davidsmum

A photo from the future!;)

Ooops!! LOL!

Took these when we were on the Serenade of the Seas.... Spotted Freedom in the distance!

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We recently flew from FL after returning on serenade. We didn't get to the airport until after 11 am, but had booked the later departure from the ship. The line up for customs was well over an hour. They only had 2 agents in duty!

I would suggest booking an early departure from the shop to avid any delays

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We LOVED Serenade!

did the 11 night southern in November and had a great time.

our first 2 cruises were on Oasis and we were a little nervous to sail a smaller ship, but came away as converts!

moving forward we would sail Serenade over Oasis anytime.

we loved the smaller ship, the personal service and overall experience. The food in the MDR was excellent, in fact we ended up cancelling a couple of speciality dining reservations to eat in the MDR.

we did eat in Chops X 2 and Giovanni's one time and enjoyed our meals but felt no need to pay for anymore.

There were very few children on our sailing and although I can't speak specifically to activities available, there are definitely not the bells and whistles of the Oasis available.

we loved the fact that we could always find a quiet spot somewhere!

i wonder if they would accept a Canadian one?

We were able to use our SB gold cards on Oasis,

we earned stars but could not redeem them.

Thanks for the info. I love lamb!

 

I was hoping to find the order of the menus in case we wanted to go to a specialty restaurant. If so, I had hoped to make reservations before our cruise and not onboard.

I don't think you'll have any trouble booking speciality restaurants onboard, they are very accommodating.

we were on an 11 night recently, and were extremely impressed with the MDR...much more so than the MDR on the Oasis.....we even cancelled a couple of speciality restaurants!

Lots of variety each day, something to suit everyone's taste.

No drink card in november

I found the beds very firm on serenade in November.

the room steward offered to add a pad, not an egg crate...didn't help much to be honest.

found the beds on Oasis very comfortable though.

Was there a large selection of gluten free items

items were listed daily on the menu as GF.... Gluten friendly

I can't speak to exactly how many items but do remember seeing it noted

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No show on serenade recently....

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Hi there. We'll be there in February. I just emailed JO's. If you don't mind me asking, what would lunch run you? Is this a suitable place to go with 2 we'll behaved kids (11&8)? Thanks :)

There were four of us. We had cocktails for the ladies, beers for the men, shared a couple of appetisers, had a main course each and shared a dessert and had a lounger per couple

Total was around $400us Inc tip.

As I said well worth it... We had paid a similar amount for a full day tour in St. Lucia and felt we had just as much value for money for each.

I would go back in a heart beat!

Beach is lovely, water drops off quite quickly but I would assume your children are swimmers so they would be fine.

There weren't any children there when we visited but I'm not aware of any restrictions.

Enjoy!

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We have booked independent tours and also done our own thing in ports by taking a taxi to a beach

I suggest checking out the ports of call board for each island you are visiting as there is a tonne of information there.... That's where I started!

Whether you want an organised tour or a day at the beach you will find everything you need to know.

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Thank you for the good information. I have been trying to decide if a full day excursion away from the port would be worth it. I am trying to decide between Spencer Ambrose Jalousie Beach Break and his Land and sea tour. I just don't know if 5 hours on the beach is too much...especially since you say the beaches there are not the best. What do you think of this beach? The land and sea tour offers the volcano, waterfall, banana plantation plus 2 hours on the beach. What do you think?? Thanks so much for the information!

we thoroughly enjoyed the land and sea tour with Spencer.

by taking the speed boat you avoid spending hours on a bus, and arrive at the volcano and beach before the crowds descend!

we had lunch and a couple of hours or so at the beach before a slower boat ride back taking time to stop at points along the way for pictures.

the beach was a darker sand, but the water was lovely.

Is lunch a set price /set menu or do you just order whT you wish and pay aka carte price? I read on another thread there is a set time for lunch? How much were the chairs/umbrellas? Another thread described as "classy". Does that mean you have to dress for lunch or can you just throw on a coverup over swimsuit?

 

Thanks!

you can order what you wish from the menu. There is something for all tastes, but it is definitely a higher end price wise....but worth every penny!

some menu items are available to be served on the beach.

we dried off a bit and wore cover ups for lunch as we wanted to go back into the water afterwards!

there are facilities to change if you prefer.

sunbeds were $10 for those that had lunch reservations.

there were 2 sittings for lunch, noon and 2pm. we ate at noon nut arrived around 10:15 and enjoyed the beach before hand.

It was a fantastic day and I would highly recommend it.

Davidsmum - thanks for these photos. Jacqui O's is at the top of our list for our February cruise. In your last picture there looks like there are some covered sunbeds. Were those part of Jacqui O's or another facility? Yes, part of Jacqui O's and cost $10 to rent

 

Also; how was the water? Is it relatively calm? Our group will have two little ones with us and calmer waters is preferred. TIA.

Thanks for info. I'm wondering about using the OBC to purchase drink packages... for four of us in our cabin, it's going to come to a lot more than $500. Will they let you put the drink packages on the OBC on day 1 or do you have to wait until it shows up in your account?

We used OBC to purchase our drink packages as we boarded on a recent 11 night cruise....the transactions as completed within 10 minutes of boarding!

There was no card swipe involved just a paper receipt given and a sticker placed on our sea pass card to identify the package we had purchased

Charges didn't show up until a few days into the cruise.

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On serenade we were in a hump cabin and very close to the centrum.

At night the hallway door was closed and you couldn't hear anything.

If the door wasn't already closed when we went back to our room, we would close it ourselves.

Here's the original post

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2159570

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We did the 11 day on Serenade this past November. I couldn't believe how good she looked!

agreed!

Woo hoo! Well thanks to this thread I just got $499 for each week of my upcoming back to back. Wish I could have bought more. Anyone called in again the next day?

yes, I even called back same day!

I added some each month leading up to our cruise

We were on this sailing recently but I can't remember the order of menus, but they don't repeat.

Formal night was night 2 and night 10 (Lobster)

we really enjoyed the MDR food.The selection was excellent.

We did eat at chops and Giovanni's and booked once on board. There was plenty of availability.

When we got off Serenade on December 4 it was a very slow process at the terminal customs.

we waited in line for over an hour. there were only 2 officers on duty. we got excited at one point as we though they were putting a third on, only to realize that they simply allowed one of the other officers to go a break!!

We had opted for the later departure time off the ship, and were allowed off at 9:30. We got to FLL airport for 11am, flight was at 11:50am, so we were in plenty of time, but the line up at Terminal 18 was very frustrating and could have been avoided if it was staffed properly.

On the November 23 sailing on serenade We left embassy suites at 10am and had a quick check in. Probably sat for about 30 mins waiting to board but would say we were on board just after 11am.

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Well, I hope that is the case because we have Serenade booked for April and I was seriously considering canceling the cruise because of the food we just had on our 10 night Grandeur cruise. Loved everything about the cruise except the food and we turned Diamond on it, but I seriously don't want a repeat of what we just had.

We were also on an 11 night on serenade and wet so impressed with the MDR that we reduced our 5 restaurant speciality dining package got a 3 night package.

We had a far superior experience in the MDR on serenade as opposed to Oasis

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I see on a separate thread started by someone on the Jewel that they were not able to withdraw cash directly from the casino.

 

 

 

They have had to do a 'work around' to get a credit slip for the slots, then go to the slot machine and cash out, and then go to the casino teller again.

 

 

 

Can anyone else speak to their recent experience?

 

 

 

I had been hoping to pull some cash out this way from our OBC.

Had no trouble withdrawing cash from casino on the November 23 sailing of serenade

No questions asked and no fee charged.

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