Serenade cruise Dec 12-19

[Desert Queen]

I will try to cover the highlights of this amazing cruise. It was our fourth, all on RC, and third on the Serenade. We haven't cruised in about 18 months and having read some of the comments in this forum I was mildly concerned.

 

Our flight to San Juan was of course long and tiring but the best thing we ever did was buy a portable DVD player. We have been taping movies and tv shows for months now and the time just "flew" by. We did get some strange looks from our fellow passengers because we were laughing hysterically at the original British version of The Office. Arrived in San Juan late, around 10:30, got our luggage, grabbed a cab, and got to our hotel very quickly. We had stayed in Old San Juan on a previous trip, so this time decided to stay on the beach at the Marriott Stellaris. Being tired and hungry, we asked about getting a little food to take to our room and were directed to a small Chinese cafe area next to the casino. It was a little expensive but delicious. We had elected not to ask for an ocean view but got upgraded for free anyway and the next morning when I went onto the balcony I was enthralled at the view. We did some walks on the beach and had lunch at a restaurant a short block away, Tijuana's, which was spectacular. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach, and dinner was at an Italian restaurant next to Tijuana's, Via Appia. The pizza was excellent. The next day was exciting because were were finally going to board the ship. We spent the morning walking around again and couldn't wait any longer so we got a cab to the pier around 11:00 a.m. I do have to recommend the Stellaris, beautiful rooms, lovely grounds and pools, and superb staff, not to mention free drinks in the casino.

 

A ten minute cab ride and we were at the pier. Rolled our bags down the almost empty line to the porters, handed over our bags and a few bucks, then grabbed the health forms, sat down and filled them out. At that point were were on the ship in literally ten minutes. Very friendly and helpful staff during the boarding process.

 

Once on the ship we roamed a while, then up to WJ for lunch, put together an enormous salad with the works and went outside to enjoy the view while we ate. After that it was time to make a reservation at the My Time Dining desk, easy and painless, chose an 8:30 dining time.

 

Anxious to get to our stateroom, we went directly up to 9072 and our room steward immediately introduced himself and told us to call him anytime we needed anything. We asked for extra hangers and he brought them within 5 minutes. A great room, by the way, close to the elevators but never any noise.

 

The muster drill was painless, no schlepping life jackets, and soon it was sailaway. The nighttime view of San Juan was gorgeous as we stood on the deck, drink of the day in hand, finally having time to realize were were actually there, after so many months of anticipation.

 

I have to stop now, but will continue a little later, as it is raining here in the desert today, and for us this is a rare event which we have to watch.

[Desert Queen]

Okay, I'm back now. The rain stopped but hopefully we will get more this evening. Where was I, oh yeah, dinner. As I said we chose My Time Dining and when we presented at 8:30 we were immediately shown to our table for two. Our waiter and assistant were delightful and very attentive, and we had the same two gentlemen each night of our cruise, which surprised me. We were always seated in the same area. We enjoyed the meals very much, even though they were similar to past cruises. My favorites were the filet of beef on the first formal night, and the chicken marsala later on. Virgil and Alejandro maintained the same excellent level of service, humor, and congeniality at each meal. We are late diners as a rule, so we kept the same time each night, even though we did reserve our table by phone every afternoon, except for the one evening we tried Portofino, which was outstanding, romantic, and delicious. This was our first experience with the specialty restaurants, but we had a ton of onboard credit, which we ended up having to use, more about that later. We were planning to go to Chops, but never got around to it. In the dining room we enjoyed an appetizer, soup or salad, and the main course, which left us with little room for dessert, but we did try a few. I am not usually a fan of rich desserts, but the ones we had were quite good. I admit that I went with just sherbet a few times because I was so full. Breakfast was always in the Windjammer, my husband being fond of the made to order omelettes and I just go with fruit and cereal. Lunches were in the Windjammer or Seaview Cafe. I am a soup or salad type for lunch, but I did enjoy the seafood salad at the Seaview and my husband likes the Reuben.

