Serenade- 11/13/11 - Picture Review

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This is my first picture review, I hope it’s not too long winded!

Serenade of the Seas – November 13 – 18, 2011.

We came in a day early and stayed at:

Double Tree Hilton San Juan

We had a 10:15 flight to San Juan; we had a 2 hour time difference so we arrived around 4:30 p.m. We grabbed our bags and headed for the taxi stand, there was a woman there asking where we were going and how many in our party (6), she then handed me a slip of paper with the different rates based on the zone, it was very easy to see the rate, no guess work. We took a van to our hotel “Double Tree Hilton San Juan”, I think it was maybe a ten minute drive, but it could have been less. The driver was nice, he helped with our bags and I think we ended up giving him $40 between the six of us, it was a pretty good tip, but when you split it amongst so many people, it was no hardship to tip well.

The hotel was very nice, we were met by a porter who told us he’d have our bags delivered to our room and told us about a grocery store across the street. He also pointed out that they sell alcohol 24 hours a day in San Juan, just in case we needed any. Check in was fast and friendly, they gave each of us a huge, warm chocolate chip cookie, it was delicious!

 

 

I wish I had taken pictures of the inside of the hotel, but I didn’t think of it, so you only get pictures of my hotel room. The room was very nice; it was nicely furnished with a desk and plenty of storage space. The bathroom was nice as well with a large shower, the door to the bathroom was frosted glass, and so if you’re a private person (as I am) you might feel a bit exposed going in there to use the facilities. You cannot see through it though, I asked my DH to go in there first so I could check and see. Our keys did get demagnetized twice in a space of about 5 hours, but I can’t say that it wasn’t my fault, I had my key card near my camera and my phone, etc. After the second time it happened I took measures to make sure I didn’t have it near any of those items anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

The pool was really nice and if you book a room with a verandah (which we did not have, but two of our group did) it leads to a nice area with tables and chair and goes right to the pool area, think of it as more of a patio, if that makes sense. We ate two meals here and I would say they were kind of expensive; I paid something like $16 for a cheeseburger plate and another $16 for a breakfast buffet. Maybe these aren’t high prices; I don’t travel often so this is based on my very limited experience.

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Checkout was easy and fast, they had a taxi van ready and waiting, the trip to the pier was another 10-15 minutes, I was a bit scared for my life sometimes because the drivers (not just our driver) are aggressive, but everyone arrived safe and sound and I figure the driver knows what he is doing. Just remember to “go limp” if you wreck, ha ha ha.

Boarding/Leaving Port/San Juan (Day 1)

We got to the terminal around 11:30 and there was already a line, not too long though, perhaps 50’ to the entrance.

 

 

 

There were people walking around selling water and a woman came out around 11:45 and said that porters would be there at noon to take our bags. In the meantime we filled out our health questionnaires and looked at the duty free shopping magazine they handed out. The line started moving around 11:55 and we just handed our bags off to the porter’s right before we went in. I think from the time we entered the terminal to the time we got on the ship was maybe 5 minutes; it was very, very fast.

We took our boarding pictures both in the terminal and right before we crossed the bridge on to the ship and then we were on! You walk in to the Centrum at level 5, so pretty!

 

 

 

Three of the people in our group wanted to do the “All Access” tour so we went to guest services to see about booking that. A little side note here, guest services was the only complaint I had on this cruise, we had cause to use them a few times and they just didn’t seem to have it together, which led to us having to go back to guest services a lot more than we’d have liked.

Back to the story, we tried to book the tour, but the woman told us she wasn’t able to do it that day and that we ought to come back the next day. We were a little worried it might fill up, but she assured us that they would take as many wanted to go as it wasn’t a big seller. We did not end up booking the tour because we were told it was going to be on a Thursday, which was a port day rather than a sea day (I thought I recalled reading that the tour would be on a sea day) and it coincided with a tour we already had planned. I don’t know for certain when the tour ended up happening, I saw it in the compass, but one day it said to sign up Wednesday by noon and another day it said to sign up Thursday by noon, so it was a bit confusing.

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After that half of our group decided to go and eat, the other half decided to go explore the ship and get a drink (I was in that group). The ship is lovely, well taken care of, just really nice. Here is the Windjammer, where much bacon was consumed…..

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Of course we went by the pool and the pool bar, the waiters were very friendly and were generous with the drinks.

