We took a 7 day cruise out of Vancouver to Alaska on the Serenade of the Seas. The cruise was very scenic and a lot of fun.

The Serenade of the Sea's main port is Vancouver. Vancouver is one of our favorite cities so this was an extra bonus for the cruise. We flew into Vancouver a day early so that we could see some sights and so that we didn't have to worry about delayed planes on the day of the cruise.

Our first stop was Gastown. Gastown is a touristy little area of Vancouver that is located by the Canada Place Cruise Pier. There are a few interesting shops and restaurants in the area.

For dinner we stopped at Cardero's. Cardero's is a nice restaurant on the water's edge of Vancouver. We had a few beers at the bar and then had a fantastic dinner. The halibut is awesome! 

The only negative to Cardero's is that is a little loud. But the food is very good and the prices aren't too bad.

We also stopped by Queen Elizabeth Park. This is a park that is located at the highest hill in Vancouver. It offers wonderful city views. (When it is clear)

Our next stop was Stanley Park. Stanley Park is one of the prettiest "city" parks in the world. It started sprinkling while we were there so we didn't spend much time at the Totem poles or looking at the Lions Gate Bridge.

But we did stop at Prospect Point for a nice cup of coffee by the fireplace.

We arrived at the cruise ship terminal at about 2:30 PM. The embarkation was very fast and easy. The picture above shows the immigration waiting room. You are assigned a number and when the number is called you can get in line to go through U.S. immigration and then board the ship. Because we were U.S. citizens our line was pretty small and our wait was only about 15 minutes. We later discovered that you can board the ship as early as 11:00 AM.

The Serenade of the Seas was a magnificent ship. It is now considered just a "medium sized" ship, but we found it very spacious and it didn't seem crowded even though it was completely full.

The first thing we did on-board is the muster drill. It turned out that we had the same station as Ken and Rocky. 

The ship had lots of nice features and activities. It was pretty amazing to watch the "self leveling" pool tables bounce up and down when the swells kicked up. Overall the water was very smooth. We only hit rough water for a few hours at a time.

Ken won the final Bingo game on the first Bingo session. His take was $225. The Bingo is really only "worth it" for the last game. It is rather expensive to play. The first three days you had to pay $35 to play 4 games and if you won the prize was only $100 to $225. Seems like a very low payout for a $35 buy-in. The last game, on the last day, has a prize of $3,000 which was a better deal. The Bingo games throughout the week just fund the big one at the end. 

We shelled out some money and opted for a Grand Suite on the Serenade of the Seas. We were in cabin 1536, which is on the starboard side of the ship. The suite was wonderful. There was TONS of room to store luggage, clothing and personal belongings. It reminded us of an actual hotel room!  The bathroom had two sinks and a tub. Included in the room was a DVD player and a stereo. This was a nice addition because we were able to plug our mp3 player into the built in cabin speakers. Nice!

The cabin included a sleeper sofa and a few sitting chairs. It also included a mini-bar and huge balcony.

On some days we received "little plates" of food. We had read that on some ships Grand Suite guests are welcomed with a bottle of champagne. That never did appear, but the fruit bowl, cheese plate, and truffle plate (not shown), did arrive.

One of the nicest "perks" with a grand suite is having access to the concierge lounge. The lounge provides a nice quiet place to relax while on-board. In the morning you have access to a continental breakfast and a coffee machine, which was awesome. In the evenings they have complimentary drinks hosted by Maritza. The lounge was a great place to meet some very interesting and fun people. We really looked forward to our nightly "before dinner" drink because we got to meet so many nice people. And speaking of nice people, Maritza was absolutely super. She was helpful in answering our questions and always made us feel welcome. She goes above and beyond the call of duty. She really made our vacation enjoyable.

Another nice benefit of having a suite is the wonderful view. Almost all of our outdoor "ocean" shots were taken from our balcony. Suite guests also get priority tender tickets which came in handy at Icy Strait Point. We are not sure if we can afford a suite every time we cruise, but it is now going to be hard to go back to a standard cabin.

We really enjoyed our dining experiences in the Reflections Dining Room. The wait staff was the best we have ever had on a cruise. Ernie, Andy and Herman were super!  We opted for one of the "wine packages" which turned out to be well worth it. For $198 we received a bottle of wine each night with dinner. (7 bottles) The choices were decent. Most of the wines on the list retail for between $10 and $17 in the store. The package was nice because then everything, including tip, was prepaid.

We were assigned a table with another family that was similar in age. They were from the Saskatoon, Canada area. We really enjoyed their company and felt very lucky that we had them as table mates. Hi Kirk, Mary, Lorraine, and Jim!

