CruisinNole

We just got off Serenade. You will not receive your Seapass cards at checkin. You will be able to get them when the cabins are ready, 1:00 - 1:30. They'll be on the door. 

I was on the Serenade and understand your frustration. On the 30th, we were told that we would be disembarking on morning of the 31st. Later in the day, we were told that we would be disembarking on the 31st at 4:00pm. Then we were told that we would not be disembarking on the 31st and that we would disembark on September 1. It was a very fluid situation and totally dependent on Port Tampa Bay and the Coast Guard.

We are currently on Serenade in GS 1048 and were awakened this morning, our first morning of the cruise,  around 5am, with the sounds of loungers being moved on deck 11. My husband, a heavy sleeper, was awakened by the noise. I was already awake. If you are a light sleeper, you will be awakened. 

We had an issue on the Constellation year before last. Immediately upon boarding, we saw that the water in the bathroom was brown and nasty looking. We were in a Sky Suite and in light of the butler cutback, I have to wonder that if this happened today, we would get the same care and attention. I called guest relations, who contacted our butler. He lectured us to always call him if we had a problem. He immediately had the cabin attendant bring up large bottles of water, reported the problem to  maintenance and to the Retreat Concierge. The water was replenished every day. Everyone was very apologetic and we were called every day checking to see if the situation was corrected. A few days into the cruise we were given two very generous FCCs which we used to book a CS on Equinox. In nearly 35 years of cruising we've only had two occasions where we've had significant of a complaint that we felt we were due some compensation and both times it was received onboard. That being said, if I were the OP and felt that my issue was not adequately addressed on the ship, I would not hesitate to contact Celebrity. 

On 8/20/2023 at 6:59 PM, sargemrs said:

Yes, that's what I've read!  Today is 7 days out!  Waiting is not fun!

I just got mine -- 5 days out.

2 hours ago, RogerDodger247 said:

 

I wouldn't be too discouraged.  I did my first trip on Serenade (or any Radiance class for that matter) last week after mostly cruising the megaships (Oasis and Quantum) the last few years and I was quite surprised at how nice the ship was for its age and size.  I had a really great time.

 

My only real complaints were with the new MDR menus (relative to MDR food in the past) and MyTime Dining issues.  But that's certainly not unique to Serenade.

 

Obviously, reviews are subjective and YMMV but I wouldn't discourage anybody from Serenade.  I think it was a great choice for the World Cruise.  But that's just me 🤷‍♂️

 

 

Thanks. It just surprises me to read negative reviews about a ship that's going on an around the world cruise. You'd think it would be in tip top shape. We've been on Brilliance many times and never had a complaint. I figured Serenade would be the same. As far as dining is concerned, we haven't eaten in the MDR in years. We had a bad dining experience on Allure and have dined in specialty restaurant ever since.

We cruise on the Serenade soon and have been discourage with the negative reviews. The Ultimate World Cruise is on this ship, right? Are there plans to refurbish?

2 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Down a dark corridor?   All four sisters have Izumi up where the old Sea View Cafe used to be, which is the deck (12) right over the open air part of the WJ on the aft.  You have to go outside on the sports deck to access the entry door on the starboard side.   

I must have been thinking of a Celebrity ship.

26 minutes ago, RogerDodger247 said:

 

I wanted to try the new MDR menus so we only did a Chops Grille lunch on embarkation day.  A good way to start the cruise by avoiding the Windjammer chaos (plus it was very cheap).  Showed up for a 1:30 reservation and at first, they didn't believe me until they looked it up.  It was completely empty so you'd think being the ONLY occupied table in a restaurant would get you good service.  Nah, they seemed to forget we were there.

 

As for the food, the appetizers (wedge salad and beef carpaccio) were very good and they nailed the temperature on my filet entree.  The sides (mac and cheese, gruyere tots, asparagus) were pretty meh.  Dessert was a decent key lime pie with way too much mousse (the random slice of pie I had in Key West the next day was better).  That said, Chops was probably the best meal I had on board.

 

Next time I'll do more specialty dining.  Hope the UDP works out for you.  And good luck finding Izumi... it's a bit out of the way up there on the sports deck 🤣

 

Thanks for the info. Thanks also about the search for Izumi!  On Brilliance,  it's down a dark corridor. Kind of creepy. I'm a native Floridian so I'm picky about my Key Lime Pie. We stop in Key West week after next and I'm looking forward to some good pie and conch fritters.

1 hour ago, RogerDodger247 said:

Just off Serenade (Aug. 12-17 2023) and can confirm the 5:00 pm main seating and 7:45 second seating seems to be here to stay.

 

I tried MTD for this first time and did not pre-reserve in the cruise planner.  What's the point of "My Time" if you have to plan everything in advance?  As soon as I got on board, I checked the app and the only MTD times available to reserve, for the whole week, were 8:15pm and later.  Useless.  Luckily, I eat late (7:30 or later) and the No Reservations line generally only took a few minutes to get seated except on night 1 when it took about 15.

 

Back to fixed dining next time.... but that 5pm early time.  Ugh.

