Review Serenade 1/5/08

[erniesband]

Just back from Serenade 1/5/08 Southern Caribbean, here's some thoughts and observations.

About us: We're mid-fifty's, like to be active on vacation, I'm a professional musician, Jodi works in IT. This was our 4th cruise on Serenade and 8th time on this itinerary.

Day 1 - We took a chance and flew in day of on a direct flight from Cleveland, usually come in a day or two before to spend time in PR. Really like hanging in Old San Juan. Landed at 2:20 PM and were at the ship by 3:30. Check in was a breeze. Stopped at the duty free in the terminal to pickup cokes, had no problem taking them on board. Bags were scanned as you boarded and booze was confiscated. We settled in to our cabin 9658, deck 9 aft. Yes, we're aft balcony snobs. We had early seating for dinner. Met our waiter and tablemates, things would be good for the rest of the week. Muster was at 8, it's raining, short and sweet muster. Still raining so no sail-away on deck.

Day 2 - St. Thomas:

What we did:

We had planned to go to Sapphire Beach for the day, woke up to clouds and rain, changed plans to just walking to Charlotte Amalie using the new walkway by the harbor, very nice. Did some shopping and raindrop dodging. 1st formal night and non-smoking night in the casino, show was Stage to Screen.

Shopping tip:

#1 Booze & cig. if your looking for mass quantities buy here, prices were better on St. Marteen, but customs allows more from here.

#2 Cruise the little alleyways for more local artists, crafts, and non touristy things.

What we recommend :

#1 daysail on High Pockets, best day we've had in St Thomas

#2 snorkeling at Cinnamon Bay on St. John

#3 tram up Paradise Point, walk there from the ship and get your tickets there.

Day 3 - St. Marteen:

What we did:

Spent a lovely day at Orient Beach and left some time for shopping in Phillipsburg. Casual dress for dinner, show was a Temptations Tribute act. Not bad but they were still doing their Christmas show. We also spent time in the sports bar for the BCS game. Bummer for us OSU fans.

What we recommend:

#1 America' Cup

#2 Zip-line excursion

#3 Hanging out at Orient Beach

First 2 are ship excursions and can only be booked through the ship. Orient is easily done on your own, have the taxi driver let you off by Pedros, less crowded, better prices, and the price of a chair and umbrella usually includes a drink - not so at Bikini, where most cruise passengers end up.

Shopping tip: Jodi has been looking for a new camera and found the best prices at Caribbean Camera on Front Street. (Checked internet prices at home today, still better at Caribbean Camera.)

Day 4 - Antigua:

What we did: Spent the day with a friend who lives on the island. It was a bright , sunny, wonderful day. Dinner was casual again, no show.

What we recommend:

#1 The Eco-Tour by Adventure Antigua http://www.adventureantgua.com

#2 The Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour by Adventure Antigua

Pineapple Beach comes highly recommended by other CCer's we meet on board.

Shopping tip: Avoid it. Most cruisers are put off by the aggressive taxi drivers and the attitude of the stores' staffs in St. John. This is one of our favorite islands so get out and see it or find one of the 365 beaches, once your away from the dock area it really is a nice island.

Day 5 - St. Lucia

What we did: Spent the day on a daypass to Ti Kaye Resort through Island Divers.They picked us up at the dock in the dive boat around 8:30 and got to the resort about 9:15. Best snorkeling on this itinerary, went out to the left side of the beach in the AM, saw squid, flatfish, lots of tangs, sargent majors, parrotfish,and lots more. Came back in for lunch, fresh grilled mahi-mahi, yummy. Went back out and snorkeled the right side, that's where the cat excursions send there folks so it kind of got crowded at times, but still great snorkeling. We left around 3:30 and had a little time to look around the shops at the dock ( and get a few Pitons, love that Piton beer, to take back on board, got lucky and didn't have them confiscated ). Dinner was smart casual, not that we could see any difference. Show was the magic of Bob & Sarah Trunell, pretty good as cruiseship magic shows go.

What we recommend:

#1 for 1st timers: see the island, it's gorgeous - prettiest island on the itinerary. We've used Frank for a private tour and highly recommend him. We hear that Cosol is also very good. If you feel better about a ship tour the all day land and sea tour is good.

#2 The day trip to Anse Chochon with Island Divers

Shopping tip: best is at the cruise ship dock.

Day 6 - Barbados: In port with 5 ships, over 10,000 people, yikes!