 

With regard to the entertainment, we went to each show and they were good. Besides the singers and dancers production nights, there was an impressionist, quite funny, and a singer, who was talented as well. In the afternoons we went to Trivia at 5:00 in the Schooner bar for cocktail hour, and this was always rowdy and fun. We are not much for the night life, dancing, Quest, etc., so I cannot comment on that. We watched our Cardinals lose on Monday night football in the sports bar, and spent a little time in the casino.

 

Our first port was St. Thomas, where we went to a Coral Reef aquarium type thing, followed by beach time at Megan's Bay. The aquarium was run down and not very interesting, but Megan's Bay was beautiful and a lot of fun. The next day was St. Kitts, I believe, and we did The Essential St. Kitts tour, which was where we ran into some trouble. The tour was fantastic, with a very knowledgable guide, who who knew a lot about the buildings and history of the island. We visited saw a place where they do Indonesian type batik, and this was a lovely spot. Unfortunately, my husband had begun to develop a very sore foot, which made walking quite painful, so when we went on to visit a fort he was unable to climb up to it and had to remain seated at a picnic table. Our guide felt bad for him and bought him a beer, which was very kind. I did take a lot of pictures, however. By the time we got back to the ship he was in such pain he could hardly make it down the pier, which was quite long. We stopped several times, and when we finally made it to our stateroom he took off his shoe to reveal an enormously swollen red foot. The medical facility opened shortly after that and we went down, where the doctor did some blood tests that revealed an extraordinarily high uric acid level, which the doctor said indicated gout. He told us he could give him some cortisone and anti-inflammatories by IV which would reduce the pain and swelling, but that it would be expensive. We told him to go for it, anything for some relief. The treatment was very effective and he was able to go back to the room feeling much more comfortable. He was given oral anti-inflammatories to continue to take and was instructed to stay off the foot as much as possible for the next day or so. It was formal night, however, and he really wanted to go, so I called the dining room and told them the situation, explaining that he couldn't put his shoe on. They insisted that we come anyway, so we dressed in our special duds and he put three heavy socks on the sore foot and hobbled down to the dining room which really wasn't much of a walk, so we were able to enjoy the nice meal.

 

We had a snorkling excursion planned for the next day, but the doctor said that was out of the question, so he wrote a letter indicating his orders, which I took to the Excursions desk, and by the next morning our account had been credited, reimbursing us for what we had paid for the excursion. This was handled very efficiently, for which we were grateful. A disappointment, for sure, as we are avid snorklers, but it couldn't be helped. The good news was he got better every day and is almost back to normal now.

 

I do have a bit more, but again, I have to stop. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have and I will do my best to answer them. I promise to finish up tomorrow.

[StaceyCT]

Thank you for the review - I'm looking forward to reading the next installation! So glad your husband's foot is better now. What bad luck to have that happen on a cruise! I do think the triple sock thing on formal night must have been pretty funny :D.

[apk1389]

that is rough im really intrested which other excursions you did because i will be going on the serenade this saturday

[rollie]

Looking forward to your next installment.

 

Rollie

[Desert Queen]

I didn't really mean to dwell on my husband's misfortune. He actually made it through quite well, and enjoyed himself, thanks to the excellent medical treatment he received. I think we were just determined to have a great time no matter what.

 

As far as our other excursions, there was only one more, in Barbados, the Shipwreck/Pirate Party Boat, which is one of those three level harbor cruise type boats, but it's unique because it has a water slide attached to it. They pick you up at the pier and take you to the boat, which then goes to a beach (It seems it was about 10-15 minutes away). During the ride to the beach soft drinks are served. When you arrive at this beautiful beach, you can either remain there and use the water slide and swim or relax, or get on the snorkling boat, which takes you out to a spot which has three shipwrecks. There were tons of fish and pretty clear snorkling. It was a little bit crowded at the time we were there, however. After getting back to the party boat they began to serve the alcoholic drinks and the party began. At first I thought it was going to be kind of lame, with the pirate wedding thing and all, but it was just lots of fun, music and dancing.

 

Obviously we did not do a lot of shopping, but we did pick up some magnets from the different islands, as well as a few Christmas ornaments, and our usual Royal Caribbean calendar. I felt bad about not spending much money at the ports but frankly, we just couldn't manage much more weight in our luggage.

