Just got off the March 12 sailing of the Serenade of the Seas. I will try and not make this a marathon read, but I do tend to be long winded sometimes. First off, a little background: This is our 5th RCI cruise and the 3rd on a Radiance class ship. There were 8 of us traveling ranging in age from 62 - 23. My dh & I, ds & gf, db & dsil and son's girlfriend's parents. I will do this review day by day. Probably won't be too much ship information as this was a very port intensive cruise and didn't spend too much time aboard.Arrived Friday the 11th late afternoon and checked into the Sheraton Old San Juan. Only 1 room was ready so we had to pile all our stuff into one room. After a couple of hiccups we were on our way to try some Don Q rum (the first of many times). Also tried to taste at the Tourist Board, but never found the "bar" open the 4x we tried over 3 days. Went back to the hotel to meet the rest of our group for dinner. I had decided on Latin Roots which is just behind the Sheraton as I had read here that they have decent food and salsa dance lessons. I was a bit concerned that it would be too loud, but decided to chance it as I love salsa music and thought the dancing would be fun. We went there at 6:30p and the place was dead. Long story short, food was ok to good, service was horribly slow (slower than island time) drinks were good, no salsa dancing until 9p. Wasn't good enough to go back, too many other places to try. Walked all around town and called it a night. BTW - Db encountered the dude requesting money for his father in the hospital (that has been reported on these boards) the night before. I forgot to warn him.Saturday - had breakfast at Cafe' Mallorca. I really didn't understand all the fuss about the mallorcas, but now I know. Mmmm, and the coffee and fresh squeezed OJ was a great accompaniment!!! We sat at the counter and boy do those guys hustle. It was a great experience. After shopping a bit, we headed back to the hotel and headed to the ship about 11:40am. Check in was pretty painless-and we were on board and in the Windjammer by 12:15p. We had MTD with a standing reservation at 6:30p - He told us we could come any time between 6 - 6:30p. First nights dinner was very disorganized and rushed, but understanding that muster was at 8p, they did their best.Sunday - Tortola - My son's girlfriend's parents felt the desire to go to church and so we decided to go with them. There is a small Catholic church, St. William, a short walk away from the pier and mass was at 9am. What an experience!! I will cherish the memories. It was like Catholic meets Gospel meets Africa. The music was outstanding, the priest was awesome and the people were so warm and welcoming. It was "obvious" that we were not from there, but were not treated that way at all. The only thing was, the service lasted for 1 hr and 40 min. Not my typical church experience. Lol. So after lunch we headed to Cane Garden Bay. The views were fantastic and I did not find the ride so bad, as some people have said. The road is washed out in places, which does make it a bit bumpy. The beach was busy but not bad, but we were the only ship in port. We did go to the Callwood Distillery (easy walk from beach) while there......what a hoot, but good rum. We bought some of the spiced rum (someone else makes it) and it is very different than say, Capt Morgan. First Formal night. Show (RC singers and dancers) was entertaining and good. First night for Matt Yee in the Schooner Bar - we laughed ourselves silly. Monday - St Maarten - A couple in our group did the America's Cup and had a blast. The girls went to the French side shopping and then came back to the Dutch side for the same. We were not looking for anything high end or special so we got real sick of the constant pushiness of the vendors. Very nice local with watercolor paintings on the French side and lunch was good. Also bought some spices there, other than that, IMO it wasn't worth the driving time. We took the bus (which is a van) so it was inexpensive. Another night of Matt Yee.Tuesday - St Kitts - Some in our group did the Sky Safari zip line. What a blast! Felt very safe and relaxed. This was my first time zip lining, I wish it would've lasted longer. We were going to head to the beach when we got back to the ship but after we ate, everyone was tired and decided to just stay on the ship and relax. Wednesday - Dominica - This was our day to spend with Bumpiing tours and we got Levi himself. We did the Middleham falls hike, titou gorge, traflager falls (hot springs) and champagne reef. We did the hike first - good thing. Depending on your fitness level, this is quite a hike. You climb about 2200 ft and instead of a grade it is stairs. There are lots of roots, rocks and other obstacles, but enjoyed it. I was the "weakest" link in the group but was comforted in knowing that others legs were shaking at the end also. Was very sore for a