Just back from Serenade of the Seas New England/Canada 9/17/17 - review

Background - Our group consisted up myself, husband, teen, youth, and my parents. This was our first Royal cruise, we've been on 2 Disney and 4 NCL.

Arrival - Arrived in Boston the day before cruise and stayed at the Doubletree Club by Hilton Boston Bayside. We texted the hotel after we picked up our bags and were told where to catch the shuttle. It was about a 5 minute wait, but it only held 12 people and not everyone waiting in line was able to board. The hotel was nice, check in fast, the only issue we had was shuttle service. We asked to be taken to the wharf so we could use our harbor cruise ticket (I pre-bought hop on/off trolley tickets and it came with a harbor cruise.) We waited 15 min for a shuttle that took us to the aquarium and we walked over to board our cruise. It was a nice 45 minute tour. It basically circled the harbor and stopped for 5 minutes at the Charlestown Navy Yard if anyone wanted to hop on/off. Getting a shuttle back was the problem. We were told it would be a 15-20 min wait. It was 25 only to have the shuttle full and told we would have to catch the next one in a few minutes as another driver was on the way. Wrong. 50 minutes later the same shuttle driver returned to get us. He then went to the airport to drop off/pick up and then took us to the hotel. Apparently they only had 1 shuttle going and it made the full airport/hotel/aquarium loop each time. We did pre-schedule our drop off at the pier for the next morning at 10am.

Port - We got our shuttle to the pier the next morning at 10 am (they had 2 shuttles going there at 10). It was a short drive, we were dropped right off, handed our bags off right away and went to check in. We were staying in a suite and used that check-in line with no wait. Then the confusion began. We asked were to sit if we were in a suite and were directed to a section of seats to the side of check in. A lady came over and quite rudely demanded to know why we were there, we said we were told to wait there, she said this was wrong and took us to another lady that told us just because we had gold cards didn't mean we could sit there and we responded it was her coworker that told us to sit there. She then took us to a different section and talked to another lady who then took us to a small hall with chairs and told us to wait there with the pinnacle/diamond cruisers. When they all boarded it was just our group left and a man came over, looked at our cards and said "you are in a suite, you should be on board already" and sent us on. I should mention we have only stayed concierge on NCL and the service is quiet different. You have a separate seating area at port and are led on before everyone else by your butler. I did research this ahead of time for Royal and received a letter from Mario, our concierge telling me only that I was to inform pier staff that we were sailing in a suite. Once on board we dropped off our carry ons in our room and went to Windjammer for lunch.

Room - Suite 7262 - Two bedroom family suite - The room was great. Starboard, aft. Had a nice, large living room. No complaints, no noise issues. Just a bit of a walk as there are no aft elevators or stairs.

Lounge - The concierge lounge was nice. It was never too crowded. We usually found it empty outside the 4:30 - 8:00 serving hours. The coffee machine was better there than in the rooms. The concierge Mario was nice and helpful and we loved our server Alan.

Kids clubs - The 8 year old chose not to attend, always preferring to join us. The teen was terribly disappointed. There were only 6 eligible cruisers in the 12-17 age range, and she was the only one that signed up. She had looked at her brochure when we boarded of all the activities planned for the cruise and circled what she thought would be fun and in the end not one was offered. She checked in with the counselors everyday and was told they would call our room if anyone else showed up, but no one ever did.

