Just back from Serenade

[CanadianMAG]

Just back from my cruise, thought I would post some of my pictures. I will post my mixed review later on this afternoon. I think I am actually a HAL girl and have given Royal Carribean a fair chance.

 

Enjoy the 240 pics!

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/godmairem

[ILUVCRUIZN]

Great pictures, cannot wait to hear your review as we are sailing on Serenade on October to Hawaii and I hope you were not disappointed.... :confused:

 

Thanks for the great pictures!!!

 

Chanda :)

[emtyt]

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your review.

[CanadianMAG]

We arrived a day early and stayed Friday night at Marriott San Juan. We bought the rooms on priceline and paid approx $110 for a room, regular price was closer to $300/ night. We talked to some people in the lobby on our way home and they said they paid $750 for 2 nights. It was my understanding from the hotel prior to my booking that this hotel went over a total renovation and I confirmed before I left it was completed already. Between the 4 of us we were in different rooms 2 different nights in 2 different parts of the hotel. The lobby, pool and casino looked like the only renovated parts and were nice. The room furniture was nice, but the room was dirty. I felt gross taking a shower there was mold all over the bathtub and along the bathroom also along all the windows and along the ceiling and wall. The air conditioner was dripping water out of the ceiling (which apparently is normal) but it was over the sink in the bathroom and actually and hit my hand while I was brushing my teeth, I cringed to think it almost got on my toothbrush. The beds were amazing and I had a great night sleep. I would never pay more then $110 for this hotel.

 

Saturday we headed for the ship 3:00, boarding started at 2:00. There was no one at the terminal so we breezed through. The ported told us if we have him a bigger tip he would have our luggage to us in 20 minutes. Lets say we were all suckers and gave him a few $$ more, and our luggage got to us around 4 hours later!

 

The centrum was beautiful and the decor was very nice. The ship was clean and we were impressed with the ship. We did notice the when we boarded the ship we were greeted a lot differently then our HAL Zuiderdam cruise. On this cruise they greeted almost everyone of us in blue uniforms and white gloves and let us to the elevator (and in our case right to our room). We we boarded the ship we were told when the rooms would be ready and they told us to tour the ship. We went straight to Portinfinos and Chops and made our reservations for Monday and Friday night. I didn't care for the hallway section (can't remember the name of it) that you had to go down to get to these restaurants, it smelled like they had the smoked salmon machines going and the section was too dark and unlike the rest of the ship.

 

We then went to check out our room 7092 (hump section). I was shocked on the size of the room. ( I was spoiled in my last cruise we had a suite) it was too small for us and next time we will spend more money and upgrade. The balcony on the port side hump was HUGE and each floor looked the same size. Room 7592 balcony on the other side was just as big BUT the hump balconies got bigger on the higher floors. Our deck was big enough for 2 chairs a table and a lounge chair. The white cover that covered the life boats wasn't a big deal I read bad things about it, but I didn't bother me.

[CanadianMAG]

At 7:00 we went back to our room to get ready for dinner and our luggage was finally there. DH and I were gathering the bags together and opening the door and we were struggling and our room Stewart walked right through us and the bags. He didn't say excuse me and he didn't say Hello or introduce himself to us.There was no question this was our room and that he was our room Stewart (Aunt and Uncle were across the hall with another Room Stewart, who knocked on the door and introduced herself.. this conflict in service was just the beginning) We unpacked and had a shower and we only had 2 towels in the bathroom and I use 2 when I shower. So I called asked for 2 more towels. The room Stewart picked up the phone nicely and when I asked for towels he said "YUP"and hung up. No good bye or nothing. We got the towels.. no big deal.... BUT this saga went on through out the week. We would have to ask for more then just 2 towels and once face cloth every night. I think he expected us to share a facecloth or something. Every night I would call and ask for 2 more towels and facecloth.... but starting on night 2 he would pick up the phone "ya" and I would ask for 2 towels and another facecloth. He would sigh and say "yup" and hang up. This is the only communication we would have with him, he would only hand me the towels when I opened the door, he wouldn't exchange any words with my on any night even after I said "hello... thanks.. etc" On the Thursday night I did my normal call for towels and a face cloth, this time he would only say "Ya" and hang up. The service was night and day from my Aunt and Uncle and no wheres near the level of service on HAL. When we would pass him in the hall in front of our room and when we would leave our room we would say hello, and he wouldn't even smile back at us. On Thursday night I did go down stairs and complain about his lack of service. (we also had to call 2 nights in a row to get a 4th pillow in our room) we only had 1 in the closet and 2 on the bed. When I told customer service my concern they mentioned to me I should have told them this issue when the "luggage" situation happened. They would have given me a new room Stewart. I agree I dropped the ball on this one and I should have, I am sure it would make my evenings of showering more enjoyable. He also told my husband on Friday (sea day) at 11:00 that he had to leave before noon or our room wasn't getting cleaned, apparently he was a jerk about that as well!!

