Serenade of the Seas picture heavy fun review–12 day Med cruise incl DIY port trips!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Dubrovnik (last part)

Back on the ship we enjoyed our park café lunch and got ready for our second part of the day. We wanted to go snorkelling. Tarik had no desire what so ever to join us, since it would be a stony cliff entrance into the sea again, something he absolutely had no intention on ever doing again. He preferred to stay on the ship to play basketball and tabletennis…So be it -- nothing worse than having a grumpy teenager along for the day.

So Tanja and I left the ship once again to take the bus to Old Town. Past lunch time the busses where a lot less crowded. We only took our snorkelling gear, cabin towels, sea pass and Dubrovnik cards with us, since we planned on leaving our stuff on shore to go snorkelling together. So no own photos – sorry.

Our snorkelling spot:

If you look at a map of Dubrovnik, you see Old town as a circular blob at the bottom right. To the bottom left, one bay apart from Old Town, you see a fortress on a cliff that sticks out into the sea. Our goal was to find the bay left to that fortress. The bay looks like an arrowhead.

This is a picture showing our bay and the fortress during rough weather.

Foreign picture:

 

Foreign picture:

Isn’t this beautiful?

But how to get there? We took the bus all the way to Old Town again and started walking back uphill. The next possible street you take a left and you get to a split parking lot…half of it leads uphill and half of it level ground to the left. We decided to walk on uphill and were rewarded with our first view of the bay we were looking for:

Foreign picture:

Mhhh, but how do we get down there? The parking spot was a dead end road. No walk ways down to the water. So we headed back to the other section of the lot. Here there are some partially hidden stairs leading downhill in front of the houses. We trotted down there…down seemed good … the sea had to be there somewhere and glimpsed through a stone gate to the right. And there it was -- the entrance to our paradise for this afternoon.

But one thing was different from all the pictures we found online…it was burstling with beach life. There were tons of kids jumping in of a rock, little kids playing soccer on the tiny space in front of the water and two waterball teams in the water having a blast. On the rocks to the sides, there were many towels with people sunbathing on them. Would it be fun to go snorkelling here? Surely with all this racket there wouldn’t be a fish in sight?

We wanted to try anyway. Getting into the water was painful…the cobblestones all seemed to have the ONE size to hurt under your feet. Today I envied Tanja for her water shoes. But we made it into the water afterall (Later on we saw, that there was a much easier spot to enter on the side with a ladder…oh well). Once in the water we snorkelled away past the real shallow rocks and the waterball square. Out here there were no more people and we basically had the whole bay to ourselves. And it was WOW! The water was crystalclear and there were all kinds of different fish. Real small ones in huge groups, which shimmered and parted once you swam through them. Huge white ones with a little black on the sandy ground way way below us and all kinds of different ones close to the rocks on the sides. It was heavenly. We snorkelled forever and loved every second of it. Sometimes we would halt and take out our snorkels to talk to each other and share what we saw. During one of those chats, paddling in this beautiful spot, we saw this ship (saw it in the morning in the harbour as well and asked ourselves if it was just there to be pretty or if it actually leaves the port) sail by really close.

We saw only this ship, no other people, no other boats -- just the scenery with the fortress high on top and this ship sailing by silently. We felt as if we time travelled into a long past century. It was magical!

Our bay proved to be just right for us. I don’t know if there are any facilities like restrooms or showers here though. We didn’t need them or look for them. If you look at the following picture of the bay, you see two doors in the rocky side…maybe that’s a place to check out if you’re looking for one or the other? Anybody ever been there?

Foreign pic:

Well, anyway, the bay for us was a huge success. We LOVED the snorkelling here and DEFINITELY will snorkel in Croatia again. Lol – I ripped my bikini on one of the rocks – it was so bad I had to throw it away afterwards – but it was such a wonderful day, that not even that could lessen my mood. We leisurely strolled back to the bus station and rolled back to the ship. The busses are very frequent and not as crowded in the afternoon as before noon time.

