Serenade: Brief review and comparison to other cruise lines

[PaperSniper4]

See additional info in Cabin Compilation sticky  for Serenade of the Seas cabin 8170 by PaperSniper4 on 28 March 2019.

 

Below is mostly our opinion, although some is factual. We have taken about 35 cruises total on Princess, Carnival, NCL, Celebrity, HAL and RCI. We usually book a mid-category balcony cabin. We are now in our early 70s; so consider that as you read this. I will attempt to not do a full review, but point out some of the differences we found in other cruise lines, and other things we thought were exceptional on this ship/cabin/cruise.

 

.No folio print except by asking at Purser's office. Cannot view it on TV either.
.Very few of those "info" Magazines laying about the cabin that are really ads compared to many other cruise lines.
.Balconies are nice. Our aft view balcony on deck 8 was huge - maybe 10 by 10 feet; about the same size as many Princess ships on the Caribe decks. Balcony furniture was nice with the tables having a wood (maybe synthetic?) top, chairs and recliners were good quality.
.Counter space around the sink in the head was very small, smaller than any ship on which we have sailed.

.Circular shower is very small and cramped, but does have a real door instead of a curtain.
.Shower contains liquid pump-bottle shampoo; shower soap is a small, hotel-like bar of soap.
.Cabin storage in this cabin was very abundant and of nice quality. About the same on the Celebrity Silhouette's; which is very good.
.Balcony door is the sliding type which we prefer over the "swinging" door on Carnival and others.
.Our cabin had the best air conditioner we've had on any ship. Worked great and we turned it up and down daily if the temperature and our desires changed. It did not turn off when the balcony door was left open.
.The cabin had a decent flat screen TV. It had a ship's information channel as most lines do. Interesting that the outside temperature was nearly always 79°F even when it was obvious it was higher or lower.
.The ships daily planner listed the movies that would show "24 hrs a day" on channel 40; however, I only saw movies on channel 40 once in our 10 day cruise, that was after 1700.
.Our aft view cabin had very good privacy and wind/sun protection. No soot, no noise.

 

.Coffee is very strong, and a little bitter for my taste. At least compared to Princess, Celebrity, HAL, NCL and Carnival.
.Unlike many other cruise lines, Half & Half only is available in those little sealed cups. Even the dining room only had those; no pitchers of H & H or cream.
.Very small croissants, not flaky compared to NCL or Carnival. Princess has a similar kind. They tasted okay, but they were just not nice and flaky. <g>
.We could order a 6/12 pack of soft drinks for $13/$22 from Room Service. Not sure if other cruise lines have that; I've never noticed it. And of course RCI (and many other) lines allow you to bring soft drinks upon boarding.
.It's possible to order a bottle of liquor to be delivered to your cabin pre-sailing. However, it's a 0.375 liter bottle, costs about $50, and comes with 4 Coca Colas. The variety of liquor is awful: Johnny Walker Red <only>, Bacardi <only>, etc.

 

.Cruise Director; On this ship the Cruise Director was not obtrusive at all. I do not recall if this is just this ship, or typical of RCI. Many other lines, Carnival and NCL for example, have the CD giving irritating "information" several times a day.....info that is in the printed in planner that is delivered to your cabin each evening for the following day.

 

.The Serenade offered "luggage valet service" that was described as handling your bag(s) ($25 per bag) from your cabin to your final airport and would also provide boarding passes delivered to your cabin on the last night. We tried to use it for our ONE bag, but they told me I had to pay an additional $25 to have my wife's boarding pass provided; even though we were both on the same airline confirmation. (I found out when they told me my flight have been cancelled, so I never used their valet service. We used it on a recent Celebrity cruise for our TWO bags; worked great)
.RCI allows you to bring medical items like a heating pad, CPAP machine and the like. They provide an extension cord and distilled water if required. Contact RCI Special Needs for details (special_needs@rccl.com). Note that many cruise lines do not allow heating pads (Princess for one), even for medical reasons.
.We brought a small 120vac fan, mainly as a "white noise" generator, in our checked bag. We were called down to security department after boarding; we had to have the bag checked by security personnel. The security agent kindly allowed us to use it as long as we promised to turn if off when we left the cabin.

 

A great cruise!😎

 

Doug

 

 

 

 

[cathykb]

Thanks for sharing your observations.

[John&LaLa]

We sailed Serenade in August and the folio worked fine on the TV.  We also got one delivered on final morning. 

[PaperSniper4]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

We sailed Serenade in August and the folio worked fine on the TV.  We also got one delivered on final morning. 

I checked our TV and found nothing. Also asked at the Purser's Office. Must have been not operational for our March 2019 cruise for some reason. It's a very useful feature, as I usually check our folio 2-3 times during a 10 day cruise. I don't like surprises!

[mworkman]

We were on Serenade 4-15 Mar 2019 and the folio worked fine on our tv.

[PaperSniper4]

" We were on Serenade 4-15 Mar 2019 and the folio worked fine on our tv. "

 

Now that is just weird. We sailed on 17 March. No folio on the TV. I asked about that, and the Purser's office staff said the only way to get one was by asking at their desk. Maybe she misunderstood, and I was just unsuccessful trying to find it on the TV.

 

Do you remember on which channel you could view your folio? As a reminder, the ship's Navigation channel (heading, temperature, wind, etc) was channel 17. I don't remember the others.

Edited March 28, 2019 by PaperSniper4

[OCruisers]

Thanks for your time to do such a complete review!  

 

[Beachin2]

Just off a B2B 3/4-25 and the interactive was not working at all for the entire 3 weeks on the Serenade. 

[mworkman]

I don't remember what channel it was...funny thing is i got of Indy prior to Serenade and it didn't work on Indy for me.

[PaperSniper4]

1 minute ago, mworkman said:

I don't remember what channel it was...funny thing is i got of Indy prior to Serenade and it didn't work on Indy for me.

Just another RCCL quirk I guess.........

[PaperSniper4]

34 minutes ago, Beachin2 said:

Just off a B2B 3/4-25 and the interactive was not working at all for the entire 3 weeks on the Serenade. 

Thanks - I must not be going nuts then! <g>