 

Did you try Chops or Giovanni's? We purchased the UDP because of the negative things we've been hearing about MTD reservations and traditional dining. I mean, we're old but we don't care for the early bird dining at 5pm. Just too early for us!

Also, people may be watching a movie.

14 hours ago, Nado44 said:

Ship unexpectedly returned to Terminal 2 and not Terminal 6 where we embarked. Shuttles were provided to guests who parked at Terminal 6.

 

That happens frequently. We use valet parking so the car is brought to the correct terminal.

17 minutes ago, ssb said:

Well the Presidents Cruise is a lot of hype . Chaka Kahn was the worse performance of any we have seen on any stage . A lot a lot of folks left performance early . Along with other rumors . Lots of negative posts deleted on F B pages and terrible communications with pre cruise emails and deliveries of communications on events on board to cabins . We will never do another presidents cruise . 

That sounds exactly like the President's Cruise we took in 2016. Entertainer was different but equally poor. Our entire row walked out not even halfway through the performance. Communication was awful. Never again.

12 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

 

I'll look into this.  When you say pre-pay, you mean at the official terminal, right?  Not an off-site parking area?  

 

Thanks, All, for your help.  

 

Yes, you can pre-pay for terminal parking on the website and it's refundable. Also, you can check the cruise calendar on the port website to see what terminal you will be departing from plus that info will be in your cruise documentation.

Off-site parking is less expensive. If you go to the Forums tab on CC, there's a North American Homeports forum, Florida Departures. I just did a quick search for Tampa cruise off-site parking and came up with parkwayparking.com, 241parking.com and Park Connect. There are also hotels that offer park and cruise. 

I would definitely check social media for a roll call for your cruise since it appears that one will not be active on CC. We cruise out of Tampa on Serenade next month. There is no roll call on CC either.

You can get a lot of info about the Port of Tampa on their website, https://www.porttb.com/cruise . We frequently cruise out of this port and find it easy to get in and out of. We do the valet parking. A little more expensive but so convenient. Recommend prepaying also.

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Interesting question.  For me personally, I would see exactly how much vaping is allowed in the casino and where.  And how much it changes the atmosphere.  A few vaping people in the casino probably would not sway me against cruising with Celebrity but we shall see.  I don't use the casino more than a few times every cruise.  I did cruise a lot with RCCL in the past with actual cigarette smoking allowed in the casino.  I put up with it - not saying I liked it.  I grew up in a period where most of the population smoked.  But I never did.  But if you are absolutely non-tolerant of vaping for whatever good reason, then avoid the casino or cruise another line I guess.  

I have no problem avoiding the casino if smoking/vaping is allowed but if the Celebrity smoking/vaping passengers emulate Royal's smoking/vaping passengers, smoking/vaping will not remain in the casino. 

A friend was on a cruise last week that stopped at both ports. It wasn't a Royal cruise.

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I would guess very few as they have taken the signs down and the only mention is in the Cruise Planner.

 

This does not seem like a very good test of anything.  But I am sure Celebrity will spin it however they want to.

I don't get the impression that Celebrity cares how valid the test is. I'm guessing that the decision has been made and they're just going through the motions.

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

Or they will do something equally as stupid by announcing the casino will have a vaping/smoking section. Celebrity casinos are going to be like RC casinos. Smoking lounges that at times allows gambling. 

In 2015, we took a Royal Caribbean President's cruise on Allure. There was a very large contingent of CC members so the Meet and Mingle was held in the theater with Michael Bayley fielding questions for well over an hour. The very first question asked -- when will Royal make their casinos non smoking. Bayley's answer was the usual "corporate speak". "We hear you".  "We're looking into this issue". Blah, blah, blah. They say that they have enhanced the ventilation system and have set aside non-smoking sections but the casinos are still just floating ashtrays. Celebrity's will be exactly the same way. 

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

If they change the policy to allow vaping the next test will be to allow smoking. I think they might have been discussing that and decided to see if they could get away with allowing vaping first. 

I would be very surprised if they conduct a test of cigarette smoking in the casino. I'm sure that at the end of the vaping test, there will be an announcement that Celebrity casinos are no longer smoke free. 

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Has anyone seen posts about vape concerns on other Social Media,  or discussion at prof  travel agent groups?  

 

 

I saw a couple of posts on the Celebrity page on social media. One poster mentioned the vaping test a couple of times. No response from Celebrity. 

35 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

All signs are gone. 

So all signs are gone but the vaping continues?

6 hours ago, soremekun said:

I will resist the urge.

Many thanks to you for not succumbing to the urge! 😄

This is so disappointing. We frequently cruise on Royal Caribbean and although we enjoy a little gambling, we never go anywhere near a casino on a Royal ship because of the stench. We will be complaining as well. This move by Celebrity kind of defies logic.

5 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

We have booked several last-minute cruises over the past six years, to avoid being on land if a Hurricane Warning gets posted and we have to do a mandatory evacuation. Each time we have cruised, the storm stays away from South Florida, so I have been telling people that we will keep them safe because we will be cruising most of September. But I never expected this to happen in June! 

I sure hope your luck holds. We still haven't gotten our house repaired from damage caused by Hurricane Ian. We need a break!