Serenade of the Seas B2B June 20-July 4: My Diary

[maxs mom]

Here are a few more shots:

 

 

 

 

I love this island. I can't wait to go back in December. i might want to try the river tubing then.

[maxs mom]

So we left the ship at about 10:00 and got back at 1:30. Had some lunch in the WJ......then.......I started doing some packing! :(

It was Formal night once again and once again we get all dressed up! We have our usual meeting in the CL with Kathy, Mark, Frank, and Anna. As usual....we have a good time there.

Fe was there making sure our glasses stayed full!

A toast was made to new friends:

Frank and Anna looked stunning this evening!

I decided to go with the short cocktail dress rather than a long dress tonight.

[maxs mom]

Dinner in the MDR was very good tonight.....lobster or Prime Rib. I can't remember what I had, but it was good!

Ok......It's Quest night again....11:15. We get there kind of early and order drinks. We sat in the same spot that we sat in last week. The place was really slow to fill up tonight. Frank and Anna join us. They have never done this before and had no clue! Oh boy!! They were real troopers and have now become real pros!!

It was close tonight, but we came in second this time!!

[maxs mom]

Before going to bed, we walked through the casino....it was smoke free tonight! :) Guess who was dealing blackjack!

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ St. Thomas ~ Our last day!

Breakfast in the D/D+ dining room today and we had to say goodbye to Jeong and Johnson. We really, really, really appreciated their wonderful service for the two weeks. If any of you see them on a future cruise, be sure and tell them that you already know all about them. I told them that I was going to make them famous!! Since this was our last day....they had prepared something special for us.

They made some special pancakes for us!.....Sooooo cool!

These guys are just the best!!!

[CRUISEMAMI]

Sunday ~ June 27th ~ Back to San Juan

 

Got up early today because we needed to get to breakfast.....everything closed up at 8:30. The D/D+ dining room was not open today so we decided to go to the Windjammer. Big mistake. I had forgotten what a zoo it is in there! If you are doing a B2B....don't go to the WJ for brekafast on Sunday. Be sure and go to the MDR. We had to go to Guest Services this morning because during the week' date=' we took advantage of the $25 laundry special that they had. D+ gets a coupon to get that for free, but we were charged. Should have been a simple thing to correct, but it took over thirty minutes! The charge was finally taken off.[/size']

 

After that we went to hide in the CL and get away from all the masses trying to get off the ship. It was so quiet in there. I think we may have been the only ones doing a B2B this week.....maybe one other couple, but we never saw them. Usually they have a party for all the B2B'ers on Saturday, but there wasn't one because we were it! Anyway, we sat in the CL for a while until we had to go down and punch out. Time to get some more coffee from that wonderful coffee machine in there!

 

 

 

Love the coffee machine in there!

 

Here are some pictures of the CL:

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Jane, you are DRINKING my cappuccino!!!!!!!!! I cant wait for the best cappuccino in the world: in the concierge on a RC ship!!!!!!!!

[CRUISEMAMI]

Here are some beautiful views from the CL......so peaceful in there in the afternoon.

 

 

 

Back to the cabin for a shower and to read on the balcony for a while. Very nice on the balcony today. Not quite so humid.

 

 

 

(Do you like that foot shot' date=' [b']Franca!?[/b])

 

Jane, I want to see your feet, not slippers........ hahahaha

Saw the feet back a bit......now, we know what John's feet looks like; (I do like yours better)...... LOL

[maxs mom]

Well......we packed ourselves up for our last beach day. We were docked at the first slot at the pier so it wasn't such a long walk to get to the taxi plaza. We've been to St. Thomas many, many, many times. Megan's Bay used to be our favorite beach spot, but since they started charging to get in, and so many people began going there....we just haven't cared for it as much. I just don't like standing in long lines to get a drink or to get lunch. The last time we were there, it was wall to wall people! Of course today, there was only one ship in port and Frank and Anna went out there and said it was fine. We have found some other beaches that suit us better these days.

