My (late) Serenade Review-August 29, 2010

It’s been a few weeks since our cruise on my new favorite ship! I know most of you can relate to coming home from vacation and painfully trying to ease back into your daily routine. We cured our post-cruise sadness by planning two more cruises next year, LOL! I know this is late, however I hope this review is helpful to everyone considering or planning to sail on the Serenade.

About us: We were a group of 6- Me (Chrystal), my husband Wesley, our married friends Crystal and Osh, my Mother Lillie, and my best friend Janelle. We are all in our 20’s and 30’s, and my Mom is 67 (doesn’t she look fabulous? J). My husband and I sailed with NCL (to Bermuda) for our honeymoon 4 years ago, and also on the Adventure of the Seas last October on the same route. This was everyone else’s first cruise.

Friday, August 27: The Serenade sailed on Sunday, August 29th, so we decided to spend two nights in San Juan pre-cruise. We live in NJ, so we took a 9:50 AM flight, from PHL to San Juan. We had a limo service pick us up from our home and take us to the airport. Our limo service (John’s First Class Limos) was great. The driver arrived about 20 minutes early. Hiring a driver saved us lots of $$ and time. Here’s a photo of us in front of the limo. Not bad for 7 in the morning! DH and I are to the far right:

I love Philadelphia airport first thing in the morning. There are no crowds, it’s always a smooth boarding in the morning. Went through security with no problems. For some reason there were about 4 rows of children with no adults supervising them on the flight…and the children were pretty rowdy….some were climbing over the seats, running up and down the aisles, crying, and screaming. It didn’t seem like they were unaccompanied minors (they didn’t have the US Airways armbands on to identify them as such), but their chaperones were either in first class or near the front of the plane (we were over the wings of the plane)- or completely ignoring them lol. Note to people who travel with several children in tow...PLEASE sit with your children, and please correct them when they are not behaving in public. We could not relax on our 3 hour flight. My Mom and Crystal got to the point where they actually corrected the children when they ran up and down the aisles and climbed over the seats. flight attendants would give them warning glances which were ignored. Crystal and Osh were planning to sleep a bit on the plane, but that wasn’t going to happen!

We landed in SJU around 1:30 PM, about 20 minutes early. I like this airport since it’s smaller and very simply laid out. We went right to the baggage claim and had our bags within 15 minutes. Right outside the baggage claim there’s a taxi stand. We walked right up to the stand and let them know how many passengers we had, where we wanted to go, and how many pieces of luggage we had with us. They showed us our price on a sheet of paper we got to keep with us. Here’s a pic of the taxi pricing schedule (hope you can read it):

We were headed to the Caribe Hilton (Zone 4), so our price was $19+ $1 for each piece of luggage. Not bad at all split among 6 people. I love the taxi service in San Juan since all 6 of us could fit in the van with ALL our luggage. Four of us had 25’ suitcases, and two of us had 29’ cases. Of course, each lady had a carryon, and my husband had a laptop. Miraculously, everyone and everything fit comfortably.

I would say we arrived at the Caribe Hilton within 40 minutes of touching down in San Juan. We got this hotel via Priceline at a rate of $90 per night, per room (3 hotel rooms). I was so excited at this price since hotels in San Juan can run an average of $250 per night! Upon my successful bid, I emailed the hotel manager and requested 3 ocean view rooms in the Hhonors tower, with balconies. I’m a Hilton Hhonors member, and had no problem with them confirming that they would honor my request.

I love the open-air lobby of the hotel. It made me feel like we were finally able to start enjoying our tropical vacation. There was a water station that had large pitchers of water with melon. Photos of the open-air lobby and heading to the Hhonors Tower:

Checkin was easy. We hurried to our rooms in the newer Hhonors Tower and were very pleased with our accommodations! We were on the 18th floor with a great view of the city and the ocean. Here are some pics of the room and the view from our room:

We all planned to change and meet in the pool area. DH and I walked the grounds a bit, grabbed some towels, and grabbed some burgers at the pool bar. The burger was great, but expensive; food, a soda, and a mojito for both of us ran about $40. The views from the outdoor dining area are beautiful. Here are some pics (I love the photo of Crystal and Osh):

After lunch Wes went to take a nap (which became his ritual on this trip, hehe), and Mom and I grabbed some towels and headed to the beach area. The beach was situated in a lagoon; you can see the rocks that block the waves from the beach. The water is warm and calm. We were able to enjoy the beach for about an hour before it began to rain.

