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Serenade or Jewel

DanOO

By DanOO,
in Royal Caribbean International

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DanOO

DanOO

Posted
Posted

Deciding between Serenade of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas.  I would like to go on the best of the two.  I know they are both Radiance Class.  Is one in better condition or has been refurbished. Thank you for any feedback.

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njkruzer

njkruzer

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, DanOO said:

Deciding between Serenade of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas.  I would like to go on the best of the two.  I know they are both Radiance Class.  Is one in better condition or has been refurbished. Thank you for any feedback.

Sailed 3x this past yezr. No complaints.   I can't imagine there's much difference between the 2.  Have sailed all the Radiance class ships and love them all.

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kruzerci

kruzerci

Posted
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1 hour ago, Eastern flygirl said:

I have not been on the Serenade in a while, but just cruised Jewel two week ago. The food was unacceptable in the Windjammer and cold in the MDR. The beef was a poor grade and not able to consume.  This was just as the new menus came out, so they may have improved. 


Exact same experience on Jewel and Serenade last month. Additionally, the Serenade was in very poor condition. It was seriously neglected looking inside and out (filthy windows and mirrors, shattered outdoor windows, broken drink stations everywhere, musty carpeting). Imo the Jewel was in better shape, but the food was equally poor. 

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

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All four sisters are identical...basically.   It's the crew that makes the difference.  Radiance class is still my favorite of the RCI classes.  

 

Other than that...pick for port and itinerary.  

 

Will be getting very familiar with Serenade by December.  😉 

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Jimbo

Jimbo

Posted
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17 hours ago, kruzerci said:


Exact same experience on Jewel and Serenade last month. Additionally, the Serenade was in very poor condition. It was seriously neglected looking inside and out (filthy windows and mirrors, shattered outdoor windows, broken drink stations everywhere, musty carpeting). Imo the Jewel was in better shape, but the food was equally poor. 

 

16 hours ago, mac66 said:

Just off the Serenade last Saturday.  Seemed to be in pretty good shape IMO. Beautiful ship and the food was pretty good. 

Just goes to show how much opinions on this board vary..............2 passengers pretty much on the same ship at exactly the same time but 2 totally different views of the ship. Go figure?

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orville99 "Live from...." Rare

orville99

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We were on Jewel in December and will be boarding Serenade next Wednesday. All four of the Radiance class ships are essentially the same other than the names of the various venues on board. I'd comment on food, but that is so subjective, that anyone's opinion should be taken with a pinch of salt. We don't cruise for the food - we cruise for the ship and itinerary - and quite frankly, Jewel (20+ years old) was in much cleaner and better maintained than Wonder (less than one year old) when we sailed on her in January - Wonder's pool deck was a daily pig sty compared to Jewel.

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Coleclan

Coleclan

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We were on the Jewel last week and had lunch in the solarium.

9 hours ago, Reijo said:

For anyone that has been on Jewel....on embarkation day, is there any place for lunch other than Windjammer?

We were on the jewel last week and have lunch in the solarium.

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mac66

mac66

Posted
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23 hours ago, Jimbo said:

 

Just goes to show how much opinions on this board vary..............2 passengers pretty much on the same ship at exactly the same time but 2 totally different views of the ship. Go figure?

Yeah, go figure....The serenade is being used for the world cruise later in the year. Will be refurbished sometime before leaving. Talked to some world cruisers who were on board when we were on her and they seemed to like her and were looking forward to their trip. 

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Jimbo

Jimbo

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31 minutes ago, mac66 said:

Yeah, go figure....The serenade is being used for the world cruise later in the year. Will be refurbished sometime before leaving. Talked to some world cruisers who were on board when we were on her and they seemed to like her and were looking forward to their trip. 

Put it this way, they better like her because they are going to be on her a longgggggggg time.

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mac66

mac66

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Put it this way, they better like her because they are going to be on her a longgggggggg time.

 

Yeah.  We kind of liked the ambiance on the Serenade.   Lots of wood throughout. 

 

Not much variety in the windjammer but the food was decent. Didn't have to wait in line or search for a table like on the bigger ships.

 

Didn't like having to walk through the very smokey casino to get to the pub and theater

 

We were on the explorer in early December when they still had a full menu in the MDR and as many lodsters as you wanted.  The Serenade had the new limited MDR menu. The limited menu wasn't an issue with us.  The food was good but would get old on a longer cruise. Can't imagine spending months or even more than a couple weeks on a cruise ship.

Edited by mac66
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sjb317

sjb317

Posted
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46 minutes ago, mac66 said:

Yeah, go figure....The serenade is being used for the world cruise later in the year. Will be refurbished sometime before leaving. Talked to some world cruisers who were on board when we were on her and they seemed to like her and were looking forward to their trip. 

We were on in November, 2021  and said many times, we were happy we did not book the world cruise as we could not imagine being on Serenade that long!  And we had done several TAs on Serenade prior to the pandemic and enjoyed them.  
 

Serenade definitely needs refurbishment!

 

Sherri🙂

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

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You do realize you don't have to book the whole 274 days...right?  😏

 

They first offered the whole thing at 274 nights, with the choice cabins (JS and above) disappearing fast.  Then,  after initial offering of the whole thing they came out with the 4 legs (we are leg one and leg four...both 62 nights each).   

 

Now...they have broken it up even further.  Our first quarter leg is now broken up into 3 legs, with 3 different reservation numbers.  So I guess it is officially now a B2B2B for that former "1st leg".   

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

Posted
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3 hours ago, mac66 said:

Yeah, go figure....The serenade is being used for the world cruise later in the year. Will be refurbished sometime before leaving. Talked to some world cruisers who were on board when we were on her and they seemed to like her and were looking forward to their trip. 

 

Won't be a total dry dock.  They are now simply doing "updating" as they go along...with pax on board.  

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mac66

mac66

Posted
Posted (edited)
30 minutes ago, island lady said:

You do realize you don't have to book the whole 274 days...right?  😏

 

They first offered the whole thing at 274 nights, with the choice cabins (JS and above) disappearing fast.  Then,  after initial offering of the whole thing they came out with the 4 legs (we are leg one and leg four...both 62 nights each).   

 

Now...they have broken it up even further.  Our first quarter leg is now broken up into 3 legs, with 3 different reservation numbers.  So I guess it is officially now a B2B2B for that former "1st leg".   

 

I was aware of that it is offered in legs. Still...62 or even 20 days is a long time to be on board a ship. The longest we've gone is 12 days and we were tired of the food and drink after 9 or 10 days. But...I could suffer through (being factitious) a much longer cruise if I had too.😁

 

Sounds like a once in a lifetime trip. Enjoy!

Edited by mac66
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