Hi I'm Gary Bembridge and I'm on board
the MS Serenade 1. It's a river cruise
ship and I'm going to tell you ten
things that you need to know about
cruising on the MS Serenade up and down
the rivers of Europe. By the way stick
around for number ten as it is the most
asked for thing I get asked about
river cruises, and that's going to be my
point number 10. So let's go the first
thing you should know about MS Serenade.
It has been designed as an
experienced very much for UK travellers, so
for people from the United Kingdom. The
whole onboard experience, the passengers,
the cruise managers, the cruise directors,
the food and everything has been
targeted at the UK consumers. The
second thing you should know is that
this ship is on an exclusive charter by
Titan Travel from the UK. The ship is
owned by a company called Select and
they have charted out the ship to
Titan. Titan is a escorted tour
operator and they are the biggest escorted tour
operator in the United Kingdom. So what
Titan have done is that while, obviously, the ship
itself from both the technical side and
hotel operations are run by Select,
the people that interact with
the travellers on a day-to-day basis like
the Cruise Director and the Cruise
Managers are all from Titan, as are all the
tour operators who are contracted by Titan.
So when you go on tours, they're all
people that Titan have worked with before. So the
third thing you need to know is a little
bit about the ship. It has 68 cabins with
two Suites. It holds just over 130
passengers and it has 42 crew. In terms of
facilities, starting at the top is the
Sun Deck - which also has a glass-enclosed
lounge with 360-degree views which is
very nice. Then on the first level you
have things like the Panorama Lounge,
which is during the day where
people go and relax while in the evening it's
the focus point for drinks and also
where, if there's any entertainment, will
be entertainment and nightly talks.
There's also the Reception on that
level and also you have some of the
cabins. The level below that, which is
called the Mozart level, is where you've
got some more cabins and also you have
the restaurant. This is
where all the meals (breakfast, lunch and
dinner) are held. Then on the lower level,
which is called the Beethoven level,
there are a few additional cabins and
some other facilities
like a very small fitness room with a
sauna. There's a little sort of
shop area, which sells branded
merchandise for Titan and for Serenade.
Like most river cruise ships there
are no medical facilities at all.
So if you ever have medical issue they
will contract or connect you with people
on the land side. The fourth thing you
need to know is about the cabins.
There are 68 cabins and two Suites
spread across the ship, and there are
roughly three grades. So the grade that I
am in, which is on the Chopin level, is a
superior cabin. You then have Mozart
superior cabin - both of those have Juliet
balconies. Then down on the lower level,
the Beethoven level, they don't have the
Juliet balconies and they just have
those small windows that are just above
the water level. The great thing about
the bathrooms is that they have a
separate shower and bath in them.
That is fantastic. So the fifth thing you
need to know is what the rating
of the ship and the service is. The ship
is a 4-stars, so it's not as luxurious as
the five-star or six-star ships. So some
of the things that you should note
that make it more of a four-star
service are things like you're not going
to get bathrobes and slippers, you don't
get food baskets in the room or flowers
in the room. Those sorts of
touches. The bedding quality is not
of the highest quality, but it's
great and perfectly fine quality. The
towels are not the big fluffy kind. The
sort of things you would normally expect
with a four-star service. It's a slightly
more better value proposition than some
of those five- and six-star service ships,
and all the things that come with that.
The sixth thing that you need to know
about the MS Serenade is around the
fare. Now like most river cruise ships
on the European waterways, it's largely
all-inclusive fares. But like any ship or
any line you need to check out what
all-inclusive actually means! So let me
run you through what is actually
included in.
