Our Return to Cruising on Serenade of the Seas

Tampa

Our last cruise was in February 2020. And then COVID… I didn’t realize how much I would miss cruising. I missed getting on a ship and not worrying about anything for the next few days. I missed sitting on the balcony watching the waves. I missed the casinos, escargot at dinner and towel animals. I missed the color of the deep, blue water. I knew that with the COVID protocols, this cruise would be a bit different than cruises in the “before” days, but I was ready to give it a shot!

We got to the port at our 12:30 check-in time. Even with assigned check-in times and the ship at half capacity, it took a while to get through the line because the staff had to review everyone’s vaccination cards and COVID test results. But we were having lunch at one of the outdoor tables at the back of the Windjammer by 1:30. I remember loving those tables when we sailed on Jewel of the Seas, Serenade’s sister ship. Between the outdoor seating, the helipad, and the glass elevators facing the sea, there were plenty of ocean views.

While we were finishing up lunch, we heard the announcement that the cabins were ready. We’d booked cabin 8660, a balcony room on Deck 8. I guess it had been too long since our last cruise because I’d forgotten how small cruise ship cabins can be! Especially the bathroom. It had one of those showers with the circular glass doors that make you feel like you’re inside a bank drive-thru tube. I don’t know how Ron even turns around in those things. I took a few pictures of the cabin, and we were about to start unpacking when there was a knock on the door. It was a maintenance worker saying he was there to fix the leak. Leak? That’s when we noticed that the carpet was wet. A minute later, another man showed up to tell us that he was moving us to another cabin. We grabbed our luggage and followed him around the corridors until we got to our new room, 8066, which was exactly like the first one except it was on the port side. I was kind of hoping we’d get upgraded to something bigger, but at least I didn’t have to retake all my pictures. :-)

our first cabin, which looked just like our second one

Once we were settled in the cabin, we did our muster drill. This involved watching a couple of videos on the Royal Caribbean app and then checking in with a staff member at our muster station. We could complete the drill anytime during the afternoon, which was nice. The new procedure was so much better than having to line up on deck in the hot sun for half an hour, waiting for all the stragglers to show up. I hope it is something that will stick around after COVID.

Next, we headed up to the pool deck. Before the cruise, I’d joined a Facebook group for our sailing, and we’d planned an informal meet-and-greet at the pool bar. Quite a few of the group turned up and it was fun to meet some of the people I’d been chatting with for the past few weeks – Denise, Nancy and Pete, Norma and Ted, Eleni and Don, Kelly, Jill, Jeffrey, Roberta, Cheryl and Tappie. It turned out that Jill was staying in the Royal Suite and she generously offered to let us have a get-together in her suite later in the cruise. So nice!

main pool

Solarium pool

The Schooner Bar

By the time the group broke up, we were already leaving port. We passed Brilliance of the Seas in the channel, and some of the crew from Serenade were out on the promenade deck waiving to the crew on the other ship. Brilliance wasn’t sailing with passengers yet since her crew was still going through quarantine. When we got close to the Sunshine Skyway, Ron and I went up to the bow to watch. Sailing under the bridge is always amazing. The top of the ship passes under the span with just a few feet to spare. It was the first time we’d cruised out of Tampa since they added the LED lights, and the bridge looked beautiful with its piers lit up in blue. A local photographer had been taking stunning pictures of Serenade going under the bridge and I hoped he was taking one of us. (He was! Can you see us?)

photo by Robert Neff

As soon as the ship cleared the Skyway, we ran down to the dining room. There was a long line of people already waiting for tables, but the dining room staff got everyone seated quickly. Our wait team, Suprianto and Iwayan, kept the courses coming – a fruit plate to share, antipasti, escargot, jerk pork chop and blueberry cobbler. I love that Royal Caribbean has escargot on the menu every night. I planned to take full advantage.

On our way out of the dining room, we noticed that the ship had stopped. We went back to our cabin where we saw the pilot boat motoring in place. People in the cabins on either side of us were out on their balconies too, trying to figure out what was going on. Ron and I decided to go to Vintages for a drink, where we heard that there was a medical emergency, and a rescue boat was on the way. Again?? Serenade had only been sailing for a few weeks and already it had made medical emergency stops in Key West twice. Well, when we thought about the age demographic on the ship, it wasn't surprising. Ron and I are used to taking 3 or 4-day weekend cruises where the passengers tend to be younger. On Serenade, we felt like adolescents. Ron pulled up marinetraffic.com on his phone and we watched the blip of the rescue boat arrive and speed away, and then Serenade started moving again. We hoped that the person they had taken off the ship would be OK.