 

What was different about this cruise was My Time Dining, and for us that was the best thing RC has added since the last time. Oh, and we did find the cows. I guess I'm not supposed to disclose where, though. Finally, this is the first cruise where we allowed ourselves some "down" time (we were actually forced to), and I think we enjoyed it even more because of that. Just sitting on the deck or by the pool was very relaxing. Maybe we learned a lesson.

 

Our trip back home was eventful as it was the 19th, the day of the blizzards in the northeast. We made it to Philadelphia from San Juan, but they closed the airport and diverted us to Charlotte. We got off the plane and started calling hotels, and were successful on the third try, so we were actually in our room less than an hour later, and kept calling the number US Airways had given us to rebook until we got through, then joined some of our fellow travelers down at the bar, and continued our vacation. The next day we traveled back to Arizona, 24 hours late, but safe and happy.

 

Again, if I can answer any questions I will be happy to. The Serenade is such a fantastic ship, our favorite. I know we need to try some of the others, but for some reason we just keep coming back to it.

 

Merry Christmas to all of you on this forum who have helped make our cruising experiences so memorable. We are very grateful, and like most of you feel blessed to be able to enjoy this remarkable way to travel.

 

Jayne

[rollie]

It was good to hear that your dh's foot turned out ok. Great review. We were on the Serenade in September. She's one of out favorite ships. We'd love to do a b2b on the Serenade out of San Jaun.

 

Rollie

[JerseyGem]

Thanks for posting your review, and I'm relieved to read that your DH is better and was able to enjoy most of the cruise. Yes, it's important for us to build in leisure time (although I don't recommend the way you had to do it LOL); I want to end each cruise happy and relaxed rather than completely wiped out by constant activity. Also, good to know that the medical staff was competent and attentive.

 

DH & I and our DD and her DBF will be on the Serenade in July- our first on her, but not our first with RCCL (and many other lines). We are considering MTD, so I appreciate your comments and description. Do you have to reserve (a time) for every evening? (Rather than just show up?) And can you wait until that day to reserve? We'd want a table for 4; I assume there would be plenty of them.

 

Also, I have been hearing that RCCL now has certain lounge chairs by the pool reserved for suite guests- is this on the Serenade? Neither of us will be in a suite (inside, deck 9 for DH & me, OS, deck 3 for DD & BF). DH & I need shade, while DD & BF would want to be in the sun by the pool. If chairs are reserved, does this have a significant impact on the seating availability on the pool deck? Or is it just as bad as it normally is with the "chair hogs" in action?

 

Thanks again!

[printingchick]

Thanks so much for this review!! We're sailing on Serenade in early March, doing this same itinerary. We've signed up for the Harbor Master Pirate Party Cruise as well, so it was especially interesting to read about that.

 

Sorry your hubby had that horrible foot problem. I'm glad it didn't ruin your whole vacation.

[Desert Queen]

We were very pleased with My Time Dining. They had lots of tables for different sized groups as well as several for two. You do not have to reserve a table, but we called every afternoon just to make sure one would be available. As a matter of fact, on the last day we asked for 7:00 p.m. because we wanted lots of time to see the show and get our bags ready, but were told that a table wouldn't be available until 7:30. We never had to wait, so I would think it would be a good idea to just give them a call in the afternoon once you decide when you want to go. Definitely go down there the first day to set it up. I think they start taking reservations around 2:30. I liked it especially because you can dine at your own pace rather than wait for everyone at your table to be ready for the next course.

 

I'm sorry but I did not notice the reserved pool chairs as we only use the Solarium pool because it is adults only. Also, they have a nice snack area with pizza, wraps, and desserts.

 

The medical staff was excellent, as I mentioned. As a matter of fact, I had to go down the next day to pick up the forms to file our insurance claim and the doctor came out to ask how my husband was doing and go over his recommendations again.

[wolfcathorse]

Desert Queen - can you look at your compasses or behind the name tags sheet and tell me who the hotel director and guest relation manager was?

[Desert Queen]

Desert Queen - can you look at your compasses or behind the name tags sheet and tell me who the hotel director and guest relation manager was?

 

I'm so sorry, I had them all stacked neatly on a counter and walked out without them. It's a good thing my head's attached or I might leave it behind.