Serenade of the Seas: Feb 12-19, 2011
Flew down to San Juan two days early on Thursday, February 10 – no problems with USAir. I had got us a room via Priceline from Marriott Stellaris for $312 total for the two nights which included taxes and resort fee. Very nice property on the Condado beach. They had a room ready for us when we got there about 3 pm. Very nice staff and we enjoyed the stay. This night, we ate dinner at Orozoco’s – a nice local restaurant just up Ashford from the Marriott.
Friday – used fitness center which was very well equipped – free water bottles for guests, nice touch. Then, walked to the marine park on the water behind the Normandie (closed and looking very sadly in poor condition) next to Caribe Hilton where they allegedly had decent snorkeling off a small beach on lagoon. Snorkeling was not much – some fish but they hung out around old breakwaters which were mostly jagged metal. It was about a mile to walk to the lagoon and a mile back to the Marriott. After walking back to the Marriott and changing, we took taxi to El Morro and walked around the fort – lower levels closed for work. Ate dinner this night at Latin Bistro on Calle Cristo, new place, nice people, decent food – they had been open about two months and had still not obtained their license to sell booze, yet. In the courtyard of an old house. Wished them the best. Walked around a little until getting cab back to Marriott.
Saturday. Hung out in fitness center and around pool for few hours until checking out and getting cab to ship. Porters at pier did not use any clever approach for tips – guy just said “how about a tip.” No creativity whatever – but he got his $5. As Diamond Plus, we were able to bypass a long line to get into terminal – and got through security quickly. Biggest delay was with seapass card machine taking the picture as they were only using one on the ship and not the multiple ones they usually use in terminal. Some kind of computer problem which showed up quickly for me as my seapass card did not work for our cabin when we first tried to get in. I had problems for the first few days getting things straight with my card and account, but it all got worked out.
Francoise Roux was a great Concierge and Bryan was a great bartender for the Concierge Lounge – the evening event was moved from the Concierge Lounge to the Hollywood lounge up on 13. I attached myself to two couples from Shreveport who I very much enjoyed chatting with most nights in the lounge – the wife generally did not make it to the lounge as early as I.
This cruise had 2122 pax and 849 crew for a total of 2,971 – saw the numbers on the board in the bridge during our bridge tour. As Diamond Plus, we get offered the Bridge, the Galley, and the Theater tours. We signed up for the Bridge and Galley tours, but Galley tour was offered when we were in port and we were off on an excursion.
There was a new ship’s company just on board and they had only one production show. Other days were headliners. We enjoyed “Spectrum” a Motown quartet that did a lot of the oldies – crowd loved it. Marc Walker was a good Cruise Director.
We did My Time Dining. First night we were seated in a heavy traffic area which was not the most comfortable. The wife arranged for us to move, which worked out fine. We were moved to an area with Ajay, Waiter, and Catherine, Assistant Waiter – both were excellent and we had excellent service from them. On Tuesday night we ate in Chops Grille, which was a really great meal with excellent service.
Sunday – Feb 13 – St Martin. Easy decision day. We were off the ship as quick as possible and got a cab to Orient. Got the $6 per person rate with a group of six. Dropped off behind Orange Fever where driver wanted to sign us up to get a referral fee (I would assume) and we just walked down beach to Club O – picked out our chairs. Relaxed a little but wanted to do the swim over to Green Cay before what’s his name was going to be ready to take our money, so I asked a guy next to us if he would give the beach boys our twenty and he (of course – this is Club O) readily agreed to handle it for us. Current was pretty heavy and we had a bit of exercise swimming over but great visibility and enjoyable snorkel. Lunch at Andy and Cheryl’s – good as always – Andy had made his lasagna, so that is what I had. Got a cab back to ship about 3:30 pm – still got the $6 per person even though there were only two of us because we let the driver wait some to get others – he could not get anyone else but cheerfully kept the deal to charge us only the $6 each – I gave him $15. He drove out through Orient Village and then drove out the hilltop entrance to Orient past Club Fantastico where there was a big FOR SALE sign on the fence in front. No shopping this trip as we spent the maximum time we could at Orient.
Monday – Feb 14 – Tortola. We had signed up for private charter with Tortola Charters for trip to Jost Van Dyke. Things were kind of disorganized throughout the day but we had a good time. The snorkeling off the beach was very good. We were not all that impressed with the Soggy Dollar bar and wound up having lunch and getting drinks at Gertrude’s up the beach. I liked Bob (ran Tortola Charters trip) but he was a little too laid back, perhaps. We wound up having to get the safari bus driver to do the race driver bit to get us back to ship a few minutes before we were supposed to be on board. Worked out fine but a little unnecessarily stressful. I would recommend him but with the qualification that you cannot be a worrier to go with them – at least not if our trip was representative.
Tuesday – Feb 15 – St. Kitts. Did a ship’s snorkel excursion with a local dive company (the name of which I cannot recall if I ever knew) and it was very nice. Excellent captain and hostess – they did everything they needed to do to give a good snorkel excursion.
Wednesday – Feb 16 – Dominica. Did a ship’s snorkel excursion again and it was good but not as nice as the one in St. Kitts. Went to Champagne Reef and another site down the coast. One of guides referred to the yellow tube coral (which actually was a yellow sponge) and that kind killed his credibility with us.
Thursday – Feb 17 – Barbados. Did a ship’s sightseeing excursion which was quite enjoyable.
Friday - Feb 18 - At Sea. Relaxing day on the ship.
Saturday – Feb 19 – Back to the Real World. We decided to get off later in the morning and not get off earlier with the Diamond/Diamond Plus group. Things were fine until we made it into the big room where the luggage was. The lines to get out were huge and things went very slowly. Not terrible but next time we either will leave early or wait even longer to get off. We had a 3:40 pm flight out so no rush to airport.
No problems on return flights – great cruise. Bonnie B, thanks for the OBC.
