KristiZ

I have. You should submit it. Your tax dollars are paying for testing coverage still. My policy is with BCBS, but they should all be paying you back for all/most out of pocket testing. They’re just hoping you don’t so they get to keep the funds they’re getting from the federal government.

Day 8 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica Oh, hey, a port day! I almost forgot what those are like Puntarenas is a tiny (tiny, tiny) town that pretty much exists to provide a berth for a cruise ship. This is literally the whole town: We chose this excursion: The bus was nice. The trip was about 2 hours each way, unfortunately. It was broken up with a photo op of an old church on the way up and a souvenir stand on the way back. This was our guide’s first tour in 20 months! They also opened the nature park just for us. Costa Rica has been hit hard by the lack of tourists. There were news crews filming as we got off the ship and everyone we met was so happy to see tourist again. The Costa Rican Minister or Tourism was even there, welcoming the ship! Reminded me once again how lucky we have been during this whole mess — both MisterZ and I have been fully employed the whole time. We had a nice hike in the cloud forest and saw interesting flora and fauna. Here are a few snaps: Full disclosure, MisterZ took the hummingbird pics with his good camera. We left port nearly an hour late, as one shore excursion ran into a delay and was late getting back. Fortunately they were a ship excursion and we also were going to be at sea the next day, so waiting wasn’t a problem.

We ended Day 8 at Chops. I have to say, I have not eaten at Chops since 2014 during an unfortunate trip on Legend. We had an ABYSMAL waiter and painful 3+ hour dinner with unimpressive food and swore off the venue. Fortunately Serenade has redeemed the brand. We had a great dinner with excellent service. MomMe declared it the best meal she had so far. (She was actually on the ill-fated Legend trip but had blocked out the memory of the Chops visit.) We had crab cake (more of a seafood cake and adequate), bacon (it’s actually pork belly, so don’t order it thinking it’s bacon), filet (excellent), spicy prawns (tasty but not spicy), asparagus (decent), mac’n cheese (fantastic), and mashed potatoes (excellent). The food at Chops is good, but the plating is uninspired so there are no photos until dessert. Key Lime pie and (in honor of @Sweety’s return to the blog) Red Velvet Cake: Kenneth is getting creative now:

Some fun facts we learned today from the Cruise Director: Serenade was the first ship to return to revenue service in Alaska after the shutdown. Serenade was the first ship to return to Costa Rica since the shutdown. Serenade will be the first revenue sailing of a cruise ship through the Panama Canal since the shutdown when we make the transit tomorrow!

I have to say, I disliked the Windjammer for breakfast too, P-C, but right now it’s quite lovely — fewer guests and no self-service is a win-win for me!

Casual: jeans, polo shirts, sundresses, and blouses. Shorts at breakfast and lunch. Resort Casual: jeans, polos, golf or Bermuda shorts, t-shirts, blouses, or sundresses. Smart Casual: collared shirts, dresses, skirts and blouses, pantsuits, and optional jackets, sport coats, or blazers.

The only difference is that Resort Casual allows shorts. I just looked it up here in the app on Serenade because I didn’t know the difference either!

More ship tour! The pool: Life vests for anyone who wants one in the pool. Not used much this trip — we have only 4 tiny humans (under 6) and two teens in the whole passenger count. Pool bar: Solarium:

Internet has been problematic the last two days. I had actually been pleasantly surprised at how good it was the first 5 days, but the second I asked MisterZ to run a speed test we started having trouble. Coincidence or no? You decide… We’ve also hit some thunderstorms. No increase in waves, particularly, but heavy cloud cover. (OK, the internet is probably not MisterZ’s fault!) The ship actually got struck by lightning at one point — super loud thunderclap for that one! No damage, since it happens to ships regularly and they have the physics all worked out. Hopefully I can catch up on the blogging now!

We had an Alpha Alpha Alpha call last night about 1230am. The Captain just informed us that the guest passed away from natural causes.

If the rate included breakfast, worth it. The buffet is normally $50+ on its own.

Yes. $1.99 per day and you must be in the same reservation or your reservations have to be linked for it to work.

On Serenade right now, if you try to log in an additional device more than your plan, you get a “you have reached your account limit” and it asks if you want to boot off another device or buy a bigger plan.

