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Serenade of the Seas review with an attempt to post pictures :)

TxStacey

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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I have been on 8 cruises and have posted a few reviews, but never with pictures. I did not take as many picures as I thought I did, but I will try to post the ones I have..hey, some are better than none..right?

 

So here goes..this cruise was originally booked with 4 families back in February 2010 while onboard the Freedom. Two of the families had to back out so it was myself, my husband, and our college aged daugher in our family. We flew into San Juan from Dallas on Friday on Spirit Airlines..more on that in a minute. The other family was a mom and dad and thier 4 kids...3 college aged and one 10 year old. They flew in from Atlanta and met us on Saturday.

 

Our flight was for 6:00 a.m. on Friday, June 17th on Spirit Arlines out of Dallas. Spirit is new to the Dallas market and at the time that I was booking our air, it was the cheapest and had the best departure and arrival times. We had one short stop in Fort Lauderdale and were in San Juan by 2:00. It was a very long day considering we had been up since about 3:30 a.m. I will say that I will NEVER fly Spirit airlines again if I can help it. We were warned on this board that Spirit is bad about nickel and diming and they have poor customer service. All of that is true and more..word to the wise if you are flying on Spirit..make sure you take your own drinks and snacks on the plane. They charge for everything including soft drinks, carry ons, luggage over 40 lbs, etc, etc. I am pretty sure that we ended up paying more on Spirit than we would have on American (who we normally fly). We had mechanical delays on all legs of our flight and almost missed our returning flight..more on that later..

 

Once we arrived in San Juan, we had no problems at the airport getting a taxi to our hotel..the Caribe Hilton..which we LOVED! I got it on Priceline for $90.00 per night and I was thrilled. Here are some pictures of the Caribe..002-Copy.jpg[/img]

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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This was taken from our balcony room which was in the main tower. Thanks to Faith from these boards who told me to email the hotel manager and request an ocean view room with 2 double beds. I was pleasantly surprised that all of my requests were met since I booked on Priceline!

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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My only complaint about the location of the Caribe is that it is a little far from Old San Juan and the rountrip taxi fare cost us about 26.00. We went into Old San Juan on Friday night for dinner at Barrachina which we loved. We also loved the feel of Old San Juan and never felt unsafe. The buildings there are beautiful and we felt like we were in Spain or somewhere European. Here is a picture of my D and my H...in Old San Juan012.jpg[/img]

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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On Saturday we spent the whole day at the pool at the Caribe and then met our friends in Old San Juan for dinner. They stayed at The Conrad and really thought it was nice. They got it on Priceline for $110.00. We ate at a mexican restaurant right by where the Carnival Victory docks and is across the street from the Sheraton Old San Juan. There is also a CVS right there which we went into to get a few things that we needed. If I were sailing on the Victory, I would stay at The Sheraton as you could walk to the port from there..it seemed like we were spending a fortune on taxi fare. We did take the bus from our hotel to Old San Juan on Saturday, but it was around 3:00 in the afternoon. The concierge said not to take it after dark. It was .75 per person..exact change..and well worth it. Next day is embarkation day...more tomorrow :)

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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Like I said in my original post, I did not take as many pictures as I thought I did..I have no picures of the ship, just of the ports. This was by far my favorite itenerary of all 8 cruises I have been on. I will say that it was EXHAUSTING because the first day is at sea and then we were off teh ship very early every morning for 5 days straight..however..it was well worth it!

 

Sunday: Got up and worked out at the gym at the Caribe and grabbed some coffee and muffins at the Starbucks there at the hotel. We had no problem at all getting a cab to the airport as they are there and ready at all times. We got our cab around 11:30 and were at the port by 11:45. There was no line and we were able to check in and were in the Windjammer by 12:00 eating with our friends. It was probably one of the more easy embarkations I have ever experienced. The ship was not crowded at all as most people did not get on until later. I think all aboard was 5:00 or 5:30. We were able to get into our rooms right at 1:00. We loved our balcony on the 9th floor, mid ship. It had 2 chairs and a nice sized table which we utilized every morning for breakfast. We had some smokers beside us, but it didn't really bother us too much as they were mostly out there really early in the morning.

 

We changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool for a while. We had late dinner which I wasn't crazy about the first few days because the show was after dinner..10:30 or 10:45. This is really too late for me and we also missed kareoke most nights because we didn't finish dinner until 10:00. After day 3 our show was before dinner which was more manageable for us. The Welcome Abaord show was good and the cruise director Ricky was one of the best I have experienced with RCL. He is from Jamaica and has ALOT if energy. We went to the show and then on to bed as it was already midnight..tomorrow..Barbados and swimming with the turtles!

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TxStacey

TxStacey

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Ms. Tiki...you will love your trip! It is a great ship and a great itenerary!

 

Tuesday...Barbados. This was one of my all time favorite islands and excursions. I have swam with nurse sharks, sting rays, and all kinds of fish, but the turtles were almost magical...they reminded me of the turtle in "Finding Nemo"..so gentle and friendly.

 

I booked our excursion with Shasa Tours online after reading such great reviews here on Cruise Critic. We were not disappointed! We met a driver at a designated place which was easy to find within the port area. We had nine in our group plus one other couple, so a total of 11. This was VERY nice and not crowded at all..The driver was right on time and took us to meet Shasa and our catamaran for the day..

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TxStacey

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I highly recommend Shasa Tours! We did the five hour trip and it was well worth every penny! We saw many larger catamarans which were also much more crowded. It felt like we had chartered our own private Cat. that day. We never felt rushed..all in all it was a perfect day. I forgot to mention that Monday night was the first Elegant Night and the first production show. We went to the show, but were all falling asleep because it was after dinner, around 10:30. It was a good show..just a little too late for our group. Even our college aged kids were in bed farily early on this cruise because it is so port intensive.

On this night, Tuesday, we had dinner in Portofino. Our friends were celebrating thier 25th wedding anniversary so we took all of the kids for a special dinner (minus the 10 year old, who went to Adventure Ocean). It was very good, and well worth the $20.00 per person..but I personally like the menu better at Chops.

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TxStacey

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Wednesday..Beautiful St. Lucia! I think I have the most pictures of St. Lucia..I had always wanted to go there so I was very excited about our stop there. We booked the Jalousie Beach Break with Spencer Ambrose. I had read VERY mixed reviews about Spencer so I was a little wary. We were not disappointed! Some people had written that they were disappointed because they didn't get a chair once they got to the beach. That is most likely because they did the land and sea tour. We did just the beach break, which got us to Jalousie Beach very early. We had no problem getting chairs under shade and had a perfect day.

 

Our tour met at 8:30 at the port. There was a representative from Spencer holding a sign. He was very easy to find. What I did like is that they were very prompt and stated that they would only wait about 5 minutes and if everyone was not there, they would leave. We were walked to our speed boat right on time and were on our way to Jalousie beach.. It is about a 45 minute boat ride.065.jpg[/img]This is the resort where Jake's season of the Bachelor was filmed..it is gorgeous!

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