Boston to Bermuda Cruise cut too short

Item: Serenade of the Seas
Rating: 3.7
Author: katumana

Serenade of the Seas Cruise Review to Bermuda

katumana

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 52

Overall rating:

3.7 out of 5

Verified Review

5 Night Bermuda (Boston Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 10, 2019

Ship: Serenade of the Seas

Cabin number: 8556

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Our 5-day cruise from Boston to Bermuda was cut short by 1 day due to the ship coming into port late. I understand that weather related issues happen, but it would’ve been nice if the cruise dates were shifted out by 1 day instead of shortened as that really limited our time on the island and overall experience. I expect that did not occur because it would impact the cruise after ours, but I believe that was a 7-day cruise so shortening that to 6 days vs ours to 4 wouldn’t have reduced their overall time like ours.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Very easy and quick

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Dining & food was great, but the wait for drinks at the bars were too long

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Pool, mini-golf and ping pong we’re good. The rock wall was never open when we attempted to go.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

average entertainment, good but not anything to write home about

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Room steward and wait staff at restaurants were great

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

I had booked a connecting ocean view balcony room with a couple we were traveling with in the adjacent room. On all deck plans it appeared as though the balcony also connected and could be open between the two cabins but to our disappointment this was not the case. I explicitly asked if the balcony connected before I booked this cabin level as that was a primary factor in paying a premium price so again this was a disappointment to all 4 people traveling in our group.And in talking to the room steward on other boats the balconies do connect so it should be extra clear on deck plans that this is NOT the case for the Serenade so customer expectations are set correctly.

Ship tip

Expect lengthy wait times at both pool bars. the extremely slow service at both the pool bars on the Serenade. We waited 10+ minutes each time we tried to get a drink! This occurred even when it wasn’t peak time in this area, the bars were just understaffed and service extremely slow. At some points we actually ended up going down to Deck 4/5 to get a drink and bring it back up to our pool chairs as that was actually quicker.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Boston, Massachusetts

5 out of 5

King's Wharf, Bermuda

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

The de-embarkation in Boston was a nightmare. We were the first group to congregate in the auditorium with plans to leave at 8:15 am since we were carrying our bags off, but due to delays in clearance we didn’t start lining up to until close to 9. Again I understand that these things happen, but what would have been best is for announcements to have been made so that groups leaving after us (9:15) were made aware of the delays and told not to come to the auditorium until a later time. This did NOT occur and ended up with complete chaos as people from the auditorium were trying to leave with others coming from the hallways cutting in and lines being extended all throughout the boat corridors. All in all we had entered the auditorium at 7:45 am expecting to de-embark at 8:15 but did not get cleared until 9 am at which point the next group started appearing which further delayed the lines such that we did not get off the boat until ~10, which was 2+ hours of waiting. The extra delay could’ve been avoided with better contingency planning and communication in case of delays which I expect is not uncommon.

2 Comments

wgammon1 3 years ago

Glad you had a good cruise. Thanks for the great review.

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CruiseQueenNH 5 years ago

Agree with the debark as I was in the first group. I got there at 8 or so and didn't leave until about 9.

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