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

[xxHadleyxx]

Hi Carol,

 

If he would have just used a bit of those languages, none of this would have happened. Of course the guy at the wrong checkpoint told Tarik as well "WRONG WAY" when he passed it by mistake...He does know the english words "wrong" and "way"...how hard can it be to combine these two?

 

Stef

 

You must have been a WRECK when you couldn't find him! I know I would have been. That is one of the most pnaicy feeligns in the world--when you can't find your child in a crowded area, far from home.

 

I think the plan you and Tanja had was a really good one. I'm impressed with how well you thought it all out.

 

I have to say--YEP, Tarik SHOULD hae paid more attention and he SHOULD have noticed the worker telling him "wrong way" and figured out what it meant. BUT, it also all sounds pretty typical teen. I can totally see Rio not even notcing that the worker was caling out to him--he gets into a "no one here speaks my language or is talking to me, so I only have to pay attention if I hear the voice of someone in my family" mode pretty easily on vacations--especially in crowded areas.

 

These days, I make sure everyone has fully charged cell phones with them when we head out in port. We've never had to use them (and the rule is to only use htem/turn them on in a true emergency or if we have been seperated 20+ minutes), but I feel a lot better knowing we COULD if needed :)

[kirian]

 

 

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.

 

Hi Hadley - yes, I think you are right.... we are all here hanging on every word Stef writes (no pressure, Stef :p) in preparation for our sailing in less than 6 weeks :D

 

Melissa

[gillyd42]

Been avidly following your review ( and the adventure one too) and dont want your holiday to end! you any future plans for a cruise?

 

Well done - gilly

[xxHadleyxx]

Just popping by to say taht I have made it through page 17 and still LOVE your review and writing style.

 

I also have to echo all the previous comments about you and Tanja seeming to be naturals at this whole parenting gig -- and just as much real parents as anyone else; never doubt that :) (plus, YES you are lucky that Tarik can wake up so early without whining. Don't I wish!!! :rolleyes: )

Edited September 11, 2013 by NHDisneylover

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

 

These days, I make sure everyone has fully charged cell phones with them when we head out in port. We've never had to use them (and the rule is to only use htem/turn them on in a true emergency or if we have been seperated 20+ minutes), but I feel a lot better knowing we COULD if needed :)

 

Lol -- I have a funny little episode about THAT.

 

We live in a little village pretty much half way in between the wo cities of Alfeld to the south and Hildesheim to the north. To each it is about half an hour drive by car. When Tarik first moved in with us, he had to learn to take the public bus to and from school. Getting there was fairly easy -- there is only this one bus to Alfeld (that's where his school is). But coming home he has TWO different busses with the same number to choose from...One sais Sibbesse ( that's the one that continues to Eberholzen where we live) and one sais Hildesheim, which naturally drives to Hildesheim.

 

We had some issues that he missed the bus...no biggy, he called and we told him to wait till we were there to pick him up by car. But one day he didn't call. It was way past the time he was suppossed to be home for lunch...I tried calling his cell phone..ringing...ringing...ringing...nothing. Grrrr...where is that kid? I called my mom, so she'd watch our house in case he got here in the mean time and started driving. The bus station in Eberholzen or Sibbesse -- no Tarik. Maybe his bus didn't show up at all... I drove the half hour to his school...no Tarik. Now I decided to drive by all the bus stops from here to Sibbesse to check if he mistakenly got off at one of them...no Tarik. Sigh. Since he didn't get the turn to Eberholzen in Sibbesse (or my mom would have called me by now) I started following the bus stations all the way to Hildesheim. I parked the car at the train station there to look for him in this vast, pretty crowded space...No Tarik...Now I was just getting ready to panic...since I didn't have anymore ideas as to where the kid could be...but just in that moment he DID call me. He sat in a bus going from Hildesheim back to Sibbesse right now. Thank God he was okay!

 

He did take the wrong bus all the way to Hildesheim without noticing and then the driver asked him where he wanted to go--- since he kept sitting at the final train station. The bus was ready to head into the other direction anyway, so he decided to ride back in it....but he didn't at one second think about calling us!...additionally he has the habit of turning his phone silent---so he won't get in trouble in school. So he can call us ... but doesn't hear when we're trying to reach him! And I did try a million times that day. Aaarrrggghhh!!!!!!!!

 

 

Sorry for this little diversion -- but when you wrote about the phones I just couldn't help but share this story.

 

back to the cruisy part now!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Been avidly following your review ( and the adventure one too) and dont want your holiday to end! you any future plans for a cruise?

