👀Another Blast from the Past - Serenade Baltics August 19, 2018🚢

[John&LaLa]

Welcome Back. Apparently I missed the boat on doing this in real time 2 years later. I honestly thought it started on August 26, 2018

So starting on the 23rd or 24th made sense.

Turns out it ended on the 26th. That was also the date of the TA to Boston that we had to cancel.

Oops.

 

Anyway, better late than never, let's go to Copenhagen and the Baltics

 

Well, some of us are going. Someone had to stay home as usual.

 

There probably won't be anymore pup pics in this thread. 

If you need a Bella fix, please join the party in Floataway Lounge

[Sunshine3601]

Ahh she looks so sad that you are leaving her home.

Excited for this review.  I was suppose to be a b2b on jewel the last 2 weeks for baltic and norway cruise out of copenhagen.  We had a couple pre cruise days planned for copenhagen too.

Looking forward to your review and photos.

[njkruzer]

We boarded as you disembarked.   Great cruise!

[John&LaLa]

This trip was supposed to be a B2B with the TA to Boston.

This is a very popular itinerary as it goes to Iceland and Greenland as well.

Suites typically sell out immediately, and they are not cheap.

 

Laura booked it the day it was released, and was only able to get a JS for the Baltics leg

Crazy

 

I want to apologize that I need to wing this from memory and 1600 pictures. 

I gathered a few things like deck plans, maps, cabin layout, etc. from Google

 

Our itinerary

 

Map from the Adventure that follows same route, but adds a sea day after Helsinki

 

Our cabin is 1602, an Aft JS

 

Deck 10 Aft

The balcony is the bomb

 

 

This layout is typical, but doesn't do the balcony justice

 

The description isn't correct either in regards to balcony sq. ft.

 

[John&LaLa]

Rats, forgot the shot of our ship

 

This is actually 'borrowed' from a St Petersburg tour company

 

Serenade is actually my favorite of the small ships. She does very well on a long TA

 

Here is a link to my last review where I got the idea to do this

 

It was done after the fact as well. Never thought we would still be land locked at the end of August

[John&LaLa]

One last tidbit for tonight.

 

I always try and pop some guidelines in so here goes.

 

Just a little housekeeping to begin with.

Be mindful when quoting posts with pictures. 

If it's not relevant to your comment, try and delete them, it will make the picture police happy.

I like to use the thank you button instead of creating a post that just says thanks

It doesn't mean I'm not acknowledging your kind words

I will try and answer all the questions I can, but I need to be mindful of spending time with the lovely LaLa

Feel free to answer any questions that others pose. sometimes I'm slow or occupied. See above

Remember this was two years ago, I'm sure I'll answer something wrong

Play nice. I really don't want this to go off the rails, and force the admins to delete stuff

 

If you were one of the lucky ones onboard with us, feel free to contribute.

 

Anyway, have fun and goodnight from Cocoa Beach

 

I need to go pack

[njkruzer]

BTW did this itinerary on the Brilliance out of Harwich,  England. several years ago.  Were supposed to stop at Stockholm but weather interfered so I guess will need to do it again!

[John&LaLa]

August 16, 2018 - Flight day

This set of posts will be about the flight on the 16th and I'll do our first day in Copenhagen tonight

 

Our flights are Orlando - New York (JFK) - Copenhagen in Business Class. 2 days in Copenhagen pre cruise and one day post cruise.

Flights were around $1000 per leg, so between round trip flights, hotels, food, and cabs we spent about the same on all that as the cruise

 

Now our original intent was only one flight, the TA to Boston, and then a rental car back to FL with stops along the way to see friends.

However, Laura's parents passing in the spring, caused us to pass on the TA home since we had to arrange their internment in Connecticut earlier this summer. After all that and the Mariner repo, Laura was just wore out.