 

This was really my only complaint about the ship and it did make me mad and ruin the trip in a way. I do expect more service, I know what my Aunt and Uncle had with their room Stewart when well above the call of duty and the service was clearly not consistent. I would also like to add he spoke clear English because we saw him in the hallways talking with his ass't and other co workers many times.

[wrp96]

I'm sorry you had such a problem with your room steward. I've always had great service from my room stewards on Royal Caribbean, and my one on the Serenade was amazing.

[CanadianMAG]

Sunday- St. Thomas. We did the Mini Boat adventure. It was a lot of fun, we drove these 2 person speedboats. The tour included snorkeling (which wasn't that great) but the attraction to this was definitely the boats. It was a lot of fun going over all the waves (it was choppy out that day) I would recommend this he was something we normally would never do at home.

 

Monday St. Maarten - we did the power snorkel. The bus ride to the french side was great and the driver told us a lot about the Island. We found it very informative. When we got to the beach we were strapped into life vests to ride the banana boats to an island to begin the power snorkel. The girl who strapped us up into these life vests was a little too touchy feely with the men. Slapping them on their buts and putting her hands down their pants. Basically she had to make sure all straps were not hanging out so they wouldn't get caught in the power snorkel equipment. She would also ensure that them men's draw strings on their shorts were tight and not hanging out. She commenting on my DH strings were on the outside of his shorts when we were in line, but she went in for a feel anyways when he was getting strapped into the vest. She didn't touch anything, but was apparently close :mad: The other men mentioned that her hand went further down then was needed... The snorkeling was not impressive on this tour but the power snorkel thing was really fun! My Aunt had a crack in her mask and she couldn't put her face under water or it would fill with water. This was her first time snorkeling and she wasn't enjoying it, when I asked her why she told me it was filling up with water, sure enough it was cracked. We told the tour guide and she told her it "was not important" and to keep snorkeling!!! She was still struggling about 10 minutes after the ending of the excursion she finally traded the snorkel equipment with hers..

 

NOW here is the part I don't remember what order the islands came in.

 

St. Lucia - We went on Herod's tour, most of the people on the tour was from CC. The tour was great we enjoyed ourselves. The tour guide and the company was fun. He paid for the admission to the waterfalls and the volcano. He also gave us fresh bananas, coco beans (I think that's what they were called ) he drive us through the island and trough the various towns to the 2 Pitons. We then jumped on a speed boat which brought us to an Island between the 2 pitons. After that we drove back to the ship. The tour was all day and cost $50. and was worth every penny. St. Lucia is a beautiful island (one of my favorite) I would recommend this tour and have nothing bad to say about it.

 

Antigua - We had nothing planned for this day. We were going to just tour the island in a cab... but plans changed quickly. When you leave the ship there is a strip of shops that lead you to the main roads. We were harassed every 10 seconds (no exaggeration here) if we needed a cab.. We were probably stopped by 30 people while we were walking. DH and I stood outside a shop for a few minutes and were harassed by this one lady 2 times in 1 minute for a cab. The first time we told her we were not looking for once, she came back since we were standing there still. She asked us if we wanted one yet, we told her no.. so she stood beside us waiting and looked pissed at us. DH told her we didn't want one and if we changed our minds we knew where to find her. I didn't have a comfortable feeling about this island because the taxi salesmen were VERY aggressive. Everyone walking on the strip were saying the same things. We turned around and went back to the ship along with 3 other groups of people who came back because they felt "uneasy" as well.

