As my husband preferred to golf in Palm Springs rather than cruise the Caribbean one more time, my friend and I booked the 11 night Southern Caribbean on Serenade March 19th. We booked this cruise based on the budget my friend could afford - Everything was perfect until we opened the door to the cabin. The smell of urine and dirty socks was like hitting a brick wall! And so the cleaning process began because of course the ship was fully booked and there was no where to move us. The cleaning, sprinkling of powder on the carpet, steaming the carpet 2x continued until everyone gave up. And the stink continued. Finally the spa loaned us a diffuser the last days of the cruise that masked the smell long enough to get things done before having to flee the cabin. The duvet covers were also a concern - neither would have qualified as thrift store goods!

The staff tried their best to get rid of the odour and we did end up with two free bottles of wine. Plus 20% future cruise credit ... however, I think it is unlikely that I will be using mine anytime soon. My husband and I are Diamond Plus and usually like a Jr. Suite but I know it sounds petty, but I don't think that my cabin location should determine how I am valued by RCI. We had a shore excursion in St. Lucia that was a disappointment. Cox and Company was the provider - beach loungers were torn and dirty (included in the cost), umbrellas torn ($10 to rent). Their section of the beach was pretty tight so if you weren't the first ones off the bus, you got no view other than the first row of umbrellas. The complementary drink (assume alcohol-related rum punch) wasn't available either - beer, water, coke or sprite. When we let Shore Excursions know they refunded us a whopping $3.90 each. Wow! Now I really feel like a "valued client". We cancelled the other excursion booked for Granada.

We still haven't figured out why my friend's account was credited 2x with the same amount of tax... I have a sneaking suspicion that one of those is mine. Read more