Not as great an experience as expected

Serenade of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 97

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Serenade of the Seas

10 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 26, 2016

Ship: Serenade of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 4040

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The Serenade of the Seas was an older ship but was very clean and in good repair.  But there seemed to be a shortage of staff in the buffet dining on the 11th deck of the ship.  We would be sitting with empty plates not taken away as soon as they usually do that.  And you didn't see many wait staff helping out.  The food in the buffet was okay but I wasn't happy with many of the selections.  I would have a salad each day for lunch as not much else appealed to me.  The food in the dining room was so-so.  It used to be excellent on our other sailings years ago and it made my cruise on Norwegian that I took in November 2015 seem so much better.  I am used to RCCL being much better than Norwegian.  The wait staff in the dining room were excellent, and we had my time dining with a group of 22 and they always had our wine and drinks there when we arrived for dinner.  But we did have some problems getting out tables near each other and some nights we didn't have enough seats for all 22.  We had our time set up for 6:15 every night so they should have had us set up for that time.  They kept shifting us from one area to another.  After the third or fourth night we were set up in the same area.  The entertainment was not very good.  The RCCL singers and dancers show was very good and the comedian was great also.  But the other shows were not up to the level of entertainment as we were used to on this cruise line.  The Centrum was a small area and they held some shows there but it was almost impossible to see anything because of the crowds in such a small area.  The entertainment in the small lounges was very good.

Overall, this cruise was fun as we were with such a large group, but it made me want to try other lines for our next cruise.  The cabins were very clean and the stewards were very good also.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Cabin was clean and the location was great!! The steward was great also.

Ship tip

The gym was very good and the equipment easy to use.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

3 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

5 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

3 out of 5

Fort-De-France, Martinique

1 out of 5

St. John's, Antigua

3 out of 5

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

5 out of 5
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2 Comments

jilesgulf    8 years ago

Maybe try a larger class that RCCL has to offer?

petersen    8 years ago

We had a nice time on Seranade last year, service in Windjammer was fine, no complains about entertainment, centrum shows were good, we often watched the shows from the deck above by the Vintage bar. Our Cruise was the North Cape from Copenhagen.

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