Serenade of the Seas Review

[christianmom5]

Serenade of the Seas Jan. 25, 2014

Our cruise had electrical issues in the engine on the last night, and we are 3 hours late into New Orleans, so I figured that I would take the time to write a cruise review while it is fresh in my mind.

The ship itself is probably one of the prettiest we have seen. The shape is interesting, with the glass elevators protruding. The room was small, especially the shower, but there was plenty of storage. Our cabin steward was terrific, and we had towel animals left most evenings. The bed was comfortable. The best feature of the ship IMO was the Solarium. It was especially nice to enjoy during the cooler weather. However, it was very busy.

The food was excellent. We are not picky, and could always find something fun and new to try. We started trying more than one of the appetizers later in the week. There was lobster tail and shrimp on the second formal night (Day 6). My very favorite food was, strangely enough, the rolls with the pumpkin seeds on top. Our asst. waiter learned quickly to bring extra pumpkin seed rolls for our table, as everyone loved them. We tried Chops and Rita’s Cantina as well as the MDR. They were both good. I had low expectations for Rita’s, after reading such negative comments. We just got quesadillas $3.50, guacamole and chips $~3, and margaritas. I thought it was definitely better than Taco Bell, as some commented. Not excellent, but good. The chips were fresh, but not warm. It was a fun change. Chops costs $30/person extra. We went there because it was a perk from our TA. The steak was good, green beans even better, and the mudslide yummy. The best dessert, however, in my opinion, was in the MDR on the last evening (Portobello menu). It was a walnut tart. It was candied walnuts in a flaky crust with a smidgen of vanilla ice cream. Too bad it wasn’t served warm, but it was excellent as it was. My other favorite thing, foodwise, was the Tutti Frutti salad bar in the MDR at lunch. The salad bar has so many options to choose from (prosciutto, shrimp, olives, roasted peppers, many cheeses, etc.)

The shows- we saw all of the main shows, and appreciated each of them. The comedians were especially good. We also liked to listen to the different musicians. My favorite was the guitar player. However, he was not playing the last two days, so he may have left the ship. There was one band, called Island something, that was not nearly up to par with the other musicians on board. There are two aerial shows in the centrum. They are short, and you have to get there early to get a good seat. The first one is best seen from decks 4-6. The second can be seen from higher decks also. If you find a chair, make sure that you can see the upper part of the atrium from where you are sitting. Topy, the cruise director was good. There were slide shows with funny pictures before each main show. Another evening they showed a film of behind the scenes with the dancers-very interesting. There was a nice variety of offerings from dance classes to karaoke, belly flop contest, love and marriage, etc. If you are planning a cruise on Serenade of the Seas and like to dress for the theme nights, they had 70’s, country & western,

The weather was beautiful for the most part, and we loved Coco Cay! The hammocks are wonderful! Would love to bottle a couple of hours there and save it for a week or so after we get back home! The snorkeling was decent on Coco Cay, but you have to swim out to find the reef. I saw 3 huge stingrays and a lot of fish. The coral itself was not that great.

An observation that we made on this trip that I haven’t seen commented on before was the age of the passengers. This ship does not have some of the options that the bigger ships offer for children. There were very few children onboard. This was a plus from my perspective. Many older people, more on par with Holland America. Just an observation, not sure if it’s usually like this or more this particular sailing.

Overall it was a great cruise. Everyone in our group agreed that they would sail on the Serenade of the Seas again.

Edited February 2, 2014 by christianmom5

[jo24]

Lovely review, thank you for taking the time to do it.

 

Jo :)

[Langley Cruisers]

Thank you! Looking forward to our turn. :)

[stewcrews]

If the 2nd formal is day 6. When is the first formal? Thanks!

[lhz3456]

Thank you so much for reviewing the Serenade out of NOLA! It seems like there aren't that many reviews and we are sailing in late March so I look forward to reading anything I can find. Glad you had a great trip!

[clan]

Thanks for your review. We sail on her next Saturday. Can't wait!

 

Stewcrews--the first formal night is on Sunday.

[escargot18]

Although the delay was bad for the oncoming passengers, I really enjoyed coming up the Mississippi during daylight. Seeing all the barge traffic and other action on the river was one of the best parts for me.

