Serenade Review 6/13

[MikeBayAreaCa]

What a wonderful week on the Serenade. This was our second RCI cruise and exceeded all of our expectations. The only negative was the short stay in Juneau.

We flew into Vancouver on Friday and took a limo to the Westin Bayshore. Limo was $39.00 plus $2.00 tax. Even with a tip it was well worth it. Walked around and ended up in Gastown. It was about a 35 minute walk. Had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Very good meal and very reasonable on the pocketbook.

Walked around some more on the way back and bought a 12 pack of diet coke and diet 7up at a drug store. $3.25 in Canadian dollars each so a pretty good deal. I took them onboard in a backpack.

The hotel was nice. I got a very good deal on Priceline. I would not pay full price. Everything was extra and the food was way overpriced. $26.00 for the breakfast buffet. We passed. They did have a very nice health club/workout area. I was able to get in a good weight workout and ride the exercise bike.

Saturday morning we walked a few block up to Robson and had coffee. There is a Safeway there that you take and escalator up to get in. They had free Wifi so I sent out some emails. The hotel wi fi was too expensive to even think about.

We checked out and took a cab to Ballentyne Pier. 10 minute drive. The ticker said $11.95. We got there at 11:30. We were on the ship at 12:00

We were in a Grand Suite and had priority check in, but it was not needed.

Room keys were gold and said Suite on them.

Ordered the Platinum 5 bottle Wine and Dine when we boarded. Had $650.00 Visa point credit and wanted to use it all for the week. In addition to the Wine and Dine were used the credit for tips, a meal at Portofino, and one drink (yes, we paid for one drink all week from a bar)Just to jump head a little on the last day we still had over $200.00 so we had to really spend it down. We bought a bunch of picture and Friday evening we were down to $31.00. Went to the Casino cashier and took out $30.00. the 3% fee was .90 so I left the ship with .10 left.

After taking a quick tour of the ship we headed to the Windjammer for lunch. We ate every breakfast and lunch there. I ate more than I normally do and had desert for every lunch. (still lost weight on the trip)

Food was fine and plenty of variety. Made to order omelets were made to order. We never ordered room service, but could have ordered the dining room menu if we wanted to.

Service was great all week. Everyone on that ship worked their tails off.

Rooms were not available until 1:00. at 1:00 we went to deck 10 and sitting in from of room 1550 were our four bags. Unpacked and hung everything up. The room was great. Pleanty of room. Flat screen TV, huge balcony, double sink bathroom with full tub. Robes and slippers supplied to the week.

We had late dinner. Even at home we rarely eat dinner before 8:00 so 8:30 was fine with use. We went to the Concierge Club every night for a few drink before the show (Usually at 7:00 for second seating) Rahul was great. We had emailed several times in the previous week and he made a reservation at Portofino on the night we were in Skagway. Turned out to be the perfect night. The show was the Crew show and the dinner in the main dining room was just so-so that night.

I made it a pont of getting up at 5:00 every day to get some coffee and hit the gym. Well appointed gym. Most people used the steppers and treadmills. I stuck with the bike and weights. Plenty of machine and dumbbells to get a great workout. The crowds in the gym got smaller as the week wore on.

To answer questions about the Concierge Club they had appetizers, veggie tray and sweets every night. No fancy drinks, but beer, wine, and easy to make drinks like gin and tonics. A couple of wines there and wine at dinner was more than enough.

No free alcohol on the day we were in Skagway. Diet Coke seemed to be the drink of choice.

Not a bar person so didn't hang out there to often. We did relax in the Schooner Bar one evening and listened to the piano player.

We missed the Meet and Mingle on the Sunday Sea Day. Just too much going on that day. We did to the C&A reception (More free drinks) and they did have a cocktail party on the last Sea Day for suite guests. Not too many people showed up for that.

The cruise director Mike seemed to be everywhere at once. I wondered when he slept. Pretty funny and kept things fun.

Dinner in the main dining room was better than expected. Very solid main courses. Plenty of choices. Service was great.

Portofino was well worth the extra $20.00. I even left a $20.00 tip. I am pretty tight with my money and to leave that much extra meant it had to be good. The desert had to be 1000 calories. It was so good. We went though a bottle and a half of wine with that meal. (Started to save already)

Ports:

Icy Straight Point. I was not sure about this port, but it was very nice. We did not do any tours. Too expensive and there was a light rain most of the day. We browsed through the shops in the Cannery and then walked the Nature Trail that came out by the shore. We were looking out at water when she saw a whale. It was moving toward the ship and we kept following it and other joined us when they saw it too. Wife too a bunch of picture. It went right in front of the ship was then down toward the town of Hoonah. We walked to Hoonah and browsed. It is about a mile and a quarter walk. The most interesting thing we saw were gravestones in the front yards of many of the houses.

That evening we saw a pack of 5 whales pretty close to the ship.

I guess Tracy Arm was not clear so we ended up going into the Endicott (sic) Arm. Really beautiful. We sat on our balcony and it was so wonderful. We went up top as we go closer to Dawes Glacier. The ship got within 100 feet or so. Plenty of calving. The captain completed about three 360 turns of the ship so that everyone got a great look. Never having seen a Glacier before I was impressed.

There were 4 ships in port in Skagway. Two NCL and a Princess ship.

Overcast and some rain. We browsed downtown and then took the 12:40 train. Enjoyable but my wife said we she rode it with here parents several years ago the narration was much better. We saw a bear from the train.

Juneau was better than I expected. We were going to take the Tram, but is was windy an cold so we again explored. Took a free tour of the State Capitol, saw the Governors Mansion, and shopped along the main street.

The ship did dock a distance from town. There were shuttle buses. $3.00 each for unlimited rides. The walk was about a mile of so.

 

The other ships in port had much better berths.

The only disappointing part of the trip was the short stay here. We docked at 7:00 A.M. and everyone had to be on board by 2:30.

Getting off the ship was easy. We had a late flight so we took a four hour ship sponsored tour that had an airport drop off. A cab ride would have been as much as one of the tickets so it was a good deal. The driver was very informative. Flight home was without incident until we got near SFO. High winds an a difficult landing. Now I know why I don’t like to fly. I wish RCI had ships leaving from San Francisco on a regular basis.

We received a few other perks for being in a suite, but we were sworn to secrecy.

 

Overall Impressions.

Beautiful Ship

Well Maintained

Very Clean

Great Crew

It was great to be treated like royalty for a week. (I saved like a dog for a year and it was well worth it)

Plenty of Activities.

Shows were good. Not great, but good. The comedian/juggler was very good. He even dropped a few and it didn't matter.

Love and Marriage Show was very funny, as were the other late night adult shows.

The pool was hardly used.

Have thought of booking the Serenade again next year in the Caribbean.

Not sure I can swing it, so it may have to wait until the following summer.

If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer any you might have.