What we did: Kind of cloudy today, decided to go with some new friends to the Blue Monkey, this is the beach where you can swim out to where the turtles are with out going on an excursion. Biggest MISTAKE of the cruise, I'd never go back again. The beach is small and crowded and the vendors are AGGRESSIVE, every 4-5 minutes someone coming by want to jet ski? banana boat ride? glass bottom boat? anything "special" that you want? They just don't understand NO. Two vendors actually got into a fight over one poaching another's "customer." Police were called. Hung around to have lunch, the world's most expensive fish & chips, $50.00 for two orders and 2 glasses of coke, not even a can, just a glass. However, it was flying fish, yum! Finally decided we had had enough and called for our taxi to come back early. Back on board it was 2nd formal night, dinner highlight was the " Fisherman's Platter", lobster and shrimp. I must say that this was one one the best lobster tails I've had on a cruise, not overdone and a good size. I did have 2 that night. Show was Vibeology and again non-smoking night in the casino. I'm a smoker and found that I could deal with it ( helped that I was winning ).

What we recommend:

#1 Silvermoon

#2 Glory Tours Island Highlights

#3 Get a taxi and design your own tour, lots of history to be seen.

Shopping tip: none

Day 7 - Sea Day

What we did: not much.

What we recommend: relaxation

Shopping tip: last chance to get more junk you don't need.

Day 8 - San Juan:

What we did: last ones off the ship, used the luggage valet service, hung around the airport, said goodbye to PR and headed off to Orlando.

Random Thoughts and Observations.

For the Serenade virgin: You'll love it. The ship is beautiful. We love the Radiance class ships, lots of wood and glass, more intimate than the larger ships. Make sure to take time to see the artwork, find the cows, go to the Quest, play pool and mini-golf.

Service: our cabin steward was OK, did his job well. Our dinning room waiter did a very good job under not so good circumstances. His assistant was very obviously new to the job and not very well trained but the real problem was with the other table he had. They seemed to think they had "anytime" dinning and showed up somewhere between 6:15 and 7:00 every night making his job very difficult and consequently our service suffered. We had a head waiter who actually did some stuff for our table beside taking the lobster out of it's shell, and was very friendly. If you plan on booking your next cruise on board, we weren't wild about the LA, aloof and defensive. Eileen, however, is terrific - ask for her. She's booked our past 2, and helped us with a Nextcruise purchase this time.

Entertainment: We had a chance to chat with Carly B., the cruise director, at the Diamond/Platinum party and ask why we always have the same production shows. The shows are designed for the specific ship and cost upwards of 2 million to produce, so they stay on the same ship for at least 8 years. I never thought they were that good and to have only the lead vocals and a few of the instruments done live not worth my time to see over and over again. She says you might see the shows on other ships, but never the same 2 together. The quality of the bands on board has shown the effects of budget cuts. The latin band was a keyboard player and 2 percussionists that sang, all the music was done by prerecorded backing tracks, didn't like them. There was a smooth jazz group that played in the Centrum. They were good.

As for the Schooner Bar piano entertainer, I think RCI won't hire anyone who doesn't know every Billy Joel and Elton John song, that's all I heard him do. There was no Top 40/ Rock & Roll band to play for dancing, another victim of budget cuts. Also the headliner show that they used to have on day 4 was replaced with the Love & Marriage Show, boring.

The new bedding was nice, although I found whatever they put in the duvet cover weighed a ton and was too heavy for the Caribbean. Jodi, however, didn't mind it a bit.

Booze smugglers beware, coming back after a day on shore we saw security take the cap off a guy's water bottle, take a sniff and make him dump it overboard.

Meet & Mingle - with Laura S.'s help we got it rescheduled for Tuesday at 5 rather than Monday at 11AM, that's when it was on Alaska cruises. I guess the person who does the planning was still in Alaska. Anyway, 14 out of the 28 signed up made it. We had a good time meeting the folks that came. Please, if your going to sign up for it, go to it!

From the Rumor Mill - anytime dinning is coming. Our headwaiter was telling us that the Radiance class will be the first, sometime in March. The main floor of the dining room will have traditional 1st & 2nd seating and the second floor dining room will offer anytime dining. You'll have to sign up for one or the other when you make your booking.

 

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Ernie

[mjyanne]

Ernie,

 

Thanks for a nice review. I've been on Serenade before and we go again in 10 days. So looking forward to it. Interesting that they are now doing a couple of nights of non smoking in the casino.

 

Sounds like the dress code in the dining room is basically casual (except for formal nights), correct?

[melgray13]

Thanks for the review. We're taking this cruise in april and appreciate your views. Gotta ask - what does your reference to "find the cows" mean? You have my attention :)

[alicam]

Thanks for the review...will be on first sailing after drydock

[NYCerr]

That is a very comprehensive review. A few comments from my cruise which was the week before and about the ship in general.

Balcony cabins on deck 7 do NOT clear the lifeboats. Book on Deck 8 or higher for nice water views. We were very disappointed and RCCL misled us.

Sapphire Beach on St. Thomas is really nice. Avoid Megan's Bay, I heard it was very crowded. The taxis are expensive and they wait to fill up which is annoying.

