Serenade of the Seas Med Cruise Text Only Review

[Macbeth09]

My family of 5 (my wife and I and 3 sons, 17, 15, and 12) just completed the Serenade of the Seas June 4-16 Mediterranean cruise, and I’d like to offer the following review. To put things in perspective, my wife and I had made a similar trip 5 years ago and wanted to share it with our kids. Our family is reasonably fit, and we chose this cruise based upon the ports and the schedule, not the cruise line.

 

Ship:

 

The ship was very elegant. We sailed on Celebrity Summit 5 years ago, and although built on the same hull, I would say this is the prettier ship. While cruising the motion only occasionally rose above gentle, until the final night, when all of us felt slightly seasick. Common areas were spacious, and there was no real issue finding a deck chair if you were willing (and we were) to sit away from the pool. Crew and staff were generally friendly, but service seemed less prompt and more harried than past cruises we have been on. We had a regular stop with the friendly staff at Latitudes to grab coffee and a pastry on many mornings, but did not spend a lot of time in the clubs. Music was usually awful throughout the ship, with a target audience I guess beyond my 49 year age. Speaking of age, I believe I was in the younger third of the population at 49. Not a lot of young people on board, and I have to say that the older generations were remarkably rude en masse, shoving to fronts of lines and incessantly complaining when overheard. I thought cruising was something that many older people enjoyed, but from the looks of things they want to be the only ones enjoying it, and looked miserable if they felt someone else was getting an advantage or having a good time. If this was my first cruise I might never do it again just because of the average demeanor of the company you must keep.

 

Cabin:

 

We were in 1054, recently converted from the former concierge lounge. The cabin was quite large, with 2 beds and 2 pullmans in a side bedroom, and a joined queen in the master. The master had a tub/shower combo, and the separate bathroom for our boys had the typical small shower. There was plenty of closet space, and the big selling point was floor to ceiling windows on the forward port side of the hump. We had a sofa and two side chairs around a coffee table, and there were 4 more chairs around a small dining table. Flatscreen TVs were mounted in the master room and the living area, none in the side room shared by our boys. This is probably the next best thing to a grand suite, without a balcony, but at a substantially lower cost. I highly recommend the room. Two cons were a musty smell outside the cabin door which thankfully never penetrated the room, and a lot of creaking, perhaps due to the retrofit, particularly on the final night when the noise and motion sickness made sleep next to impossible. Centrum noise was I suspect typical for rooms in this area, but thankfully tailed off at midnight each night.

 

Food:

 

Food was mediocre, perhaps just a minor step up from the food on the Summit 5 years ago. My earlier cruising days recall a more gourmet experience, but this was not much better than cafeteria food. There were a few good items to be had, which included from what I recall; ranger cookies, grilled salmon in the mdr, lamb meatballs in the windjammer, chilled fruit soups (essentially smoothies), and the pumpkin cheese bread. No steak, including what we had in Chops (not recommended for the price and absent any real ambiance), was better than I can cook on the barbeque. We tend to eat fresh ingredients and season things well at home, and the meal experience onboard was disappointing more than not. I understand the ship is feeding a lot of people so some allowance can be made, but hardboiled eggs being boiled green and similar mistakes make no sense to me. Another negative was trying to find real food after the normal dinner service ended at 9:30. Other than park café (usually only one item available) or the limited room service menu, you were stuck with pastries and nothing savory.

 

One final note on My Time Dining. I loved the flexibility and didn’t mind waiting for a table, but once seated, of the 8 times we ate in the MDR, we only had exceptional service once, and usually were stuck with a waiter and assistant that couldn’t be bothered to fill our glasses with water or even take our order in a timely fashion. On one of the nights we waited 20 minutes for a table, and then another 20 before our order was taken (no exaggeration). I think because you are not paired exclusively with a wait staff, your ability to develop a relationship and garner some relative attention is limited. We are not complainers and as this was not life or death I saw no reason to assume our staff was lazy instead of overworked, and therefore only mentioned the exceptional service to the maitre’d.

