Ultimate Scandinavia Cruise on the Serenade of the Seas Review 7/24/16 – 8/6/16

Hello Everyone,

Since last year’s review of my family’s Alaskan adventure went so well, I figured I’d do a review of our upcoming Baltic Sea cruise on the Serenade.

We leave for our Baltic adventure in a little over a week and will not have any access to the internet so I figured I’d ask now what people wanted to learn about.

I can tell you, I’ve done very little research on this cruise :eek:(unlike our Alaskan adventure last year:rolleyes:). This cruise was really spearheaded by my mother-in-law, and she is the one with all the research and information. We will be doing excursion in every port. Some ports will be through the cruise line while others will be from private companies. When we get home ill upload the pictures, give everyone the play by play, and answer as many questions about the trip as possible.

So go ahead, anything you guys want to know: from travel, to transport; ship to shore; embarkation to disembarking; any info I can give back to the community who has helped me so much, I am more then happy to provide.

The cut off date for questions will be July 22nd (as we fly out the 23rd) so feel free to ask away :)

I'm on this cruise as well and will be covering for my Blog live on Snapchat, semi-live on instagram, then launching the blog itself with posts in August. Flying out this Friday for a week in Stockholm beforehand! Can't wait to get onboard :)

Hi,

I would like to hear about your stateroom on the ship and how you liked it, any pre or post hotel stays, what you did in each port, what you liked or disliked and what you would do differently if you had it to do over again, where and what you ate and did for recreation on the ship. Also, how was embarkation/disembarkation, and getting to and from the ship? Also, did you eat in any alternative restaurants? How was the food and service? Did you go to any shows? Enquiring minds want to know! Whatever you do, I hope you all have a great time.

We did the 10 day Scandinavia on Serenade a few days ago. The weather was a bit cooler and wetter than I anticipated. Definitely bring small umbrellas, would be good to bring a hooded, lightweight windbreaker (typical REI type of jacket), a couple of longsleeve t-shirts, and waterproof (or mostly waterproof) hiking shoes. One day was sunny and in the 80s, so you still want some warm weather clothes too.

Hi,

I would like to hear about your stateroom on the ship and how you liked it, any pre or post hotel stays, what you did in each port, what you liked or disliked and what you would do differently if you had it to do over again, where and what you ate and did for recreation on the ship. Also, how was embarkation/disembarkation, and getting to and from the ship? Also, did you eat in any alternative restaurants? How was the food and service? Did you go to any shows? Enquiring minds want to know! Whatever you do, I hope you all have a great time.

Ladyarli,

I plan on touching on all those points in my review :) glad you are looking forward to it! Just printed my set sail pass tonight:D So excited only 12 more days before our adventure begins!

We did the 10 day Scandinavia on Serenade a few days ago. The weather was a bit cooler and wetter than I anticipated. Definitely bring small umbrellas, would be good to bring a hooded, lightweight windbreaker (typical REI type of jacket), a couple of longsleeve t-shirts, and waterproof (or mostly waterproof) hiking shoes. One day was sunny and in the 80s, so you still want some warm weather clothes too.

Thank you for the advice! One question, why waterproof hiking shoes? Were the streets in the cities flooded? Thanks!

Thank you for the advice! One question, why waterproof hiking shoes? Were the streets in the cities flooded? Thanks!

no flooding (although it did start pouring really hard in one of the cities). I just found that my sort of worn out running shoes did not keep the water out very well at all, and I hate having wet socks while doing 3-6 hours of walking around town. But any shoes that you might be comfy wearing while walking around for a few hours in a steady drizzle should be ok.

But I think that the forecasts for our week did call for some rain...maybe you'll get dry weather.

no flooding (although it did start pouring really hard in one of the cities). I just found that my sort of worn out running shoes did not keep the water out very well at all, and I hate having wet socks while doing 3-6 hours of walking around town. But any shoes that you might be comfy wearing while walking around for a few hours in a steady drizzle should be ok.

 

But I think that the forecasts for our week did call for some rain...maybe you'll get dry weather.

Thanks! We start packing tomorrow. Your advice will come in very handy!:)

I'm on this cruise as well and will be covering for my Blog live on Snapchat, semi-live on instagram, then launching the blog itself with posts in August. Flying out this Friday for a week in Stockholm beforehand! Can't wait to get onboard :)

Look forward to meeting you Dee and reading your blog as well :)

I'm here to learn as much as I can! A Baltic cruise is one of our nominees for our anniversary cruise!

Kraig!

Hope you and Allie have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to your review as the Baltic cruise is still on our bucket list.

I will be following along. If this review is half as good as your Alaska review - it will be amazing :D

Safe travels and enjoy the adventure

Diane and Bob

Kraig!

Hope you and Allie have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to your review as the Baltic cruise is still on our bucket list.

I will be following along. If this review is half as good as your Alaska review - it will be amazing :D

Safe travels and enjoy the adventure

Diane and Bob

Diane! Thanks! We had a great cruise :) Just got home last night. Hope you enjoy the review and have a great time on the Explorer:D

Hello Again Everyone!

