Inside Passage Review - Serenade Of The Seas - Sept 5-12 - PART ONE

[cujosmom]

Alaska “Inside Passage” Cruise – Serenade of Seas – Sept 5-12, 2004

 

 

 

My name is Marty and my husband is Don. We live in San Antonio, TX. Our friends, Trudy and Bert, also from San Antonio, took this cruise with us. I hope you enjoy my review. I will be happy to answer any questions.

 

 

 

Pre-Cruise – We opted to arrive one day prior to the cruise to avoid any airline snags and general stress. We arrived in Vancouver late morning. It took approximately 40 minutes to get our luggage and clear customs. I was surprised to see so many flights arriving from Asia and Europe. We used a mini-van taxi to downtown which I think costs slightly more than a regular taxi. The taxi ride was approximately 30 minutes and cost us $30.00 including tip (Canadian). Early this summer I bid on a 4 star hotel through Priceline and received the Hyatt Regency Hotel for $62 plus tax. The room we got was excellent with a large covered balcony that had a partial water view. After we checked in and got settled, we walked about 4-5 blocks to Canada Place. Initially we were going to walk through Stanley Park but decided to have lunch and then go look at the three cruise ships that were docked at Canada Place instead. Four ships sailed from Vancouver that Saturday and it was so much fun waving “bon voyage” to the passengers especially since we were going to have our own bon voyage the next day. I was surprised that we could get so close to the ships without having to go through any kind of security at Canada Place. The day was beautiful; cool and sunny.

 

 

 

Boarding - We checked out of the hotel at 11:00 AM and got another mini-van taxi to Ballantyne Pier ($17.00 with tip). We checked in and were waiting for the custom agents to arrive by 11:30 AM. There was lemonade, small sandwiches and cookies available in the waiting area. Because we are Platinum members, we got priority boarding along with the physically challenged passengers. Within 5 minutes after the custom agents arrived at noon, we were on the ship. We dropped our hand luggage in our cabin and went out to explore the ship, check dining room assignment and make reservations for Chops for our anniversary Tuesday evening. We did not care for our table assignment as it was located next to the kitchen and we thought it would be too distracting to have the waiters racing back and forth. The woman in charge was very accommodating in changing our assignment and gave us several alternatives before we settled on a table next to the rail overlooking main dining room. We made our reservation for the specialty restaurant, Chops, for 7 PM on Tuesday. Suggestion: Ask for a table by the window when you make your reservations. To get one by the window, though, you might have to have an early (6 PM) or late (8:30 PM) reservation. It costs $20 per person (includes gratuity) to dine in one of the specialty restaurants. Portofino is the other specialty restaurant.

 

 

 

Sail-a-way – We sailed at 5:00 PM as scheduled. Prior to leaving, we mustered. No big deal here, just something you have to do before ship can sail. Our sail-a-way was wonderful as weather was so beautiful. The band played on the pool deck and as we neared Lion’s Gate Bridge, we were delighted to see lots of people standing on the bridge waving to us. Vancouver is an awesome sail-a-way city for its beauty.

 

 

 

Day 2 – Cruising – I thought we would see more land on our first sea day but we were too far away. My day started in an early morning Stretch Class, followed by an Aerobics Class and then Walk-A-Mile, all done to earn Ship Shape dollars. (More on Ship Shape program later) Trivia contests, a blackjack tournament, a miniature golf tournament, eating, and relaxing on our balcony took up the rest of the day.

 

 

 

Day 3 – Hubbard Glacier – The highlight of the day was, of course, Hubbard Glacier in the afternoon. As the ship approached Hubbard Glacier there appeared to be a “small” boat already there. Initially I thought it must be one of those local sightseeing boats but looking through the binoculars I realized it was a Holland America Ship! As we got closer, it left and we had the glacier to ourselves. The day was absolutely perfect with clear blue, sunny skies. When the ship slowed down to a crawl and then stopped, jackets started coming off as the temperature was so pleasant. There was lots of calving. The captain and naturalist kept commenting how lucky we were to have so much calving taking place and what a wondrous sunny day we were having especially since the past two cruises had had nothing but rain. They lowered a small boat to pick up chunks of glacier ice to use for an ice carving demonstration and to make “glacier (alcoholic) drinks” from glacier ice (or so they said). They were served in fancy glasses and were $8.75 (I believe) but you could keep the glass. The ship was there at least an hour, did a couple 360’s and then left. We went back to our aft balcony to watch the glacier until it was out of sight. It was truly an extraordinary sight.

To be continued.....

[Renee Chastant]

Thanks so much for all the tips that you sent.. My husband sister and her husband will be going into Vancouver the day before we sail out on May 29th.. We were wondering what hotel would be good to stay the night before. We didnt want anything really expensive but we wanted nice.

Any suggstions would be appreciated. We are really getting excited as this is all of our first time for Alaskan Cruise.

We are going on the Serenade of the Seas ( Royal Caribbean).

If there is any other suggestions even while we are in Vancouver the day before please let me know.

Thanks ...

Renee