 

Itinerary:

 

Barcelona – We arrived a day early, took a taxi to our hotel midway between La Rambla and Sagrada Familia, and on the same block as the under renovation La Pedrera, and then headed off to Gaudi’s extraordinary church. On the way we passed Casa Terrades. Having been to Barcelona before, but never inside Sagrada Familia, I think this is the number one thing to do in this beautiful city. After exploring the church and then the museum, which shows some of the mathematical genius behind Gaudi’s organic architectural style, we wandered down La Rambla, pausing to look at the Block of Discord (trio of Casas; Battlo, Amatller, and Lleo Morera) and eventually finding a stop for dinner. Note: During the evening you will see a large number of men holding a six pack ring with a couple of cans left, and selling “cold coke”. These are actually drug dealers and are pervasive around La Rambla. Cops walk the beat and the drug dealers just disperse and then return minutes later. They do not appear to be a threat, but be cautious about what you think you may be purchasing. In the late morning we got a taxi to the port. I do not recommend the subway as the nearest stop to the port requires a significant amount of walking with your bags.

 

Villefranche – We neglected to show up early at the Safari Lounge to get our tender tickets, and got off the boat later than we liked. Our intent was to go to Eze le Village, but after the walk up the hill, didn’t pay attention to the bus numbers, got on the wrong bus to Nice, and ran out of time to make it worthwhile. In retrospect, the cost of a taxi would probably have been worthwhile. After getting off the bus in Nice, we wandered the long way down to eastern side of the Lido, and walked to the flower market looking for Socca bread. Unfortunately the “Socca Lady” was not there and we settled for a small restaurant for lunch on the market square. Because we could not get to Eze and the Galimard perfumery, we found a Fragonard storefront and collected gifts for our nieces there, before walking back up to Place Garibaldi, and catching the bus back to Villefranche. We wandered the alleys there and hopped the tender back to the ship.

 

La Spezia – Unfortunately we didn’t stop in Livorno as we did on our last trip, and this added an extra hour to get to Florence by train. As a result we took the RCI sponsored tourbus, which after a brief stop at a leather shop on the way, allows ~5 hours in Florence. We opted not to stay with the tour and set off on our own from where we were dropped near Piazza San Marco. We wandered down past San Lorenzo to the Duomo, which we entered to take in the full scope of Brunelleschi’s mix of architecture and art. We could only catch a glimpse of the Doors of Heaven on the Baptistry due to renovation which has almost the entire structure covered. Leaving the Duomo we walked to Santa Maria Novella, where on the backstreet you can find the oldest perfume maker in the world, opened in 1612, with their signature scent having been made for Catherine de Medici in 1533. After this we walked down past Dante’s house to the Palazzo Vecchio where we looked at the copy of David, standing where the original had stood, as well as the gallery of other remarkable statues, including Cellini’s Perseus. We continued through the Uffizi courtyard for a view of the Ponte Vecchio. Turning back we headed to Santa Croce, where we were to meet the rest of the tour before the bus ride back to the port. My oldest son had seen a leather jacket he wanted to buy near San Lorenzo, which seemed a better value than what we saw in Santa Croce, so he and I ran back and forth across Florence in the 40min we had left. Not something I would recommend in the summer heat and without clear recognition of the fastest path.

 

Civitavecchia – The boat docked and we took the shuttle to the bus stop, which was actually farther away from the train station than the port. We walked to the station and bought Birg tickets, good for all day train and subway in Rome. Based upon past experience we knew to get off before the Termini at Ostiense, where we took the metro to the Colosseum. Avoiding all the ticket vendors, tour guides, and long ticket lines at the Colosseum, we crossed past Constantine’s arch (under renovation) to the Forum, where we got tickets (combined Palatine/Forum/Colosseum) immediately and wandered through to the Forum and down the Via Sacra to see the Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Julius Caesar (where his body was burned). Back up through the Arch of Titus we continued to the Colosseum, where we bypassed all the ticket lines and went immediately in and up for the stadium. After that we headed to back north to Campidoglio, crowded with some sort of protest, and down past the Don Emmanual monument to Trevi Fountain, which unfortunately had been fenced off for renovation. We tossed our coins over the fence and then moved west to the Pantheon, Agrippa and Hadrian’s 2000 year old marvel of engineering, and on to Piazzo Navona, with its three beautiful fountains, before heading north again over the Bridge of Angels to Castel St Angelo, remade from Hadrian’s mausoleum. Entering Vatican City we were disappointed to find the Basilica closed due to a special blessing from the Pope for a plethora of children’s sports teams that had gathered in the Piazza. Not having the time to even attempt entering the Vatican museums we circled the southwest side of the Basilica, went down to San Pietro station, and caught the train back to Civitavecchia.