I plan on writing this review much like I wrote my review for last summer's Alaska cruise. Sharing my families adventure and some tip, tricks, triumphs, and lessons we learned along the way.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask! The more info I can the provide the better:)

First the background; unlike last years cruise (which my family and I researched and saved and prepared years for) this was a much more spur of the moment cruise. And I just that term loosely. My mother-in-law got of the Radiance last year and said to my wife and I "surprise, i booked the family for the baltic next summer." Well we were very surprised, and grateful, to say the least. So with little less then a year to prepare I started doing as much research as possible to know what to expect. However, I was unable to find one single recent review on this particular cruise. It wasn't until later that I realized that is because Royal only does this particular cruise; the "ultimate Scandinavian and Baltic cruise" ONCE a year. So with info hard to come by, I want to make sure I provide as much as possible to the CC community, and provide a little entertainment as well;) So as Topi our cruise director would say "sit back relax and enjoy the show!"

Saturday ~ July 23 2016 ~ Baltimore to Stockholm

Going on this cruise was my in-laws (brother-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in law, aunt-in-law (MIL's sister), sister-in-law) Ali and me. All my in-laws, with the exception of my sister-in-law, left for Stockholm a few days earlier to enjoy the city a couple extra days, but due to work, my SIL, Ali and myself could not leave until Saturday. So we loaded up our bags and headed for Dulles International Airport, just outside of D.C. about a 90 minute drive from home, for our 5pm flight.

We were flying SAS direct to Copenhagen, then getting a connector to Stockholm. There was only one ticket counter at IAD, so I was glad we got to the airport early.

Due to thunderstorms, we sat, delayed, on the plane for almost an hour. The pilot shut down an engine to conserve fuel. The cabin got kinda hot, but before too long we took off and the thunderstorm clouds made for a very beautiful view.

It was cool watching the track of the plane on the monitor!

We went very far east before turning north to avoid the storms. Made for a very cloudy, but pretty sunset.

Watched some movies, and got dinner before trying to get some sleep. Didn't sleep much though. Too many good movies to watch! Dinner was some sort of chicken meat ball with beans and rice, salad, and bread with a dessert. It was ok for airplane food

The moon was SO bright it lit up the plane as we flew!

Sunday ~ July 24 2016 ~ Stockholm

As we reached the UK the sun started to rise.

Breakfast of meat and cheese with some oats and fruit was served. Not bad actually.

We made up some time in the air but we were still arriving to Copenhagen a half hour late. It was a tight connector with only 45 minutes to spare, originally. Luckily, we found out, of the 130 passengers on our next flight to Stockholm 89 of them were on our flight from DC so they held the plane. But either way I was not worried. Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen are the 3 HUBs for SAS with planes departing hourly to each airport. If we had missed the connector, we would have just gotten on the next one in an hour.

We ran and hopped on the next plane and waited for our short 45 minute flight to Stockholm

Got a great view of the tunnel bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden as we took off.

OMG. I love your description. Can't wait to keep reading every single detail of your trip. I will be sailing on this ship in December and I am really looking forward to our cruise to the Caribbean.

Thanks for sharing!!

We landed in Stockholm and made our way to get our bags. We were surprised to find out we did not have to go through customs. When we landed in Copenhagen we went through customs since this was our first entry into the European Union. We learned that even though Denmark and Sweden use their own currency they are still part of the EU, allowing for easy transportation from one country to the next. This will come in to play when we visit Russia, but ill tell you about that later.

Looking forward to this review. We are on the Ultimate cruise next July 30th. Thank you for taking the time to do this.:)

Following your review as well. Thanks!

So excited to read your review. This cruise is my dream cruise...I'm feeding the fire by reading :)

Getting our luggage was easy enough and then there was a line of taxi cabs waiting outside the airport to take tourist wherever they wanted. Now here was our first lesson we learned; apparently in Sweden there are no regulations on taxi's (or so we were told). We chose a taxi with the lowest price sticker in the window: 480 Krona, however once we entered the cab, the taxi driver started negotiating with me, the price. I told him the sticker said 480, but he told me the "cruise port was farther then the city." I don't know if that was true or not but looking at google maps it didn't appear that way. Anyways, he told me, after we started driving mind you, that it would be 600 Krona for the ride. We continued negotiating for almost 15 minutes till I finally agreed on 500 Krona then he put that number in the computer. I was very surprised this is how they operated. But it was definitely a live and learn moment. Also he took us to the wrong cruise port, but he was nice enough and after about 10 more minutes of driving (40ish minutes total from the airport) we reached the beautiful Serenade of the Seas!

I was able to pay with a credit card (remember to put a travel flag on them, my SIL forgot and had to do some calling from the airport in DC) and we unloaded and headed for the ship.

For anyone leaving from Stockholm the terminal is located at Frihamnsgatan 66 115 56 Stockholm. This is the only terminal Royal sails out of, I was told, and having the address would have come in much more handy then "take us to the cruise port please"

Once we arrived baggage drop off and check in was real easy. Signs were posted everywhere.

There was a souvenir shop in the terminal and once we checked in we were free to come and go from the ship as we pleased

OMG. I love your description. Can't wait to keep reading every single detail of your trip. I will be sailing on this ship in December and I am really looking forward to our cruise to the Caribbean.

 

Thanks for sharing!!

My please Goldie, Thanks for following along:D

Looking forward to this review. We are on the Ultimate cruise next July 30th. Thank you for taking the time to do this.:)

My pleasure! It is an incredible cruise. Definitely a trip of a life time!

Following your review as well. Thanks!

Thanks for following!:D

So excited to read your review. This cruise is my dream cruise...I'm feeding the fire by reading :)

I'm happy to indulge. If there is anything I'm missing that you want to know, ask away :)