*Photo Review* Serenade of the Seas // New England & Canada 10/9/16

Hello everyone! I'm embarking on my 3rd photo review - this time my cruise was an itinerary that I've looked at multiple times and finally pulled the trigger. I also traveled with a friend who is also on cruise critic - Heather, screen name HeatherC430. She wrote one of the very first photo reviews that I read on Cruise Critic, so you can thank her for this review! You will get to see her in a few photos... she is a much better photographer than I am. I lack the patience or desire to spend an abundant amount of time taking photos.

A little background about me... This was my 7th cruise and first cruise on Royal. I have been on 4 Carnival cruises, 2 Celebrity, and now this Royal. I am 31 years old, from New Orleans, and I love to travel. Cruising is not always my first choice because I enjoy the control of creating a trip and exploring a new city/state/island independently. I'm not the type that wants to take 1000 photos or capture every meal I eat. You also won't typically catch me on a bus tour for 6 hours because I fall asleep if I'm sitting down too long. You also won't catch me at a bar for endless hours during the day or night - maybe for a couple of hours, but I don't plan to be drunk for an entire vacation. I love that you can see SO MANY new places on a cruise and this cruise was just that. I considered renting a car in Boston and driving up to Bar Harbor, ME and then stumbled on cruise options. It was actually a money saver considering lodging during peak season in New England. Thankfully, Heather's husband isn't interested in cooler weather cruises, so this was a bonus for me! We chose this itinerary because Boston was a new city to us and the rest is history!

Now that you know a little about me and how I like to cruise, let's head to Boston to look at our busy weekend in Boston.

Hi,

I live just outside of Boston and a couple years ago my friend and I decided to take this cruise because it was in and out of Boston. It was our second cruise that year so we wanted to save for our Alaska cruise the following year. We had been to most of the stops, driving, but had a great time anyway. I just enjoy relaxing on the ship. My favorite stop was Bar Harbor.

I hope you enjoyed the cruise.

Cyndi

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading about your cruise.

I have never been to Boston or the nearby area, so it was quite overwhelming to find a hotel in a nice area for an affordable price. It was even more challenging to narrow down an itinerary as this great city offers so many options.

I've used the "Go Card" in many cities before, so we decided to purchase the 1 day pass to get as much done on Saturday. Smart Destinations is the website and we chose just the 1 day option because I was advised that I just couldn't pass up the Boston Duck Tours.

This is a sour subject with Heather because she knew it would be corny and probably a waste of our time, but she was a patient travel partner and sucked it up. Let's just say, Heather was definitely right. I don't think it helped that we did the duck tour at the end of our long travel day and we were probably very tired. When we went to purchase tickets after our late lunch, they told us the next available duck tour was at 4:45. I was not happy about the timing and he offered us student prices. I felt pressured by a coworker who insisted I do this, so we did. I'm not saying this was a horrible tour and I am full of regret, I'm just saying it's just not for everyone. I'm definitely with Heather in thinking this wasn't as fun as we'd hoped. Our driver thought he was SOOO funny so it just got REALLY annoying. It was neat to go into the Charles River and see the city from an angle no other tour can offer. It also didn't help that we did a hop on/off the next day, so we saw a good bit of the city. I feel like we definitely got an overall comprehensive view of Boston between the Duck Tour and Hop On/Off.

Here's a timeline of our travel day in Boston - Friday 10/7/16;

Checked in to our Hotel - Courtyard at Copley Square. We were both really happy with this choice in location and we had a beautifully large room.

We walked around the corner to an Irish pub called Solas and I had the fish & chips.

We then went to the Duck Tour office and purchased tickets. We walked to Cheers while we waited for our Duck Tour to start. It was awesome to be inside of this historical bar, however, we couldn't find a place to sit!

On to Heather's favorite part -- the DUCK TOUR!!! :eek:

Inside the duck -

View of the city from the Charles River

I had a feeling I would get a lot of questions about our hotel... I will be honest - it was not easy to find something around $300/night with two beds.

I LOVED this hotel and would recommend it to anyone traveling here. Courtyard Boston Copley was an easy walk to most places and just a block off of Boylston. I Ubered here from the airport and it was about $26. We also Ubered to the Aquarium for around $10 and then to the cruise port for about $13. Needless to say, it was inexpensive to travel by car to nearby areas.

I only took a couple of photos inside the room and forgot to take a photo of the large bathroom. We had ample space for the two of us.

Hi,

 

I live just outside of Boston and a couple years ago my friend and I decided to take this cruise because it was in and out of Boston. It was our second cruise that year so we wanted to save for our Alaska cruise the following year. We had been to most of the stops, driving, but had a great time anyway. I just enjoy relaxing on the ship. My favorite stop was Bar Harbor.

 

I hope you enjoyed the cruise.

 

Cyndi

Thanks so much for reading - I have a pretty relaxed cruise style too, this is vacation so I look forward to catching up on sleep and relaxing. I think my favorite ports were the Maine ports. Not trying to spoil my review! I'm going to bed, so I will continue with our day in Boston at some point over the weekend.

- Alaina

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading about your cruise.

Thanks so much for following along - It's been a very long week with vacation ending and getting back to the work grind. I will continue over the weekend. We had great weather and saw some pretty leaves!

-Alaina

Enjoying your review. Following.

enjoying it so far.

Great review and photos. Looking forward to the rest.

I will be on the Serenade of the Seas in February. I look forward to following along with your review. Great job so far!

