Just returned from Serenade of Seas Alaska June12-19

Just got home late last evening from Alaska. This was bar none the best cruise we have ever taken. I have been on 8 RCI and a total of 15 cruises. The service was great, ship was beautiful and I felt the entertainment and food was excellant most of the time. My husband and I are both already talking about going back. Will do a full review in a day or so. Fire away with any questins you have for now.

How was your weather? We were on the Radiance June 4-11 and had spectacular weather, hot, sunny, mostly high 60s and low to mid 70s. Who is the CD on the Seranade, and did you like him/her?

Amanda:)

Weather was great. Little rain in Skagway in AM but cleared about noon in time for our ride on the railway. Needed a jacket on deck on sea days cuz of wind but 75-80 in ports. The cruise director was Alan from Vancourver, he was unbeivable he actually knew our name and said hello everytime we saw him, very visable and pesonalble

We'll be on the same cruise in August. I have a question...Do you remember which side of the ship viewed Hubbard Glacier first? I plan to view Hubbard from my Starboard side balcony when it is on that side and from up on deck when the glacier is on the port side. Just trying to plan where to be when we first get to Hubbard.

Thanks.

-Steven

Can't wait for your review! I'm not going on SOS to Alaska until next summer so I'm hoping to learn lots this summer. What excursions/activities did you do in port?

Glad to hear you had a great time. I am on Serenade in less than 2 weeks! Third trip to alaska and I can't wait.

How was Hubbard Glacier, did you see lots of calving? Did you get close?

How was Misty Fjords? Did you guys see bears? Did you have early or late seating? If you had early, how did you deal with that on Misty Fjords night?

Thanks!

Looking forward to your review. We're going next summer. I'd also like to know which dinner seating you had. I booked early seating as we have 2 teenagers and generally this works best with their evening activities. Do you think this will interfere with anything? I'm sooo looking forward to seeing Alaska!

Also, what excursions did you take? Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the info!

I'm glad you had a great time. We will be on the Serenade in three weeks. Looking forward to reading your review. Which excursions did you take? Did you go to the shows? Any you would recommend...or not? Did you need to dress in layers or was it warm enough for t-shirt and shorts? Many people at the pool?

I will start my review but may have to stop and continue later. I would rate this cruise as the best I have ever been on. Food great entertainment very good staff more than willing to helpful. We were celebrating our 25th anniversary so this was a special week for us.

We left Providence RI on Saturday and flew into Seattle with Southwest. We were able to use FF miles and therefore the flight was $200 rt total for 2. We took Quick Shuttle to Vancourver, a very long ride about 4 hrs, before arriving at the Hyatt. The quick shuttle driver was very nice and pointed out sites of interest along the way. After checking into hotel we went to eat at a local Greek resturant Stepho's great food very cheap.

Sunday am we checked out of the hotel and arrived at the dock about 10:30 went thru priorty check in in about 5 minures and were sitting waiting to board ship before the coffe and pastry had been set up by cruise line. After waiting about 35 minutes at exactly 12 noon the custom officers allowed hadicap persons to go thru and board and we were next. We were unable to check out or room, but looked around the ship and then headed to the Windjammer for the buffet lunch at 12:30. I did not like the set up of the Windjammer it is stations instead of the usual buffet line. I found people tended to be getting in each others way but just my thought nothing really bad. I do not really like the Windjammer anyway so just another reason no to go there.

After eating we went to find our room, E-3 on deck 7. Man it is smaller than the D-1 we had on the Voyager last fall but we got by. My only complaint about the room is that the lifeboats are directly below and there is a hard plastic covering over them so even though the balconey has clear plexiglass all the way down you can not look down into the water you have to look off to a distance because of this covering.

We then proceeded to go to Viking lounge to meet our mix and mingle friends ( Hi everyone! ) Off to Muster then we were on our way.

We had early seating which workded out well for us, our table mates were wonderful and we found we spend time with them other times on the cruise.

