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Just back from Serenade 11-day Southern Caribbean


FionaMG
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Great cruise! :D Called at Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Curacao and Aruba.

 

I will try and answer any questions anyone might have with the caveat that as non-drinkers I can't answer any questions about bar prices other than what appeared in the Compass and we didn't book any specialty dining so I can't answer questions about that either other than to say that there was absolutely no hard-sell. We only ever saw the vendors outside the WJ and they never bothered us.

 

Service on board was consistently excellent and the ship looked very fresh following her recent dry dock.

 

Work commitments permitting I will try and post random thoughts about our cruise as well as scanning and uploading the Compasses over the next few days in case they might be helpful for anyone.

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My wife and I are going on the Serenade in February. Just wondering if you had my time dining. This is the first time we tried my time dining. I prefer a set time but only 8pm was available. Looking forThanks!

 

We prefer a set time too and had late dining at 8 pm which is our usual dinner time at home so it was perfect for us. The 6 pm seating would have been too early as we would have felt rushed getting ready for it (and I would not have had time to go to the gym before dinner!).

 

However, the one thing that we didn't like about the 8 pm time was that we missed most of the shows because we were rarely ready in time (6.30 pm and 8.30 pm).

 

I believe you can make a standing reservation for a set time with MTD though, so you might want to look into that. I am not sure exactly how it works. I will say that we never saw lines waiting to go in to the MTD section of the restaurant.

 

Hope this helps.

Have a great cruise! :)

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Thank you! If we make a reservation for all nights and there is a line of people waiting do we still have to wait in the line? On past cruises there always seemed to be a long line for my time dining.

Unpredictable. Sometimes those with reservations have very little wait, sometimes not.

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Thank you! If we make a reservation for all nights and there is a line of people waiting do we still have to wait in the line? On past cruises there always seemed to be a long line for my time dining.

 

Honestly, don't know, I'm afraid. I just remember never seeing a line there as opposed to the cruises we have done on Oasis or Harmony when there always seemed to be one.

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We will be visiting St. Lucia for the first time. Did you do anything special there? How did you feel about the Island?

It was our first visit to St. Lucia too and, based on recommendations from posters on the Ports of Call board, we did the all-day island tour with Cosol. At $75 each, it was our most expensive tour but they did pack a lot into the day, with food and drinks, several sightseeing stops and an hour at beach. It was perhaps a little bit rushed at times but definitely good value for money. We enjoyed it a lot even though we got caught in a torrential downpour that began at our second-last stop and never let up thereafter.

 

However, we did speak to an elderly Italian couple who had no tour booked in St. Lucia and who just did a drive in a taxi that they hired at the port; they were less than thrilled with their experience.

 

Here is a pic I took at one of the stops. (Hope it works.)

 

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Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

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My wife and I are going on the Serenade in February. Just wondering if you had my time dining. This is the first time we tried my time dining. I prefer a set time but only 8pm was available. Looking forThanks!

 

 

 

My experience on Serenade (two cruises) is that as long as you have a MTD reservation for that evening, they will seat you virtually any time. We were only two so larger group may be a problem. First couple of nights, they were turning away anyone without a reservation, regardless of time.

 

 

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Looking forward to your review. The aft outdoor Windjammer, did you feel rushed to vacate your table after eating? Were the whirlpools nice and hot? Did they offer a coffee card for a discount? Did you have to book entertainment in the theater? Was there a lobster night? Did you do the next cruise offer? Did they have roast beef sandwiches at the park cafe? Was muster drill done in time for sail away? What time did you board? Did most people get off the ship at port? We are going in four weeks, so excited!!!!

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We had MTD on Serenade last January. Made no difference that we had reservations, we still had to wait with those that didn’t have reservations. Sometimes 30 minutes or more. Sailing Serenade in January and we booked late seating. Ship is great and it’s one of our favorites but will not do MTD.

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Thank you! If we make a reservation for all nights and there is a line of people waiting do we still have to wait in the line? On past cruises there always seemed to be a long line for my time dining.

