happytulips

We are just off the Explorer on this itinerary and did the following

Sea day

Labadee

Sea day

Bonaire

Curaçao

Aruba

Sea day

Sea day

The latest we were in port was 6:30 in Bonaire. They did push us back to 6:30 a few weeks before sailing though so it might alter the times.

Explorer: Who will be the CD when the ship returns to service after drydock?

Just off the Explorer and could not find out who the new CD is. Leigh is currently not on the boat and his dates on the Indy changed to May 10th through Sept 8th. The CD staff was unsure who was showing up as off yesterday and most of the CD staff was leaving the boat today so it was hard to get information.

My guess is that Cuddy is on break now, as he had been on Allure for several months prior. It will likely be 2 months before he reappears, either back on Allure or on another ship.

 

(Just a tidbit: Michele Scarpato is male - that's the Italian spelling of Michael)

I could have sworn Cuddy got promoted to a CD and should start his new gig soon. He was activity manager on Mariner a year or so back and was awesome. He will/would make a great CD.

We just got off the boat on Sunday and there was no Parade of Nations on the sailing. 1 parade only. I saw the parade of Nations on the Seranade earlier this year but it wold appear they are phasing this out. We asked and they do not do it on all boats. They no longer sing in the dinning room either either. Something about European customers not liking these types of events so they are stopping them across the fleet.

When do you unpack for a 7 night or longer cruise?

 

a) as soon as the luggage gets to your cabin

b) before dinner first night

c) after dinner or late first night

d) first full day of cruising.

e) we don't unpack, we work out of suitcases.

 

I always unpack as soon as possible to let the wrinkles fall out of our clothes but hate wasting time that first day. Just kinda curious.

 

Tim

Typically the first night before we go to bed or the following morning. We usually are out and about checking out the boat and seeing who is performing where the first night. We bring the wrinkle remover spray and just use that as needed for the bad stuff.

We are looking to take advantage of this offer but have found that RCCL raised the price on our cruise 50% before the promotion. We do a yearly family cruise and my parents booked on April 28th and paid $1300 a person so $2600 total before gratuities. We just tried to book and the same cabin is now $1900 a person.

The crazy part, my mom called and got 50% applied to the sailing so her cruise cost $2000 and ours, if we booked today, would cost $3100. The BOGOHO special is not as good as it would appear for our sailing.

Here are the prices. The speeds vary by time of day. They claim it's half off between 11pm and 8am but it was always $0.37 per minute during that time. I was able to do email and post pictures to my blog, not the fastest but doable.

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Not all from one cruise but it was fun getting them nonetheless.

thanks.

did the serenade have the chocolate breakfast in MDR 1 day?

 

are the drink of day souviner glasses plastic?

Our drink of the day glasses were glass. We now have an entire collection from all our cruises, is that a bad thing? :)

So, this is what I came back to after the cruise. Not cool at all.

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Did you sign up for the Mystery dinner while onboard? I tried finding it to book in advance but couldn't find it anywhere.

Yes, we signed up onboard. We could not sign up for several things before the cruise.

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Five more weeks and I'll be on this ship/cruise! Was there any problem getting taxis at the cruise port at all? We have an early flight (10:55 am). We'll do self debarkation. Sure wish there were more inside the ship photo's but you did a GREAT job on this blog! I have been on the Radiance a few times and can't wait to get on the Serenade and go down the MS river!

I am going through the photos now and plan on posting more once I get them organized. We took close to 1500 pictures during the week and I only posted 78 of them on the blog :)

There were plenty of taxis outside the ship. I remember us making a comment about how many there were. They were lined up side by side about 12 deep before they wrapped around the building. You should have no problem getting a taxi as you leave the ship.

You can find RC online on deck 4 and you can use those computers. They do have boarding pass computers available but if you need to do more, there are 4-5 computers that you can pay as you go. It's $0.85 per minute or $0.37 per minute between 11pm-8am.

