Just back from Serenade 11-day Southern Caribbean

[FionaMG]

Day 3 Compass:

 

 

 

 

 

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[FionaMG]

For our 3-night pre-cruise stay I had booked us a room at the Best Western Plus Oceanside Inn.I got a great rate for this on Last Minute Travel Club. The room itself looked nice and fresh even if the view from the balcony was on to the wall of the next-door B Ocean. We pretty much expected this given the price and it was not an issue for us as we are not balcony people, but there were some more expensive rooms with nice balconies overlooking the pool.

 

The bathroom could have done with a lick of paint and some rust treatment around the hinges on the door and, curiously, the sink was set very high on the wall; so high, in fact, that I had to stand on tip-toe when I was washing my face! Admittedly I am only 5’ 1” but I have never come across anything like this before.

 

We did have a couple of maintenance issues in our room that really should have been detected by housekeeping before we ever arrived but they were resolved immediately and to our satisfaction as soon as we reported them. In fact, every member of staff that we spoke to was invariably friendly and helpful.

 

The included breakfast had a decent selection of good quality items. My favourite was the farm-fresh yogurt, which was delicious. The one perhaps not-so-good point, depending on your point of view, is that all the plates, cups and cutlery were of the disposable type.

 

The breakfast room was very pleasant, with large windows overlooking the pool. We did not actually use the pool but saw several other guests enjoying it. We only spent some time sitting alongside it on our final morning, when we spotted a little visitor – an iguana, who walked along the edge of the pool and climbed up on to the tree. You can see him on the right of the tree trunk if you look closely.

 

Iguana at the pool:

 

 

The weather was much kinder to us this time than on our previous two visits to Fort Lauderdale, so we were finally able to do the water taxi. This was a great day out. We took it from the Bahia Mar stop, which is just a short walk from the BW, all the way north and then back down to Las Olas where we had lunch. After that we got back on again and rode to the Hilton where we switched to the Hollywood route. By sheer chance we were there in time to see the cruise ships sailing away from Port Everglades. First was a HAL ship, followed by the Harmony and then the Independence, which we got a really good view of as by that time we were already on the water taxi and were alongside her.

 

Independence departing from Port Everglades:

 

 

We hopped off the water taxi at the Hollywood Broadwalk. We had never made it there on our previous trips and we loved it! I would seriously consider staying here on a future visit to the area.

 

Sunday was spent just wandering up and down the beach area in Fort Lauderdale and doing a bit of shopping. By now we were really in count-down-to-cruise mode and looking forward to boarding Serenade the next day!

 

The moon rising over the beach at the Hollywood Broadwalk:

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited December 19, 2017 by FionaMG
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[Tahina cruising]

Following as we are doing this cruise in just over 3 1/2 weeks!!

 

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[ONECRUISER]

Looking forward to this review. We'll be on Serenade for the first time in February (different itinerary). Any thoughts on the ship itself will be greatly appreciated.

Ship is in very good shape after Dry Dock. Did this cruise and still on doing B2B2B. She is a nice size, you will enjoy her...

[FionaMG]

Day 4 Compass:

 

 

 

 

 

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[FionaMG]

Boarding

 

The reason for hanging out at the hotel pool on the last morning was that we had decided to arrive at the port in time for the cabins opening up on the ship, so we wouldn’t have to be dragging our carry-ons around, so it was just a bit after midday when we asked the front desk agent to call a taxi for us.

 

The taxi arrived a few minutes later for the short drive to the port. I think it cost $15 plus tip.

 

Serenade was the only cruise ship sailing from Port Everglades that day and the whole boarding process was quick and easy. We had timed it perfectly because we heard the announcement saying the cabins were open just as we set foot on the ship.

 

Cabin

We headed straight to our cabin to drop off our carry-ons. We were in cabin 3550, a standard ocean view on deck 3. This is our normal choice of cabin as we are really only ever in there to shower and sleep. It was absolutely fine and everything looked spruce and fresh, as we expected since the ship was only three weeks out of dry dock.

 

We found the location to be very convenient. It was about half-way between the forward and centre elevators - especially great for me going to the gym on the 12th floor - and just a short walk up one set of stairs to the Centrum and the main dining room.

