retired dude

one of the first things taught in travel school to potential cruise consultants is to be very hesitant to advise clients to book guaranteed cabins....Book early and use cruisedeckplans to do you homework for a great location.....worth the extra couple bucks to pick the right deck, the right location so that you can actually enjoy your cabin.

far superior to the menu on mexican night.

bimini is like watching paint dry....great fishing and that is about it....many of the shops that the shuttle take you to are closed, that should give you an idea.....

like the no ball caps in the restaurant policy. i know that many are proud that they served on the nina, pinta or the santa maria but wearing hats in the dining room is rude....just sayin'

entertainment consisted of a comic that did a clean show and and a late evening "mature" show..The production shows were ok, the rock show was the best but did not feature any songs by taylor swift(thank god). The band in the lounge did alot of great songs but not alot of so called current top 40 stuff...Average age in the centrum lounge was around 60..Duo that played pool side was good and did the usual cruise stuff...dont know about a club for teens as we seldom cruise when there will be a bunch of "yutes" onboard...hope this helps and enjoy the serenade, she is a nice ship.......have a blessed day.

at our ages late night eating is not an option......snoring is......

had the good fortune some time ago to meet douglas cramer the producer of the great series "LOVE BOAT". I thanked him for the fun show that my wife and I still enjoy watching the reruns....We, like so many cruisers quit doing the tux/formal gown thing years ago, but we still take a sport coat for me and a dressy top or dress for my beautiful wife....Living in florida, we don't get too many opps to get a little dressed up and to be honest it makes us feel good.....with all that is going on in this country today, feeling good on a cruise is a blessing.

my wife and i are blessed to be diamond and get our 4 free drinks each every day.Without that, we would be hard pressed to cruise with the current price structures...thanks to rccl for the perks!

we love the "connie" numerous sailings on her and they just keep getting better...The 12 day cruise goes down to colombia, panama, costa rico, and several others...We also share you liking for the radiance class rccl ships...perfect size as we are not fans of the larger ships in the fleet.Living 30 minutes from the tampa port has its benefits and we hope that the port will continue to stay busy and profitable for the cruise lines and provide us with nice options...just sayin'

right again island lady, we have 3 cruises booked for 23' out of tampa, they are 7, 8, and 12 day cruises with rccl and celebrity and we got fabulous deals on all three when we booked last year...Doing our homework had it's benefits...have a blessed day all.

we posed the question of whether rccl would build smaller ships like the radiance class to the captain on a recent cruise at the question and answer session in the theater...We told him that we loved the smaller ships that can sail out of tampa and sell out repeatedly and that we were scared that none of those sized ships would be in rccl's building plans....He confirmed that those small ships were in fact going to be a thing of the past...Here in tampa for next year we will have the grandeur and the enchantment and those ships are not as nice as the radiance class(imo)...not a rosy picture for down the road and we are not wonder or icon fans....just too big and we don't need their bells and whistles....just sayin'.....

we are pretty simply folks, and not braggers, but are proud of being diamond with rccl and elite with X. We have also tried hal several times and outside of the bb king and rock clubs we were not impressed with any of the new rotterdam. The food was the worst we have eaten on any cruise ship and it just was not a great experience. We were on a free sailing and we would not sail hal again even if it was free.....Celebrity is our favorite but they are pricing themselves out of our comfort zone for a lesser product than in years gone by...Rccl offers the best value for those of us who only do balcony cabins and cant afford suites, .....like i said we are pretty simple folks that lead a blessed life in retirement. wish everyone well on whatever sailing they choose....

oh well, guess no one sailing the serenade anymore.....or if they do, they dont participate on cruise critic.. thanks anyway.

thanks, when we looked at the new menus, we saw nights when we would go to bed hungry..After 30 cruises with rccl, we are probably selfish to expect better, but it is what it is. thanks again

