Serenade 10/10/10-Southern-Review with Pics!

[bigque]

Dinner on this night was at Chops! This was FANTASTIC! I have been around the world to many places and dinned in some very nice restaurants during 20 years in the military and I can say (MY OPINION), that Chops is as good as a lot of the places I have been! I give it 5 stars! From the appetizers to the dessert, everything was just perfect & very flavorful. The atmosphere was good, Waiter (Vashi) was very nice. It seems like she just sensed and knew when we wanted something and I tipped her well! The attire on our night there that I noticed was anywhere from suits to smart casual to casual and I wore a button down short sleeve shirt & slacks.

 

 

As you see I was stuffed! With Vashi our waiter!

 

Portifino (Didn't eat there though)

 

Oh and one other thing I failed to mention is that on both formal nights if you have the Romance package, you get Canapes & Peti Fours delivered to your room before dinner. They were quite tasty!

 

After Dinner went to the Tropical Theater to the “From Stage to Screen” show. We thought this show was mediocre! After we found ourselves continually nodding off, we decided to get up and leave. After that DW went to the room, I walked around for a little bit going the various venues, but was exhausted from the heat and humidity and tour of earlier in the day and went to sit on the balcony and nodded there for a little bit.

 

Going to go watch the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics game now!

 

Up Next Day 3 – St. Lucia

[NCMtnBoys]

Keep it comin', Mike, great job! :D

[madameleota]

Thanx for the great review & pictures. We are doing a Southern Caribbean on the Serenade for our first cruise next year. Having never cruised, it's great to get an idea what's in store for us. And I gotta say, I am psyched! :D

[bigque]

Keep it comin', Mike, great job! :D

 

I'm a little slow at doing it as I only get time a night after work! Keep looking though, I should be finished by Tuesday or so. Will be posting some videos I am going to put on Youtube at the end.

[donnaman43]

Love your review with the pictures. Keep it coming!!!!

[Host Faith]

Dinner on this night was at Chops! This was FANTASTIC! I have been around the world to many places and dinned in some very nice restaurants during 20 years in the military and I can say (MY OPINION), that Chops is as good as a lot of the places I have been! I give it 5 stars! From the appetizers to the dessert, everything was just perfect & very flavorful. The atmosphere was good, Waiter (Vashi) was very nice. It seems like she just sensed and knew when we wanted something and I tipped her well! The attire on our night there that I noticed was anywhere from suits to smart casual to casual and I wore a button down short sleeve shirt & slacks.

 

 

As you see I was stuffed! With Vashi our waiter!

 

Portifino (Didn't eat there though)

 

Oh and one other thing I failed to mention is that on both formal nights if you have the Romance package, you get Canapes & Peti Fours delivered to your room before dinner. They were quite tasty!

 

After Dinner went to the Tropical Theater to the “From Stage to Screen” show. We thought this show was mediocre! After we found ourselves continually nodding off, we decided to get up and leave. After that DW went to the room, I walked around for a little bit going the various venues, but was exhausted from the heat and humidity and tour of earlier in the day and went to sit on the balcony and nodded there for a little bit.

 

Going to go watch the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics game now!

 

Up Next Day 3 – St. Lucia

 

 

Great review so far! Keep it coming! We loved Chops too. I agree with you on the show- DH and I left too.

[boaterette]

Nice review. Thank you for posting. I am looking forward to the southern route.

[Mommy2mo26]

Agreed that Chops was AWESOME! I am so glad I didn't have an allergy attack this time!!! I thought Portifinos was really really good too!

[Happy to set sail]

Dinner on this night was at Chops! This was FANTASTIC! I have been around the world to many places and dinned in some very nice restaurants during 20 years in the military and I can say (MY OPINION), that Chops is as good as a lot of the places I have been! I give it 5 stars! From the appetizers to the dessert, everything was just perfect & very flavorful. The atmosphere was good, Waiter (Vashi) was very nice. It seems like she just sensed and knew when we wanted something and I tipped her well! The attire on our night there that I noticed was anywhere from suits to smart casual to casual and I wore a button down short sleeve shirt & slacks.

 

 

As you see I was stuffed! With Vashi our waiter!

 

Portifino (Didn't eat there though)

 

Oh and one other thing I failed to mention is that on both formal nights if you have the Romance package, you get Canapes & Peti Fours delivered to your room before dinner. They were quite tasty!

 

After Dinner went to the Tropical Theater to the “From Stage to Screen” show. We thought this show was mediocre! After we found ourselves continually nodding off, we decided to get up and leave. After that DW went to the room, I walked around for a little bit going the various venues, but was exhausted from the heat and humidity and tour of earlier in the day and went to sit on the balcony and nodded there for a little bit.

