billsgal

Seaview Cafe is gone and Izumi has taken its place. Rita's Cantina is at the back of the WJ just outside the doors on port side.

WIFI is available for unlimited time at a price You can buy it for one or two days or the entire voyage. It was also available in your room, you did not have to move to a hot spot!

Concierge Lounge is where the Hollywood Odyssey was on deck 13, Diamond Lounge is on Deck 13 in a part of the Viking Crown, and depending upon the number of diamonds on board, can be opened up to accommodate large numbers. The VCL is available to others unless it is totally made to a Diamond Club, but again that depends upon the numbers. However, the VCL is available to everyone for the rest of the day and night (after the Diamond lounge cocktail hours)

Unfortunately no. Only,gold card holders, (suites and Pinnacles) were allowed

To have breakfast in Chops.

Swiss2619

We just got offSerenade and the ships excursion went to kaokao beach, part of Orient Beach, but not the nude part. kaokao(not sure of the spelling) is a topless optional beach, but very few were topless. They have a nice beach, with chairs and umbrellas and a great restaurant. We went there on our own, but met up with people who were on the ships excursion. We may have saved a few bucks by going on our own, but we could stay longer than the ones on the ship tour. We plan on going back next time in St.Maarten.

Sally, thanks for the kind words. We love those TA's that end up in Boston, so you never know about 2017.

You will love the Serenade. The Jewel and Brilliance have been our favorite ships,but we now have a new favorite! We were treated extremely well on the SR, the officers, staff and crew were wonderful, and since we are cruising Jewel next month, we can readily compare the two ships!

I will keep the stuff from this years TA and get it to you so you can plan for 2017. We have not been to Oslo, so that is the only new port for us, and I am looking forward to it.

Don't think we will make the January 16 Serenade cruise. After this winter we are trying to find a place in Florida for the winter months, so our cruising will be limited to trips from the Florida ports.........

rita

Hi Sally,

Bob is right on, probably open March/April 2016.

We booked for next year's TA on Serenade, B2B with the Norwegian Fjords. Booked two weeks ago while onboard Serenade repoisitioning, and there were still good cabins left, even though the books had opened 2 weeks before. Maybe you want to come next year.....don't wait for 2017:)

Say hi to Jan when you talk with her.

Rita

I was not Serenaded, nor was I WOWed!

Loyalty Ambassador, non existence. He was never at his post in Guest Relations when posted. Believe he was sent home. Why create a position and not have reliable backup. Was told he was sick.

 

The Loyalty Ambassador was sick, and sent home. However, one of the future cruise sales staff helped with Loyalty requests, as did the Guest Relations staff. A friend of ours did not receive the correct d+ amenity, went to guest services, and was given 2 of the correct amenity. Did you go to Guest Services to get your amenity problem solved?

 

 

Top level event held at three in the afternoon, why? Beverage service was bad, bad, bad. Was told the Crown and Anchor members didn’t want miss their time in the Concierge or Diamond lounge from 4 to 8 pm, Bull.

 

Since the event was held on a sea day, what difference did the time make? We would prefer it be held in the afternoon rather than the morning, but you must feel differently. Different strokes for different folks, I guess:)

I never received one amenity for cruising over 400 days.

 

See above comment.....did you let the Guest relations people know, and if you did, how did they respond?

 

 

The Service in the Concierge Lounge was bad. The Service in the Diamond lounge was better. Yes over 600 top tier members on this cruise, but the ship should have scheduled more staff when needed.

We had wonderful service in the Concierge Lounge from Nizar. If there were no empty seats when we arrived, he would find some and get us a seating area. Can't speak for the diamond lounge, we never went there, but friends did say it was quite crowded.

Food was the worsted I have ever had on any cruise ship or any cruise line, in the Main Dining room, Park Café and the Windjammer.

I reserved a table for 6, received a table for 4 in the MDR. I went to the Maitre’D and was told the tables of 6 were all taken only to find they were not. Appears he was not looking very closely at the requests submitted by Crown and Anchor. Eight pm seating was not full any night.

 

Food is subjective. For us, it was typical banquet food, some nights pretty good, some nights just OK. Park Cafe roast beef was awful the first time, then good the next two times we ate there. WJ was typical WJ INHO.

 

I found the ship to be clean, service in other areas good and our room attended excellent.

We also found the ship very clean and our room attendant Mariana was wonderful. Our wait staff was excellent and everyone around the ship seemed to be happy. Our bar waiter, Ghanna, in schooner bar, would have our drinks ready within 1 minute of sitting down. We do not sit at the outdoor pool, but the solarium bar service was spotty at best.