Kindly asking if anyone has sailed recently on the serenade and had any thoughts of the quality and choices of food since the recent menu changes in the mdr...We tried to look up the offerings on the various "theme" nights like italian, mexican, caribbean, french, welcome aboard, mediterranean, etc..We just want to have an idea on which nights we should go to chops to get and better meal. thanks very much in advance.....

we were faced with making the decision whether to do the ai plan for an upcoming trip on the celebrity "connie" and since we did not need the wifi or pre- paid grats we chose to just book the cruise only package. We are elite with celebrity and they gave us an additional $850 obc so when we saved an additional $1600 off of the ai plan cost, it was a no brainer...Being elite level, we are restricted to an open bar from 5-7 every night and for us with all of that obc it was a great decision that we made..Like everyone has said here on this website, you have to do the homework and decide what is best for you...wish everyone a great day....

i got confused and said rccl when it was celebrity AI plan that is open bar with no grats when the ai plan is booked....I was so used to booking rccl and the perks of free drinks with diamond status that i confused it with our many celebrity sailings that you pay up front for the ai package that incudes drinks, wifi, regular grats and a bunch more....It was hard to see the fine print with ncl that when you book their version of the ai plan that you have to pay the booze grats in addition to the original purchase plan...Once again i am sorry for any confusion. I guess we just cruise too much and got our cruise lines confused.....p.s. we have sailed with ncl in the past, but did not care for it at all, but that is just us. have a blessed day all.

forgive me we are a married couple so i always include my wife in calculations...Like i said, rccl does not charge a daily gratuity charge for the booze package, and that works for us although with us being diamond, we seldom to drink more than 4 drinks a piece per day.

don't forget about the $40 per day gratuity charge on ncl per day for the booze package. Rccl does not charge that and it sure adds up

great news, we wont have to put up with him during our other sailings....life is good

just our 2cents worth, but we have found the food better on rccl than on X during our last four cruises on the two lines.....Doubt it is going to change, but i sure miss the food quality that we were fortunate to experience on X during the years before the pandemic....I think i understand, but it still does not sit well, especially with the ai prices that i see on all the X sailings for 2023...We dont mind paying our way, but i don't think that we deserve a steep price increase for a lesser product...That formula just does not work in the real business world..just sayin'....B&B in clearwater.

we too sailed won the same cruise with island lady...We had 6:45 mtd reservations and while standing in line to be seated on the second night a large group in front of us asked us if this was the line for folks with no reservations. We politely told them that the other line was for that and they said " oh well we will stay in the this line and those behind us can wait"....they did and we did.The first two nights were fairly long waits for our table as they always are and for dress your best night(lobsternight) the line was long again...We asked for the same waiter every night at a two seater and on one night the host gave our table away(our waiter was furious) and got us seated at another of his tables for two...On another night we were seated with another waiter and that was not good....The dining room manager apologized to us every time he saw us for the rest of the cruise....that said, the service was outstanding for the majority of the cruise....We have sailed on all of the radiance class ships and we love them.....It just seems that the mtd has not turned out to be perfect....Wish everyone a happy holiday season and looking forward to sailing on the serenade again in april....B&B in clearwater.

just booked the "connie" and booked cruise only...With being elite the happy hour is sufficient for us and we always take extra bottles of good wines onboard..We got $900 in obc's from the ta and celebrity and additionally saved over $1400 on the purchase price...We don't use the internet either...I think we got a great deal for a very nice balcony cabin....It just worked for us but everyone is different...have a blessed day.

favorite quote of all time, sam wyche then coach of the cincy bengals telling the bengals fans that "you don't live in cleveland"....what a classic....forgive me for getting off of the topic, buy i could not resist.

gamble a little in the casino....they offered us freebies on cruises out of san juan, L.A. and tampa...a few out of each port...the offer comes from blue chip which is a part of celebrity cruises company.. hope that helps...just know that the "connie" is still our favorite ship of all time and we will take them up on the offer gladly....wish everyone well.....clearwater.