 

Oceanview stateroom 3550, deck 3, starboard:

 

 

 

 

There was, however, one very curious aspect that we have never encountered before on any of our cruises and which we really didn’t like at all, and that was that the toilet was set far too high on the wall. At 5’ 1”, my feet were dangling like a five-year old’s and even DH found it sufficiently uncomfortable that we mostly “went” in the public bathrooms!

 

Anyway, with our carry-ons duly dumped in the cabin, we wasted no time in setting off to find the Windjammer for some lunch.

 

Which brings me on to the highly subjective subject of… food.

 

 

 

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Edited December 20, 2017 by FionaMG
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[ILCTCRUISER]

Unpredictable. Sometimes those with reservations have very little wait, sometimes not.

We've always done MTD since it was introduced. Rarely do we ever make a reservation: we reserve when there's a very definite reason to do so. Otherwise, we just

show up. Sometimes, we have to wait a bit but never longer than 10 minutes. Usually, we're seated as soon as we show up.

 

That being said, it's the two of us. If we were a larger group, I'd say the reservation becomes necessary.

 

Enjoy!

[AlohaPride]

This is a great review. Thanks! Look forward to the rest of it!

[bobmacliberty]

Serenade was the only cruise ship sailing from Port Everglades that day and the whole boarding process was quick and easy.

 

From which terminal did you depart? Our Serenade cruise departs on a Friday and it also appears that we may be the only ship in port. I'm wondering if Royal uses terminal 18 during the week or if 18 is reserved only for the big ships.

[ONECRUISER]

From which terminal did you depart? Our Serenade cruise departs on a Friday and it also appears that we may be the only ship in port. I'm wondering if Royal uses terminal 18 during the week or if 18 is reserved only for the big ships.

Yes we used Pier 18 last week. Other weeks Serenade can use different Pier if different Royal ships are in. I have left out of 18 and came back to different one...

[JamesEM]

Following along.....

[FionaMG]

From which terminal did you depart? Our Serenade cruise departs on a Friday and it also appears that we may be the only ship in port. I'm wondering if Royal uses terminal 18 during the week or if 18 is reserved only for the big ships.

 

Yes, pier 18, as OneCruiser posted. I have no idea which terminal we came back into but it looked the same as the one we left from...:o

 

You can check out the port schedule from a week before to see which terminal Serenade will be using for your departure. https://pevvesseltraffic.broward.org/webx/

[bobmacliberty]

Thanks!

[cruzeluver]

Thank you for sharing our thoughts. We are following closely. Have booked Serenade for next Fall to Canada/New England. It will be our first Radiance Class ship so we are eager for all the info we can get!

[Pumbaamd]

From which terminal did you depart? Our Serenade cruise departs on a Friday and it also appears that we may be the only ship in port. I'm wondering if Royal uses terminal 18 during the week or if 18 is reserved only for the big ships.

Celebrity, as part of the family, also uses 18. Tomorrow Serenade will be at 29, as Reflection will be at 18.

R&D

[FionaMG]

I had too much work to do today to get the next part of my review written but here is the Day 5 Compass.

 

 

 

 

 

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[jagsfan]

I'm glad to know Serenade looks fresh. Hope it stays that wAy for March 30. I'm looking forward to Radiance class again.

 

 

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[notoverthehillyet]

Wow! Fiona MG your review is great. I will be on exact cruise a year from now, Dec 12, 2018 on Serenade. Never been on her before and just got off Allure in Nov so going from Allure to Serenade will be so different, but have read so many great reviews about Serenade and wanted to try a smaller ship for a new experience. Your review just got me more excited, especially since she is getting some refurb, I think, early next year. How are her cabins? I’m doing my very first Aft stateroom on her, hoping my 5 ft body (meaning very short lil legs) will be up to the walk to elevator. (Which was my ONLY issue with Allure....lotsa walking for this baby boomer). Looking forward to your next posts. Lauren

 

 

 

 

 

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[FionaMG]

Wow! Fiona MG your review is great. I will be on exact cruise a year from now, Dec 12, 2018 on Serenade. Never been on her before and just got off Allure in Nov so going from Allure to Serenade will be so different, but have read so many great reviews about Serenade and wanted to try a smaller ship for a new experience. Your review just got me more excited, especially since she is getting some refurb, I think, early next year. How are her cabins? I’m doing my very first Aft stateroom on her, hoping my 5 ft body (meaning very short lil legs) will be up to the walk to elevator. (Which was my ONLY issue with Allure....lotsa walking for this baby boomer). Looking forward to your next posts. Lauren

 

 

 

 

 

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Glad you're enjoying it. [emoji4] I am hoping to get the next part written today.