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More Deck pictures:

 

 

 

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Everything Solarium!

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Nice and Sunny!

The Carnival Victory in front of us:

We also went and checked out the Tropical Theater

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The Pit Stop and Casino Royale

I think maybe I won something on this machine on another cruise….

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Computer center:

 

 

The rooms opened up around 1:15 and we went to check them out. I had 1028 which was a handicapped accessible Junior Suite, it was HUGE!

 

 

 

Walk in closet:

 

 

I can’t even tell you how big it was, it was bigger than my hotel room. When I unpacked I was able to put all three of my bags on the floor, open them all up and still have plenty of room to move around. At any given time there were 8 of us in the room and it was never cramped. The balcony was also huge, there were three chairs, a table and two loungers and I would think we could have put another two chairs out there without a problem.

 

One thing about the room, it was on deck 10 so we did get some noise from deck 11, mostly in the wee hours of the morning, it woke me up a few times, but I’d book that same room again in a heartbeat.

 

Above our balcony was an air intake, it was very loud out there, if you wanted to have a conversation you definitely had to raise your voice, I spent a lot less time on the balcony because of it.

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After that we did a bit more exploring and then went down to dinner, our waiters (Sachin and Hungria) were awesome! We had a head waiter, but I think we only saw him once so I don’t remember his name. I loved dinner in the MDR each time I ate there (which was four nights out of six), the service was great and the food was very good.

On deck in the evening:

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St. Croix/Rainbow Beach (Day 2)

From my balcony:

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We didn’t have an excursion planned for this port so I wanted to catch a cab to Rainbow Beach based on the recommendations of so many CC folks!

It was easy, we left the pier, saw a man in a blue flowered shirt who asked us where we wanted to go, and then he pointed us to another man who would take us there. While we were walking (a very short distance) to the man he pointed out, another man drove up in a van and was like “Rainbow Beach, I’ll take you!” so we got on with him and another couple for a total of 6 of us in the van (7 with the driver). I’m a bit naïve with this kind of stuff so I didn’t realize that this guy was competing with the guy we were originally sent to, I felt bad about it once I realized what happened.

The driver was great, his name was Jacobsen (I think?) and he charged us $3 PP each way. He told us to keep an eye out for him if we wanted to go back because he would be at the beach on and off all day. We walked on to the beach through the bar/restaurant and were greeted by Brian or Scott, he told us two chairs and an umbrella were $20, we did that and sat in a great spot right at the edge of the water (so close that a few rogue waves came up around my feet throughout the day), we were still probably 20’ from the water, but you couldn’t get any closer without getting in to the wave zone, lol.

My friend who insisted her elephant tattoo be in the picture:

The ship from the beach:

My toes in the sand, so nice!

The beach was beautiful:

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We went up to the bar and got a couple of rum buckets, which literally was a small bucket of all different types of rum and juices, it was delicious! After two of those, I needed to eat so I went up and got a burger with Swiss, bacon and fries, it was super, so good I wish I was eating one now!

My husband was starting longingly at the Jet Ski’s so I told him we should rent one. He knows I’m not much on swimming in the ocean (at least not any further than 20’ or so) and he didn’t want to go without me. I went ahead and rented one anyway and told him I’d go with him (because I’m a woman and I can tell a white lie for the greater good). The rental was easy, we did have to hand over our passports and credit card for them to keep until we brought the Jet Ski back. It was $50 for a half hour, they gave us life vests and a crash course (neither of us had done it before). My husband drove and I (true to the letter of my promise) got on with him, once we got past the buoy’s he gunned the engine and I was reminded why I don’t like to get so far out in the ocean (it’s one of those “this water sure is dark, I bet there is all sorts of stuff that wants to bite my leg” kind of feelings). Though I was hanging on to his life vest for all I was worth, he made a turn and I got ejected in to said deep, dark water. I’m sure it was less than graceful, but thankfully we were so far out that no one saw it. My husband came back to get me and then I asked him to bring me back to the shore, making my ride time a grand total of 3 minutes….. Brian or Scott met me at the shore (I jumped off so that my husband didn’t have to bring it all the way back in, I’m a great swimmer, I just prefer pools) and asked what was wrong. I explained that I fell off and he said “Oh, you fell off, but your husband stayed on? Well that’s your fault then.” And in a nutshell, that was my Jet Ski experience.

