Serenade of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,675 reviews

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Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Serenade of the Seas
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ntw516
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

Rating by category

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Value for Money
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Additional details

Sail Date: Dec 2017
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony
Traveled with children

Embarkation was smooth and the rooms were ready by 1:00PM, which for a ship that started check-in at noon was nice to not have to worry about a packed Windjammer deep into the lunch hours. The ship was as I remembered it during a past 16 day Transatlantic, still clean, pleasant staff, quiet areas to hang out, and decent sized fitness facility for the number of passengers. The ports of call was the reason for being drawn to this cruise, and other than the ports having the 20-minute Florida style rain storm things it was enjoyable to be ashore and enjoy the culture. Only port that seemed more pushy was Granada where taxi drivers were stopping you in the streets trying to do island tours, and on once occasion more than once. Dinning was decent, but the portion sizes seemed to have been cut in half from past sailings, as well as new menus have been pushed out which have reduced the number of soufflés, and dinner seems more rushed now with service being like lunch where you order three courses at once instead of just the starter and entree at the beginning, and then dessert after everyone has finished their main course. The benefit is you can determine if you want to save room for dessert, the drawback is how rushed you are in the meal. This was the first cruise I have been on that I didn't attend any of the shows so I cannot vouch for the quality of the entertainment. The one enjoyable thing on the Serenade at the Windjammer is in the evenings there is a specialty corner where you can try a large variety of ethnic foods. We also had the pleasure of having the Head Chef from Trinidad & Tobago, and the Sous Chef from Jamaica which for one table made Caribbean food. We asked our Head Waiter to try what they were dining on multiple evenings and the meal was delicious. Plates of Jerk Chicken, Rice & Peas, and fried plantains graced us and was probably better than any of the planned menus, other than the New Years Eve dinner.

The only issues/complaints from the cruise were that after paying the holiday prices of the cruise, there were extra charges to celebrate the New Years, ranging from $50-150 per person depending on the desired venue, with the requirement to purchase a champagne package in addition. Otherwise due to the rain our tour in Granada was cancelled making for for the issue with having to deal with the island tour groups. And as a note for St. Kitts, if you port outside of the shopping area port, ask about the free shuttle to the shopping area/town, which was not announced until 11:00 a.m. for us, which I had a tour at 12:00 p.m. which prohibited the use of at the time of announcement. For this service there was not a sign or information on the pier to identify this was an option.

Kids wise, the kids camp was enjoyable and Adventure Ocean is good sized. Even during the holidays we did not have an issue with the space being over occupied and not being able to send our younger child when she wanted to partake in the activities. As for the Teen Zone it is a bit small for the size of the ship and seems to be lacking activities for the kids. On many times dropping off the younger kids, the teens who were present were just sitting not doing anything. This may have something to do with the age as well, but also seemed not to be very organized, and the space did seem smaller compared to other teen areas on other ships. They did enjoy the shore excursions we went on, regardless of how cranky the teenager may have seemed, there were many laughs and memories made.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Cabin E1

Clean room with room for 4 (normal queen bed, pullout sofa, and pullman). The only drawback is it is the deck right above the Safari Club so you can hear all the noise from there in the evenings.

Port Reviews

St. George's

Tour we tried was cancelled, the town is filled with taxi drivers trying to sell island tours. They even will stop you when walking around town. Very push and makes the area unenjoyable.

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