Had a great cruise last week on the Serenade of the Seas. It was a 7 night cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. We had a great crew and the ship was very clean and had a good feel overall to it. Cabin was nice size with window and sofa bed. We chose this cruise based on the itinerary, not on the company, though we had cruised with Royal Caribbean before. We are a family of 3, 2 adults and a 7 year old daughter. Our daughter very much enjoyed the cruise as well, including the kid's adventure area, the rock wall, and the mini-golf course. My one complaint is that, for the second time on Royal Caribbean, although there are a lot of things for kids, I do not always feel kids are welcomed ship wide (limited hours at the indoor pool, dirty looks from cruisers without kids, late start to the evening shows some evenings). But this certainly did not take away from the overall fun we had. We did the my time dining in the main dining room each night and never lacked for choice or quality. Breakfast we did in the windjammer most days and had good quality and selection (though did try the main dining one morning, but felt it was a waste of time). The pools were ok overall. The entertainment was average, but enjoyable.

For the itinerary, we spent five nights on our own in Copenhagen before starting the cruise. Copenhagen was fantastic, with a lot of stuff for kids. Transportation was easy and people were very friendly. We did two day trips outside the city on the train as well. Could have spent several more days easily. The port was easy to access on the public bus.

For the ports of call, we wished Oslo had been on the itinerary, but otherwise, it was a nice set of ports. Stavanger we did a Fjord boat excursion through Royal Caribbean that was nice and likely easier than trying to do on our own. Bergen we did on our own and had no problems. Alesund we also did on our own and had no problems. The aquarium was very nice. Geiranger we did a bus tour through the cruise, though could probably have done it on our own for cheaper. However, the tour was late getting back to the bus due to heavy traffic going to the one site, so it was good we were on a ship's excursion. Outside of the control of the cruiser, we got lucky that we had the dock, as the Costa boat had to tender and clearly had problems getting people back and forth. Read more