I found the menu to be smaller than other cruises with only 3 entrees as well as the alternives but have to say every single meal was excellant. My husband really enjoys cold soup and each night it was very good, we had a chef's recommendation most nights and that is what we ordered.

Coffee left alot to be desired but we are the type of people who will throw out a pot that is 20 minutes old and make new so we or not easy to please when it comes to this. We alternated brakefast in main and windjammer as well as lunch. We ate dinner in main dining room all but night we were cruising thru Misty Fjord( Friday)( Lobster night) this night we choose to eat in Chops it was very good and the onion soup they had was to die for!

Went to most all the shows some better than others but no a one that I would call bad.

The cruise director was Allan he was great we meet him at the love and marriage game, return guest party and the Platuim and Diamond brunch and by Friday when we saw him he called us by name.

Ports:

Great pictures and calving seen at Hubbard Glacier, I think Starrbaord side was first but don't really remember becasue we were up front.Needed a jacket on deck early in day but a sweater later.

Skagway we had alittle rain in AM but not bad then took the whitepass train ride it was unbeiveable and a must do . Need a swaetshirt most of day

Juneau we took the tram to the top of the mountain and hiked for an hour then we walked around and had lunch in the Red Dog Saloon, not cheap but food ok a crazy piano player:light jacket only

Ketichian- I had planned to go to the lumber jack show but at 9am when I got ther it was sold out for 9am and 11am ( buy tix from cruiseline if you really want to do this)

We ended up taking a private tour from a company the woman who drove the bus was very knowledgeable and we really enjoyed her and learned alot about the area. She had lived in the area for 25 years. We ate lunch at the Burger Queen, great fish sandwiches weather was 80 and sun.

We saw orca whales, dolphins, eagles and bears in the distance

I can't say enough about how much we enjoyed this and how wonderful the ship and cruise was.

We'll be on the 7/3 sailing for our 12th cruise to Alaska. We often go in July and have been able to get really close to Hubbard Glacier. Last year when we went in May we could not get as close. It is really something to see. I think I like it better the Glacier Bay. I am seriously thinking about having dinner in the Windjammer the night we go into Misty Fjord. We always have early seating and I have missed most of the scenery too many times.

Enjoyed your review and I am looking forward to our trip to Alaska in September. This will be our 5th cruise and our 1st to Alaska. Anyone ever cruised to Alaska in Sept, looking for do's and don't's and what to expect. We did the NE/Canadian Crusie last October and enjoyed it alot, hoping it was a warm up for Alaska.

Glad to hear you had a great cruise! My parents are on this very same cruise this week courtesy of my brother, sister, and I. I hope they have a great experience. This is their first cruise. I have to admit I'm a little jealous of them...lol.

Thanks for the answer on which side of the ship sees Hubbard first. I plan to be on my balcony when we get there!

-Steven

We'll be on the same cruise in August. I have a question...Do you remember which side of the ship viewed Hubbard Glacier first? I plan to view Hubbard from my Starboard side balcony when it is on that side and from up on deck when the glacier is on the port side. Just trying to plan where to be when we first get to Hubbard.

 

Thanks.

 

-Steven

Hi Steven -- I was on Serenade June 5-12th. For us, the port side viewed Hubbard first. There was a lot of crowding in some areas of the ship, which I realized was kind of silly because we were there for quite a while. One cool place to view, after you've been outside for a bit, is on deck 11 near the ping-pong tables. The windows along the deck can be opened and you get a great view.

The captain will announce when he is turning the ship around. We had a balcony on starboard and really enjoyed viewing Hubbard from there. It was also at that time that most of the calving took place!

Have a great cruise.

Laurie

Thanks Buzz and Julie! Great information and always so nice to hear positive things ahead of a cruise. We are on this same cruise on August 7th, with the CC group. Can't wait!! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

I'm so glad you had a wonderful time and thank you for the review. My husband, friends and myself will be aboard this wonder ship for the August 21 sailing and needless to say we can't wait. It's nice to hear good things about the ship you are about to sail on. This will be our 4th Alaskan cruise, 1st with RCL. We are so looking forward to this adventure.