 

Our cabin looked nice and fresh. Could have done with some more drawer space, though. We took the hairdryer out of one and stashed it in the wardrobe to give us an extra drawer. There were some weird shelves in the wardrobe that I ended up using for most of my non-hanging garments but even my XS t-shirts seemed to hang off the edges!

 

You should be fine as far as distances are concerned as it's nowhere near as big as Allure. We have been right at the very front on both Oasis and Harmony and that's a loooong way to walk! [emoji23]

 

Here is a pic I took of the wake to get you in the mood for your aft cabin.

 

 

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[birdylady]

Hi there. Loving your review so far. We are sailing the 11 day in less than 4 months. 3 of the ports are repeats and Aruba and Curacao are new. What's weird is we normally book all our excursions long before now and haven't yet booked a single one. Looking forward to reading about all your port excursions.

 

Thanx again.

Erika

[FionaMG]

Hi there. Loving your review so far. We are sailing the 11 day in less than 4 months. 3 of the ports are repeats and Aruba and Curacao are new. What's weird is we normally book all our excursions long before now and haven't yet booked a single one. Looking forward to reading about all your port excursions.

 

Thanx again.

Erika

 

Glad you're enjoying it. :D

 

We did an excursion in every port because being from the other side of the pond we don't know when (or even if) we will get a chance to visit these ports again and it would have been awful to travel all that way and not see any sights.

I will be describing all of our excursions because I think that can be very helpful for anyone at the planning stage. In case you missed it, I have already described the one we did in Antigua in post #24 as another poster specifically asked about that.

[FionaMG]

Food

 

Quite a long post here since food is such an important part of cruising! :D

 

First of all, my abject apologies to any food porn fans out there – and I am one myself! – but it simply did not occur to me to take any photos of the food.

 

All in all we were happy enough with the food, which we ate far too much of, and with the service in both the MDR and the Windjammer. Neither we nor our MDR tablemates felt any need to eat at the specialty restaurants and we were never once badgered by the vendors, who were always present outside the WJ but who waited for the guests to approach them rather than using annoying hard-sell tactics.

 

With the exception of breakfast in the MDR on the morning we arrived in Antigua, we ate all of our breakfasts and all of our lunches in the Windjammer. Dinners were all in the MDR where we had late seating, at 8 pm.

 

I thought that the breakfast buffet in the MDR was a bit disappointing but, to be honest, I was comparing it to the one on Harmony and Oasis. Obviously a bigger ship is going to have more space and consequently a bigger buffet, so it’s not really a fair comparison. There were no breads at all at the buffet; you had to get them from the waiter, which I hadn’t realised, so I waved him away when he first came round offering them and he never came back after that. However, there was a good selection of fresh fruit and there were even fresh strawberries at the waffle station. DH ordered a mushroom omelette from the à la carte menu. It was delivered quickly and he declared it to be very good.

 

After that we always ate breakfast in the Windjammer. It was fine except I was a bit disappointed with the limited bread choices here too. There was a whole island with a huge selection of cakes and pastries but only a few not-so-appetizing-looking breads stuck on a tiny corner of it. RCI used to have such an amazing range of great breads in the past but I guess that must be one of the casualties of cost-cutting. :( The fresh fruit consisted mainly of honeydew, cantaloupe and water melon, pineapple, apples, bananas, pears and sometimes grapes or kiwis hidden away on the islands that were used for the desserts at lunchtime. I think I saw passion fruit in there one day too. There was an omelette and an egg station and four types of toasted breads: sliced white, sliced wheat, English muffins and bagels. The coffee was usually too weak for my continental tastes but I was occasionally able to get a stronger cup.

