OCD Planner's Mah-valous Mediterranean Adventure on Serenade of the Seas

[SnorkelAway]

Cindy

 

Great work organizing the tour from Villefranche which Vickey and I really enjoyed - and great work with this review. Reading your review is helping me remember what I already had forgotten about the day we were with your group and all the others too! Thanks!

 

David

[ace1zoe2]

Cindy

 

Great work organizing the tour from Villefranche which Vickey and I really enjoyed - and great work with this review. Reading your review is helping me remember what I already had forgotten about the day we were with your group and all the others too! Thanks!

 

David

 

David,

 

Hi! You are more than welcome, I had a great time planning and organizing for our group. I'm glad that you & Vickey were able to step in when one of our couples weren't able to make the trip.

 

It seems like it is taking me FOREVER to do this trip report. My previous reports I kept up with all the journaling along the way so all that I had to do was add the pictures. This trip was just too busy to journal... I was too busy having fun... so now I am paying for it trying to remember everything we did!

 

Hope that you will continue to follow along. Feel free to comment and add anything that I might have left out.

 

Cindy

[ace1zoe2]

Our fourth port of call was Ajaccio, Corsica. The terminal area was very nice and clean. They had city maps available for everyone.

 

 

 

The water was so clear that you could see the fish swimming right next to the ship:

 

 

Looking in to the town as we walked up the dock from the ship:

 

 

Serenade of the Seas:

 

[ace1zoe2]

We didn't really plan anything for this day figuring after a super busy first week we'd take some time to slow down. Two couples from our group did a tour thru RCI that took them on a scenic bus tour by the beach area then dropped them in town for a walking tour. They ended up on two separate tours and couldn't get it switched so that they could go together... so they weren't too happy about that.

 

Charlie & I decided to just do our own "walking tour" and set out on our own. We ran into one of the couples previously mentioned at several stops on their RCI walking tour. Donna said that it was the worst tour they have ever done. It was tour guide was terrible and they could have easily seen and done everything on their own for free instead of paying $48 per person. So I was glad that we chose to do things on our own.

 

The first thing we did was head in to the market area at Place Foch just across the street from the docking area. It was a little reminiscent of the Nice market but not as large. There were lots of baked items, meats & cheese, fruits & veggies, spices, candies and gift items.

 

 

 

 

From this location you can purchase tickets for the local Le Petit Train which departs from Place Foch and will take you on one of two tours they offer of the city. I believe one was around 45 minutes and the other was around 1 hour and 45 minutes. You could do one of these tours easily in place of the RCI city tour. Cost for the train tours were 7 euro pp for the city tour and 10 euro pp for the island tour... so much cheaper than the cruise line tour. You can find more information here: http://www.petit-train-ajaccio.com

 

We thought about doing the train but there are no stops and all pictures would have been seated from the train with people walking in front of me, etc. so we declined and decided to head out on our own with out map... best decision of the day!

 

We took a left (from the ship area) and walked along the waterfront where we ended up in front of the Citadel.

 

 

and we saw this little guy hanging out on the lawn there:

 

 

Then we turned right and were rewarded with this outstanding view!

 

 

This beach is probably a 15-20 EASY walk from the ship. There were people swimming and laying out on the beach. If you are traveling here in the summer months this would be a FREE afternoon off of the ship enjoying a great beach area.

[ace1zoe2]

The beach looked really nice from above. I was tempted to walk down on the shore but there was still so much that we wanted to see and explore.

 

 

Just a block away from the shore we came across this church, Cathedrale de l'Assomption, which was completed in 1593. We had hoped to take a tour inside but there was a service going on at the time we were there.

 

 

Here's a picture of the little train that I mentioned earlier. It does make one 15 minute stop on each circuit. Earlier I said it didn't stop which was incorrect.

 

 

The typical street view in Ajaccio. I loved it!

 

 

Napoleon Bonaparte's home and Museum were in the heart of the town and offered tours for 7 euro pp. Again, we decided not to stand in line and continued on with our walking tour.

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Oratoire Saint John Baptiste was located at the corner of the same street of Napoleon's childhood home. It was built in the 16th century and I had planned to visit here as well but there were people inside with a chaplain up front so I did not enter as I didn't want to disturb.

 

 

Mediterranean air conditioning and clothes dryers at work:

 

 

The statue of Napoleon is located at the back end of the Place Foch outdoor market.

 

 

The street cafes were packed with tourists and locals alike.

 

 

We headed back to the ship mid afternoon and just relaxed the rest of the day. All aboard was 4:30pm and shortly thereafter the pilot boat was along side of us and the deck hands were throwing off the ropes.

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Ajaccio was a nice stop and we enjoyed it very much. There was plenty to do that cost absolutely nothing. You could spend time at the beach, visiting the cathedrals, looking through the outdoor market, touring the neighborhoods, sitting on the waterfront or people watching. It was a very laid back, relaxing day for us.

