Unique Serenade B2B in November

[orville99]

Just booked the most unique B2B cruise that we have ever seen - not just for RCL, but for any cruise line that we are familiar with. It starts with a 14-night (11/7/23 - 11/21/23) Westbound Panama Canal crossing from Miami to LA that then turns right around and does a 14-night (11/21/23 - 12/5/23) Eastbound Panama Canal crossing from LA back to Miami.

Perhaps a shakedown cruise before the world cruise???? 

[cruiselvr04]

Sound super relaxing.  And no cooking over Thanksgiving.  I’m wondering if that will use those sailings to get the laundry rooms put in? 

[orville99]

10 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

I’m wondering if that will use those sailings to get the laundry rooms put in? 

That's what we were thinking as well. IIRC, the first leg of world cruise starts on 12/10, so anything that was promised (like the laundry rooms) for that cruise would have to be both installed and stress tested before they set sail.

[Jimbo]

Windstar/ Star Pride does  a Full transit back and forth 4 times.

 

Jan 6th        Balboa, Panama to Barbados        14  Nights

Jan 20th      Barbados to Balboa, Panama       14 Nights

Feb 3rd        Balboa, Panama to Barbados      14  Nights

Feb 17th       Barbados to Balboa, Panama     14 Nights

[Jimbo]

12 minutes ago, orville99 said:

That's what we were thinking as well. IIRC, the first leg of world cruise starts on 12/10, so anything that was promised (like the laundry rooms) for that cruise would have to be both installed and stress tested before they set sail.

Would hope the stress testing would be done well before just a month before the WC, whether or not they let you use them or not on those 2 sailings probably hasn't been decided or even talked about yet.

[Merion_Mom]

This is not unique and not even unusual.  I did it in December 2018 and February 2019, Vision and Jewel respectively.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

Just booked the most unique B2B cruise that we have ever seen - not just for RCL, but for any cruise line that we are familiar with. It starts with a 14-night (11/7/23 - 11/21/23) Westbound Panama Canal crossing from Miami to LA that then turns right around and does a 14-night (11/21/23 - 12/5/23) Eastbound Panama Canal crossing from LA back to Miami.

Perhaps a shakedown cruise before the world cruise???? 

Sounds awesome to me.

 

If I was already moved to florida I'd do it. Maybe 2024 and beyond if another b2b thru the canal. 

[orville99]

11 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Would hope the stress testing would be done well before just a month before the WC, whether or not they let you use them or not on those 2 sailings probably hasn't been decided or even talked about yet.

Our thoughts were that the need to have a lot of passengers stress the  facilities promised for the world cruise on the cruises preceding the B2B would be limited given that Serenade's itineraries from June through October are a mix of 4, 5, and 7 night cruises, and one 12-night repositioning cruise from Tampa-Boston. Two consecutive 14-night cruises, however, would probably generate a significantly greater load on those additions

[ONECRUISER]

13 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

This is not unique and not even unusual.  I did it in December 2018 and February 2019, Vision and Jewel respectively.

Yeah was to be on that Jewel B2B, then life happened

[ONECRUISER]

2 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Our thoughts were that the need to have a lot of passengers stress the  facilities promised for the world cruise on the cruises preceding the B2B would be limited given that Serenade's itineraries from June through October are a mix of 4, 5, and 7 night cruises, and one 12-night repositioning cruise from Tampa-Boston. Two consecutive 14-night cruises, however, would probably generate a significantly greater load on those additions

Common on this Ship. Until recently I only did 10-13 nite Cruises on Serenade. This inc Boston-Florida Reo's, B4B and did these every yr

[lovesthebeach2]

14 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Our thoughts were that the need to have a lot of passengers stress the  facilities promised for the world cruise on the cruises preceding the B2B would be limited given that Serenade's itineraries from June through October are a mix of 4, 5, and 7 night cruises, and one 12-night repositioning cruise from Tampa-Boston. Two consecutive 14-night cruises, however, would probably generate a significantly greater load on those additions

Sadly we’re in no hurry to go back on this ship after the cruise we just got off on Saturday.

[orville99]

34 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Windstar/ Star Pride does  a Full transit back and forth 4 times.

 

Jan 6th        Balboa, Panama to Barbados        14  Nights

Jan 20th      Barbados to Balboa, Panama       14 Nights

Feb 3rd        Balboa, Panama to Barbados      14  Nights

Feb 17th       Barbados to Balboa, Panama     14 Nights

Not exactly a main line cruise company, and not one I am at all familiar with.

[Jimbo]

16 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Sadly we’re in no hurry to go back on this ship after the cruise we just got off on Saturday.

Explain more, what were the issues?

[Jimbo]

26 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Not exactly a main line cruise company, and not one I am at all familiar with.

Expand your searches.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=723

Edited March 7, 2023 by Jimbo

[orville99]

7 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Expand your searches.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=723

For what reason? I have no interest in the types of ships or cruises that these boutique cruise line offer. And, I generally don’t read reviews on lines we never sail, so why would i search for them.

[orville99]

44 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Sadly we’re in no hurry to go back on this ship after the cruise we just got off on Saturday.