 

Lunch in the Windjammer was very hit or miss when it came to quality and selection. We never made it to the MDR for lunch because it was only open for lunch on sea days. On those days we ate breakfast later, so by the time we were ready for lunch the MDR had already closed. However, our dinnertime table mates did have lunch in the MDR on several occasions and reported that the salad and pasta options were very good.

 

There were always two soup selections offered in the WJ at lunchtime and we found them to be very good. We thought the DIY salad offerings were very limited and there was not a lot of fresh fruit at lunch either. The main courses were sometimes very good and sometimes awful. There were usually 2 or 3 Indian dishes, 2 or 3 meat dishes, fish, and pasta with 3 different types of sauce to choose from. Usually, there was only one fresh vegetable option, which varied between broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. And there were always burgers (possibly hotdogs? Not sure about that one…) and pizza, which DH declared to be soggy and pretty inedible. On a couple of days, we couldn’t find anything that we fancied, so we made ourselves a cheese sandwich – there was always nice fresh bread at lunch. The desserts were a bit hit and miss too, although on one day they had a delicious chocolate mousse with pieces of chocolate cake through it, which they called “Black Forest”. I went back for a second helping of that! There was also a soft ice-cream machine beside the desserts, which seemed to be in constant use.

 

We rarely had trouble finding somewhere to sit in the Windjammer, although this may be because we usually ate late, after peak meal times. The only time I remember it being difficult was at breakfast on the last sea morning, when it was quite cool and cloudy, probably resulting in folks who would normally have sat outside sitting inside instead.

 

Our dinners in the MDR were consistently good, although I thought the choices were a bit limited. DH had the strip steak off the Classics Menu on almost half of the evenings because he couldn’t see anything he fancied on the daily menu. The strip steak was always excellent, however, very tasty and tender. I felt that vegetarians would have been hard-pressed as there was only one vegetarian main course offered each evening in addition to the classic (and boring) pasta with tomato sauce. I have to say, though, that I was very disappointed with the lasagne. Although it was tasty, it was far too soft; in fact, if it hadn't been called "lasagne" on the menu, you wouldn't have realised it was a pasta dish because there was no bite to it at all.

 

I am a bit less conservative than DH when it comes to food, so I was almost always able to find something I liked on the daily menu, with the exception of the last night when I chose the strip steak too. We did have some very good desserts. The New York cheesecake was very good, as was the chocolate soufflé with espresso sauce (one of my regular favourites) and something called a chocolate hazelnut truffle tart (or something like that) which was actually not a tart at all but more like a very delicious velvety mousse.

 

Our tablemates were a husband and wife from Kentucky and we hit it off well and enjoyed our conversations with them. Our waiter Erwin and assistant waiter Schubert were very attentive to our needs and our head waiter, whose name I didn’t get, came round on the second evening to ask if anyone was celebrating any special occasion on board. We told him about it being our 30th wedding anniversary and he made a note of it, so we had a slice of chocolate cake with a candle and the waiters singing “Happy Anniversary” to us on the big day.

 

I think that's probably long enough of a post but if anyone has any specific questions about the food feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer. :)

[FionaMG]

Day 6 Compass

 

 

 

 

 

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[FionaMG]

The ship

 

One of the great things about this itinerary was the fact that we had two straight days at sea at the very beginning of the cruise. This gave us a chance to explore and familiarise ourselves with the ship.

 

We had only been on a Radiance class ship once before and that was Brilliance about seven years ago. Since then, our cruises on Royal have been on either Voyager or Oasis class, so we wondered how we would feel about the differences, especially in terms of size and the fact that there is no Royal Promenade on Radiance class ships.

 

There can be no denying that the Serenade is a beautiful ship with gorgeous sea views, even from some of the lifts. The Centrum, which I suppose you could say is the Royal Promenade of this class of ship is also very attractive, and as we were going through the shops DH commented on how attractive they were too.

 

Centrum:

 

 

 

 

 

With this being holiday season, the ship was already decked out in festive finery, including a big Christmas tree in the main dining room and, a couple of days in, an intricate gingerbread-house Christmas scene at the entrance to the Schooner Bar. Said scene was bounded on either end by a huge inflatable Santa and an equally huge inflatable snowman, which I personally felt detracted from the scene itself. It must have taken a huge amount of work to bake, build and set it up.

