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

[Pacificlander]

I know it's been awhile since your trip but I am loving your review!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I know it's been awhile since your trip but I am loving your review!

 

Hi Pacificlander,

 

:pThanks! And it still feels like yesterday. We went swimming with Tarik today and the blow up ball still had sand from Ravenna attached to it. Brought back so many fun memories. This trip was wonderful and all the memories in our heads are priceless. Plus the fact that this was our first ever trip with Tarik. Now all three of us can say "remember when we did this or that" and we enjoy doing that quite often:).

 

Say hello to California for me. I miss it quite badly.

 

Stef

[dolfans0704]

Hi Stef

I really LOVED your review! We are sailing the Serenade in May and your information has been quite useful in our planning. :)

 

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

[wnycruisefam66]

Hi Stef:

 

Tell Tarik "thanks!" for his input! He's a valuable resource!

 

Tina

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef

I really LOVED your review! We are sailing the Serenade in May and your information has been quite useful in our planning.

 

Hi dolphans0704,

 

:) Thanks! Glad if I could help. Hope you have a wonderful cruise!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef:

 

Tell Tarik "thanks!" for his input! He's a valuable resource!

 

Tina

 

:D I will :D

[windjamming]

Lol! No worries--- don't do anything you don't want to:). When is your next cruise? Where to?

 

:pI LOVE the planning! :mad:But right now I'm sooo close to throwing my printer out the window.

 

Stef

 

Hi Stef…love that this thread is still alive! (Let's keep it going until your next cruise). Just wanted to report that I'm back from the Breakaway and started my (photo-less because I'm lazy) review. Sadly, did not get a chance to do the Ropes Course, but I can confirm that the ship is beautiful and there's LOADS to do!

 

Hope your planning is going well!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2019212

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef…love that this thread is still alive! (Let's keep it going until your next cruise). Just wanted to report that I'm back from the Breakaway and started my (photo-less because I'm lazy) review. Sadly, did not get a chance to do the Ropes Course, but I can confirm that the ship is beautiful and there's LOADS to do!

 

Hope your planning is going well!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2019212

 

Hi Windjamming,

 

Hey, you're back! I'm a bit jealous that I still have to wait a full 132 days until our next cruise. But the planning is coming along nicely. Right now I'm planning for our day in Dublin. My binder is already twice as big as the one for the Serenade ever was---and I'm not even done with collecting infos yet:eek:.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write another review!

 

Stef

[Irish Cath]

Hi Steff,

 

Guess what - We have booked this cruise - your cruise, can you believe it. 12 glorious nights on Serenade from June 4th. So this means I now have to go back and read your review again, for the third time !! Imagine how much planning in have to do in such a short period of time. Prepare for lots of questions ........

:D:D

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Steff,

 

Guess what - We have booked this cruise - your cruise, can you believe it. 12 glorious nights on Serenade from June 4th. So this means I now have to go back and read your review again, for the third time !! Imagine how much planning in have to do in such a short period of time. Prepare for lots of questions ........

:D:D

 

Hi Irish Cath,

 

:)Lol -- no worries! I'm here. Ask away.

 

Bummer, for a second I thought you meant to tell me you booked our British Isles cruise ... but why would you? You get to see Ireland every day :p... it still would have been a blast to meet ya.

 

You'll love the Serenade cruise! Oh my God, June really isn't too far off... go on and start the planning :D.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Mhh, our MSC British Isles cruise is now officially sold out...

 

:confused:Where is everybody:confused:?

 

So far we have a couple from Arkansas on Cruise Critic and and as of a few days ago an Austrian couple in the German forum...Is that it? Bohoo, I want the RCI roll call back!

 

Stef

[Wriggler]

Bohoo, I want the RCI roll call back!

 

Stef

 

You need a loud English woman to be posting on there and getting things moving along!! ;) :p Hope you Tanja and Tarik are all OK :)

 

Carol

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

You need a loud English woman to be posting on there and getting things moving along!! ;) :p Hope you Tanja and Tarik are all OK :)

 

Carol

 

Lol -- Hey Carol,

 

great to hear from you. We're all doing fine! How's University treating your son? Boy I miss our roll call, chatting and getting hyped for an upcoming cruise was just so much fun!

 

Now all I do is read below freezing negative reports on our ship to be from other German cruisers online:(. Aaargh -- I sure hope it's only them who are so naggy and stuffed up and not truly the ship which is causing the dismay:o. But I guess I'll find out in 106 more days -- and of course will tell you all about it first hand!

 

Stef

[FionaK]

It's taken me a few hours but I've just read through all 35 pages.

 

We're off on our honeymoon to Europe (from Australia) in June and doing a very similar itinerary also on Serenade, and also in a cheap inside cabin.

 

Hadn't planned a lot yet to be honest. Now I feel like I have a lot of homework to do! Lucky I can copy some of yours. We were planning to do the ship based tour for Rome but I think with your details and a little more homework we might manage to do it on our own. Will we struggle catching the train/metro only speaking English?

 

Thank you so much for posting such detailed information!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

It's taken me a few hours but I've just read through all 35 pages.

 

We're off on our honeymoon to Europe (from Australia) in June and doing a very similar itinerary also on Serenade, and also in a cheap inside cabin.

 

Hadn't planned a lot yet to be honest. Now I feel like I have a lot of homework to do! Lucky I can copy some of yours. We were planning to do the ship based tour for Rome but I think with your details and a little more homework we might manage to do it on our own. Will we struggle catching the train/metro only speaking English?