After that I went back to the chairs and my husband continued on with his ride, as a side note, they let you go very far out on these Jet Ski’s, as long as you can see the yellow kayak, you are in good shape. There were times where my husband was no more than a tiny plume of water in the distance. Once he got back, we packed up and headed back to the pier, the driver was there waiting for us so we just walked right out of the bar and in to his van. Back at the pier I realized that I had left both of our passports and my credit card with the Jet Ski guys!! The driver took my husband back to get them and brought him back to the ship, no problem. I’m thankful I remembered because that could have been much worse.

I think this was our first formal night, I’m pretty sure I had the Filet of Beef and it was really delicious. We did go and see a show this night, Greg Bonham, he was a singer of sorts? I didn’t really enjoy the show, but my parents (who are in their late 50’s/early 60’s) really enjoyed it.

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Antigua/Beach Break (Day 3)

From my balcony:

There was another ship docked with us, “Albatros”:

And the pier was marked with what I presume are previous ships that have docked there:

There was another ship docked on our other side “AIDAluna”

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This is the day I talk more about my troubles with guest services.

Prior to the cruise we had booked three excursions on line, when we got to our room on day 1 we had tickets for three excursions, the trouble was that they weren’t our excursions, they were for room 1026 and we were 1028. I brought the tickets down to guest services and explained what happened; I figured they would just print some new tickets for me. However, the woman told me that since I didn’t have an excursion scheduled for day 2 (St. Croix) she wanted me to wait and see if the tickets turned up in my room. Okay, no big deal. She asked me to come back the next day if the tickets had not arrived on the evening of day 1.

On day 2 we still didn’t have the tickets so I went back to see her, she told me again that she couldn’t print the tickets and asked if I could come back that evening, it was formal night so there were huge lines and masses of people all around guest services that evening, but after I finished dinner and pictures I went back to talk to her again. At this point she told me again that she couldn’t print the tickets, I’m not really sure what I was supposed to do since we had an excursion the next day (Black Swan), so I asked her if I could just cancel the excursion for Antigua (rather than deal with possibly not getting the tickets and not getting a refund), she told me that I could not cancel, but that if I changed excursions she would be able to issue a refund and print tickets to the new excursion. So that is how I ended up on the “Beach Break” in Antigua, I don’t know which beach it was, but maybe some of you all can recognize it from the pictures.

We were taken there via bus/van and once we got on to the beach we were inundated with people selling us things. Now, I paid $36 PP to do this so I was not happy about the peddlers.

This was a beach intended for people staying at this particular resort, I cannot imagine paying money to stay at a resort only to have absolutely no peace and quiet when I ventured out on to the beach. It was really irritating and definitely the worst excursion of the cruise. For the entire 4 hours we were there we were asked at least once every 5 minutes if we wanted to ride horses, Jet Ski, purchase jewelry, purchase clothing, purchase woven hats, purchase coconuts, purchase massages, etc. Finally we purchased some coconuts filled with rum, we were already going to tip, but it really bothered me when the guy with the coconuts comes over to give them to us and says “The other people who buy coconuts gave me a really good tip because they said I surely do deserve it.” The excursion people gave us a card to fill out and so I wrote my little bit about the high pressure sales, maybe they’ll rectify it, but I don’t know if they can.

This evening we went to Portofino, it was good, the service seemed slow, but that could be attributed to me missing my kids so badly that I would have gladly gone home if I could have figured out a way, lol. The food was good, I cannot remember what I had, but I was stuffed and did not have dessert. We did not see any more shows, my best intentions were to see them, but the port intensive itinerary had me crashed out by 9:30 every night.

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St. Lucia/Segway (Day 4)

From my balcony:

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I have always wanted to ride a Segway so this was a tour I was not going to miss (Oh, regarding guest services, after I went and cancelled our Day 3 excursion, I went back upstairs to my room and found that all of my tickets had been delivered).

We were met by “Lloyd” just outside of the ship; he was very funny, talked a lot and was very entertaining. We had a large group and we were escorted to some very large buses, they were in great condition, air conditioned, etc.

We were given over to a different guide and driver (I don’t remember the guide’s name, but the driver wanted us to call him “Chubby”) they took us to the first part of our tour which was snorkeling/general beach activity at Pigeon Island (I think?), it was beautiful, there was an old fort nearby that half of the group hiked up to (I stayed on the beach) and there were snorkels, masks and fins for you to use if you wanted to swim.

