This is our second time on board Serenade of the Seas and we've been on Oasis and Explorer & Jewel. My husband and I do prefer the this size of ship or Voyager but the kids love the Oasis class as there's just more things for them to do. I do admit with a smaller ship, you're limited to what you can do but if your cruise is port-heavy, I think this size of ship is great. We were on an 11 day cruise with 6 ports - Ponce,Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada and St. John.
We booked on deck 4, outside, mid ship and it was a great location. We are a family of 4 with ages 7 & 11 kids and I did find our room to be smaller & a bit tight for the 4 of us, but doable.Our room attendant was always polite and very efficient. Food in the main dining was wonderful To be honest, I was not expecting much and even booked a 4 night specialty package as I've heard that food has gone downhill. To my surprise that was not the case. I would say out of 7 nights we've dined there, only 1 night proved to be slightly disappointing. Apparently they rolled out a new menu on our sailing. Some nights I thought that the food was better in the main dining compared to what was offered at Chops!
Serenade is showing some signs of wear and tear but it is kept clean and you'll often see crews working on the ship.
Great location. Close to the centrum but you can't hear any noise once the door is closed.