 

After we were back on the ship we hung out on our aft balcony and watched sail away before heading off to dinner.

 

Leaving the port of Ajaccio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love watching the wake from the aft balcony that trails to the port that we just left:

 

 

Ok, you should be very impressed... I finished a whole port in one evening!!! The next day was a sea day and not much really happened. I took most of the ship pictures on the sea day & I posted them for your earlier on in the report. So next up will actually be day 10 of the trip and day 6 on the ship and we will be stopping at Palma de Mallorca!

 

I'm hoping that you will continue to follow along because I have tons of pictures left to post and lots of ports/tours to cover. I'm going to have to get busy and get the rest of this report done... we leave in less than 4 weeks on a short cruise after visiting the grands in Florida for Christmas! Then I'll have another report for another ship that we've never sailed... Explorer of the Seas... and this trip will be all about the ship because the itinerary is short (Coco Cay & Cozumel).

 

Until then,

 

Cindy

[tidygirl]

It's been interesting following your review and seeing some of your pictures, as I have some very similar ones on my review "our families viewpoint of our med cruise"

It's neat to think we actually got to see some of this stuff in person! I have to keep in mind that if we are ever back in the area of going to some of the places you went to.

[Raxter54]

Still enjoying the pictures and the narrative :)

 

One question on the Serenade - did you eat at any of the specialty restaurants? If so, were they worth the upcharge? Considering this is our first cruise, we'll probably be blown away by the MDR, just wondering if we should use our OBC for additional options.

[ace1zoe2]

Still enjoying the pictures and the narrative :)

 

One question on the Serenade - did you eat at any of the specialty restaurants? If so, were they worth the upcharge? Considering this is our first cruise, we'll probably be blown away by the MDR, just wondering if we should use our OBC for additional options.

 

 

We did eat at 3 of the specialty restaurants. We chose the two formal nights to eat at Portofino's & Chops Grill and the Sea day to eat at Izumi.

 

I would normally recommend all but we did have some issues this time. I will go down n to detail in a later post & tell you what they did yo make up for the lack of service the first night.

 

 

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[Sheal]

Cindy,

 

I'm still here too. I'm ok with the slower pace as long as you finish by February!

 

Sheal

[ace1zoe2]

It's been interesting following your review and seeing some of your pictures, as I have some very similar ones on my review "our families viewpoint of our med cruise"

It's neat to think we actually got to see some of this stuff in person! I have to keep in mind that if we are ever back in the area of going to some of the places you went to.

 

Thanks Tidygirl! I've read most of your review but haven't had time to finish for trying to get finished with this one. I will complete it once I'm done here. I enjoy reading about what other people do in port to help me figure out what I would like to do when I'm there someday.

 

 

Cindy,

 

I'm still here too. I'm ok with the slower pace as long as you finish by February!

 

Sheal

 

Sheal - I most definitely hope to be finished before the end of December!

[ace1zoe2]

After enjoying a very relaxing day at sea on Sunday, we arrived in Palma de Mallorca on Monday morning. We had our day planned out and our entire group was going to Soller on the Soller Railway! Here's their website and information about the 100 year old wooden train: http://www.trendesoller.com/en/cms.php

 

I'm sure that there were tons of things we could have seen & done in Palma but I had read so much about the train trip that that is what I chose for me and hubby. Then everyone else thought it sounded good too so we ended up with our group of 14 & another couple from our Roll Call, Lori & Richard from NJ.

 

We docked around 8am and all agreed to meet outside the ship at 8:45. We shared taxis 4 to a car and transferred to Placa d'Espanya train station. We all basically left at the same time, went the same way & arrived at the same time and every taxi price was different even though it was metered. We all paid around 14-16 euro per car. On the way back it was the same way, some paid more, others paid less.

 

We arrived at the station fairly quickly and we all went inside and purchased our return (round trip) tickets from Palma to Soller along with the tickets for the tram for return trip to the Port of Soller for 28 euro pp. Train only return price is 19.50 euro pp and kids 3-6 are 1/2 price.

 

The first train out in the shoulder season was 10:30 and we had planned to purchase tickets for that time, however they had an early train the day we were there at 10:00am and we were just in time to make it. We all headed out to the wonderfully restored train cars for our 45 minute ride to Soller.

 

Here we all are with a cell phone selfie stick picture trying to fit us all in! This was actually the picture of us before the return trip back to Palma.

 

 

The Palma train station where we boarded the train:

 

 

Interior of the train. The seats were cushioned and with out huge summer crowds there was plenty of room to spread out and enjoy the ride.

 

 

Along the way to Soller we went through 13 tunnels ranging from seconds to minutes (almost 2 miles through one of the tunnels in darkness... remember we had one in our group who had a fear of tunnels) and crossed several bridges as well.

