Serenade of the Seas 2/28/09-3/07/09
This was my second cruise with Royal Caribbean, the first being on the Adventure. This was my husband's third, his first was on the Radiance, then the Adventure. We flew down to San Juan a day early and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. We had no travel problems what so ever! The San Juan Airport has improved tremendously in the last few years. I was impressed. All of our luggage made it, and we easily found a taxi to our hotel. Saturday The next day we walked out to the ocean and enjoyed breakfast before heading to the ship. We arrived at the port at almost exactly 11:00 am. There was quite a long line waiting to get on the ship. I think all of us Cruise Critic members were a little over anxious. We were allowed on the ship at 11:30, and after ten minutes were enjoying lunch in the Windjammer. Our rooms were ready shortly after 1:00, just as promised. There were pool towels in our room. We had an E1 balcony on deck 7 near the front of the ship. It was wonderful, with a larger extended balcony.
We met with our Cruise Critic meet and mingle group at 5:00, for drinks in the Schooner Bar. We organized this ourselves, as our meet and mingle was not until Tuesday and we wanted to get to know each other earlier in the sailing. We had first seating in the MDR. Our wait staff was the best I have ever had! Our head waiter was Emilie from Romania. She was incredibly friendly and came by to chat every night. Our waiter was Ronaldo from the Philippines. He was very friendly and always made sure everything was in order at our table. Our assistant waiter was Clovis from Brazil. He was so much fun. He kept teasing my parents, especially my dad. He made dinner very entertaining every night! They were all amazing. Muster was at 8:00, and only lasted 15 minutes. It went very smoothly and was painless. The ship sailed shortly after 10:00. We went to bed shortly after, seeing as how we were exhausted. The welcome aboard show was this night. We did not go and were glad. We found out that mostly the girl who does the guided shopping just got up and talked about Diamonds International. The drink of the day was Bahama Mama. The Portofino Wine and Dine dinner was this night.
Loved having the extended balcony. There is less privacy, but you get more airflow that keeps it cool. It does not get hot like the fully private balconies. It was nice to be close to the elevators. We did feel the ship move more, as we were up front, but it was not bad at all. It rocked us to sleep every night!