 

Salerno – We took the long but pleasant waterfront walk to the train station, where we hopped the train to Pompeii. From the city station we walked down to the back Anfiteatro entrance of Pompeii ruins, asking a friendly citizen directions when I lost my place on the map. Starting with the large stadium, visiting the vineyard homes and continuing to the more popular ruins of the main entrance, this ancient city, with Vesuvius in the background, remains an impressive place to visit. The city is big (it is a city after all) and could easily take a whole day to see, but we made our way across in only a couple of hours, exited via the main entrance, and took the Circumvesuviana train from Pompeii Scavi to Naples. We ate lunch at Trianon at the east end of Spaccanapoli and afterwords walked west, eventually tiring of the street vendors and lack of any real shops being open on a Sunday. Capella Sansevero, home of the unbelievable sculptures of the Veiled Christ and Disenchantment, unfortunately was also closed by the time we arrived. Note: Throughout Italy there was a significant increase in street vendors, which appear to be immigrants from North Africa and perhaps a peripheral result of the Arab Spring. In any event it made many of the places we visited feel cluttered and less welcoming, and I’m sure the locals don’t like what it is doing to their own economy. In Naples it was sufficiently bad for me not to want to visit again. From Naples we took a train directly back to Salerno, walked the waterfront again, and returned to the ship.

 

At Sea – A much needed day of rest for our feet.

 

Venice – We entered the lagoon and made our picaresque way to the port passing San Marco and arriving on time at 2:30. This I imagine is the best view of any cruise into port anywhere. We disembarked and walked the 10 minutes to Piazale Roma and Venice proper. From there we took a purposefully long route through the alleys and bridges of Santa Croce and San Polo toward the Rialto Bridge. On the way we looked for Balocoloc mask shop (they have an outlet at Epcot in Disneyworld of all places), but their storefront on Calle Longa appeared to be taken over by one of the many to be avoided inauthentic mask sellers. We followed the ubiquitous signs pointing you to Rialto and San Marco, although I am suspicious that some were meant lead you off track to favor specific alleys and shops. Surprisingly we found the Basilica open, and jumped in line, but were too late and found ourselves still out in the square when the doors closed. We shifted to the Doge’s palace and repeating the path we took 5 years earlier, crossed the Bridge of Sighs into the prison, which, while claustrophobic, was again well worth the mazelike journey to the bottom. We wandered back through the rest of the palace seeing one piece of remarkable art after another, until we were near numb to the opulence. After exiting the Doge’s palace, we moved north to Canneregio, finding a quiet place to eat on the canal Rio Della Misericordia. After dinner we returned south to the Rialto, crossed the bridge and slowly made our way back to Piazale Roma and the ship, taking one unknown alley after another, and picking up gifts for friends back home as we went (Murano glass varies widely in price but the jewelry is generally much cheaper here than onboard the ship). The next day we set out for Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari, the largest church in Venice and home to the tombs of Canova, Titian, and some of Venice’s Doges. We stopped nearby for lunch before heading again to San Marco, this time making it inside. We took the treasury tour for an addition 3 euro per person, then the loggia tour for another 5 euro per person. The latter is well worth the cost and the steep climb up to see the tetrarchs, the original bronze horses dating from the 2nd century BC, and the view of the piazza from the top of the church. Exiting, we returned to a mask shop that caught our eye and then made the long hot walk back to the ship.

 

Ravenna – We decided not to venture out for any tours and instead spent a couple of hours on the beach right next to where we were ported. Basically a day of rest.

 

Kotor – We chartered the Monte B, a 44 foot ketch owned by a Tim and Katie, a remarkably friendly British couple, for a four hour tour of the bay. We set out from Kotor past Perast and around Sveti Dorde and Our Lady of the Rocks, out to the larger bay and ending in Tivat. On the way we paused to swim in the bay twice, and were provided a wonderful snack of local cheese and bread. The views, the history, the company of Tim and Katie, and their two dogs, were among the highlights of our vacation. I highly recommend if you visit Kotor that you take advantage of this unique tour, made even better with a shandy or G&T. After being dropped off in Tivat, we took the 12 euro cab ride through the mountain tunnel back to Kotor old town. There we climbed a bit up the mountain wall and took in the view over the bay, before wandering through old town and back to the ship. The Venetian architecture, charming alleys, and crazy profusion of cats, warranted more time here than we spent.

