Just Back Serenade 11/8-15/08

[puglvr]

Too tired to think tonight. Will try & get a review done within the next couple of days. Both good & bad, but overall had a great week. Of course it went by way too fast.

 

Any questions before I get my review done?

[johnbob7]

Too tired to think tonight. Will try & get a review done within the next couple of days. Both good & bad, but overall had a great week. Of course it went by way too fast.

 

Any questions before I get my review done?

 

Welcome home, glad you had a good time. I would just like to ask the usual questions:

 

what nights for formal?

still crepes in the solarium?

did you do the Piton swing?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

bobj

[SeaBreezy]

Can't wait for the review! I'm curious about the Piton Pivot, too. Seems it happens sometimes and sometimes not. Depends on who your Captain is at the time.

 

Did you like Antigua? What did you do there?

 

Thanks!

SeaBreezy

[AESONRISA]

Can you post your compass'? I've been waiting for someone to post the newest, latest and greatest. I also heard they aren't giving away free cookies in Lattitudes, that you have to buy coffee - is that true? Did they charge for juice? Definitely interested in hearing the good, the bad and the ugly... can't wait to hear your review. Thanks!

[luv2zdworld]

We are sailing on SOS in 34 days. It will be great to read a recent review with the same itinerary we have. I would also like to see the current compass.

How was embarkation? I keep reading here about delays with embarkation on AOS. How early were you able to get on board? Where you right in Old San Juan or the PanAmerican port? Thanks!

[puglvr]

Sorry for the delay in replying...our modem took a dump yesterday.

 

what nights for formal? Monday & Thursday

still crepes in the solarium? Yikes, I forgot all about this and didn't make it there to try the food there.

did you do the Piton swing? Nope, sorry.

How was embarkation? Very smooth.

I keep reading here about delays with embarkation on AOS. No delays for us that day.

How early were you able to get on board? We boarded about 12:40pm. Where you right in Old San Juan or the PanAmerican port? PanAm is where the ship is located.

Can you post your compass'? Yes, but it will be a few days before I have time to scan & post. :D Yes, they only give you a "treat" after you have bought something to drink at the Seatle's Best counter. They still "sell" fresh squeezed OJ in the Windjammer, but only saw 1 person getting it. They do have OJ & Apple Jc for free at the beverage counter.

Did you like Antigua? What did you do there? Don't really have a opinion good or bad on this place...we just walked a few blocks into town to explore and then headed back to the ship. One thing I noticed, the bay we docked in...area run down, water very dirty & polluted with trash & other things in the water. I sure wouldn't swin in this bay area. People in town were friendly, market venders really wanted to make a sale to you, but took NO politely.

[puglvr]

Now for the review...

 

Serenade of the Seas - 11/8-15/08 Southern Caribbean Itinery

 

Total of 2100 guests onboard this sailing. Very few kids...mainly babies or the under 5yr crowd.

 

Flew into San Juan the day before cruise...stayed at the San Juan Marriott & Stellaris Casino...Very Nice place, would love to go back and spend more time here. Got a great price for the night on Priceline.

 

Embarkation...arrived at the port a little after 12 noon. Short line to drop off our luggage and then on into the building. No waiting to get to the counter (Platinum member), checkin went smoothly - no problems. Then stood in line maybe 15-20 minutes with everyone else...while everyone had to have their picture taken for security. Then on up into the ship. Walked on board at 12:40pm. Had to wait a short 20 min until they opened up the rooms to everyone at 1pm.

 

Stateroom...We had a E1 cabin, 7108 on the hump. Loved the extended balcony room, but alas they only had 2 chairs - no chaise loungers. We didn't bother to ask if we could get the lounge chairs. Cabin itself seemed smaller than our E1 cabin on Mariner. Bathroom & closet were both smaller too. Sink had a sewer smell when you ran the water, told CS, but nothing was done about it. Smell wasn't constant, so I did not pursue the matter.

