Advertisement
Published: October 28th 2010
Edit Blog Post
This was my 7th cruise, so I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of first time cruiser details! Feel free to ask questions!
(For those new to cruising: you can't beat the price of a cruise! It's all inclusive on the food and entertainment. Alcohol and Sodas are extra. You can get off the boat at the stops (free) or arrange for paid excursions (usually $30-$100 a person))
This entry will cover life on the boat. Check out the other posts for each destination along the way!
Oct 16 - San Juan Puerto Rico (total of 3 days before/after cruise)
Oct 19 - Curacao
Oct 20 - Aruba
Oct 22 - Dominica
Oct 23 - St. Thomas / St. Johns
The ship is beautiful. 13 stories including a cinema with stadium seating, rock climbing wall, indoor adult pool oasis, 9 holes of putt putt, multiple dining rooms, conference center, casino, and Vortex dance club.
Because it departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico there was an abundance of Spanish on board. Much more than we were expecting. As a result there was a majority of salsa music. It is something that we will keep in mind for the
future when determining departure ports. Even Karaoke ended up being bilingual. As the cruise continued, they did start to split some of the activities by language - they ran the Love and Marriage game in different rooms based on English or Spanish.
In the casino, we broke even. This is great considering I finally understand craps! I enjoy this game. I also did well with blackjack but will never again put money on red! (No luck on roulette.) Oddly, it was next to impossible to get a Texas Hold 'em table going. They said it had been like that for several cruises now. We sat for 10+ minutes trying to get other players there to start a game, but no takers.
The Serenade has a great adult pool area called the Solarium. It's like an oasis in a green house setting. It's lush and the loungers have red cushions. Bird sounds play over the speakers and it's relaxing in there and they had crepes made to order! There were 2 other pool options: one all ages with shallow sitting areas on the side and another for kids with a slide. The general pool was drained for a volleyball
tournament Jason played in. It was crew versus passenger. Jason's team, team 3, was just shy of winning, but wore the crew down enough so that team 6 beat them for the first time in 3 1/2 months!
One of the nights there was a Disco dance party that was a lot of fun. It was hilarious when the staff came out dressed up for YMCA. They threw out friendship bracelets, and even rained balloons down on us from the top level of the centrum. This night really helped make up for the music disparity. Any other night you would find a Latin dance party in the centrum. There was only one other dance area on the ship, that was the Vortex dance club (Mix of Latin and top 40). From time to time you could also find dancing on the pool deck.
Honestly, some of the entertainment shows were lacking. As a dancer, I totally appreciate the hard work that goes into the choreography so the responsibility I think falls more with the choreographer, but the shows needed more crowd interaction and props/set work. We saw a comedy imagination magic show was was corny but fun, and
Beatle Mania also performed. Beatle Mania was a bit before my time, the older crowd LOVED it. They were dancing in their seats and the band looked believable. At the end of the show, people were dancing at the front of the stage.
Lastly, the rooms on this ship were great. Our base rate inside room even had a small loveseat seating area and the decor was the best I've seen. There was smart storage too. We were in room 4561 which is the closest room to the centrum. You can’t beat the location and accessibility. We were able to walk right across to the shore excursion desk, a few feet more for dancing, and a little further for our assigned dining.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.193s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 30; qc: 118; dbt: 0.104s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
omcj1234
non-member comment
Great Deal
Cruises are great but I have to say I still prefer vacation rentals when traveling. They're cheaper than hotels and really great for exploring new places.