 

Well done - gilly

 

 

Hi gilly,

 

Welcome to the review! Thank You! I know -- it's sad to get to the very last seaday...but there are still A LOT of Barcelona posts to be written...So I'm not quite finished yet:D.

 

I am indeed toying with the idea of a cruise next summer...but since Tarik would have to pay full adult price on that one...I'm still unsure. It's still early...I don't get antsy about booking until christmas, remember? In January I can tell you about our plans.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Melissa and Hadley,

 

I feel very pampered by your nice comments:p. Thank you!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 12 – third sea day!

Today I had such a strong feeling of guilt about having forgotten the English compasses the day before, that I went and got them for you even before breakfast…here they are -- the very last compasses for this cruise:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 12 – third sea day!

 

Ahhh, two sea days in a row after such an eventful cruise feel like heaven. You can use the first one to unwind and by the time you get ready to enjoy the second one, you’re all nice and relaxed already. Today we once again enjoyed this wonderful ship to the max. You know you’ve done enough of all the exciting stuff, once you wonder around casually looking at the different art work along the stairs. Here’s my six favourite ones – counting upwards.

 

Nr 6:

 

Damn, look at those lips. Brrrrr. Anybody feel like kissing an alien?

 

 

Nr. 5:

 

Can you imagine, how much work it would be to rearrange these correctly if they were mixed up? I like puzzles.

 

 

 

Nr. 4:

 

I absolutely LOVE birds of prey. I had the pleasure of pampering a hurt wild falcon once for three months…LOVE THEM!

 

 

Nr. 3:

 

Isn’t this creepy? Imagine the intro music of the twilight zone. Or Steven King’s shining. Or is it just me who thinks this arrangement is straight out of a horror movie?

 

 

Nr. 2:

 

Priceless – I loved my butt off. They also have good ones of Putin, Clinton, Thatcher and Schröder here.

 

 

Nr 1:

Behold … my favourite piece of art work on the Serenade of the Seas:

 

LOL --- That’s exactly what happens to our sink in the barn all the time, since I clean out the grain buckets for the horses there….made me feel at home!

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 12 – third sea day!

 

 

Today we all got a little certificate, saying we joined the anniversary cruise…

 

Nice touch!

 

 

Let’s see, what else? I believe I pretty much covered everything shipwise…Oh, yes… the laundry service. Twice during this cruise you get a special bag delivered to your cabin, in which you can stuff all kinds of t-shirts, shorts, underwear and socks. We used it once. I wish we wouldn’t have. It was okay for the underwear and socks…no smelly teen socks sure are a blessing…but we were bummed about the shirts and shorts. Not only did they not get the easiest stains out, they used some kind of detergent to highlight former sweaty areas. No way we could wear them again like this. It was even difficult to get those “extra” stains out at home…Had to wash some shirts 3 times with the heaviest program until it was back to my satisfaction:mad:. I know this is an American ship and I lived in California myself for 4 years. I know their washing machines are a different standard than the European ones…but still I expected more from RCI here. Friends from the US are always appalled if they hear our regular laundry cycle takes at least an hour and a half…Theirs is done in 30 minutes…well – yes – but there is a difference in the result as well. If you need chlorine to get your whites white --- something is wrong. Rant over.

 

 

Back to something more positive. Does anybody know what “Pretzel Belle” is all about? On our cruise we had a gazillion people running around with “Pretzel Belle” on the back of their t-shirts. They were usually found in large groups evenly spread over the entire ship. They seemed to know each other and had a good time. Here’s a random pic of some of them in the Centrum.

 

What’s this about? Anybody know?

 

 

 

The show of tonight was the Farewell show. Don’t you just hate the sound of that…they’ll want you to leave the ship pretty soon. Gah!

 

 

The cruise director said some soothing words of how great it was with us and how we should turn the ship around and just do this cruise all over again without letting the “new” people embark the next day. I’m pretty sure he tells that to everybody, but it was still cute. I really liked his last speech. The show that followed though was not to our liking. It was a man and a woman doing some artistical stuff. Not really well performed -- any small circus passing by would have done a better job. Sorry, although the guy’s strength was impressive and the lady was clad in a very sexy outfit (after she peeled out of the outfit in the picture layer by layer --- but no guys, no sexy strip tease:(), this was not enough to keep us in the theatre. Somehow I expected a little more for the very last show.

 

All that was left to do was packing. Gah! We didn’t use the self disembarkation, so we put out our bags in front of our cabin. Too bad we missed to hand in this little form saying that you’d like to leave late…so now we had to leave the ship at 7:00 am. Gah!