Looking forward to your report and photos. We did same itinerary on Brilliance last year. We stayed at the Boston Common Hotel and Conference Center just off Copley Square. It is very old (historic) and showing it's age, but reasonably priced compared to everything else in the area. We also had dinner at Solas Irish Pub. As we walked by, the atmosphere just pulled us in.

We spent our one full day walking the Freedom Trail. Just stunning walk.

Post cruise, we did the Hop On/Off bus because we had most of the day to use before our rather late flight out.

Please post lots of pictures.

I will be taking that same cruise in October 2017, so I am very much looking forward to your review.

My DH and I will be on this cruise on Sept. 24, 2017. Looking forward to your review.

We had a full day in Boston, so we decided to take advantage of our Go Card and make the most of it!

We took an Uber from our hotel to the New England Aquarium. It's walk-able, but it was quite a hike for the beginning of a long day. I was pleasantly surprised by the aquarium because we have such a great one in New Orleans. I would recommend this for any age.

The USS Constitution was right next to the aquarium and was also included on our Go Card, so we decided to sit all the way up front and enjoy the cruise.

If you are into history (me, not so much) and want to know more about the ship itself and the history behind it, click on the link. There's also an option on the hop on/off so you an take more time to explore the USS Constitution. It's currently under drydock, so don't expect to take this baby for a ride.

This was mentioned on our Go Card: "Please note, the USS Constitution has been relocated to Dry Dock 1 in the Charlestown Navy Yard (next to the USS Constitution Museum), for a 3-year planned restoration period."

Here are a few pictures from the 45 minute cruise:

I highly recommend doing one of the hop on/off trolley options in Boston - there are a few different companies. Our Go Card covered the City View Hop On/Off and it was a 2 day pass. We enjoyed our driver Jake and never hopped off. It was quite difficult taking pictures while peering out of the window, but here are a few shots with crowded streets.

Looking forward to your report and photos. We did same itinerary on Brilliance last year. We stayed at the Boston Common Hotel and Conference Center just off Copley Square. It is very old (historic) and showing it's age, but reasonably priced compared to everything else in the area. We also had dinner at Solas Irish Pub. As we walked by, the atmosphere just pulled us in.

We spent our one full day walking the Freedom Trail. Just stunning walk.

 

Post cruise, we did the Hop On/Off bus because we had most of the day to use before our rather late flight out.

 

Please post lots of pictures.

Thank you for reading! I just loved the Boston Common area and Copley Square - I would happily stay near these two areas again.

I cannot say enough about Solas... great meal for both of us and we sat outside - literally on the sidewalk. It was a gorgeous day and our waiter told us we were the most fun he had all day.

We didn't have enough time or energy to squeeze in the Freedom Trail, but there's always a next time, right?!

Thanks for sharing excellent start. You are going to love Bar Harbour.

Thank you for sharing your photos of Boston. I look forward to seeing more from the rest of your cruise.

Nice photos. You really know how to pick your shots.

Thanks for sharing your pictures. Just to clarify on the USS Constitution, the Constitution Cruise leaves from beside the Aquarium but the USS Constitution resides in the Charlestown Navy Yard. The ship is currently in a drydock within the Navy Yard for a 3 year restoration. The Boston Harbor Cruises USS Constitution Cruise just takes you to go see the sailing ship, even when it is out of drydock, you do not get to sail on it. It typically only sails on the 4th of July for a turnaround or when there is a special event like the Tall Ships visiting. You can board the ship while it is in drydock and will be able to once it is floating again.

Thanks for sharing your pictures. Just to clarify on the USS Constitution, the Constitution Cruise leaves from beside the Aquarium but the USS Constitution resides in the Charlestown Navy Yard. The ship is currently in a drydock within the Navy Yard for a 3 year restoration. The Boston Harbor Cruises USS Constitution Cruise just takes you to go see the sailing ship, even when it is out of drydock, you do not get to sail on it. It typically only sails on the 4th of July for a turnaround or when there is a special event like the Tall Ships visiting. You can board the ship while it is in drydock and will be able to once it is floating again.

Yes, we got on the cruise right next to the aquarium. The ticket office is in the same area. It was a really enjoyable cruise, so I recommend this if you want to see Boston from the water. We did not explore the actual USS Constitution, but I'm sure it's a great tour if you're interested. It was a pretty packed, so I think it's a popular stop.

-Alaina

We took an Uber from the waterfront area to Wahlburger's near Fenway. It was a super short walk so we had Uber bring us to the lunch spot. We had a FABULOUS meal and it was the perfect location near Fenway. This was a must-do on Heather's list, and she hit the nail on the head with this one! We both had patty melt's and we got two sides - sweet potato tots and onion strings.

We walked literally two blocks and found ourselves at Fenway Park. The tours start at the top of the hour and we were a little early. We just walked around the gift shop (which is huge) and waited for the tour to begin. This was another covered feature of our Go Card.

So a little information on the Fenway Park tour. There were over 200 people on the tour which was wayyyyyyyyy too many people. It was ridiculous actually. Having all of the people go from one area to the next took forever. Half of the people on tour were kids, so you can only imagine where I'm going with this. The Red Sox were having batting practice, so there was loud music playing. We could not hear a word the tour guide said because we couldn't hear him on his loud speaker over the loud music.

This tour would be FABULOUS if you could hear the guide and have about 50 people in each tour. We enjoyed being in the famous Fenway Park, but I don't know if I would do this tour again. I'm also not a huge baseball fan or a Sox fan, so I guess that speaks for itself! I really appreciated the fact that I was in such a history place and watching the Sox practice. I just don't know if I could handle the shuffling of the crowd again.