First, a little background about us. My husband and I are in our late 20s and this was our third Caribbean cruise together, second taken over Christmas. Our previous two were both on Carnival ships, so we spent a fair bit of time comparing the two lines. Regarding the ship itself, we found that decorations less tacky on the Serenade, but longed for the three sets of elevators rather than just two. Our inside cabin suited our needs just fine, but the bed was a little short, particularly since the end was rounded, so my poor husband's feet did hang off at night. The biggest differences that stood out to us in terms of our experience were the food and the service.

In terms of food, Carnival's was better without question, especially in the dining room. This time, we found no need to go to the dining room for breakfast, since it served the same thing as the buffet, offered fewer choices and took longer. We did notice that there were almost never lines in the buffet area, so it was easy to get what we wanted quickly in the morning. Throughout the day, you have to be very aware of time. Unlike on Carnival's ships, there were periods where the Windjammer was closed. This meant no access to ice cream, and even worse, from one side of the ship to the other without going up or down. We found this very frustrating. There was always food available, but you had to know what was open when and where (as well as multiple routes for getting there). The Seaview Cafe was nice for a snack when the buffet was closed. We also had some frustrations with bars. We found that different bars were open at various times and we couldn't figure out the schedule, so never developed a personal rapport with any bartender, something we've enjoyed doing in the past. My husband also found it difficult to find milk when he needed it, as only some bars had it. The other food note that stood out from our main dining room experience was due to our dining partners. We had some vegetarians at our table and they felt that the vegetarian options were very limited and rather repetitive, particularly for the main courses. Again, while the food was good, it wasn't great and the quality and consistency of Carnival's was higher, in both of our opinions. We ate at Portofino's one night for the mystery dinner (more on that later), and the steak was divine. It's a shame that the rest of the food on the ship didn't live up to this or anywhere near it.

Service, however, was better on the Serenade. I was particularly impressed that I was so often greeted by name (by our stateroom attendant and our waiters), since I have a hyphenated first name which Royal Caribbean's system cannot handle. Although my first name was truncated on all of their official lists, everyone remembered my name as I introduced myself. We felt that our needs were well taken care of and thought it was impressive that even while dining in the Windjammer, waiters would offer to get you drinks, not just clear the tables. We can't decide if we were pleased or disappointed to be in the smaller dining room off of the main dining room for dinner. I wondered what we were missing, particularly when the waiters were singing and dancing. On the other hand, I suspect that it was quieter where we were; you really noticed it when the table beside us didn't have many people. Had we decided to say something, I am sure that our head waiter would have done his best to accommodate us. We have never had as much contact with our Head Waiter as we did on this cruise. He visited the table a couple of times every night, checked in with everybody and followed-up on issues from previous nights (getting kids served quickly, vegetarian options). Our waiter continued with this service-centred attitude. He was friendly but restrained and mindful of what we wanted from one meal to the next. He always brought out extra dishes for us to try and often they related back to what we had liked earlier. Our Assistant Waiter was very kind, but we had some difficulty understanding him due to his accent. This actually stopped my husband from getting a cappuccino he initially ordered, as he couldn't communicate the follow-up information. Outside of dining, service was equally excellent. Our stateroom attendant was very observant and adjusted our turn-down based on what she noticed we had done the previous night - everything from the number of pillows to leaving the sheets untucked. We felt well-tended to throughout the ship. Read more