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We were group 2 and off by 7:50. I am not sure if we beat D+ plus but I can only assume they would have been ahead of us. It took us about 20 mins to get to the airport. Unless something happens out of your control, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to make it by 10:45.

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We ate at Rita's twice this week and found the food to be quite good. I have pictures of the food and a copy of the menu and can post them later if you are interested.

They have happy hour from 4-6 that was 20-25% off margaritas.

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Thank you for checking! I have enjoyed your blog. Headed to the Serenade now!

 

 

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Enjoy your cruise!

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Sorry, on this cruise with you and just need to clarify this - the flat rate from the airport to hotel or pier and vice versa is $33.00 for up to 2 people; that is what we paid. Additional passengers are charged $14.00 each. The rates are posted in the cab and on sign boards at the airport. :)

 

Thank you for the live blog; we had a nice week too and are on for one more.

That is correct, I forgot about that, it was $33 for two, but more than 2 was $14 each. We had to take 2 taxis as we had 6 people and I forgot the $33 for two.

Thanks again for the live blog. I'm really enjoying reading and seeing all the photos you have posted. By any chance, could you post a photo of what the bathrooms and closet space looks like in the cabins? If not, no worries!

 

Thanks again!

I did not see this post until we are sitting in the airport, I apologize for not seeing it. I looked through our pictures and we didnt take any pictures of the closet or the bathroom.

The bathroom in our room was pretty tiny but typical. The shower was a standup shower with an adjustable shower head. There was only 1 side of the mirror to store toiletries and the counter space maybe had 6-8 inches from the wall.

The closet was descent in size. We had 10-12 hangers on each side of the closet and 8 shelves in the middle of the closet. The spacing between the shelves was probably 8-10 inches between each shelf. We took 3 suitcases and had plenty of space for all out clothes, shoes, etc.

This is a different question....Do you mind posting the exercise class schedule and pricing?

I could not find a full schedule with prices. The gym was open 24 hours a day though. Each Cruise Compass does have classes for the day in it but I could not find a consolidated schedule.

Hi Karen! Hope you are doing okay...I see you are sailing soon, I bet you can't wait! I've never been on Serenade, but when you're onboard, keep an eye out for a waiter named Ivo. He's a friend of ours, from Bulgaria. Have a great cruise :)

We ended up getting Ivo in Chops and he was excellent.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably book through RCI for the same reason, and $20 pp isn't much more than the regular cost of getting from the airport to the city from what I remember about traveling to NO.

 

Hope you have a safe, and easy, journey home.

The taxi rates are fixed in NOLA. $14 per person from the airport to a hotel in New Orleans and $7 per person from the hotel to the pier.

Would you mind clarifying the airport shuttle for me? I'm doing Serenade in December and it will be my first time flying to a cruise. Is the airport shuttle something you arranged through RCI? If so, what is the cost and do I need to make reservations before I leave on the cruise or while I'm on the ship? Much thanks!

We booked through RCI and it was $20 per person. You are grouped by departure time to the airport. We have a 1:35 flight but we were on the 7:45 shuttle. Once we got through customs, we walked over to the buses. We waited maybe 10 mins for a new bus to pull up and they loaded our luggage and away we went. You need to make the reservation before you board and you must have your flight information to book the shuttle.

There were other shuttle options available but we have always booked through RCI. It makes it easier to know it's all covered.

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Thanks for taking time to blog your cruise! Do they offer self-disembarkation?

They do have self disembarkation. It started about 30 mins after we docked and had cleared the authorities.

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We are through security at the airport. Let's just say that TSA at Louis Armstrong International cannot handle the cruise ship traffic. It was pretty unorganized and they could not control the groups of people. If you are TSA pre-check, it doesn't seem to matter at this airport.

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Safe travels home and thank you so much for bringing us along on your cruise. :)

Glad I could do it. It was pretty fun. Hopefully I can do it again in the future.

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