Buzzandjulie: When were the formal nights? We are booked on the Serenade 8/28. We can't wait and really enjoy reading everyone's reviews.

Teresa

The formal nights were Monday and Thursday

Baseballmom-

Thanks for the information.

-Steven

As you can see by my signature, Alaska is one of our favorite cruises as well. IMO, a balcony is a must for this particular cruise. We had a balcony on our second cruise but not the first. We saw so much more just sitting on the balcony and watching vs the outside cabin. You never know what you'll see or when. One morning I was able to see a humpback whale breaching and slapping it's massive tail on the water. Someone latter told me they'll will do that to knock barnicals (sp?) off. The only problem, I didn't have my video camera with me and I didn't want to go back inside to get it, fearing the whale would disappear while I was in the room. So I just stood, watched and enjoyed.

We also found the balcony conveneint at Hubbard. No elbows or positioning for a view.

Buzz & Julie from Providence -- we were on the same cruise. I believe we even sat together in Windjammer several times (we're the ones from Louisiana - New Orleans area). How was the hiking?

We concur with the review - this cruise was wonderful! Ship was fantastic. Glacier viewing was great.

Glacier - we were on port side (cabins 8148 and 8150 and 9026). We were in the solarium (port side) and saw it first. Then to upper decks outside (it was crowded so get there before you pull into the glacier to get a rail). Then went to room and stood on balcony where we viewed it for at least 1/2 hour. Then we turned and looked at the fjiord while the starboard side viewed the glacier. Did you see the guys from the ship in the dinghy trying to snag some ice for the ice sculpture? The day was clear by the time we got to the Glacier.

Skagway - we had the early (8:20) train ride and it was a little gloomy. However once you get in the higher elevations, the fog makes for a great picture. It was cold in afternoon, but that was mainly due to the wind I thought. To get to town, you can catch the city bus (S.M.A.R.T) and pay $1.50 each way or just walk it (about 1/2 mile I guess). Because of the wind, I took the bus. Shopping was ok.

Juneau - we had to tender in at this port. Not bad at all. My mom (who is handicapped) was able to do this tender - piece of cake compared to the one we did 2 years ago in Belize. Shops right there at the dock. Some unique things amongst the jewelry shops and the trinket souvenir shops (many things were made in Mexico, CHina, etc. not in Alaska). We did an 11:00 Whale Tour. This tour was sold out almost immediately on the ship - so if you want it, you may want to book online. Brother & family did the early whale tour. Neither of us saw much in the way of whales. Over 200 people on the boat - it was very windy - I wore a headband that fit over ears - worked well. Weather was beautiful though. We saw humpbacks in the distance, sea lions, and that's about it. 3 hours on the water. Teresita - our bus driver was a kick. We hi-tailed it out of the parking lot early and she stopped at a viewing point on a highway and let us get out to take pics of the Mendenhall Glacier. Again, some awesome pics from a distance. That night back on ship- we saw more whale blow (from the Schooner Bar and the lounge behind it (can't remember the name offhand) than we saw on the whale tour. A little disappointing, esp. given the cost of the tour.

Ketchikan - I could live there. Absolutely gorgeous day. The locals were hot! It was 80 with no humidity and felt wonderful to a girl from South Louisiana! We have about 3 days a year like that - on those days I wish I'd gotten the car with the moon roof! Ended up shedding most of the layers of clothing I'd worn. We docked at the pier. Shops right there. Quaint the way the streets are wooden and shops to remind you of an old town. Good interesting shoppping also. WOnderful coffee chip ice cream in the mall to the far right - downstairs. There's also a bead shop/quilt shop/yarn shop there - upstairs in that mall.