 

We are not drinkers so we didn’t really spend any time in the bars but we did pass through the Schooner Bar a couple of times and I thought it was very dark but I imagine that is in keeping with the theme of the décor and that it makes for a more intimate setting. Certainly it always seemed to be busy. There was a nightly pianist and it was used during the day for trivia.

 

Just beyond the Schooner Bar was what had to be the most under-used venue on the ship: the Safari Club. This was a lovely, spacious room that mostly seemed to be used for karaoke. I thought it would have made a good venue for some of the entertainment that went on in the Centrum because there was more space and more seating. As beautiful as the Centrum is, I felt it wasn’t great as an entertainment venue because it was just too small.

 

The casino was no different to the casinos on any of the other RCI ships we have been on, except scaled down appropriately to the size of the ship. There was smoking on one side and the other was supposedly non-smoking. As DH likes to make a small nightly contribution we were in there every evening and found that as long as we stuck as far over from the smoking side as we could, the smoke didn’t bother us but as soon as we moved towards the middle, you could start to smell it.

 

The little cluster of shops had the usual logo shop, jewellery, handbags, perfumes and gifts. As I mentioned, they were very attractively laid out and we did make a few contributions here too. However, because the area was so small, it could get very crowded, especially when there was merchandise out on the stalls outside the shops. The usual sales events, such as the $10 blow-out sale were held here and there were notices saying “Buy 4, get 1 free”, which seemed to be very popular. Perhaps people were buying Christmas stocking fillers.

 

Just beyond the shops was the photo gallery. This was not the digital type gallery you see on the newer ships, but the traditional type where you had to hunt for your photos. I should say at this point that although the photographers were always around they were never pushy. They would invite you to have your photo taken but easily and pleasantly took “no” for an answer if you weren’t interested.

 

And beyond the photo gallery you had the Tropical Theatre. This was a nicely-appointed theatre with good sight-lines.

 

 

 

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Edited December 23, 2017 by FionaMG
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[FionaMG]

Heading up to the top now, the Windjammer was on deck 11. In addition to the indoor seating, there was a big open-air seating area at the back, which was very popular. The layout of the buffet consisted of different islands rather than one long buffet line. In the indoor part, there were two counters with the complimentary drinks (lemonade, iced tea and water) already laid out and you could ask the servers for coffee or hot water for tea. On several occasions I saw urns with plain milk and chocolate milk at these counters too.

 

On the way out of the WJ, heading towards the centre of the ship, there was a kind of lounge area with big cane armchairs and low tables, and a couple of table tennis tables.

 

This then brought you out to the main pool area, where there was a space for the musicians or the entertainment team, two outdoor hot tubs and loungers. The loungers alongside the pool were almost always occupied when we were there but there were lots more on the deck above and that was actually our favourite spot as we were able to look down over the pool area and people watch or see any poolside entertainment that might be going on.

 

As well as the main pool, there was the solarium for adults only, which seemed very popular, with a small pool and an indoor hot tub. I saw the retractable roof of the solarium open on two different days. And there was a children’s pool with a water slide that seemed not to be steep enough, as we saw a couple of kids having to push themselves down it. The sports area consisted of a multi-purpose court and a rock-climbing wall, neither of which we saw getting much use. The mini-golf course seemed to be more popular but we only played on it once because it smelled really awful up there. We don’t know for sure but we suspect that the circular structure around which the mini-golf course is built must be some kind of waste water treatment plant, because the smell was a sewage-type smell. Horrible!

 

At the other end of the top decks from the WJ and the mini-golf, you have the spa, on deck 11, and the gym on deck 12. We did not use the spa but our tablemate Diana did. She had apparently booked some hot bed type thing (I’m sure regular spa-goers will know what I am talking about) and she said they were very good and she was glad she had booked.

 

On deck 12 outside the gym there is a mini jogging track. This was where I really missed that great track on the Oasis class ships because the one on Serenade is really of no use for anyone who is in any way serious about keeping fit; you have to go round it four times to do a kilometre or six times for a mile. So instead of using the track, I worked out in the gym, which I will describe in my next post.

 

Sailaway party on the pool deck:

 

 

The outdoor pool deck:

 

 

Serenade seen from the pier in Curacao:

 

 

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Edited December 23, 2017 by FionaMG
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