One of those beaches is Sapphire Beach. But I noticed that the tours are dumping people off there now, so the last time we were there we tried Secret Harbour. I really liked this place and this is where we went today. With only one ship in port, it was a dream. The taxi is $10 pp each way. The weather was beautiful. We paid $5 per chair to a beach attendant and we did not need an umbrella because there was plenty of natural shade. We settle in and enjoy a very nice and relaxing day.

This is the view from where we were sitting:

This was our "umbrella":

The view down the beach:

This is a neat sea grape that juts out into the water:

[maxs mom]

Franca....you are too funny!

[maxs mom]

This beach has a great bar and a great restaurant!

Lots of places to relax.

I found a new friend!

[The Big Booper]

The two weeks seem to have flown by......maybe because you posted this in two days. :D

 

What kinda lizard is that???

[CRUISEMAMI]

Franca....you are too funny!

 

Jane, that was the best review on CC ever, ever, ever.........

Just wait for my feet on the Oasis, Monarch, Freedom and then B2B on Allure: you will be jealous!!!!!!!!!! and lets have a contest: we will call it "the best feet on the high seas", maybe it will be fun to do........who knows, people like to do the strangest things..... LOL

[maxs mom]

This place is just so beautiful:

We stayed here until around 3 o'clock. We had a nice lunch here and it was fairly easy to get a taxi back. We stopped in a liquor store at Havensight to pick up a couple bottles of liquor to take home. A great last day on the islands!

[maxs mom]

I tried to relax a little bit when we got back on the ship. I got some ice cream and worshipped the scones again! I finished packing....ugh!! Then I sat out on the balcony until we sailed away from St. Thomas just enjoying the beautiful views.

[maxs mom]

Well......we had one last evening to have some fun. We had a few bottles of wine that we needed to drink, so we decided to gather in Frank and Anna's GS 1600 before going to the CL tonight. This suite is gorgeous!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

More from 1600.

Their great aft balcony:

Sailing back to San Juan!

[maxs mom]

After this we all went in to the CL for one last time. Samuel was there and he had some talent that we didn't know about. He is a singer. He sang "The Gambler" for us and he was really good! Look out Julian!!!!

Another toast with our new cruise buddies. We hope to cruise with them again one day!

We said good-bye to Fe:

And Francois:

And Samuel:

Gosh ......we miss them!!!!

[maxs mom]

Next, it's time to head down to the MDR for our last meal. I think I had the lamb and it was delicious. We really enjoyed getting the low sodium dinners. The service from Andy and Ling was fabulous. Ling was a complete doll. She said that she was going to be in the WJ the next morning, and John made a special trip up there to see her and tell her good-bye again. She was stunned and said that no one had ever found her to say good-bye before. As we say in the south....Bless her heart!!!

Our headwaiter was very attentive for both weeks of the cruise. He didn't mind doing anything that we wanted. Best head waiter that we've ever had!

After the waiters sang to us and the Maitre D said how much they all enjoyed serving us and all that......Promod came directly over to me to say good-bye. What an honor. Every time I saw him throughout the two weeks.....he smiled and waved and always came over to talk to me whether it was in the Solarium, the Gangway, in the Centrum, anywhere. He made me feel so special. What a nice man!

[judykcbob]

Wonderful review!! We are doing a B2B in Sept. and can't wait...Thank you!!!!

[maxs mom]

After dinner....we once again went down to the photo shop to get the pictures that we wanted and we bought the Cruise in Review DVD. Someone said that we were all over it. We haven't watched it yet, though to see!

Next....we got our luggage out in the hallway and went to bed.

We got up around 6 the next morning.

Back in San Juan:

We went down to the MDR to have breakfast. It was nice but i sure missed the J boys! Jeong saw us and came over to say hello!

after we got everything together we went down to the D/D+ departure lounge to hang out for a while. We were staying another day in SJ so there was no hurry to get off the ship. The other D/D+ cruisers were long gone by the time we got there. Who should come strolling into the lounge with huge grins plastered all over their faces? Kathy and Mark! They were staying on another week and just beginning their wonderful turn around day! We said good bye to them and soon they told us that we would have to get off!!!! Booooooooo!