We did the Eagle, Totem & Lighthouse tour. It was FANTASTIC! We cruised by Bight Park and got to take pics of the totems and cruised around a lighthouse for some good photo ops. However, the hightlight was the 16 eagles nest (some with nesting eagles) and the soaring eagles, plus the 2 that posed for us on the bouy. WOnderful tour. There were only 10 of us on this boat. Too bad Royal Carribean doesn't really promote it. On the way back we passed a tree on the main drag in Ketchikan that was full of eagles. After we shopped (Ketchikan is a short port day - all aboard was at 2:30) we caught a cab back to that tree. Eagles were soaring. It was great. We were too late for salmon spawning and too early for hatching - but the eagles were there just the same. My brother sat on his balcony (9026) and took closeups of an eagle that decided to do fly bys over the ship for about an hour. Hated to leave that port.

Misty Fjord cruising was nice.

Cabin 9026 has a "bunk bed" which was quite a shock for brother & sister in law - who were expecting a pullout sofa bed for my 17 year old niece. It was funny that first night anyway.

Staterooms - well kept. We had Herly on the 8th deck.

Art and decor was very nice on ship.

Agree with you about the dinner menu. And the lobster was not really that good. The garlicky shrimp (that's how it is listed on menu) that accompanied was much better. Crab cake appetizer was good. Spicy hummus was also. Eggplant entree - we got as an appetizer. Yummy. Dinner fare earlier in the week seemed better to us than it did by the end of the cruise (maybe we were getting tired of stuffing our faces!)

Windjammer - yes people did bump into eachother - lines from several directions at the stations. Some interesting choices. Last day for lunch - the kufta curry meatballs were pretty good. Breakfast omelets were good. Scrambled eggs - so so. Last day saw that someone had eggs over easy - cooked to order from Windjammer. Also ate in dining room a few mornings.

Dinner - we'd requested early dinner (main) seating. There were 7 of us - and we got late seating. Hmmm. Well after that first night, they moved us to main seating. We were put in an overflow room - table 207. Our waiter was Bulent from Turkey (has an infant child and wife at home and is going home to stay in 3 months) and asst. waiter was VIctor from one of the Scandanavian countries. Very friendly and personable - and although sometimes they didn't quite understand our American humor, they also had their own brand of humor. It was such a long walk back to the kitchen from our room that Bulent always brought extra plates in case he got the order wrong (which I think he did only once) and then he would urge us to take extra plates of food (which, I'm sorry to say, we often did). Our dining area was quiet, several families with small children (very well behaved) and a couple from Canada (who we had met at the captain's reception and then discovered we were seated at adjoining tables in the dining area).

Overall - best one we've been on (we've cruised RCCL, Norwegian, and Carnival before). Friendly staff, very clean, oh - and REAL hair dryers in the room, not the kind mounted to the wall in the bathroom that act like vacuum cleaners.

No iron available (much to the chagrin of my sister in law) and no washers/dryers like we had on a Carnival cruise.

State room is ok - we rearranged our furniture (the beds and sofa/table). My sister sprung for the $100 cybercabin - in case anyone is interested.

She lugged her laptop. It worked just fine. I had to tweak her settings a little and that first night leaving vancouver, we didn't get a satellite signal. But the next morning and throughout the cruise, it was just fine. I wanted to upload some pics, but she has win98 and i didn't have a driver for my camera with me. To download from the 'net would have taken forever - as the connection was about like 48Kb dialup. Ok for checking email, but when you surf some sites with graphics, there will be a little wait. As several of us used it to check email and keep in touch, it was better and more convenient to have it in the room instead of the 50 cents a minute for using one of the internet computers.

Cell phone -- I have a cingular old TDMA plan and phone. I had a signal about 2 hours outside of Vancouver. And in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. No signal while at glacier or most of the cruising time. Brother has a GSM plan and phone and he got signals in several ports.

WHat else? Sorry I've just hopped onto your thread -

Oh - the library. It wasn't manned like some are on other ships - so it never closed. It is really just a small nook at the centrum of Deck 9. Honor system to check out and return books. People had checked out quite a few by the time I got there to see what they had (I'm a librarian, so busman's holiday I guess) Some old fiction. Some of the newer fiction, and one of the older harry potter books was checked out. Seemed like none of the Alaska flora/fauna books were checked out and they had a section filled with those.