Later in the evening, we went to dinner at the Pina Colada Club, located off the lobby of the Hhonors Tower. The service and food were pretty disappointing. I had skirt steak that was a little too gamey for my taste. I normally love skirt steak in PR, but I couldn’t finish this one. The rice and beans were good though. My husband ordered ribs which were very good. I should just order whatever he orders, it seems like he always has great luck with his food. I literally took two bites and gave up. When the waitress discovered that I didn’t like my food, she didn’t offer to replace it with something else, and she charged me full price. I don’t mind paying it since they couldn’t just take the food back and serve it to someone else, however it would have been nice to have been able to try something else. I don’t think we would go back there again, but we were tired from our traveling and didn’t want to go offsite. We all went to bed pretty early to prepare for a full day of touring Saturday.

Mom is so cute- inside of the restaurant:

Saturday, August 28: I’m an early riser, so I got up early to spend some quiet time on my own and take more photos of the grounds. It’s beautiful in San Juan first thing in the morning:

View from the balcony

Pool Grounds

Headed to the internet center (on the 2nd floor in the main part of the hotel) to check some things. It was nice that the first 10 minutes on the computer were free…that was all I needed anyway.

The parrot in the lobby was very talkative this morning. Seems like I missed my dog so much on this trip that I was fascinated with any animals I encountered J

Went to Starbucks in the hotel to pick up some breakfast to take back to the hotel room. They have a freshly baked ham and Swiss croissant that’s delicious. The lemon loaf is good too. Those with an orange juice and a bottle of water cost a little over $10.

We met our tour guide, Victor Balbin of San Juan Happy Tours (http://sanjuanhappytours.webs.com), at 9 AM. He was right on time in the hotel lobby area, and we were excited to learn that we were the only group scheduled for the tour that day. We had a pretty personalized tour. Victor showed us around New and Old San Juan. My Mom and I had been to San Juan a year ago, and my husband and I visited the city before our cruise last year. We never had a tour guide, so it was nice to have so much information about the city. We were able to appreciate San Juan so much more with such an informative guide. He was a great guide and we learned awesome facts about the history of the city. Halfway through the tour, he let us choose between seeing El Morro Fort or San Cristobal Fort. We chose El Morro because of the incredible views. Turned out to be the perfect place for some amazing photos:

I must say that we were happy to arrive at the fort early in the morning. I think we arrived around 10 AM. There were no crowds, which is why we could take such great photos. We noticed it started to get pretty busy there around 11 or so.

I'm lovin' your review & pictures. We're doing our first cruise on the Serenade out of San Juan. We're taking on 5-6 days to just explore Puerto Rico.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks for all the great pix!

I forgot to note that the fort has a $3 entrance fee.

Janelle discovered a wonderful little cart in front of the fort. A man there sold shaved ice with the option of several flavors. There was a large block of ice inside the cart, he shaved it into a cup and topped it with the flavor of your choice.

Most of us tried the coconut (real coconut milk sweetened just right) and fell in LOVE with it! And for just $2! I’m craving one as I write. It was so good I had to take a photo as a memento:

We met with Victor once more, and he showed us around the city some more. He suggested we stop by Café Manolin if we wanted to have lunch where the locals ate. We wanted to take some time to shop and walk around the city on our own, so he dropped us off in the center square so we could enjoy the rest of the day at our leisure. We did some shopping, then wandered back to Café Manolin (http://www.cafemanolinoldsanjuan.com/). We knew it had to be good because it was PACKED full of locals- always a good sign for me.

The menu was simple and very reasonably priced:

I had fried pork chops with rice and beans. They were fried crispy and seasoned well. Everyone was pleased with their orders, and with most of their lunch entrees around $10 and under, we were very happy J

Walked around the city a little more, and ended up in front of the Sheraton. There’s a taxi stand right in front, so we were able to easily catch a ride back to the hotel for more pool/beach time.