 

As usual, Bell will be staying with our neighbors, Jerry and Linda

Since we are only going for 10 days, we parked at the airport as I recall

 

With Business Class International you get access to the Delta Sky Club, so we got to the airport a little early

 

It's actually quite large

 

Obligatory pre travel Baileys Irish Cream

 

They even had ice cream treats

 

Gotta run, time to board the flight to JFK

 

 

 

[John&LaLa]

Delta 2125 - MCO to JFK

 

Don't quote me, but I think we flew on an A320

It was nice, but about an hour into flight, I may have knocked Laura's wine 🍷 into her lap.

Luckily I lived to tell the tale. We'll have to find new clothes in JFK, wish us luck.

 

And it was red wine to boot. Probably Merlot. To bad it wasn't Pinot Grigio

 

Heading north along the coast.

Ponce Inlet just south of Daytona

 

Daytona Beach?

 

Always a fan of outlets that are easy to get to

 

Ocean City, MD

We actually spent a few summers there when we lived in Crofton

 

Approaching JFK

 

We've arrived, time to go shopping. 

 

[John&LaLa]

DL 218 - JFK to CPH (Copenhahagen)

 

Shopping was easy, but a little pricey. Imagine that, it's NYC

Laura found a skirt and sweater at Brook's Brothers. $200 more or less

 

I don't recall the lounge experience, but we had a good alcohol induced visit.

 

Time for some Delta One pods😎

 

Pre flight champagne

 

Best travel kit ever. I still use these every trip for my phone cords, etc..

 

I forgot who this is, but we'll see him again on the ship

 

Laura crocheting in her new sweater

 

Tonight's wine list

 

Silly me tried the Pinot Noir. It was pretty good. I would have had more, but it was around 1 am 

 

The other drink offerings

 

Dinner is about to be served, BRB 

[Havin'fun]

I just booked cabin 1602 on Jewel, first time in a aft cabin. 

That balcony looks amazing, hopefully you have a few pictures of it.

Looking forward to the rest of the review.

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

The other drink offerings

I like the English/Danish translations. Miller-Lite is Miller-Lite in Danish.😁

[Tree_skier]

We'll be on Serenade for the first time next May.  Looking forward to this review.

[dbancroft]

4 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

 

Ocean City, MD

We actually spent a few summers there when we lived in Crofton

 

 

 

We spent the first week of August in Ocean City instead of sailing on the Adventure out of Bayonne.

[John&LaLa]

DL 218 - continued

 

Like I eluded to above, due to our late departure, dinner must have been served around 1am.

 

The first course seems out of focus. I'd guess operator error

It was good, though. Big fan of corn chowder. I'm sure I ate Laura's as well

 

I guess I didn't shoot the dinner menu. 

As usual we got one of each, then Laura gets the better of the two and I eat what she doesn't want

 

Chicken looks dry. Rice was probably good

 

Steak was probably OK. Hard to mess that up

 

Actually, I think I was shooting with the food filter. It creates a sharp focus and blurs the edges

I don't use it that much anymore

 

 

Ice cream sundae was good. I may have napped after that

 

Breakfast frittata

 

Overall food as bleh, but decent for a 9 hour flight that left at midnight

Hopefully the return is better, I know the timeline is better. Morning flight

Edited August 25, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

August 17 and 18 - Copenhagen

 

All the pictures are jumbled together, So I'm not sure of the exact order between the two days

 

Basically we stayed in the Nyhaven area. One of the best located places in Copenhagen. Its close to most of the attractions

Our hotel was the Scandic Front, about two blocks from Nyhaven proper. I would stay there again, it was more modern than Bethel, a CC favorite. Laura preferred the breakfast buffet at the Scandic. We will give Bethel a shot at the end of the cruise.