Sandals close by:

We stayed there for a little more than an hour, at one point they brought out local fruit (bananas, pineapple, watermelon, oranges and coconuts) for you to eat, they also had water, coconut water and Capri Sun. The fruit was so good and it was neat to eat a coconut right out of its husk and drink the water.

Around noon we were passed off to another tour guide on the bus, he took us to the Segway portion of the excursion; we were given instruction and asked to make our way around a track until we felt comfortable.

It was very easy and so much fun! He then took us up the mountain alone some small tracks; we went on a beach and saw some local wildlife (see the cow picture).

That was funny because the cow was on a long lead that was across the path we needed to use. He attempted to pull her back to the other side, but that cow was not budging, so he just rolled his Segway over the lead and we went over it one by one.

The Segway guide was really funny, I think he said his name was “Shunga”, I’m sure I’m messing up the spelling, so you’re seeing it phonetically. He made up songs the whole time we were riding and was getting our group to sing along.

He also stopped to take pictures of us and inserted himself in to the pictures whenever he could, it was really funny.

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He took us to the top of a mountain which provided some breathtaking views before handing us off to the guy who met us on the pier so that we could do the ATV portion of the excursion.

The ATV could probably hold 12 people; there were 8 of us on it plus the guide. He had the seats underneath equipped with large speakers and he played Raggae music the whole and sang along for us, I was laughing a lot, he was very easy going and kept upa constant stream of “something” the entire time.

The ATV portion was just okay, other than the guide, there really wasn’t anything that I loved about it, but it was fun all the same. After the ATV tour we were taken back to the part where we got on the Segways, this is also where their office is “Tours R Us” so that we could use the facilities and buy a beer at the bar around back. Then we loaded back up on to the buses and headed back to the ship. All in all I liked the tour, but for being with them for more than 6 hours, I was completely starving by the time we got back on to the ship, it would be nice if they would either shorten the tour or provide a meal in the middle.

Here is a picture of one of the boats used in “Pirates of the Caribbean”

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Tonight we did the Mystery Dinner Theater! Can you tell I was excited? I love stuff like this and I was really looking forward to it, the actors did not disappoint!

Was it cheesy? Yes! Was it awesome? Yes!

I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t tell you “who done it”, but basically you start in the Safari Lounge where you meet all of the characters (via the first part of their story) and you get to know the back story. This culminates in the death of one of the characters and you are escorted to Portofino’s to figure out the mystery!

The Narrator:

“Two Ton Teddy”, “Sally Say So” and “Dottie Do Right”:

“Eddie Boom Boom”

“Wendy Work Hard”

“Louie the Lizard” in the back in purple:

There were hors d'oeuvres and champagne in the Safari Lounge and once you got to Portofino’s they served bottomless white and red wine. You had appetizers and then heard more from the characters (I think at this point you couldn’t talk to them), then you had dinner and they came back out so you could talk to each character for one minute per table, then you had dessert and they came back out and each table could ask a single question.

Then they came around and collected your ballots (which were at your seat when you sat down originally). You had to fill out (Who) you thought did it and (Why) and also your name and room number.

I believe they then took all of the ballots who answered correctly and pulled a random winner from that lot.

My husband ended up winning. And I’m going to hear about it for the rest of my life, lol.

The backstory to that is that he doesn’t drink very often, but this night he had quite a few glasses of wine, by the end of dinner he was quite in to the story and was giving serious thought to who the murderer was. He was thinking so hard that he didn’t end up getting his ballot in when the lady came around so he decided not to put it in rather than flag her down. When she came back by the table on her way to the kitchen, I picked up his ballet and handed it to her.

 

So, the narrator pulls his ballot and says “I can’t read the name and there is no room number, but maybe the reason will help. Who wrote “She’s Old” as the reason why the murder took place?”

My husband starts laughing and I’m kind of embarrassed because how harsh it that?

Anyway, he went up there and collected his swag, which was actually nice. There were two RC ball caps, two all-purpose camera bags, some pens and key chains, a bottle of champagne and an all-day pass to the Thermal Suite in the spa. Then he regaled us with his method of elimination for the rest of the evening, I called him “Columbo” for the duration of the cruise. It was a lot of fun, definitely do it if you’re thinking about it.