Once back on the port area, we did some last minute souvenir shopping and sat down in the one bar/internet café they have there. We still had a little time left until the time we arranged with Tarik to meet up. We decided to try a local beer. You can pay with Euros within the port. Half a litre on tap beer for 1 €. Now that’s a bargain! Needless to say we enjoyed two of them! The lady behind the counter was very nice and I believe I‘ve never seen so many smiling faces than in our stop in Dubrovnik (of course not counting the stressed out gazillion tourists).

We really liked the feel of this country and town, even if we didn’t get to experience a whole lot. But it was enough to stir the wish to return.

What I learned in Dubrovnik:

As soon as we’re not bound to the school holidays anymore, we’ll travel in the off season.

Croatian beer sure is yummy.

Snorkelling here rocks!

If you’re doing DIY trips it would sure help to have at least rudimentary knowledge of the local language.

Don’t swim too close to rocks if you don’t have extra swim gear.

More to come!

[Irish Cath]

Hi Stef,

 

I have not been on CC for some time, so I am delighted to find your review after enjoying last years adventure. Actually I spent hours last night catching up and am now addicted haha. I cannot wait until Sept 13th so I can go back to see the rest of your wonderful photo's.

 

Fabulous review and fabulous family, thank you.

 

Catherine.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef,

 

I have not been on CC for some time, so I am delighted to find your review after enjoying last years adventure. Actually I spent hours last night catching up and am now addicted haha. I cannot wait until Sept 13th so I can go back to see the rest of your wonderful photo's.

 

Fabulous review and fabulous family, thank you.

 

Catherine.

 

Hi Catherine,

 

welcome back to my new review! Whoohoo, you're back to Cruise Critic...does that mean you're finishing your review of the Navigator now:D?

 

:)Please do:)!

 

I was bummed when you stopped:(.

 

Stef

[Irish Cath]

Hi Catherine,

 

welcome back to my new review! Whoohoo, you're back to Cruise Critic...does that mean you're finishing your review of the Navigator now:D?

 

:)Please do:)!

 

I was bummed when you stopped:(.

 

Stef

 

awh thanks Stef, i'm honored that someone even noticed I had stopped ! I really will try to get back to it and make some kind of an attempt to finish it. It's nothing compared to your brilliant review. Unfortunately my Summer took a bad turn and wouldn't allow time for CC. Anyway enough about that, come on, we are waiting on another installment :D

[Miryam1234]

I am still enjoying your report very very much. So much, that my Husband keeps telling me that I cannot call perfectly strange people as "my German CC family". (I also have told him about "my American CC family "- as I called Kanscocoa's European travel story last year). Anyways, I have already made up my mind to get DH to do this same trip Summer 2014. So wish me luck and tell me more so I can convince him that we just must do it.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Miryam

[kirian]

Oh Stef, I am so sad to hear that your adventure into the Old Town at Dubrovnik wasn't all you ahd hoped for :( It is such a beautiful town and I am happy at least to hear that you plan to visit it again during the off season. All of my visits there were during the summer, but I must have lucked out and been there on days when few (or no) cruise ships were in town. I recall it being somewhat crowded on occassion, but no where near what you experienced. Since my upcoming cruise doesn't stop there until Oct 31st, I am hoping we will luck out and have fewer tourists to contend with (like you, I am not a crowd person either :eek:)

 

But, in the head, I was thrilled to read that you and Tanja had a wonderful time snorkeling in the beautiful bay!!!! :D

 

Melissa

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Unfortunately my Summer took a bad turn and wouldn't allow time for CC.

 

Hope you're okay, or your loved ones. Sending good wishes your way!

 

Anyway enough about that, come on, we are waiting on another installment :D

 

Lol ---mam yes mam, right away mam! Next post coming up this morning:D!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I am still enjoying your report very very much. So much, that my Husband keeps telling me that I cannot call perfectly strange people as "my German CC family". (I also have told him about "my American CC family "- as I called Kanscocoa's European travel story last year). Anyways, I have already made up my mind to get DH to do this same trip Summer 2014. So wish me luck and tell me more so I can convince him that we just must do it.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

Miryam

 

Hi Miryam,

Oh I love the thought of having a Finnish CC family! Welcome to the family:D!