 

We really didn’t want this vacation to end. I remember Carol saying that she met a lady in the middle of the cruise who told her that she was fed up with this whole cruising business now and she was sure happy to be going home soon. S’cuse me? We all couldn’t agree to that! This cruise was plain fantastic and I could easily add another 2 weeks (if not nagging thoughts about our lonely, sad pets at home would appear once in a while). So for the very last time we enjoyed being rocked into sleep gently.

 

More to come!

[xxHadleyxx]

Stef--I really, really loved reading about your time in Venice (sorry about the "lost" romantic evening). Now I am SURE I want to book the Secrets tour at the Doge's palace :) thanks for that.

 

Oh, and I wanted to mention that the third person pricing is often pretty low, even for kids over 13--so don't worry much about that. A cruise is still a great vacation value--even with older teens :)

I take it from your comments that you would not consider one of the small ships to sail Norway??? We've sailed the Legend/Splendour as well on up to the Liberty and find all the various sizes are enjoyable to us and we like the variety.

 

Oh, and I forgot to metion earlier how NICE you all looked on formal night. What a beautiful family.

 

 

We have a story with Rio that your story about Tarik and the bus home from school reminded me of. We moved here with 6 weeks warning, not speaking ANY German. The first few weeks I took teh tram and train (one tram, a block walk and a train that they got off at the next stop) to school with the kids. Once they seemed to have it down, they'd jsut go on their own. About 2 weeks after that, Marika wandered off on the train to sit with friends. Well, wouldn't you know, Rio fell asleep on teh train in those 3-4 minutes before his stop!!!

 

Apparently he woke up almost in Karlsruh, got off in a panic, got out his cell to fin he had forgotten to charge it, realized he had somehow lost all teh little cards we'd given him with emergency phone numbers, and could not recall our number and broke down in tears (we hadn't been here long enough for him to realize he could always go over to the opposite track and get back on headed back where he had come from--and he was only 10, and looked more like 6 or 7 at the time).

 

A very nice German doctor found him, spoke with him in English, found out what school he went to (she called htem to confirm and they called me--which is how i found out about al this) and then put him in a taxi to the school. I am forever grateful to her.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Hadley,

 

Oh my God! Poor Rio! ...and poor you! That doctor saved the day! Lol -- sounds like Rio and Tarik could be twins. I would LOVE to cruise with you all one day! And as a matter of fact, we ARE thinking about the Legend, since she'll sail out of Hamburg next summer...to Norway:D.

 

Stef

[xxHadleyxx]

We're looking at the Legend next summer too . . .

Wouldn't it be fun if we ended up sailign together? :)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

We're looking at the Legend next summer too . . .

Wouldn't it be fun if we ended up sailign together? :)

 

 

:)WOW! That would be really cool! What dates are you looking at? Tarik and Rio would be a dreamteam. Let's do this! I still need to convince Tanja though...She really is scared about the weather up there. We're in Lower Saxony and the school holidays are from July31st - Sept 10th.

 

Really excited about this!

 

Stef

[paylady]

Well, this has been a wonderful review! I have been following since the beginning and have enjoyed all your escapades. Thank you so much for sharing your family cruise with us! Don't feel bad about the German Cruise Compass --- I especially enjoyed attempting to decipher the German words and I don't know the language. It was fun. :)

 

BTW, I think all boys lose their common sense at one time or another during puberty. It seems to be a right of passage. Every parent has a story to tell about being frantic over something related to their teenage son. Fortunately, we all live through it! :D

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Hadley,

 

didn't mean to scare you off! I would just love to meet up with you, but I don't want to be pushy either. Please don't feel shoved into anything. Like I said earlier...we're not ready to book any new cruise before christmas time anyway.

 

:DStill think it would be loads of fun though:D.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Well, this has been a wonderful review! I have been following since the beginning and have enjoyed all your escapades. Thank you so much for sharing your family cruise with us!

 

Hi paylady,

 

Thank you so much! ...:eek:But don't leave yet! There are still 9 Barcelona posts waiting to be written and posted!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Barcelona (part one of nine)

 

I simply refuse to call this disembarkation day… just too sad. Sigh. I guess all cruises must end somewhere and today was this sad day for us. One more breakfast at our favourite spot in the WJ with a spectacular view of early morning Barcelona

 

 

We were to meet in the Safari Club, which is the spot for families to wait until disembarkation. They had coffee there and some toys for the really small kids. We just hung out in a gloomy mood, because none of us WANTED to leave. Sigh, at 7:00 sharp we were called down to disembark. One last time to swipe your sea pass card … and who was right in front of us? No, not the BAD family…the Good couple – Steven and Tatiana…really bumped into them all cruise long and really enjoyed it. Our luggage belt was already moving and Tanja and Tarik went ahead to fetch our bags. It went real smooth and we were out of the terminal in less than 5 minutes.

