Wanderings and Ramblings : Photos of staterooms on Serenade of the Seas fall 2013

On our cruise, several people from the Cruise Critic message boards volunteered to show their rooms to anyone from the group who cared to go along and see them. This was our first "cabin crawl" and we thought it was great fun and very interesting to see a small selection of the huge variety of rooms that one ship has to offer.

Knowing how much I appreciate photos and information about rooms I book, and with the occupants' permission, I took photos of several to post here. I hope this helps someone with their planning:

This is a "Studio Interior Stateroom" designated as SI in the deck plan codes. It is one of the new rooms added in the renovations that sleep only one passenger. I am told the single supplement is less for this room than booking a normal double. I believe the occupant said she was charge about 160% the going rate of an interior instead of the 200% normally charged. It seemed plenty spacious for one person to me (more so than sharing an interior with two is) and had the same sized bathroom as all the other rooms. It also had a mini fridge as did all other rooms.

Next up is an "Interior Stateroom" Category N

A "Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom" category E3. Note the lifeboat cover that extends for about 4 feet out past the end of the balcony (at floor level). This view of metal immediately off the balcony and not ocean when looking straight down seems to be the reason for the E3 designation.

We had connecting "Deluxe Ocean View Staterooms" in the E1 category. Note the much deeper than normal balcony. We loved that. It seems all the deck 7 forward balconies had this and it is why they were E1s. Also note that the connecting interior door opens in such a way that when opened you cannot get to the balcony. It cannot be blocked open or go flat against the wall. This was no issue for us with very independent teens, but might be difficult for a family with very young children.

This was our first cruise at the Emerald Level in their loyalty program. This level include a little welcome gift waiting in the cabin. This is one area where Disney's loyalty program has RCI beat by a mile! It was pretty pathetic (as I had read it would be) an also did not even have the requested Coke with it (having water instead--I had also read this often happens). Oh well. There is lots of packaging to make it appear bigger than it really is. I took a photo of the two food items next to my key card to show how little they really were when all the shredded paper and boxes were removed.

8500 is a "Family Ocean View Stateroom" at the very front of the ship (category FO). The separate sleeping area with bunk beds is blocked off by curtains and not really a different room. It was a very interesting set up for me to see.

9524 was a slightly larger than the Es Superior Ocean View (D2) balcony room Personally, I liked the larger balcony space on our E1 more than the few extra square feet in our room