I guess you had to be there to appreciate your experience. But look at it this way, we started the cruise by getting intentionally rammed by a shrimp boat, and ended it by just missing hitting a Sunshine bridge jumper in the water on the way back

[mafig]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Sadly we’re in no hurry to go back on this ship after the cruise we just got off on Saturday.

 

What happened?

[lovesthebeach2]

15 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Explain more, what were the issues?

I don’t want to be negative here, but compared to the 10 other cruises we’ve done since restart, including 2 TAs, the negatives on this ship stood out. Royal seemed to be starting to look cheap. for example No ice tea, only 2 butters at dinner, things like that…These may seem trivial in print, but when you add them up, every day over and over it’s noticeable. And when you include that the MDR food was not good at all, which had nothing to do with the revised menus, we’re happy that Royal has many other ships that we can choose from.  We were on Jewel for NYE and it was wonderful. We’ll be on Brilliance in a week and I’m sure it will also be wonderful. And yes, we’ve been on Serenade before and loved it. The the crew was friendly, the entertainment was great, Giovannis was delicious, we made lots of friends on this cruise. But it just wasn’t the Royal  we’ve been used to. But in summary:

 

*Bar tables were dirtier than usual, didn’t see many bar servers, so they didn’t get cleaned

*Didn’t see many bar servers overall, so bars were more crowded hard to order drinks 

*WJ tables weren’t getting cleaned between uses. Not enough crew it seemed

*WJ tongs were being used for multiple items by guests, potential allergy issues, plus gross

*Many guests entered MDR and WJ without cleaning their hands.  No one was there.

*The glass on our balcony was filthy throughout the cruise. I asked guest services, they said they only clean them on Thursdays. I reminded them that it was Thursday and we were in port with Celebrity Beyond and they were getting cleaned. 

*It was very hard to find ice when WJ was closed, the Solarium ice machine wasn’t working.

*MDR food was not good at all. A  few nights we went to WJ to eat after picking at our plate. 

*MDR servers seemed very new and based on food we were served, the cooks must be too.

 

Again, these may sound trivial, but when added up it was noticeable. We pay thousands for the privilege of cruising. Royal is not an inexpensive cruise line. We love cruising Royal and will continue cruising Royal

 

 

 

 

[lovesthebeach2]

25 minutes ago, orville99 said:

I guess you had to be there to appreciate your experience. But look at it this way, we started the cruise by getting intentionally rammed by a shrimp boat, and ended it by just missing hitting a Sunshine bridge jumper in the water on the way back

Wait what! The shrimp boat captain was insane, I could never figure out why they would take on a cruise ship….But  I didn’t know about the jumper on the return! Did they jump? 
were you up at that hour?

[Jimbo]

10 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I don’t want to be negative here, but compared to the 10 other cruises we’ve done since restart, including 2 TAs, the negatives on this ship stood out. Royal seemed to be starting to look cheap. for example No ice tea, only 2 butters at dinner, things like that…These may seem trivial in print, but when you add them up, every day over and over it’s noticeable. And when you include that the MDR food was not good at all, which had nothing to do with the revised menus, we’re happy that Royal has many other ships that we can choose from.  We were on Jewel for NYE and it was wonderful. We’ll be on Brilliance in a week and I’m sure it will also be wonderful. And yes, we’ve been on Serenade before and loved it. The the crew was friendly, the entertainment was great, Giovannis was delicious, we made lots of friends on this cruise. But it just wasn’t the Royal  we’ve been used to. But in summary:

 

*Bar tables were dirtier than usual, didn’t see many bar servers, so they didn’t get cleaned

*Didn’t see many bar servers overall, so bars were more crowded hard to order drinks 

*WJ tables weren’t getting cleaned between uses. Not enough crew it seemed

*WJ tongs were being used for multiple items by guests, potential allergy issues, plus gross

*Many guests entered MDR and WJ without cleaning their hands.  No one was there.

*The glass on our balcony was filthy throughout the cruise. I asked guest services, they said they only clean them on Thursdays. I reminded them that it was Thursday and we were in port with Celebrity Beyond and they were getting cleaned. 

*It was very hard to find ice when WJ was closed, the Solarium ice machine wasn’t working.

*MDR food was not good at all. A  few nights we went to WJ to eat after picking at our plate. 

*MDR servers seemed very new and based on food we were served, the cooks must be too.

 

Again, these may sound trivial, but when added up it was noticeable. We pay thousands for the privilege of cruising. Royal is not an inexpensive cruise line. We love cruising Royal and will continue cruising Royal

 

 

 

 

Doesn't sound to good with the WC coming up and people being stuck on that ship for 275 days. Going to be  ALOT of unhappy campers. onboard if conditions like that continue.

 

I always have had the question out of all the Radiance Class ships as to why that ship(Serenade) was picked for the WC. Wonder how they decided?

 

Our next 2 cruises on Royal are both on Jewel. lets hope our experiences are as good as yours was on Jewel.

 

Thanks for your honest  recent review of your cruise onboard Serenade.

[orville99]

8 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Wait what! The shrimp boat captain was insane, I could never figure out why they would take on a cruise ship….But  I didn’t know about the jumper on the return! Did they jump? 
were you up at that hour?

