Serenade of the Seas B2B June 20-July 4: My Diary

[barb in ga]

I am sailing Serenade September 26th, so I'm really loving your diary and pictures--thanks for the time I know it takes to do this.

Barb

[pambo]

We will be on the Serenade during Thanksgiving week. Thank you for taking the time to write and include the photos. This is a wonderful review...looking forward to more. Thank you for the beach recommendations as well.

[mikensuenfl]

Jane, great review so far.. So much like our cruise this past may..we also had breakfast everyday with the waiters that you talk about.. They started the days off on a great note.. Jeong"dr' is a real character..we have e-mailed a few times already..he is a new father.yes,we had a lovely dinner with capt karin.. Simeon is a very good cd..we have cruised with rc 60 times. In fact that was our 60th cruise with rc.. I agree, pramod is a great guy, the best...we know him for many years..we also liked valley church .on barbados we went to paynes beach on our own.. We swam out and swam with the turtles..this is the beach that the tours go.. In fact we were swimming with the tour folks.bty, my oldest son lives in charlotte..looking forward to the rest of your review.. Mike

[star2515]

Great review so far, can't wait to read the rest from our week and the next week as well. It's fun to relive it all over again. BTW: GO STATE!!!!

[ahawco]

Great review so far! I am doing this leg of the Serenade ship in just over 3 weeks and I can't wait :). I hope we get a bit more sunshine though :). We plan on going to Valley Church Beach in Antigua. It looks beautiful - can't

wait to see it in person :))

 

Look forward to reading more!

[cruzobsessed]

jane...people will be referring to you, radio AND trainman when they talk about the best cc reviewers:D

i cannot wait for greg and jess who are in st. croix tomorrow to get home so i can see their pix and maybe convince jess to post a review.

i am right there with you....thanks for taking me along:)

[Cruising Forever!]

Jane,

 

Thank you for this EXCELLENT review and pictorial! It couldn't be more timely- Diane and I just signed up for a B2B on Serenade for next May! So I am definitely taking notes!!!

 

Keep the info and pictures coming, please!

 

Cheers,

Paul

[grellis]

Jane....thank you so much for doing this review! These our our islands on our first cruise on 8/15/10! Am so looking forward to it...great pix! You go girl....14 pairs of shoes!! LOL!!:)

[maxs mom]

Wow! thanks for all the nice comments! It keeps me going.

Mike......Sounds like you guys really did have a similar experience. Dr. Jeong and Johnson really made our day every day. I made sure that they got special mention with Promod and on the comment card.

Ashley.....Go State?????? Hahahahahahahahaha

Cheryl.....Can't wait to hear how Greg and Jess enjoyed their week.

I'll try to write a little more this morning.

I should have mentioned this at the beginniing of the review, but we were so glad to set foot on a Radiance class ship again. It has been a few years and it just felt so good. We cruise on the bigger ships, but I'm not a fan. While I truly loooove to shop (and buy lots of shoes) I don't particularly want a shopping mall on my ship. I love the views to the sea that you have on the Radiance class ships. Having said that.....I do like to sit on the Promenade and people watch or sit and chat with firends.

[maxs mom]

Antigua, con't.......

After getting back ot the ship, we got ice cream, showered, read, and napped....in that order.

We enjoyed some time in the CL before dinner and had a very nice meal in the MDR.

Tonight was 70's Disco Night in the Centrum. Each CD puts his own spin on this and Simeon did not disappoint. He did the Travolta thing.

He also came back with an Austin Powers look.

Everybody had a lot of fun in the Centrum!

When that was over.....we headed off to bed.

[JenAndDan]

Oh wow - everybody always raves about the 70's party but this is the first pic I have actually seen - it looks like a lot of fun!!!

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ St. Maarten ~ Our favorite island!

We had an early breakfast again this morning and we were really glad to see the sun!!! We always do the same thing in St. Maarten and have been doing this for years. We take the only RCI excursion that we ever do. We discovered this excursion years ago and just love it. It is the Beach Rendezvous that takes you out to Orient Beach. We've been with the same tour guides for most of these years and they know us by now. In this tour, you are bussed over to the French side of the island to the fabulous Orient Beach. We usually go to the Kakao Beach Bar there and we grab loungers on the front row. You get a rum punch on the way in. If you want an umbrella, which we always do, it is $3 extra. Between 11:30 and 12:30 you can get lunch......either ribs, chicken, or mahi mahi. Wine, beer, a mixed drink, or a soda is included. The tour operators always give us extra since we are such good customers!

