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Serenade OTS Picture Review. Western Caribbean 2/1-2/8/2014

Darkwolfe

By Darkwolfe,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Hello folks! Another cruise has come and gone. I always hate that "gone" part but for some reason I can never connive to stay on the ship. Something about still working for a living. Oh well, I'll get to retire eventually.

 

This was my second cruise aboard Serenade. My previous cruise was well before last year's refit and there were some major differences in the ship's appearance inside. The most obvious one being the removal of the Centrum's hanging sculpture. New carpets and flat screen TVs are now the standard in the cabins.

 

My little group of travelers included myself and my GF, plus my parents. I'm in my mid-40s, GF is close to that 40 mark, but I'm not saying which side of it. My parents are both in their 60s. That'll at least give you some feel for our viewpoints along the way.

 

We spent two nights pre-cruise at the Prytania Park hotel in New Orleans' Garden District. The hotel gets good reviews on Trip Advisor and others for both comfort and price. Breakfast is rather dull, but better than nothing at all. They do have a cruise package, just make certain you book directly with the hotel to get the package. We made use of this as the price for two nights and a free week of parking worked out quite well.

 

The location is good as well. You are a block from St. Charles Street and easy access to the streetcar system. $3 will get you a single day pass and that was easily the best $3 investment for our day wandering in town.

 

A little bit around New Orleans.....

 

Canal Street

12438121245_2a543e7a86_b.jpg

 

Bourbon Street at 10AM

12438581084_2d98346e7d_b.jpg

 

Jackson Square

12437981285_e20b814ca7_b.jpg

 

Riverfront Streetcar

12438856204_98fbb9bf83_b.jpg

 

That's all for the moment, but I will continue later on this evening as time allows. I will try to answer questions along the way.

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Can't wait to see more. We are on board next month for our anniversary in 1056. Haven't done Radiance class before. We are coming in the day before but staying two post cruise days for sightseeing.

 

 

The Radiance ships are unique in the RCCL fleet with the mid-ship elevators having views in the Centrum and through windows on the port side of the ship. They also have a Windjammer layout that should rightly be used on Voyager and Freedom class ships. It's very open!

 

I recommend the "Haunted History" tour in New Orleans. I'll have some pictures from that soon.

 

Be forewarned (and I'll detail it later) that Bourbon Street remains very un-family friendly. Other than that, there's a good deal of the Quarter where there's good food and shopping without Bourbon Street issues.

 

We'll be on this cruise in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to your review.

 

Hope you have a great time! We did!

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Our day in New Orleans was spent riding the streetcar from St Charles all the way to the French Market and back and forth few times just to trim down some walking. You do have to change cars when you do this, but it's not particularly hard.

 

When walking we wandered around Jackson Square and various other streets. We had good weather so there were plenty of artists out hawking their various items. Some of which were quite impressive. All of them had "no pictures" signs of various sizes up so I can't show you anything. Pity too, I'd have been happy to give them a little exposure in this review.

 

Speaking of exposure, as I mentioned before, Bourbon Street remains un-family friendly. It does not matter what time of day it is either. Don't take your kids there. Classic example, two girls in pink wigs, bikini bottoms, and very bad body paint were wandering Bourbon just after noon posing for pictures (for a fee of course). You will note, that I didn't mention anything about tops. That would be because they weren't wearing any.

 

Better however, is the Haunted History tour. It's much more family friendly (provided your family can find some amusement in well told horror stories) and is a good walking tour of the French Quarter. Some of the more ghastly moments....

 

Where a young suitor gutted himself avoiding a protective father...

12438736664_a9a9f03274_b.jpg

 

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shoppe (and Bar).. Someone died behind it.. The hard way.

12438663344_36ba2e05aa_b.jpg

 

Unspeakable mutilations and "experiments"...

12438961655_b9b3d8d95d_b.jpg

 

Babies entombed alive in a wall....

12438940005_55195c7f04_b.jpg

 

Now that I have thoroughly creeped you out, take heart! (No, not that way! Ugh!)

