Good Ports-Questionable excursions!
Serenade of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
13 Night Ultimate Scandinavia & Russia (Stockholm To Copenhagen)
Sail date: July 26, 2015
Ship: Serenade of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 9600
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
If you want a snapshot of the Baltic this is the cruise to take. The ship was very comfortable and our cabin near the Centrum deck 9 was very quiet. Centrum entertainment was very good and half of the Showroom presentations were of high quality while the rest was just OK.
The food and variety was very good, especially lunches in the Windjammer. Unfortunately Windjammer experiences can be poor as there is not enough seating or staff to continuously clear tables. We only had dinner there once after a long excursion to Berlin; however this was a terrible ordeal because many excursion returned to the ship late forcing most people to the Windjammer and not the Dining Room. My Time dining in the Reflections dining room was very good. Reasonable variety and very good service.
The quality of the excursion guide often dictated the quality of the excursion. If your guide had a clear loud voice or provided headsets and receivers. This should be a requirement for all excursions! Since Royal Caribbean provides little information on the excursions or the ports you really have to do your homework to decide an itinerary.
We have used the excursions offered by and found then to be of high quality and good value. Groups are smaller and they are offered at lower prices. Since we tend to be risk averse we only use them when the ship is not leaving port. With the higher priced ship excursion you are guaranteed that the shop won't leave with out you.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Do your homework on the ports. The ship gives out little information because they want you to buy their excursion. Some of which had questionable value. This is important since the ship descriptions are incredibly vague making it difficult to make a good choice.