Serenade of the Seas - Aug 8 Review

[sharybeari]

We started our trip by flying to Victoria and spending a day there. We then rented a car and went to Vancouver for 4 days. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency (we got the room for $60 on priceline) the hotel and the staff were amazing!!

 

On to the cruise...

 

We decided to go early to the dock to see if there was any chance of an upgrade, there was a large group travelling this cruise (NPN National Professional Network) and they had scooped up all remaining rooms. This group even brought there own band that played throughout the cruise, they were excellent! Anyone I met from that group was so nice! We were at the port around 10 AM and was on the ship by 12:15, everything was smooth and easy!

 

We had room 1074 a balcony room, it was nice, there were 3 of us in the room and we had enough room to store everything and we brought a lot of luggage. The ship is amazing, it is my favorite RCCL ship I have been on. I liked it much better than the Voyager of the Seas, I didn't miss the promenade at all! I found that on this ship, the centrum area was always used and the singers and bands really made the center of the ship a nice place to meet before dinner. The champagne bar, the centrum bar and other central meeting places were used and it was great!

 

I am not going to comment on food by the day, we thought it was very good, there were a few meals that weren't the best we ever tasted by the overall dining experience was excellent. We were surprised that we got our own table for the three of us, we orginally requested a large table but it was nice all the same.

 

There was lots to do on sailing days, we saw lots of whales from our balcony or out on deck, a tip we learnt is the best time to view whales from the ship is 4:30 -6 PM, seems that the whales 'dine' at that time!

 

We got around 500 feet from Hubbard Glacier it was incredible, lots of Calving and it was a clear sunny day, it was one of my favorite sights of the trip!!

 

Skagway:

 

Frontier Excursions Discover the Yukon and Dog Sled - what a great excursion, we drove along the whitepass railway and stopped for lots of photos, went into British Columbia saw Lake Bennett, Tugshi and into the Yukon. Had a great bbq lunch in Carcross yukon, walked around the wildlife museum, some people took dogsledding tour here oothers went to Emerard Lake. The dog sledding isn't all that great, but it was fun playing with the puppies, even those who didn't dog sled could play with the puppies.

 

The scenery and the tour bus is just amazing, I HIGHLY recommend frontier excursions. If you are looking for friendly guides and a tour that doesn't bore or rush you I recomment this one. The tour sizes are small and we were very impressed!

 

Temsco Valley of the Glaciers:

Since we were in Skagway until 8:30 PM we were able to fit in the helicoptor glacier landing. This was breathtaking!! The only down side to Temsco if you book on your own, they will not drive you back to town or pick you up, it isn't a big walk (15 / 20 mins to the ship)

This tour was great, I loved it!

 

Juneau:

 

We booked with Captain larry and had a great time, I loved the staff and the boat, we got some great pictures and we got very close to several whales.

 

We also took the Mnt Roberts Tram, this is the only trip I took that I wish I hadn't, the views are nice, but compared to the views we had seen it wasn't worth the money or time!

 

Ketichican

 

We went with michelle at Island Wings on a floatplane tour of the Fiords! We had perfect clear weather, it ended up in the 80's the day we were in ketichican, we were able to go on a route she normally can't take people, the flight was amazing! We landed on a beautiful glacier lake and got to get out and take pictures and experience the Misty Fiords.

 

I highly highly recomment this tour!!

 

Some Misc. Observations!

 

Solarium Pool - They let kids in this pool 12 - 4 daily, but it seemed children were in the pool all hours of the day. It was a little annoying that there was no adults only space, I could understand if the weather was bad but we had fabulous hot weather. I ended up in the hottubs around the main pool to avoid children.

 

Debarking-

 

Wow this was amazing! We were off the ship at the airport by 9:15 and we were the 6th or 7th ticket called! The set up they have is great, they pile the luggage by ticket colour and there is no conveyer belts, this was not painful at all!

 

Any questions, i will be happy to answer, I loved this cruise Alaska is incredible!!

[baseballmom]

Hi sharybeari, thanks for posting such a great review. I'm really looking forward to our time on Serenade. One question re the dog sledding: I've read that there are a couple of different sledding tours, some on snow, some on wheels. Which one were you on? I know my son will want to play with the pups and I'm not sure if all of the tours offer that option. I've just started looking at excursions and I think the snow sledding is in conjunction with a helicopter tour. Thanks for your help!

 

Laurie

[natesfirewife]

Sharybeari - Did they have the horseraces at the pool? We missed it when we did Alaska but discovered it when we sailed to Mexico. I thought our CC Group Cruise could do it together and come up with some good ideas for the horse decorations.

 

Misty

[fajitapita]

Misty- I was on the cruise before sharibeari. We didn't have the horse races, but if you can believe it, they actually did hold the bellyflop contest in the solarium... thought they should have done it out in the other pool (weather was nice enough) as the solarium, I thought, was supposed to be a "quieter" place...

[sharybeari]

baseballmom, we did the dogsledding on wheels as part of our Yukon Tour with frontier. We got to see the Whitepass, tormented valley, carcross, lakes bennet, tugish and then play with the puppies and go for a ride. The ride is short but it was interesting.

 

I hear that the snow sledding is incredible... but it is also very expensive, we did the yukon tour and a glacier tour - Valley of the glaciers cheaper than just the helicopter and dogsledding tour alone.

[baseballmom]

Yes, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that it was over $400 per person for the heli/sledding!! Thanks for your help.

 

Laurie