 

Barbados - Tiami Five Star Catamaran & Turtles. The was my 2nd favorite tour. The service was AMAZING, the catamaran was nice and clean. There was an open bar and they service lunch. The staff came around every so often to offer us new drinks of clean off the tables, they were very professional and a lot of fun. The stopped off for us to snorkel and was one of the best snorkeling I have ever seen. After that we sailed to another stop to swim with the turtles, which was a lot of fun. It was a great day and everyone on the catamaran enjoyed themselves.

[CanadianMAG]

Last but not least the rest of the ship.

 

We ate 5 nights and the main dining room 8:30 seating. Our server was great and so was the assn't. They were a lot of fun and enjoyed their job. The food was great... I have no complaints about any of the food! We did buy the Platinum package of wine, and after the cruise was over when we looked over what red wines we drank the Gold package would have covered all our favorite wines!

 

Chops- We eat there Caribbean night. They have first class service, and the food was amazing! The only thing I would of though was the decor wasn't as nice as I imagined (again comparing it to the pay dining room on the Zuidedam)

 

Portifinos- We ate there Friday night, the food wasn't as good as chops, but the service was just as good. The Tiramisu I had there was the best I have ever had!! Make sure you order 2 when you go there.

 

I think I just about covered it all. I forgot to put a warning at the beginning of this thread that grammar and spelling do not count! Sorry for all the errors.

 

All in all I had a great time on the cruise. I think we will be going back to HAL because we felt the service was slightly better through out the ship and 1000 times better for the room Stewart. We liked the decor and ambiance on the other ship as well. We also didn't find any of the on board activities interesting. On the other cruise we went to EVERY show, on this ship only 2 shows interested us. On Hal they had "celebrity" entertainers which were all interesting and a lot of fun. We also always found 1 or 2 more activities for us to do daily on the other ship, we didn't do anything extra on this ship.

[NancyB84]

We just booked Serenade for January. Can't wait. Thanks for posting your pictures and for the review.

[texancruzer]

Oh man.. when I read you went back to the ship on Antigua I cringed :(

 

Antigua was my favorite island..... we rented a car and drove all over the place.... very beautiful.... not like St. Lucia beautiful with big mountains and all but like a tropical Texas hill country. Rural for the most part and farmland etc... with cows and goats etc. but then you would come up over a hill and BAM a beautiful bay with beach..... one after another. Then we came to Fig Tree Drive - wow. I have travelled all over the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico and have found only a few places like this. We stopped at a very small roadside stand and met a wonderful nice lady named Elaine selling Pineapple jams, small handmade items etc and she offered to let me and best friend use her ladies room in her home behind her stand. We were in the middle of nowhere ! Met her 15 yr old son who was home from school ill.... just a small sampling of the kindness we found on this island. Took a wrong turn just once and stopped and 4 people came over and gave us directions back on track....

 

Always near the ships it is the same..... sometimes more pushy than others but basically the same. We always get away from town asap to enjoy the real feel of a place. I dont quite understand those who walk into town and walk back......that is not really what these places are about. I will always fondly remember the cook at our villa in Jamaica who taught me to reggae :D or went with us to the local Dr. when my 1-1/2 yr old son ran a fever (tonsilitis).

 

Anyway I rambled. I only hope that next trip you will be able to experience island life in a more pleasant way :)

[CanadianMAG]

Oh man.. when I read you went back to the ship on Antigua I cringed :(

 

Antigua was my favorite island..... we rented a car and drove all over the place.... very beautiful.... not like St. Lucia beautiful with big mountains and all but like a tropical Texas hill country. Rural for the most part and farmland etc... with cows and goats etc. but then you would come up over a hill and BAM a beautiful bay with beach..... one after another. Then we came to Fig Tree Drive - wow. I have travelled all over the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico and have found only a few places like this. We stopped at a very small roadside stand and met a wonderful nice lady named Elaine selling Pineapple jams, small handmade items etc and she offered to let me and best friend use her ladies room in her home behind her stand. We were in the middle of nowhere ! Met her 15 yr old son who was home from school ill.... just a small sampling of the kindness we found on this island. Took a wrong turn just once and stopped and 4 people came over and gave us directions back on track....

