Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas: March 6-13, 2010: 7 Night Cruise
Made cruise arrangements through Bonnie Buchanan, who did her usual fine job. We received a free upgrade to Junior Suite from RC which was great. I called about 13 days before the cruise to order my special amenity which you get as Diamond Plus. I talked to a very nice young woman (Amy) and had a nice chat with her about what to get. We got the beach towel . According to Amy, they get a list of possible upgrades for Diamond Plus about 12-14 days before cruise. She said she could not promise anything but I got the idea that she thought we were on list for possible upgrade. The Junior Suites on Serenade are really nice we really do not use or need any more space not that I do not like it if we get it. The JS on Serenade (and I guess all Radiance class) has a great walk-in closet. Lots of storage space. It was great getting free upgrade to JS. We have been on Radiance and Jewel, so layout of Serenade was very familiar to me I would say us but someone claimed to remain confused by the layout. In general, this is our favorite class ship although we really like the Ice Shows on the Voyager and Freedom classes. Still not sure about sailing on Oasis or Allure.
This was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean as Diamond Plus. We had 25 cruise credits before this cruise; we have 27 after this cruise. Diamond Plus is nice one of the best things is entry into Concierge Lounge where you get help of concierge if you want it and free drinks between 5 and 8:30. Gershwin was a fine concierge and Angelita and Giarmo were great bartenders in the Concierge Lounge. I gave all three a nice tip at end of cruise. I hung out there many of the evenings either before or after dinner . In addition to the free drinks, we met some great people in the lounge.
Flew down to San Juan on March 4, 2010 on Delta through Atlanta uneventful flights. Stayed at Intercontinental Isle Verde got good price on priceline. They add on taxes and resort fee to bring it up some, but still good deal. The woman at check-in was one of the sourest personalities I have run across in San Juan and refused any of my efforts to engage in idle chatter hey, I may be a jerk, but I am a paying customer and deserve to have the staff act like my clever remarks are appreciated - others at hotel were fine. It is a beautiful property and seems to be well run. We like the location of Caribe Hilton better, but as far as the property itself, we definitely like Intercontinental better.
Thursday afternoon involved some actual work for me and the wife enjoyed the resort. On Thursday evening, I learned that we would be renting a car and driving to Ponce on Friday I often learn things like this last minute. I had not thought we would be renting a car and had not brought our portable GPS and I had not done any research whatever on Ponce either how to get there or what was there. I did remember that Charlie Car Rental was a well regarded local outfit and it turned out that their office was just a couple blocks from the Intercontinental. So, the wife called Charlie and lined up a car a Brio which was a total of $60 for day, including insurance and a GPS rental. I highly recommend Charlie Car Rental. We first went to the beach next to the city. We had thought of getting a ferry to an island offshore, but it turned out that it ran only on the weekends. Had a little trouble finding the old city area of Ponce because it was farther from the water than we expected. The GPS liked telling me to turn the wrong way down one way streets in the old city part of Ponce and the entire driving experience was interesting. I apologize to Boston for having repeatedly stated that it has the worst drivers in the USA Puerto Rico has Boston beat easily. Friday night, we ate at a neighborhood restaurant across the street from the Intercontinental - Mi Casita where we have eaten before and is very good.
On Saturday, we just relaxed at hotel using beach and pool, checking out at Noon and then heading to ship. We were able to check in and board almost immediately on arrival at pier. Royal Caribbean has the Pan American Pier in the new San Juan area which is not as nice as being in the old San Juan area where you can walk right into the old city. From the Royal Caribbean/Celebrity pier, you have to take a taxi. After lunch in the Windjammer and checking out room, we got a taxi back into town. The taxi dropped us at the fort San Cristobal and we looked around there. The weather was rainy and (for the Caribbean) cold in San Juan on this Saturday and this lousy weather continued into the cruise days. I had a hooded jacket and umbrella and the wife bought a rain poncho to wear. We walked around the old city and saw all the usual sites. If the weather had been better, we might have had dinner in the city, but we headed back to ship and had dinner on board. We skipped Welcome Aboard show.