Sea Day

In the morning, we slept until 8 o’clock and had breakfast in the Windjammer. As part of the COVID protocols, there were crew members at each buffet station to serve the food. This was another change I wouldn’t mind keeping. I’m guessing that the number of norovirus cases on ships will plummet now that 2000 people aren’t touching the same spoons. The only disadvantage was that there was no self-serve coffee, and it was a bit of a trek from our outdoor table to the drink station.

It was a beautiful, warm morning and the seas were calm. It seemed like a good time to do our “Walk in Their Shoes” virtual charity walk for Open Table Ministry. According to the signs along the running track, 6 laps equaled 1 mile. But Ron and I lost count of which lap we were on, so we walked a couple of extra laps for good measure. :-)  We spent the next few hours soaking up the sunshine by the pool. It was the first cruise we’ve ever taken where there were empty lounge chairs. No problems with chair hogging this cruise!

That night was “Dress to Impress” night so we gussied up (which for Ron meant long pants) and went to the Centrum to take pictures and have a drink at the R Bar. At dinner, we had the same wait team as the night before. It was one of my favorite menus – beef carpaccio, escargot, cod and Grand Marnier soufflé. I was surprised how large the portions were. Suprianto and Iwayan must have been worried that I didn’t like my food because I could only eat half of it, so they brought us extra ice cream with dessert. I was stuffed. :-)

the Centrum

R Bar

After dinner, we ran into Nancy and Pete listening to the piano player in the Schooner Bar. We ended up skipping the production show to join them. The piano player didn’t have the best voice but he was entertaining and he could really play. When someone requested a song that he didn’t know, he looked it up on his iPad and learned it right there, chords and all. I have no musical talent so it amazes me that someone could do that. We stayed at the Schooner Bar until almost 11 o’clock before heading back to the cabin where our cabin steward Dewa had left us the smallest towel animal ever, a cute little mouse.

Costa Maya

I was wide awake at 4 o’clock. Dratted Daylight Saving Time! I wish they would just leave the clock alone. At 5:30 I gave up on going back to sleep, went to the Solarium in search of coffee and then wandered around deck waiting for the day to start. I ended up at the back of the ship, where the sun was rising over the ship’s wake. By the time Ron was up and we went to breakfast, we were already docked in Costa Maya, and the massive Allure of the Seas was pulling in next to us. We watched the flurry of activity on the dock as the ropes were tied off.  In the distance we could see the Mahahual Lighthouse, the southernmost lighthouse on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

This was our first time in Costa Maya, and I was looking forward to seeing a new port. We had pre-purchased day passes at Jaime’s at the Blue Reef in Mahahual, a small fishing town just south of the port. We asked our taxi driver to drop us off at the lighthouse so that I could take pictures, then walked down the Malecon to Jaime’s. The Malecon was a pedestrian boardwalk lined with little shops, restaurants and beach clubs. The walk turned out to be a bit longer than we were expecting, probably close to a mile, but I didn’t mind because it gave us a chance to get a feel for the area. At Jaime’s, we met our servers, Juan and Digby, who took care of all our food and drink needs for the day. We could order anything we wanted off the menu, so we started with ceviche with fresh tortilla chips, then guacamole and fish tacos. So good! I read for a while on my shaded lounge chair, watching the snorkel boats coming and going. It was very relaxing except for all the vendors selling their wares. It’s not that they were aggressive, it’s just that there were so many of them. We had to say, “No gracias” A LOT!

Costa Maya

Mahahual Lighthouse

Jaime's at the Blue Reef

As the day went on, the energy of the town went up and the Malecon became busy with pedestrians, bikers and vendors. There was a man selling “elote” (Mexican street corn) who we recognized from an episode of the TV show “Mexico Life”. That was kind of neat. :-)  Later in the afternoon, there was a wedding on the beach in front of our lounge chairs. It was a sweet ceremony, just a small group of friends and family and their dog. Before heading back to the ship, we sat on the swing chairs at the bar, sipping our Cuba Libres and Tecate.

