My wife and I recently returned from our Northern Europe / Baltic Sea cruise on the Royal Caribean's Serenade of the Seas from July 12 to July 19th. We have been on 14 cruise, dating back to t 1996, and this our second trip with RCCL. We arrived in Stockholm a day early to do some sightseeing and we eagerly awaited the start of our cruise. Traveling from the hotel to the port, and the embarkation process went smoothly, and with little delay, we were soon settled into our cabin. The ship itself is pretty much the standard of what one would expect. Nice pools, ample lounges, fully equipped gym, decent food, good on board entertainment and good on board shopping.

While the cruise itself was decent, we learned shortly after boarding that the stop in Riga, Latvia was actually 9 miles from the City of Riga, and that in order to get to Riga, we would have to pay $37 for a shuttle from the port to the City. When I inquired about this to a member of the staff, I was told that due to the size of the Serenade of the Seas, it could not dock in the port in Riga, but had to dock in a commercial port outside the city. (It actually looked like a large lumber yard). This would not have been so bad if RCCL provided a free shuttle, but to advertise that Riga was a port we would visit, and then find out it would cost an additional $37 to actually get to Riga was minor league at best and quite possibly deceitful on the part of RCCL for not mentioning this in the promotional brochures for the cruise. To make matters worse, when I inquired further about why we would have to pay for the shuttle, I was told that it would cost too much for RCCL to provide the shuttle free of charge. Obviously, this was not what myself and other passengers expected as the cruise was billed as stooping in Riga.

Other than the added cost for getting to Riga, the cruise itself was mostly average and nothing that would warrant giving it the review that RCCL staff members suggest. Read more