Orient Beach is beautiful. A little more crowded than I like, but the beach is so big....it's not too bad. This is a great place to go parasailing if you are so inclined. You get the best price here of any of the islands and the view from up there is spectacular. There is just the best atmosphere on Orient Beach.

Here we are eating lunch. Great tables covered with sea grapes. Very private.

Oreint is just the best. After lunch I always go to the small beach bar and get my dessert.....a Bushwhacker. You can't go to St. Maarten or St. Thomas and not have a Bushwhacker! Yum!

The bus driver will drop you off on Front Street in Phillipsburg if you want to do some shopping. This place is a shopper's paradise. We always stop by to see our favorite jeweler, Harry, at Royal Jewelers. He has been very nice to us over the years. And we have been nice to him!!!!!! I got my new ring sized so it wouldn't fall off in the salad any more. Good job, Harry!

This is the best place to buy liquor. The prices are crazy low! Especilally if you walk a ways down the street. We usually pick up a couple of things here before heading back to the ship.

[maxs mom]

Well......Friday night is formal night.......and The Quest. Oh my!!! We need a long nap today, but we've gotten back to the ship kinda late.

 

Today instead of ice cream,, I got a scone for my afternoon snack. These are wonderful and they have them every afternoon in the WJ. That was the only one I had, but I went by and worshipped them every day! They are sinful!

 

We get all dressed up again and go to the CL and the MDR. It's lobster night.....very good. Here we are in the CL tonight with one of our Wisconsin buddies.

 

 

Ken and Ashley from our dining room table cleaned up real nice for dinner!

 

Edited July 10, 2010 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

It is a bit unusual to have The Quest on formal night. We have had that happen on only one other cruise. That didn't stop anybody, though. We have been participating in the Quest since we were on the Song of Norway back in 1991. Back then it was called the Western Quest and was held on Country and Western night. Very few people participated and our first time was with only one other couple on our team. We did not win that one, but had a lot of fun. I was not about to take off my bra and John was not about to take off his pants back then! My how times have changed!!!!!! Through the years, we have been on many Quest Teams and have probably been on the winning team at least 7 or 8 times. Now we go in with the intention of only being "advisors", but somehow we end up participating anyway.

The Quest was really popular on this sailing. The Safari Lounge was packed. Now if you haven't done the Quest on a smaller ship.....then you haven't really done the Quest. The way they do it on the larger ships in Studio B is just not right! On the smaller ships, everybody gets to participate and it it just soooooooo much more fun! There was a huge crowd here tonight. We got together with some of our CC buddies and a couple of honeymoon couples that we didn't know, and oh.....Ken from our dining room table joined us and really did a good job for us. It's so much fun to have virgin Questers on your team!

Now I can't reveal too much more about the Quest because some of you may have never been. If I told you too much, then I would have to kill you! It's not for everybody, but if you like to have a good time, then it's for you. Go and have fun. You don't have to participate....you can just watch.

Our team was phenomenal and we took the coveted first place prize this night. Here are a few pictures:

That's our dining room buddy Ken in the orange shirt.

John and Jerry were having too much fun!

The winning team!

It was a late night. Here we are on the way back to the cabin with our medal. Lots of fun!

[driftychick]

I am sailing Serenade September 26th, so I'm really loving your diary and pictures--thanks for the time I know it takes to do this.

Barb

 

Barb:

We will be with you on the 26th of September, it is the first leg of our B2B on Serenade, staying on for the 3rd of October as well. We have been on the Serenade before and are looking forward to this trip. Make sure you join our RollCall for this sailing and sign up for the M&M. Looking forward to meeting uo with you on board.

[nik1009]

What time was quest? We have late seating mdr. Sailing 7-18. Great review, Thank You.

[maxs mom]

What time was quest? We have late seating mdr. Sailing 7-18. Great review, Thank You.

 

The Quest is ar 11:15 in the safari Lounge. Kinda late. That's why we needed a long nap in the afternoon!

[nik1009]

Thank You

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ St. Croix

Yay! More sun today!! We have never been to St. Croix on a cruise. We spent a week there about 20 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised when we got off the ship here. They have really done a nice job at the port in Fredericksted. Quite a difference from the last time we were there.

We slept in a little today after our big night last night. We got to breakfast right before the end.

When you get off the ship here, there is a free shuttle that takes you to the end of the pier. We really appreciated that. There we booked the shuttle to Sandcastle Beach for $3 pp each way. The shuttle runs every 20 minutes and takes you to the Sandcastle Resort about 7 minutes away. When we got to the resort....$20 got us two chairs and an umbrella and complete use of the facilities. There is a pool, great bar, and a very nice restaurant. The beach is quite rocky in places but this place is great and not very crowded today.

