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

[maxs mom]

We do not have another cruise scheduled but, will be flying to Cancun on Sept. 1 for our annual Civitan service organization convention. Atop the "Bucket List" now is 14 day Australia/New Zeland cruise - guess that will be quiet a few appliances to sell at Sears. We have some good friends in Greensboro.

Howard

 

LOL!!!!!!! Good one!!!! I'll let you in on a little secret......the Explorer Christmas/New Year's cruise is a super duper cruise. Very enjoyable. Y'all should come join us! I need another southerner on my side!!!!

Edited July 12, 2010 by max'smom

[tnvoldude]

LOL!!!!!!! Good one!!!! I'll let you in on a little secret......the Explorer Christmas/New Year's cruise is a super duper cruise. Very enjoyable. Y'all should come join us! I need another southerner on my side!!!!

Sounds great BUT, we proably would be excommunicated from the family for being gone for Christmas. Both of our older grandchildren have graduated from high school and their brother (5 years old) starts kindergarden next month. He has to have Grammy pretty close.

Howard

[mommabean]

Jane,

Wonderful review. We were on Brilliance of the Seas last month for a 12 night Mediterranean and, as you predicted,it was fabulous. We were invited to have dinner with the Captain and I think the meals were from Chops as I had not seen anything in the MDR like what we were served and it was great. I also agree with you on cheaper flights one day after the cruise debarkation - Delta wanted $460 more to fly back from Barcelona on June 20 than on June 21. We stayed at a beach area, Castendefelles, and spending the afternoon at the beach was very relaxing and helped get ready for the 10 hour return flight to Atlanta.

I tried to download the photo from the Captain's dinner. Hopefully we can cruise together again one of these days.

 

Captain Erik! We were with him on his first ever Mexican Riviera cruise on Radiance of the Seas last March. He's terrific, isn't he? I was surprised that in all of his years as a Captain that the MR was a first for him.

 

Gina

Edited July 12, 2010 by mommabean

[maxs mom]

Captain Erik! We were with him on his first ever Mexican Riviera cruise on Radiance of the Seas last March. He's terrific, isn't he? I was surprised that in all of his years as a Captain that the MR was a first for him.

 

Gina

 

 

Wow, Gina. You are good!

[MJN]

Max's Mom, that was a thorough and detailed review and was very glad I read it. We are booked on Serenade for the Aug. 22nd cruise and really wish WE were doing a B2B ourselves. It sounds as if all the islands are wonderful. We had a very hard time deciding on what we are doing on each of the islands, especially Dominica where there were a number of exciting tours offered. We are doing a tour with RCI that sounds similar to yours Trafalgar Falls, Springs and snorkeling. We just booked DePalm Island for Aruba. Have you ever done this one or heard about it? Eagles beach looked lovely but do you know if there is good snorkeling there? It certainly looked pretty and desserted. Sapphire Beach is one of our favorites too. We went there last August by Taxi and it was desserted and gorgeous! I did notice that it was now offered as a tour by RCI and this had already concerned me. One thing we loved about it besides being so beautiful was how close the coral reefs were to shore and how plentiful the fish were here. I am concerned that the coral would be ruined by so many people decending upon it and not knowing enough not to walk on it. :( This Secret Harbour you went to, looked beautiful, how long a trip was it and does it have coral reefs? We love to snorkel, epecially when it is near to shore.

Thank you for the wonderful review, can't wait to go. We too are flying in a day early and leaving a day after the cruise. Did you do any tours in San Juan this time or previously? We wanted to see the rain forest in San Juan, not sure how to get there.

Thanks for your info!

[maxs mom]

Max's Mom, that was a thorough and detailed review and was very glad I read it. We are booked on Serenade for the Aug. 22nd cruise and really wish WE were doing a B2B ourselves. It sounds as if all the islands are wonderful. We had a very hard time deciding on what we are doing on each of the islands, especially Dominica where there were a number of exciting tours offered. We are doing a tour with RCI that sounds similar to yours Trafalgar Falls, Springs and snorkeling. We just booked DePalm Island for Aruba. Have you ever done this one or heard about it? Eagles beach looked lovely but do you know if there is good snorkeling there? It certainly looked pretty and desserted. Sapphire Beach is one of our favorites too. We went there last August by Taxi and it was desserted and gorgeous! I did notice that it was now offered as a tour by RCI and this had already concerned me. One thing we loved about it besides being so beautiful was how close the coral reefs were to shore and how plentiful the fish were here. I am concerned that the coral would be ruined by so many people decending upon it and not knowing enough not to walk on it. :( This Secret Harbour you went to, looked beautiful, how long a trip was it and does it have coral reefs? We love to snorkel, epecially when it is near to shore.

Thank you for the wonderful review, can't wait to go. We too are flying in a day early and leaving a day after the cruise. Did you do any tours in San Juan this time or previously? We wanted to see the rain forest in San Juan, not sure how to get there.

