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

[Sea Dog]

After seeing you pics, I now must go to Copenhagen. What a beautiful city. I might have missed it but what time of year did you go and what where the temps like?

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

After seeing you pics, I now must go to Copenhagen. What a beautiful city. I might have missed it but what time of year did you go and what where the temps like?

 

Umm, middle August. It was actually a little cool, but very comfortable 

[njkruzer]

43 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Umm, middle August. It was actually a little cool, but very comfortable 

Funny, a week later it was warmer.  They were having a warm spell.  As i said, there were people swimming in the canal behind our hotel.

[John&LaLa]

28 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Funny, a week later it was warmer.  They were having a warm spell.  As i said, there were people swimming in the canal behind our hotel.

 

Yes, I remember it was warmer when we got back the following week.

 

Post #35 had some swimmers.  

Keep in mind, locals have different temperature tolerances than thin blooded Floridians

Edited August 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[fred30]

The timing of this review couldn't be better!    As I'm following along it feels like normal times again.   Fantastic job so far.  The pictures are great!

Thanks for the break from reality.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Diggin' your review. We were on the Brilliance in May 2018 for a Baltic Cruise but we started in Amsterdam. Coppenhagen was my favorite port. We did a Segway tour and was able to cover a lot of ground pretty quickly. I hope you don't mind me sharing a video. After a bit I as able to get comfortable enough to one hand the segway and shoot video too.  Hope this link works... here goes. 

Three different videos. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p11wqpbil1wk28c/Video May 13%2C 5 08 52 AM.mov?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5v5efabvz1e3vw/Video May 13%2C 5 10 28 AM.mov?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajcyjilokt66q56/Video May 13%2C 4 56 19 AM.mov?dl=0

Edited August 27, 2020 by Goodtime Cruizin

[John&LaLa]

9 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

Diggin' your review. We were on the Brilliance in May 2018 for a Baltic Cruise but we started in Amsterdam. Coppenhagen was my favorite port. We did a Segway tour and was able to cover a lot of ground pretty quickly. I hope you don't mind me sharing a video. After a bit I as able to get comfortable enough to one hand the segway and shoot video too.  Hope this link works... here goes. 

Three different videos. 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing. 

 

How are things out your way?

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Good... we were blessed & fortunate to have the Hurricane go east of us last night by about 150 miles or so... so we didn't recieve even a drop of rain. In fact, I'm watering the lawn right now. LOL  

[John&LaLa]

August 19, 2018 - Day 1 - Copenhagen

 

Our ship is here

 

In case you don't see it. She's back to back with MSC

 

Race is in full swing, they may be swimming now

 

Their bikes are stored in the parking garage under the 'beach'

 

Watched the race while eating breakfast

 

Super slow motion video is pretty cool, I hope you can see it

They seemed to work on my last Serenade review in April

 

Our ride for the next 7 days

 

Cab over was around $20

Edited August 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Boarding the Serenade was a piece of cake. Literally

We arrived fairly early and had to wait for our room

 

Cake in the Jammer

 

Typical Radiance Class JS

 

Plenty of storage

 

Nothing out of the ordinary

 

Except this awesome balcony

 

Definitely worth the ridiculously long walk back here

 

 

The view will eventually improve once this apartment building leaves

 

Lovebirds below us

Edited August 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

More JS pictures for those unfamiliar with this room

 

View to the inside from the balcony

 

Bath is nice, it has a tub that you don't see

Not overly pleased with the bath amenities, they could or should be nicer, I'm no 100% sure

Razor outlet in the wall is odd, I usually see it in the ceiling

 

Our C&A gifts were waiting. Hopefully the Beringers shows up later

 

Everybody loves the walk in closet

 

 

We have no use for the kettle and coffee pot, I'd rather have the counter space

In the closet it goes

Edited August 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Sorry, no food porn, just some cheesecake

 

Actually a casino statue

 

While I don't have food pics, I do have the table placard. I always take that photo to remember our waiters names

We had a nice table for two

 

Laura finally found her Beringers

 

Another 'Live Focus' shot. 