Our favorite ships have been Jewel and Brilliance, and this was our first time on Serenade, despite being Pinnacle members. We might just have a new favorite as we thought everything was outstanding. We had diamond and diamond plus members sailing with us, and all thought the service was wonderful. I am not in any way doubting your experience, but sometimes two people see things differently. I hope your next cruise will be more to your liking.

d+ can access Barefootbeach if they have a cabana. Suites and pinnacles have first access to cabanas at barefoot beach, Suites and pinnacles can use Barefoot beach without having a cabana. If a suite guest does not have a cabana they cannot invite non suite guests to use the beach.

We are currently onboard Serenade and have booked back to back cruises for. 2016,an 8 night followed by a 16 night. Deposit was $150 for the 8 night and $250 for the. 16 night, and we opted to use the onboard credos $150 and $250 respectively, for the 2016 cruises.

We were told the deposit was refundable. However, if we had opted to apply the onboard credits to our presently sailing Serenade cruise, they would not be refunded if we had to cancel.

We are on Serenade, and my understanding is that the free wifi is for Pinnacles, not suite guests. We had a brunch for suites and pinnacles today, and one of the suite guests commented that it would be a nice perk for the suites.

Also, we are Piñnacle, and we did not have a separate room before boarding. We were directed to an area with a sign saying Pinnacles, Suites and Diamond plus. I did see the room you are talking about, and it appeared everyone in it had a scooter, wheelchair, walker or cane, so I do think it was for the mobility challenged.

The free wifi is a great perk. Thank you RCI.

Yes, you can pick a restaurant and just show up. You may or may not have a wait. When we did DD on Quantum, we did not have to wait on the nights we didn't have a reservation. Even with reservations, we have sometimes had a10-15 minute wait with MTD.

Yes, we made pineapple in February, and are cruising next week on Serenade and next month on Jewel, so the Oasis cruise is actually the third one after making pineapple.

You should be recognized on the cruise that you achieve 700 points, so it appears that will be in the cruise you are on after your March 2016 cruise.

Approximately 6 to 8 weeks after that cruise, you will receive a Pinnacle package (actually 2 separate packages sent from different vendors). One will have your crystal Pinnacle award and your free cruise certificate, and the other will have yourPinnacle pins, luggage tags and passport holders.

You can call about your free cruise even before you have the certificate and a representative will figure out the value of your "free" cruise. There is a maximum value of 1200 per person for this free cruise, but regardless of the price you are required to pay taxes and gratuities.

We received the maximum value of 1200 pp, because the lowest balcony room was priced higher than that, so we were required to pay additional monies plus taxes and gratuities, but we booked oasis for summertime, so the price was high. We hd booked this cruise prior to making Piñnacle, so they just adjusted the price and sent us a new invoice, all within 30 minutes.

We did an 11 night on Quantum and the menus did not change in the complimentary restaurants, but there was a different special each night, if I remember correctly.

We sail on Serenade of the Seas two weeks from tomorrow. I have been trying to book the specialties for over six weeks now without success. I have now given up and will book right after we board.

The dining for that cruise is open. I booked our MTD reservations on Friday evening.

Breakfast should be available every day in the MDR, But lunch is not usually served in the Mdr on port days. However, the windjammer will be open on port days.... Things may have changed since the last time I cruised to bermuda on RCI, so if anyone has other info, it might be more up to date than mine

Yes

And it varies from cruise to cruise....when we made PC we had a picture taken with the hotel director, the cruise director and the loyalty ambassador, and were recognized at the top tier party. Another PC Who made PC on the same ship two months earlier wasn't even recognized at the top tier party, no picture or anything else. Go figure, since the Loyalty Ambassador was the same for both cruises

We've done the Northern crossing a number of times, and are waiting for the Serenade to open for booking. However, I believe it is coming into Boston, not into Bayonne, as it will be doing Canada/NE cruises from Boston, the repositioning from Boston to FLorida via the Caribbean for the winter season.

We have had different sea conditions every time; sometimes calm, sometimes rough. However, friends had an aft cabin one year, and I couldn't even walk around in the cabin without holding onto something. It was only for a short time, and the seas calmed down. We usually take a midship cabin, and it has been pretty calm most of the time. I don't think port or starboard matters too much, one has sun in the morning and one has sun in the afternoon, so it depends on what your preference is.

In Iceland it has been quite cool, not cold, but on one trip it was raining and foggy, so just like the US, the weather varies. This trip is not usually on that is conducive to using the outdoor pool, but hardy souls have been seen swimming there! I prefer the solarium pool, covered and much warmer.

The Faroe islands are beautiful, very different scenery, as there are no trees. There are beautiful fjords, spectacular waterfalls and amazing scenery.