couple of days. We didn't have much time at the reef and the water was cloudy. Didn't see much other than the bubbles. Was kind of disappointed in that, but all in all had a fun and tiring day. Note: I had a collapsible trekking pole and it really helped me a lot!!! I have read some posts that people say just stay on the ship. If you enjoy the outdoors you need to get into the interior. It looks like it is right out of Jurassic Park. So lush and green and beautiful. If you stay in town (and on the way to Champagne Reef) it is very poor, run down and not very appealing. I loved the interior......drive to the reef....not so much. :(Thursday - Barbados - St Patricks Day - Today my dh and I did the turtle snorkel with Silvermoon and others did the Malibu Rum and Banks Beer tour (on there own) Warning-they did get ripped off by the cab driver. We had a great day with Silvermoon. The service, beverages, food and boat were wonderful....along with a relaxing sail back. The turtle site was crowded though he tried to avoid it. And the snorkeling was so-so, but really enjoyed the day. The group that went to Malibu & Banks had a little too much fun. LOL The drinks at Malibu were free flowing I guess and when they went to Banks they had to wait for a tour, so they drank free beer. After the tour they had an hour and ½ in the beer garden with.........more free beer. Good combo for drinkers I would say......or maybe not. (Ds's gf doesn't remember much of the day) ;) Second formal night. The ship was decorated nicely for St Pat's Day and many people wore green and other accessories. My son said they did have green beer some place too. Real good show tonight. Vibe-ology - Royal Caribbean singers and dancers.Friday - Not much to say here - Spent the morning packing ? , had a slot pull planned but only one of our roll call showed up besides our group of 8. Thank you Kelli Ann! Most of the rest of the day was spent by the pool bar. My son did the belly flop contest and took 2nd - beat out by a guy donning a superman speedo. Pretty funny. Another in our group did the climbing wall and had a blast. Her pre-50 accomplishment (among many on this cruise) A very well received day of doing nothing!!! Was a very busy cruise!!Saturday - Since we were renting a car at the Sheraton OSJ we had a late departure (10:20a), which wasn't in my plans. My son's was even later. I'm used to being hurried off the ship by 8a at the latest, so I planned on picking the car up at 9am. They even let us stay in our cabins until 9a. We did leave a little earlier and it wasn't a problem. Debarkation was a breeze and we were off with luggage in 10 min.Post cruise - picked up car at Hertz (Sheraton OSJ) drove to El Junque, Luquillo Beach kioskos and down the coast to Humacao and stayed at the Sheraton at Playa Del Mar (Humacao) on the beach. (Interesting experience but enjoyed it just the same, and would go back) Sunday drove back to Sheraton OSJ. Had lunch and beer tasting at Old Harbor Brewing...good beer & food But $$$$. The took the bus to El Morro, long ride, and spent about an hour looking around. A lot of locals flying kites on the grounds. Ended up walking back to Sheraton as we were pressed for time. We then took the Night Tales tour that and had dinner at Mojitos - very good food, island time, would return. Monday a.m. went to La Bombonera for breakfast. I personally enjoyed Cafe Mallorca better, but there could be other factors there. Both were good and I believe owned by the same person. Did our shopping and headed to the airport. Everything was a breeze until security and that took 25 min to get through. The line was incredible, on a Monday at 12:40p or so. NOTE: One thing that we learned; from now on we will wait and buy our liquor in the duty free shop at the airport. Don Q was $1.50 cheaper, dh bought Scotch about $7 cheaper and you can then just carry it on the plane with you. No worries about weight in suitcase or breakage.Closing thoughts: We all love the radiance class ships! You could see that the Serenade is showing signs of wear in places, but nothing that bothered me. We all thought that the food was much better than the last couple of cruises. I guess that might vary by ship. Also enjoyed the few changes to the menu that have been made. We were planning on eating in one of the specialty restaurants, but enjoyed the dining room so much we didn't bother. The ship in general as well as dinner the first day/night seemed kind of disorganized, but that was the end of it. Service in the dining room was exceptional, our room steward was ok (we never saw her until day 2), and service around the ship was generally very good. All in all we had a fantastic trip and already planning next year.You won't be sorry you took this cruise...If you have any questions you may email me at campingdream at hotmail dot com ( I put this in only because so many times I wish I could ask specific questions )