We were on this sailing and made reservations for 5:30 for all nights. We went at 5:30 the first and last nights and our night in Curacoa, but went around 6:30 on the other nights. They have a line for reservations and we never had to wait more than five minutes. You have the same table every night.

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Looking forward to your review. The aft outdoor Windjammer, did you feel rushed to vacate your table after eating? Were the whirlpools nice and hot? Did they offer a coffee card for a discount? Did you have to book entertainment in the theater? Was there a lobster night? Did you do the next cruise offer? Did they have roast beef sandwiches at the park cafe? Was muster drill done in time for sail away? What time did you board? Did most people get off the ship at port? We are going in four weeks, so excited!!!!

 

We did not use the outdoor seating area (we preferred to be inside closer to the food! :D) but we passed through it several times and there seemed to be tables available. However we were never in there at peak meal times so that may be significant. We thought it felt a bit chilly there on sea days when the ship was moving.

 

DH enjoyed the whirlpools. He preferred the one in the Solarium when the ship was moving because he always went late afternoon (while I was in the gym) by which time it was a bit too chilly for the outdoor one. They did get a bit crowded apparently as there are only two, one indoors and one outdoors.

 

The coffee card turned up for the first time on the Compass on Day 3 at $31, which I believe is the normal on-board selling price. We tried the espresso the first night and found it to be very bitter (we are espresso drinkers at home so we do feel qualified to make comparisons) so we didn't go back, but it might be fine in a beverage with milk. I suggest you try it first rather than buying the card only to discover you don't care for the coffee.

 

Other drink offers that made an appearance were a wine package offering 3 or 5 bottles, which I can't find a price for but which says "Enjoy over 25% savings on the best wines Tuscany has to offer", and the 10-drinks card, which made its first appearance on day 4 for $75 plus 18% gratuity.

 

No need to book for the theatre. Shows were generally at 6.30 and 8.30, with a few exceptions and there were always plenty of empty seats.

 

Lobster night was the second-last night, which coincided with the second formal night. The lobster tails were small but tender and flavourful and our waiter brought out a couple of extra ones for our table to share.

 

We didn't do the next cruise offer because we simply do not yet know when we will next be able to cruise. But the next cruise desk on deck 5 was nicely appointed and had generous opening hours with an appointment system offered but walk-ins also available at quieter times.

 

I didn't notice if they had roast beef sandwiches at the Park Café as we only ate there once (they didn't on that occasion) but I passed through quite a few times to get water and I do remember noticing that they seemed to have quite a nice selection and they also had a soup option and a carved meat option too.

 

Muster drill was done in time for sailaway but it was the old names-on-a-list at the actual muster station system rather than the scanning of seapasses and watching a video in an air-conditioned room that we have seen on Oasis class. This meant it took a bit of time to get everyone ticked off the list and we baked in the Florida sunshine in the meantime.

 

We boarded just as they were announcing that the staterooms were open at 1 pm. Check-in was quick and painless. A member of our roll call posted that she was already on board at 10.45 am, a full 45 minutes before the WJ was due to open!

 

I don't know for sure, but I reckon probably most people did get off at the ports of call, as we were usually back on by 3 pm and the ship always had that "still-quiet" feel about it.

 

Hope this helps. If you think of anything else you want to ask, feel free. I will do my best to answer. :)

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Background and getting there

 

DH and I chose this cruise to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, so being able to have our anniversary during the cruise was the number one factor. Although we prefer the larger ships, we also wanted a change from the typical 7-night Caribbean itineraries that we have now done several times. St. Lucia was a bucket-list destination for me and DH was keen to return to Aruba and Curacao, which he visited on many occasions as a crew member on the old Sitmar cruise line. So Serenade it was.

 

We flew from our local airport in southern Portugal via Lisbon to Miami International with TAP Air Portugal, Portugal’s national carrier. TAP is neither the best nor the worst airline we have flown with but it was by far the best one for us on this occasion in terms of logistics and price.

 

The flight was uneventful and actually landed at Miami about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Immigration was much quicker than I remembered from our previous visit four years ago. I don’t know if the new kiosks helped speed things up or if we were simply lucky with the arrival time being a slightly quieter one.