For the rest of the afternoon, we enjoyed our time at the hotel pool bar. We met in the hotel lobby to head to Barrachina in Old San Juan (http://barrachina.com/) for dinner. I love this restaurant because the food is wonderful, and they have a flamenco show with dinner (free if you spend $20 on food and drink). If you’ve never seen a flamenco show, it’s a great experience. Food and drink ran about $30 pp. I've been here twice- the food is great. You can't go wrong with any of the chicken dishes. My Mom got steak, and it wasn't as good as I remembered the first time. Just about everyone else got different chicken and seafood dishes and they were all wonderful.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel for some rest. We board the ship the next morning! :D

I'm lovin' your review & pictures. We're doing our first cruise on the Serenade out of San Juan. We're taking on 5-6 days to just explore Puerto Rico.

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks for all the great pix!

Thank you so much! You are going to love San Juan, and LOVE the Serenade. We loved the ship so much that we're headed back on the Serenade next year. I envy you with 5-6 days in Puerto Rico. It's a great island, with amazing history, food, sights, and people. :)

I'm really enjoying your review so far. It already sounds fabulous and you haven't even made it on the ship yet!

Great pics too!

Anastazia

Sunday, August 29:

I got up early (as usual) and visited the hotel gym. The gym is in a separate building, about a 1 minute walk from the hotel lobby. It’s nice because the back wall of the gym consists completely of windows, so I had a great view of the ocean while I was on the elliptical machine. Met up with Mom who wanted to check out the Subway around the corner from the hotel. She wasn’t impressed with the breakfast there, so we went back to Starbucks for our croissants and coffee. No biggie since we were headed to the ship today!

We all met in the hotel lobby at 10:30 AM and caught a taxi at the hotel taxi stand. We all fit into the taxi at one time, which was great. When we arrived, there were about a good 50 people in front of us. We waited about 10 minutes, then porters began taking our suitcases. We tipped them ($1 per bag), then headed to the next line where we waited for about 25 minutes. A vendor was selling large bottles of cold water for $1 each, which was great. It was hot and muggy out there!

Wes and Mom- love them both so much!

One of the benefits of arriving early- see how empty it is?

After a 25 minute wait, the doors opened and we were ushered inside to checkin. The process took us about 5 minutes, and we were lead to a seating area to wait to board the ship. They had cookies, lemonade, and water available while we waited. I would say that wait was about 15 minutes or less. This had to be the most smooth boarding process we have experienced so far. The doors opened, we took our pictures for our IDs, and took the escalator to the ship!

They're so excited to board the ship!

Having sailed on the Adventure, we were amazed at how elegant this ship looked. Our first sight was of the centrum, and we were so, so happy and excited! The ship is beautiful!

We toured the ship, went to the Windjammer for lunch, etc. The food was great! Wes and I headed to Chops and Portofino to confirm our reservations. We surprised everyone with a dinner at Portofino, and booked ourselves for Chops for a romantic dinner by ourselves later in the week. I made these reservations online, however I wanted to confirm. Everything was in order! I heard from the CC boards about a lunch and cooking lesson at Portofino, and was delighted to find that the lesson would be the next day, our day at sea. It was just $10 per person, so I booked the ladies and myself right away

Photos of the ship:

MDR

Jacuzzis in the pool area

Crystal posing in the Solarium

Chops

Ad for the Portofino cooking demonstration:

Please keep writing, you're doing a great job. I have 2 questions. What time was the flamenco show at Barrachina? Also are you from South Jersey and if so where?

We went to our rooms at 2 PM. Loved our stateroom and the size of our balcony. It had two chairs and a lounger. We were in room 9576, and will try to snag this room whenever we sail a Radiance Class ship! I think we're spoiled with 'hump' balcony cabins. We had 7312 on the Adventure, and have come to love having balconies on the front of the hump. Perfect location (close to elevators), and still very quiet.

My 29' and my husband's 25' suitcases fit under the bed. We had to lift the frame by an inch and slide them in. Once they were underneath the bed, the frame came back down level again, so no worries if you have an oversized suitcase! There was plenty of space for storage. My husband has a laptop, and I have a portable DVD player, and we were able to charge both at the same time.

We all packed our bathing suits in our carryons, so we changed and headed back to the Solarium to relax.

Loving your review. You can really feel the fun and excitement that you experienced on the whole cruise adventure.

DW and I loved our trip on Serenade in January 2010.