 

You'll love this trip! It's the perfect itinerary --- he just HAS to agree to that! You know him best of course -- just pick the one thing he can't resist...romance in Venice, cars in Monaco, natural splendour, ancient historic sights, mediterranean sun, volcanos, a fabulous cruise ship? There are tons of things he might be interested in. Pick wisely and start working with his favourite ones:D. Good luck from your German family!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Oh Stef, I am so sad to hear that your adventure into the Old Town at Dubrovnik wasn't all you ahd hoped for :(

Melissa

 

No worries! More to look forward to for the next time we stop there. As we are total cruise addicts I'm sure we'll stop there again sooner or later:D!

 

Oktober sounds perfect! Not as hot anymore and no high season! You'll have the town all to yourselves. Boohoo, I'm jealous...I wish you could smuggle me along. Sigh, but thoughts about next year are already forming in my head as well....we didn't plan on cruising in 2014...but one little summer cruise we saw is just soooo tempting....let's see.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Intermezzo Dubrovnik – Second Sea day

 

We tried our knowledge about the 70’s music in a quiz in the schooner bar tonight … and once again failed miserably:D

 

Tonight’s show:

 

 

No clue what this was supposed to be about. We went and checked it out:

 

 

That basically sums it up. Singing of well known acts (Sigh – didn’t we have that the day before already?) and dancing to them…I guess we’re not old enough to be enjoying this. We left pretty soon once again.

 

Rather than sitting in the theatre, we rather spent some sunset quality time on deck.

 

 

We really do love cruise vacations. After all those ports we were looking forward to our last two days onboard with nothing to do but enjoy this fabulous ship. 2 more seadays until Barcelona. We were giddy to start our vacation from our vacation. What a wonderful itinerary -- first you can have fun at all the ports and then you can enjoy the ship with already so many memories in our head. Perfect!

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 11—second sea day

Okay…this is the spot where I usually post the cruise compasses. I have a confession to make. On this day we were in serious sloth mode. So much, that we completely forgot to get those English cruise compasses for you guys…I know – unforgivable!

But I do have the German (castrated) ones, which we got delivered to our cabin each day. I’ll post them, so you at least have a broad overview. Some things are easily translatable, even without knowing the language. Sorry for the rest of it.

Maybe one of my fellow cruisers still has the English ones for day 11? This would be the perfect time to post them here to help me out.

Again – sorry!

More to come!

[xxHadleyxx]

Stef--I have only made it through page 5 thus far, but I am SO enjoying your review. Sorry to be commenting waaaaaaaaaaay behind the times :p

 

THANK GOODNESS you had all the paperwork to bring Tarik with you! What a stressful start.

 

Sorry about the barely used soda pacakge. At least you'll know next time, right?

 

And, I don't eat roast beef, but niether my husband nor my daughter can fgure out why that is so revered on cruise critic either (and they both really like roast beef sandwhiches). So, it is not just you. ;)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Stef--I have only made it through page 5 thus far, but I am SO enjoying your review. Sorry to be commenting waaaaaaaaaaay behind the times :p

 

THANK GOODNESS you had all the paperwork to bring Tarik with you! What a stressful start.

 

Sorry about the barely used soda pacakge. At least you'll know next time, right?

 

Hi Hadley,

 

:DHow cool to have you join my review! I'm a HUGE fan of your blog! Absolutely loving it! I feel honoured! Whoohoo:D!

 

The paperwork really was a nuisance...and we'll have to go through it again and again for every cruise we want to do with him. Well, at least the lawyer will know us by then and maybe have safed the necessary paperwork for this kind of occasion...He sure was suprised this time, since he never heard of such a case before:o. The youth agency will only have to print out the same form over and over again with a new date on it, so no big deal there. Well, and Tarik IS a teenager afterall -- so who knows for how much longer he'll wish to join us during his precious school holiday time. For now, he's stoked there might be a cruise on the horizon for next summer.

 

Yup, no more soda packages for Tarik (maybe) next year.