 

Always near the ships it is the same..... sometimes more pushy than others but basically the same. We always get away from town asap to enjoy the real feel of a place. I dont quite understand those who walk into town and walk back......that is not really what these places are about. I will always fondly remember the cook at our villa in Jamaica who taught me to reggae :D or went with us to the local Dr. when my 1-1/2 yr old son ran a fever (tonsilitis).

 

Anyway I rambled. I only hope that next trip you will be able to experience island life in a more pleasant way :)

 

I heard great things about this Island as well which is why we were just going to tour the Island. BUT we all had a bad feeling in the pit of our stomach so we went back... I know we all have had that "this isn't right" feeling before. We listened to our inside voice and went back

[Maineac]

I hope the tip to your room steward reflected your displeasure......

[CanadianMAG]

I hope the tip to your room steward reflected your displeasure......

 

I think he knew.. I forgot to post it.

 

We complained on Thursday and on Friday night we did not get the "satisfaction" survey. I had to go get one downstairs. I don't think he forgot to give it to me, he just didn't want me to fill it out accordingly. I tipped him a little less then the "suggested" amount.

[judy&steve]

We were on the Serenade in January. We didn't have any problems with the service and thought the ship was wonderful. We were in Antigua about 20 years ago and what a difference! The first time there, it was just barely becoming a cruise ship port of call. Nothing much going on. It was lovely. This last time, OMG! The taxi and tour operators were so aggressive -- I hated it. I didn't have any fear, but they were the worst we have ever encountered. We just walked around in the area near the ship. I did a fair amount of shopping there.

We went into Bridgetown when we were in Barbados. Again, 20 years ago, Bridgetown was a bustling and charming downtown with quaint shops and British department stores. This time, we were shocked to see a Columbian Emeralds anchoring every store in a two-block area. It was not as it was. On the way back to the ship, the cabbie was complaining about the women in Barbados -- that they were gaining a lot of political power. He was a little frightening, especially when we were talking to some other people in the concierge lounge that night. They were on an excursion from the cruiseline and they got an earfull from the tour guide. They were scared. Talk about a captive audience.

We liked the ship a lot. We are going again this coming January!

Everytime we encountered a staff or crew member, they couldn't have been friendlier. Never had any issues with any of them. We weren't thrilled with the waiter, but that was it. We did like Chops. We went there twice. The hall that the OP spoke of was a bar that allowed smoking. It is a bad setup because it is very very smoky at all times of the day and night. I don't know what a smoked salmon machine smells like, but to me it reeked of cigarette smoke. It is a shame, because the pool tables are on that deck in the hall area and they are really something to see!

--Judy

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

I was on this same cruise. Many of your pic's look just like mine. We also stayed at the Marriott. We thought it was lovely. We also got our rooms from priceline for $125.00. Bathroom was clean, no leaky air conditioner. Only bummer was the rain on friday. Boy did it pour.

 

We went to the ship at 11:15 and got right on. No lines. This was my 12th cruise, never has embarkadation been so easy. (It was easy getting off to, infact we went back to the Marriott for the day)We has out luggage by 1:45. It was great.

 

Sorry your room steward was not up to par. Ours was great. We were on the hump too. Other side I think 7600 and 7602. They were a little stingy with the towels. But after I ask for 2 more she had they there every night. Always has 4 wash cloths.

 

I remember seeing your husband. Never forget a quilt.

 

We had a wonderful time. Can't wait for the next one in October!

[SeaBreezy]

When we went to Antigua, we had the same experience with the pushy, aggressive locals. They were really, extremely pushy. In one of the stores, the sales lady tried to rip me off by giving me incorrect change. She gave me their currency, which was fine, but I wanted the correct amount at least! When I called her on it, she just kind of rolled her eyes and gave me the correct change.

When we stopped for a minute so I could put sunscreen on my 2 year old, these two guys tried to get my tote bag! :eek: My Mom saw it coming and grabbed it and the guys took off.

However, we continued to go around the island. It was very beautiful, true, but it's the only island in the entire Caribbean where I felt very on guard. Oh well. It was still fun! I learned something new!