Great itinerary, horrible dining room experience
Serenade of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 19
10 Night Western Caribbean & Panama (Tampa Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 22, 2023
Ship: Serenade of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 9230
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
It was a wonderful cruise, but if I’m being honest, the service level has dropped. The dining room experience, what was once stellar, was horrible. It was as if the chefs were brought in from the local nursing home. The food was either tasteless or salty to the point of making it inedible. The service in the dining room is equally poor (unless you are a Pinnacle member). I had a much better experience dining in The Windjammer. Also, they need to update the jokes and games that the Cruise Director and Staff run. I’ve been listening to the same lines, jokes and questions for decades. This includes The Quest - which also needs to be refreshed and updated. Everyone knows the questions and comes prepared. The itinerary and the ports of call were all awesome. As always, Royal Caribbean’s shore excursions are top notch. The Embera Village excursion in Panama was one of the best I’ve ever experienced in my life. The Royal Caribbean Singers & Dancers are phenomenal. It is amazing that they are able to achieve such stellar show quality on a moving ship! You can really tell how dedicated the performers and musicians are. The shows are so enjoyable! And I’ve never seen the same show twice - I really appreciate that.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The main dining room was awful. The food was either tasteless or so salty that it was inedible. The new menu has potential, but the actual food doesn’t come close to the descriptions. For example - the crispy corn cakes on Mexican night were cold, mushy, floppy and tasteless. The service was equally bad. We were a table of three, and it took hours to get through dinner. One night there was a hair in my dessert, and another night he brought us all the wrong desserts. The head waiter just made excuses when we told him we weren’t coming back for the remainder of our cruise. I’m still waiting for our invitation to Chops or Giovanni’s Table.
The food in The Windjammer is better, but there are still major issues. The people working the pasta bar had no idea what they were doing. The sauces were bland and the spaghetti had been broken into little pieces as if for a child. Also, on Caribbean Night there was supposed to be curry goat. I asked the Windjammer Manager where it was, and he told me he’d go check. Then he disappeared into the back and hid from me the rest of the night. The staff in The Windjammer, however, is superb. It is a much more pleasant and relaxed dining experience.
Onboard Activities
Royal needs to refresh their activities. They’ve been doing that stupid Tarzan thing for the couples gameshow for decades. The biggest issue on this cruise was the cruise director. She gave us the wrong departure time for Cozumel, and she told us that it was required for us to bring our actual passports into Panama, which was false.
Entertainment
The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers are phenomenal. It is obvious that those performers work so very hard - they are incredible! And the stage/sets are top notch!
Service and Staff
The waiter in the dining room was terrible. The waitstaff and greeters in the Windjammer were fantastic! The Windjammer Manager was poor. Our room steward was not very good - we kept running out of tissues and toilet paper, and it took days to get the right amount of towels. Guest Services wasn’t very helpful. When we went to see them about canceling our MyTime Dining for the rest of the cruise, he wouldn’t do it. We had to ask the Concierge in the Diamond Lounge to do it.
Ship Quality
The public bathrooms were often unkept and smelly. Also, it seemed like there was always leftover food outside of my stateroom, and not mine either.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was nice, but the shower door fell off while someone was in the shower. The ship just needs to be overhauled and updated. I did like all of the storage options.
Ship tip
Skip the dining room altogether.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Cartegena was beautiful, but because it was a Sunday, nearly everything was closed. We did the hop on-hop off.
Panama was beautiful! I loved everything about this port. We did the Embera Village tour, and it was fantastic… probably one of the best shore excursions I’ve ever experienced.
We did a hike through the rainforest and saw monkeys and sloths. Our guide was awesome! He took us to some cool spots, and he was very knowledgeable.
Disembarkation
Super smooth!
6 Comments
Dntlgal 1 year ago
We just returned from the same cruise. I agree about the food not as good as it's been...too salty. Lunch in the Windjammer was the same everyday..so boring. We were on the Serenade in December and it was very good with the old menu. The new menus in the dining rooms and even the specialty restaurants weren't good. The one cabin cleaning a day creates wet towels on the floor in the bathroom for up to 23 hours. If you hang them up they don't charge them. Dirty dishes in the hallways because they aren't being taken away with only the 1 cleaning. Dirty towels maybe next that people put out there. With Norovirus on the increase along with COVID still active, cleaning the cabins 2 x a day is a must. I don't need my bed turned down but I want my bathroom cleaned, dirty towels removed, fresh towels replaced, and ice in my ice bucket, and room service food removed. There isn't much room in the cabins for all that to be in the way, plus the towels on the floor can cause falls especially at night when it's dark. Cabins with 3-4 people would really have a hard time..