It was real easy to find our luggage because most everyone had already departed. We grabbed a taxi and headed back over to the Caribe Hilton.

We got there around 10:00 and just stored our luggage. We wore our bathing suits under our clothes, so we just hung out close to the pool until our room was ready. It was super nice there with a great breeze. It was very crowded since it was the 4th, but we had a nice place to sit.

By 11:00 they called my cell to say that our room was ready. I took care of getting our stuff up to the room while John stayed and guarded our great place to sit. I joined him again and we had lunch at the pool bar and stayed down there until around 3 o'clock.

[maxs mom]

We had dinner that night at the Pina Colada Club there in the hotel. It was OK but the service was slow. The menu had breakfast items on it so we thought we would eat breakfast there, but it was closed in the morning. We walked over to Subway and had breakfast there. It was OK.

We made one last picture and checked out.

Took a taxi to the airport. We left on Monday instead of Sunday because it was cheaper. There was hardly anyone at the airport when we got there around 10:00. It was a piece of cake to get our luggage through the USDA screening and then get checked in for our flight. No lines!

We didn't get home until 10:15 PM, so we were pooped!!!

[mikensuenfl]

Jane, thanks again for the wonderful review..sue and i still talk about it.. Like i mentioned in an earlier post our serenade cruise this past may was our 60th cruise on rccl..we really believe that it was our best cruise ever..i dont know if you know this ,but the serenade is the number 1 rated ship in the fleet .all of the staff are super happy and they work so well together..looking forward to next may again..dearly hope that pramod will be on board..again,great job, hope one day to cruise with you.. Mike & sue

[maxs mom]

Mike.....thank you so much. Yes....I did know about their ranking and it is well deserved. I've got to get my thoughts together to finish up and I will do that after we have dinner! Would love to cruise with you, too......although you would have more cruises than us and we would lose again!!!!! I definitely want to cruise on the Serenade again....that's for sure!!!! Thanks for reading!

[maxs mom]

Well......This concludes my review/diary of our 25th anniversary cruise on the Serenade of the Seas. Thanks for reading and hanging in there with me. I apprreciate all of the nice comments.

After cruising with Royal Caribbean for 25 years, I must say that this cruise ranks up there as one of the best, if not THE best. The staff and crew of the Serenade has to be the friendliest and most helpful that we have ever run across. Everyone from the Captain, the Concierge, bartenders, waiters, assistant waiters, CD, Maitre D, cabin steward, and even the guys who were laying the new carpet in our hallway on Deck 8 made us fell like royalty in these two weeks! I can fully understand why the Serenade of the Seas has won awards for being the friendliest ship in the fleet!

Thanks to Captain Karin for the wonderful dinner at your table and the spectacular bridge tour. To Francois Roux, the debonair Concierge, and your staff, Fe and Samuel for wonderful cocktail hours and that fabulous coffee! To Trevor, our cabin steward, for keeping us straight. (We're not the neatest cruisers!) To Jeong and Johnson for entertaining us every day at breakfast and those wonderful maps to each island that you gave us. To our wait staff, Vipin and Hungria, Andy and Ling...you knew exactly our likes and dislikes at dinner and served us with a smile each evening. To our Head Waiter for catering to our every need at dinner. To Promod, the Maitre D who really made us feel special. You guys ROCK!! A job well done.

We were so lucky to meet wonderful cruise mates who also made this a special trip. You know who you are.

Here's a toast to all all of you!

Hope to cruise with you again!

And Ashley and Jason.......GO HEELS!!!!!!!!!

[LABCHICK]

Jane thanks for the wonderful review. I think it is the best I have ever read. We are doing a B2B on the Serenade next Oct. and Nov. It will be extra special because our DD, SIL and our GS will be on the second leg with us. This will be our GS (AGE 8 ) first cruise and our DD and SIL first on RCCL.

 

Thanks again.

 

Judi :)