We sailed on Serenade of the Seas on December 13, 2008, Cabin 9258. The cruise was quite nice! We ate all our meals in either Chops or Portofino's and they were both excellent!! The room was lovely... but we were surprised to learn that RCCL evidently no longer offers things like lotions etc in the bathroom!!! Nevertheless the cabin was beautiful and the balcony was wonderful (at the stern). We also learned that there were several "last minute" deals in the 400 dollar range and felt that as a consequence of this the demographics of this cruise were somewhat different than what we're used to. Not to sound elitist but I am sure you can understand that by discounting the cruise so much there has to be a change in the clientele so to speak! I understand that the same phenomenon was noted by people on the Summit (which was also out of Puerto Rico; we spoke to a couple who'd been on that cruise... they were on our flight home). In any case, we really enjoyed the overall experience but as a very experienced 'cruiser' I thought that I found some good and not so good things that I felt should be mentioned for everyone's consideration: 1) RCI should put back the amenities such as lotion, body cream that we used to get in the bathroom! The whole point of cruising is that it's a 5-star hotel experience, and this definitely detracts from that and is, frankly, more like a Carnival Cruises experience. I certainly hope that RCI is not using the current economic strife as an excuse to start cutting things. The ship was FULL (mind you... who knows how many people paid only 400 dollars!), and WE certainly paid the FULL cruise price with the expectation that we'd still receive what we'd contracted for based on prior cruises.

2) Don't give people in Concierge Class a TRAINEE/NEWBIE Cabin Steward for the stateroom! Our steward gave us inconsistent towel stocking for the room, while on the 1st night she didn't even turn down the bed. She was surprised to learn that we wanted ice in the 1st place and then even more surprised that we preferred to have ice twice-daily as we have become accustomed on ALL of our previous cruises (without asking). In this regard, although the Steward was definitely pleasant enough, we basically had to ask her for everything that one would ordinarily expect from an experienced Cabin Steward, particularly in Concierge Class. Indeed, what's the point of getting Concierge Class (apart from in this case the location of the cabins at the stern... but other CC cabins are on the sides), if there are really only minor variances from the normal booking class (I know... we get fruit... but I can order fruit from room service whenever I want it anyways). 3) I would wonder if RCCL should have a another look at the dining room menu? As noted above, we used the alternative restaurants because we were less than impressed with the dining room menu on this cruise (and the dining room service on our last cruise!). Hence one feels compelled to go to the alternative restaurants every night and as good as the alternative restaurants are, it does add to the cost of the cruise. 4) Portofino's and Chops... OUTSTANDING STAFF AND FOOD! 5) Beautifully well maintained and clean ship. 6) Consider reducing the frequency and the level of annoyance of the announcements? Truly idiotic (especially the cruise director's little 'bing-bong' at the end of all his announcements!!) 7) Breakfast buffet... good (not great) quality, but no variation at all from day to day. 8) If RCCL wants to have a 'discount' cruise of the week (i.e. 400 dollars PP), that's fine! But I am hoping that the don't do that when they're also entertaining guests who have paid the full fare! I know that RCCL needs to keep its ships full, but that doesn't sit well with those paying the full fare as one can imagine. I hope that these comments are useful. Again, we still enjoyed our overall experience, but I would have to say that the level of enjoyment was eroded somewhat. Really... can you have a 'bad' cruise? But, I am seeing a trend, at least for RCCL that is worrisome and could connote a downward spiral in product quality and eventually in bookings. RCCL and other cruiselines would be well reminded to heed their own claims of excellence in trying to 'exceed' our expectation and not merely meet them or worse, fall short!