 

 

:)Really stoked you joined the fun!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Oops.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Kreuzfahrtneuling
double post -- sorry!

[windjamming]

awh thanks Stef, i'm honored that someone even noticed I had stopped ! I really will try to get back to it and make some kind of an attempt to finish it. It's nothing compared to your brilliant review. Unfortunately my Summer took a bad turn and wouldn't allow time for CC. Anyway enough about that, come on, we are waiting on another installment :D

 

Irish Cath, I loved your review, too, and hope you finish it! Stef coerced, I mean, kindly encouraged me to do a review, and it's really been a lot of fun. :D It's nice to have a few minutes a day to spend on a happy memory, especially after a long day at work! Mine is going very slowly, but the best part is, the longer it drags out, the longer I get to enjoy the process of reliving the cruise!

 

I hope things get better, and hope to see you on the boards soon!

Edited September 10, 2013 by windjamming

[Irish Cath]

Irish Cath, I loved your review, too, and hope you finish it! Stef coerced, I mean, kindly encouraged me to do a review, and it's really been a lot of fun. :D It's nice to have a few minutes a day to spend on a happy memory, especially after a long day at work! Mine is going very slowly, but the best part is, the longer it drags out, the longer I get to enjoy the process of reliving the cruise!

 

I hope things get better, and hope to see you on the boards soon!

 

awh wow, thank you so much windjamming. How very kind of you to say. Strange how a few words from a stranger can brighten your afternoon :)

 

I will make sure to read your review now as well so as to read all about your happy memories.

Have found a few minutes this afternoon to spend on the boards, who cares if the laundry doesn't get finished heehee ;)

[xxHadleyxx]

Hi Hadley,

 

:DHow cool to have you join my review! I'm a HUGE fan of your blog! Absolutely loving it! I feel honoured! Whoohoo:D!

 

The paperwork really was a nuisance...and we'll have to go through it again and again for every cruise we want to do with him. Well, at least the lawyer will know us by then and maybe have safed the necessary paperwork for this kind of occasion...He sure was suprised this time, since he never heard of such a case before:o. The youth agency will only have to print out the same form over and over again with a new date on it, so no big deal there. Well, and Tarik IS a teenager afterall -- so who knows for how much longer he'll wish to join us during his precious school holiday time. For now, he's stoked there might be a cruise on the horizon for next summer.

 

Yup, no more soda packages for Tarik (maybe) next year.

 

 

:)Really stoked you joined the fun!

 

Stef

 

Hi Stef

 

How sweet of you to say nice things about the blog; I'm glad you enjoy it.

 

You know, my kids are 14 and 16 and still want to go with us on vacation. One of DAve's co workers mentioend tehy'd probably like to stay home with their friends, and the kids told him that as long as the vacation is a cruise that is unlikely! :D

 

 

I am just quickly catching up on things right now, but an't wait to read more of your report tonight. It is great so far! AND, we will be on the Serenade over Allerheilegen so it is a great preview for us--so thanks for some excellent pre cruise advice and photos :)

[xxHadleyxx]

Please forgive the far too late questioning and comments. You may haev already even asnwered this, but if I don't go ahead nask, I'll forget!

 

We are not fans of the Windjammers on any of the ships, but on our last cruise (the Legend) the Park Cafe was closed miday until about 4:00--so if you came in from port at 1:30 or 2:00 your only option was room service or windjammer for a slightly late lunch. Do you recall if you were able to get lunch or nakcs at Park Cafe a bit later into the afternoon--or was it cut off abotu when lunch opened in the Windjammer only to reopen when Windjammer closed again?

 

 

Oh--and I LOVE the sticky note on the broken ice machine :D

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Do you recall if you were able to get lunch or nakcs at Park Cafe a bit later into the afternoon--or was it cut off abotu when lunch opened in the Windjammer only to reopen when Windjammer closed again?

 

Hi Hadley,

 

The park Cafe was almost always open. It only closed from 10 - 11 am to change from breakfast to lunch and from 6:30 - 9:00 pm (I guess because almost everybody had regular dinner then). It opened up in the morning at 7:00am for breakfast and closed at night at 1:00 am (we never stayed up until the actual closing time though:)).

