Serenade of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This is the second time we have taken a New England/Canada Fall cruise in hopes of seeing fall foliage, but the unseasonably cool summer has delayed the fall once again, so we had no luck.  The cruise itself, however, could not have been more delightful.  Portland, with it's cobblestone streets and old New England architecture, was a great introduction to things to come.  We asked a local where to go for clam chowder, and he recommended a place on the 2nd floor of the market, Karmasouptra, They add bacon to the chowder for a small fee, and it is delicious! Then came the always delightful Bar Harbor.  It is tiny, but always fun to explore.  The boardwalk at Halifax makes it easy to walk down to the museum and the base of the fortress in Halifax, and the shopping is fun.  We had never been to Charlottetown, PEI.  It was full of history, and really pretty.  It was also easy to walk.  At Saguenay, the town pulled out all the stops to greet the cruise ship. with locals doing folk dances and a maison a sucre giving out taffy made of maple syrup.  The town itself is very small, and pretty. The little white house is very interesting.  Quebec city, the final stop, is ancient and majestic, and just full of surprises.  The old city has wonderful charm, and the newer areas are still quaint and true to the city's history. Combine all this with Royal Caribbean's always impeccable service and wonderfully friendly staff, and you have a vacation to remember.

I LIKED ALL THE REMINDERS I RECEIVED FROM TO COMPLETE PRE-BOARDING INFORMATION.  THE SERVICE WAS FRIENDLY AND EFFICIENT.  DISAPPOINTED THAT WE COULD NOT GET REFUDS ON OUR SHORE EXCURSIONS AFTER MY HUSBAND HURT HIS BACK.

From the moment we arrived to board the Ship, throughout the cruise, and then regrettably having to leave the Ship the entire staff were incredible.  Everything was so well organized.  We enjoy both the activities on board from the trivia games with Sylvia and Alissandro (sorry about the spelling), who were full of energy and plain out fun, to the many meals where the staff treated everyone as their private party.  Hats off to Sandra in Giovanni's and Jorge and Catalina (I think this is correct) in the Chop Grill.  The staff in Izuma's was also great.  Santos and Priscilla made sure we stayed hydrated and it was fun listening to their travels.  There was plenty of shore excursions and we got the opportunity to visit some wonderful sites.  Our world is so beautiful.  The entertainment in the theater each night was exceptional and it exceeded my expectations.  The dancers, the serenade of the Seas band, the headliner shows were a great ending to each day.  From the Captain to each member of the ship, they would make eye contact and say hello.  Frequently, they would stop and visit and would then remember your name and make sure all was well.  I did celebrate my birthday on the Ship and expected the Captain (he demonstrate how to bake a cake earlier on the cruise) to make me a cake for me but he must have forgot.  LOL :-)  Thinking back, I laughed and was in awe for 16 wonderful nights.  Would love to do this again!  Rich

Since we've cruised on the Oasis, Quantum and Freedom class of ships, the Serenade of the Seas was a bit disappointing for us, showing her age and doesn't have enough venue areas for big gatherings/activities...the Centrum is awkward for viewing  and the Safari is not big enough for the 2,000+ passengers. There were so many Diamond  and up loyalty cruisers and the Diamond lounge was always packed.  It was nice that they gave us 3 drink vouchers to compensate for the lack of space in the Diamond Lounge. The destinations were the best part of the cruise.  

United Vacations who we booked thru was terrible, didn't get promised on board credits, we booked 3 rooms and were promised they would be together not true. They never returned calls or e-mails, made booking terrible.

Starting with the bad which was not much:  $30 per day for Wifi?  Elevators that would pass by empty going the direction you wanted to go!  Awfully loud if you were trying to watch things going on in the atrium from above.

Ugly was smoking in the casino and the pool deck.

Good was the way everyone on the staff was friendly, helpful, and kind.  Excellent training by the company.  Food in specialty restaurants was excellent.  Food at the Windjammer buffet was good.  We are not real fussy but it appeared to me that there were enough different styles from different cultures that even the most discriminatory palates should be relatively happy.

The ship itself was nice but everything looked a little worn.  Last cruise - and my only other cruise on Royal Caribbean - either the ship was newer or better maintained than this one or I am noticing more things about cruise ships.  Not bad enough to complain about but a noticeable difference in quality.  The destination is always the important part, the other stuff is not really important if everything goes well.  And it did on this trip.   I would recommend it to anyone.  Full of surprises.  Fun surprises.  Learned a lot.  Had a lot of fun.  

The things that stand out are the good experiences on  the excrusions - very knowledgeable guides and breathtakingly beautiful scenery.  Everyone on the excursions was super nice, helpful and knowledgeable. that made the trip worthwhile. We were very happy with the cabin - it was very comfortable for 2 people and well kept up by our care taker.  What we were not as happy with was the buffet which had limited hours, unfriendly staff, very average food, and worst of all - not enough seating on on days at sea and on top of that, the restaurants would close at 9am for breakfast - if the sit down breakfast could have stayed open until 11am that would have helped to take off some of the load on the buffet.  It was a MAD HOUSE trying to get any food or a seat....VERY bad experience.  If it weren't for the problems with the buffet, I would have given this cruise a higher rating.