 

 

Some of the views we saw on the way:

 

 

We made a short 10 minute stop along the way at a scenic viewpoint where you could debark the train for pictures if you wanted to.

 

[tidygirl]

That looks pretty cool!

[ace1zoe2]

We arrived in Soller earlier than expected which gave us some free time to look around the town area. The place where the trains come is very nice, clean and shaded with benches for waiting to board.

 

 

After debarking the train you walk down a flight of stairs through the terminal building and end up outdoors on the street leading to the town square.

 

 

There is also a place to purchase tickets for the tram once you arrive in Soller if you didn't pre-purchase. It's just a few steps away from the train terminal.

 

 

We made our way down the sidewalk to happen upon the Cathedral Square. I hadn't realized that we would be treated to another beautiful church, Sant Bartomeu (Saint Bartholomew). The original building dates to 1236 with the current structure late 1600's.

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

The interior pictures of the church are pretty dark but might give you some idea of the beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Back outside on the square was another beautiful building, Banco Soller:

 

 

The square was filled with tourists. There were lots of nice shops and outdoor restaurants, some even had free wifi!

 

We stopped at a very nice little pastry shop where several in our group made purchases...

 

 

 

The streets near the square had a more modern feel that what we've seen to date in the other ports:

 

 

By this time the second train had arrived and it was packed! The tram made its way in to town and two train loads of passengers all wanted on the one tram going to the Port of Soller. Everyone was pushing to get on since the next tram would be at least 30 minutes away which would allow little time at the port before having to return. Even though we were there waiting through the pushing and shoving we were the last ones on. Our daughter & SNL had decided they would go straight to the port when we arrived in Soller and they just walked there in about 20 minutes. The others in our group decided to stay in Soller and have lunch and shop. So Charlie & I ended up in the conductor's area along with a woman, her two kids and two other men... talk about a tight fit! Then along the way at one of the stops 3 more business men in suits somehow managed to squeeze in that same space with us... talk about feeling like you're in a can of sardines!

 

At least I had some nice views along the way.

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

We arrived at the Port of Soller in about 20 minutes. It was a scenic ride along the way but once we were in the port area it was just beautiful! There was a lovely Lighthouse at the edge of the cove.

 

 

There was a very wide walkway between the street and the beach area with lots of palm trees on the beach side and across the street were many restaurants and shopping areas.

 

 

 

We're now well into the first week of November and people were still out on the beach and in the water.

 

 

A picture of the tram... that small area there in the front is where we were packed in with 9 adults and 2 children!

 

 

The harbor area:

 

[ace1zoe2]

We saw these on the beach for rent, something unusual that I had never seen before:

 

 

And a second lighthouse on the opposite of the harbor:

 

 

We had lunch at this cute little place. We met up with our daughter and SNL and each couple shared a pizza and I had a nice large Sangria!

 

 

 

Time for a family picture on the beach and then we decided to take a taxi for 7 euro back to Soller to avoid becoming a sardine again. That would also allow us some time to shop for a Christmas ornament back in town.

 

 

Just in case you don't know what an olive tree looks like, these are probably hundreds and hundreds of years old. The trunks where huge and knurled looking.

 

[ace1zoe2]

We had to be on the 2:30 train back to Palma arriving around 3:15 in order to get a taxi and be back on the ship no later than 4:30 all aboard. We had a great day! It required some planning as there was only one of two trains to catch each direction and the trams coincided with the train schedule. Had we not gotten on the 2:30 train the next one wasn't until 3:30 which would not give us enough time. Worse case scenario we would have had to taken a taxi but we were careful to watch our time and make sure we were on the train platform waiting to board.

 

Altogether our DIY adventure cost us 35 euro pp for hubby & I and 28 euro pp for the others plus our lunch. I think that we got a pretty bang for the buck (or euro).

 

We caught a taxi from the station back to the port. Again we all paid something different to the taxi drivers for the same trip. After boarding the ship we headed to our cabin to hang out on the balcony until 6pm when we had dinner at Chops.

 

With the long lens on my camera I was able to get some decent shots of the Mallorca Cathedral:

 

 

and of the Bellver Castle:

 

 

The port area of Palma:

 

 

Not sure if anyone caught it on a post I did about Villefranche, but I referred to our ship "Splendor of the Seas" being moored in the sea... I didn't notice it until the next day when I was reading! We were definitely on SERENADE of the Seas!

 

 

And once again I leave you with a shot of one of my favorite views... the wake... just the water... nothing else in sight... ahhh... my happy place :)

 

[ace1zoe2]

Ok, so someone asked about the specialty restaurants and I made mention early on in my review that there were some problems along the way. I promised to give a fair and unbiased report. Even though we didn't spend an enormous amount of time on the ship we did plan our formal nights in the specialty restaurants. No one wanted to haul suits and dresses and pay for extra bags so we took the easy way out since everyone had OBC we booked dinner outside the MDR.

