Tickledblue does a Trip Report - Norwegian Fjords on Serenade

[Beachin2]

Every port is different - how was turnaround day for your B2B? Need to leave the ship like US ports?

[TickledBlue]

Every port is different - how was turnaround day for your B2B? Need to leave the ship like US ports?

 

I was going to get to this towards the end, but there's not time like the present. Short answers...it was great, and no. Basically you had 2 options:

1. Stay on the ship -- you had to go to the Safari Lounge and remain there until they chased all the old passengers off the ship.
   
2. Leave the ship -- you had to get off the ship same time as everyone else, and could not come back until 11 or later.
   

We opted for option 2 because we wanted to explore Copenhagen some more.

 

 

 

The information they gave us says it all (hopefully you can read it):

 

[Beachin2]

Thank you for the info. Page #2 is too blurry to read. Can you summarize?

 

We plan on going ashore after cruise #1 to explore CPH a bit and then stay on board after #2 to meet up with friends for the TA, so it is nice to have both sets of procedures. (same cabin B2B2B)

[TickledBlue]

Thank you for the info. Page #2 is too blurry to read. Can you summarize?

 

We plan on going ashore after cruise #1 to explore CPH a bit and then stay on board after #2 to meet up with friends for the TA, so it is nice to have both sets of procedures. (same cabin B2B2B)

 

You are right, I didn't really look at it after I took the picture. Even blowing it up it's still blurry and I don't have the original anymore, but I think I can make most of it out with 90% accuracy:

Breakfast will be available in the Windjammer Cafe, Deck 11 from 6:00 am to 9:30 am and open seating breakfast will be served in the Reflections Dining Room, Deck 4 will be open from 6:30 am to 8:00 am. Room service will not be available for breakfast. Cafe Latte-Tudes ($) will be open from 6:00 am to 8:30 am.

 

The Photo Center works on a cruise-by-cruise basis. Photographs taken on the first cruise will not be available on the successive cruise.

 

Current cruise VOOM internet access codes will be deactivated around 9:30 am on turnaround day.

 

Please fill out and return the Health Questionnaire and return to the Guest Relations Desk on deck 4 as soon as possible.

 

If there is anything we can do to ensure you continue to have a most enjoyable vacation, please do not hesitate to contact us at the Guest Relations Desk by dialing '0'.

 

Serenade of the Seas Guest Services Team.

Yes, they make you fill out a new Health Questionnaire, forgot about that until now. :o Edited June 3, 2017 by TickledBlue

[Beachin2]

Thank you! Looks like the regular "housekeeping" type stuff. Have never have run into the new health questionnaire before.

[TickledBlue]

DAY 2 - AT SEA

I have copies of all of the Cruise Compasses but I think I'll post them all at the end unless someone is really itching to view them.

 

Woke up and worked out in the fitness center. This keeps me trim despite all of the food I consume. If you believe that, I have a bridge I'll sell you... Seriously, I usually jog for 30 minutes first thing in the morning (6:00 am) unless we are in port when I know we'll be doing a lot of walking. Serenade has the fitness center with lots of treadmills (all that I care about) on deck 12 in front of the ship, normally with a great view out to sea. Well, not that day -- there was dense fog.

After the workout, I go down to the room, shower and drag MDW out of bed up to the Windjammer. After a healthy breakfast (someone wants to buy a bridge?), I go down to change into my swimsuit and go back up to deck 11 to hit the hot tub. MDW finds a quiet spot and reads her Kindle (she never joins me in the hot tub). There are 3 public hot tubs, 2 outside by the pool and 1 inside the Solarium - they seat 4 fairly comfortably but 6 or 8 could fit (but it wouldn't be pleasant IMHO).

It was pleasant sitting in the outdoor hot tubs watching Chive on the big screen TV. Chive TV plays short video clips like people kicking soccer balls into basket ball goals, dog riding a Segway, woman juggling 5 basketballs with hands and feet, etc, sort of like clips that you may find on YouTube. Never saw or heard it before, but just googled it and you can find it here advertised as the 'world's best bar entertainment'. Lots of 80's/90's pop songs were always playing as well. Only problem was that the Chive TV clips were repeated on our 2nd cruise.