That night we decided to skip the piano bar and play Blackjack instead. The casino was not very large, and at one point there was a three-way wheelchair traffic jam in the aisle. Have I mentioned the age demographic on this cruise? :-)  Ron sat at the single deck table, and I went to the regular Blackjack table. There was only one other guy at my table, and we were both winning. When it was time to head to bed, I was up $45. What a great day!

Casino Royale

Cozumel

When we pulled into Cozumel the next morning, the skies had clouded over and I was glad that we’d had our beach day the day before. Today we would be taking the “Island Roots, Honey and Chocolate Traditions” tour that we’d booked through the cruise line. We met our tour group at 7:45 at the end of the pier and piled onto a bus for the ride around the island. Our first stop was at the Mayan Bee Sanctuary, but just before we got to the sanctuary, water started pouring out of the bus’s air conditioning vents, and we stopped on the side of the road while the driver and the tour guide checked on the problem. After a few minutes they let us know that the fan belt had broken, but there was a replacement bus coming for us. Half an hour later, we were on our way again in a new bus.

The Mayan Bee Sanctuary opened in 2019 with the mission of teaching visitors the importance of bees to the Mayan culture and to the environment. Bees were sacred to the ancient Mayans, especially the Melipona stingless bee which the Mayans named Xunan Kab or “Royal Lady”. Due to deforestation, these bees have almost become extinct in recent years, but now some of the Mayan descendants were reviving their beekeeping practices.

Before we could enter the bee sanctuary, we went through a Mayan purification ceremony performed by a shaman to wash away any negativity and to ask the bees’ permission to enter their habitat. Then it was a short walk through the jungle to the hives. The bees were surprisingly tiny, much smaller than European bees. They build their hives inside hollow trees and logs with only one entrance and exit. Bees have different job duties, and we saw a guardian bee protecting the entrance of one the hives. Even though the bees were flying around us, we weren't nervous. Melipona bees are gentle and don’t have stingers (although they can bite if you swat at them).

Mayan purification ceremony

Xunan Kab

Melipona bee hive

Ixchel, the Mayan goddess of the moon and fertility

Before leaving the bee sanctuary, we got to taste a sample of the Meliponi honey, which was more watery than the honey of European bees and had a citrus-y flavor. Although Melipona honey is delicious and has many medicinal properties, the stingless bees are not used for honey production. Each hive only produces one to two liters of honey a year, compared to the 30 liters that are produced by a European bee hive. The bees are vital because they are responsible for pollinating 80% of the forests in the Yucatan peninsula. The bees need the forests and the forests need the bees. You can’t have one without the other.

Our next stop was at El Mirador on Cozumel’s east coast, a beautiful spot with waves crashing over rugged rock formations. On the drive to El Mirador, it started pouring rain but fortunately, the rain stopped just as we got there. We had about half an hour to take pictures or have a drink at the beach bar, and then continued around to the western side of the island where we made our final stop at the Mayan Cacao Company. Here we got to sample a handmade tortilla topped with spicy mole sauce and watched a demonstration on how the Mayans prepared chocolate. After the demonstration, there was a tequila tasting with three different kinds of tequila. I bought a bottle of the chocolate tequila. :-)  It was an excellent tour. We’ve been to Cozumel many times, but this tour was completely different than anything we’d done before.

El Mirador

tequila tasting

We got back to the ship at around 1 o’clock and had lunch at the Windjammer before going out again to do some shopping. It had been four years since our last trip to Mexico and I was out of vanilla! We always buy our vanilla from a store called Los Cinco Soles, but a quick look on the interwebs showed the nearest store was at Puerto Maya, Carnival’s port. It was raining again, but we walked over anyway and filled a basket, then walked back to the International Pier lugging 10 pounds of vanilla. And that was when we spotted the other Los Cinco Soles store. Argh! Ron was not pleased. Oh well, the store was right next to Senor Frogs so we stopped in for Ron to have a few beers at half the price they were charging on the ship. And now we should have enough vanilla to last at least another four years.

