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

[Cat54]

Ok Everyone, I apologize for not posting more today.

 

For those who don't know Ali and me personally, we own and operate a horse farm in Maryland, along with having our days jobs (I'm and educator, and Ali is a computer programer). Anyways, I was doing my barn chores this morning and got stung by a bee. I am highly allergic and had to be rushed to the hospital. Im home and ok now, but I have to go to work early in the morning so I will be unable to post tonight :( Sorry. I get off of work in the early evening tomorrow and Ill be sure to post at least the next two days of the cruise, hoping to get to Helsinki. Thank you all for your patients and understanding. Have a great night and see everyone tomorrow :)

 

Hope you are feeling better today!

[terry&mike]

Following. Love!

On a Baltic next August, so really looking forward to your posts. Many thanks!

[teese]

Following along. Glad you're ok after the bee sting.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Hey Everyone, Thank for the well wishes.

 

Cat, I haven't heard back from my in-laws yet but as soon as I do will will post that information.

 

My scanner is acting up today so no cruise compasses, sorry, but I promise to post them as soon as technology starts cooperating.

 

Monday ~ July 25 2016 ~ Stockholm

 

Beautiful morning in Stockholm!

 

 

Ali and I started our morning with our favorite breakfast: Bagels and Lox at the park cafe

 

 

The whole family was doing an excursion through the ship today.

 

 

We boarded the bus and headed out for our second adventure in Stockholm!

 

 

 

We got to see some amazing architecture on our way to the first stop; City Hall, where the Noble Prize is given out.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

As we arrived we got a beautiful view of the river!

 

 

 

 

We entered the banquet hall and toured the building, learning about the history of the prize and the building.

 

 

 

The ground floor was reserved for the banquet, while the upstairs is for dancing.

 

 

Gorgeous gold plated, ceramic room to dance in.

[Bmorecruiser021]

We boarded the bus and made a quick photo stop by the place the Vasa Warship sank before heading to the Palace.

 

 

 

The bus dropped us off and we got about 40 minutes of free time to walk around, buys things, and just relax.

 

 

 

We decided to get some ice cream!

 

 

Ali and I wanted to visit the Nobel Prize Museum, but my in-laws told us they had already did it and it was not worth the time we had left on our "free time." So we just did some souvenir shopping and rested in the square located directly in front of the museum. Now don't get me wrong, they said they loved the museum and if we had adequate time they said to definitely do it, but there was not enough time to do everything.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

We met back up with our guide, and toured a Cathedral before heading back to the palace square and getting a surprise. The Military band was playing!

 

 

 

Our guide took us to a "good luck statue" outside a lutheran church, where you rub it's head and make a wish, it's suppose to come true.

 

 

We walked with our guide to another church and it started pouring so we took sanctuary inside.

 

 

 

The bus came to pick us up and take us the the "highlight" of the day.....The Vasa Museum.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

The bus took us to the Vasa Museum.

 

 

 

The ship was magnificent! So well preserved, so much interesting history. It was a very neat museum with lots of interactive exhibits for all ages.

 

 

 

But alas, out tour was over. We headed back to the ship and got ready for dinner. However, Ali had other plans. She surprised me with a couples massage!

 

 

It was fabulous. So relaxing! We got to watch the sun lower in the sky (since it doesn't really set at that latitude) as we walked the deck back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

Dinner was wonderful, as usual, with seafood salad and spinach dip for an appetizer, lamb for the entree, and chocolate cake for dessert!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

Beautiful sunset as we walked a lap around deck 12, then headed back to our cabin.

 

 

Alex, our cabin attendant, left us our first towel animal tonight!

 

 

And I noticed that our Emerald "gift" was on the desk (this was our first cruise at emerald level, and let me tell you, those cookies were GOOD!)

 

 

That's all for tonight everyone. Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow:)

[easyboy]

That's all for tonight everyone. Have a great evening. See you all tomorrow:)

Love it !!!

[Bmorecruiser021]

Thanks!

 

So my MIL says: "Lady Hamilton Hotel. Thecollectorshotel.se Boutique hotels in Gamla (old town) Very close to the Royal Palace, cathedral and Nobel Museum. Comfortable but no air conditioning. Staff was super friendly and very willing to help with all questions. I would stay there again"

 

Hope that helps some :)

[Bmorecruiser021]

The bus took us to the Vasa Museum.

 

 

 

The ship was magnificent! So well preserved, so much interesting history. It was a very neat museum with lots of interactive exhibits for all ages.

 

 

 

But alas, out tour was over. We headed back to the ship and got ready for dinner. However, Ali had other plans. She surprised me with a couples massage!

 

 

It was fabulous. So relaxing! We got to watch the sun lower in the sky (since it doesn't really set at that latitude) as we walked the deck back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

 

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the Vasa Museum had free wifi. Just thought everyone would like to know that.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Good evening everyone. Hope you all had a good day!

 

Tuesday ~ July 26 2016 ~ Helsinki

 

We woke up to a cloudy but not rainy day.

 

 

My FIL, BIL, Ali, and me were doing a short, 3 hour guided tour of Helsinki followed by a little extra time walking around the town. We met up with the rest of the family in the theatre and waited for our number to be called.

