World "shakedown" cruise on Serenade starting next week (Semi-Live Review)

[kernow]

6 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Do you have sheers on your curtain rods or just the blackout curtains?

Just the blackout curtains which are very stained on the back side. Miss the sheers.

[kernow]

Most of my pics are rubbish but Mark got this lovely one as we were leaving Cartagena last night.

[lovesthebeach2]

21 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Our tour of Cartagena was similar in October and what I remember most was it was HOT! Even on the boat in the water it was hot.  And yes we spent time in the Emerald shop/museum but we stayed longer just to cool down.  I wanted to buy special chocolates, we found the shop but then realized they’d never make it back to the ship without melting so we gave up.  We ended up in gelato store getting very cheap gelato which finally cooled us down a bit. The old town is very pretty. 

 

 

16 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We did this same tour and found the peddlers selling their goods as we walked with tour group soo annoying.   We're they still doing this?

When we had free time, I think 1 hr, we found a great cafe and bought several packages of coffee home with us.   

So sad I'm not able to buy online from cafe and have shipped home.

 

when we were on Serenade in February, we did this tour.  The emerald place was a total waste of our time, obviously they wanted us to buy emeralds….

 

The people selling things became very aggressively annoying, so every time I saw them coming towards me I just turned my back to them. I don’t like being rude, but I had no choice.

i would never do any tour there again…..and yes, it was very not and we’re from Florida and used to heat.

Edited December 1, 2023 by lovesthebeach2

[kernow]

Think we got on the wrong ship🤣, perhaps we'll get Celebrity points too!

 

These guys are revarnishing the handrails in the corridor outside our cabin.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

Maybe, but yesterday while we were in Cartagena, they were blowtorching all the rust and scale off of the superstructure on deck 5 port side. A bit more aggressive than their typical dust and cover paint jobs.

Until you mentioned that had forgot they were grinding off some Ship Rust in Sept, this at both times Serenade was at Coco Cay. Was in Aft outside Wind Jammer Area. Traveling Solo, was really hot/humid there with no Breeze so had no desire get off. One these days Electric/internet/air con went off for few min as they fired up the emergency generators, sure it was a test.. Name fit Generated a Ton of smoke up flowing up the Aft Balcony's. Serenade did this another day in Sept firing up Gen's. Second time I knew not open my Balcony Door to look

Edited December 1, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[ILCTCRUISER]

2 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Almost every year Radiance Class Ship's after coming back from Europe would do Canada Cruises from Boston then Repo to Florida. I'd do B4B Oct/Nov/Dec and in Nov after it got to Florida Royal would then do all Annual Maintenance inc making Ship white Painting over all the Rust. An "Earl Scheib" Job

Well, the Earl Scheib reference certainly suggests your age!  Haven’t heard that name in a LONG time.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, kernow said:

Just the blackout curtains which are very stained on the back side. Miss the sheers.

Maybe they will re-install them when they replace all of the stained and torn curtains for the WC folks😅

[orville99]

52 minutes ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

Well, the Earl Scheib reference certainly suggests your age!  Haven’t heard that name in a LONG time.

[ONECRUISER]

36 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Maybe they will re-install them when they replace all of the stained and torn curtains for the WC folks😅

They had also took worn Sheers off my Cabin in Sept, not replacing them following 2 legs my B4B. Being Aft/Corner Cabin I had lot Sunlight, sucked having nothing or Blackout as only choice

 

33 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Now showing Age, who remembers when it was $29, $49, $89..think last I saw here yrs ago was running $189.

Edited December 1, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[orville99]

55 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Now showing Age, who remembers when it was $29, $49, $89..think last I saw here yrs ago was running $189.

Unfortunately, I started traveling to California for business around 50 years ago, and it was $29.95 way back then. How many also remember Cal Worthington and his dog😱

Edited December 1, 2023 by orville99

[ZoeyVictoria]

1 hour ago, ONECRUISER said:

They had also took worn Sheers off my Cabin in Sept, not replacing them following 2 legs my B4B. Being Aft/Corner Cabin I had lot Sunlight, sucked having nothing or Blackout as only choice

 

Now showing Age, who remembers when it was $29, $49, $89..think last I saw here yrs ago was running $189.

We did a B2B on the Independence last month and had to change cabins. One had sheers, the other one down the hall didn’t. We preferred the cabin without them.

[Coralc]

27 minutes ago, orville99 said:

 How many also remember Cal Worthington and his dog😱

His dog Spot! ☺️

[kernow]

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

[island lady]

19 minutes ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

 

EEekkk...the Tramp Steamer is in town.  😮 

[little britain]

21 minutes ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

Flipping 'eck... that is not a good look! 

 

But as any 2nd hand car salesman would say, It'll buff out! 

[RFerrington]

OMG that looks horrible.  I hope they do something soon !

[ONECRUISER]

25 minutes ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

Wow! Less then 2 months ago none of this showing, maybe Ships should be rust color instead of White. Think going threw the Canal does some of this

[Sunshine3601]

29 minutes ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

Wow!   Amazing what a couple of months at sea can do to a ship.   She did Not look this rusty when I sailed on her in September for the repo cruise. 

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

They can just make sure that side isn't facing the dock(terminal side) when everyone for the WC boards.

 

[Saab4444]

2 hours ago, RFerrington said:

OMG that looks horrible.  I hope they do something soon !

Problem is they can only paint over the rust and it comes back soon. She needs a dry dock for a real paint job with deep ckeaning before. Really not good to start a first World Cruise like this!

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, Saab4444 said:

Problem is they can only paint over the rust and it comes back soon. She needs a dry dock for a real paint job with deep ckeaning before. Really not good to start a first World Cruise like this!

Was a Site I had bookmarked(but lost) that listed when each Ships had last Dry Dock, as she hit 20 this yr couldn't have been too long ago for Serenade. But as said previous most Maint on the Ship is done while she is in service not the usual really short Marine Side Dry Docks these Ships do. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[Jimbo]

23 hours ago, orville99 said:

 

Have you had any conversation  with the crew about the upcoming WC? Are they looking forward to it? Are alot of the present crew getting off the ship in Miami,so does that mean alot of new crew will be starting on the WC.

 

What is the general vibe around the ship?

[orville99]

4 hours ago, kernow said:

We're in Grand Cayman today, just tendered in. Got this pic from the tender, someone is going to be busy painting if they want it to look good for next week😯

The problem is you are too close to the ship. They only want us to look at it from a distance. It looks a lot better the further away you are.😇

[orville99]

3 hours ago, little britain said:

Flipping 'eck... that is not a good look! 

 

But as any 2nd hand car salesman would say, It'll buff out! 

Buying probably won’t work for this one. Naval jelly may not even help (that’s the black stuff).

 

the mount for this outlet/switch has completely rotted away.

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by orville99

[orville99]

Good thing they didn’t start this yesterday when we had 30-40 knot winds and 10-15foot seas😱