 

Going to go watch the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics game now!

 

Up Next Day 3 – St. Lucia

HEY! I think Larry snapped this pic for you two! Our meal was fabulous - the whole atmosphere at Chops; plus we were celebrating our anniversary there too....and it was just the two of us.... ahhhh - good memories. I am loving your review Mike.

 

We didn't tour Barbado's but chose the Tiami Turtle, Sail & Snorkle excursion - we really enjoyed that. And the few times I did indulge in the 'rum punches' I enjoyed them just like you did! :D

[bigque]

HEY! I think Larry snapped this pic for you two! Our meal was fabulous - the whole atmosphere at Chops; plus we were celebrating our anniversary there too....and it was just the two of us.... ahhhh - good memories. I am loving your review Mike.

 

We didn't tour Barbado's but chose the Tiami Turtle, Sail & Snorkle excursion - we really enjoyed that. And the few times I did indulge in the 'rum punches' I enjoyed them just like you did! :D

 

Hey! Yes Larry did snap that picture for us a Chops that night! Very good memories indeed! :)

[unshipshape]

Mike, Great review, great pictures (especially Coleen,miss her these days!)!It was nice to meet everyone and fun to relive the cruise through your pics, more please! Pat

[bigque]

Mike, Great review, great pictures (especially Coleen,miss her these days!)!It was nice to meet everyone and fun to relive the cruise through your pics, more please! Pat

 

Hey!

Will be trying to post the rest of the review and pics this evening!

[Ender Zed]

Thanks Bigque for the review and especially the pics. Thanks again, and keep'em coming:cool:

[SevenSeas1492]

We are looking at the Serenade for our next cruise. We have been sailing on Voyager class ships and particularly enjoy the Cafe Promanade with its coffee and cookies. Is there anything like that on the Serenade?

[julesbearz]

Enjoying reading your review. We are leaving in 3 weeks for our first RCI cruise and are very excited! :cool:

[The Flying Pirate]

Great Review! Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the pictures, they are a nice addition to the review.

[pbakken]

We are looking at the Serenade for our next cruise. We have been sailing on Voyager class ships and particularly enjoy the Cafe Promanade with its coffee and cookies. Is there anything like that on the Serenade?

 

There is...it's called Lattetudes. It's just outside the centrum shops! Yummy cookies and latte's, etc... Hasley makes up a mean chai latte and the "special hot chocolate".

 

Mike....Pictures and review are GREAT!!! Keep it coming!

 

Steph....so, we can re-use the "beer purse"? :)

[Mommy2mo26]

Looks like it Peri! Someone posted something about that....Cannot remember which post I saw it in but it was about re-using them. No real way to stop that unless they change the bags/colors or add some type of sticker/punch system.

[bigque]

Day 3 – Wednesday – St. Lucia

On this day I woke up early to get my view of the sunrise which became a daily ritual. We filled out the Breakfast card the night before to have breakfast delivered by 7:00am. The card is left in your room and you fill it out and hang outside your door by 3am the night before. We received a call about 6:50am and to let us know that they were on their way. At 7am sharp the breakfast was there. The person delivering was very friendly and I tipped a couple of dollars.

After breakfast and the ship docked we were off the ship by 8:15 for our 8:30 meet time for the tour (Historic Island Splendor) through Royal. By 9:00 we were on the tour bus and on our way. The tours 1st stop was at an historical house that overlooked the harbor leading out to sea. I took the picture below of the Serenade from the balcony of the house. I had seen this picture from the same vantage point before on the internet and always wondered where it was taken from (as I had it as my background picture on my computer), and now I know. Rum Punch was served outside after the tour through the house. We toured the countryside of the beautiful island that had many photo opportunities. One stop was a silk screen factory where we saw how silk screens are made (Interesting). We went to a little café place overlooking the Bay for some nice photo shots (More Rum Punch) and then on to a small village (Anse-La-Raye) that is specifically set up for a tour bus shopping stop. It is mainly a souvenir, t-shirts, etc type of place lining one side of a street in the village. Here is a few picks from this tour and around the port.

 

 

 

 

View from balcony in port

 

 

 

[bigque]

A couple more of St. Lucia

 

Anse-La-Raye

 

A Different Balcony View

 

 

After arriving back to the port, we walked around the shops in the shopping area just off the ship at the pier and bought a few souvenir type things and DH bought a piece of jewelry that she had been wanting and got a good price for it.