 

Here is a map of the Copenhagen waterfront area around Nyhaven

 

Our room at the Scandic was a Superior facing the harbor

 

The Admiral is next door it is supposed to be nice. We'll have lunch there tomorow

 

That's Laura on the balcony

 

View of the 'beach'. Ironman starts tomorrow

 

Someone seems happy

 

 

Selfie on the balcony

 

Let's go find some food

[John&LaLa]

August 17, 2020 - Lunch and Dinner

 

Headed over to Nyhaven. It's basically about 40 individual outdoor cafe's

 

We went with the traditional Smorrebord for lunch.

It's not Smorgasbord by any means. It is an open faced sandwich made with heavy dark bread and some type of protein.

Today I had shrimp, I think. I wasn't a fan. But it was a nice setting, and I enjoyed several Carlsberg beers.

 

East side of the canal

 

West side. This is the typical picture of Copenahagen

Most of the cafe's are on this side

 

Waiting on food, enjoying the day

 

Back to the hotel for a nap. 

That's the downside to flying to Europe from US. Jetlag

We'll come back for dinner, the pizza looked good

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by John&LaLa

[njkruzer]

Loved Copengagen.   Stayed at the Marriott using points. Right on the canal..  Watched people swimming in the canal, then getting out, dressing and going to work!  Our room, on an upper floor, overlooking Tivoli. Couldn't figure out why they thought it was an upgrade until the night there were fireworks over Tivoli for their anniversary.   Was a great show. 

 

did you go to Konigsberg to see Hamlet's castle?  Highly recommend it..

 

When do I get to travel again? 

[John&LaLa]

15 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Loved Copengagen.   Stayed at the Marriott using points. Right on the canal..  Watched people swimming in the canal, then getting out, dressing and going to work!  Our room, on an upper floor, overlooking Tivoli. Couldn't figure out why they thought it was an upgrade until the night there were fireworks over Tivoli for their anniversary.   Was a great show. 

 

did you go to Konigsberg to see Hamlet's castle?  Highly recommend it..

 

When do I get to travel again? 

 

Sadly, we didn't venture out of the city center

[njkruzer]

Just now, John&LaLa said:

 

Sadly, we didn't venture out of the city center

We had 5 nights so could take a day. 1 hr lovely train ride, followed by a short walk.  Copengagen card covered train and admission to castle.  Definitely recommend it.

[John&LaLa]

A big plus to visiting Northern Europe in the summer is the days are quite long, so dinner at 8pm is still full daylight.

Taking advantage of that we walked around a bit before dinner

 

Selfie in front of the Admiral

 

Back on the canal

 

Working on my bokeh effect and mugging for the camera

 

Bruschetta was very good

 

As was the pie

 

The Danish Krone is about 6 to the USD, so this pizza was less than $10

 

Enjoying wine al fresco

 

We should be rested by tomorrow. Plans for canal tour in the late morning

Edited August 26, 2020 by John&LaLa

[bobmacliberty]

Thanks for doing this John.  These itineraries are on our list...both this cruise and the TA.  I was just telling my wife yesterday that I don't like frittatas (someone made a dessert frittata on the TV show Chopped).  I think I've only had them in Delta Business Class as the breakfast going to Europe.  Not a fan of Delta's frittata at all.  Probably need to give one a shot in a real restaurant.

[John&LaLa]

5 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Thanks for doing this John.  These itineraries are on our list...both this cruise and the TA.  I was just telling my wife yesterday that I don't like frittatas (someone made a dessert frittata on the TV show Chopped).  I think I've only had them in Delta Business Class as the breakfast going to Europe.  Not a fan of Delta's frittata at all.  Probably need to give one a shot in a real restaurant.

 

Just smother in ketchup

[bobmacliberty]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Just smother in ketchup

I switched to the granola/yogurt/fruit (and coffee...lots of coffee).  Seems better at 3am when you've only slept a couple of hours and are trying to convince your body that it's time for breakfast.

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I switched to the granola/yogurt/fruit (and coffee...lots of coffee).  Seems better at 3am when you've only slept a couple of hours and are trying to convince your body that it's time for breakfast.

 

3am🤔

I thought you retired

Go back to bed