My (late) Serenade Review-August 29, 2010

[Host Faith]

I forgot to mention that I like to wake up around 5:30 AM when pulling into St. Lucia. Since we were on the starboard side of the ship, we get a wonderful view of the Pitons as we arrive in St. Lucia. I even saw some dolphins/whales (?) from our balcony. It was a nice peaceful moment. Here are some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2010 by faith413

[Host Faith]

Thanks for all the great info! Helpful since we will be on her in 26 days. :)

 

Do you know if there was Texas Hold 'em poker tables live? How about tournaments?

 

 

Hi tiggyfrank! Enjoy your cruise, can't wait to go back. I'm not sure about poker, I didn't pay that much attention to the casino action. :o

[danp]

Great review.We have sailed on the Seranade five times.The last two time we did B2B.We will sail her in January again,B2B.We have met alot of great friends on board and now we meet every January.

Glad that you really enjoyed my ship,LOL.

[Host Faith]

This was also our night for Chops by ourselves. We had a romantic dinner.

Our view from our table:

 

Later in the evening:

 

We had the beefsteak tomato and blue cheese appetizer. So good! I could have had that by itself and been satisfied!

 

 

We both had a filet, with asparagus and sauteed mushrooms on the side. All the sides are served family style, so you can try one another's selections. Delicious! We tried to eat our Mud Pie at the end but had to give up. That dessert is to die for!

 

Edited October 26, 2010 by faith413

[Host Faith]

Saturday, September 2

THIS WAS OUR FAVORITE DAY OF THE CRUISE! We woke up to a wonderful sunrise.

I went to the gym and had a nice workout.

 

Had room service breakfast again and met the gang on deck 4 at 9:15 AM. We left the ship at about 9:20 to meet our tour guides.

We took the same tour that we did last year: Creole Cruises. www.creolecruisesantigua.com My husband and I had such a great day with Captain Glenn and Mario last year that we booked this excursion with them as soon as we booked the Serenade J Corresponding with them via email is always a great experience.

We walked from the ship to Exotic Antigua, on the marina. Glenn was to pick us up at 9:45 AM.

 

 

While we waited, we took some photos.

 

 

We saw Creole approaching in the distance, right on time in their new boat:

 

 

We boarded and were impressed with their new boat! A nice amount of space for everyone, and nice seating. I think there were about 12 of us on the excursion that day.

[bigque]

We were in room 9576, and will try to snag this room whenever we sail a Radiance Class ship! I think we're spoiled with 'hump' balcony cabins.

 

We were next door in 9580! :cool:

[Host Faith]

After making introductions and greeting our friends, Glenn and Mario, we were off to have a wonderful day! Mario offered us all something to drink, and we were ready to go! We sped past the Serenade, into the open sea….

 

 

 

 

The Atlantic meeting the Caribbean Sea. The Atlantic is that dark line across the horizon:

 

 

 

We passed Sandals and Jumby Bay resort. We were able to get close to Oprah’s vacation home- just beautiful! I snapped a pic of her property:

 

 

 

 

We rode for about 45 minutes, and it didn’t feel like it was that long at all. It’s a windy, exhilarating ride! My husband posted a cute video of some of the ride on YouTube:

We dropped Mario off at Bird Island to prepare lunch…more about the lunch in a bit…can you tell that I’m a foodie? J

 

If you wanted to hang out with Mario on Bird Island instead of snorkeling, you could. You could also just hang out on the boat while others snorkeled. See yall later!

 

 

 

We rode about 10 minutes from Bird Island to try some snorkeling. I love to snorkel, DH and Mom, not so much. They stayed on the boat with Osh while I helped Crystal snorkel for the first time. There were some pretty interesting fish to see.

 

Me and Crystal:

 

 

 

We were in the water for about 45 minutes, then headed back to Bird Island for lunch.

[Host Faith]

We were next door in 9580! :cool:

 

 

Whoa! Small world! :)

[Host Faith]

I'm on serenade in Dec. Keep on writing. I love what I'm reading so far.

 

 

Thank you coordinator! I hope to be able to write more tonight or tomorrow morning. Have fun in December! If you have questions about any of the tours, etc, please don't hesitate to ask. :)

[sjcruiser]

I agree residents of New Jersey are some of the best people around!!!:cool:

 

Thanks for the review and great pics.

[horric29]

Keep it coming! I'm enjoying every second of the review! :)

[ciera123]

You're doing a great job on your review and I can't wait for more!!! We are on the Serenade June 5 for a B2B!!! :)

[GP Cruiser]

Great reveiw and pictures Faith. Did you happen to visit the Champage Bar? If so was Alok (AL) the bartender?

[Host Faith]

Great review.We have sailed on the Seranade five times.The last two time we did B2B.We will sail her in January again,B2B.We have met alot of great friends on board and now we meet every January.

Glad that you really enjoyed my ship,LOL.

 

 

WOW! You are fortunate to be able to sail her B2B. It's so cool that you all meet every January. I was talking with my husband and I think this would be the ship we would do a back to back on if we ever do one. We should fit that into our plans on your ship, hehe! :cool:

[Host Faith]

Great reveiw and pictures Faith. Did you happen to visit the Champage Bar? If so was Alok (AL) the bartender?

 

Thank you for the compliments! We did visit the Champagne bar (which is lovely by the way), but I don't recall the bartender.

[apkpcruisers]

Very entertaining review, thank you for sharing your vacation with me! :)

[Host Faith]

Thanks for all the great info! Helpful since we will be on her in 26 days. :)

 

Do you know if there was Texas Hold 'em poker tables live? How about tournaments?

 

Hey tiggyfrank! I checked with Wes and he said they did have Texas Hold' em poker tables. Enjoy!

[LABCHICK]

Love your review and the pics. We will be on the Serenade for our first B2B next Oct/Nov. Your itin. is our second week. DD, SIL and GS wil be joining us for this itin. This will be our GS(8 yrs old) very first cruise. He is so excited.

 

Judi :)

[Host Faith]

..and now for my favorite part of the day. We came back to Bird Island and a lovely sight greeted us:

 

 

 

Fresh caught lobsters were cooking on the grill. Sodas, water, rum punch, and chardonnay were cool and ready to drink. Each table had a table cloth. Lunch was served on real plates and with real silverware. We had split lobster, Katja's (Glenn's wife) excellent potato salad, green salad, pasta salad, and garlic bread. Fresh coconut macaroons for dessert. There was enough for seconds too. We had our feet in the warm sand and had an incredible view while we ate. I can't imagine a more wonderful lunch!

 

 

 

 

 

Our view during lunch....

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

After lunch, we had time to hike to the top of Bird Island with Mario if we wanted to. Osh headed out with Mario, the rest of us stayed in the picnic area for swimming and snorkeling. I went to the top last year, and there's a great view up there. You can see the Atlantic and the Caribbean at one time:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mario explaining details about the island

 

[Host Faith]

It looked like another tour brought people to Bird Island, however they only stayed for about an hour or so. A couple of them realized what our lunch was like and looked like they wanted to join us. My impression of other tours in Antigua (through the reviews, etc) is that they serve BBQ or sandwiches. There's nothing wrong with that at all, we just like to enjoy something more unique when we're traveling, whenever possible. :)

 

 

 

 

 

A cute little visitor- he must have smelled the food.

 

 

Sadly, it was time to leave. We were headed to one more snorkel spot to see starfish!

 

Bye bye Bird Island! Hope to see you again!

 

 

Mario pulling up the anchor

 

Edited October 26, 2010 by faith413

[Host Faith]

Now this next spot was a little more tough in terms of snorkeling. The current was very strong! We had a blast cracking up at each other trying to swim against the current. We finally gave up and just enjoyed swimming. We did get to pick up and hold a starfish, which was pretty cool. Here's a video of us swimming- hilarious! My Mom is trying to call out instructions to help us get closer to the starfish garden- she can't even swim, LOL!!!! That's my husband's voice in the video.

 

 

Thoroughly exhausted but happy, we boarded the boat again and headed back to the ship. We had a really fun day! Thank you again, Glenn! I highly recommend their tour for a relaxing, fun, pampering day. Check them out on Facebook as well.

 

 

 

Pics with Glenn- we appreciate you and call you our friend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

This evening we had dinner together at Portofino. What a great place to have a meal for a large group! I think we had one head waiter and two extra waiters at our table for six.

 

We had two antipasti platters as well as the crostini platters as appetizers. The bread basket was great. I tried the minestrone soup, and the broth was clear rather than the tomato-based broth I'm used to- but it was absolutely delicious! My husband had the steak (delicious!!), and I had the seafood skewer. Everyone followed my lead on the seafood skewer, and we were all very happy with our choice! We were stuffed at the end of the meal, but lingered over dessert samplers and coffee. We had a great time and great conversation. I'm glad I chose Chops for just the two of us, and Portofino for the group. Both nights were perfect in their settings.

 

The Centrum was pretty wild this evening, since it was 70's night. The "Village People," greeted us and we had a BALL dancing to 70's and 80's music. The cruise director's energy was impressive! We were amused to discover that the Native American in the Village People is the ship's CPA! LOL!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Some guy kept going up and down in the elevator while dancing. In any other setting, it would have been annoying, but most everyone cheered him on during the party, HAHAHA!!!

 

 

We danced for quite a long time, and after the long day we had, I was exhausted! We went to our room and it was lights out by midnight!

[cruisingbajan]

Great review. Great pics. Barbados is my favourite island as well....but then again I maybe a bit biased.;):D

[Worn out mailman]

Another South Jersey person checking in here (Maple Shade). I'm really enjoying your review and the photos. You know, it's funny....yesterday I posted to someone who had stayed in 9580, which was our stateroom in '08. One day later, I'm posting to you, who stayed in 9576, our stateroom next March. Weird and wild. :) I'm looking forward to seeing Antigua and St. Thomas again. St. Croix, Dominica, and Grenada will be new for us.

 

Oh, how did you make out on your airfare? We're almost considering bailing on our cruise next March because the airfare to SJ is outrageous.