 

 

Now we wanted to take the shuttle bus back to the Columbus statue and walk to our hotel from there…like we did before embarkation. We looked around…no shuttle busses. Mhhh. We asked one of the crew members roaming around and he told us that the shuttle bus service wouldn’t start until 8:30. Yikes. We didn’t feel like waiting for an hour and a half. So we strolled over to the taxis, which were very plentiful, and just took one to bring us and our luggage to our hotel. I don’t remember the exact amount, but I think it was somewhere in the low 20s.

 

At the hotel we left all our stuff in a locked room, since our room wasn’t ready yet. We had all day to explore Barcelona! First, we wanted to visit Montserrat, a monastery about an hour outside of Barcelona in a beautiful mountainous setting. Later on we had Parc Guell and the Cathedral on our bucket list.

 

 

 

Montserrat (part one of four)

 

We got out our t-10 ticket and headed towards the Placa d’Espanya with the metro. Here we changed between metro and regional train. It was quite a walk, but not nearly as bad as our adventure at Sants the very first day. We heard before, that you can buy the Montserrat tickets from certain counters right before the platforms….Mhhh. I guess we’re way too early once again…Everything was closed. But there were ticketmachines at the side before you entered the platform. Let’s try it….It worked! And it was even cheaper than what we heard online! I don’t remember exactly anymore, but I believe it was 12 Euros for an adult and 8 Euros for a kid. You had to choose between Aeri or Funiculare. The first is a free hanging cart hanging from a cable --- takes 5 minutes in which you have to stand, the second is a trainlike tram in which you get to sit, but which takes 20 minutes up to the monastery. Before you get to either one you have to ride train nr. R5 heading towards Manresa for about an hour.The views from the Cable cart were supposed to be spectacular, so we chose to try that. You have to decide right there when you buy the ticket…the Aeri ticket is only valid for the Cable car (here you have to get off at the station called Aeri). The funiculare ticket is only valid for the tram up the mountain (here you have to stay on the regional train and pass Aeri station to get to the Monistrol station where the starting point for the tram is). The R5 is the main train, that you have to take either way.

 

We arrived on the platform at 8:07….cool—not a long wait until the first train to Montserrat! We had seen beautiful pictures of this place and couldn’t wait to get there.

 

 

Here you can see the stations to pass along the way:

 

 

And when you get off at the aeri station about an hour later, you see this:

Can you see the tiny looking monastery WAY up there? It’s right above the tree on the left.

 

Only a minute away from the station is the entrance to the Cable cart station. We were on the very first train of the day, and the place was just ready to open up.

 

 

Gulp – we would be hauled all the way up there in a tiny box hanging on a steel rope.

 

 

More to come!

[xxHadleyxx]

Wow--looking for that Dubrovnik card sounds like a good way to ruin a monring! I'm glad you fianlly found it thoguh--and I bet many people will benefit from your post and not have their days ruined as well.

 

 

Your family sounds llike ours--too many crows can really spoil an otherwise nice location! We really try for low season travel for that reason even more than for the cost savings.

 

Hi Kreuzfahrtneuling,

I have read and still reading the rest of your fantastic review of the Serenade of the Seas which we will be on this November.

For the port of Cannes, what would you recommend that we should see? We have a choice between Nice/French Riviera OR Monaco/Monte Carlo.

We are planning to do an excursions through RCI. It would be easier since there are 5 of us.

 

Thank you.

Danny

 

I saw a later post in which you are leaning towards NIce. Nonetheless, I thought I'd throw my opinion at you (I hope STef doesn't mind). We've never docked in Cannes, but have docked a few times in Ville Franche and also spent two weeks in the area a couple Christmases back.

 

Personally--no one in our family much cares for Nice. It is a very big city. Fairly loud and dirty. Large stones for the "beach." Overall, it was a huge disspointment to us. Then again, I knwo otehrs who love it--so if your group really wants to see it, then go for it and i hope you fall into the "those who love it" category.

 

We do really enjoy Manaco and feel it is well worth a visit. We also love Bille Franche and woul reocmend that.

 

Cannes itself is also enjoyable, and simple to do on foot for a few hours. If you have an otherwise very busy itenerary, you may want to consider just hanging out in Cannes and taking an easier day that day (which is our plan for the Serenade cruise).

