An Honest Review of our Alaska Cruise - Serenade of the Seas

​Last summer my husband and I took a cruise to Alaska, from Alaska. Although we were living in Anchorage we felt like we would be able to see different parts of Alaska via a cruise, which would take us to places in Alaska that are only accessible by plane or boat. I'm sharing our honest experience aboard the Serenade of the Seas by Royal Caribbean, and how it compares after multiple other cruises through Royal and other cruise companies around the world.

​My Essential Alaska Travel Resources :
There are a lot of travel companies out there, but some are better than others. These are my favorite websites and resources to help plan an incredible trip to the 49th State.

For flights, I recommend using WayAway or Hopper to compare the cheapest dates to travel to Alaska.

Car rentals, arguably the best way to see Alaska, are best through Discover Cars!

I always use AGODA for hotels. They have an easy-to-use platform where you can compare the best rates.

To keep cell phone service if you're traveling internationally, I always use Airalo’s easy to purchase eSIM’s (no installation required), and always use NordVPN to stay safe while connecting to different wifis.

For fun things to do, I recommend Viator to find the best tours in the area, otherwise Klook also does the trick.

Just in case, Safetywing is the insurance I always use for travel insurance.

Lastly, my Alaska packing list for your travels to the Last Frontier.

Our Alaska Cruise Itinerary

If you're planning to cruise to Alaska, then you might be like us when we were choosing which itinerary to book - a little overwhelmed. I'll be honest, we had no idea which itinerary would be best, or which towns would be best to port in. We highly recommend choosing a cruise that at least stops in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Our cruise with Royal Caribbean lasted 9 days, including boarding and disembarking the ship. Although it started and ended in Vancouver, we ported in Sitka, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Our schedule onboard the Serenade of the Seas looked like this :

• Day 1 : Board in Vancouver
• Day 2 : Cruising Day
• Day 3 : Cruising Day
• Day 4 : Sitka, Alaska
• Day 5 : Juneau, Alaska & Tracy Arm Fjord Cruising
• Day 6 : Cruising Day
• Day 7 : Ketchikan, Alaska
• Day 8 : Cruising Day
• Day 9 : Disembark in Vancouver

Did we like this itinerary? Honestly, yes. We had quite a few port days and were able to visit 3 places you can only visit via plane or boat, which made us happy. The views along the passages were excellent as well, and during our return to Vancouver we saw multiple whales and marine wildlife right from the ship!

3 Cruise Excursions Not To Miss in Alaska :
1. Ketchikan - Crabbing on the Aleutian Ballad
2. Sitka - Wilderness Sea Kayaking
3. Juneau - Whale Watching

My Honest Review of the Serenade of the Seas

​​With 13 decks the Serenade of the Seas holds about 2,500 people at max capacity - it has an outdoor movie screen, indoor cinema, casino, spa, gym, rock climbing wall, mini golf area, outdoor jogging track, indoor adults only pool in the solarium, outdoor pool, and kids play pool area. There are also 3 included dining options, with 5 specialty dining options, and 10 bar/lounge areas.

With our budget we stayed in an Ocean View room, which allowed us to have one window in our stateroom - worth it in Alaska - however other options onboard include the Interior Rooms, Balcony Rooms, and Suites. As we share our honest review of our experience onboard the Serenade of the Seas, we'll be sharing our opinions and reviews of the onboard atmosphere, the entertainment and amenities, what we loved, what we didn't love so much, and if we would recommend the ship overall.

​I also want to preface by sharing that I've been on multiple cruises with Royal Caribbean (some that I've loved!) and other cruise lines as well.

Onboard Atmosphere :
The entire time onboard we saw 2 other couples our age and a small handful of families with young children, the remainder of guests were about 70+ years old. Which there's nothing wrong with, and when visiting Alaska, is often even expected. However, everything entertainment related on board was catered to the older age group, and with multiple cruising/onboard days we really felt like we had nothing to do but sit around and enjoy the views. Even planned activities were often cancelled or just no-shows, which we've never experienced with our other cruises. If you're looking for a cruise with lots of entertainment, fun activities for the family, and plenty of things to do, this probably isn't the one for you.

​Entertainment & Amenities : 
Entertainment from the impressionist and comedian were flat out racist and sexist, and both my husband and I found it quite uncomfortable. Don't get us wrong, the other singers and dancers onboard were incredible and hugely talented, however even they themselves seemed bored. Other entertainment activities included daily Sudoku Tournaments and Trivia, as well as daily dance classes. The most awkward part was during the farewell show, when the cruise director was more concerned about getting applause for his wife (who also worked on board as a director in entertainment) rather than the actual talented singers and dancers.

Other amenities were closed everyday except for embarkation day when we left Vancouver. When we tried to play other activities like shuffleboard no staff was able to find where the pieces were. When we tried watching a movie the cinema was so small that the entire floor and stairs were covered with people who had nothing better to do. If you decide to go, I would highly recommend bringing your own entertainment for days with rough weather.

Things I Loved
I'll be honest, not everything about our cruise was bad, there were actually quite a few things we loved! For example, the food was fantastic - just a few of the items in our included dinners were Maryland Crab Cake, New York Strip Steak, Key Lime Pie, Chocolate Hazelnut Cake and Lobster - and they were all delicious. The views were also unreal, and we were so happy to have taken a cruise to see these places that are otherwise nearly unreachable. Sailing towards Hubbard Glacier and through the Tracy Arm Fjord was magical, and the staff was kind enough to go out on a zodiac and gather a floating piece of glacier that had fallen off to bring it back onboard for everyone to touch and take pictures with! Overall, I would always encourage people to take an Alaska Cruise at least once in their lives, just maybe not onboard the Serenade of the Seas.

Things I Didn't Love
​As for the ship itself, we were shocked to learn that this is the ship being taken out on this year's Ultimate World Cruise - we truly hope there are some major updates being made before they embark. During our time onboard many doors had writing with markers or splotches of who knows what, banisters on the outdoor railings were falling off, and the interior of our room felt very outdated and stuffy. There were multiple days when our hallway carpets were covered with gigantic dust bunnies (as if a vacuum had exploded). Nothing was too terrible, but not exactly great either.

Watch this Alaska Cruise Experience here!

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Other Alaska blog posts you might be interested in : 
-> 11 Best Waterfalls in Anchorage and Beyond
-> Where to Rent Bear Spray in Alaska
-> 7 Best Tours in Alaska

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