I keep telling everyone that New Jersey people are the best. You provide more proof of that.

Please keep writing, you're doing a great job. I have 2 questions. What time was the flamenco show at Barrachina? Also are you from South Jersey and if so where?

Hi bluecruisin! Thank you for the compliments. The flamenco show started at 8 PM. If you would like to attend, be sure to make a reservation and ask to be seated for dinner between 7-7:15. That way, you are served your main courses and may even be enjoying dessert by the time the show begins. We like to do this so the waiters aren't blocking the view of the show while serving our food. I made our reservation about a month in advance. The reservations run out quickly because of the show's popularity, so call early.

Yes, DH and I grew up in S. Jersey. We actually lived in Lumberton when we left for this cruise, but since have moved to the Princeton area.

Dinner was great! We chose MTD, and I was able to choose our dinner times during the weeks before our vacation. Upon our arrival on the ship, I confirmed our MTD reservation and requested a table by the window. They said they couldn’t guarantee it, however I was so happy to learn that we had indeed been given a table by the window J We all sat together and had a wonderful meal. My favorites are the chicken tortilla soup, the Caesar salad, and the ribbon pasta with mushroom truffle sauce- YUM! I think anything with truffles tastes divine :D. We had dinner at 6:45 so we wouldn’t miss sailaway.

Right after dinner, we had the muster drill (8:30 PM). We then headed to the pool deck for sailaway. San Juan is beautiful at night, we saw Old San Juan and El Morro. It’s a beautiful sight! Be sure to head to the pool deck for sailaway. Everyone is excited and happy to start their cruise vacation, it's really an enjoyable experience.

After sailing into the open sea, we headed back to our room to unpack. Our luggage had arrived around 6, so we didn’t really have time to unpack earlier. The seas were a little rough that night since we just missed a hurricane. It was a quiet night on the ship as everyone felt a little queasy. We had smooth sailing the rest of the cruise.

Monday, August 30th

Wes and I always have room service breakfast. We love eating on our balcony. After a lazy morning, I met with my Mom and Crystal for the Portofino cooking demonstration. I think this was held in Chops, which is separated from Portofino by a couple doors. We learned how to make pasta. The chef explained early on that he would not give us exact measurements, but gave instructions just like our grandmothers would give us: a basic formula that was left open to our interpretation. He wanted us to see what good pasta dough looked like and feel the texture. I was happy he did this, since this is how I learned to cook from my mother. He made several types of dough, and would pass it around for us to touch and smell. He gave us some great ideas like adding fresh herbs, beets (for color), or chocolate for a dessert ravioli.

Afterward, we were led to Portofino (next door), and were served a wonderful 4-course lunch: salads, appetizers, main course, and dessert. We each ordered something different so we could try one another’s meals. Again, I loooove that truffle ribbon pasta.

Crostini appetizer- very good!

This night was the formal night on the ship. Janelle found out there was a movie marathon in the ship's theatre (an impressive theatre at that), so she spent the evening there. The rest of us enjoyed a lovely dinner. I reminded everyone that they could order as many appetizers and entrees as they wanted, as long as they ordered them in their initial requests. This saves the waiters a long trip back to the kitchens. Everyone was impressed and pleased with the food and service.

Helpful tip I found on CC: take a photo of the elevator floor each morning...they change the plate in the floor to reflect the day of the week. This really helped me keep our photos in order!

Again, I woke up before anyone else. I visited Royal Caribbean online for a few minutes since I had a free $5 coupon. I loved seeing the view of the ocean while checking my email, etc. Actually, I loved all the views of the ocean from the ship. You feel so connected to the sea on the Serenade.

Some more shots of the ship early before it gets busy:

Solarium

Pool Area

Loving your review. You can really feel the fun and excitement that you experienced on the whole cruise adventure.

 

DW and I loved our trip on Serenade in January 2010.

 

I keep telling everyone that New Jersey people are the best. You provide more proof of that.

Thanks so much NordicPrince! Yes, we live in a state with great people!

