Introduction: We sailed on the Serenade's 1/23/10 trip, with the St. Thomas - Barbados itinerary. Our group consisted of three generations: myself (42), my husband (52), our son (2) and my mom (72). Our prior cruising experience was limited to two Carnival cruises about five years ago (on the Jubilee and the Valor), so we were fairly new to cruising and totally new to Royal Caribbean. We had such a great time on the Serenade that we are now 100% Loyal to Royal and can't wait to cruise with them again!

Pre-cruise hotel: We flew into San Juan a day early to help ensure that unpredictable Northeastern weather wouldn't cause us to miss the boat. We stayed at the Marriott Stellaris Resort and Casino at Condado beach. Beatiful, right on the beach, with lively music every night in the lobby area. The room smelled very slightly musty but this wasn't a big problem. There's a good restaurant down the street called Danny's where we had dinner (pizza, sandwiches, that sort of thing). It was fine except extremely noisy inside, plus they let in vendors pushing candy bars and flowers. Turn right out of the hotel for Walgreen's - lots of beach-type necessities (sunscreen etc.) but no soda (I was hoping to buy a case or two to carry on the ship). Starbucks right across the street. The Marriott was a lovely hotel, but next time I think I'll go for something cheaper since we were only there a few hours except for sleeping. I plan to research Priceline bidding, since most people seem to pay about $100 through that method (we paid twice that). Our first choice was the Sheraton in Old San Juan, but by the time we got around to booking a couple of weeks pre-cruise, it was booked. Too bad - it was a short walk from the Segway tour that I took the next morning.

Pre-cruise Segway tour: I took the two hour Segway tour of Old San Juan at 9:30 AM the day of the cruise, allowing us to head off to the ship at about 12:30. Nataliya was our guide, a simply delightful and funny woman. Though she could probably do this tour in her sleep, she made it seem fresh for our group. There were 9 people signed up for this tour; Nataliya took 5 and her husband Jose took 4. The Segway was fun and easy to learn. At first I was self-conscious about doing it right, but by the end of the tour I wasn't even thinking about the Segway - it was as instinctive as walking. Sure wish I could afford one! Nataliya pointed out the major sites (important buildings, sculptures, a tour of the fort) plus little "slice of life" things like the 7 foot wide house that's for sale for $2 million+. My favorite was seeing all the beautiful, happy, healthy stray cats lounging around OSJ. Nataliya explained to us that a group of 40 women take care of these cats, neutering, feeding, and seeing to their vet care. At several scenic points, we stopped and Nataliya took pictures of each person/couple with their own camera. Thumbs up to Segway tours of San Juan! http://www.segwaytourspr.com/aboutus.html $84 for two hour tour. Read more