Viking Serenade - November 1994

Viking Serenade, Baja Mexico, November 11, 1994 - November 14, 1994

Allyn's note: This review was written almost 10 years after the cruise so details are fuzzy.

This was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean.

We were joined on this cruise by Allyn's college friend Kate. It was Kate's first cruise and our second. We decided to reduce costs by sharing one cabin but to make sure we had enough space we got a large category C cabin instead of a regular size outside cabin. This cabin had a pull-out sofa for Kate.

We picked Kate up at the Santa Ana airport on the way to San Pedro (we live in San Diego so we were driving by anyway).

The three-night cruise stopped one day in Ensenada, Mexico and had one day at sea. I have no recollection of what we did during the Ensenada stop.

We spent a lot of time drinking in the Viking Crown Lounge.

Viking Serenade was an OK ship. Ugly from the outside, it had originally been built as a car ferry cruise ship called the Stardancer and had been converted into a full cruise ship with the addition of extra cabins and a second dining room.

I was very hopeful that Royal Caribbean would get rid of the Viking Serenade and bring a better ship to the 3/4 night Baja cruise route. But it would take nine long years before Royal Caribbean brought a remodeled Monarch of the Seas to this route.