We too are empty nesters in our 50s. We were at LC in Sep and it was amazing. I've (literally) been all over the world, and LC's beach is one of, if not the, best beach I've ever been to in my live. My wife grew up in San Diego, and she says it IS the best beach she's been to. Your questions:
-Distance or walk time to shops, main entertainment area, other must dos: It's a haul from the tram stop. Recommend wearing tennis shoes and carrying the flip flops. We're not much for the shopping/entertainment, but it didn't seem like a long walk to get back to them. We had to walk past all that to get to SB.
NB: we were in the first wave off the ship. Took us 12 minutes to walk the pier and were the second couple on the beach in SB.
-If the food and drink offerings are the same at Serenity as anywhere else - so not missing a special drink or snack, etc. Same as the others. We're not big fans of the CC food (I know, heresy), but we enjoyed the LC food quite a bit.
-Are there enough beach chairs on beach by water vs across the bridge? are the short chairs available here to sit in the edge of water? When you say 'across the bridge' I assume you mean on the shore side of the dunes? There was quite a lot of seating. Of note, there was only one couple on the shore side of the dunes when we were there, though it seemed to be a preference for them as there were still seats available on the beach proper. Just like on CC, there are 2 recliners paired with 2 low chairs at every umbrella.
-Vibe, comfort, are flies mostly resolved here?: Vibe was super low key. Very relaxing and lovely. Zero problems with flies.
-Nearby bathrooms, etc?: Just back over the dunes was the bar and on the backside of the bar building were REALLY nice bathrooms and showers. SB food was just past that. We're talking twenty yards to the bar and another fifteen to food. Super easy.
-Anything else?: Can't wait to go back.
We were told that the
DCL Wi-Fi was available over the whole area, but we were so entranced with the beach that we didn't even try.
LC is BIG. From north to south is quite large. We'd plans to do the nature walk, but that was a haul from the far north end of LC down there. In the end, though, it was no great loss.
Snorkeling is kinda non-existent. We love to snorkel at CC, but with the buoys marking the furthest the guest can proceed being fairly close to shore, we didn't even try. We're eyeing an excursion for our next trip there for snorkeling.