Notice the pool was closed -- it was like that all week long, except for some time during the day when we were in Ålesund (it was warmer that day). The temperature was high 40's in the morning and low-to-mid 50's in the afternoon and windy - a wind breaker was necessary. Being in an outside hot tub was comfortable on most days, but on days when it was rainy and windy (Bergen and Geiranger port days) it wasn't. Of course, getting out of the hot tub was done with expediency. As with all RCI ships, you needed to use your sea pass to check out towels and check them back in which wasn't ideal in the cool weather.

With such cool weather during the day, there were crowds indoors in spots. The busiest areas tended to be the Solarium, stores, and the Centrum. While Serenade isn't the most ideal cold weather ship, it wasn't that bad. I'd only wish for a larger Solarium (with more hot tubs) and maybe a larger Centrum (or something like that). The casino was never too busy during the day so the level of smoke was low; nonetheless, the smoke smell oozed out to the Centrum seats on deck 6 but was fairly easy to avoid.

 

After the hot tub, got dressed and walked around the ship taking pictures...oh, I did say it was foggy? All throughout the day and night, the ship emitted a fog horn blast every minute or two. You only notice it outside but it was really loud if you near the bow of the ship. Never was on a ship in the thick fog before...

 

 

[TickledBlue]

Going from the Centrum to aft on deck 6:

 

 

 

 

[TickledBlue]

While on a cruise, MDW and I love, love good seafood, especially shrimp, salmon, swordfish, sea scallops, bay scallops, crab cakes, crab legs, lobster, etc. Except for lobster, we had it all (we already knew lobster isn't served on cruises that don't start in the US). In general, we thought the food was excellent in the MDR and even the Windjammer (for the most part).

Those of us that have been on many cruises through the years have lamented that the quality of cruise food (in general) have gone down in quality. This holds true for all mainstream cruise lines -- just look on the forums and you'll see many threads stating such.

Well on this cruise, the quality of food went up!

Not everyone thought so...On the flight back to the US, I overheard a stewardess said that a lady in seat 22C (or something like that) said that the airline food was better than the cruise that she just got off. I'm pretty sure that the only cruise ending in CPH that day was the Serenade. As usual, the airline food wasn't particularly great (it was OK) and I was pretty sure the lady in seat 22C was dissatisfied with Serenade's food. OK, this was after our 2nd B2B but the food was consistent on both cruises.

 

I don't want this thread to become a debate on cruise food quality, but I'm just stating our opinion -- after many cruises of declining food quality, the food was much better on this cruise. Certainly a non-subjective measure would be the cost of the raw ingredients -- they would have been up on this cruise versus others. Sure there was no lobster tail ($25/lb*), but king crab legs ($25/lb*) was available. Our Sept. Allure cruise advertised sea scallops as an appetizer and we got (cheaper in cost) bay scallops...on this cruise they advertised bay scallops and we got sea scallops. Just some examples of many where the food was just better than some more recent cruises.

* priced frozen from Sams Club

 

I doubt this thread has the readership, but if you want to complain about the food on Serenade or any other ship, do it in another thread. This one's mine. :D

 

For lunch, we ate in the MDR which opened at noon. If you get there right at noon, there was no wait to get a 2-top.

I had the Moroccan-style Grilled Pita -- probably my least favorite dish on the whole cruise. But the great thing about MDR lunch is the buffet. You can have them make you a fresh pasta dish, salad, or (my favorite) garlic shrimp and spare ribs.

(could only take a quick snapshot because I didn't want to be in people's way)

 

My appetizer (food presentation by Joe)

 

OK maybe not a great presentation, but who can taste 'presentation'? Tasted great to me.

Maybe just 1 or 2 more food porn pictures left for the rest of the trip report.

Edited June 4, 2017 by TickledBlue

[TickledBlue]

In the afternoon, MDW and I went to see the movie, A Dog's Purpose in the cinema. We had to arrive early (15 mins ahead of time) because it was a packed house. What else was there to do on a foggy sea day?

 

Personally, I thought the movie was too long and boring but this is cruise critic, not movie critic.