 

Service...Cabin Steward- did an adequate job, nothing special, but did what was expected. Waiter & Assistant Waiter - we ate in MDR only 4 times, adequate service, nothing outstanding. Not complaining, mind you. Headwaiter - A Useless job if you ask me. They make themselves known to you on the 1st night and then you don't see them until tips are due on last night. Service overall from the ship was good. No complaints.

 

Food...Ate only 4 times in MDR...food was good, sometimes the choices were lacking only because I tend to be a picky eater. But what I did eat was quite good. Hard to cook for 2100 people. We ate in Chops once...excellent Fillet, yum and Portafino twice...Mystery Dinner & a normal meal. Had the Fillet once and the Seafood Skewer the other meal. Both were quite tastey. Service as always in both places was great. We did get a few snacks from the Seaview Cafe, tastey standard fare. They need to work on the cooking time of orders as sometimes parts of your order sat under the warming lights, while waiting for other items to be completed. This led to cold onion rings for us once. We did eat all our Breakfasts & Lunches in the Windjammer. The food for the most part was good, but your standard buffet fare. Most items repeted throughout the week. Honey Stung Chicken was only served once that I know of...embarcation lunch and that was very dry & tough to chew. Desserts for the most part were good...I always seemed to find 1 or 2 to eat, including frozen yogurt everyday.

 

If you get a chance...attend the Mystery Dinner. We had a great time. Yes, the acting is quite...um, campy. But that seemed to make it more enjoyable to us.

 

Both my DH & I aren't really physically active people, so we tend to not do alot of excursions. DH has a balance problem so that eliminates alot of things for us to do on shore. The Ship itself is our real destination and the ports then become a bonus. This was our first time on a Radiance Class ship. I liked the ship, the layout, etc. But I think I really prefer the Voyager Class best so far.

 

St Thomas...been there 3 times before, so was really planning on staying onboard for this port, but our tablemates handed us their excursion passes that they couldn't use. So we took a Tour by bus of the city and learned some of the local history.

 

St Maarten...we stayed onboard this port. Although I did get off briefly to take pics of the ship from the dock.

 

St Lucia...First time for us in this port, so we took a 3 hour Bus Tour of the area. Most people there, live in mere shacks. Culture shock for sure. Apparently the Island's income is through agriculture & Tourism. Beautiful bays there. Would love to go back to this place and explore further sometime.

 

Antigua...No tours, just walked around the town a bit and then back to the ship. Water in the bay was quite dirty & polluted with trash & other chemicals floating.

 

Barbados...We only visited the port shopping area, really quite nice & large with great stores. Was able to find the needed "gifts" to take home to family & friends there.

 

Onboard Activities...I went to all the Bingo games, won 3 times. LOL. Games started on Tuesday I think (don't have the Compasses in front of me right now). We attended the opening night Show...very good; Salute to the Temptations was quite good and Charo was good, but quite short in show length...50 min...sung 3 songs & played 3 songs on guitar. Talked more than performed I think. Went to several trivia games, a scrapbooking class and of course Quest. Online access was slow as reported by others.

 

Coke Card...I had redeemed my Coke points for a 7 day Coke Card for this cruise. I don't think I'd get this if I had to pay for it, as I don't think I got my money's worth out of it. We had brought on a 12pk for the DH to drink. No one every asked to see my seapass card to verify the sticker on it for the Coke Cup...they just filled it up when asked. All but 1 server was curtious when refilling the cup. One server refilled it very poorly...spilling coke on the outside of the cup and then handing it to me with the coke running down the side. I gave him my deadly glare & mopped up his mess in front of him. I can understand it if the the coke somehow overflows and runs down the cup...but for pete's sake...is it too much to ask to clean up the mess that is made before handing said cup back to it's owner?

 

Cruise Director Carly...I wasn't impressed by her. Maybe I'm picky and I really can't tell you what I'm looking for the CD to be...but she wasn't it for me. It just seemed that her routine & "lines" were very old, I just got the impression that she says the same things everytime on every cruise. I usually don't judge someone on their looks either, but she always seemed to look very haggard & tired...large bags around her eyes.

 

Captain Michel...never met him in person, but seemed to be quite knowledgable. Kept us informed with his daily updates, etc.