Both Bikini Beach and KonTiki are nice on Orient Bay. We like both. The lunch at their restaurants are really good and at Bikini an ice bucket of 6 beers for $20 was a deal. We were with a big group.

 

For the best snorkeling, we booked Stephen Tryhane Thriller-Ocean tour in Barbados. We got to visit all 4 major snorkel sites on a high speed boat. Drinks included for $50 pp. We sped by the crowds on the catamaran. There were only 12 of us. I highly recommend that. Reserve in advance and he does take credit cards. (not Amex)

 

On St. Lucia we also just got in a cab and went to the beach. Rodney Bay also known as Reduit. Very reasonably priced water sports. So if you are looking for the port for water sports, St. Lucia would be a good pick. We also heard that people who took the island tour (any taxi driver will try and get you to go on an island tour) made people carsick. Some loved their island tours of St. Lucia. I heard the zip lines were fun.

 

A word of advice. Check the cruise calendars and find out if there are a lot of ships in port. It can make a big difference. St. Martin had 7 ships in port, including the Queen Mary. Streets were clogged and traffic was terrible. I was very sorry I had decided to go to town for a short while.

 

Most people did dress nicely for dinner, but I was surprised by some men in shorts. On our last cruise we didn't see that at all. Frequent cruisers come prepared for the 'tropical night' theme.

[crisp1]

Ernie and NCCer, thanks for the reviews. We'll be on the Serenade the end of March and we got the e-mail from RCI about anytime dining.

Thanks for the info on the musical entertainment. Most reviewers don't cover it. The best live entertainment I've come across was on the Explorer last year, from the jazz band in the crows nest to the piano player that played sax solos and piano at the same time. Since then I've been disappointed in all areas on RCI and CCL. The worst was on HAL where the shows had pre-recorded music- no orchestra at all- just a sax player, no jazz band and the lounge acts palyed music from the sixties and seventies with very weak vocalists.

We plan to use islanddivers in St Lucia, I love to snorkel and we spent a little time at the Pitons last visit and Anse Cochon looks perfect. if your looking for an inexpensive beach day take the water taxi in St Maarten. $5 for an all day pass which drops you off by Front Street on Great Bay. The Firehouse has a special $10 for 2 chairs, one umbrella and 2 Heinekins. this time there we're booked on the 3 island snorkel trip with Captain Alan- looking forward to getting back to Pinel and finally making it to Tintamarre

[Pomperaugrr]

Thanks for the reviews. We are going to be on the Serenade this Saturday. I am bringing my tux for the formal nights. Were there people in tuxes or mostly suits on formal night?

 

I also appreciate the info on entertainment.

 

Eric

[Mach1]

Thank you both for the Serenade reviews. We’ve been on her in ’06 and I just love this ship. Can’t wait for our turn, not sure about anytime dinning, it should be in full swing for our April cruise.

Couple questions: :confused:

Was the liquor that was bought at the duty free shop at the SJ terminal confiscated? I’ve heard mixed reviews on that.

Did you stop at St Croix to re-fuel?

Did you do the Piton Pivot? Or cruise close to Montserrat?

Where did you find the Piton Beer at? I love trying local beer.;)

[kasualkathy]

We are cruising end of March but I did not receive an email about anytime dining. Can you tell me what it's all about?

[TurboXpress]

i was on that boat..........i hate gambling with people who DON'T know how to gamble!!:mad:

[w8ing2cruz]

erniesband and NYCerr! Thanks! A couple of Q's please:

 

I too would like to know if the captain did the Piton Pivot?

 

When I have checked the site that tells which ships are in which port I believe we'd only have a problem with Barbados. Am I wrong to assume that each week would be the same - ie: I thought we'd be the only ship in St. Martin on Monday January 28th?

 

Which night is 'tropical theme' night and what's up with that?

 

We've got the afts on Deck 8 - right between you too - seems like we made the right choice. Did you do any balcony decorating?

 

erniesband - did the early seating work out for you - ever feel really rushed or that you didn't get enough sun and had to get back to ship for dinner?

 

We'd love to do Orient Beach in St. Martin and then cab it over to Maho to see a plane land - any ideas on how much time that will take?

 

Really undecided for Antigua - beaching it ST and SM and have boat excursions St. Lucia and Barbados. Got any great ideas? Ever been to prickly pear island? I'm guessing just walking off the ship and doing nothing would not do justice to Antigua. Both Eli's were booked.

 

Sorry for all the questions but you guys sure seem like experts! Thanks!

[erniesband]

Answers to questions:

Dress code was casual, we even had guys in shorts on formal night.

