Serenade of the Seas Review

Royal Caribbean WINNER

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Serenade of the Seas
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Brigantine
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Cabin: Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

We are Royal Caribbean diamond members, and this is my first review to cruise critic. Prior to our sailing I read a wealth of information from cruise critic, and it was accurate. Serenade, while a smaller class then Voyager is a beautiful, well-maintained, crew extremely friendly ship that does have 9 hole miniature golf and smaller rock climbing wall. We did miss the Royal Promenade for casual drinks and parades and the ice skating show from the larger class though. Also for the sports enthusiasts the basketball court is only a half court, but there is a golf simulator. The itinerary is fabulous, with stops in St Thomas, St. Maarten, St. John Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. The last day is the only day at sea. All of the food was very flavorful, which is something that our experience with the Adventure lacked. The chefs were great in presentation and taste!! We did My time Dining which is new to RC. You prepay all gratuities and can dine between 6:00 pm and 9:30 pm in the main dining room on Deck 5 Reflections. The team of servers was terrific, with so much humor that we felt we had been to an entertainment show each night. There were six of us so we always had our own table. We probably would do our regular second seating next time however, because all of the return parties were scheduled around 7:45 pm until 8:30 pm so we actually ate at 8:30 almost every night anyway! Also, the singing and dancing three nights was done at the first or second dining times and we wanted to see them perform so we went to 8:30 dinner those nights too. The theatre shows were average, as is what we find on RC. Thanks to cruise critic, in St. Lucia I booked all six of us on COSOL tours. It was $65 cash per person paid at the end of a 6 hour education of the beautiful island that is St. Lucia. there are 12 people to a van ( on our date March 11, 2009) there were about eight vans. I had requested Cosol himself for our tour, and he confirmed in an email that he would be available for our six. I am sure that all of the drivers are good in explaining all of the wonders of St. Lucia, but he is THE BEST!!! We stopped at so many spots, including a banana plantation, two sea villages, the volcano, the waterfall and botanical gardens and the highlight for us swimming at Jalousie beach between the Pitons an absolutely beautiful and wondrous experience. We also had delicious native foods including johnnycakes, numerous snacks, the best cheese bread ever and unlimited rum punch, local Piton beer, soda, water, and COSOL's "special" drink. Everyone in our party said this tour was the highlight of the entire week. None of the excursions offered by the ship covered the drive up volcano and waterfalls and botanical gardens together. Our last time in St. Lucia we did a $89 ship excursion that passed the Pitons by catamaran, but did not stop at their base for an hour of swimming and snorkeling, but took us to a small snorkeling spot with a rundown hut with a few picnic benches to sit if you were not swimming. Look up Cosol online, book this tour and I know you will NOT be disappointed. After our cruise we booked through Serenade the ElYunke rain forest tour. It was very good and it drops you off at the San Juam airport at its conclusion. We left the ship around 8:00 am, it cost $40 pp and we got to the airport around 1:30 pm. You have to be flying out of San Juan on 4:00pm or later flights to take this tour, but your transportation from the pier to the airport is included in the price and the rainforest and countryside of Puerto Rico are very beautiful.

Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin D1

cabin was D1 catagory on the Radiance class ship Serenade. room was larger then on Adventure, Freedom, Mariner ships D1. there was also much more closet and storage space for toiletries, etc.

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