 

Yikes...just looked at the time...need to get to bed. Will add more later tonight if I think of anything else.

[johnbob7]

Thanks puglvr, sounds like you had a great time overall. And thanks for taking the time to answer all our questions so completely.

 

bobj

[Gator0178]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. I'd like to try a Radiance class sometime. Although I have been spoiled my the Mariner........:rolleyes:

[luv2zdworld]

Thank you for answering all our questions. Great information. I'm looking forward to my cruise, 32 more days. :)

[dsarah]

Thank you for your review -- we are looking forward to this cruise in January. Couple questions -- Did they offer "my time dining" on this cruse? -- Our cruise leaves at 10PM & I assume your cruise did also, so did they have the Muster Drill before leaving even tho it was late and folks were having dinner? -- Did the free beverages include lemonade? Thanks again!

[lyadams]

Thanks so much for the review. Sounds like you had a good time. I do have a very strange question for you. I'm going next year to Panama Canal and I thought for x-mas gifts to my family (as we have 7 rooms) I'd get everyone some outlet extenders. I purchased them and now I question the purchase.

 

This outlet plugs into two three pronged outlets. It uses three prongs on one of the outlets and then uses one prong from the outlet right next to it. Therefore, for this extender to work, I need to have two outlets either side-by-side or stacked underneath each other. If I remember correctly from previous sailing, the outlet on the dressing table are two-side-by-side 3-pronged??? Can you confirm? If you don't know, no worries as I'm sure you had other things to notice in the state room other than the outlets!!!

 

Sorry this is such a strange question! Santa is trying to get shopping done :>)

[txwildflower2002]

How was the weather? Would love to see the compass as we have never been on a port intensive cruise. I wasnt to know what is going on while everone is in port! Are there spa specials? Thanks!

[puglvr]

I'm looking forward to my cruise, 32 more days. Have a blast! :D

Did they offer "my time dining" on this cruse? Yes, they did. We stuck with the assigned time of 8:30pm, but dined earlier when at Chops & Portafino.

 

Our cruise leaves at 10PM & I assume your cruise did also, so did they have the Muster Drill before leaving even tho it was late and folks were having dinner? Yes, we left at 10pm. Muster Drill was at 8pm. They delayed the 2nd seating of dinner until 8:45pm to allow time for everyone to be able to return their lifejackets to their cabins before heading to dinner.

 

Did the free beverages include lemonade? Yes, in the Windjammer for lunch they always had plenty of Lemonade, Ice Water & Iced Tea available. In the Dining Room, Iced Tea was available for the asking.

If I remember correctly from previous sailing, the outlet on the dressing table are two-side-by-side 3-pronged??? The outlet on our dressing table/desk was a 3 prong...but only one outlet was there. There was another outlet to the right side of the desk, but it was a different voltage/prong arrangement.

How was the weather? The weather was terrific. In the 80's and sunny most everyday. Some days did have a little cloud cover for a bit and/or rain. It was rainy & humid in San Juan on both the 8th & 15th for us. There was one other port that it did rain briefly and then in the afternoon on the sea day, we had rain into the evening. Rocky seas all day long that Friday at sea.

 

Would love to see the compass as we have never been on a port intensive cruise. This was our 1st port intensive cruise too. I had made myself a promise to stay out of the Jewelry Stores this cruise...I kept my promise! LOL.

I want to know what is going on while everone is in port! There were several of us who stayed onboard during a port stop. We stayed on the ship in St Maarten. Most people sleep in, spend the day by the uncrowded pool area and/or find a quiet place to relax. I loved sitting in the Safari Club...at the back of the ship. They have comfy sofas to relax on, read a book or just people watch in port out the aft windows. We also loved to spend time on our balcony relaxing too.

 

Are there spa specials? There were specials everyday. I didn't save those flyers though, sorry.

After I went to bed last night I remembered a couple of things I forgot to mention in the review...