Sunday in St. Thomas. I had booked a private sail/snorkel excursion with Island Girl a monohull boat anchored in Charlotte Amalie harbor which saves the taxi ride to Red Hook from where most of the daysails depart. Weather was lousy, however, and Mike canceled - I did not dispute need to cancel when we chatted on phone it was raining hard and pretty bad conditions for small boats. We took taxi to Coral World at Coki point and despite the weather (it improved somewhat during the morning) enjoyed the exhibits at Coral World and some snorkeling off Coki beach. The visibility was surprisingly good in water and we actually had a decent time in the water. We did not want to get out of the water because the air was colder than the water. We got a $4 off pp coupon from taxi driver ( information center in Havensight had only $3 off pp coupon) and we paid $15 pp (after using coupon) to get into Coral World. We got two lockers at $3 each to leave our stuff while walking around Coral World and then going over to the beach for snorkeling. We got taxi back to town, walked around a bit, walking up to Blackbeards Tower, which was closed; and we got lunch at a sandwich shop on the main street. This Sunday, we went to the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle which was well done. Dennis Charles, the Cruise Director, came to the event and also arranged for free drinks best Meet and Mingle we have attended. We got another two lanyards for coming (as does everyone) and I won a RC coffee mug in the raffle. We have had Dennis Charles before, but I cannot remember when or which ship. He is a very energetic, very passenger involved Cruise Director certainly, one of best we have seen. (Dennis this is not cruise critic but you are getting your internet post!)
Monday in St. Croix. My great-great grandmother was born in St. Croix (her parents had come to St. Croix from Denmark) and I wanted to find the family house (what was left if anything), the church in which she was married in 1855, and some other family connected things. The ruins of her fathers house were on the edge of the parking lot at which the shuttle buses from Fredericksted (the west-end port) park in Christiansted. Similar houses are still standing, so I got a good idea of what the house would have looked like in the 1820s into the 1960s. I know that as late as 1968 it still was basically intact although very run down. It was just the shell of the front of house in 1994 when a cousin from California visited and took a picture which I have seen (although until this trip, I was not convinced he had found right lot). We visited the church and talked to folks there, but they have no archives partly because of someone not taking care of them and partly because of Hugo in 1989. That was disappointing. We spent good part of day looking around Christiansted and checking on family history I enjoyed it very much and the wife put up with my interest in it. We visited Government House, which is a current government building, but the security guy let us come in and wander through public areas very nice guy and he even acted interested in my family history. My great-great-great grandfather almost certainly worked in the same building and he would have attended the opening of the ball room (small version of hall of mirrors in Versailles) which was opened on January 1, 1833. OK look, this is interesting to me. That ancestor was actually born in Norway during the time of the unified kingdom but he went to law school in Copenhagen and St. Croix was considered part of Denmark the old records are in Danish. Later, on board, we met a family group from Norway, who lived not far from Christiansand in Kier where my ancestor was born and they explained some of political history to me. One of Norwegians was former ships officer on RC who had left to go into oil business with uncle very nice folks. No snorkeling today, but good day. We had lunch at a waterfront hamburger joint which was good.
Tuesday in St. Kitts. This day we did two excursions: in the morning, we did the Scenic Railroad, which is an old sugar cane railroad that carried cane from the plantations to a central processing plant starting in 1912. Very interesting. The weather was lousy in morning, but visibility was not too badly affected. We first rode the train for 18 miles around island and then took a bus for another 12 miles to complete a circular route around the main part of the island. Good tour guides on train and on bus. In afternoon, we did a snorkel excursion, which was well done. Both excursions were RC excursions but both were of type that you cannot necessarily do better as privates. I generally favor doing private excursions, but for a variety of reasons, I never got this trip as organized as usual and it was one of those trips when we normally were deciding what to do the next day every evening. The only private excursion that I lined up in advance was Island Girl on St. Thomas.
Wednesday in Dominica. We again just wanted to do Champagne Reef for snorkeling. We paid $60 for tour which for us was just round trip taxi trip at least this time we knew to expect this. As we had last time, we just set a time to have taxi driver pick us up and told him that he definitely did not have to stay with us- which technically they are supposed to because it is a tour. This was first day we had good weather and the weather and snorkeling at Champagne was great. Excellent conditions, not many people there, a great time. Only problem with Champagne is that entry and exit are very difficult because it is a very rocky beach no sand to speak of and there is a bit of surf. The snorkeling is worth it. After Champagne, we had lunch at a nice place in town recommended by our taxi driver. We walked around town after lunch went to the old Catholic church and the local museum. Not a whole lot to see.
