Rusty, Dirty Ship: RCI Serenade

Wow! We knew this was an older ship, supposedly refurbished, but Serenade is ready for retirement (sale to Pulmantour?) Nice helpful and friendly crew, so-so food, but my goodness the filth was unbearable. After sixteen cruises we have never seen such a poorly maintained ship. Dirt, rust, garbage, spilled food left for hours, certainly not what we expected from RCI.

Wow! We knew this was an older ship, supposedly refurbished, but Serenade is ready for retirement (sale to Pulmantour?) Nice helpful and friendly crew, so-so food, but my goodness the filth was unbearable. After sixteen cruises we have never seen such a poorly maintained ship. Dirt, rust, garbage, spilled food left for hours, certainly not what we expected from RCI.

Not my experience, spend 40+ nites a year on her, was just on Serenade Nov/Dec. Not discounting your experience but hopefully part of it is due to sailing over Spring Break...

We love the Serenade! Spectacular ship with a great crew. Are you sure you weren’t on a Carnival boat?

Left food rests and garbage has nothingto do with the age of a ship. Some rust can be found on all ships after a few years. She is not old!

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I guess I wasn’t paying attention during the three weeks I just spent aboard her. She seemed to be in very good shape to me.

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We love the Serenade! Spectacular ship with a great crew. Are you sure you weren’t on a Carnival boat?

We have sailed many of the "affordable" lines, Norwegian, Carnival, MSC, and Celebrity, Princess, HAL and now RCI and have never seen such a poorly maintained ship. Nice friendly crew though.

Thanks for posting this.

I'm looking at a sailing on her for next year.

I admit I was surprised when I read the thread asking if the poster should take Celebrity Silhouette or Serenade that almost all said Silhouette.....this is, after all, a Royal Caribbean board.

I think I'll do a little more research on Serenade.

Are you sure you weren’t on a Carnival boat?

The musings of someone delusional enough to think there is a measurable distinction between various mass market cruise lines....

I love Serenade and all of the Radiance class ships. I've never seen aging issues on any of them that negatively affect my trip, but read about it over and over again. I really don't get it. They're beautiful cruise ships in my opinion

We were just aboard her from 3/30 - 4/9, and I, sadly, agree with the OP. We had an aft balcony, and the railing was in such bad shape, you couldn't touch it without splintering your hands. Lots of rust also. The fronts of our drawers pulled off each time we (gently) tried opening them. All the aft bathrooms spelled badly, and the cabin attendants had to bleach them every day. She is not the ship she once was... The crew was fantastic, although no one saw the Cruise Director other than at the shows. She also made no announcements during the day - very odd.

My least favorite of all the ships was Serenade. In the mornings the raw sewage smells in the halls was overpowering.

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That ship is only 14 years old. It shouldn't be in such shape, especially if she's had a recent refurb.

I loved Serenade.. crew was great, food was amazing, and the ship herself was in great condition last May...

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My husband & I sailed on the Serenade this past August and I did feel that she was not as kept up as the Radiance, yet we had wonderful service & crew. We have sailed the Brilliance once back in 2004, Radiance 4 and the Serenade twice. I prefer the Radiance over the Serenade. Haven't sailed the Jewel or returned to the Brilliance yet.

We did a B2B on the Serenade beginning late January of this year. This was our third B2B on her, and we have another one scheduled. We were extremely happy with every aspect of this cruise, and we had the best service from all the crew members. We had the corner aft room on deck 8, and never noticed any sewage smell at all. Maybe we were just lucky. Our balcony railing showed some wear, but thankfully nothing where you would ever get splinters. There is some rust, and yes, she might be showing her age, but she's still a wonderful ship to us. I'm sorry for those who didn't have a pleasant experience on this ship.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention during the three weeks I just spent aboard her. She seemed to be in very good shape to me.

 

 

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Good to hear. I am on her in August to Norway and Baltics on B2B. I guess each week could be different but I do think RCI keeps the ships in good shape. Some folks are looking for perfection and cruise ships can't be because of the amount of people and weather issues as well. Even our own homes as a few off weeks of some dust.

I like Radiance class and so thanks to you and all others who DO LIKE this ship. yea.:p

We were just aboard her from 3/30 - 4/9, and I, sadly, agree with the OP. We had an aft balcony, and the railing was in such bad shape, you couldn't touch it without splintering your hands. Lots of rust also. The fronts of our drawers pulled off each time we (gently) tried opening them. All the aft bathrooms spelled badly, and the cabin attendants had to bleach them every day. She is not the ship she once was... The crew was fantastic, although no one saw the Cruise Director other than at the shows. She also made no announcements during the day - very odd.

Did you notify GS about these issues?

We were on Serenade for 24 days in January and found no problem. Have another 21 days booked in January 2020.

That ship is only 14 years old. It shouldn't be in such shape, especially if she's had a recent refurb.

A total Refurbish takes 4-6 weeks. The Dry Dock that these ships get every 5 years is normally just the Marine side maintenance, it's a short 2 weeks. Replacement of furniture, worn carpet and such is done yr round. Every year when Serenade gets back to Florida they do extended work, deep clean, repaint white, touch up rust and remove all wood railings, sand/refinish and replace. This I've witnessed last 3 yrs in Nov/Dec.

We love the Serenade! Spectacular ship with a great crew. Are you sure you weren’t on a Carnival boat?

I have yet to experience a poorly maintained or unclean carnival boat

We loved Serenade, did a back2back. We're booked for July for 13 nights for Baltics. Hope we still love it. She's the only ship I could find that has 3 days in St. Petersburg--most have only 2.