My family of 13 went on the Serenade from Stockholm to Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga in early July. We had travelled on many cruises previously, many with RC. I must say this was one of the worst. The family members ranged from teens to an octogenarian. We booked 7 cabins around January, well before the cruise. At that time only "Guaranteed" cabins were available. Since some of our families had teenage children they wanted in cabins near theirs, getting closeby cabins was very important. Despite repeated inquiries to RC, half or the cabins were only assigned on the day before the cruise, and of course the families with 2 cabins were split up on different decks. The only answer we got to our inquiries from RC was "If you wanted to have specific cabins you should have asked for them when you booked them."

My wife and I happened to be put in a handicapped cabin. That was at least half again larger than an ordinary cabin so it was great. My daughter in a balcony complained about a sewer smell they couldn't fix. The other interiors cabins seemed to be okay.

Service in the main dining room was fine but the food was less than ordinary. The starters were usually good but the selections for main courses were mediocre. Gone are the days when they serve lobster at least once. All of the special meals were specially priced. The food in the Windjammer buffet was okay. Oddly you had to wait in line for coffee. Gone are the days when a waiter would come by and bring you coffee at your table at breakfast or lunch. We had only one lunch in the MDR and it was mediocre. Cabin service was good. The people at Guest Relations were sometimes rude. Read more