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Please tell me about Serenade of the seas


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We are considering changing our cruise from the Anthem of the seas 12 nights, to the Serenade of the seas 11 nights. I know nothing about the Serenade ship other than its a lot smaller and has less kids things than the anthem. Is it still a good ship? We have the 3 kids ( ages 10 , 5 and 3). Our cruise on anthem wasn't included in the kids sail free promo, and the serenade one is ( which would save us around 5k). I guess I just want to make sure im not making a mistake by switching....

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I spent 14 days on the Serenade last summer with a 10 year old and he had a good time. The ship is nice with lots of glass, a good selection of specialty restaurants, and one of the best Windjammers (buffet) in the fleet under the direction of Executive Chef Josef. One of the features I really like is the cinema onboard. 

My son enjoyed the kids clubs, the mini golf, and the sports court along with the pool, so I'm sure your kids will enjoy it, too. 

It will be easier to reassure you if you provide the itinerary, too. If I had the choice between the two for the same price, I'd pick Anthem as she's new and has all the extra features. But I've been in your boat (pun intended). We were booked on Anthem's sister ship and cancelled and booked Serenade's sister because it was half the price and had a much better itinerary. After 25 cruises for myself and 16 for my son, I've found, personally, that where the ship goes is more important than the ship itself. 

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Serenade is a great ship. The most important thing to know is that it lacks some of the "latest and greatest" features found on a ship like Anthem.  That's not to say you cannot have a wonderful cruise on her.

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11 hours ago, cjappert said:

perfect thank you! that gives me a better idea of what to expect! I went ahead and transferred our reservation to the serenade, in a family ocean view, so we'll see how it goes!

Let us know what you think about the ship. We'll be cruising on Serenade this Oct.

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7 hours ago, FManke said:

Let us know what you think about the ship. We'll be cruising on Serenade this Oct.

We are only sailing in January.. so you let me know what you think since you'll be going first! lol

 

4 hours ago, Joe01 said:

I would keep the Anthem, more to do and an extra day. Have you ever sailed a larger ship before?

The largest we have done is Freedom of the seas. This is only our second cruise with RCL, our others have all been with celebrity which are mid size ships

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8 hours ago, cjappert said:

We are only sailing in January.. so you let me know what you think since you'll be going first! lol

 

The largest we have done is Freedom of the seas. This is only our second cruise with RCL, our others have all been with celebrity which are mid size ships

We did Jewel as our first, but after several Indy cruises and one on Explorer, we became so used to the amenities on larger ships that we were a bit lukewarm on Serenade, and have since consigned ourselves to the Oasis Class (and Anthem last year).

So, my worry would be that the kids would miss a lot of the amenities on Freedom that they would be bored on Serenade. Another issue was that the Serenade staff and crew weren't as amazing as the ones on Jewel were, but don't take that too seriously, as it was 4 years ago.

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I think the smaller ship wool be fine,  especially with your oldest being 10.  Id say maybe (and its a maybe because my teen loved her first cruise on vision) go big if they were older teens used to every bell and whistle,  but for those savings you can do another cruise!  Have a great trip!  Jane

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2 hours ago, monctonguy said:

I wouldn't pay the extra $5000 for one day...I could book a lot of other cruises for that savings!

 

No brainer to me at all!

Agree completely, that's a whole 'nother cruise!! We did a 10 day on Serenade this past February out of FLL and thoroughly enjoyed the ship and the ports.

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On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 8:46 AM, cjappert said:

We are considering changing our cruise from the Anthem of the seas 12 nights, to the Serenade of the seas 11 nights. I know nothing about the Serenade ship other than its a lot smaller and has less kids things than the anthem. Is it still a good ship? We have the 3 kids ( ages 10 , 5 and 3). Our cruise on anthem wasn't included in the kids sail free promo, and the serenade one is ( which would save us around 5k). I guess I just want to make sure im not making a mistake by switching....

Have your kids cruised before?

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Just now, cjappert said:

 

Yes our kids cruised with us on the celebrity ships and on freedom of the seas.

Ok, I was wondering as to how much cruising experience they had. If they've been on a lot of cruises with a lot of "bells and whistles" it's hard to go back. If you know what I mean. When my son was about 10, we went to Dave N Buster's for the first time. And although he was perfectly happy with Chuck E Cheese's before, after that, there was no turning back. Your little ones, I think would be happy, to spend the whole day in the kids pool area, if they are anything like mine were, at that age.

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I suppose with kids of 10, 5 and 3, it makes less difference, but if we were talking teens or pre-teens, I would cancel the Serenade. However, the kids should like the kids pool and slide. Avoid the main pool if lots of kids are onboard.

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4 hours ago, FManke said:

Ok, I was wondering as to how much cruising experience they had. If they've been on a lot of cruises with a lot of "bells and whistles" it's hard to go back. If you know what I mean. When my son was about 10, we went to Dave N Buster's for the first time. And although he was perfectly happy with Chuck E Cheese's before, after that, there was no turning back. Your little ones, I think would be happy, to spend the whole day in the kids pool area, if they are anything like mine were, at that age.

I think they'll be fine, they thought the celebrity ships were amazing, and honestly they just wanna go to the playgroups 90% of the time lol

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3 hours ago, Joe01 said:

I suppose with kids of 10, 5 and 3, it makes less difference, but if we were talking teens or pre-teens, I would cancel the Serenade. However, the kids should like the kids pool and slide. Avoid the main pool if lots of kids are onboard.

Just curious, but do you think that given that the OP is saving $5,000 by going on the Serenade?  While I loved the Allure, I love cruising more and I couldn't argue that I the Allure provided $5,000 more worth of vacation even with everything that I loved about the ship.

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17 hours ago, DocLC said:

Just curious, but do you think that given that the OP is saving $5,000 by going on the Serenade?  While I loved the Allure, I love cruising more and I couldn't argue that I the Allure provided $5,000 more worth of vacation even with everything that I loved about the ship.

I do think OP is justified in saving $5k by going on Serenade, and I did mention that kids of 10, 5 and 3 should enjoy the kids slide and pool.

What I was saying was that if we were talking teens or kids older than 10, Serenade would be a bad choice as it would have very little activities. The main pool is too small, and there isn't much kid friendly amenities. As OP is not taking kids older than 10, I don't think doing Serenade would be an issue, but I do think people need to do their "homework" before actually booking a certain ship so that they know it would suit them. 

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1 hour ago, mworkman said:

When we sailed last year there were only 37 kids on board, low numbers for kids and this was a Thanksgiving cruise.  Could have it's pros and cons.

I'd say that's a really low number for a school holiday cruise, but I'm sure the ship has a lot to do with it. Like previous posts have mentioned, Serenade doesn't have all the bells and whistles of larger ships for kids. I'd be surprised if we have any kids on our Oct sailing on Serenade.

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@mworkman That is very odd for a holiday cruise especially on a Royal Caribbean ship. We sailed once where only 32 children (6 months - 18 years) were onboard, but this was on Holland-America which draws a more mature cruiser and the average age was likely 70 on our particularly sailing.

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On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 10:12 AM, mworkman said:

When we sailed last year there were only 37 kids on board, low numbers for kids and this was a Thanksgiving cruise.  Could have it's pros and cons.

oh jeez I wish!!! my kids only need a few friends to keep them busy, not 100s! lol. we're going during mid January, so hopefully there aren't TOO many kids!

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