Dining - We did the first night right special of $15 for our first meal and ate at Chops. It was a nice meal. However, at 7:00 it took us 2 hours to complete in a half empty restaurant. The next night we had 7:45 dinner reservations in the main dining room (Reflections) and once again it took us 2 hours to have our meal. We ordered room service the next few nights and it took 1 hour 15 min to 1 hour 30 min each night for delivery after placing our order. We tried Reflections again (the night before the last night) at 7:30, once again taking 2 hours. We had room service breakfast delivered two times, we asked for the 7-730 and it was there at 7 both times. We ate breakfast in Chops the other mornings and it didn't take more than 30-45 mins. We ate lunch at Windjammer all but once, choosing Reflections on the last sea day. Again, a 2 hour meal. Our server disappeared, after giving us our main course. Someone else came and cleared our dishes after watching us sit awhile, someone delivering drinks next to us asked if we wanted water (we had all finished it during our meal). Someone else came by and asked if we were waiting for food, we said our dessert and our waitress has disappeared. He came back 10 min later with our dessert. All in all we were very disappointed in Reflections. On the last night I put out the room service order for breakfast the next morning and asked for 7 - 7:30, at 7:25 it wasn't there, I looked at the door and our order was still on the door so we went to Chops. We told mentioned what happened to our server, he sent someone over to question us who said he would find out what happened. We said it was no big deal.

Departure - We choose to put our bags out the night before and after breakfast we went to disembarked at 8. It was fast and easy. They wove us through customs in Reflections and off the ship. We grabbed our bags and walked right out. We walked about 10 minutes to the Westin Waterfront Hotel and were able to check-in at 9 as I had requested early check in. We dropped off our bags and went to the front of the hotel to catch the hop on/off trolley.

We enjoyed the ship and our cruise and have 3 more booked with Royal. I can't help but compare it to our previous Disney and NCL cruises though. The service we received on Disney was the best of the three. The suite perks and food on NCL were the best of the three. We didn't like that there was only one complimentary restaurant on the Serenade.

Excursions - I did a separate review of each port in the Canada/New England section.

You mentioned there are no Aft stairs. On the deck plans there appear to be stairs near 7646 near the back of the ship. Are these stairs inaccessible?

You mentioned there are no Aft stairs. On the deck plans there appear to be stairs near 7646 near the back of the ship. Are these stairs inaccessible?

Crew only.

Oh shoot! I wish they didn't show them on the deck plans. We picked our room so that we would at least be close to those stairs. Yikes!

There is no room service breakfast on debarkation day, never was.

My husband and I were on this sailing too in a suite. We felt this was the worst food service we have ever had on a RC ship. We had My Time Dining and the staff were rushed and unfriendly. The food presentation was poor. This was our least favorite cruise on RC so far and we are Diamond.

There is no room service breakfast on debarkation day, never was.

Thank you, we are used to getting it on NCL, now I know what to expect for next time.

My husband and I were on this sailing too in a suite. We felt this was the worst food service we have ever had on a RC ship. We had My Time Dining and the staff were rushed and unfriendly. The food presentation was poor. This was our least favorite cruise on RC so far and we are Diamond.

Glad to know it wasn't just us! My husband got creme brulee the last night and it was like a bowl of soup. Can't believe the waiter even served it to be honest. It was just a bowl of liquid.

OP, given the description of the food and the collaboration by another poster - you do have options to take your business elsewhere.

Having 3 cruises booked with RCL perpetuates their continued downward slide in product offering cause they know that people continue booking despite their deliberate downgrading.

My comment is based on taking the long view of keeping cruise lines on their toes and not taking the consumer for granted

OP, given the description of the food and the collaboration by another poster - you do have options to take your business elsewhere.

 

Having 3 cruises booked with RCL perpetuates their continued downward slide in product offering cause they know that people continue booking despite their deliberate downgrading.

 

My comment is based on taking the long view of keeping cruise lines on their toes and not taking the consumer for granted

True, that is why after our last cruise with NCL we decided to try another line. I do believe in second chances though and am willing to give RCL another try incase it was a one off type thing.

I have also experienced what I call inefficient officiousness from the folks telling you where to go in the terminal. One person will direct you one way, and then another will (often rudely, loudly, or officiously) tell you you are wrong and why are you there and you should be over there. Now that it's happened more than once I just smile blandly and figure that my day is going to improve significantly in just a few minutes once I'm on board, and the officious person's day is probably going to be unpleasant for a few more hours. It's still not a great way to treat customers.