You could see the ship from the resort.

I sat on the beach for a while, but then I went up to the pool and had the place to myself. It was so relaxing and refreshing.

I kept my eye on John, though!

[maxs mom]

I really enjoyed the Sandcastle Resort and would have liked to spend more time here......like all day! But we had an appointment with Captain Karin at 3:30 for a tour of the bridge and we had to cut this visit a little short.

Before we left, though......I had one of these yummy Margaritas. Be sure and get one if you go here.

Here are some parting shots of Sandcastle Beach:

We waited here for the shuttle to take us back to the ship. We didn't have to wait but about 10 minutes, if that.

[mikensuenfl]

Jane,keep it going.fyi,on st croix we went to cane bay to snorkel..not good at all.would not go back..when we were in st marten we rented a car.. We have done this a couple of times from the same agency.. Works out great.this last trip we went to maho beach,got some great pics and videos of the planes landing and taking off .then we went to gran case for bq lunch.. Paul, when are you going on the serenade next may.. We are booked again may 7th.. Would love to go b2b.. Mike

[CRUISEMAMI]

We are Diamond Plus C&A members' date=' so we are still allowed to use the Concierge Lounge. This is a very important perk for us and we are glad that we still have it. Since muster was at 8 o'clock tonight, we wanted to go to the CL a little early. There we met Francois Roux, the Concierge. Francois is a great Concierge.....he always greeted us by name and with a smile. We had lots of good chats with him all through the two weeks we were on board.[/size']

 

 

Here we also met Fe.....the bartender in the CL. She certainly did take care of us. She always knew what we wanted and never let our glasses be empty!

 

 

The CL closed early tonight, so we went from there directly to the Muster Drill. No life jackets.....yay! We had to stand a good while......maybe about 20 minutes. We decided that we wouldn't go down quite as early the next week.

 

Soon it was time for dinner......8:45 on this first night (8:30 the rest of the week). Time to meet the tablemates! In all our years of cruising, we have been extremely lucky with our tablemates and this cruise was no exception. At table 443 we met two other couples......Ashley and Ken from Virginia, both nurses.

 

 

And Sharon and Fred from Philadelphia. Sharon is also a nurse and Fred a paramedic.

 

 

We had a great week at our table. Good converstaion and a fun time!

 

 

Our waiter was Vipin and our Asst. waiter was Hungria and they were great. We had different servers the next week, but the two of them went out of their way to speak to us the next week like we were family!

 

In one of my earlier converstaions with the Maitre D, I asked about getting low sodium meals. He said that would not be a problem. So that first night, our Head Waiter came over and let us choose our meal for the next night. We did this every night and I am so glad we did. The food that we were served was wonderful. It tasted so much better withoout all that salt.

 

Jane, what a great review!!!!!!! I wish I could do the same, but I cant upload the photos anymore. I'll try it again after my Oasis in Oct.....

It probably was a different Francois (I know he's the same one) but he was, like, different on the Oasis......like he did not care at all: never lift his face from the PC and when he was asked questions, looked like he was doing you a favor by answering them.....We did ask for an extra card for the Concierge, and if looks could kill, I will be dead right now! He was rolling his eyes a lot from displeasure of being interrupted: maybe he did not likey the idea that Julian was there also.

I'll check later, for more review.....get to work girl!!!!!

[BroncosFan2010]

I am loving your review! I will be doing the exact same B2B in August, and I cannot wait! This review is a great preview.

[LA Law]

Jane - Great job. Keep it coming. You know how I live vicariously....

[drarill]

Jane, what a great review!!!!!!! I wish I could do the same, but I cant upload the photos anymore. I'll try it again after my Oasis in Oct.....

It probably was a different Francois (I know he's the same one) but he was, like, different on the Oasis......like he did not care at all: never lift his face from the PC and when he was asked questions, looked like he was doing you a favor by answering them.....We did ask for an extra card for the Concierge, and if looks could kill, I will be dead right now! He was rolling his eyes a lot from displeasure of being interrupted: maybe he did not likey the idea that Julian was there also.

I'll check later, for more review.....get to work girl!!!!!

I think that Francois was not happy at the Oasis. We were on the Jan 2nd sailing and they were still trying to work out the suite perks at the Oasis. Back then, they didn't have priority seating for suite or D+ guests on the shows. We didn't have any problems because we made our reservations online, but many guests were not happy. You know that on ships with CL and a D&D+ lounge, D+ members are allowed to use the CL and on our sailing he had many D+ that were particularly difficult. We were Diamond members on the Oasis and we didn't receive a card to enter the D/D+lounge.