We've been there two or three times and I wouldn't hesitate to go back.

Maybe we wil see you onboard:)

I know this is off topic from the original post but I have to ask. When the CL goes away, is there a place for suite guest to go? I'm confused by this since we will be sailing after the dry dock in a GS. We had a GS once before and never once used it.

If Allure goes the same way as Oasis, their will be a suite lounge for those guests in a GS and above, and also for Pinnacles. There will be a diamond lounge for diamond, diamond plus and pinnacles which will offer pretty much the same thing (drinks and hors'd oerves) during the cocktail hour. The only concierge lounge that offered more (breakfast and lunch) were the ones on Oasis and Allure. However, the Coastal Kitchen on Quantum is for suite guests and does offer hot breakfasts and lunch (but we were not offered beer or wine at lunch (or at breakfast either:D)

OK, I get it that you were looking forward to cruising on Quantum and are so upset that you had to cancel.

However, we were on the ship in November and again in February, and had no problems with Dynamic Dining. Some nights we had reservations, some nights we didn't and on those nights we walked up to the restaurant of our choice and were seated almost immediately (usually between 7 and 7:45).

The only night we experienced any problems were a night we had reservations at Grande. We had reservations for 7 o clock, and were not seated until around 7:35. Being that we were a party of 14, and had to have 2 tables of 7 to accommodate us, I could almost understand it, even though I wasn't too happy at the time.

There are NO formal nights on this ship. There is, however, a "formal" restaurant, Grande, and the nights you elect to dine there are "formal" nights for you........if you dine there every night every night is formal. If you dine there only one or two nights, those are formal nights for you, not for anyone who is not dining at the Grand. And, formal is hardly "formal", IMHO. Ony requirement for men is that they wear a jacket, tie not required (and of course they are asked to wear trousers:D)

As far as shows go, if you do not make a reservation, they allow those without reservations to enter about 15 minutes before the show start. You might not get the best seats in the house, as those are probably occupied by folks who make their reservations a year or so in advance. And you can make reservations onboard the ship, using their royal Iq app.

As far an NCL goes, I don't care for their open dining concept or their food. In my opinion, the Quantum dining rooms and food far surpassed anything we had a few months ago on NCL Dawn. No comparison in service, either.

I do feel that the demographic that Royal is targeting for Quantum is not the traditional cruiser but rather the new millenials.....who dont want to be told where or what time to eat, or who to eat with.....those same folks who have their devices in their hands and cannot live without them.

Even saying that, we are definitely traditional cruisers. We are Pinnacle on Royal, certainly not millenials, in fact we are old, but I loved Quantum The food was outstanding, the ship was beautifu, the service was excellent and I loved the activities offered onboard.

I am sorry you cancelled your cruise on Quantum. I think Quantum has gotten some bad press and reviews, but they have been getting better as they work out the kinks.

I can't argue the fact that you could book another ship for much less, but that is usually the case with a new ship....the prices are high because so many people want to experience the "newest". I am glad we did, and I would book Anthem in a heartbeat (but we have more than enough cruises booked right now and my husband would probably kill me:D

Good for you.....we were also able to get the full $1200 pp off our cruise, ans would have been out of luck if we had waited. I owe thanks to the other pineapples who told me we could book without having the certificate!

Have you made final payment on the booked cruises? We used our certificate on a cruise we had already booked...they just adjusted the price and sent us anew invoice.

We made Pinnacle in February, have been off ship for more than 4 weeks and have not received the pins or the stratum. However, we have already used our free cruise certificate for a cruise we had previously booked, and the resolutions agent simply reworked the prices and applied the discount to our reservation. It isn't a "free" cruise, but we were happy with the allowance they gave us toward the cruise.

We also filled put a form onboard Quantum, which asked us what names we wanted on the pins, so I hope they arrive before our next cruise.

We called the Diamond plus desk and told them we wanted to get some info on the free cruise, they directed us to resolutions, we discussed the best way to use the certificate(we had 4 cruises booked, but only one was approaching final payment date) and within 30 minutes we had the updated invoice with the revised price. Much easier and faster than I imagined.

I owe many thanks to the Pinnacle members that helped get the "free" cruise

Particulars worked out a short time ago!

Our serenade sailing is 28 days out and dining has not opened.

I am glad to see that papa flamingo was able to stretch his free hour out over the course of the cruise. We were on Quantum 2/2 sailing, and the only option available to me was the 24 consecutive hours, and I was told that was the the way it is. Supposedly the new policy! Wish I had done what Neblu did and gone to Guest Services, but I was dealing with Guest Services for this and that is the answer I got. Guess I should have pursued it!