Don't remember the details of the rest of the afternoon but I'm sure I donated a little in the casino.

[NewSalt]

I'm reading your thread we're sailing on Serenade in February, and, as you said, there are relatively few reviews of this ship. I really wasn't interested in this part of the world.

 

But your pictures have captivated me, and this cruise is now on my bucket list. Looking forward to reading more.

[Alter Ego]

 

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:

 

Made me smile - I spent my first night in Seoul at a TGI Fridays. I consoled myself with the thought that, looking around, everyone else was Korean!

 

Anyways, really enjoying your review. Like you said, there are a lot of certain kind of reviews, so it's always a pleasure to see one that's unusual.

 

P.S. it's a Chicago thing, but whenever I see MDW, I think Midway Airport. What can I saw, Southwest is my domestic airline of choice!! LOL 😀

[VernaF7449]

Following your trip report since I will be on the Serenade TA from Copenhagen to Boston, embarking August 26. Like TickledBlue I booked the Copenhagen Airport Hilton (I used Hilton Points) and my reservation has been transferred to the "new" Clarion.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[kandj05]

The Norwegian Fjords cruise is among one of our favorites. Thank you for doing this review!

 

Love the pics!

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

[TickledBlue]

Made me smile - I spent my first night in Seoul at a TGI Fridays. I consoled myself with the thought that, looking around, everyone else was Korean!

 

Anyways, really enjoying your review. Like you said, there are a lot of certain kind of reviews, so it's always a pleasure to see one that's unusual.

 

P.S. it's a Chicago thing, but whenever I see MDW, I think Midway Airport. What can I saw, Southwest is my domestic airline of choice!! LOL 😀

 

I recognize and usually point it out to MDW the irony of eating at American chain restaurants when traveling.

 

I'm not sure how unusual it is for Americans to visit American chain restaurants overseas. Some Americans won't eat at chain restaurants period even when traveling in America. Obviously lots and lots of others do or those chain restaurants would go out of business.

 

When we went on a cruise that ended in Venice 3 years ago, we ate at McDonalds and it tasted SO good. Missed 'American' food after a couple of weeks of traveling. The best part of it was the Coke with lots of ice -- tasted great on a hot day.

 

I can see why you'd think of Midway with MDW and I think of Indianapolis when people refer to Indy here on CC. :)

[TickledBlue]

I'm reading your thread we're sailing on Serenade in February, and, as you said, there are relatively few reviews of this ship. I really wasn't interested in this part of the world.

 

But your pictures have captivated me, and this cruise is now on my bucket list. Looking forward to reading more.

 

Stick around, you haven't seen the best part. Norway was beautiful.

[TickledBlue]

Following your trip report since I will be on the Serenade TA from Copenhagen to Boston, embarking August 26. Like TickledBlue I booked the Copenhagen Airport Hilton (I used Hilton Points) and my reservation has been transferred to the "new" Clarion.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

If you want a better comfort level that they'll honor your reservation, you can go to https://www.nordicchoicehotels.com/contact-us/ and click on the Open Chat button. That was the best way to actually get a hold of someone without an expensive overseas call.

[TickledBlue]

The Norwegian Fjords cruise is among one of our favorites. Thank you for doing this review!

 

Love the pics!

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

 

Ours too. Your're welcome.

[TickledBlue]

Pardon the pause in this trip report. I could give lots of excuses but to be perfectly honest, I just needed a break and the weather was very nice this weekend.

One thing that I failed to mention was the Meet & Mingle. It was held at 10 am in Vortex, deck 12. The Activities Director, Grant led the meeting and passed the microphone around for all us to introduce ourselves. There was a drawing with about 8 gifts ranging from RCI-branded items to bottles of wine. We didn't win anything.

Now's about the time to restate something that I said in post 1 of this thread -- I'm about the details. I tell myself that I'm posting this here for the cruise newbies but the reality is that I like to gripe...a little...

So everyday, you get a cruise compass which is very useful for knowing what activities are going on, what dress code there is in the MDR, and most importantly, what are the opening hours for the restaurants. There's also a lot of sales information and other stuff that I couldn't care less about.

Sorry about the shadows...