Barbados:

This is one of our favorite beach days. We watched the ship pull into port from our balcony with our room service breakfast: eggs, sausage, raisin bran, assorted pastries, and two fresh fruit platters J

Crystal and Osh decided to hang out on the ship. Mom, Janelle, Wesley, and I met at about 10:30 AM in the centrum. We disembarked the ship and enjoyed the sound of the steel drums. Janelle is hilarious- as soon as she heard the music and saw the bright blue water under our ship, she said, “Oh my gosh now I know I’m on a real tropical vacation! Yippeee!!”

We left the cruise terminal, and walked toward the taxi area. I learned through CC that we should politely turn down the taxi drivers inside the actual cruise terminal area because they charge more. We were headed to Lobster Alive, a restaurant right on the beach next to the Boatyard that rents chairs and umbrellas. It was very close to the ship, so we discovered that we didn’t have to worry about the drivers being pushy. As soon as we told them we were headed to LA, they would back off (LOL).

We saw a dispatcher in the circular driveway just outside the cruise terminal area. He caught us a cab to LA, and I think the cost was just $7 one way. Pulling up to Lobster Alive, it doesn’t look like much, so don’t be alarmed at first sight! Janelle asked me, “Ummmm, Chrystal, is this our stop?!” I said, “Just trust me, you’ll see in a few seconds.” We crossed the street and went past the side of the restaurant, and entered one of the prettiest beaches we’ve ever seen. Mom and Janelle were so happy! You can rent two chairs and an umbrella for $15 total. This gives you the rentals, as well as 3 tickets for free rum punch or soda at LA. As soon as we got our chairs, we ran straight into the ocean. The sand is white and soft, and the water is a beautiful turquoise blue. The temperature was absolutely perfect. We have to go back there for a land vacation someday.

After swimming for a while, we got hungry, so we went to Lobster Alive for lunch. Be warned that the rum punch is STRONG but delicious. Sip it slowly with a glass of water ;)

Wes and me inside Lobster Alive. My rum punch next to his Coke :)

View of the beach from LA

Flying fish with french fries and a small salad

LA was right next to the Boatyard, so if you want to ride jet skis, etc, you can simply walk over there. We like LA because it’s a quiet area, and we can enjoy the motorized water sports if we want to without having to sit at the (normally) crowded Boatyard.

We enjoyed the ocean for a few more hours. A storm quickly approached around 3 PM so we quickly dried off. It was amazing- as soon as we got out the water, a cab driver came onto the beach and asked if we needed a ride back to the ship. Nice! $7+ tip got us back to the pier just before it started raining J

We enjoyed room service and took a nap. By the time we work up the ship was leaving the pier. There's a rainshower in the distance- pretty cool!

We had dinner at 6:45 pm. Can’t remember what we did afterward. I think we went to the casino, they were giving free gaming lessons.

Wednesday, September 1

This day was a little bit of a bummer, however DH and I made the best of it. We planned to have this day to ourselves, visiting Sandals Grande on the island, however it was a pretty cool and rainy day. One of our favorite things is to swim in the ocean, and we don’t do that if it’s cool outside. We would have to hang out on the beach in cool weather, without the option of retreating to a hotel room, so we decided to stay on the ship. More about that later.

I have to give a big THANK YOU to Spencer Ambrose, a tour guide in St. Lucia: http://www.spencerambrose.com/

My husband and I toured the island with him last year, so I asked the rest of the group if they would like to do the island tour with him this year. They all said “Absolutely,” so I booked them with him. Spencer’s tour is wonderful, so I trusted that he would take great care of my family and friends. He even let me know he would care for my Mom as if she was his own J They had a great day. He loves his island, and cares very deeply about making sure guests have a great time with him. We always felt safe with him since he’s a well-known retired cop in St. Lucia. You will find lots of info about his tour in the St. Lucia ports of call board. Some photos from the tour:

Spencer at the banana plantation

Jalousie Beach

In the meantime, Wes and I stayed on the ship. We went to the Solarium and enjoyed the Jacuzzi for a while, it was a quiet day on the ship. Because I was so down about missing Sandals, Wes treated me to a trip to the spa. They were running a special that day, so I had a foot and leg massage, body wrap, and neck and back massage for $99. We had a pretty lazy day.

I'm on serenade in Dec. Keep on writing. I love what I'm reading so far.

Thanks for all the great info! Helpful since we will be on her in 26 days. :)

Do you know if there was Texas Hold 'em poker tables live? How about tournaments?