I will start with a few basics, this was our first cruise on Royal, first cruise post pandemic and first non Caribbean cruise, so there were a lot of new things to experience.
About us-
married empty-nesters, we both still work ft, so this was a true vacation. We are not big on 'shows' or games and tend to unwind by walking the promenade or listening to live music at one of the smaller ...
Although the ship is a little old, recent renovations have kept it very current. The food was always amazing, the menu in the main dining room was so good we didn't feel like going to the specialty restaurants. The crew was always attentive to the passengers and happy to help us with any needs. The script is incredible, even without the stop in St. Petersburg, the Baltic Sea (due to the Ukrainian ...
Originally planned this cruise for a 2020 sailing, finally happened in 2022. Not disapointed at all. Ship was 1400 guests which was 40% full. Never had to wait for really anything. Were on board in stockholm bu 10:30, the stress of pre cruise testing is real, but we made it. This was our first European cruise, very port intensive. The crew all wore masks and cleaned constantly, but were all ...
We booked this Baltic Sea cruise because of the itinerary, especially because it spent 3 days in St. Petersburg and included a stop in Riga, Latvia (other cruise lines did not stop here). Having been on many cruises, on other cruise lines, here's my impression about RCCL Serenade of the Seas:
Check-in and embarkation is a breeze providing you have done all of the registration online and ...
We chose this cruise because of the 3 days in St Petersburg, adding a few days before in Copenhagen, and after with Stockholm, Norway in a nutshell, and Bergen. A long trip.
Ports
Stockholm Was so Hot! We enjoyed our Steves walking tours and meeting with a friend from home for lunch before he went home the next day. Lots to see and do, ran out of time.
Helsinki- cold. Steves walking tour. ...
We've been cruising with Disney before RC, and even considering the fact that Disney is much more expensive, it left us with a feeling that it was much better, especially in the food, entertainment, and general feel ( there were 2 big spots of rust in the indoor pool on Serenade).
Even the free food court (near the pools) in the Disney Dream was much better.
What I found most irritating the ...
Chose this ship because it was going where we wanted to at the time we wanted to at a price that we wanted. Embarkation and disembarkation went very smoothly, except that we were given the impression that you had to check your luggage on boarding but we saw people who carried their own luggage on, which I would have preferred to do since we only had carry-on bags. The first day onboard you must ...
We primarily sail with Royal Caribbean and decided on a Baltic itinerary, on Serenade of the Seas. We prefer to avoid the larger ships. We find them too impersonal and crowded.
We were very happy with the numbers of ports and time allowed in each. Fredericia Denmark is really fun. The locals come out to welcome the ship, and to wave goodbye (including a three cannon salute!
The entire ...
Enjoyable time on a beautiful ship. Food was plentiful and very good in the Windjammer and it was inot oftencrowded. We didn’t eat at any of the specialty restaurants. There is a definite attempt by Royal Carribean to encourage you to eat in the specialty restaurants by offering repetitive menus when eating in the dining room. The dining service was excellent and the food was very good, except ...
We chose this cruise solely for the ports of call as we really wanted to visit St.Petersburg and we were also interested in the other places as well.
We had a couple of nights in Stockholm first and the hotel arranged a taxi to the port, our embarkation the was 12-12.30 and although we arrived a little bit early we were swiftly 'processed' and we were on the ship in a matter of 15 minutes - ...