 

At Sea – Two days, the second devoted somewhat to packing.

 

Barcelona – We elected to self disembark and were off the ship by 7:15 to catch our bullet train to Paris at 9:30. Except our train was “cancelado” due to the strike in France! We got refunded the cost of 2nd class tickets purchased 60 days in advance, and then had to pay for 1st class tickets purchased the same day. For 5 people this cost us ~$1300. And a day lost in Paris, spent instead in the train station. Ouch.

 

Paris – Arriving late the night before, and having had to eliminate some of our intended sights, we set off early, heading south from our hotel near Place de la Republique toward the Louvre, while passing (Richelieu’s) Palais Royal. From the Louvre (unfortunately it was closed, although we had insufficient time to visit anyway), we walked halfway through the Tuileries for a distant view of the Place de la Concorde, before cutting back and across the Seine for the Musee d’Orsay. Apparently everyone that would have been at the Louvre thought the same thing we did, and the line was too long for us to spend the day for this one attraction. We continued down the quai to Les Invalides and the military museum, taking quite a bit of time in the first rooms to absorb the weaponry before picking up the pace through the seemingly endless parade of firearms, armor, and swords. After a brief tour of the Musketeers exhibit (as I was midway through Dumas’ D’Artagnan Romances, this was a must), we made our way out and back in to Napoleon’s tomb. We circled round and down to the base level, although the view from the top is probably better. Leaving the tomb behind, we headed toward the Eiffel Tower, periodically reorienting ourselves as it became visible between and above the buildings. On the way we stopped for lunch, then continued our walk to the surrounding park and examined the quintessential Paris landmark from multiple angles. For the sake of time, we decided not to go up the tower, and continued our walk down the quai, stopping next to take a snapshot of the cutoff prow of the SS France, AKA NCL’s Norway, which my wife and I had cruised on in the early 90s. A relatively short distance past our cruising reminiscence, at Pont de Grenelle, we took a quick look at the copy of the Statue of Liberty, featured in the 2nd National Treasure movie, and facing our own larger landmark in New York. We hopped the subway and headed to the Pantheon, which unfortunately was closed, and then headed back to Notre Dame, stopping to add a lock to the Pont de L’Archeveche (ugly touristy thing to do but we couldn’t resist). We waited in line for 20 minutes to enter the gothic masterpiece of a cathedral, and afterward, worn out, we returned by subway to our hotel. After a brief rest, we caught the subway out to the Arc de Triomphe, which we climbed for the excellent view of the Eiffel Tower at night and Haussmann’s spectacular design for Paris. After descending, we walked a short way down the Champs-Elysees and spent the last few hours in Paris with a late dinner, enjoying the marvelous weather and view.

 