 

 

 

As if information about all the up sells for beverage packages, art auctions, shopping, specialty restaurants embedded in the cruise compass wasn't enough, you always get inserts with more useless information:

 

 

 

Fortunately, they also provide a useful round filing cabinet to keep it all organized:

[FionaMG]

Fortunately, they also provide a useful round filing cabinet to keep it all organized:

 

Like. :D

 

Enjoying your review very much. Thanks for sharing.

[VernaF7449]

If you want a better comfort level that they'll honor your reservation, you can go to https://www.nordicchoicehotels.com/contact-us/ and click on the Open Chat button. That was the best way to actually get a hold of someone without an expensive overseas call.

 

 

Thanks! I already confirmed my Clarion reservation that way. I also got a match for Nordic Choice status using HH Diamond.

 

You said in an earlier post someone arranged transportation from the Clarion to the port. Do you know if the transport was arranged via the hotel or directly with the transport service? There are several people on my roll call staying at the Clarion if we can share expenses that would be great.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[TickledBlue]

Thanks! I already confirmed my Clarion reservation that way. I also got a match for Nordic Choice status using HH Diamond.

 

You said in an earlier post someone arranged transportation from the Clarion to the port. Do you know if the transport was arranged via the hotel or directly with the transport service? There are several people on my roll call staying at the Clarion if we can share expenses that would be great.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

You'll need to contact Susan (alcpa1) from our roll call on what she did but I think she contacted the transport company directly. You can do this by posting in a thread that she did and hopefully she'll respond.

[VernaF7449]

You'll need to contact Susan (alcpa1) from our roll call on what she did but I think she contacted the transport company directly. You can do this by posting in a thread that she did and hopefully she'll respond.

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[TickledBlue]

Day 3 - Stavenger

 

At our Meet & Greet, there were 7 people (us included) that wanted to go to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) by taking a car ferry to Tau and then sharing a taxi to/from the Preikestolen parking lot. From the parking lot, it is a 2 hour hike up and another 2 hours down (6 km round trip). We decided to meet at 7AM at Schooner bar.

 

MDW usually lets me take care of all of the trip details and she has a great time. Not this time, MDW poo poo'd the plans. She was concerned that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the group going uphill.

 

 

OK, met the others at Schooner at 7AM to let them know we weren't going...so time for plan B. I had this in my back pocket, do a Lysefjord cruise. I was planning this as a backup to wet weather but it worked for the MDW's veto as well.

 

 

Speaking of weather, as you can see in pictures, it was a beautiful day -- sunny and clear. The temperature was in the mid-50's but the breeze on the boat really required a windbreaker.

 

 

Before going, all of my research said to dress in layers. Exactly what did that mean? Well the following picture showed what I wore and was more than adequate for all of the stops (except for Geiranger, but more on that later). To be 100% accurate, I did have 1 more layer but I didn't think you wanted to see my tighty-whities or my socks/shoes. The shoes were simply sneakers with a back up pair in case they got wet (which they never did, even on rainy days).

 

 

 

 

So at this port, we were one of the first off of the ship which was probably 10 minutes too early. I say this because as we walked around the port, we saw the Lylesfjord cruise boat tied to the pier but no one was there selling tickets. From my planning, I knew that Rodne had an office about 2 blocks up the street. We walked there, bought tickets (chip/signature US credit card worked fine), and then walked back to the boat. So coming back about 15 minutes later and there were 2 fairly long lines -- one buying tickets, the other waiting to get on the boat. So we got in line for the boat...

While we were waiting, saw the RIB boats loading and taking off. I thought this looked fun but MDW thought it looked uncomfortable, the seats are kind of like horse saddles -- you straddle it, but there are firm seat backs. They were busy putting on the supplied wet suits -- they were certainly needed since it would be windy, wet, and cold without them.

 

 

Handy map on the boat's wall showing where we were going

 

 

[TickledBlue]

It was difficult to pick the highlights of well over 100 pictures -- Lylesfjord was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

They announced these seals over the PA which were hard to see since they blended in and were far way. I used my zoom camera to get close in but I found its focus limitations so these guys are a bit blurry. They swam away before I could get a better shot.