 

Oh great -- now I'm craving a parma and brie baguette! Did they have those on the Legend as well?

 

Stef

[xxHadleyxx]

Hi Hadley,

 

The park Cafe was almost always open. It only closed from 10 - 11 am to change from breakfast to lunch and from 6:30 - 9:00 pm (I guess because almost everybody had regular dinner then). It opened up in the morning at 7:00am for breakfast and closed at night at 1:00 am (we never stayed up until the actual closing time though:)).

 

Oh great -- now I'm craving a parma and brie baguette! Did they have those on the Legend as well?

 

Stef

 

That's EXCELLENT to hear, thanks!

 

I wish I could tell you if they had the parma and brie on the Legend--the hours were so off that we only ate there once in two weeks :( We ate there many times on the Splendour last fall (but I don't recall the parma sandwhich from then) and had looked forward to it, but it was not to be. I'm glad we can get our fix next month.

[xxHadleyxx]

I can't belive the rude Americans you had to sit with at lunch. So sorry for the behaviour of my fellow countrymen. I love how the teens hadnled them though :)

 

After you commented about needing to open a new photobucket account, I only see little boxes and not photos for everything. Is it jsut me, or are other people having issues? I really want to see Stef's photos--especially of what she did in port :confused:

 

 

I liked the Swiss guy from our Adventure cruise last year a whee bit better though (and yet I can’t remember his name aarrggghhh!) but to be honest .....successfully hijacking a foreign cruise shuttle bus just is hard to top. [/i]

 

I bet that was Abel. Did he switch seemingly effortlessly between Ensligh, Spanish, French and German? We had him on the Adventure last spring and he was terrific. The best CD we have had in our over 20 cruises. Sadly, he is no longer with RCI.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I can't belive the rude Americans you had to sit with at lunch. So sorry for the behaviour of my fellow countrymen. I love how the teens hadnled them though :)

 

no worries!

 

After you commented about needing to open a new photobucket account, I only see little boxes and not photos for everything. Is it jsut me, or are other people having issues? I really want to see Stef's photos--especially of what she did in port :confused:

 

Sigh -- sorry for the inconvenience! Read post nr. 320 on page 16 for infos on the (temporary) picture problem.

 

I bet that was Abel. Did he switch seemingly effortlessly between Ensligh, Spanish, French and German? We had him on the Adventure last spring and he was terrific. The best CD we have had in our over 20 cruises. Sadly, he is no longer with RCI.

 

YES! ABEL! THAT was his name!!!!!! Thank you so much! He left RCI? What a bummer. Where did he go to instead?

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 11—second sea day

 

Today was the day of our own posted FOD meeting…We were excited…would anybody show up? So after sleeping in and two wonderful breakfasts (first coffee, then food), we headed up to the Vintage wine bar. 11 am is a ridiculous time to post a meeting at a bar which will not open until 1pm…Grrr, we weren’t aware of that tiny fact when we posted our meeting. But oh well, surely this wouldn’t be the limiting factor. We waited…and waited…

 

Really cool tables…don’t they look like leather? They’re metal.

 

this was getting boring pretty fast. After half an hour we had to face it …no one showed up. Bummer! Oh well – life goes on.

 

Today we’d be passing through the straight of Messina…the little patch of water in between Sicily and the tip of the Italian “boot”. We headed towards the helipad to witness this event.

 

 

Boy, it was quite windy! The shore you see behind Tarik is Sicily and the one behind Tanja mainland Italy!

 

 

Today we had a wonderful little card waiting for us on our bed:

 

 

How cool – I didn’t know we were on an anniversary sailing! We definitely planned on attending the festive event! But more on that in the next post.

 

Another beautiful sunset:

 

 

And tonight’s show was:

 

 

 

A band…playing music….I would have liked it as a live entertainment act in a pub … but to sit in a theatre for this, just looking at the band…this time I felt too old for this. I went to Guns n Roses concerts in my teens…I think I grew out of it. I believe Tanja felt the same way (lol --although she was more of a Eurythmics concert goer) – we looked at each other and without words just got up and left.

