We have cruised many times before , this was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean. We are in our early 40s and traveled with 3 teenage children. We traveled with 3 other families. We flew from NY the day before and stayed in the San Juan Embassy Suites. The hotel was fine for a 1 night stay. We spent the day by the pool and had dinner in the outback steakhouse. In the evening we had drinks at the bar and hit the casino. Overall it was a fun first night of our vacation. The hotel served a nice buffet breakfast the next morning. For a quick 1 night stay we found the hotel to be a great value. We headed out at 12:30 to the pier and boarded the Serenade in a quick easy breeze. We walked around to check out the ship and it did not disappoint. The ship is beautiful the layout is easy to navigate. The ship is so clean and the crew is very friendly. Rccl made a great first impression. Our luggage was in our stateroom by 3 , and our room was beautiful. We had plenty of storage , the balcony was nice and roomy and the bathroom nice and spacious. My older son stayed in my sisters cabin (royal family suite aft deck nine) and that cabin was also laid out well with a great big balcony. Our stateroom attendant keep our room beautiful and always seemed to be around if we needed anything. We found the service to be excellent. We spent our days at the beach and never hit a bad 1. St Thomas Morningstar we rented chairs my boys skim boarded all day, we had a nice lunch at Coco Joe's..Heaven St Maarten Bikini beach on orient rented chairs and the kids went on wave runners . The staff were so nice and the bar made great pina coladas. We had a great day. Antigua Dickenson bay beach we rented chairs from Sneaky Pete's The kids rode the waverunners and snorkeled. Another great beach day St. Lucia We went on Cosol's tour after reading all the reviews on cruise critic. We had Cosol as our guide and had the best time. We went to so many beautiful places had a great island lunch and swam between the piton's on a beach out of a magazine. Paradise. Barbados The Boatyard A little too crowded for our taste. But the beach was nice and we made the best of it. We would return there only because it was a little too commercial for us. we had dinner in Portofino's once and chop's 3 times. My family loved chop's and the food was our favorite there. We were not impressed with the food in the main dining room or windjammer. But thats just our opinion . The service in the main dining room as with every where else on the ship was excellent. The room service menu was also a disappointment for us , it was very limited and we enjoy eating on our balcony in the morning. We spent some evenings before dinner in the conc. lounge Kenneth is a great guy and he does his job well. We also enjoyed the champagne bar for pre dinner drinks.

We are in the casino every night so I did not see any shows. My overall experience on the serenade was outstanding. We meet wonderful people by the pool and in the casino every night. My teenagers had a blast. I would cruise with Royal again with no hesitation. The friendly warm service was everywhere on the ship. The southern route is beautiful and the last day at sea full of fun by the pool. We will be back.