 

The cows are large fiberglass sculptures, if I told you more it would take the fun out of finding them. Some folks can be on the ship for 7 days and not notice them. Hint: deck 13

 

Tuxes vs Suits, I think suits would win, although this was the 1st cruise that I didn't take my tux.

 

Was the liquor that was bought at the duty free shop at the SJ terminal

confiscated?

Yes, it was. They were really strict this year.

 

Did you stop at St Croix to re-fuel?

No, and never have. We almost always cruise 1st or 2nd week in Jan, and have never done that.

 

Did you do the Piton Pivot? Or cruise close to Montserrat?

No again. Passed 3 cruises the Capt did the pivot and twice have gone by Montserrat, but not this time. More fuel savings I guess. Kind of disappointed that we didn't.

 

Where did you find the Piton Beer at? I love trying local beer

There's a little stand in the shopping area of the pier, 2 for $3. It's off to the left as you leave the ship.

 

Caribbean night was Tuesday. It's the night they had the Caribbean Market Buffet on the pool deck. Wear your best Hawaiian shirt.

 

Did you do any balcony decorating?

Who has room in the suitcase to bring stuff for the balcony?

 

did the early seating work out for you - ever feel really rushed or that you didn't get enough sun and had to get back to ship for dinner?

Early works best for us only because late is too late for Jodi. We're usually off the ship early for excursions and get back just before it's too late so I guess the only time we felt rushed was formal nights.

 

And I forgot to add that the Gala Midnight Buffet is no longer. I agree with the decision to get rid of it, looked really nice but way too much wasted food.

 

Ernie

[Pomperaugrr]

Thanks for the great information.

 

Eric

[Mach1]

Thanks for getting back to us & answering questions, very helpful info!!

I never noticed the cows before….I will have to look harder this time.

It is my understanding they re-fuel every three weeks at St. Croix, we were lucky enough to do this before, I’m trying to find the cruise that did this so I can count the weeks and see if we’ll be the lucky ones again.

Just need to remember where to find the beer. ;)

[w8ing2cruz]

Thanks erniesband - do you have any advise for my question regarding how much time we should plan for getting from Orient to Maho and then to ship in St. Martin? How about Antigua?

[patrioticgirl]

Thanks for the great information, Ernie and NYCerr! Your input is greatly appreciated and will come in handy on March 22nd. I'd not heard the anytime dining rumor; it will interesting to see if it comes to be.

[erniesband]

Thanks erniesband - do you have any advise for my question regarding how much time we should plan for getting from Orient to Maho and then to ship in St. Martin? How about Antigua?

 

I have no clue, you'll get a better answer if you ask on the St. Marteen board. We've never been to Maho.

As for Antigua: We have always done one of Eli's tours so these are second hand recommendations. The zipline tour looked good, there's a choice of 5 or 9 zips and a challenge course. A daypass at Pineapple Beach Resort was recommended by some of the CCer's on our cruise. They said it was a nice beach with good food & drink and decent snorkeling. Check the Antigua board for other ideas.

 

Sorry I can't help you out more.

Ernie

[Mach1]

Thanks erniesband - do you have any advise for my question regarding how much time we should plan for getting from Orient to Maho and then to ship in St. Martin? How about Antigua?

 

I haven’t been to Orient beach yet (will this time)

We did make pretty good time going to Maho – love that beach! It is fun watching the plans come in. I do remember that the roads were pretty congested and travel was slow getting back to the ship. Depending on where you get dropped off… downtown you’ll need to catch the water taxi back. If you get dropped off by the ship – it will also take a little longer.

Did you post on the St. Martin board? Someone there might be able to give you better info.

[Apoggi]

Thanks for the great report. I can't wait til 3/29 til our cruise. I've been on Serenade before and can't remember the cows. I'll have to look for them.

 

Ann

[Magicalcruiser]

I just paid my Cruise in full and on the bottom of the receipt it says"

On Serenade sailings from 3/8 through 6/7 we will offer the opportunity to experience My time dining" You can eat anytime between 6-9:30

The catch is you have to prepay your gratuities. 68.25 per person.

I guess I have mixed feelings I have never cruise RC before only Disney so, I think we might try it.

We fine 6 sometimes is too early and 8:30 is too late!

 

We will be doing the zip lines in St Lucia.

Has anyone been to the Monkey farm in Barbados?

we are looking forward to Orient beach

Guess we will be good and not try to smuggle booze on board. I would be sad if they dumped it :mad:

[erniesband]

Has anyone been to the Monkey farm in Barbados?

 

We did it a couple of years ago. The monkeys are free to roam and we never saw any. Nice small zoo to see.

 

Guess we will be good and not try to smuggle booze on board. I would be sad if they dumped it

 

They don't dump it unless you're trying to sneak it on in a water bottle. If you bring on bottles they hold it and return on the last night.

 

Ernie