Serenade Of The Seas Review Feb. 4-11, 2006

[Cruisingjer]

This is my first review and is payback for all the help other reviews have given me. I am going to do this a little different and compare the Radiance Class and Voyager Class Ships.

 

The pros to the Radiance Class are:

1. Lots of glass and windows looking out.

2. There is outdoor seating at the Windjammer.

3. Seaview Café has better choices than Johnny Rockets (except for the hours 2-6 and 10-1:00 a.m. which is too late to eat if you have main seating in the main dining room).

4. Less people which makes the embarkation and debarkation process go much smoother.

5. Schooner Bar is much bigger and the Safari Club is huge.

6. The hump balconies are significantly bigger than the standard balcony. We had 8102 right off the elevator and never heard any noise coming off the elevator like we thought we would.

7. The water slide was a big plus for our son.

The pros to Voyager versus the Radiance Class:

1. The Ocean Adventure Program for children is much bigger than the Radiance Class. When we arrived on the Radiance Class the Ocean Adventure room was much smaller and did not have the great ball pit that the Voyager has. The section for the 3-5 year olds was quite a bit smaller and they roped off their section. The first night we brought our son to the program we found out that he thought that they were putting the rope up to keep kids from playing with him.

2. The Voyager’s Promenade made the shopping much less congested. You never felt crowded. There was always coffee, pizza or cookies available any time of the day at the Café Promenade.

3. The dining room with its three levels versus two on the Radiance Class was very impressive.

4. The pool area was much bigger and less congested on the Voyager Class.

5. The ice show is outstanding and the skating rink/dance floor area was much better suited to the Quest Game and watching the Super Bowl than holding it in the Safari Room on the Radiance Class.

6. The Theater is much more elegantly decorated than the Radiance.

 

The Southern Carribean was outstanding. Our itinerary was San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbados. The first stop in St. Thomas we highly recommend taking the Sky Ride up and have a couple of Bushwhackers - watch out they pack a wallop!

St. Lucia was both good and bad. The bad was the cabbies. We decided to take a walk and try some shopping but were hounded by the cabbies. We would say no to one and the next one would come up and so on. We ended up turning around and going back to the ship. Very irritating. The good point of St. Lucia was the Pitons. The captain came extremely close and the view was beautiful.

Monterstat (sp) volcano. The captain went by the volcano gave everyone information about the island and the history of the volcano and the eruption in 1995 and the devastation it caused. In the middle of his talk the volcano erupted. The captain told us that this was the first time he had seen that major of an eruption since he had been on this itinerary. He had to cancel the tour around the island as the ash from the volcano eruption was landing on the ship and he needed to back out for safety reasons. It was quite a sight to see.

 

Overall the Serenade was a fantastic ship and the itinerary was outstanding. We would do it again in a heartbeat. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.

Jerry

[The Grumpus]

Thanks for your review Cruisinger. Hopefully RCL will put the best of both classes and place them on Freedom, with a few extras of course.