Serenade 3/31/07

[MikeDMess]

Back form the Serenaqde 3/31/07

 

Our 14th cruise, 5th with RCCL.

 

Embarkation: Horrible for us. I have a separate thread on this. Key points: They are very suspicious of you bringing alcohol on board. We had a carry-on that fit in the xray at check in, but did not fit in the small Xray on the ship. The woman responded when we told her it won't fit "why you have alcohol? and told us to shove it in. It got stuck and she made us reach in to get it. Your kids need a birth certificate in addition to a Passport if they don't share your last name. Read my post on this.

 

Cabin: 7030/7032. Was worried that the theatre was under us, however, did not experience any noise. There seemed to be a lot of banging and echoing from other cabins and upper floor hallways (kids running). Although cabin was small, I liked the decor (but there were several red stains on the carpet and couch) and the shower door (better than the annoying shower curtains on Princess). Our balcony was larger than the typical balcony, however we only got a tiny table to use for room service (Princess gives you a nice size table to enjoy breakfast on). Also we asked for a loung chair and was denied by our cabin steward. Closet space is OK (More on Princess) and ammenities were little. (Bar of soap, shampoo dispenser, hair dryer vs. Princess' lotion, conditioner and robes). It tool 3 days to get a robe form our cabin steward who seemed upset that we asked for one. As you can guess we had a lousy cabin steward who did not clean very well. Our safe was broken and they only come to fix it if you are in the cabin. After they fixed it the first time it broke 5 minutes later. It's a bit anoying because you need to hang in your cabin for the time frame they tell you. New mattreses are great. One suggestion for those who like the Queen bed set up. The pillow tops on the individual beds are folded in half. Remove the sheets and the pillow top and open them up so they cover both beds. You eliminate the valley between the two beds. It also helps if your cabin steward actually locks the frames together. Our cabin steward only slid them together which opens up during the night. Our interactive TV didn't work right either. Seemed much better on the Adventurer of the Seas.

 

Food: We found the food to be very good. My only unhappy experience was the angus steak in the dining room was tough and dry (both times). Service was exceptional at table 479. Windjammer was the best layout we have experienced. It never seemed crowded and the food choices were good. Seaview cafe was very good. Could use a grilled chicken sandwich on their menu. Room Service, however, is lousy. On Princess we can get French Toast for breakfast even though it's not on the menu. On RCCL its a NO-NO. Also on the NO list is French Fries. They often forgot the basics like sugar and salt. They got offended when I asked for sugar the second time telling me "you don't need to ask for that it comes with the coffee"- only to get Equal sweetner.

 

Entertainment: I'm not a dancing and singing show fan, but I like comedians and they weren't too good. Quest is a blast (not as bad as some posters make it out to be), other contests were fun too, bands were good.

 

Ship: It's a beautiful ship with very little evidence of wear and tear. The wear and tear is noticible in the deck chairs which had white stains (from paint?),the exterior decks were peeling a worn in several spots, and the stains in our cabin.

 

Ports: I found Antigua to be bland and the taxi drivers would argue with each other in front of you as they competed for your business. Not very professional. Some advise for St. Lucia: There is a tour you book on the dock that takes you on a boat to the volanoe, pitons, waterfall, and beach (not a ship tour). It costs $50. They are very very unprofessional and we nearly missed our ship. They tell you the tour leaves in 15 minutes and it winds up being over an hour as they look for more customers. Then they fight among themselves. The experience is bad for tourism and I don't understand these guys. It's much better to book ahead of time with recommendations from this site. We've done this in the past with very few problems but did not on this cruise with regret.

 

Overall: We like RCCL, the ships, the crew (generally). It's good to see they have a curfu for teens. Bar waiters were not annoying, as on some ships, Lotus Spa was not pushing products on you, waiters were eager to get you lemonade and water at the windjammer which was a surprise for us, you are not annoyed into participating into contests (exept at the Quest where you were told to leave if you did not participate (we stayed)). I wish they had anytime dining. Inconsistant cutomer service if something goes wrong (such as lost tickets from TA and boarding issues).

[bplazo]

The Serenade has been so far our favorite cruise. I loved all the ports.