 

This day was wonderful … we all did stuff we liked. Sometimes together, sometimes separately. Just a bit of everything --- the perfect vacation day!

 

More to come!

[xxHadleyxx]

Thank you for such a detail review!!

 

Three of my memories of my time in Monaco a couple of years ago.

 

On the backside of the casino was a hill to climb from where the bus dropped us off. I was rushing to catch up with my group and was grateful I was in decent condition as the hill was a pretty good climb. As I reached the top wi a little huffing and puffing, I noticed a heart defibrillator. I thought to myself, "Well, I know why they put that there." LOL

 

While waiting to cross the corner before starting to climb the above mentioned hill, a Mercedes station wagon pulled in front of me. A man was standing on the front seat sticking out of the sun roof. He was a paparazzi taking pictures of the two guys in the very expensive sports car behind him. From the angle of the cars and where I was standing, I'm sure I was in the pictures. I wished I would have known if they were published, I could be famous....... :)

 

As I went back down the hill, I picked up my BFF's mom from a park where she chose to stay while I wandered up the hill. It was a pretty warm day so we decided to buy ice cream at a little stand. I look down and see a camera memory card. I picked it up to give to the vendor. I changed my mind and put it in my pocket. The entire area was filled with people on tours from our ship. That evening we loaded the card into the laptop. Crossing out fingers we would not infect the computer or see something that we shouldn't, we started going through the photos. My friend recognized the family in the photos having seen the Dad around the ship, the next day we began a quest to find that man. By lunchtime we found him. I retrieved the card and gave it to him. Ironically his cabin was directly below mine. I don't know what made me keep that card, but I just had am inkling the owner was on the ship. I thought if I give the card to the vendor it will never find its owner. The camera bag had fallen open. He thought he picked up everything and obviously missed the card. It had all of his photos from Barcelona and Provence, plus the Fourth of July family party.

I LOVE that you were able to find the card's owner! What a grea thing to do -- great instinct to take it with you to the ship!

 

 

no worries!

 

 

 

Sigh -- sorry for the inconvenience! Read post nr. 320 on page 16 for infos on the (temporary) picture problem.

 

 

 

YES! ABEL! THAT was his name!!!!!! Thank you so much! He left RCI? What a bummer. Where did he go to instead?

 

Stef

 

Thanks Stef. I'll be patient about the photos. I'm dying to see the Cinque Terre photos though, we have had plans to hike it the last two times we were in port in the area and both times it poured rain. I'm hoping for better luck this time around.

As far as Abel--it is my undersatnding that he was let go. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect that the same qualities that made him a stand out CD to us: his spontinaiety, his fun lvoing and free spirit, his sense of humor, etc also made him a bit unreliable and hard to manage for the powers that be.

 

Oh, and I so wish Tarik and Rio would end up on a cruise together. Rio also adores fancy sports cars (he took more photos of those than anyhtign else when he visited his aunt in LA this summer :rolleyes: ) and cats, and climbing that rock wall. They'd probably get along well.

 

And a quick shout out to all my fellow Oct 22 sailors! I think the whole roll call is here enjoying Stef's excellent review.

Edited September 11, 2013 by NHDisneylover

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Serenade’s 10 year anniversary celebration!

This was FUN! We were all to meet in the Centrum. They had a huge cake:

 

Cool, huh? I wonder how many people in the kitchen were working on this baby…I especially like the waves…look threedimensional…awesome.

 

Well, of course the Captain said a few words and all the high officers joined him. But what was much more fun is that they brought out one representative from each country of the crew members. 56 different countries --- if I remember correctly !!!!

 

See everybody waving their flag? But wait --- I see at least 6 US flags … they cheated!

 

No birthday party without balloons!

 

And champagne for the adults

 

In case you wonder which kind… mhh, never heard of it.

 

But they sure had LOTS of it!

 

Great party!

 

 

Next up: third sea day!