According to news reports, he parked his car and jumped off the Skyway bridge several hours earlier in the night and was being swept out to sea. We we were out on our balcony waiting to go under the bridge when we passed by him. He was screaming for help as we went by. The bridge turned on the ship’s spotlights, but I guess we were going too fast and were too close to the Skyway bridge to stop. Apparently the bridge notified the CG, because news reports said the rescued him about a half hour after we went by him.

[orville99]

27 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I don’t want to be negative here, but compared to the 10 other cruises we’ve done since restart, including 2 TAs, the negatives on this ship stood out. Royal seemed to be starting to look cheap. for example No ice tea, only 2 butters at dinner, things like that…These may seem trivial in print, but when you add them up, every day over and over it’s noticeable. And when you include that the MDR food was not good at all, which had nothing to do with the revised menus, we’re happy that Royal has many other ships that we can choose from.  We were on Jewel for NYE and it was wonderful. We’ll be on Brilliance in a week and I’m sure it will also be wonderful. And yes, we’ve been on Serenade before and loved it. The the crew was friendly, the entertainment was great, Giovannis was delicious, we made lots of friends on this cruise. But it just wasn’t the Royal  we’ve been used to. But in summary:

 

*Bar tables were dirtier than usual, didn’t see many bar servers, so they didn’t get cleaned

*Didn’t see many bar servers overall, so bars were more crowded hard to order drinks 

*WJ tables weren’t getting cleaned between uses. Not enough crew it seemed

*WJ tongs were being used for multiple items by guests, potential allergy issues, plus gross

*Many guests entered MDR and WJ without cleaning their hands.  No one was there.

*The glass on our balcony was filthy throughout the cruise. I asked guest services, they said they only clean them on Thursdays. I reminded them that it was Thursday and we were in port with Celebrity Beyond and they were getting cleaned. 

*It was very hard to find ice when WJ was closed, the Solarium ice machine wasn’t working.

*MDR food was not good at all. A  few nights we went to WJ to eat after picking at our plate. 

*MDR servers seemed very new and based on food we were served, the cooks must be too.

 

Again, these may sound trivial, but when added up it was noticeable. We pay thousands for the privilege of cruising. Royal is not an inexpensive cruise line. We love cruising Royal and will continue cruising Royal

 

 

 

 

Pretty much matches our experience as well although we must have gotten the one stateroom attendant who didn’t get the “Thursday” memo, because she washed the balcony windows whenever they got coated in salt (like the day we were headed to Cartagena).

 

BTW, found the iced tea on day 5…you had to get it from the service bar on the right side as you entered the WJ.

Edited March 7, 2023 by orville99

[cruiselvr04]

Sadly the reduced butter on the table and quality of food is not exclusive to the ship you were on.  We experienced this on Allure too.  DH had to repeatedly ask each night for more butter. The waiters have been told to limit the butter FYI. 
 

 Allures windows were so dirty in the the DL it was hard to enjoy the view and our glass balcony was hazy all week. I usually don’t notice these things so it had to be bad.  
 

I’m sure the world cruise will be a step above.  People will have invested a lot of time and money and Royal will want them to be happy.  

[lovesthebeach2]

4 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Pretty much matches our experience as well although we must have gotten the one stateroom attendant who didn’t get the “Thursday” memo, because she washed the balcony windows whenever they got coated in salt (like the day we were headed to Cartagena).

 

BTW, found the iced tea on day 5…you had to get it from the service bar on the right side as you entered the WJ.

What time were you up to see us cross the bridge when we came back? We’ll be on Brilliance next week and since it’s too bright when we leave to get the full effect of the bridge, I will stay up to see it on the return.

we did finally see brown water in the WJ, but it had zero taste sadly. I think the entire kitchen staff was new. Really bad food served to us this cruise. Maybe our server being new he wasn’t aggressive in the kitchen when choosing our dinners? I don’t know, I stressed to him every night to make sure not overcooked, and no salt. That didn’t seem too much to ask, but apparently it was for him. 
one night the sole was so salty, the maitre dee came over because a few of us sent it back, so I asked him, who’s watching what comes out of the kitchen…..then we left for the WJ. This is the first cruise ever that I gave a better review for WJ than MDR on my survey. And we have never eaten dinner in the WJ prior to this cruise. We don’t go out to eat much, so I appreciate getting table service.

[lovesthebeach2]

5 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Sadly the reduced butter on the table and quality of food is not exclusive to the ship you were on.  We experienced this on Allure too.  DH had to repeatedly ask each night for more butter. The waiters have been told to limit the butter FYI. 
 

 Allures windows were so dirty in the the DL it was hard to enjoy the view and our glass balcony was hazy all week. I usually don’t notice these things so it had to be bad.  
 

I’m sure the world cruise will be a step above.  People will have invested a lot of time and money and Royal will want them to be happy.  

I’m sad to see this as a trend for Royal. They were a higher class cruise line to me and to see them getting cheap is sad.  I hope Royal steps up for the World Cruise……but then again, we ALL deserve a step above don’t we.

We’re paying higher prices and getting less quality. That’s not a good combination….