Serenade of the Seas July 2-9 Baltic Cruise Review

[ChinaShrek]

I was on the Serenade of the Seas with my mom for the July 2 sailing out of Stockholm. This cruise included visits to four ports in the following order: Helsinki, St. Petersburg (with an overnight), Tallinn, and Riga. We mainly booked this cruise in order to visit Russia without the expense of getting a visa. This was also our first time on a Royal Caribbean ship. We have sailed three other times on Holland America. Therefore, my frame of reference is HAL and not other Royal Caribbean ships. However, my comparisons might be helpful to some people.

 

This was the largest ship that we had ever been on, but I understand that it is considered small for Royal Caribbean's fleet. It did not seem too big once we got our bearings. However, the wait for the elevators at the center of the ship was often more than 5 minutes. This was especially true when people were getting on and off the ship in the morning and at the end of the day with people returning from port. I would say that you will never wait that long on a HAL ship.

 

I booked a Deluxe Balcony Cabin on Deck 9. I thought the size of the room (at 162 square feet) was adequate. I understand the Superior Balcony Rooms are larger but I did not think (correctly) that we would spend much time on the balcony. However, we did not like having only a small shower stall. I prefer a tub to shower (or a large shower stall) because of the extra room. Both of us thought the bathroom was too small. The cabin steward was excellent. He cleaned the cabin at least twice a day and seemed to know when were gone. I would say cabin service and comfort was about the same as HAL.

 

Except on two occasions, we took all of our meals on the ship in the Windjammer buffet. This included all 7 breakfasts and 5 dinners. I found the breakfast buffet somewhat disappointing. If you arrived late (say during the last hour of the service) many items were hard or dry. This included pancakes and waffles. In fact, they would not replace any banana pancakes (if all gone) until all of the strawberry and blueberry pancakes were gone! Breakfast was packed each morning. There was often a wait (3-5 minutes) to find a table. Then there was another wait to have the table cleaned. I removed dirty plates, cups, and silverware on many occasions. The manager stated that he understood the problem but stated "you guys all come at once." Dinner was much better in the Windjammer. It wasn't as crowded. It was easy to find a clean table. (Perhaps, more people eat dinner elsewhere?) Food was fresh and there were tons of choices. I liked the Indian options and all of the pasta dishes. I would say the buffet is better on HAL for breakfast but better on Royal Caribbean for dinner.

 

We had dinner on the first night in Chops (taking advantage of the First Night Done Right promotion). I thought Chops was just OK. I thought my steak was over-seasoned and salty. My mom really liked her veal chop, which was huge. The scallop appetizer was excellent. It's hard to judge with just one visit, but I I thought Pinnacle Grill on HAL was better. Finally, we ate in Reflections for the last night of the cruise. I thought the food was fine but boy was it crowded and noisy. There were several tables celebrating birthdays near us and we had to yell to hear each other. I'm not sure if this is typical in Reflections.

 

One area in which Royal Caribbean clearly exceeds HAL is in the on board entertainment. We went to three shows in the main theater. The a capella group from Britain was excellent. The i-magician was very good and Broadway tribute show was full of crowd pleasing energy. Two of the shows that we went to were almost full. I would consider booking another RC cruise just for the entertainment!

 

You can read a lot about the ports that we visited, so I will just make a few comments. 1) Our two-day visit to St. Petersburg was exhausting. I felt like I was working and not on vacation. We booked a two-day tour through SPB Tours. On the first day of the tour, we left the ship at 8:30am and returned at 6pm. We had precisely 30 minutes to eat supper and then we went on a four-hour Vodka Fun Tour (including a terrific night time canal ride). We returned to the ship that night at 11:30pm. On the second day of the tour, we had to meet the guide at 9am (not too bad) but we were still up at 8am for breakfast. If I went again, I would not arrange such an arduous schedule. 2) We thought Tallinn was the most expensive port that we went to. Everyone seems to like Tallinn on cruisecritic, but we thought it was a a bit of a tourist trap. I paid 8 Euros for a local pint of beer here and 12 Euros for a cheese pizza. This was higher than Stockholm! It was also challenging to find a toilet with several restaurants unwilling to let non-paying customers in. 3) I would love to go back to Riga and Helsinki. The people seemed friendly and happy to see us.

Edited July 11, 2017 by ChinaShrek

[Clarea]

Interesting comparisons, thanks for this. I may have to sail on HAL just for the quick elevators!:)

[cb at sea]

Next RCI trip, try the dining room for breakfast. It's much nicer, fresher, hotter and served to you! Short/tees/flip flops are fine at breakfast and lunch! So much nicer than the buffet!

 

As for the showers....they are all small. You would have to book a JS or above to get a tub/shower combo.

[ChinaShrek]

Next RCI trip, try the dining room for breakfast. It's much nicer, fresher, hotter and served to you! Short/tees/flip flops are fine at breakfast and lunch! So much nicer than the buffet!

 

As for the showers....they are all small. You would have to book a JS or above to get a tub/shower combo.

 

Yes, we probably should have tried the dining room for breakfast. However, on many of the mornings, I noticed that the dining room closed at either 9am or 10am for breakfast.

[CRHeel94]

We were on the same cruise and generally enjoyed our time.

 

Windjammer was very busy for breakfast. Manageable but busy. We did MDR for dinners five nights. The first dinner was kind of chaotic with the second seating, but the other days it was relatively smooth. Service by the waitstaff was very good (service onboard in general was very good).

 

I don't get why they charge for dinner in Rita's Cantina. I would have to think that the cost of a serving there (tacos, enchiladas, burritos) would be cheaper than a seating in the MDR. I ponied up some cash, but I was in a very small minority...most days it was empty. It's not a bad place to hang out even thoug the cold Baltic doesn't lend itself particularly well.

 

Entertainment onboard was pretty good. My two teenage sons enjoyed a wide variety of activities. I was a little confounded that the Day at Sea had a relatively light schedule; we were expecting more things to do.

 

St. Petersburg is a tough nut to crack. We did SPB tours as well and it was a heavy pair of days. One thing that makes it tough is that some of the more interesting sites (Peterhof, Catherine's Palace) are way on the outskirts, so the logistics to get there and back aren't always smooth; you spend about an hour getting there and then getting back which eats up some precious port time. We heard a great tip from one couple. They did a one day tour on the first day to see the main sites in the city and then did a RCI shore excursion which was basically a shuttle to Noversky Prospect which let them do their own thing. Peterhof and Catherine's Palace was nice, but I would have preferred the flexibility of exploring on my own.

[easyboy]

Thanks for the feedback!