[pinkroses]

We were on the Serenade in June for a Mediterranean twelve day cruise. We, too, had electrical problems and spent an extra night docked in Rome. It would have been wonderful if we would have been able to leave the ship. We did not, however, loose out on any vacation somehow. The captain said she had a "little steam on her back pocket" and use it she did. Everything else was right on schedule. My only advice on this wonderful ship is to get a room far from the centrum. Even with the door closed we were able to hear the music plus the beat nightly as well as in the afternoon. Fortunately we had a balcony room and opened it some to lessen the noise. We love music but after port intensive trips we would have enjoyed quieter

[christianmom5]

Escargot,

 

I agree. My husband had complained that we sailed for so long down the Mississippi River, but only at night. But with the delay he got to see it at night and then also in the daylight-quite interesting. Since our flight wasn't until 2:45, it didn't bother us that we were late.

 

I did feel a little sorry for those waiting to board. Especially those who got there very early, and were probably wondering where was the ship?!:eek:

[BDL]

If the 2nd formal is day 6. When is the first formal? Thanks!

 

First formal day was day 2 - the first sea day.

[BDL]

Although the delay was bad for the oncoming passengers, I really enjoyed coming up the Mississippi during daylight. Seeing all the barge traffic and other action on the river was one of the best parts for me.

 

My husband had remarked earlier in the week that it was too bad we were in the Mississippi only at night. When I woke up yesterday and I read the letter they had left on the door I woke him up and told him to get out on the balcony and enjoy!

[zaknzoey]

I was on this cruise also! :D Had a great time. I did like the ship, but I must say, I did miss the Royal Promenade. It's just such a great design and great room to have so many events and such.

 

My only real complaint was disembarkation. Being over 3 hours late getting in to NOLA, you would expect some disorganization, but this was really bad! I specifically asked the employee at the door, where do we line up? Where do we go out? I had gone down there to get these answers so we would know where to go. He told us to to go to the theater, and the line would go out one door, go around to the other door, then down the hall to the dining room.

 

So we get down there over an hour before we dock. Then at the last minute, EVERYONE else shows up and there is sudden chaos. There is no "line" anymore. People were coming from every direction. Those that had just left their cabin 10 minutes prior got off faster than we did after waiting in "line" over 2 hours. I know because some friends of mine did this. It took us over an hour and a half to get out the door to the deck AFTER the line started moving and we were about 30 feet from the door. :eek::mad:

 

VERY frustrating. But it really was a great cruise, otherwise. We also loved Coco Cay. Ate at both Chops and Giovanni's Table and loved both. Did not care much for Rita's Cantina. The nachos had very little meat on them. Mostly just a plate of chips.

[cocod08]

Thanks for the review sailing on her this november

[Chicagocrooza]

Thanks for the review, there aren't many out there especially after the refurb, will be sailing on her nj late march, we did look up some pictures review on the brilliance and the ship looked lovely.

Did you eat at the earlier seating or later seating ? Lout party of ten had just switched to the 8pm seating think it would not be as busy.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[lhz3456]

Can you provide any details on what you did in Nassau? Since we don't dock until 1, I am wondering whether to schedule a beach day or just do something on our own. I would think we wouldn't be able to get to a beach until around 2 and that seems late to me!

[garnetpalmetto]

Can you provide any details on what you did in Nassau? Since we don't dock until 1, I am wondering whether to schedule a beach day or just do something on our own. I would think we wouldn't be able to get to a beach until around 2 and that seems late to me!

 

My wife and I were also on this cruise - FWIW we chose to stay onboard at Nassau. We had originally planned to go to either Ardastra Gardens or to John Watling's Distillery. We don't regret our decision - it felt like having the ship to ourselves and we enjoyed a round of minigolf and afternoon trivia in the Schooner Bar.

 

FWIW this itinerary also includes Coco Cay. That's a guaranteed beach day where you don't have to buy a pass to sit out on the beach. I'd rather save the money and use that as my beach day than Nassau.

[lady_cruiser]

We were one of the lucky ones. We had no problems during our 9-day cruise on her in December.

 

Sounds like the ones here that were on her while she experienced electrical problems took a "oh well attitude" and made the best of it. Good for y'all.

[nelblu]

We were on the Serenade in June for a Mediterranean twelve day cruise. We, too, had electrical problems and spent an extra night docked in Rome. It would have been wonderful if we would have been able to leave the ship. We did not, however, loose out on any vacation somehow. The captain said she had a "little steam on her back pocket" and use it she did. Everything else was right on schedule. My only advice on this wonderful ship is to get a room far from the centrum. Even with the door closed we were able to hear the music plus the beat nightly as well as in the afternoon. Fortunately we had a balcony room and opened it some to lessen the noise. We love music but after port intensive trips we would have enjoyed quieter

 

We sailed on the SOS in August and I concur the ship is beautiful, however, the balconies near the Centrum are quite noisy. It was so bad, especially, when the R&R band played. We could not get any sleep and after the 3rd nite we were lucky to change cabins away from the Centrum. The Med. cruises are tour intensive and usually start at 7am, and we were like zombies on these 9-10 hrs tours of Pisa/Florence.