 

Up next- Boarding day and a panic moment worthy of our favorite Middle-Aged Drama Queen!

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Ah it is time to clean up the hotel room and head for the port. What was the business with these strange texts showing up on the phones that said "boarding will be delayed"?? Seriously? Can't have that at all! Vacation must be PERFECT!! ;)

 

Well, text notifications or not, we couldn't hang out at the hotel much past 10am in any case. So we packed it up and headed over. We got to the port, just in time to watch Serenade make her stately way to the pier. At close to 10:30am....

 

An auspicious start to say the least. However, there's not all that much to do but make the best of it. So we plowed though the slow lines and finally found ourselves waiting just ahead of the check-in counters.

 

Then it happened. I realized with sudden shock and dismay that I had not updated my SetSail Pass since I changed our cabin over to 9588. EGADS!!! What horror! Had I doomed the trip with that one tiny oversight?

 

Thankfully, the tiny portion of my mind that retained sanity chose that moment to tell me that people changed cabins at the check in counter relatively commonly. Phew! Ok, drop the adrenaline level.. Bring the racing pulse back under the red line and get on with it. Got check in completed and headed out to wait for the boarding call.

 

By this point, Serenade had been unloading the last group of cruisers for a good bit. They must have rushed it hard, because word came down that boarding would take place at about 1:15pm or so. Sadly, there was a nice solid screw up during that process and someone who was calling C&A ranks to board, left out Emerald entirely. That didn't sit too well with several people, but it was an honest mistake from someone who probably never actually cruises.

 

And we are on board Serenade of the Seas!

 

Newly updated pool area (Big Screen picture NOT simulated)

12438852185_beeb66fc29_b.jpg

 

A view of the bridge from the helipad

12438835445_9c14e49082_b.jpg

 

A bit of traffic on muddy waters nearby...

12439258674_4be230b5d3_b.jpg

 

Sunset over the cruise terminal

12439234754_627bbc3e78_b.jpg

 

That will be all until I upload some more pictures late tonight.

 

Soon to come: Sailing from New Orleans at night, a sea day or two, and happily wasting a day at the Port of Falmouth.

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Emperor Norton

Emperor Norton

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... All of them had "no pictures" signs of various sizes up so I can't show you anything. Pity too, I'd have been happy to give them a little exposure in this review...

 

Nice review so far. With regards to the "no pictures" Id have shot away if they were in a space visible from public land.

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Thetrail

Thetrail

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Ah it is time to clean up the hotel room and head for the port. What was the business with these strange texts showing up on the phones that said "boarding will be delayed"?? Seriously? Can't have that at all! Vacation must be PERFECT!! ;)

 

Well, text notifications or not, we couldn't hang out at the hotel much past 10am in any case. So we packed it up and headed over. We got to the port, just in time to watch Serenade make her stately way to the pier. At close to 10:30am....

 

An auspicious start to say the least. However, there's not all that much to do but make the best of it. So we plowed though the slow lines and finally found ourselves waiting just ahead of the check-in counters.

 

Then it happened. I realized with sudden shock and dismay that I had not updated my SetSail Pass since I changed our cabin over to 9588. EGADS!!! What horror! Had I doomed the trip with that one tiny oversight?

 

Thankfully, the tiny portion of my mind that retained sanity chose that moment to tell me that people changed cabins at the check in counter relatively commonly. Phew! Ok, drop the adrenaline level.. Bring the racing pulse back under the red line and get on with it. Got check in completed and headed out to wait for the boarding call.

 

By this point, Serenade had been unloading the last group of cruisers for a good bit. They must have rushed it hard, because word came down that boarding would take place at about 1:15pm or so. Sadly, there was a nice solid screw up during that process and someone who was calling C&A ranks to board, left out Emerald entirely. That didn't sit too well with several people, but it was an honest mistake from someone who probably never actually cruises.

 

And we are on board Serenade of the Seas!

