Serenade of the Seas Review 4/7/17 - 4/17/17

[Rick-n-Lisa]

Serenade of the Seas review

10 nights Caribbean itinerary:

2 sea days

St. Croix, Tortola, Domenica, Antigua, St. Maarten

2 sea days

I can sum up the trip review in one word:Fantabulous!

But I know most of us like details so I'll give you our views and opinions.

Disclaimer: I don't have the eloquence and wit that some of the other reviewers have and may be a little all over the place...and apologies for no food pictures.

Trip was just me and the hubs. I posted that we had a little wrinkle on our way down in another thread...they called and told us they were oversold and did not have a cabin for us. Needless to say, it was worked out. See the other thread for details (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2480927).

I don't think we could have asked for better weather sans a shower, and seas for the most part were nice and calm. Ship did get a little rocky Saturday night.

We were excited to do this itinerary as 7 days has been our longest cruise thus far, and this one included 3 islands we've never visited plus Tortola- which we visited the first time in November and loved it, and of course St. Maarten, which has always been our favorite. We love sea days too so this was a perfect itinerary for us.

We had a balcony room on Deck 8 and our room steward, Lucy, did a great job. The ship is very elegant, showing some wear but only in an expected way. I think she is due for a refurbish this year I read somewhere.

We were pleasantly surprised by the food in the main dining room. We had late seating and ate there 7 of the 10 nights and service was good as well. Some nights a little slower but good overall. We did not have a bad meal anywhere on the ship. Most things were good to very good. The Chicken Cordon Bleu was to die for! The Cruise Compass stated no tank tops or shorts in the dining room at dinner but I saw a handful of men wearing shorts. Lots of jeans with nice shirts though. Even though all but 2 nights were casual, most were dressed very nice in dining room every night.

Frankly, we don't care what others wear to dinner as long as we don't see hairy arm pits, LOL.

The $7.95 room charge is a reality except for the continental breakfast. We got room service 6 or 7 mornings, just the continental, but you choose what you want. Not one time did they get it right! LOL No biggie but it became comical. They called maybe 1/2 the time before they came. Also one morning they came at 7AM for a requested 9-9:30 time. Another night we ordered a grilled cheese and got steak sandwich. But the only thing that really mattered was that they DID bring the coffee every morning. :D. We would laugh and try to guess what was under the plate covers before we took them off.

We did Chops the first night, which did not disappoint. We did Windjammer one night and Park Cafe one night.

We went to Rita's Cantina one afternoon for Margaritas, chips and salsa and we had a jalapeño popper appetizer, which was very good.

We did Park Cafe for lunch a few times.Great sandwich selection, the famous Beef on Weck was good as I remembered and they had fantastic soups there each day, along with Quesadillas.The Salads were also fresh and tasty.

We tried Izumi for lunch on our last day and it was very good. $40 lunch though! :eek: Everything was a la carte. We had spring rolls, one Miso soup, a noodle bowl and a crispy shrimp roll.Would do again! TIP: Practice eating long noodles at home with chopstix so you don't make a fool of yourself! HA HA! :') And yes, they have forks.

I do miss having an option for a late night snack. Nothing after midnite except Room Service and a 30 minute wait. The bigger ships have Sorrentos or Cafe Promenade open until 2 or later. But I guess that’s the trade off on a smaller ship.

We had the drink package and never had a problem or attitude from any staff. We never had to sign a slip. We hung mostly on the deck above the pool deck on sea days. I don't mind getting up and going to get my own drink but years past the bar servers came around frequently shouting "Lovey Dovey, get your Lovey Dovey". I totally understand the cut backs but miss this.There were a couple times the guys came around offering drinks in a pineapple but other than that not regular bar waiters coming around. But don't worry, we had plenty of cocktails.;)

We enjoyed the Centrum area and entertainment always going on. I read things on here about how crowded, etc. but we never had any issues getting a drink at the Centrum Bar or Vintages or finding a seat.

We went to a few shows in the Theater and thought they were all good. Not much into the Royal Caribbean singer and dancer productions so we skipped those but our tablemates said they were good.

There was a 2 man band, Island Vibes, that sang on pool deck and in Centrum. They were fantastic! They did a variety of songs in the Centrum, not just reggae. Beautiful harmony.

