Serenade of the Seas Review Part 7-Curacao and Day at Sea

And last but not least- Curacao! This was our anniversary day, so we didn’t really have anything planned. We slept in a bit and had breakfast in our room. Here were the first views we had of the port, from the elevator bank:

We left the ship around 10 AM, and decided to just walk around Willemstad. The first thing we noticed was the HEAT. This was literally the hottest place we’ve ever been to. Just be prepared for that blast of heat when you disembark the ship!

We walked the path that led you through the Marriott grounds, to Rif Fort, which really just consisted of various shops and places to eat.





 


Inside Rif Fort:

When we emerged from the fort, we recognized the floating bridge and the colorful buildings in Willemstad right away.It looked just like the photos online




 


As soon as we reached the floating bridge, we heard the warning bells that let us know they were about to allow the bridge to swing open. Some people raced to get to the other side, but we decided to stay where we were. We had to stand behind a gate while it was happening. A couple locals stayed on the bridge while it was moving. It was so cool to watch the process:

 


We basically walked around town for a couple hours. I loved how colorful the buildings were:



























 

After a while, we headed back to the ship. Decided to go to the top of Rif Fort and discovered a pretty cool view. The Marriott had a man-made beach:












 


Made our way back down to the lower level of the fort, and walked along the pathway back to the ship.

We hadn’t noticed these signs before, but I thought they gave some great info about Curacao:

Back to the ship!


 


I changed into my bathing suit and relaxed in the sun on deck 12 for an hour or so. It was so nice to enjoy the pool area without the crowds. I started to get hungry after a while, and just as I got up to go find Wes, I saw him approaching me. Nice timing!

We had lunch at the Seaview Café. Why we had never eaten here before, I have no idea! We gave our order to the greeter, who gave us a metal table number and invited us to choose where we wanted to sit.

About 10 minutes later, our food arrived. I had a Reuben, and Wes had wings and fries. Everything was hot and yummy.





 


The sailaway in Curacao was beautiful. We left around dusk, and the colors were so vivid:


























It was formal night that evening, so we got dressed up (cocktail dress for me, suit and tie for Wes) and made our way to the dining room around 7:45. We were seated quickly. As expected, this was the busiest night in the dining room since they were serving lobster (Fisherman’s plate). We both had that, and forgot to order an extra lobster tail. Peter, our waiter, actually came by with two extra plates and asked if we would like them. Such great timing and service! We could see the waiters racing around to serve everyone, they work so hard. And in the midst of all that hurrying, Peter never missed a beat. Since it was our anniversary, Peter and about 5 other waiters came over to sing Happy Anniversary to us.


Wes tends to blink when the camera flash goes off, so we don’t have any pics of him that night, lol. I do have one of me though:

When we got back to the room, we found a cute elephant on our bed:

Up next is our last full day on the ship- a day at sea!


Yet another wonderfully lazy day at sea. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise:

And yet about an hour later, we were in the middle of an intense rain shower. It was completely white outside! We sailed pretty smoothly through it though. We went back to sleep for a while and woke to mostly cloudy skies.

We stopped at the Seaview Café for lunch. I had a Grouper Caesar Salad, and Wes had his wings and fries again. That salad was so good! The grouper was blackened with a very spicy seasoning. We enjoyed the outdoor seating area of the Cafe.













 


I honestly can’t remember what else we did that day. We pretty much wandered around the ship, and watched a movie or two in our stateroom (we brought our portable DVD player). I got our prepaid gratuity envelopes arranged with the vouchers inside:

And the rum I bought in St. Thomas was delivered to our room around 3:00, ready to pack in our suitcase:

I took some more shots of my fave artwork on the ship:

The last evening on our cruise was bittersweet. I hate having to pack the night before leaving the ship, it makes me feel like my vacation is over! Oh well, we had dinner in the MDR and gave Peter and the wait staff their gratuities. The chefs came out to greet and thank us as they do at the end of each cruise.

For dinner, I had the scallop risotto, the sauteed garlic shrimp, and the chocolate melting cake. I had no complaints! You can see Wesley's ice cream in the last pic- it's what he orders every single night for dessert.