 

Thank you so much for posting such detailed information!

 

Hi FionaK,

 

Thank you!

 

One sitting! Wow-I'm impressed:).

 

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful honeymoon! And don't worry -- English will be just fine most of the times...and for the case when all fails...just use your hands and feet and be creative:D. The Italians we met gestured all the time, so you don't even have to feel stupid for it:o. The ticket for Rome shouldn't cause any problems...just make sure you get a BIRG ticket that looks like the one I posted...if I recall correctly, they even had a BIRG ticket taped to the glass separating you from the salesperson...so just point if he/she seems to be confused with your English. Of course you could always be an extreme sissy and print out a picture of the BIRG ticket, take it along and just show that (just in case they took away the examplary one:o) -- but I guess that would be pushing it:rolleyes:.

 

Stef

[Wriggler]

Lol -- Hey Carol,

 

great to hear from you. We're all doing fine! How's University treating your son? Boy I miss our roll call, chatting and getting hyped for an upcoming cruise was just so much fun!

 

Now all I do is read below freezing negative reports on our ship to be from other German cruisers online:(. Aaargh -- I sure hope it's only them who are so naggy and stuffed up and not truly the ship which is causing the dismay:o. But I guess I'll find out in 106 more days -- and of course will tell you all about it first hand!

 

Stef

 

Liam is really enjoying his uni life and it has just flown by - he'll have finished his first year in a couple of months!! :eek:

 

The roll call for our next trip is just about starting to pick up and we go in 12 weeks - it has been kinda painful waiting til everyone started chatting as we used to. Think we were spoiled with how well our roll call went :)

 

Can't wait to hear about your cruise - and please don't let the negative reviews affect you. I've been on a cruise before and spoken to 2 separate groups of people on the same day - 1 group had just been to book another cruise because they's enjoyed it so much and the other group couldn't wait to get home!! It was a fabulous trip as far as i was concerned - guess it's not for everyone and as long as you 3 go looking forward to enjoying every minute I'm sure you will :)

 

Take care

 

Carol

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

please don't let the negative reviews affect you. I've been on a cruise before and spoken to 2 separate groups of people on the same day - 1 group had just been to book another cruise because they's enjoyed it so much and the other group couldn't wait to get home!! It was a fabulous trip as far as i was concerned - guess it's not for everyone and as long as you 3 go looking forward to enjoying every minute I'm sure you will :)

 

Take care

 

Carol

 

You're so right Carol,

 

I really shouldn't be so stressed out over the negative reviews. I did a ton of planning ( as you did too i'm quite certain:D) and even if the worst reports are true -- I really don't think it would suffice to ruin our cruise. It's a cruise afterall! The Sea will be there, the ship will move and bring us to our destinations, and we won't starve or die of thirst (all-in drink package -- whoohoo). I'll send out a toast to you as we pass the English shore:D.

 

I already think of packing stuff. Lol -- you only have to think of white clothes ( if you plan to attend the white party) We'll have an Italian theme one---white plus green plus red...Lol now who has something fitting THAT in his wardrobe...I sure don't:). Which means -- shopping!!!! But before that I still need to loose at least a couple of my winter pounds:o.

 

 

Have a fabulous cruise on the Indy!

 

Stef

[cruiseclues]

Thank you so much for your great interesting picture review. :):):):)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Thank you so much for your great interesting picture review. :):):):)

 

Hi cruiseclues,

 

you`re welcome:). It was fun to write and I can't wait for our next cruise so I can write a new one:D. Glad you liked it. Thank you!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

:D70 more days till our next cruise!:D

 

:rolleyes:Binder is about to explode. Gotta stop looking up more stuff---but I just can't help it:p! Tanja and Tarik start rolling their eyes at me again -- I guess I entered the chaotic final cruise planning phase without noticing:o.

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

sigh, I wish cruise ships could stay 2-3 days at each port...

 

I planned too much stuff for almost every port...now I have to actively cut out the "least" desirable sights ... AAAhhhrggg --- they're ALL desirable!!!! Howl!

 

Just 58 more days!

 

Stef

[lorrdean]

Awe Stef what ever you decide to do you will enjoy it all.

Its only 13 days til I cruise :D

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Awe Stef what ever you decide to do you will enjoy it all.

Its only 13 days til I cruise :D

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

Hi Lorrdean,

sigh, decisions, decisions... but you're right. I gotta stop freaking out. It's a cruise, it's our only vacation per year and we just can't do it all. Lol -- I'll just have a gazillion planned to death alternatives at each port if stuff doesn't turn out like planned. Could be of use, you never know:o.

 

Have a wonderful cruise! Are you travelling with your hubby:p?

 

Stef

[lorrdean]

Probably by the time you get to Scotland it will be raining lol pack a jacket. I will say prayers to the rain Gods to stay away lol.

 

Yes I am, its a late honeymoon and my 50th all rolled into one. Getting mega excited :D

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Probably by the time you get to Scotland it will be raining lol pack a jacket. I will say prayers to the rain Gods to stay away lol.

 

Yes I am, its a late honeymoon and my 50th all rolled into one. Getting mega excited :D

 

Lol -- no worries about the rain. We'll come prepared....but just a question --- is an umbrella considered a weapon to bring on a cruise? We had an issue with a corksrew once, so I just don't want trouble.

 

:Donly 7 more days till your honeymoon, whoohooo!!!!!:D

 

Stef