 

Newly updated pool area (Big Screen picture NOT simulated)

12438852185_beeb66fc29_b.jpg

 

A view of the bridge from the helipad

12438835445_9c14e49082_b.jpg

 

A bit of traffic on muddy waters nearby...

12439258674_4be230b5d3_b.jpg

 

Sunset over the cruise terminal

12439234754_627bbc3e78_b.jpg

 

That will be all until I upload some more pictures late tonight.

 

Soon to come: Sailing from New Orleans at night, a sea day or two, and happily wasting a day at the Port of Falmouth.

Looking forward to the pics and your words of wisdom, doing a B2B on her in 2015 so very curious to see pics of her after her revitalization!....K.O.:)
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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Serenade had developed some type of electrical problem early in the morning that caused the delay in her arrival. That was what set our boarding back three hours. But, they had it repaired by the time the ship docked. Due to the arrival delay, muster and departure were both delayed by an hour. Frankly, things could have been much worse so hats off to the repair crew!

 

However, there was a positive twist to the late departure and that was getting some interesting nighttime pictures of New Orleans as Serenade departed. Bit of a challenge to do with a moving ship under your mini-tripod and basically a point and shoot style camera! Still, got a few to come out fairly well.

 

And the fog began to rise from the river...

 

Serenade pulls away from the cruise terminal

12452813933_22596b4569_b.jpg

 

The bridge lighting has a bit of an eerie glow to it...

12452824423_2568ac9463_b.jpg

 

Downtown New Orleans is all lit up

12452718223_bc5d2e6b90_b.jpg

 

A small riverboat waits out the night

12453075294_a1d2b0787f_b.jpg

 

*Sigh* I think I've finally reached that point where I am getting everything I possibly can from small cameras. Had a couple of DSLR fans tell me to take off the training wheels and move up. Arrgh... DSLR or cruise??? Such choices!

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Serenade's refit changed a number of things, but also simply refreshed quite a few familiar locations. Chops was effectively unchanged (ironically, we wound up at the same table I had several years ago), but Giovanni's Table took over where Portofino used to be. Both are just off the Schooner Bar.

 

The Schooner Bar itself got a bit of a refresh, but it is still the same comfortable bar we are all familiar with.

 

The self leveling pool tables outside the Safari Club are still in good order for the most part. I didn't have any random rolling to contend with, but one of the tables has a bit of squeak developing and needs some fresh felt already. Some people doing gymnastics while playing the game I guess.

 

The Centrum was the most obvious area of change. LED lighting all around, new carpet, and the R-Bar all contributed to completely change this area of the ship.

 

A comfortable corner of the Schooner Bar

12453011644_89ae1b0379_b.jpg

 

An amusing twist to the phrase "Rock and Roll"

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Fancy new lighting in the Centrum

12452887604_13227de663_b.jpg

 

Show effects in the Centrum

12461701964_8f7f9257ab_b.jpg

 

I'm thoroughly kicking myself for failing to get a picture of one of the bartenders at the R-Bar. The guy was a near perfect double of Isaac from the Love Boat!

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Darkwolfe

Darkwolfe

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Enjoying your review and looking forward to more.

Leaving in 60 days! Can't wait.

This is my first time on Serenade and to NOLA, so I am really loving the pictures.

Thanks!:)

 

You will have a great time!

 

If you go wandering in the Quarter go find Cafe Du Monde for coffee and begneits (sp? A French doughnut buried in powdered sugar.. Decatur Street), the Magnolia Grill (near the French Market) and Cafe Maspero (Corner of Toulouse and Decatur). All of these places are relatively easy on the budget and have some seriously good food.

 

Seriously, get that one day streetcar pass and use it if your hotel is close to any of the routes. Makes wandering around so much easier!

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AtlantaCruiser72

AtlantaCruiser72

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I'm thoroughly kicking myself for failing to get a picture of one of the bartenders at the R-Bar. The guy was a near perfect double of Isaac from the Love Boat!

 

He was on the ship during her transatlantic last fall working in the pub. I can't remember his name but he's a great bartender. I think he's from Trinidad if I remember correctly.

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