SERENADE OF THE SEAS Southern Caribbean Dec. 6 - 13, 2003 By Mary & Vincent Finelli
If there is a new ship in port, you can place a safe bet that Vincent will book a cruise on her. The sleek, beautiful Serenade of the Seas, the newest ship of the RCI Radiance class, fits that criteria and Vincent, champing at the bit, made reservations and we sailed on her just three months into her inaugural year. Captain Nikolaos, our friend from the Vision of the Seas, took her from Amsterdam, Holland to Boston, Massachusetts August 4-11, 2003 on her first Transatlantic voyage. We looked forward to renewing our acquaintance with him, but, alas he was on holiday. The Master at this time was the extraordinarily erudite Captain Stig of Norway, who commanded his first ship at age twenty-four, and later heroically rescued fifty crew members off two Danish ships in danger of being crushed by dangerous ice floes in the Arctic. His historically oriented daily "talks from the bridge" put in context the many islands we visited or sailed close enough to view from the Serenade. It is refreshing to see how much he valued the culture of these island nations and the heritage that determines their modern status. He perfectly timed a sail-a-way from St. Lucia to allow passengers a view of the spectacular sunset as we exited the narrow harbor.
EMBARKATION We flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Ft Lauderdale, Florida; this short flight was painless (after we missed our scheduled flight, we were booked on the next one an hour later). San Juan has a new efficiently designed airport, and we used RCI's handy American Airlines flight and transfer. Personnel were stationed at the gate and the baggage claim area along with porters. A very short walk led to the buses just outside the door. Luggage is transferred separately by trucks, but have no fear it quickly gets to the ship!