My husband and I flew out of OKC on Dec. 5th in the event of any weather problems. It was a good thing we did. Our flight was delayed leaving due to the snow in the northeast. We just barely made our connecting flight in Atlanta. As a matter of fact, our connecting flight should have been gone but waited a while and actually opened the door for 4 of us to get on. Thank you Delta!! We made it on time to San Juan and had booked a room through Priceline and got a good deal at the Caribe Hilton. It was a lovely hotel and our room looked over the ocean. Okay, enough about that stuff. On to the cruise!!

This is our third cruise. We had cruised previously with Disney and Princess. We were anxious to give RCI a try. We arrived at the pier around 12:30, turned over our luggage to a porter, walked right to immigration and on to the ship in no time at all. The Serenade is as beautiful as everyone says it is. Lots of glass, very bright and sunny. We had no problem finding our stateroom, which was on the "hump." It was stateroom 7592. The balcony did seem to have quite a bit more room than the one right next to it. But I will say one negative thing. Our balcony was right over the lifeboats, which obstructed our view of the water directly below. You could see the wake and everything but we, personally, would not book this cabin again just for that reason. The cabin was a little smaller than the one we had on the Golden Princess. The bathroom was small but met our needs. The shower doors were wonderful! No shower curtain to stick to you. There was plenty of storage room with the closet and all the cubby holes in the bathroom mirrors and the vanity mirrors.

After checking out our cabin we headed to, where else, but the welcome luncheon at the Windjammer on deck 11. We felt the food was very good at the Windjammer and in the dining room. The desserts were a little bland to us, but that may just be us. We felt the food was just as good as Princess, if not a little better. They certainly had a variety each day and some of the same dishes each day. No complaints there. Read more