We had three anniversaries celebrated at our table.

There are two other restaurants on the Serenade of the Seas. The Windjammer, shown above, is the buffet. We ate at the Windjammer almost every morning. The food is average. Nothing special. The "Artic Zone", shown above, was a frozen yogurt stand that was always open. We stopped by there many a times.... :>)There is also a small little place called the SeaView Cafe on the top floor in the back of the ship. It has a limited menu but we really liked it since it was a break from the Windjammer.

Icy Strait Point was our first stop on the Serenade of the Seas. It consists of a sleepy little town called Hoonah and a cruise shopping port. We did not book any excursions at Icy Point. We walked around the shops and had a drink at the restaurant on the point.  This port is only frequented by RCCL and Celebrity. (Same parent company) So this port has a very "commercial" feel because everything is based around these two cruise lines. The new zip line that was just built looked fun. Everyone we talked to enjoyed the zip down the mountain. 

The "cruise port village" had a museum which was interesting.

Ken And Rocky's Remote Bear Excursion

We took the “Remote Bush and Bear” Tour at Icy Strait Point. It was an overcast day as we boarded our bus for the 30 minute ride into the forest. Our guide was an Alaska native tribesman. We walked about a half mile to get to the observation platforms on the river. This is the area where the bears normally hang out. We had a rifleman with the group for our protection from the bears.

Fortunately, they supplied us with rain gear for the trek across the marsh lands because it started raining almost as soon as we got out of the bus.

Unfortunately we never saw a bear and found out later than approximately one tour per day will encounter them. We were disappointed but listening to our guide talk about his life as a native was worth the trip.

We arrived at our destination, an observation platform along the river where the bears normally feed. We did not see any wildlife except for the hand carved bear below.

We really lucked out with the weather the day we visited Hubbard Glacier. It was foggy in a few places, but as we got closer to the glacier the fog cleared and the sun came out.We couldn't get too close to the glacier because there was a lot of ice in the bay. (And the captain didn't want another Poseidon Adventure on his hands) But the scenery was beautiful. This was truly one of the highlights of the cruise.

As you can see from the zoomed in picture on the right, there was a lot of ice in the bay.

On our balcony with Hubbard Glacier

Skagway was our second port and we really enjoyed the town and scenery. The town of Skagway is very small and looks like it pretty much caters to cruise ship visitors. Most of the stores are either jewelry or touristy type shops. There were not many hotels and restaurants. Skagway has 5 churches, 5 bars, and 5 policemen.

The day we were in Skagway there were four cruise ships. A town of less than 1,000 residents had over 8,000 visitors!

White Pass Railway

We did the White Pass Railway Excursion through the cruise ship. You can book this separately, but the saving is only about $10 so we found it more convenient to book through RCCL. As you can see, the train is rather narrow, but there is a good view of the scenery out the window.

The train ride starts at the cruise dock and goes to the top of the White Pass Mountain Range. At the top of the mountain, the train switches engines and then everyone "switches sides". This is because most of the scenery is located on the left side of the train (going up) and they ask that everyone switches sides so that everyone gets a good seat. We were on the right side so we really appreciated that approach!

The view from the train was magnificent. This trip is a must if you visit Skagway.

Juneau was our favorite port due to its beauty and activity offerings. The Serenade of the Seas leaves port at 3PM which was a major bummer. 

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and it cannot be accessed by car. But there is a super fast ferry, which is large enough for cars, which does visit Juneau on a regularly scheduled basis. They also have a small airport.

Mendenhall Glacier and Gardens Tour

by Ken and Rocky

We took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier and Visitors Center after the ship docked at Juno. It was a beautiful sight. Afterwards, we visited the Mendenhall Gardens. It is family owned and operated. When we arrived, we were met by a tour guide driving a golf cart. We were taken up the steep hill to the top of the property where there was a beautiful view of the valley below. When we looked to the right, we could see the glacier.

There were ponds, ornamental trees, plants and flowers everywhere. This was a beautiful garden and well worth the trip. During the early spring, many of the flowers had to be moved to the nursery overnight because they were too delicate for the cold nights. Once again the guides were native Alaskan and wonderful to visit with. Everyone we met attends college and works as guides in the summer.

The picture to the left shows Ken at the Mendenhall Glacier. The Glacier is easily accessed from many tours in town. 

We booked an "Ice Field Excursion" with Coastal Helicopters through the Orca Whale Watching company. The trip was the highlight of our week! We flew about 15 minutes until we reached Herbert Glacier. We landed and had the opportunity to walk around and explore the glacier. We were the only ones on the glacier, which was very special. Most helicopter companies in Juneau fly people to Mendenhall Glacier, and we heard it gets quite busy. With Coastal we had our own glacier to ourselves!

