Delightful, relaxing time on the Serenade

My husband and I just returned from our cruise to Maine and Canada. We're from the Boston area, so we weren't traveling as much for the ports as for the cruise experience. This was our fifth RCI cruise, the second on a Radiance Class ship. We love the moderate size of this class, and we don't need all the "bells and whistles" of the larger, newer ships.

We stayed in an ocean-view cabin, feeling that we didn't need a balcony on this cooler itinerary. The cabin was in very good shape, clean and well-kept. Our room attendant Clifton was a charming, attentive young man- very responsive to our needs.

We ate in the MDR every evening and were not disappointed. Our waitress Monica was awesome; she paid close attention to each guest, noticing, for example, when one older woman wasn't eating much but being discreet in asking if she felt well. The food was delicious, although we're not "foodies". The Windjammer was crowded on the first day and on sea days, but we were usually able to find seating fairly quickly. The choices didn't change much from day to day.

We went to most of the shows and would rate them from outstanding (2 different comedians) to good (staff song and dance presentations) to "meh" (singer headliner).

During the day, we enjoyed lots of trivia games; we also played bingo twice (way too expensive!). Other than that, we didn't find too many other activities to interest us.

As for ports, we did a local tour of Portland (on a fire engine!), and that was brief but fun. In Bar Harbor, we took Ollie's Trolley up to Cadillac Mountain (beautiful foliage but really chilly!). We found Saint John, NB a tad boring, walking around on our own. Halifax, NS was quite rainy, but we enjoyed their Maritime Museum, a 1-mile walk from the pier.

All in all, the ship was everything we wanted for a relaxing week.