Just off Serenade 3/25/06 sailing

First, an apology -- this is going to be fairly stream of consciousness, as I had intended to take detailed notes but somehow didn't manage to ;). We were traveling with a group of 22 ranging in age from a 4 year old to 70+. But, I always enjoy reading other reviews in anticipation of our trips, so I wanted to share my impressions...

Summary: We had a fantastic trip. Love the Serenade. Love the Southern Itinerary. We found many things that were GREAT, some things that were GOOD, and some things that were disappointing or could have used some improvement...

THE GREAT: The itinerary can't be beat. We especially enjoyed St. Lucia (where we did the 4x4 land rover excurions offered by the ship) and Barbados (where we did the independent Thriller turtle/shipwreck snorkle). Pivoting the ship in the bay by the pitons was breathtaking. Trunk Bay was amazing. Several in our group did the Loterie farm treetop adventure in St. Maarten, and loved it. The ship had a refueling stop in St. Croix on our sailing, and it was a pleasant surprise (though thanks to Cruise Critic, we anticipated we might get to stop here) -- the tourism officials there had traditional dancers and dancers on stilts performing when we went ashore -- it was an amazing welcome at 8:30 on a Sunday night. The ship is beautiful. The staff is friendly and outgoing. My 6 year old was WILD about the adventure ocean activities. My 4 year old liked AO but wanted to be with his older brother and other older kids, and thee 3-5 group on this cruise was pretty small; nonetheless, we were impressed with how they handled the kids, and by the end of it, he loved it too. It was hard to believe that the ship had many people on it at all -- with rare exceptions, it was hard to find a crowd. Embarkation was a total breeze. We arrived at around 12:45 and walked right on. We were allowed to go to our cabin right at 1:00, and had some of our luggage by around 2 or so, and I believe all of it by 3 or 3:30. Amazing!

THE GOOD: In both the dining room and the windjammer, the food was good. Several nights I was less than overwhelmed by the menu, but then was pleasantly surprised at how good the food tasted. Seaview cafe was nice, although its hours were very limited. There were several fun game show type activites (battle of the sexes/family feud, who wants to feel like a millionaire) that were pretty fun in the safari club (even if we were somewhat distracted by thinking how fun it would have been if Matt Yee's show were in there -- we really missed his late night adult singalong that we had enjoyed on the Navigator last year). In the windjammer, there was more service than we experienced on the Navigator last May.

THE PROBLEMATIC: While individuals were always helpful, we found some of the land based customer service issues that we often hear about had pervaded the cruise. For example, the seaview cafe sign said it would open, on port days, from 2:00 to 6:00 and from 10:00 to 1 am. Went by at 9:45 and saw individuals inside making preparations. Walked away and came back at 10. It's dark inside now. wait around a few minutes, finally find someone to ask what's going on. he goes in the back and comes back out and says "they open at 10:30 on port days." I point out the sign and say "then they need to change the sign" -- now, this guy was very helpful -- this was not his job, but that is a really stupid thing to happen. the sign, by the way, was never changed (but I don't know whether they cntinued opening at 10:30 or not). Others in our group noticed the seaview was open when, accoring to the schedule printed in the cruise compass, it shouldn't have been. Small things, but irritating. Similarly, many in our group had excurions that had significant time changes, even to the extent that they had conflicting times as a result. they had to read each ticket to find this out, and there wasn't an explanation. In order to cancel one of the conflicting excursions, you had to stand in line at the guest relations desk -- they wouldn't do anything over the phone. Now, I agree that everyone should be responsible for doubleschecking excursions, but when changes are made that create an actual conflict, I don't think it's too much to expect a red sticker that says "Warning, changes have resulted in conflicts" -- again, just a matter of what is reasonable customer service. Finally, 10 of our group had requested to sit together, had our reservations linked, and had lal booked together with a single travel agent. We had also requested to sit near the other half of our big group. Six of us were seated together and the other 4 weren't. We wound up moving far away from the rest of our group so that no one was stranded. While I commend the dining room staff for the help that they gave us to get together, it would have been less disruptive had it been done on the front end. Windjammer on the last day was a zoo (but I know this is not unusual). The sad ending was the snaking line (from the forward exit, through and around the centrum) to disembark that moved very slowly and yet, they kept calling more groups to disembark.

All in all, it was a great cruise, and an itinerary we hope to repeat. The glitches were minor in the total scheme.

volleymasha

already looking forward to sailing on the Jewel next March!

Thanks for the report! We leave for SJU this Friday, and will board the Serenade on Saturday. Your information makes me even more excited... if that is possible!!!!

wow.... do you have any pictures you can share?!?!