 

No one in our group other than me & hubby had EVER dined at Portofino's before. We had been telling them all how great it was, how spectacular the service was, how it was quieter and more intimate than the MDR... yada, yada, yada. So the minute we stepped on the ship we went to Chops and made reservations for 14 for 2nd formal night and another for Portofino's for the 1st formal night.

 

Everyone shows up on the first night, we're seated all together at a long table, they take our drink orders and bring out the bread and appetizers. We're having a great time and then....... NOTHING. We saw no one for 30-45 minutes. No one asking if we need anything, no offers to refill glasses, no letting us know when the food will be coming... NOTHING. The service was horrible. We were embarrassed for even recommending coming there. Now each couple was out $40+ bucks and a lot of wasted time. Finally my SNL (who works in the service industry) went up to talk to the Maitre de who said he'd find out what was going on. After another 20 minutes SNL returns to the table to let us know that half of their grills were not working so they couldn't get the food out.... nice to know!

 

The offered to send over 1 bottle of wine as a "we're sorry" - as if 1 bottle would serve 14 people. I told my SNL that was not acceptable and he became our spokesperson. He went back and explained to the Maitre de that we were Diamond members (have to use it for something) and we had invited 12 new guests to their restaurant who would probably never return because of the service and that we were embarrassed by it. He was not in a position to make any other adjustments but he went to the main guy who finally agreed to comp everyone's meal and apologized profusely for the lack of service.

 

After an hour and a half we finally received our meals and the food was good... the service was not. We were happy with what they did to take care of the problem and moved on not letting it ruin our trip.

 

The next day when we returned from our shore excursions, upon entering our cabins we each found a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with no explanation. Since each of the 7 cabins received the same thing we all agreed it was an additional "we're sorry" for the service the previous night.

 

On Sunday on our Sea Day, myself, BFF Debbie, daughter, SNL & cousin all had reservations at Izumu for lunch. We all arrived, ordered our food, were served and then another waitress came out with the large appetizer plate. We told her she must have the wrong table so she said ok, sorry. Then she came back and told us no, it was the right table, the chef sent it out with his compliments... they were still bending over backwards to WOW us! It was working.

 

After that night, every night in the MDR, the Maitre de and head waiter would stop by our tables to make sure that we were being taken care of. We were happy with the initial comping of the bill for that one night but they kept pouring it on.

 

Second formal night we all had reservations in Chops. We were seated at 2 tables side by side, one a 6 top and one an 8 top. The waiters were phenomenal, they could not have been any better. The food was superb! The ambiance was great. Just the right amount of the banter with the server and kidding around, and making sure we were happy. I ordered a glass of wine and at the end they comped it as well. We were so full there was no way we could eat dessert but they insisted that we order and they had it delivered to the room.

 

So... even though we were not WOWED initially RCI really took care of us in the end. And because of the way that they handled it every one of our friends were impressed and all of them said they will definitely be dining at the specialty restaurants again on our next cruise.

 

Our free appetizer tray from Izumi's featuring shrimp, chicken and wontons:

 

 

Debbie, myself and daughter all ordered different sushi and then mixed and matched so we could all try 3 different kinds. They were all wonderful! We had California Roll, Lobster Roll and Shrimp Tempura Roll.

 

That's my story of the only negative of the whole trip... it lasted one meal.

[Raxter54]

Thanks very much for you report on the specialty restaurants. Sorry you had to go thru that lousy first night, but it sounds like they tried to make it better the rest of the trip.

 

The pictures of that church from the 1600's were awesome! I especially liked the stained glass windows. And I bet the views from those lighthouses would have been fantastic. Keep the pictures coming!

[karinad]

I'll be with you to the end! This is my little vacation for the night. I could never remember everything in detail as you did. Looking forward to more!

[ace1zoe2]

Thanks very much for you report on the specialty restaurants. Sorry you had to go thru that lousy first night, but it sounds like they tried to make it better the rest of the trip.

 

The pictures of that church from the 1600's were awesome! I especially liked the stained glass windows. And I bet the views from those lighthouses would have been fantastic. Keep the pictures coming!

 

 

Thanks Raxter.

 

There's just something about churches & lighthouses that I'm always drawn to.

 

On our Canada cruise my hubby called it the church tour because we looked at so many.

 

 

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[ace1zoe2]

I'll be with you to the end! This is my little vacation for the night. I could never remember everything in detail as you did. Looking forward to more!

 

 

Thanks Karinad!

 

I'm glad your in it for the long haul. I'm getting close! Only 2 more days in the ship & 2 days in Barcelona & sadly, reliving my cruise will come to an end.

 

 

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