Serenade of the Seas docked next to Celebrity Summit

At dinner we said goodbye and thank you to Suprianto and Iwayan since we had reservations for the Chef’s Table the next night and wouldn’t be eating in the dining room. Last chance for escargot! Later at the Schooner Bar, we ran into Denise, Jill, Pam, Nancy and Pete and joined them at their table. But the piano player must have been having an off night or had spent too much time in Cozumel that day because he sounded terrible. Was that even the same person we’d heard before?? The others decided that they could sing as well as he could and went to the Safari Club for karaoke. Ron and I headed for bed.

Sea Day

The bed in our cabin was extra hard and when I woke up, I was stiff all over. While Ron was in the shower, I went out on the balcony and did some stretches to try to get the kinks out. The stretches helped and I could see why Mary does yoga in the morning. (I’m going to have to ask her to show me some of her poses.) The sea air and view of the waves helped too.

We didn’t have any plans for the morning and the skies were cloudy, so we decided to have breakfast in the dining room instead of the Windjammer (Eggs Benedict and chocolate croissants, mmmmm). Then we wandered around the sports deck and the mini-golf course, finally ending up in the Centrum where the Towel Animal Folding Demonstration was going on. It looked like fun so we stayed to watch. While the cabin stewards put together their creations, the entertainment staff handed out towels so the audience could follow along. Even the bartenders at the R Bar were joining in. At the end of the demonstration, the Centrum was filled with a menagerie of towel animals.

Reflections Dining Room

By that time, the sun had finally come back out. We changed into our bathing suits and went up to the pool for a few hours. It was oddly quiet on the pool deck. Island Vibz was playing steel drum music but other than that, there wasn’t much going on – no line dancing or belly flop contests or ice carving demonstrations. I kind of missed them. I guess they were axed because of COVID protocols but all the adults onboard were vaccinated and we were outdoors, so it seemed overly cautious. Oh well, I read my book, had a drink from the Sky Bar and took a nice nap.

Soon it was time to get cleaned up for our Facebook group get-together in the Royal Suite. The suite was incredible! The sitting area had a bar, full-sized couches and a grand piano. The main bathroom was twice the size of my bathroom at home and had a tub, steamer shower and double sinks. Even the second bathroom had a full size shower. No bank drive-thru tubes there!  We’ll probably never get another chance to see a Royal Suite, so it was really nice of Jill to share it with all of us for a couple of hours. And I was glad our Facebook group could have one more get-together before the cruise ended. We met some really fun people and made new friends this trip.

the Royal Suite

some of our Facebook group (photo by Denise)

That night we had reservations for dinner at the Chef’s Table. We usually don’t eat at the specialty restaurants because there is so much good food already included in the cruise fare, but I thought our return to cruising deserved a special celebration. We met at 6 o’clock in the Schooner Bar for a pre-dinner cocktail. Once the other six guests had arrived, Ionut, our waiter and sommelier led us to the restaurant, a small private room with chandeliers made out of knives, forks and spoons. Then the feast began – six courses of delicious and interesting dishes, each paired with a different wine (or in the case of the dessert course, an espresso martini). At the beginning of each course, the chef came out to explain how the dish was prepared. Before we knew it, four hours had flown by. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime meal. Ok, maybe twice in a lifetime. I definitely want to do it again when Royal Caribbean comes out with their next menu. 

Click here for my full review of the Chef's Table

After the dinner was over, we decided to try our hand in the casino one last time. Ron went to the single deck Blackjack table again, but it didn’t feel lucky to me, so I went to the regular table even though no one else was sitting there. For a while it was just me and the dealer, Giovanni, until two other people joined us. This time, I couldn’t lose! Even when my first card was a bad one, I would still win the hand. When I finally stopped playing, I was up $120 (plus the $1 chip that I kept for my collection). Woohoo!

We took a walk around the promenade deck before bed to air the casino smoke out of our clothes and lungs. The skies were clear and the moonlight was bright on the water. I wasn't ready to go home yet! Between the COVID protocols and two days at sea, I had been afraid we would be bored, but it turned out to be a fantastic trip. I loved visiting Costa Maya for the first time, seeing a new lighthouse, the tour in Cozumel, the Chef’s Table, and meeting new friends. It’s great to be cruising again!