 

 

 

We found our bus and took a ride into Helsinki

 

 

 

 

Saw a lot of gorgeous architecture along the way

[Bmorecruiser021]

We stopped at the Lutheran Cathedral and overlooked the main square.

 

 

 

Next we headed to the Rock Church. Very cool building!

 

 

 

Then we went to the sculpture park, commemorating famous composers from Finland.

 

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

We were then given an option of being dropped off downtown and making our way back to the ship on our own or take the coach bus back. Ali and I elected to stay in town and explore a little. Getting back to the ship was real easy, It was free with our number sticker and the bus pick up was right off the square where the tour bus dropped us off.

 

 

 

We made our way to the market, to buys some souvenirs and try some of the local produce.

 

 

 

 

Ali wasn't feeling too great so we made our way to Stockmann's; A Macy's type department store that had a pharmacy inside, along with free wifi!

 

[Havin'fun]

Kraig,

Ironic that you had to go all the way to Helsinki to find moose meatballs and pulled moose. I sure don't recall that being on any menu I saw on the Alaska trip last year.

Loving this review. Your pictures are wonderful!

Diane

[Cat54]

So my MIL says: "Lady Hamilton Hotel. Thecollectorshotel.se Boutique hotels in Gamla (old town) Very close to the Royal Palace, cathedral and Nobel Museum. Comfortable but no air conditioning. Staff was super friendly and very willing to help with all questions. I would stay there again"

 

Hope that helps some :)

 

Thanks for the information. I'll check it out. Many of the hotels do not have air conditioning in Stockholm.

 

Enjoying your review.:)

[Donna_In_India]

Thanks for the information. I'll check it out. Many of the hotels do not have air conditioning in Stockholm.

 

Enjoying your review.:)

 

We stayed at the Sheraton Stockholm and it had AC.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Kraig' date='

Ironic that you had to go all the way to Helsinki to find moose meatballs and pulled moose. I sure don't recall that being on any menu I saw on the Alaska trip last year.

Loving this review. Your pictures are wonderful!

Diane[/quote']

 

I thought that was ironic too:eek:. Wanted to make sure I took a picture of that and shared it :D

[Donna_In_India]

I thought that was ironic too:eek:. Wanted to make sure I took a picture of that and shared it :D

 

I would have liked to try the moose! I did have reindeer in Stockholm and it was very good. Daughter did get some great berries at the market in Helsinki though. :)

[Bmorecruiser021]

I was having technical difficulties last night, sorry for not finishing out the day.

 

Now back to the review

 

We hopped the bus (free for those with excursion stickers on, so don't take them off, one person on the bus "lost" their and had to pay. But I don't think it was much, 10 euros I believe) and headed back to the port.

 

Noticed the welcome sign I missed earlier.

 

 

Then we made our way to dinner. Dinner was wonderful, as usual, with me and Ali getting the bay scollops for an appetizer, beef and fish to share for dinner, and pistachio ice cream for dessert. Delicious!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by Bmorecruiser021

[Bmorecruiser021]

Took a walk around the ship and watched the beautiful sunset!

 

 

 

 

We then headed to the shops to do some onboard shopping since the shops would be closed for the next 3 days (we would be in St. Petersburg and the shops and casino would not be open)

 

After getting what we wanted we headed to bed, our first excursion in St. Petersburg was not until the afternoon so we would finally get to sleep in and get some rest. We were both very excited for this!

[Bmorecruiser021]

So before I start my review of day 4, or our first day in St. Petersburg, I wanted to share with you a few documents. First, this is the back of the cruise compass for day 1.

 

 

Ask you can see on the bottom left of the compass, in bold letters, there is/was a lot of times that shops, casino, and photo gallery was closed this cruise due to port regulation. This is an important note to make, if like Ali and myself, you enjoy getting T-Shirts mugs and other superiors from the ship. And, like us, purchased a photo package. Making sure we got all the photos was a little tricky, but ill tell you about that later.

 

Second document I wanted to share was the letter RCCL gave us the night before we ported in St. Petersburg.

 

 

Very important information to have, because, as you will see, everytime you left the ship, you had to go through immigration (with one exception, which I will tell you about later). This was very different from every other port we have cruised to and something Ali and I were not expecting or accustomed to. It turned out to be a good thing my MIL booked us on excursions every day of our stop in St. Petersburg.

 

The last thing I wanted to talk about was that immigration process. I will tell you later in my review, about how Ali and I were selected and participated in the Love and Marriage game show (it was SO much fun, but ill tell you about that later) The reason I bring it up now is because the husband to one of the other couples was detained while returning to the ship. Apparently this is a common practice for the Russian government to detain anyone active in the US military (which this other husband currently is) He (don't want to give his name for his privacy) was detained and questioned for almost 45 minutes he told me, and this happens all the time the cruise ship told him (after the fact). But, RCCL assured him that the Russian authorities never hold any of their guests for more then an hour. Would have been nice to know ahead of time as his wife wad very worried (or so it was explained to me).

 

Just a little something we learned and I wanted to pass along :)

 

Now where were we? O yes;

 

Wednesday ~ July 27 2016 ~ St. Petersburg

 

Woke up late this morning as our excursion was an afternoon one. Sleep was very much needed and very welcomed, but we still got a nice view of the harbor when we woke up.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by Bmorecruiser021

[easyboy]

Really wonderful pictures.