This was me and my boyfriend's second cruise. Our first being a short 3 day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas. We had wanted to try Royal Caribbean just to get a different taste and they did not disappoint. We had a wonderful and very relaxing start to the new year and it was a great way to celebrate our anniversary.
Sat Jan 1st - We came into San Juan early. We had already visited San Juan before so we wanted to come in early to have a bit of relaxation before the cruise. We went to old san juan and ate food at Raices (yummy mofongo!) and just walked around. We stayed in the Sheraton by the convention center (a short cab ride to old san juan). The room was very nice.
Sunday - Embarkation went extremely smooth. I had printed out our boarding passes and the line wasn't too long. We got there around 2:30 pm. Before we knew it we were on the ship and in our stateroom. We had a balcony stateroom this time (ocean view our first cruise). I suggest to anyone thinking about upgrading to a balcony to do it. Its great to have outdoor space to lounge in and see the ports as we pull in. All staterooms are small so to have outdoor space makes it much more roomy. We explored every inch of the ship on the first day. I loved the size or Serenade. Not too big where I could get lost and not too small where it seems over crowded. Public areas were very clean, food in the dining room was great! I loved the Windjammer. Great buffet! I particularly didn't like the eggs or cornbeef hash but eh, i went and got my omlette made at the omlette station the next day. We also had my time dining where we could eat at our leisure. The wait staff was excellent. The food was great and we could always choose as much as we liked. They remembered our names every night (we had Noel and Made!) and shared great recommendations in the ports.
We had a great balcony. We never heard hallway noise and the crew was friendly.