 

 

Tour time 8:30 till about 1:00. My grades – Tour Guide – B+; Tour itself - A; The Island of St. Lucia – A (Did not go to the beaches (as you can probably tell we are not big time beach people, but did go to one on another island –review to come) to give a grade, people from the ship however said they weren’t bad and were better than Barbados).

We then went back on the ship and had lunch at the Windjammer and then relaxed for a little while. More people start turning back up on the ship for lunch at this point of the cruise than showed up while in Barbados the day before.

Went to dinner in the MDR and it was great (In our opinions) as usaual. Never have talked about our table mates for the week. As I said we were at a table for four. The couple at our table were very friendly and nice people. We had good conversation each night, no complaints here..I just hope they thought the same of us!

 

The Tropical Theater entertainment this night was the Love & Marriage Game Show if I remember correctly. Saw this on my previous cruise and it seems they asked couples the same identical questions and from what I have read on cruise critics it is the same on ships fleet wide. I think that they should let the Cruise Directors come up with their own questions rather than a prepared script of questions that is used year after year. It was still entertaining nonetheless, especially if it’s your first time seeing it. Went looking through the ships shopping area and bought a couple of things, bought a couple of pictures that have been taken thus far. They take a lot of pictures on this cruise (Embarkation, dinner every night in the MDR, every port, Formal nights, pic with the Captain and more)! We took a lot of pictures just to see what they would look like (You do not have to buy), but only purchased 3 pictures out of them all. You could go broke trying to buy all the pictures that are taken over the course of the week. Not really gamblers but we did $10 a piece to play the slots and at the end we were up between $8-9. (Wound up losing it on another night plus the original $10. Afterwards did the nightly walk through of the clubs and people watching, then another day ending. Great Day!

 

 

Up Next Day 4 – Antigua

 

 

[bigque]

Day 4 – Thursday – Antigua

On this day it was once again the same with the morning ritual of early sunrise then breakfast on the balcony @ 7:00. This day was to be exciting for me as I was going zip lining for the 1st time. DW was not going as she did not want to play Tarzan & Jane above the rainforest on Antigua! Once off the ship @ 9:15 we were lined up on the pier to start the excursion which was the “Canopy Tour” through Royal Caribbean. We departed at 9:30 and it took about 45 minutes to get there. Once we arrived we had a quick briefing and then went to an area where we receive our harness, pulley’s & helmet. This zip line adventure consisted of 12 zip lines high up on the mountain and you work your down the mountain over the rainforest. The 12 lines range from short to one that was very long (Don’t remember how long)! After the longest one (You will have done 9 at this point) you climb stairs back up to it to do it again, followed by the last 3. After the last zip you get to a platform and you get connected by your harness to take a 20 foot parachute drop (They call it the Leap of Faith)! that takes your breath away! After that you have to climb a very very long stair case back to the top where it all began. You need to be in half way decent shape for this tour, cause there is some long waling involved and the stairs at the end is a killer! After you turn in your equipment, you are offered complimentary rum punch or non-alcoholic punch along with a little paper certificate of completion. Inside the building there is souvenir and T-shirt shop with a bar to buy a beer or a drink. Here you can also purchase a snapshot they take of you coming down one of the zip lines. Sorry no pictures as they do not allow you to photograph it yourself and stated that you would be pulled from the course if they caught you taking photos. They have lockers for you to lock up cameras and valuables while on the course. The staff here that work the platforms to hook you up to the lines were very nice and very professional. It was fun to see them hot dogging it on the zip lines while we were holding on for dear life! This was one of the most adventurous things I have done besides taking flying lessons! We were back at the port by 1:30. I give this tour an A+. What I saw of Antigua on the way to the Zip Lines – A. Total Tour time 9:30 1:30.

 

After getting back I met my DW at the Windjammer for lunch and then we went back off the ship to look through the stores outside the port.

 

 

 

I previously said this picture was in St. Lucia but it was actually Antigua!