[xxHadleyxx]

I a ms oahppy for you that you finally got in a good snorkling trip. You deserved it after carrying around the mandatory German tourist's backpack for most of the trip ;)

 

And HOW AWESOME that you were on the anniversary cruise and got to go to a fun party to celebrate. That was perfect timing--almost makes up for teh crowds in Dubrovnik.

 

:)WOW! That would be really cool! What dates are you looking at? Tarik and Rio would be a dreamteam. Let's do this! I still need to convince Tanja though...She really is scared about the weather up there. We're in Lower Saxony and the school holidays are from July31st - Sept 10th.

 

Really excited about this!

 

Stef

 

Hi Hadley,

 

didn't mean to scare you off! I would just love to meet up with you, but I don't want to be pushy either. Please don't feel shoved into anything. Like I said earlier...we're not ready to book any new cruise before christmas time anyway.

 

:DStill think it would be loads of fun though:D.

 

Stef

 

OMG--you have not scared me off at all. We would LOVE that. In fact, I sent the link to your thread to the kids, and when we were out walking this evening Marika commented that the more she reads the more she wants to meet your family becuase you just all sounds like so much fun--and I totally agree with her!

 

As of now, we are looking at the August 31 cruise. It is a bit cheaper, and also should be out of the high season--so fewer of those pesky crowds. BW has the same summer break you do. I was suprised; I thought most of the Nothern Lander had an earlier break.

[Wriggler]

Barcelona (part one of nine)

 

I simply refuse to call this disembarkation day… just too sad. Sigh. I guess all cruises must end somewhere and today was this sad day for us. One more breakfast at our favourite spot in the WJ with a spectacular view of early morning Barcelona

 

We were to meet in the Safari Club, which is the spot for families to wait until disembarkation. They had coffee there and some toys for the really small kids. We just hung out in a gloomy mood, because none of us WANTED to leave. Sigh, at 7:00 sharp we were called down to disembark. One last time to swipe your sea pass card … and who was right in front of us? No, not the BAD family…the Good couple – Steven and Tatiana…really bumped into them all cruise long and really enjoyed it. Our luggage belt was already moving and Tanja and Tarik went ahead to fetch our bags. It went real smooth and we were out of the terminal in less than 5 minutes. [/i][/color]

 

 

The run up to our disembarkation was the worst we've experienced with RCI, Stef. We had transfers already booked with RCI back to the airport as we'd booked the flights and everything through them for one. We wanted to do self-disembark as I like to keep my cases with me until I get off the ship and this was not a problem - we could get off with our cases and load them into the correct coach that would take us to the airport. BUT our luggage tags said we needed to be off the ship at 6.30. I don't mind early mornings if that's the time stated BUT our flight wasn't leaving until 12.20!!

 

I went down to Guest Services as there was also a departure at 8.45 but we couldn't go on that as it was full. There was no way I was getting off the ship at that time and spending more than 5 hours waiting in an airport!! I told them to take us off the list for the coach transfer and we would get a taxi. We walked off the ship at 8.45, got in a cab and only spent 3 hours at the airport.

 

We bumped into Emma, Simon, Oscar and Ollie and continued the holiday a little longer by reminiscing on what we'd done.

 

You mentioned in an earlier post about the lady that was ready for going home - I'd forgotten about that until I read it on here! Here opening comment sat around the breakfast table of 10 was "So who's had enough and ready to go back home?" :eek:

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Everybody,

 

Whoohooo!!!!!The pictures are back!!!!!!!

 

Stef

[kirian]

I told them to take us off the list for the coach transfer and we would get a taxi. We walked off the ship at 8.45, got in a cab and only spent 3 hours at the airport.

 

 

Hi "Wriggler" - quick question....

 

When you got off the ship in Barcelona, was it easy to find a taxi? Also, what did it cost to get to the airport?

 

We are looking to share a ride to the airport with 2 of our other roll-callers, so there would be 4 adults (and several pieces of luggage). I'm trying to see if it's best to pre-book a private shuttle or if we can just as easily grab a taxi when we get off the ship.

 

Thanks in advance!

Melissa

[tjstaar7888]

Hi Stef,

 

I have been thoroughly enjoying your review. We are sailing the Serenade out of New Orleans in January, and it was nice to see pictures of her again. We sailed her once before in 2006 and it will be interesting to see what the improvements are. We hope to be able to visit Europe someday, but through your review, I kind of feel like a have a little bit.

 

Thanks for all your efforts!

 

Todd

[xxHadleyxx]

Hi Everybody,

 

Whoohooo!!!!!The pictures are back!!!!!!!

 

Stef

 

Wonderful! I love, love, love the photos of Cinque Terra :)