Not sure if all Androids call it that, but Samsung does. I like to use it

 

Hanging out in the Centrum after dinner, probably on the way to the casino

 

 

 

I'll bet this is a Newcastle

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Technically the last pics of the day are from the 20th, but since I waited up to take them, I'll include them here

 

The Great Belt Bridge

 

In order to get from Copenhagen to the Baltics, cruise ships need to head north and go around the island that Copenhagen sits on. They can't go south, because the bridge to Sweden does not have enough clearence

 

Many of you may recognize it from some famous pictures of Oasis and Allure who had to go under it when they left the shipyard in Finland. I'm not sure, but the stacks may be down in this photo. We won't be as close. BTW, the suspension section of this bridge is about a mile long. Total length is 11 miles

 

As I recall, the Captain estimated we would arrive around midnight, so I stayed up. In the end we were a couple hours late.

 

Sleeping Beauty gave up

 

Downside to watching from an Aft balcony was I could not see the approach, but the pictures are still pretty good

 

 

They use three windmills to power the lights

 

 

Cell phone pics were probably better, go figure

 

 

Goodbye, I doubt I stay up again

 

That's all for tonight, tomorrow is a day at sea, headed to Stockholm

[njkruzer]

Enjoying.  Dh says we probably didn't stay up to see the bridge!   

[ckmedsec]

Enjoying this much needed review.  We were supposed to be on a 14 night Baltic cruise in June which was leaving from Amsterdam.  With your review and wonderful photos it almost feels like we were there.  Thank you so much.

[maggieq]

9 hours ago, njkruzer said:

Funny, a week later it was warmer.  They were having a warm spell.  As i said, there were people swimming in the canal behind our hotel.

Same here but different year.  Cruise waters very very calm. One  of our favorite cruises. Did you stay at the Marriott?

[njkruzer]

9 minutes ago, maggieq said:

Same here but different year.  Cruise waters very very calm. One  of our favorite cruises. Did you stay at the Marriott?

Yes, the Marriott, backing the canal.  Very nice and helpful staff.

[Goodtime Cruizin]

We were enjoying dinner w/ a nice table of eight. Our party, and two Aussie couples. Luckily we were at a nice table by a window w/ an great view right at sunset. It was amazing. Thanks for jogging the memory bank.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Goodtime Cruizin

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Sorry, no food porn, just some cheesecake

 

Actually a casino statue

 

While I don't have food pics, I do have the table placard. I always take that photo to remember our waiters names

We had a nice table for two

 

Laura finally found her Beringers

 

Another 'Live Focus' shot. 

Not sure if all Androids call it that, but Samsung does. I like to use it

 

Hanging out in the Centrum after dinner, probably on the way to the casino

 

 

 

I'll bet this is a Newcastle

 

 

 

 

 

Whenever we sail on serenade we like the tables for 2 at the railing in that same section your table was located.   Love the extra large balcony too.  We try to get that whenever we can on serenade or jewel.

[maggieq]

2 hours ago, maggieq said:

Same here but different year.  Cruise waters very very calm. One  of our favorite cruises. Did you stay at the Marriott?

I just received an email stating that the above post was political in nature?  Are you kidding me?   I went on this same cruise but not the same year as OP, waters were calm.  What is political about my post?  Please explain as I would like to know. 
 

cruisecritic you might want to police the people posting political and anti cruising posts. Thank you! 

Edited August 28, 2020 by maggieq

[Sunshine3601]

Enjoying your sea day?

[LuCruise]

Thank you for the belated live review. Miss cruising so much . Think this is something all if us can use. Your vacation seems amazing do far and your cruise barely started.

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Enjoying your sea day?

 

Enjoying my 3rd Cape Codder of Happy Hour right now. 

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Enjoying my 3rd Cape Codder of Happy Hour right now. 

Ahh so good with belvedere vodka.  Enjoy.  I might just have to make one now!

[John&LaLa]

7 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Ahh so good with belvedere vodka.  Enjoy.  I might just have to make one now!

 

Limited bar at our temporary abode. 

 

Back to the trip