This was a C & A Members Cruise...so RCCL gave members little token gifts several times that week. I know that Diamond members were offered a free excurtion in St Maarten. (We're Platinum). We received a total of 4 gifts from RCCL that week...fanny packs, comemorative magnet, baseball hats & some kind of oddly shaped small drawstring totes. The C & A Welcome back party was kind of a bummer for us and many others...as the cocktails & appetizers were very scarce. We managed to snag 1 drink each, but the waiters never came around to our table with the snacks. Others I talked to, said they either didn't get anything to drink or they didn't get any of the snacks. But on the other hand, the C & A Members Cruise Party later in the week did have plenty to eat & drink. Maybe they listened to the complaints from the 1st party and made sure that mistake wasn't made again. There was 1 couple who received a special award from the Capatin for cruising with RCCL over 100 times! WOW. (I think it was 112 times, but can't remember exactly.)

In regards to redeeming my free Coke card for the unlimited Coke for the week. (I received this from Coka Cola for redeeming Coke points). When we firsted arrived onboard, I walked up to the bar attendent on deck 5 who was offering the Soda Packages to passengers. This was the 1st cruise that he had ever seen these cards, so he didn't know quite what to do with them. Someone had given them their card just prior to me. He took down my name & cabin number and took my card from me. Mid week I noticed that I had a charge on my Sea Pass Account for $48 for a Soda Pkg. I went down spoke to Luiz at the Customer Service Desk and he said he'd email the head of the Bar Dept regarding this matter. Two days later I notice that it's still on my bill. I again go speak to Luiz and he assures me he will send another email on this matter. The next day the charge had been removed. Yeah! So be aware of you have one of these cards for a furture cruise...make sure you don't get charged in error.

[lyadams]

Thanks for getting back on the outlet question - man are you observant!! Guess I'll be returning these gifts back to the store!!

[2catfamily]

See Below...

[2catfamily]

Once again...see below...

[2catfamily]

Cruise Director Carly...I wasn't impressed by her. Maybe I'm picky and I really can't tell you what I'm looking for the CD to be...but she wasn't it for me. It just seemed that her routine & "lines" were very old, I just got the impression that she says the same things everytime on every cruise. I usually don't judge someone on their looks either, but she always seemed to look very haggard & tired...large bags around her eyes.

 

I have a diffrent opinion on Cruise Director Carly - We went to many of the activities on our Hawaii cruise that she hosted and she was excellent. She was very funny and personal. She also had "Come chat with your cruise director" in the Schooner bar. I have been on ten other cruises and never had a Cruise Director that would answer very personal questions about their job and life. As for looking tired, I would be too if I had to work everyday for four months.

[puglvr]

I have a diffrent opinion on Cruise Director Carly - We went to many of the activities on our Hawaii cruise that she hosted and she was excellent. She was very funny and personal. She also had "Come chat with your cruise director" in the Schooner bar. I have been on ten other cruises and never had a Cruise Director that would answer very personal questions about their job and life. As for looking tired, I would be too if I had to work everyday for four months.

 

Meh. Like I said, this was just my personal opinion. I'm sure there were lots of people who enjoyed her, just like you. To each his own. She alone did not make or break our enjoyment of the cruise. Would I avoid sailing on a ship in the future if she was the CD? No. Makes no difference to me who the CD is.

[puglvr]

Thanks for getting back on the outlet question - man are you observant!! Guess I'll be returning these gifts back to the store!!

 

I just noticed the outlet because I used it several times during the week. I had packed a power strip from home, thinking that I'd be recharging something all the time. Never used it. ;)

[SuzieQ123]

Meh. Like I said, this was just my personal opinion. I'm sure there were lots of people who enjoyed her, just like you. To each his own. She alone did not make or break our enjoyment of the cruise. Would I avoid sailing on a ship in the future if she was the CD? No. Makes no difference to me who the CD is.

 

We were on this same cruise and I have to agree with puglvr... CD generally makes no difference to me but I had the exact same opinion of her I even commented to my husband on it..... Afterall that job is very much about appearance

 

Was a very nice cruise all in all... quieter then most ships we've been on, but no compaints at all ....haven't had a bad cruise yet..... I thought there was a significant improvement in the dining room food actually...