C is for … Cruising Memories

Thanks to Covid-19, cruising has got a lot of criticism this year. Hundreds of people stuck in a vessel with a transferable fatal disease – worst thing to happen. Because I loved my cruising experience in 2018, I read quite a bit about the Diamond Princess and many other ships that had to go through difficult circumstances because sailing to a port was not an option for them.

But who needs to read more gloomy news, lets rewind and go back to 2018. For the sake of new adventures, we decided to hop on to a 13-day cruise to the Baltics. A lot of things went into consideration while choosing this trip and they make for the best memories.

Our ship - Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas. It was an old ship with dated interiors.
But it was clean, had the best food and staff and was perfect for our first cruising experience

The cruise started from Stockholm and ended in Copenhagen. It gave us ample of time in these ports.

12 port days, 1 cruise day

There was only one cruise day in between so we were to spend most of our days at the ports. We literally saw the ship on day five when we had to be back in the ship at 4 p.m. Now when you are on the ship, you can choose from two types of complimentary dining – buffet style and sit-down dinner. They assign a table for you in the restaurant even if you go for buffet style. We decided to check out the restaurant on this day.

When we arrived, we were greeted by two couples – one in the 50’s and the other in their early 20’s who were apparently honeymooning. The table next to ours belonged to three sisters who were aged 74, 78 and 82 respectively.

It was so inspiring to see them have fun on this cruise. They were always there for every show, every excursion, even dressed up to the T in the casino. I wished to be like them at that age!

Me and the Boy both enjoyed buffet style dining, but we went to see the three sisters and the other two couples on most days. On the last day someone mentioned that they thought we were one big happy family even though we looked very different from each other!

The fun table at the end of the dining room!

Cheap and Awesome!

      We chose the cheapest possible room – Interior guarantee – which basically means the cruise will assign a small, windowless room to us. We left it to chance and then I prayed five times a day. A shankha was involved.

The room was perfect. It had many cupboards which meant that I could keep the small room neat and tidy. It was cleaned two times a day – imagine, two times!! There was absolutely no light in the room and so we slept 10 hours a night like we had never slept before.

Seriously, we were out for 12 hours a day, and then slept like logs for 10. The internet was choppy, there was not much else to do in the room, hence the beauty sleep. We miss it all the time!

Lesser known destinations!

There were seven countries being covered. Had it not been for this cruise, we would have never gone to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia! These countries have some language problems, they are close to the Baltic countries which are anyway very expensive to cover so you can’t add ‘irrelevant’ places(!!), plus, there was basically nothing to explore here.

We also went to a port called Fredericia in Denmark. This was probably only the second time a cruise was going there. It was a laidback village with a small market, a trailing path, a beach and very warm people. They gave us a map, and we walked through it. At the end, when the cruise ship was about to sail, the mayor came by. There was singing and dancing. Hundreds came by to wave us goodbye. Canon balls were involved! It was the sweetest thing.

Fredericia style good-bye!

Cruising was an amazing experience for us because we chose what suited us. I had researched well about calm waters in the Baltics, so we were protected from any kind of sea sickness. Yes, being a pain in the ass planner helps those who travel.

If you are looking for your first cruise experience that is reasonably priced, is fun and gives you a great chance to explore, this is the best one. And no, I am not associated with Royal Caribbean!

My shopping from the ports!