Day 7 - At Sea We should have been in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua today. I’m disappointed this stop was canceled! Nicaragua is a newer addition to the cruise ship routes, so not many have had the opportunity to stop here. The country is also very poor (eclipsed only by Haiti in the region) and could very much use the tourism dollars. Fortunately for you all, we live in Nicaragua right now so you’re going to get my Virtual Shore Excursion photos! San Juan del Sur (SJDS) is a small town very popular with the surf crowd. Serenade (or pretty much any cruise ship) would have tendered in, but the wide bay is very smooth and the process would have been painless. Walking distance from drop off are a number of great restaurants situated right on the beach, including this fun one: Towering over SJDS on a hill north of town is Nicaragua’s answer to the Cristo Redentor: Lots of small resorts up the lovely coast from SJDS, where you can rent a hammock or a shade for the day, and take a ride on the beach. A number of the shore excursions (or private tours) from SJDS will take you to Granada, a picturesque colonial town about 45 minutes inland. Spanish churches and colorful houses, with lots of artisans and restaurants. Adjacent to Granada is Mombacho Volcano. There is zip lining, hiking, and a working coffee plantation on the slopes of the mountain. A bit further inland is the town of Masaya, which has lovely lake and a volcano of its own. (Those are not clouds. Masaya is a very active volcano and you can sometimes see the lava in the caldera at night!) Nicaragua is a beautiful country and the people are welcoming and warm. If you get a chance to visit, take it!

Day 6 ended with Main Dining Room room service delivery, eaten on our balcony. I will mention that we are totally abusing the free room service we get in the GS — we order dinner and then call back to order dessert. That way the ice cream isn’t melted and the warm desserts are still warm We also sat outside in the Suite Lounge and enjoyed frosty adult beverages in the balmy evening air.

You need to go to a pharmacy or lab, rather than a doctor — the note that a doctor’s office provides (unless they have a lab partnership and send out the samples) does not meet the testing requirement.

Everyone should experience a Pan Pacific breakfast buffet at least once I their lives!!

Oh, me too! We’ll be there in June so I’m also interested in recommendations!

A quick trip to the Loyalty Desk got me the C&A stats for this cruise: 617 passengers - 105 Gold - 73 Platinum - 64 Emerald - 145 Diamond - 136 Diamond Plus - 33 Pinnacle So right about half of the passengers are Diamond an above, which is why they closed the Viking Crown full time. I think they’ve gotten some complaints though, because it sounded like that was a very temporary change. Here’s hoping!

Continuing our ship tour! The Shops of Centrum are on Deck 5. As you can see, it’s a much more compact experience than the bigger ships. There are no brand shops, although there are some branded goods like Guess, Citizen, Morimoto, etc. This is definitely a concept that Royal has expanded and improved over the years — fewer shore partnerships and more in-house selling. I intended to get more pictures of the casino (Deck 6), but it has been surprisingly busy and I do try to keep people’s faces out of my shots when I can. With all the sea days, there are lots of casino hours! Through the casino is the pub. It unfortunately feels a bit “stuck in at the end of the world” on Serenade. Too bad, as it’s a nice space. There’s also a real, if small, cinema tucked behind the pub. It’s fun to watch a movie in there, rather than the theater or your tiny cabin TV.

I would take the extra half bath over a walk in closet ANY DAY!

You and MisterZ both!

Me either. Hence my “they can’t possibly mean me!” attitude. Ha!

Day 6 - At Sea Remember that confusing letter about antigen testing we got early on? Turns out my best guess at what was intended was wrong. Fortunately MomMe read it differently and decided to go confirm her suspicions at Guest Services. Because our cruise is over 7 days, CDC requires mid-voyage testing of all passengers, not just unvaccinated. So while I was blithely ignoring the notices in the Cruise Compass, my mother was signing up for her test. In my defense, nothing said “mandatory” until Day 5. Anyway, we all got signed up, and none of our names got announced over the shipwide speaker as being on the Bad Kid List. Whew! Testing is on Day 6 and Day 7, and you pick a one hour window for your appointment. Here’s the card they give you: However, as Day 6 progressed, they realized that they could process people much faster than they thought they might. Announcements started with “anyone who has an appointment later today can come now and get it out of the way”, and by noon they were calling for any guests who wanted to come now and be done with it. We went down to the Safari Club and got swabbed. It was a very easy, not-at-all-deep nose swab that took 15 seconds total. I’m actually glad I didn’t realize this was mandatory before, since I would have had the nagging “what if we test positive???” thoughts. No fun!

There hasn’t been a ton of wildlife so far on the cruise, but we have seen sea lions (in Port of LA), dolphins (randomly on Day 2), iguanas (in PV), and Masked Boobies (every day, swirling around the ship and fishing in the wake). The dolphins were especially fun because it was a large pod with a number of very small babies. Super cute! Mostly they’re all too far away for photos, but here’s my attempt at the birds: