Serenade

[tiffstulips]

Just back from Serenade sailing on 2/26. Any questions? I will try to answer :)

[travelingtrish]

What did you think of the ship? I see you have been on many cruises. What did you think of the Serenade's size? Did you like it?

[Florida_cruisers]

Which nights were formal nights?

how dressy were people getting? any long dresses or mostly cocktail type dresses?

[brrscuba]

Did they have the Murder Mystery Dinner?

[CherylsCaribbeanTravel]

Welcome home and thanks for offering to answer some questions. We leaving in a few weeks for the Serenade. I love the Radiance class ships!

 

1) What itinerary did you do? We're doing St Thomas, St Lucia, Antigua, St Croix, and Grenada.

2) If you did the same itinerary, were there any excursions that were especially good?

3) Any favorite bartenders?

4) Any not-to-miss shows?

5) Do you happen to have any patters you could post?

 

TIA,

 

Cheryl :)

[NordicPrince]

What did you think of the ship? I see you have been on many cruises. What did you think of the Serenade's size? Did you like it?

 

DW and I did a B2B on Serenade in Jan 2010. To us the ship is the perfect size. The public rooms are spacy and the WindJammer has separate islands and is perfectly laid out. The glass is all around you and you literally have views of the ocean from almost everywhere on board.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[NordicPrince]

Which nights were formal nights?

how dressy were people getting? any long dresses or mostly cocktail type dresses?

 

Formal nights were the second night and the next-to-last night.

 

The men were wearing mainly suits or jacket and tie and the women mostly regular dresses. Did not see many tuxedos or full length cocktail dresses although DW does not really believe me when I check out all the women and I tell her I am only seeing what they are wearing so I can report on it for CC.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[NordicPrince]

Welcome home and thanks for offering to answer some questions. We leaving in a few weeks for the Serenade. I love the Radiance class ships!

 

1) What itinerary did you do? We're doing St Thomas, St Lucia, Antigua, St Croix, and Grenada.

2) If you did the same itinerary, were there any excursions that were especially good?

3) Any favorite bartenders?

4) Any not-to-miss shows?

5) Do you happen to have any patters you could post?

 

TIA,

 

Cheryl :)

 

For the definitive videos on Serenade our CC friend Bill-WI has a five part video of his 2011 B2B. Here is the first part:

 

 

Bill has also posted his 2010 B2B which has more excursion ideas as well.

 

All hail Bill - King of the Serenade Afters and Head of the Maniacs.

 

(I actually got in one his videos in 2010).

 

Thanks again Bill.

[subtchr]

I have lots of Serenade info linked in my signature as well. We loved our cruise on her in December!

 

For the formal nights, we found the dress in the MDR to be less formal than our previous cruises. Quite a few guys (including the three at our table other than my DH) in collared shirts and dockers. Still quite a few in suits or at least sport coats with ties, but very few tuxes. Not many gowns either. And on non-formal nights, a fair number of men in shorts.

 

We'd cruise on Serenade again in a heartbeat!

[Scottee25]

What day/time was the Meet & Mingle?

[subtchr]

Hopefully the OP will answer for the most recent cruise, but ours in December was the first morning at 9:30, so many of us were off on excursions. :(

 

This was despite a few emails asking that it be changed to another time, preferably mid-afternoon or so, when many would be back aboard.

[39august]

I was also on this cruise. Serenade is absolutely stunning! Great layout in WJ. Lots of Indian food in WJ for lunch. Great service from all staff that we encountered. We just walked off the ship and over to the taxi area on Tortola, and picked up a group tour of the island for $15 pp. Lots of large open-sided van/taxis are available for this. We ended the tour at Cane Garden Bay for about 30 minutes. Others in the group opted to stay for a few hours and our tour guide, Roy, agreed to come back and return them to the ship at a specific time for only $6 pp additional. We did a bumpingtour.com of Dominica that lasted about 4.5 hours and was great! Dominica is mostly a rain forest and famous for its waterfalls, mountains, gorges, etc. It is quite beautiful and different from the more "beachy" islands.

[sadie8]

What day/time was the Meet & Mingle?

I can't find the reservation but it seems like our meet and mingle was on Monday at 4:30PM. I know I have the day right but the time might be off a little.

[tiffstulips]

The Serenade is a very beautiful ship. It has been maintained well. I like the size. It was crowded at times especially in the Centrum in the evenings as well as the shops and photo area's. But it's easy to navigate and a nice size.

Formal nights are 2 and 6. There were many dressed in gowns and some tuxes and very formal. Still some in skirts/slacks and dressy tops. The main dining room at lunch did send men away to put on sleeved shirts. No tanks tops allowed.

Sorry, don't know about murder mystery dinner.

Itinerary was; Tortola, St Kitts, St Martin, Dominica, Barbados.

Fav excursuions were zip line in St Kitts and Catamaran sea turtle swim with captian Ron in Barbados!

fav show on the ship was "Unexpected Boys"

fav bartender was David from St Vincent in Hollywood Odyesy.

[travelingtrish]

You said they allowed men to wear shorts in the main dining room in the evening? Dress shorts? My husband and teenage son will be thrilled if that is true!

[tiffstulips]

No. Shorts are never allowed in the main dining room. (Although I did see a few sneak in.):p

[subtchr]

You said they allowed men to wear shorts in the main dining room in the evening? Dress shorts? My husband and teenage son will be thrilled if that is true!

 

Would they be turned away at the door? No, at least they were not on our cruise.

 

Is it contrary to the suggested dress code in the MDR? Yes. It is requested that no shorts be worn in the MDR.

 

So I guess it depends on your definition of "allowed".

[tiffstulips]

Right! :D

[holty]

What did you think about Capt Ron?

 

The Serenade is a very beautiful ship. It has been maintained well. I like the size. It was crowded at times especially in the Centrum in the evenings as well as the shops and photo area's. But it's easy to navigate and a nice size.

Formal nights are 2 and 6. There were many dressed in gowns and some tuxes and very formal. Still some in skirts/slacks and dressy tops. The main dining room at lunch did send men away to put on sleeved shirts. No tanks tops allowed.

Sorry, don't know about murder mystery dinner.

Itinerary was; Tortola, St Kitts, St Martin, Dominica, Barbados.

Fav excursuions were zip line in St Kitts and Catamaran sea turtle swim with captian Ron in Barbados!

fav show on the ship was "Unexpected Boys"

fav bartender was David from St Vincent in Hollywood Odyesy.

[dnwside]

What did you think of the ship? I see you have been on many cruises. What did you think of the Serenade's size? Did you like it?

 

We were on this same cruise and the ship is beautiful. The size is nice. personnally I enjoyed Liberty of the Seas a little better, strictly b/c I like the prominade. The service was outstanding. Food was wonderful. The shows were great. They had just brought all new singers and dancers on board so no mystery dinner at that time, but these performers worked together like they had been together a long time. They are a must see. Overall I would say the cruise was one we will remember forever.

[tiffstulips]

Captain Ron in Barbados was super! Our best excusion of this trip for sure. His crew is very top notch and we were treated great. There were about 20 on the boat this day and we never felt crowded. Lots of sea turtles and beautiful fish and sea life to see. The crew served us a great lunch and drinks flowed freely all day. Highly reccomended!:D