice bucket filled (since we requested it) while not being intrusive.

Notice the safety video was still playing on TV. Yeah, the accommodations were a little tight, but we mostly used the room for sleeping, showering, and changing. We were out in the public areas or in port exploring most of the time.

 

This was the first cruise that we were Emerald and were pleased with the goodies provided upon arrival -- 2 Diet Cokes, 6 bottles of water and 2 plates of cookies. We can get used to this...better yet, we'll make Diamond after our next cruise in September.

Our Emerald discounts (which we didn't use except for the 3 spin-to-win slot pulls):

Edited June 2, 2017 by TickledBlue

[TickledBlue]

We were on Serenade last June for the 11 night North Cape itinerary. I'm enjoying your photos and review.

 

Would love to do that itinerary some day.

[TickledBlue]

We had My Time Dining on this cruise - our first time ever. This was because we never made off the wait list for traditional main seating. When we first got on board, we went to the MDR to speak with the head waiter and he explained the there would be a lot more 2 tops (which we wanted) in MTD so we decided to try it out. By the way, the head waiter was very friendly just like all the other personnel that we encountered on board).

So we went to MDR at 5:30 pm (yeah, we like to eat early) and asked for a 2 top near a window and one that isn't separated by inches from another 2 top (there are many of those). We were seated at table 514 and that was our table for the rest of the cruise (at our request). A woman (perhaps a supervisor) came by the 2nd night and said that she knew we were on a B2B and would reserve our table for the 2nd leg too. We were taken back on how thoughtful that was (we never asked). Our waiter and assistant waiters were great.

After dinner, we went the 'Welcome aboard' show at 7:45 pm (only 1 show) that evening with Duo Art Motion (acrobatic dancing couple that did a lot of lifts). We thought the show was OK but wasn't worth doing again (yes, they were back) on the 2nd leg of our B2B.