The few times we went to the Safari Club it was almost empty. It is a great space and very under utilized. It would be a great place to have a tribute band like the Beatles or Eagles or something to have another entertainment option after 10PM besides Vortex to go dance. There was some dancing in Centrum as well but not a big area. Went to the Schooner Bar a couple times.

We walked through a couple times when Piano player was playing but never stayed. This is a nice venue in the evenings with that wall of windows.

We loved the Pub and enjoyed Kevin, the guitar player in there, very much.

They had a nice little movie theater on board but we never caught a movie.

Chair hogs were out in full force as there were as many chairs with towels on them as there were with people on them but we never had a problem getting 2 chairs together.

The casino had good selection of tables and slots but we had no luck!!! :(

We loved the intimacy of the ship and this was our first time on Radiance class. We really enjoyed everything about the ship.

The Islands:

St. Croix- We wanted to go to Christiansted and Cruzan Rum factory. None of the Taxis/tours in the "compound area" where you get off the ship did this. You had to go do one tour and then come back and do another tour to get to the other. We went outside the gated area and found a driver that took us through the rainforest, stopped in Christiansted for an hour and then went from there to Cruzan for an hour so we could do the tour (this was like $6 or $8 per person) . He gave us history and trivia along the way. There were 8 of us and it was $25 each roundtrip for the whole thing! His name was Pat and he had long dreds. So if you're looking for something like this, just get outside the gates.The ship pulled into Frederiksted but there wasn't much going on there or much shopping except for some straw market type vendors. Christiansted is the capital and they had a nice area there to walk around/shop/eat etc. with a beautiful view.

We enjoyed the Cruzan Rum tour as well. They have quite an operation there.

Tortola- we loved this place in November and knew we wanted to come back. First time we went to Brewers Bay and snorkeled and loved it. This time we thought about going to Josiah's Bay but there weren't any waves so we chose Smuggler's Cove thanks to blue_water on the Cruise Critic Tortola boards mention of it.

It was beautiful there.A little rocky terrain to get there but wow!

The thing I don't like about Tortola is their whole taxi thing. They really try hard to herd everyone to Cane Garden Bay. No, I don't want to go there, thank you. I recalled last time we were there and asked to go to Brewers Bay. They said ok, but Cane Garden is much nicer, it was really a hard sell.

But we already had our mind set on Brewers so we went there and would definitely go again. So this time we wanted a different place and they said they would take us but no guarantee to come back and get us. What???

Again, said no facilities, Cane much nicer.....well we certainly didn't want to get stranded on the island....or did we? ;p So we walked away to decide what our second choice was. Another taxi person asked us where we were going and we told her what the last guy said and she said no way, she would get us there and get us back. So we went to Smugglers and had a great experience.

$8 each way per person. There's a guy named Nigel there that has a little "shack" where he cooks, has full bar and rents paddle boards. Great guy!

Ended the day with a Pain Killer from Pusser's and a stop at Sunny Carribee for some great island spices and jerk sauce.

Domenica- we did something totally out of the ordinary for us here. A cooking experience. We are beach people, water people, zipline people. It never piqued my interest to do a cooking excursion on a tropical island.In researching what to do on this island, I just couldn't find a beach that was a must see, I wanted to snorkel the Champagne Reef, but read very difficult to get to if you don't do by boat from a snorkel excursion and that just wasn't what we were looking for. After reading about top rated things to do on another site, this Caribbean cooking, Rum and Nature thing popped up, highly rated and great feedback. This also happened to be offered by Royal Caribbean so we booked it. I'm here to tell you it was absolutely fantastic. We had such a great time learning about cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs and our hosts, Michael and Daria, were awesome. We made Creole Chicken, Rice and Peas and coconut Plantains.

It was all so delicious we can’t wait to get home and try it on our own. They had a very nice home with beautiful views.They picked us up right at the port.We walked around the town area at the port a little when we got back but it is not the same port type shopping as some of the other islands either. There were some tent type vendors set up right along the water as well. They were more aggressive here than other places.

Antigua- how do you pick a beach on an island that boasts they have 365 beaches? Process of elimination and lots of research, that’s how! We picked Darkwood Beach.Score!