Shops - best on ship shop selection I thought - although limited snacks on board in the shops. Your obligatory tshirts, amber, tanzanite, crystal, liquor, gold by the inch, etc.

Good music in centrum (aka atrium) including guitarist and band combo. Towel folding demo. Entertainment was good (although the ship singers were so so I thought). Concur - Alan was by far the best cruise director we've had on our various cruises.

-Sona from Lafayette, LA

- Bob, Betsy, Donna, Greg, Maureen & Meghan from New Orleans area

I was on the Serenade with Julie. I get my port and starboard mixed up...you'd never know my son was a rower.

But it was the LEFT side of the ship that viewed Hubbard Glacier first. Isn't that port side? That's the side I was one. There was lots of calving. One was so BIG that it made huge waves come off the water towards us. It made me nervous to see them rolling our way. But I got some nice pictures of the waves working towards a small rock island and then crash into it and roll over it. No, the waves didn't knock us over. But from the size of them as they left the glacier, all I could think was...tsunami. Really, I guess they weren't that big, but from that distance, it was hard to judge. We were close but probably farther than it appeared.

There were plenty of seals resting on floating ice by Hubbard Glacier. And watch for the crew on a life boat going out to catch some ice to bring back on board. They use a net and get a really large piece to they can break it up to serve ice berg cubes in drinks.

You might get some nice photos of another ship pulling out. You'll wish you could photograph your own ship like that. Just today I got my post card perfect prints developed of an NCL ship leaving Hubbard Glacier.

Hang out on the left side and a cruise photographer will get a great shot of you in front of the glacier. Don't step out to take a photo of someone else or someone will surely slink into "your" spot in a flash. :) I'm not kidding either.

Sonadom,

We were in your dining room. You must have been on the other side with the other 2 waiters. We were at table 202 in the corner with Benni from Indonesia and Wayne the dark black man from Jamaica. We were the 2 couples by the window.

Those lobsters would get someone a big fine in the USA. They were definitely shorts by Florida standards. They were the tiniest Caribbean lobsters I've ever seen. People seem to think that RCI serves Maine lobsters. Those were NOT from Maine. And they weren't from the USA since they weren't of legal size. I agree that the shrimp were better. I did pour enough butter on my lobster to wash off some the green pesto and enjoyed them anyway. I do prefer Caribbean lobster over Maine lobster so that helps.

Mommabean --

we couldn't figure out what the green stuff was on the lobster (it was also on several other dishes throughout the week). Pretty tasteless as was the lobster and were wishing we'd brought our Tony Chachere's! Yes, we have crawfish in Louisiana that are almost the size of the lobster tail we had!

We were the family at the back of that room near the serving counter.

Although we'd been outside for part of the glacier viewing, didn't realize until the next night that we could have had our pic taken with the glacier in the backgroud. Would have been keepers (unlike the ones with the moose, bear and eagle as we disembarked in the ports.)

One other thing - we could hear the Captain and Alan loud and clear in the hallway or on the balcony, but not at all in the room. There was a knob near the bathroom door that looked like it adjusted the announcement volume but we couldn't get it to work at all in any of our 3 staterooms.

Wow Mommabean and Sonadom - thanks for the additional review of your cruise. I've been to Alaska twice before, but never to Hubbard Glacier (both previous trips were to Glacier Bay), so I'm excited about my upcoming 3rd Alaska cruise on Serenade on July 3rd! It's almost here!

It was great reading your additional commentary. I'll have to make sure the photographer finds me on Glacier day.

One question for both of you since it sounds like you both had early dining (which I do as well), and you ate at the dining room on Friday (lobster night) -- did you just miss the Misty Fjords sailing, or did dinner end early enough for you to go out on deck and see it? I had heard before from previous passengers that you could arrange with your waiter and head waiter, a sort of "to-go" platter of the lobster so that you wouldn't miss it and they could give you the platter so you could take it upstairs and eat it out on deck or up in the windjammer so you didn't have to miss Misty Fjords, do either of you know if that's true?

thanks!