 

As we made our way to baggage reclaim, cheerfully congratulating ourselves on how easy it had been, we were fingered (or perhaps I should say “nosed”) by a cute little beagle on “Forbidden Food Patrol” who decided we needed to go to the Naughty Room, despite the fact that the only food in the offending bag was a still-sealed tube of Pringles.

 

So we got sent off to the wrong side of the glass divider in baggage reclaim to collect our checked bags. While we were waiting for them to arrive, we realised what the little dog had picked up on: the two bananas that we had had in the bag and had eaten just before arrival because we knew we weren’t allowed to bring them in! When I mentioned this to the dog handler, she agreed that this was probably correct and helped make sure we were “processed” and set free as quickly as possible.

 

However, our trip to the Naughty Room had another unexpected impact. I had pre-booked a transfer with meet-and-greet from Larry’s Limos and the driver had phoned me while we were waiting for our bags to let me know he was waiting for us just outside the arrivals hall. What neither of us realised was that the exit into the main concourse from the Naughty Room is not the same one that everyone else uses, so there were a few anxious moments and a couple more phone calls until we were able to find him.

 

After we did, everything got back on track again. He took us to the vehicle, which was a brand new and very comfortable SUV despite the fact that we had only booked the cheapest sedan offered. I should say at this point that the whole online booking process with Larry’s Limos was very easy and I quickly received confirmation from them. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to others.

 

By this time we were into Friday afternoon rush hour so the traffic was very heavy to begin with and it took us a bit longer than we would have expected to reach our hotel in Fort Lauderdale but we didn’t really care. We were heading for a 3-night pre-cruise stay so we certainly weren’t going to be missing the boat! :D

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What shore excursion did you take in Antigua? Thanks.

 

In Antigua we did the “Antigua Panoramic” excursion with an independent operator called Voyages Antigua: http://www.voyagesantigua.com/en/activity/19928/antigua-panoramic

 

This is essentially the same tour as Royal’s “Scenic Antigua and Beach”tour but was $15 per person cheaper and was scheduled to leave at 9 am as opposed to Royal’s 10.45 am.

The itinerary was supposed to have been as follows:

Tour departs cruise terminal/hotel at 9:00 am

- Arrives at English Harbour at 10:00 am

- 15 minutes photo stop at Fort Block House (FBH) and Shirley’s Heights (SH)

- 45 minutes guided tour at Nelson’s Dockyard

- Arrives at the Beach at 11:45 pm.

- Departs Beach at 1:15 pm

- Arrives at cruise terminal/hotel at 2:00 pm

As it turned out' date=' we did not stick to this itinerary/timing. We were 30 minutes late leaving because we waited for some guests who failed to show in the end. Then we spent a lot longer than 15 minutes at the Fort Block House and Shirley’s Heights. Just the bathroom and the presentation about Antigua’s history took 15 minutes. [/font']

The presentation was nicely done and interesting, though. I think we probably then spent about another 20 to 30 minutes between the FBH and SH, which was actually nice timing to allow us to appreciate it and take photos without feeling rushed.

The 45-minute stop at Nelson’s Dockyard was nice too but the guided tour was actually only 10 minutes followed by free time to wander around. This was also where we got the “bottled” water mentioned in the tour description, which was obtained at one of the bars and turned out to be poured from a large bottle into a cup, so we were wandering around with these cups in our hands. Other drinks were offered too, including (if I am remembering correctly) rum punch.

By the time we left Nelson’s Dockyard we were running so late that it was already 2 pm when we arrived back at the port area and we had not even been to the beach yet! However, it was a very dull and cloudy by then so everyone opted out of the beach anyway, but the guide would have taken us there if we had wanted to go.

It was an enjoyable tour and the guide was friendly and knowledgeable. We thought it was reasonable value for money but I would not have wanted to pay the extra $15 per person charged by Royal for essentially the same tour.

You can book this tour online on the Voyages Antigua website or, if you contact them by e-mail, you can arrange to pay in cash on the day of the tour,which is what we did.

 

View from Shirley's Heights:

 

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Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

Edited by FionaMG
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