Had a fantastic day. Restaurant, bar, restrooms, chairs and umbrellas with a view that went on forever. Conch fritters were very good and the people who work here were very nice. It was about a 20 minute or so drive from the port.$8 each way per person. Oh, yeah and a $20 full body massage for 30 minutes. We really liked this island. It is very pretty and quaint. Nice shopping area at port. We have 364 more beaches to try here!

St. Maarten- our first love and still first in our hearts. Was very eery downtown with everything closed for Good Friday. But we found a great spot on the beach with chairs, umbrella and a bucket of beers and just sat in awe of the beautiful water.

We rented from Big Daddy, as we have in the past, and he is a great "host". We had planned to go to Grand Case and check out the area for a land trip but not for $60 cab ride. A little shopping at the port at the end of the day and kept with tradition enjoying a Guava Colada.

This cruise was so relaxing and we met some really nice people. Our table mates were very nice and we enjoyed chatting with them every night. We also met another couple that we enjoyed hanging out with in the evenings a few times, Marsha and Alan!

The ship heads out today for Copenhagen and will be over there for a few months. We booked our next cruise on board on Oasis in August 2018.It's over 450 days away but as long as I have a countdown clock on my computer screen, I'm a happy camper!

Sorry if too detailed but I could not find enough details on this cruise after I booked it so I hope it helps someone out there. I have all the Cruise Compasses (not kids ones) if specific questions but since she's headed to Europe I doubt they will apply. She is back in December.

If you are sailing from Port Everglades Terminal 18 (any ship) and you have a passport, you can download the Mobile Passport app from the app store or play store. It saved us at least 30 minutes waiting in line this morning to get through customs. Thank you to our porter for giving us this tip!

[Tommy the crack]

Thanks Lisa. Did you eat at the outside Windjammer? How was that?

[reallyhooked]

Great review. So glad things worked out.

[Terre]

Thanks for your review and pics. We'll be on the Serenade in December and I'm anxious to get on board since it's been several years since we sailed her. Is the blue bull still there?

[sellwingri]

I've sailed on Serenade twice; the last time was last month. I love the ship but as one who spends a lot of time in the casino, was again unhappy that they only had one three-card poker table and no Ultimate Texas Holdem table. This is the only RCI ship I know of, including the small ones, where they lack an Ultimate Texas Holdem table.

[Langley Cruisers]

Nice review, loved your pictures. Thank you. This is the cruise we had to cancel 6 hours before boarding when I fell ill in Fort Lauderdale. Have never been to Tortola and Dominica so we were excited to go. Ah well. ;)

[Rick-n-Lisa]

Thanks Lisa. Did you eat at the outside Windjammer? How was that?

 

 

Yes, it is really just seating outside at the very back of the Windjammer with a nice view of the aft wake. There are plenty of tables and chairs and a drink station out there. Quiet too! On the Port side back there is where Rita's Cantina is.

[Rick-n-Lisa]

Thanks for your review and pics. We'll be on the Serenade in December and I'm anxious to get on board since it's been several years since we sailed her. Is the blue bull still there?

 

Well I don't recall seeing or hearing about a blue bull so I can't say for sure....sorry.

[Rick-n-Lisa]

Nice review, loved your pictures. Thank you. This is the cruise we had to cancel 6 hours before boarding when I fell ill in Fort Lauderdale. Have never been to Tortola and Dominica so we were excited to go. Ah well. ;)

 

That's awful! Well I hope you get to rebook and go one day. It was awesome!

[John&LaLa]

Thanks for your review and pics. We'll be on the Serenade in December and I'm anxious to get on board since it's been several years since we sailed her. Is the blue bull still there?

 

Deck 13 elevators, two of them

[Coolcruise02]

Great review! We were on her in March and had a great time. We only ate in the dinning room twice as we decided not to bring dressy clothes this time. We were so impressed with the dinners in the Windjammer!! This was the first time on any cruise we decided ahead of time we were going to the buffet in the evening and it turned out to be so enjoyable. We sat out on the back deck and usually only a handful of people were there, so it was very peaceful and we had some amazing sunsets.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.