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 United Cruises 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.

Excellent ship and crew.  A few of the port excursions were poorly planed and the WIFI ($30.00 per day) did not or hardly worked.  The food and service were excellent.  I learned portion control on the cruise and with no bread or lunch, I lost three pounds.  We are planning another RC cruise for next year.

We cruised the Baltic 15 years ago and enjoyed the entire experience but especially we loved St. Petersburg.  We wanted to see and compare the changes since our last visit (on a different line.)  We were impressed with RCI and the quality of the cruise experience.  The ports have changed (different locations and better dock facilities) and the cities are better prepared for visitors.  There were 4 ports that we did not visit our first time around and they were a delight.  St. Petersburg is wonderful and the fact that we had 3 days in port was a deciding factor.  The Baltic was our second cruise and also our twenty-third cruise. 

The food on the ship isn't that good, and almost all the shows we went to were terrible, with the exception of two. This is also the first time we've been on a ship that didn't have karaoke. On a brighter note, the service on this ship is very very good, and we were pleased with the friendly and attentive dining room staff.

We chose this specific sailing primarily because of the three-day stay in St. Petersburg, which allowed us to take the full-day excursion to Moscow and still have two days in the port city. Royal Caribbean is not our preferred cruise line, but the ports-of-call, coupled with our pre- and post- hotel stays in Stockholm and Copenhagen (respectively), made this an ideal itinerary to see Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and Russia (day trip to Berlin from Warnemunde was a plus, but be aware that more hours are spent traveling to/from Berlin than in the city itself).

NOTE: U.S. citizens do not need a visa to visit Russia if traveling via cruise ship in port for less than 72 hours. You can only leave the ship without a visa, however, if you are taking an escorted tour (including a day trip to Moscow) booked through RC or a local tour provider.

The ports were awesome.  I used an outside tour company and was very pleased with the small tours with the maximum of 12 people, rather than the large buses used by the tour company.  The ship was very easy to navigate.  In Berlin and one day in St. Petersburg the line to get back on to the ship was taking a half an hour.  

very poor communication procedures with customer service and  headquarter financial polices

department causing unnecessary stress for customers... at the end things were fine. Training the staff is poor and left to each individual to make up for corporate polices to save money on that, which is not fare to customers and employees. I felt than Wall Street is running the company and cuts were on everything including on the quality of shows, too!

I loved the trip, the ports were great, the ship excursions were led by great guides but the shortfalls are the following;

1-limited facilities to eat and especially likmited seating in the windjammer(buffet).  the dining room called reflections had limited hours and the small park café had little to choose from

.2-the entertainment was notably lacking in the main venue, the male leads were atrocious, and some of the shoes show a steady stream of people leaving. the entertainment in the centrum was vastly superior, especially the little 4 person ensemble.

3-staff was generally friendly and courteous, but there were some people particularly in the windjammer who looked like they were doing you a favor by clearing a table.

4- I would recommend most of the ports, but would not recommend the ship, and based on this experience I would not recommend royal carribbean.

I have sailed on 3 other cruise lines, and at this point I would go back to celebrity, they are a notch above.

This was our fourth cruise and our second on Royal Caribbean.  We found the ship clean and well kept.  Our room was the same.  Our room attendant, Norma, was wonderful.  The only real disappointment was the food in the Windjammer Cafe.  It was not well cooked at all.  The food in the dinning room and the specialty cafes was excellent as was the service.  We didn't understand how there could be such a difference.

We had two complete days at sea but very short stops in Stockholm and Helsinki.  Would liked to have longer shore time in both. All the port towns were amazing.

The room upkeep was excellent   The only complaint in terms of services was the my time dining  Tho we reserved a time we had to wait up to 20 or 30 minutes for the first three nights     Also we witnessed people roughly cutting in line to reboaRd the boat after excursions  In spite of  the fact people pointed this out to staff nothing was done  In my opinion these people should have been made to wait their turn  

The ports of call on this cruise were both exciting and very historic and we learned alot about the history (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki). Food in the Dining Rooms were very good, on the buffet, the food required some more heat (luke warm to cold).  Staff is very friendly and respond well to requests.  Our room Stewart and our dining staff did an outstanding job looking after us and learning us in the short time we were together. They gave it a more personal touch. The last port was short to visit and we felt rushed to get back.....overall though....I would go again!!

The Ports of Call were excellent.  The entertainment was good.  Our Cabin Stewart and Asst. Waiter were excellent.  The rest of the activities and programs as well as the courtesy and helpfullness of the cruise staff was mediocre.  The food was about the same you would find on most other cruise ships.  Our experience at the Chops Grille (Steakhouse) was excellent.  Port terminal embarkment, and disembarkment process could use some organization.

we enjoyed all stops on this itinerary. RCCL boarding and returning was very smooth. tours booked through RCCL were very good except wished they made it easier to return to ship on our own time, and the trip to ice bar at 11:30, right in the middle of our time in port in Sweden was not good timing. food and very good, and entertainment was good.