Let me start by saying this is my 4 cruise. We've done 2 with Royal & 2 with Carnival. My husband and I are in our early 30's. Overall the ship was very nice. Our cabin was larger then most other ships I had previously been on. Ship was also clean and wasn't as gaudy as some others. We had an oceanview with a large window.

The food in the main dining room was very good and our server was great. He often brough out extras for us to try and better our experience. The Windjammer is ok. They had the same food everyday for breakfast which got old. We had previously cruised on Carnival Freedom in October and that was fresh in our minds. The Freedom had many free dining options. In fact there were so many different options we couldn't even try them all. While Serenade only offers Windjammer buffet, main dining room & the Park Cafe. We were lucky enough to have Guys Burger Joint on Freedom and got spoiled. Serenade can not compete with those. Not really a huge fan of the pay extra restaurants. There are 4 on Serenade... none of which we tried.

The entertainment was not the greatest. The comedian was funny but we felt like they could have had more of them. The broadway style shows were ok but not our cup of tea. We felt Carnival offered more options that catered to our age group. Poolside activities were not so great. In fact they were pretty non-existant. RC and Carnival both had DJ's but RC just had a guy basically playing backgroud music. While Carnival had a guy who was really entertaining and pumped up the crowd while at sea. The reggae band on RC was nice but not very visable as the hot tubs block the stage if you're sitting on the right side of the pool. Read more