London – We hauled our bags via the subway to Gare du Nord, where after passing through the friendly French customs and the rude English customs agents (playing against type I suppose), we caught the train to London. We exited Kings Cross St Pancras station and caught a cab to our Westminster hotel. Note: Subway tickets, like everything else in London, are crazy expensive. With an Oyster card you can drive down the cost from ~$7 to ~$4 one way, but you must have a ~$9 deposit on each card in addition to the amount you want to store for debits. Because all the subway windows were closed on our last night using the subway, and having to leave our hotel straightaway early in the morning, we got stuck with something over $50 worth of useless Oyster cards. Also, because of inconsistencies in the machinery, and the need to swipe the card again before you are let out of the stations, we had to reswipe cards a couple of times to get ourselves free. Of the subway systems we used in Europe; in Barcelona, Rome, Paris, and London, the last was the most expensive and difficult to use, regardless of directions being in our native tongue. Locals no doubt understand the routes for Jubilee and Bakerloo lines, we had to constantly refer to a map, not something we really had to do anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t rocket science and you can figure it out in short order, but it is not intuitive. I don’t know if this is more a credit to the other cities or an example of British peculiarity. OK, enough of my digression, after dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed across the bridge for a quick look at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, which is across the street from Westminster Abbey. Turning right we walked down Whitehall past the Cenotaph and various other monuments, past the original Scotland Yard, to Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column. Breaking right at Strand and down Northumberland we found mediocre but expensive food at Sherlock Holmes Pub for lunch (a burger at current exchange rate ran ~$17, fish and chips ~$20, this is about normal for London pub prices we found). After lunch we entered the National Gallery (one of the best things about London is that museums are all free entry) and discovered quickly that no pictures are allowed. We spent a few hours looking at the vast array of paintings before exiting and catching the subway back to our hotel. After a brief rest, we headed back across the bridge to Big Ben and turned left this time, passing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey before circling right to Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial. We took a leisurely walk along the mall, observing some swans in Saint James Park, and returned to Trafalgar Square, where we took the subway back to the hotel again. The next day dawned and we took the Queen’s walk on the south bank past the London Eye, Blackfriars bridge, the reconstructed Globe Theater, the Southwark Bridge (of iron) and London Bridge (of stone), pausing on the way to walk to the midpoint of the Millennium bridge for a view of St Paul’s with our back to the prison like Tate Modern. For lunch we stopped at the Anchor Bankside, where a pub has supposedly stood for 800 years, and is the last surviving tavern from Shakespeare’s time. While this was typically expensive, the fare was better than most we had in London, and it is recommended. We also took a quick family tour of the Clink prison. A bit of a tourist trap, but affordable and a quick bit of fun. Having to dodge away from the waterfront around the uninspiring London Bridge, we finally made our way to Tower bridge, which we crossed over to enter the small park on the north bank of the Thames at the Tower of London. We cooled our heels in the park, then circled around the Tower and caught the subway to the British Museum, where we viewed the Rosetta Stone (they should definitely keep), and the Elgin marbles (they should definitely return), among other amazing antiquities, including the famous Egyptian sarcophagi, and a fascinating display of watches and clocks. Leaving the museum, we caught the subway back to Westminster and walked the south bank again until finding a restaurant for dinner. After dinner we returned to the hotel and packed for our journey home. On our final morning we hired a cab for the hour drive to London Gatwick, which was about the same cost we would pay for the 5 of us to travel by subway and train.

 

The trip went by in a blur, largely due to how much we attempted to see in such a short timeframe. The cruise was fantastic in allowing us to go from stop to stop without packing and unpacking, but not ideal if you want an in depth view of a city. The places we found most worth returning to for such an in depth view were Barcelona, Rome, Venice, and especially Paris. I could revisit Pompeii and Kotor again, but they are not top of the list. London was too expensive for what it offered IMHO, and Naples has lost its chaotic charm. I doubt I would visit either of these cities again unless on business perhaps for the former. I would travel with RCI again, but honestly don’t have any specific reason to pick that line over their competitors.

[didicruiser]

Thank you for the very informative review. I am looking at this itinerary for next summer :)

[cruisePAC]

Thanks for the review! We're excitedly anticipating this itinerary in a couple weeks. I've seen a few reviews on the 12-night Mediterranean Greek Isles cruise, but none on the 12-night Med Venice. Thanks again!

[poodog]

Good review thanks

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[stefanny28]

Fantastic details.

We are doing the same itinerary next year and also spending a few days in London so this really helps.

Do you have the email address for the ketch owned by Tim and Katie? This might be something we would like to do in Kotor.

 

Have a good day

[Keith1010]

Thank you for taking the time to write this extensive review.

 

Keith

[gowensricks]

Wow I really enjoyed reading your review, thank you for posting!

[kirian]

Thanks so much for the write-up. I always enjoying hearing what others did on similar itineraries.

 

Thanks for the review! We're excitedly anticipating this itinerary in a couple weeks. I've seen a few reviews on the 12-night Mediterranean Greek Isles cruise, but none on the 12-night Med Venice. Thanks again!

 

Hi cruisePAC - I am about midway through a review (insanely detailed...lol!) on a 12 nt Med-Venice cruise last year. If you haven't checked it out yet, you might want to stop by. I am almost to the write-up of the overnight we did in Venice. Then after that, I will cover Ravenna and Dubrovnik. Link is in my signature. But please be patient with me.... I don't have as much time to write as I would like, so it's taking awhile to get it all out there :eek::D

 

Also, IrishCath has a 12nt Med-Venice review if you haven't seen it yet. She's doing an amazing job with it! Here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2081173

 

Melissa

Edited August 14, 2014 by kirian