My wife and I plus our two daughters (16 & 11) cruised on Serenade of the Seas out of San Juan on April 2nd. Our ports of call were San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Antigua, St. Lucia and Grenada.We left Minneapolis at 7:00am and arrived in San Juan around 5:30 on the day before departure. We took a cab ($19 + $1 per bag) from the airport to Radisson Ambassador Hotel and Casino. After getting checked in, we took our girls to the rooftop pool. They looked out over the wall and saw the beach. It was beautiful. So, we walked to the beach and relaxed while the girls swam. The walk is about two blocks and we had no problems getting onto the beach. We walked around the Condado area and found a restaurant for dinner. We had outside seating at Miro's...great food and nice atmosphere. The check for the four of us was about $130, including several fabulous Margaritas.On Saturday morning, we took a cab to Old San Juan (we were able to leave our luggage at the hotel in their storage room). The cab ride cost $15 for the four of us. We found a small restaurant (Mirano's) and had outdoor seating for breakfast. They served a simple breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 slices of cheese bread, 2 strips of bacon, 2 slices of ham and a scoop of mashed potatoes, along with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice for $3.25. The food was great and you can't beat the price.We spent the rest of the morning touring Old San Juan. We walked the shoreline paths and eventually ended up at the El Morro fort. We toured the fort ($3 for adults and free for kids under 16). This is a very interesting structure with numerous levels, tunnels and towers. We all enjoyed this self guided tour in spite of almost steady drizzle. After the fort, we walked around the old city. We found a Ben and Jerry's, so we had to stop for some treats. At around 1:00, we got another cab and went to the hotel, picked up our luggage and then went to the Pan Am Pier to board the ship. This cab ride was $15 plus $1 per bag. We got to the cruise terminal around 1:30. There was a long line outside of the terminal, but the line went fast and we were on the ship within 40 minutes. Our rooms were ready, but our luggage didn't arrive until around 7:30.We had My Time Dining reservations for 6:30 each night. We stopped by the main dining room in the afternoon and picked out a nice table for four next to an outside window. We were done with dinner by 7:45 and made it to the theatre in time for the 8:00pm Muster Drill, which took about 20 minutes.We had a balcony stateroom (1510) and an interior across the hall (1509) on the starboard side of the 10th deck towards the front of the ship. I was impressed with the size of the room (I had expected them to seem smaller) and the great job of utilizing storage space. Martha was our stateroom attendant. She did a wonderful job of responding to our needs and paid special attention to our two daughters. The only problem we had with the balcony was that our next door neighbor was a smoker. We could tell when they were smoking even with the balcony door closed. We didn't spend much time on our balcony because of this. There was some movement in these rooms (we noticed it mainly when laying in bed), but we didn't have any problems with seasickness.The ship is beautiful and well maintained. Our favorite spots were dining outside in the Windjammer, snacks at the Seaview Cafe and just relaxing in a small outdoor lounging area on deck 11 (accessible from the walking track on deck 12). The only time we noticed any crowd was on the sea day by the pool. We had 3 pool loungers (1 in the sun and 2 in the shade) and spent the entire sea day on the pool deck. The Centrum is beautiful and is a great spot to hang out after dinner...there is always some type of music there in the evenings.Our kids did not seem interested in Adventure Ocean, so I can't speak to that. Our girls did have a great time on the ship. We played some mini-golf and also table tennis. My 11-year old went to the water slide in the kid's pool a few times. It was not open very often and was much more suited for younger children.We really loved My Time Dining. The 6:30 reservations gave us some extra time to get ready after getting back from shore excursions while allowing us to finish eating in time to see the main stage performances. Our waiter (Inacio from India) and assistant waiter (Muhammed from Indonesia) were always there when we needed them and provided excellent service. They gave our kids extra special treatment, including a few days early birthday surprise (cake and song) for our 11 year old daughter.Ports of Call:Day 2: St. Thomas - we chartered a private sailboat (The Jolly Mon) and sailed to Buck Island - Turtle Cove for some snorkeling. We had the whole cove to ourselves for the 1st hour...saw many sea turtles, a barracuda and numerous species of fish on the coral reef. After an hour, the cove got quite busy with a BOSS Scuba excursion, a catamaran snorkel excursion and a pirate ship snorkel excursion all arriving within a few minutes of each other. Still, this excursion was the highlight of our cruiseDay 3: St. Croix - we took a taxi to Sand Castle Beach Resort. We paid $30 for 3 chairs, 1 umbrella, 2 rum punch drinks and use of the bathrooms/showers. This is a nice beach about a mile south from the cruise ship pier. We had a nice swim, although there were a few rocky sections on this beach.Day 4: Antiqua - we took a taxi to Valley Church beach. Our driver dropped up off at the beach and came back later (we arranged a time) to pick us up. He did not collect the money until he brought us back to the ship. Valley Church Beach has a nice small bar/grill right there. We rented 2 chairs and 1 umbrella for $15. We also paid $45 for thirty minutes on a jet ski. This is a beautiful beach with lots of shade trees. The water is a beautiful shade of aqua and the sand was clean the soft. We ate lunch at the bar, although I didn't think that the food was anything special.Day 5: St. Lucia - we didn't do any excursions in St. Lucia. We needed a break from the Sun, so we spent the morning relaxing, went into port shopping around 11:00am and were back on the ship by 2:30pm. Day 6: Grenada - we woke up in Grenada to rainy weather. We went shopping (much nicer shopping experience in their cruise shopping center), then hired a taxi to tour the island. For $40, he showed us some of the sights within St. Georges, and then took us to Annandale Falls and the rainforest. His commentary was very entertaining. We finished the tour at Grand Anse Beach. This is a beautiful beach...two miles of white sand. We relaxed on the beach and tried to avoid the rain squalls. We finally gave up and left around 2:30. It was rainy and windy and my kids were getting chilled. Still, we really enjoyed Grenada and wish we had taken a rum distillery tour here. We heard some great comments from other passengers about the rum tours.Day 7: At Sea - we arrived in the pool area by 9:30am (it was raining) and picked out 3 chairs. Our kids did the Make A Wish Walk during a break from the rain. By the afternoon, the sun came out. We spent all day in the pool area. The Belly Flop contest was especially fun for everyone.Summary - this was our first cruise and will not be our last. We really enjoyed the Southern Caribbean and will do a similar itinerary again. I'm still trying to decide if we'll stick with Royal Caribbean or try out one of the other lines. The Serenade of the Seas is a beautiful ship and the Royal Caribbean experience was exceptional. I just don't have anything to compare against.