Thanks for your info!

 

MJN.....Thanks for your post. Not long before you cruise!!

Sorry ....I have not been to DePalm Island. I've read about it, but we have never been there. I'll tell you who might know something, though. Arubalisa over on the Aruba board can probably tell you a bunch about that. Don't think the snorkeling off Eagle Beach is that great. But the water sure is clear and beautiful there. Soft sand...just great and relaxing. That's what I go for!

We were very happy with our tour in Dominica that we arranged right there on the pier as we got off the ship. I think we did more than the RCI tour for a whole lot less money!

We don't snorkel.....so I'm not too sure about that. I saw some people snorkeling at Secret Harbour, though. They have a dive shop there and they were giving some children snorkeling lessons. I really like this beach much better than Sapphire.....I'll tell you that. Secret Harbour is very close to Sapphire Beach. It's about a 10-15 minute taxi ride.

I loved staying in SJ a day after the cruise. We were very relaxed before heading home.

Have a great time on your cruise!

Edited July 12, 2010 by max'smom

[MJN]

Thank you Max's Mom for your info., we might try Secret Harbour, it looked nice in the pictures and the food service looks nicer there too. We had lizzards at Sapphire beach too. Do you remember how much the taxi ride was to Secret Harbour? We have already planned to get a taxi to KonTiki beach in Curacao. I printed a posting that I read about on the Curacao board that recommended the beach near the seaquarium and others suggested Porto Mari resort as a great beach too. We are still debating which one to try. I will record your suggestions too. I appreciate your feedback and postings. These boards are so full of good information! Thanks again. MJN

[maxs mom]

Thank you Max's Mom for your info., we might try Secret Harbour, it looked nice in the pictures and the food service looks nicer there too. We had lizzards at Sapphire beach too. Do you remember how much the taxi ride was to Secret Harbour? We have already planned to get a taxi to KonTiki beach in Curacao. I printed a posting that I read about on the Curacao board that recommended the beach near the seaquarium and others suggested Porto Mari resort as a great beach too. We are still debating which one to try. I will record your suggestions too. I appreciate your feedback and postings. These boards are so full of good information! Thanks again. MJN

 

MJN....I think you will be pleased with Secret Harbour. It's not a very big place, but it is very nice in respects to the restaurant, clean restrooms, well kept beach, just very nice all around. The taxi ride was $10 pp each way.....same as Sapphire Beach.

I've read a lot about Playa Porta Mari and have thought about trying that out. It's just that it is pretty far out. You would have to have a big group so that the taxi fare wouldn't be so much. One of these days we might try that.

The Kon Tiki beach area is pretty crowded and there are a lot of kids. The good thing is that the beach area is easy for you to walk all the way on it and see if you see another area that suits you.

This is the end of the beach where Kon Tiki is in Curacao. You can see that it is kind of wall to wall people and chairs:

This is the next beach area down from that....I think Mambo Beach:

This is the next area down the beach with the yellow chairs.....this is next to where I like to hang out.

And this is the Lion's Dive where I like to go. Way less crowded and relaxing....but....the chairs are $12 each.

I think you will be able to do some pretty good snorkeling here because when we swam out to the rocks, we saw some beautiful fish and other things and we weren't even snorkeling.

Hope this helps.

[MJN]

Thanks for these awesome pictures, you are certainly organized! This is indeed very helpful. The one with the yellow chairs for $3.00, what is it called out by the road? I know you said the Lion's dive was $12.00 and yes it looks nice but if the $3.00 chairs were that close by I'll save $18.00 on chairs that look just as comfortable and just as nice a beach. I will check with Arubalisa about the DePalm Island excursion. I believe we will try Secret Harbour too, it looks really good. Thank you so much We leave for Orlando on August 20 for the night before our flight hotel, only 39 days! We are getting excited!

MJN

[maxs mom]

MJN....I can't remember the name of the yellow chair beach, but you can't tell a taxi driver to take you to that specific beach. You can only go in at one end or the other. Well.....I think you can go in at Mambo Beach and then the yellow chair beach is just to your left. It's a small area really. Or you can get dropped off at the Lion's Dive Hotel and just walk through the hotel area out to the beach. That's what our friends did. The yellow chair beach is right there. Be sure and report in when you get back!

[Craftdee2]

Thanks Jane for a number one rated review of a number one rated ship! We sailed on her in January, same week as BILL-WI. Had a wonderful time, one of our best cruises ever. Looking to possibly doing a B2B in January 2011. The roll call for the 1/15 is jumping once again!

Happy sailings, Diane

[maxs mom]

Thanks Jane for a number one rated review of a number one rated ship! We sailed on her in January, same week as BILL-WI. Had a wonderful time, one of our best cruises ever. Looking to possibly doing a B2B in January 2011. The roll call for the 1/15 is jumping once again!