[KeywestK]

Thanks for your review. We are excited to sail on Serenade next month:)

Edited February 3, 2014 by KeywestK

[christianmom5]

Lhz, I didn't write about the ports, because, honestly, they were not my favorite.

 

We had a People to People tour scheduled for Nassau, but, when we showed up at the Tourism office, our volunteer tour guide had an unexpected work emergency and couldn't come. I guess that's to be expected once in awhile when you're dealing with tourists. We paid a nice gentleman to give us an island tour. It was okay, and we ended at Atlantis, where we wandered for a little bit before returning to the ship. It was an okay day.

 

We liked Key West a little more. It was a little too cool for water sports that day, so we did the City View hop on hop off trolley tour. It was fun. We were the only ones to get off at White St. Pier (Stop #4), and it was our favorite. There was a small animal refuge one direction and a botanical garden the other direction. Just past the garden was the beach, where we dipped our toes before heading back to the trolley. We got off at Stop 5 (Southernmost point) and walked to Stop 6. There were a lot of people waiting at Stop 5. It was easier and more fun to just walk up Duval St. and catch it at the next stop. We then rode to the next stop, got off, and just walked around until we were tired. We did, of course, sample the Key Lime Pie also.

[garnetpalmetto]

We were one of the lucky ones. We had no problems during our 9-day cruise on her in December.

 

Sounds like the ones here that were on her while she experienced electrical problems took a "oh well attitude" and made the best of it. Good for y'all.

 

Pretty much! I figured something was amiss before I went to bed on Friday night and saw we were heading Southeast at a near stand-still (something like 0.1 knots). At the time I figured the pilot was late or something. I wasn't personally stressed by the propulsion issue since our flight out was later in the day. The staff also did a wonderful job informing guests of the issue (multiple announcements plus a note on everybody's stateroom door from Captain Anders), automatically rebooked everybody who had booked their air transport through RCI, and picked up rebooking fees (up to a certain amount) for everybody else who booked independently. Given all that, why not take the good (getting an opportunity to watch the river traffic, including seeing a Chinese crude oil tanker getting turned to head downriver by a pair of tugs) with the bad of the delay?

 

That said, disembarkation was a bit more disorganized, I thought, and some aspects of the terminal were a cluster. Whether that was passenger-made or what I'm not sure.

[soccermommie]

ZaknZoey-

 

I'm not sure your disembarkation experience can be blamed on the delay. We were on Serenade in December and experienced the same thing even without a delay in arrival in New Orleans! We've sailed a number of times on several different lines, and that was our single worst disembark hands-down. We experienced an absolute lack of organization, direction and traffic control by the ship staff. It was, indeed, very frustrating!

[lacruiser]

I was on board Serenade the week prior to your sailing. We had no electrical issues, and embarkation and debarkation were the quickest we've ever experienced! First time in my cruising life that I've walked directly up to the customs desk with no line. (This was about 9:30 a.m.)

 

Your pax demographic sounds a lot like ours. I think that's due more to the time of year than anything else. Most people with children -- and who are working -- have just taken Christmas vacation, so there are mostly retirees on board. At ages 59 and 60 we felt like kids onboard!!:D:D

[sunandsnow]

We also were on the 1/18 sailing with Lacruiser. We thought embarkation and debarkation was very efficient. We got to the terminal at around 10:30 and waited about 1 hour to board (which was expected). We needed to return our rental car by 9:30 am. Rooms were available by 1:00. We disembarked later at around 9:00 am and walked right off the ship.

 

We also sailed on the Serenade Jan 2013 in the Med. We thought the food was better on this sailing (temps were better - some of our food was lukewarm in the MDR and WJ in the Med.) Staff was good and we enjoyed the entertainment. The CD was okay but not our favorite but everyone has different opinions. Guest services was okay. We liked not having to check out towels. Ship was clean. We are in our early 50's and most of the cruisers were our age or older.

 

We like this size of ship but after being on larger ships with our older children they would be bored on this size of ship.