The first thing, which is a big plus,
is you get a door-to-door service. So you
will get picked up by a driver and taken to
the airport, whichever airport you arrive at
you'll get picked up and taken when you
arrive to the ship, and once you get back
home you're taking back to your door. Also
accommodation is included, three meals a
day are included (plus afternoon tea and
a midnight snack). In terms of drinks,
drinks are included at lunchtime and at
dinner where there's a choice of beers and
wines. A white wine and a red wine and
soft drinks are included. Wi-Fi is also
included. The thing I would say about
Wi-Fi on the ship is that it's not across the
whole ship. It tends to be in the
Panorama Lounge and reception area only,
so once you head into your cabin you don't
get Wi-Fi. What's not included is some of
the excursions. So you'll find roughly in
a 7-day trip about three included
excursions. Unlike some river cruise
lines, excursions are not included every
single day. They do sell optional
excursions which can be pre-booked
before you come on the trip or bought
once you're on board. They range in
price from about 20 euros for a simple
walking tour and then all the way up,
depending on if there's entry fees
or buses or whatever. Gratuities are also
not included, and what happens is you get
left an envelope at the end of the
cruise to you leave gratuities. Of
course it's voluntary, it's not added
onto your bill at all. But it's
recommended that you should leave
five or six or seven euros per day
per person for the hotel staff,
and other couple of euros as well for
the tour managers and of course when
you're out on tours it's often
encouraged to leave
one or two euros tips. So point seven
is all around where the ship goes.
It sails pretty extensive
itineraries, and it mostly focuses on the
Rhine and on the Danube but it also
sails on the Main and Dutch waterways.
It runs programs ranging from seven
days up to about 14 or 15 days. What's
important is that it runs in the season
that starts around March
time and runs to about October. It then
stops for a while but then it also runs
the very popular Christmas markets cruises
from the end of November into
December period. So the last tip is
around packing and what do you need to bring.
Now the dress code
overall is smart casual, so in the
evenings you don't really have to dress
up. It is encouraged on the Captain's
welcome and farewell party if you
want to get dressed up. So men are
encouraged to wear a jacket (or a tie if
they want) and ladies cocktail dresses. What
you need to do of course is make sure
that you understand the weather and add
layers, because obviously in Europe at
various times a year you might need
layers. There is an umbrella in all of
the cabins so you do have
protection from rain if you need it - and
of course you could bring a raincoat.
In terms of health, if you're a
European citizen or a UK citizen it's a
good idea to bring your health card
which gives you free access to health
care right across Europe. That's a good
thing to do. In terms of adapters, although it
caters to the UK the plugs are
European style - so you need to make sure
that you bring a European adapter for
all your electronics. So my last
point, and the thing I get asked more
than anything else, is around the
passengers. What sort of people
are going to be on the ship? Well very
simply, river cruising largely speaking
tends to be a slightly older audience.
You will find people in their 50s,
60s, 70s and beyond. That's just the
nature of river cruising. However what's
important is river
cruising attracts the type of people
that like to have every travel decision
made for them. River cruising is very simple and the great thing with this
particular cruise is that you get picked up
from home and every step of your journey
is organized for you - and so you don't
have to plan, book things and you do not need to
worry. So a lot of people who like that
way of travelling tend to come on river
cruises. The other thing I would say is
you need to be fairly active because
you're traveling into little villages
and they don't necessarily have smooth
paved roads and there will be
cobblestones, so you need to make
sure that you're pretty active and enjoy
walking. Now because it's specifically designed for
and a Titan exclusive charter,
it's very UK focused and so bear in
mind it's going to be in English (and
only going to be in English) and so it's
going to be very much UK travellers on board.
So if you don't like UK
travellers, or do not want to travel with
UK travellers, or want to hear other
European languages on board then this is
probably not the right one for you! So
there you have it, that's my 10 things
that you need to know about the MS Serenade
river cruising in Europe. I hope you
found that helpful. So what I'd really love
you to do is leave a comment and
let me know what you think. And if you've
been on the cruise if you agree with all
those points for people who might be
looking at this and trying to make up their mind.
Please also like the video as
that's really really important - and even
more important than that- please subscribe to
the Tips For Travellers YouTube channel