 

 

[bigque]

Day 4 Continued:

 

After getting back I met my DW at the Windjammer for lunch and then we went back off the ship to look through the stores outside the port. Back on board they were having a name that tune game in the Schooner Bar, so we went there and had a good time playing. We then did various things the rest of the day, including the nightly dinner in the MDR. On this night was also the 1970’s party in the Centrum area followed by the after party in the 13th deck Vortex club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up next Day 5 – St. Maartin

[bigque]

Day 5 – Friday - St. Maarten

 

Sunrise and breakfast on the balcony! This was always a great start to the day! Loved it! At this port we did the excursion with Bernard Tours, rather than a tour through Royal Caribbean because we had heard so many good things about it from right here on Cruise Critic. We left the tour gathering area @ 9:45. The tour with Bernard's was great! We were in a van for 12, but on this day there were only 6 of us. Our tour guide/driver's name was John and he was good also. At one stop he even went down into the water in the rocks and pulled out sea urchins for us to touch and hold. This stop overlooking the Ocean was great for pictures also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bigque]

You have all you can drink rum punch, beer, sodas or water that is included also for the entire tour. We spent 2 hours at Orient Beach! Orient Beach was a nice beach with nice white sand and beautiful clear water. Were were let out in the parking lot right near the entrance to Club Orient which is the nude beach. There is a bar and grill there also. We rented two loungers and umbrellas for $18.00 which includes all day bathroom pass and us and the people that were on our tour sat in a row of 8 chairs by the entrance to Club Orient.. Now about the infamous nude section of Orient Beach. The side we were sitting was the clothing optional side. Note: There is no privacy fencing separating the 2 sides. As we sat on the beach we saw occasional nude people that would walk right by us over to the clothing optional side and some would even get nude in the parking lot before walking over to the beach. Beside that you would see an occasional topless female walking by. If you have kids or if you do not want to see the nude folks, then you would need to go further down the other end of the beach. When I walked down to that end, I saw one topless female. I rented a Jet Ski which was $40 for 30 minutes. You go out without a guide (I fell off the Jet Ski twice in CocoCay on a previous cruise with a guide and was hoping this didn’t happen while out by myself) and they just let you know the areas not to go into. We did not have to buy drinks at the bar since they were provided by John, unless you wanted something different.

 

 

More Day 5 St. Maarteen Pictures:

 

At Orient Beach

 

 

After leaving Orient we went on to Marigot for a quick 45 minute shopping stop in a what would be considered like a strip mall and there was a mall next door as well. John provided us with a coupon to receive a free gift or a free 10 minute telephone call back to the U.S. in one of the shops. We all bought a couple of tropical drinks at a small outdoor bar there which were pretty good.

 

 

 

With John our Tour Guide/Driver with Bernards Tours

 

[bigque]

More St. Maarten - This was our favorite Island!

 

We were then on our way to a 1 hour stop at Maho beach in which time we were able to capture 6 planes landing on film, as well as a shopping stop on the French side of the island. We also ate lunch there at the Sunset Bar (Which is still open and in great shape from hurricane season). We ordered cheeseburger and fries which was $10 each with no drink. They were however nice thick cheeseburgers and plenty of fries and were very tasty. Watching those planes fly in right over your head was exciting and awesome (Videos to come in a future video thread of the cruise that I am going to put on YouTube) and a must see in St. Maartin. Keep in mind that the beach has suffered corrosion form the hurricanes so there is really no beach as the water comes right up to the rocks by the road! All the people that were taking pictures and videos would go to the center median in the road in the flight path to the runway to get the shots. Once again this was AWESOME! Even if you just get a table at the Sunset Bar, you get some good close views of the planes landing and taking off from the runway which is right across the street. When we left Maho we ran into a traffic jam that had traffic at a complete standstill due to the building of an extension to the runway at the airport. John turned back around to get us out of the traffic and took an alternate way back to port which added about an extra 30 minutes to the ride back. He said it would have taken a lot longer if we would have waited in the traffic, which as I said was not moving at all. We all decided to get out in Phillipsburg rather and look around and shop rather than go all the way back to the port. After looking around and making a few purchases, we caught a water taxi back to the ship ($18.00 for two).

 

At Maho Beach

 

 

 

Back on board we went to a Michael Jackson name that tune game in Schooners (These name that tune games in Schooners were fun, you team with people sitting at tables around you), and after that we dressed for dinner which was the 2nd formal night of the cruise. I remember the meal on this night because it was lobster night. I ordered the Scallop risotto appetizer (Delicious) and Lobster, Shrimp and scallops main course. People on Cruise Critic have dogged the lobster in various threads about it not being good, that it is frozen etc. For me it was good. I am not a big lobster fan and very very seldom order lobster when we go out, so my review of it is based on that. My DW had a lamb dish but tasted my lobster and she said it was good!

 

 

We really enjoyed St. Maartin and thought it was the best island that we went to during the week. We enjoyed it so much that we said we wouldn’t even mind living there or having a vacation home there!

Total Tour Time – 9:45 – 2:30; Barnard Tours – A+, Tour Guide - A+, St Maartin – A+. Guavaberry Rum (Unique to St. Maartin) A+

 

 

Up next Day 6 – St. Croix