The flight takes off from the Juneau airport. Only Alaska airlines flies into Juneau. It is a tiny airport.

The weather was beautiful. It was about 55 F and sunny with a few clouds. Herbert glacier is a mile wide and the ice we were standing on was over 250 years old!

The ice shown above looks like it is "dirty", but in fact the "dirt" is actually tiny pieces of rock that has been carved away from the canyon. The picture to the right shows some of the crevasses in the glacier. The flight was a little spendy at $198 a person, but it was quite a bit cheaper than what the cruise ship wanted to charge us for an "official excursion". 

The entire trip only lasts an hour, but it an hour you will never forget!

We booked a whale watching trip with Orca Enterprises during our stop in Juneau. In fact, Orca arranged our entire day. They secured our helicopter ride with Coastal Helicopters, and then after the ice field excursion we did the whale watch. Overall Orca Enterprises does a very good job with their trips. They do not work directly with the cruise ships, but it looks like they get most of their business from "independent" cruisers like ourselves. If you book with Orca you can rest assured that they will get you back to the cruise ship on time.

The boat shown to the left is from a company that works with the cruise ships. As you can see, they pack well over a 100 people on-board. Our boat was very fast and small. We had 19 passengers on-board. The pictures shown below are still captures from our video camera. Anyone who has been on a whale watching cruise knows how hard it is to "time" whale pictures with a digital camera.

We also saw lots of Steller Sea Lions and American Bald Eagles.

Overall the positives of the cruise outweighed the negatives. For the amount of people on-board, RCCL did a great job with almost every aspect of the ship.

Positives:

• Embarkation went very smoothly.  We had about a 15 minute wait at customs but the RCCL check-in went very fast.

• We upgraded to a Grand Suite this time and it was truly Grand. 

• The dinner service was exceptional.  We loved Ernie, our head waiter, Andy, our waiter, and Herman, our assistant waiter.  They were very entertaining and professional.

• We also lucked out with our dinner mates.  RCCL paired us with another family that was approximately the same age.  We really enjoyed the company and it turned out to be another highlight of the cruise. (Hi Kirk, Mary, Jim and Lorraine!)

• The Concierge Room, hosted by Maritza, was another highlight of the trip.  We loved having before dinner drinks and socializing with the other guests.  We met some very interesting and fascinating people.  Maritza did a fabulous job.  She is warm, friendly, and attentive.

Negatives:

• The photographers on board were the worst we have seen on a cruise ship.  In some cases they were just down right rude.  One night our formal dinner was interrupted by "you do this and you do that".... We were never even asked if we wanted our picture taken.  Very unprofessional.  It is pretty bad when the pictures on your own digital camera come out better than their "professional" ones.  (Selling for $19.95 a piece!)

• Probably our biggest "complaint" came with their bar service.  One evening I walked up to the Vortex bar and ordered two different types of "Patron Tequila" margaritas.  Patron is a very good and very expensive tequila.  There was nobody at the bar so I was watching the bartender pour the drink.  He made a VERY DELIBERATE effort to be "out of my sight" when he actually poured the Patron tequila into the drinks.  In fact, I swear I saw him put some "plain bottle type" tequila into the drinks.  I did not have proof because he made sure is was "out of my sight" when he poured both drinks.  All other ingredients were there for me to see.  Just not the most expensive piece.  The drinks were absolutely horrible, so I decided the next day to complain to the beverage manager.  We contacted Maritza, our concierge, and she was able to arrange a meeting with Paul, the assistant beverage manager.  I told Paul my suspicions and said "either RCCL is ripping people off intentionally or you have a crooked bartender".  His response was "thank you for bringing this to my attention".  I told him that the drinks were horrible and that I did not feel confident in buying anymore mixed drinks after seeing this behavior.  His response was that he would "buy me another drink sometime throughout the cruise".  He never said this was not RCCL policy or never offered to refund us on the original "suspect" drinks.  We later told Maritza and she again contacted him. His response was that "they substituted a higher end tequila" and that he had given us credit.  That was just totally untrue since I saw the bartender reach for the Patron tequila bottle, it was just that he "walked around the corner" when he poured it into the drink.  Anyway, the credit we received was for two beers. ($9)  We complained once more and were finally credited our $17 back for the original drinks.  I did a quick search on CruiseCritic.com and found other cases where on RCCL ships bartenders were caught drinking the Patron tequila.  Bottom line, I wouldn't order any mixed drinks from this cruise line.  The beverage service is one of the few "rusty spots" on the Serenade of the Seas.