Thursday in Barbados. Took a ship excursion Tiami Five Star Catamaran, I think was name which was nice but not that good a value at $99 pp, partly because they packed a lot of people on boat. Lunch on board was well done. A nice excursion, but kind of the cattle car type of approach. They announced 40 minutes in water for stop at good reef off Folkstone, but then wanted everybody back in when it was shy of 30 minutes. I got yelled at several times for not staying with group but if you stayed with group, you could not really see what there was to see I felt bad for some of people who were not as experienced and never saw too much. They also asked people not to use fins made things tougher, of course. I got a little annoyed with crew on this first stop I understand that almost every boat doing this type of excursion never gives you as much time at stop as they advertise, but these guys really misstated time and I do not like that I am wearing a watch and always note the scheduled departure time when they give pre-snorkel brief and, contrary to the apparent belief of this crew, I can tell time. Turtle stop was better we were not as rushed and everyone got to see some big turtles up close and personal you also did not need to cover much ground as turtles came to boat which made lack of fins easier to take. We wandered around shops at pier after return from snorkel trip.
Friday at Sea. I would have tried thermal suite this day but it had sold out on first or second day very popular and if you are interested in this on Radiance class, you need to sign up first thing first day. Thermal suite has sauna, steam room, and other stuff which you can do with your spouse or significant other of differing gender. The locker rooms have sauna and steam, but you cannot use them together and they have no extras like the thermal suites also the thermal suites have windows and you can look out at the port or the water while there. Very popular. Fitness center (gym) and locker room were not used by many other people when I was there on this cruise. One thing that annoyed me was that they did not open locker rooms in spa until 8 am, although gym was open at 6. This stopped what has been a normal routine for me on ships of working out early in gym, showering and changing in locker room, getting breakfast, and being ready to get off ship by 8 or 8:30.
Saturday back in San Juan. We did the luggage valet thing paying RC $20 to take care of the luggage with Delta at the pier and get us our boarding passes, so that we just dropped off luggage (or actually we had a porter handle luggage) at pier after clearing customs and were all set for airport. I think it $20 well spent. We took the Bacardi Rum tour, which turned out great and a great value at $29 pp. (Great value if you did not already have transfers to airport which we never get ahead of time from RC). We were on bus just before 8:30 and bus driver asked if we wanted to tour old San Juan since Bacardi did not open until 9, in any event. Everyone of course said yes and he drove us through city, giving a great commentary very knowledgeable, very informative. I gave this guy a nice tip and told him I would put his name on Interest as best tour guide we have had in San Juan in 20 years he is Charles Falicianis (unfortunately, he had no card, I had no pen, and I may be remembering his last name completely wrong oh well) driving Bus 12 on March 13, 2010. (2 or 3 of you reading this have read my cruise trip reports for past 20 years or so used to be on Prodigy, but you will not be able to remember well enough to note that Charles is finally surpassing the record of Andy Jiminez who was a bus driver from airport to pier in San Juan many years ago when we still were getting cruiseline transfers and Andy actually gave a nice tour on way to pier).
Food and service in main dining room was very good. As usual, the production shows on board were very good. We did not think much of one of the comics Ralph Achilles he seemed tired and kind of off stride when we saw him one show. He apparently was better at the Welcome Aboard Show, but we were not impressed. Paul Demunzio (sp.?) is a great juggler, but needs to work on being a better entertainer, in our opinion. Glen Smith was OK and we enjoyed his show. John Joseph and Johnny B were a comedy team that we enjoyed clearly the best of the headliners on board this week. We did the Trivia events, but only won one trivia this week winning some more RC highlighters. It was fun and is always a good way to meet people. We did the backstage theater tour, which was open for all. As Diamond Plus, we were able to do a Galley Tour which was very well done, informative, and interesting. There were only 4 of us and it was conducted by the Executive Chef very impressive and we were very appreciative of his time. It turned out that the other couple taking the Galley Tour were in the restaurant design business, so there was much more discussion of a technical nature than usual. We would have done the Mystery Dinner in Portofino, but it was not offered this week because there was a new cast on board and they get the actors (not sure all but at least some) for the Mystery Dinner from the singers and dancers. We did not eat in either Portofino or Chops this cruise the wife did get the filet mignon in the dining room one night for the extra $14.95 and it was excellent. Met one guy who was sick, reported to the infirmary, and was quarantined in his room for a couple days. They seemed far more interested in ensuring that everyone used the sanitizer on this cruise than other cruises and maybe they were having a problem of some size however, I do not know the numbers.
Great cruise let me know if you have any questions about Serenade.