Happy sailings, Diane

 

Thanks, Diane! I'm looking forrward to the day when I can cruise in January!!!

[catty]

Great review and thanks for the beach info. We will certainly use it for our cruise on the Serenade Sept 5. We sailed on her last year and loved it and couldn't decide which cruise to do for our 30th anniversary. We settled on it today and we are excited...she is a wonderful ship!!

[The Big Booper]

I noticed that the pics from your 2008 AOS cruise are considerably smaller then the pics from the Serenade B2B. Is that a function of you loading smaller images into Photobucket in 2008, thus limiting the link size? Or just clicking the wrong re-size button when pasting the link into your post.

 

Reason I ask, Webshots limits the size of the link when posting to the board here and I was thinking of switching to Photobucket, which I have never used, and which seems to allow bigger images to be posted to a bb.

 

Thanks

[maxs mom]

Great review and thanks for the beach info. We will certainly use it for our cruise on the Serenade Sept 5. We sailed on her last year and loved it and couldn't decide which cruise to do for our 30th anniversary. We settled on it today and we are excited...she is a wonderful ship!!

 

Great! Are you doing a B2B?

Edited July 13, 2010 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

I noticed that the pics from your 2008 AOS cruise are considerably smaller then the pics from the Serenade B2B. Is that a function of you loading smaller images into Photobucket in 2008, thus limiting the link size? Or just clicking the wrong re-size button when pasting the link into your post.

 

Reason I ask, Webshots limits the size of the link when posting to the board here and I was thinking of switching to Photobucket, which I have never used, and which seems to allow bigger images to be posted to a bb.

 

Thanks

 

I don't know why they were smaller. I went to look at how they were sized and I couldn't find the size options anywhere. They change things around every now and then. I've posted those pictures before and they were not that small. Duh!? I'll keep looking.

[nyer]

Jane, if you don't mind, I have more questions about the Caribe Hilton. We will be there Saturday night for our pre-cruise stay. You mentioned that you ate at the Pina Colada Club. Could you give me a general idea of the price range there? I noticed that most of the restaurants are very expensive. Also, is it casual dress? As in capris and top, shorts and top? Thanks very much.

I enjoyed your review very much since I will be on that cruise in a few days.

[maxs mom]

Jane, if you don't mind, I have more questions about the Caribe Hilton. We will be there Saturday night for our pre-cruise stay. You mentioned that you ate at the Pina Colada Club. Could you give me a general idea of the price range there? I noticed that most of the restaurants are very expensive. Also, is it casual dress? As in capris and top, shorts and top? Thanks very much.

 

I enjoyed your review very much since I will be on that cruise in a few days.

 

Hi!

The Pina Colada Club is very casual. We ate at the bar. My husband had chicken fingers and two beers and I had a wrap of some kind and one beer. The bill was $43 and that is with tip. There is a varied selection of food and the price range is reasonable. It is located at the bottom of the Tower right by the street.

Have a great time!! If you see any of those folks that I mentioned......tell them hello for me!!!!

[nyer]

Hi!

 

The Pina Colada Club is very casual. We ate at the bar. My husband had chicken fingers and two beers and I had a wrap of some kind and one beer. The bill was $43 and that is with tip. There is a varied selection of food and the price range is reasonable. It is located at the bottom of the Tower right by the street.

 

Have a great time!! If you see any of those folks that I mentioned......tell them hello for me!!!!

 

Thanks' date=' Jane. We will probably eat there and I will definitely say "hi" for you.[/color']

[wallis7219]

Jane........ Your review, as Always is Fantastic:)

Really Enjoyed it, and feel as though I have been on the cruise with you! Unfortunatley we were not!

BUT we will be on the Explorer is December :D:D

 

Well done

All the best

Gary

[maxs mom]

Thanks, Gary! Are you packing yet? You will love Alaska.

Looking forward to seeing you guys again in December!

[MikeBayAreaCa]

Jane:

 

Again thanks for your review, especially the port information. This will be our first trip to the Caribbean and we need all the information we can get.

 

Mike

[sadie8]

Jane, We're wishing you guys the best today and hoping John has a quick recovery from his surgery.

[maxs mom]

Jane:

 

Again thanks for your review, especially the port information. This will be our first trip to the Caribbean and we need all the information we can get.

 

Mike

 

You're welcome. If you haven't been there before, it can be a little intimidating. If you have any other questions, just let me know!

By the way.....here's a little tip for you: Take a full sized bar of soap. You'll be glad you did!

[maxs mom]

Jane, We're wishing you guys the best today and hoping John has a quick recovery from his surgery.

 

 

Hey, Janet. Thanks so much. All went well. He will have an appointment with the doctor in the morning. Hopefully he will regain some of his sight back. He said the retina looked good. It could take a while.