The One with the Scandinavian Cruise

When we first moved to Germany summer 2013 I made a "wanderlust" list of places we wanted to go which included many Scandinavian destinations. Rather than visit them one at a time and fly to each city individually, we booked a cruise through Royal Caribbean! We planned this excursion almost a year ago and the big day finally arrived - off we went!

The Munich airport is two hours away, but there is not one stoplight between our house and the airport believe it or not! Fox and Janey eating donuts and playing with airplanes.

We flew Norwegian and it was about two hours from Munich to Stockholm. The kids were really good on the flight, it left on time, arrived early, and there wasn't much turbulence. Woohoo! At the airport we picked up our bags and then ate some lunch. We found a taxi and drove out to the dock. We were stunned by how MASSIVE our home for the next two weeks was. I'd like to introduce: the Serenade of the Seas. Evans family on Sunday July 26th 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden in front of the ship. I loved the industrial chandeliers inside the port facilities. We got all checked in and onto the boat without a hitch! Seriously, this was the most efficient and pleasant travel experience we've ever had! Looking for our room. I LOVED where our room was located on the boat: right in the center so we never felt any waves, one floor above the exit dock, just a few steps from the elevators, two short flights of stairs up to the dining room, the kids "Adventure Ocean" playroom was on this side of the boat, etc.

We've only been on one other cruise and we didn't have a window in our room so I never knew what time of day it was. I learned then that my body is very dependent on the natural rising and setting of the sun, so this time, we got a window.  Fox & Jane coloring. On that TV we watched the same Bugs Bunny, Doc McStuffins, and Avengers cartoons over and over and over and over for two weeks! Why don't they change the shows? I'm STILL singing the catchy tunes! You can see Fox's pull-down Murphy bed. Such a space saver! There were two in our room but Jane slept in a pack'n'play that we assembled every night and put away every morning cuz space was a precious commodity. Just a few days before the cruise was over we realized they switched out these plates to match the day of the week. I wonder whose job that was? I just thought all the elevators had different names. Chris finally put two and two together. Going up in the elevator! Looking down into the main lobby. When we first got on the boat we walked around and explored our entertainment options, which were aplenty! Pools galore!

A gym. I totally planned to work out here every day. Guess how many times I actually went? Once. #fail

This Disney cruise ship followed us from Stockholm to Helsinki to St. Petersburg, but then it left a day before us. We'd love to travel in Disney style some time!

For breakfast we'd go up to the Windjammer. The kids got good at sanitizing their hands upon entering.

The Windjammer.

I could have gained 50 pounds with the all-you-can-eat buffet style dining. I actually haven't weighed myself (too scared!) so I maybe I did! Ignorance is bliss :)

We would go out on our adventure to see the city in the morning, come back for lunch, then Jane would nap on the bed with us and Fox would go up to "Adventure Ocean" to play with other kids. He is so social!

A few times I took my scrap supplies up to the book nook and worked on this Halloween album that I blogged about in the previous post. Gotta get in some creative time!

For dinner, when it wasn't formal, we would eat in the nice restaurant and get waited upon. A few days into the cruise the kids figured out this place took a long time to get food and would throw a fit as we walked in... so we resorted to iPad and phone usage. The food was always delicious!

Waiting for dinner. Fox wanted me to take a picture of him with his tiny french fry, silly guy. Noice!

After dinner we'd come back to a spick-and-span room! Ah! So nice.

Towel concoctions, lol.

The big, blue, Baltic Sea.

Overall the cruise was amazing. There are a couple things I would change but couldn't, like I wish we were only in St. Petersburg for 2 days instead of 3 and could have skipped the "at sea" day and gone to Gdansk Poland instead. Oh well. Other things I could have done without... getting strep throat, dropping and breaking my expensive camera on day 4, the repeated TV shows, crazy expensive internet access, and a few other minor things. But like I said, overall, AMAZING! 10 out of 10! Everything was SO easy and well planned out and punctual, the food was delicious, the staff was super nice, there were lots of things to do, our bathroom was bigger and nicer than I expected, and lots of other things that I'll add as I remember. I'd definitely recommend a Royal Caribbean cruise!

Our port stops included:

Stockholm, Sweden

Helsinki, Finland

St. Petersburg, Russia

Tallinn, Estonia

Riga, Latvia

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Warnemünde, Germany

Fredericia, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Let the recaps shortly begin!