Our “Swag”:

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St. Kitts/Catamaran (Day 5)

From my balcony:

We were met in the pavilion outside of the ship by our tour guide; they took us to the catamaran which was just a short walk from the ship.

On the way to the catamaran we were accosted by the “Monkey Men”, it’s the guy in the red shirt and backpack in the picture. He tried to cull us from the group as we were the last 4, he wanted us to hold his monkey, but we all declined, he was kind of hard to get away from and I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with him on the way back.

The catamaran was beautiful, in great shape, super clean, very nice.

The crew took our shoes when we got on board and put them in some containers so we could get them after the excursion.

We left the dock and headed to ****ten Bay (I think that’s the right spelling), we used a motor for a bit and then switched to sails which was very cool to see.

We were also given water and “Ting” to drink, no alcohol before snorkeling (for obvious reasons).

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Along the way:

We snorkeled here:

We were given all of the stuff needed to snorkel and they told us the best places to go to see the fish, they also warned us to stay away from the greenish/yellow algae on some of the rocks, otherwise known as “fire coral” (or something like that).

We snorkeled and saw a ton of fish, all sorts, it was great! I saw Parrotfish and Urchins, Grouper, Jelly Fish, and so many more that I can’t even name. I did not have an underwater camera.

After we snorkeled (we were allowed an hour) we got back on the boat and sailed to Nevis, they got very close to the beach and we were able to walk right off on to the shore where they had a full meal set up.

We ate chicken and several types of salad (macaroni, coconut, corn) and hot dogs. I think there was more, but I can’t remember as I didn’t eat it all.

After lunch was done we got back on the boat for the trip back to the ship, everyone was drinking rum punch or Carib, and you could again also have Ting or water.

At one point one of the young men, the youngest of them, put on some music and wanted people to dance. He came over to me and kind of took my hand to pull me up, but I declined. I thought he’d let it be, but instead he leaned over and started to kind of tickle/poke me in the sides and then made some comment about me being all soft. This made me really uncomfortable, he had his hands on my bare mid-section as I was in a bikini. He then proceeded to call another lady on the excursion “Grandma” in a derogatory manner when she spoke up about him insulting me. My husband was very agitated about it and had we not been in St. Kitts I am certain the guy on the boat would have been a black eye richer. So that pretty much ruined the rest of the excursion (which was thankfully almost over). I loved the excursion, but I wouldn’t do it again, I’m not sure what the personal space rules are like in St. Kitts, but I really felt the guy stepped way over the line.

Tonight was another formal night so we ate in the MDR, it was lobster and quite good, as usual the service was awesome. There were pictures this night as well so we went down early, around 5:00 p.m. and hit every single photo opportunity in 5 minutes, there were no lines at all, it was great!

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We did “Pets at Sea” after dinner for our son back home:

 

Captain Elephant!

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Sea Day (Day 6)

Today we didn’t have too much planned other than recuperating from the port intensive itinerary and also we were doing the “Champagne Brunch” at Chops Grille. This included a galley tour which we were excited to see since the All Access tour didn’t pan out. We got there around 10:45 and were given the tour, the chef “Andy” was great, and he answered a lot of questions and made a lot of jokes (especially about the first timers in the yellow neckerchiefs). We got to see the sinks and dishes and freezers, refrigerators, huge ovens that baked rolling carts of bread all at once, the little machine that makes the dough in to balls, etc.

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The making of the rolls!

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Appetizers for 2000…..

I have more pictures so if you want them, just let me know. The sheer quantities they make are just mind boggling and they do it with so much precision so they don’t make too much and waste it.

Once the tour was finished we were taken back up to Chops so that we could ask additional questions, we were also served champagne, Bellini’s, Mimosa’s and wine throughout the entire meal.

This meal was so good; I could easily say it was in the top two on the cruise, maybe even the best one. There was just so much to choose from and it was all delicious, the whole thing was a steal for $30 PP.

I did not play BINGO this last day, I played 3 times earlier in the week and won $200, well I guess I didn’t win that much since I’d spent $125 playing, but whatever, lol.

Dinner was great as usual; we tipped our wait staff and bid them fond farewells. They really were excellent!

We had our bags outside by 9 p.m. and headed to bed.