Pullmantur Review: Monarch 3/24/14-3/31/14

Pullmantur Review MS Monarch March 24 to March 31, 2014.

Seven day cruise: Aruba-Aruba

Forum Post Review since there is no category for Pullmantur

Reviewer background: I am a 47 years old male and this was my 25th cruise overall but my first on Pullmantur (see signature). Previous cruises were on Silverseas, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, and the now defunct Renaissance Cruises. I am a fanatic of "value". I care less about prices per se and more about a feeling that "I got more than I paid for".

Pre-cruise expectations: They were low. I expected a beat up ship, very casual service, below standard food, and a 'spring break' like crowd. I had been on the Monarch of the Seas some 18 years before and wondered how she had fared.

Overall notes: I picked this cruise because it would place me in La Guaira (Venezuela) on my mother's birthday. I expected to take a cab up to Caracas, have lunch with my parents, and then head back down for the rest of the cruise. Instead, my parents ended up booking the cruise as well. Because there weren't flights available to Caracas, I booked the Aruba-Aruba portion which departs on Mondays. My parent's joined the next day for a 7 day La Guaira-La Guaira. Room allocations for Aruba are less than for other ports so I only had a choice of obstructed Oceanview or Inside. Departing from all other ports appears to open up all other categories as well (or maybe the better categories had sold out for Aruba sourced passengers already – that I don't know); my parents ended up booking a category ST Suite.

Pullmantur operates an all-inclusive concept on-board including most alcoholic beverages. For example, the regular Scotch was included (Balentine's, Grants) while Johnny Walker Black was an extra charge. Most mixed drinks seemed light on the booze (my parents commented that the Margaritas and Caipirinhas seemed watered down). Should that matter? Well, since it is all-inclusive one could just order another but… Oh, the all-inclusive also means that there is little waiter service on the pool deck. The bar stools at the pool bars have been removed and you basically crowd the bar, ask the bartender what you want, and then get it. The only waiter drink service I saw was in the dining rooms, at the Frigatta Bar (Schooner Bar on the Majesty of the Seas), and at the Waves Club for Suite passengers (although I believe that it was also available at the Rendezvous Lounge – Bolero's on the Majesty).

Cabin(s):

My Cabin: 8040 is an obstructed oceanview category F cabin. The window is level with the bottom of a lifeboat. Peering down, you can see some ocean between it and the Promenade. The cabin is a standard room of the era that the ship was built. The Monarch of the Seas was launched in 1991 and at the time was among the world's largest cruise ships. Going by memory here but I think the size of these rooms are 120 ft2. It is the second cabin aft from the forward starboard elevator/staircase banks (I could not hear them) so the location is great. The cabin had considerable signs of wear and tear as would be expected from a ship that last plied its trade doing Royal's Bahama runs out of Port Canaveral. However, most importantly, it was well cleaned and tidy. There was a flat screen TV with mostly Spanish language channels (except for BBC and one movie channel that showed a different movie each day but in an endless loop). Storage was adequate, the safe welcomed, and the bedding firm. One complimentary large bottle of water is included; refills are 99 cents. I did miss the bathroom storage for toiletries so they all went on the main counter. My smaller complaint on the cabin was that we had no hot water at the beginning of the cruise until Colon (where the broken part arrived on board and the engineers fixed it); I only found out about this since my mom happened to talk to some engineers that day. Also, and really my biggest complaint, was that the water was yellow. For the first time in 25 cruises, I did not drink the faucet's water, using bottled to even brush my teeth (maybe that's why the first bottle was complimentary?).

My parent's suite: It was #1520 of the "Deluxe Suite" ST category. It was located all the way forward on port. In fact, it was the second cabin from the front. It is extremely spacious having a generous balcony which gets direct overhead sunlight (well, depending on the position of the sun of course). The Grand Suite 1532 next door looked like the only other suite on the ship whose balcony would also get direct sunlight from above. From 1534 aft, the balconies are covered completely by the pool deck above. I have to assume that on starboard, the Royal Suite (1010), the other Deluxe Suite (1020) and that first Grand Suite (1032) would also have direct sun access. Similarly to my cabin, there was wear and tear signs such as nicks on furniture and marks on walls. It was a huge cabin, certainly the largest I have been in, and only surpassed in size by the Royal Suite (which looks about 33% larger on the deck plan). KEY POINT about suites: suite guests (I assume at least ST and up) are automatically enrolled in Pullmantur's "Grand Class" cruising program.

Grand Class:

This is a specialty program to upgrade your cruising experience. It includes several goodies such as a welcome champagne, fruit basket, daily casino coupons and nightly canapés. Also included is daily use of the Waves club which is sort of an airline club on deck 12 but with the whole front of the ship's deck is also blocked off for more privacy from the masses for those that want to sunbathe. At the Waves, they also served a limited version of breakfast, snacks for lunch, and dinner snacks (more like cocktail snacks on steroids: shrimps, Sate Chicken kebobs, etc.).

The other HUGE benefit of Grand Class is that you have an assigned table in the restaurant for your use at Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Same table all the time, just walk to it once you know which it is. This worked out great for us. Since we boarded in different ports, our table assignments were different: I was in the "Aruba section" while they had their private table (or would have been in the Caracas section). By having their own table (a four top) my parents were allowed two guests which was: me.

Grand Class also had other benefits like a free Captain's night pressing, being able to cut lines (all and any!!!), and generous embarkation/debarkation benefits. There's a full time staff taking care of Grand Class passengers; the Waves manager got in touch with my parents at least three times during the cruise to make sure all was well.

You can also buy one-day passes to Grand Class at the purser's desk. My parent's invited me for both days at sea and we had great pre-dinner cocktail hours there. The price was very cheap; something like US$8 or 10 per day per person; might have been as high as 16 – I truly don't remember exactly but it wasn't too much.

Check-in/out and Aruba Airport Departure:

My own Aruba check-in was terrific! Upon arriving at the cruise terminal at around 3pm I deposited my luggage at a stand with the local porters. I then proceeded to a desk staffed by the assistant International Hostess who did a basic document check (taking my passport – something apparently not done at the major ports so it might have been an "Aruba only thing for our return") and filling out of the health questionnaire. From there, she instructed me to cut to the front of the (very) long line of people returning to the ship from their tours. A security agent checked me off his list and I was then allowed to go to the gangplank and shipboard security. From there, I went to the Purser's desk to do the actual check-in (i.e. credit card, get key, take picture). It was, honestly, the single best "big ship" check-in I have ever had since check-ins were allowed to cut lines.

Checkout was similarly easy. Our passports were returned to us at around 10:15am (make sure to book afternoon flights not earlier than 1pm!!!!) with the expectation that we would debark shortly thereafter (because Aruba needs to provide a Customs agent so they don't want someone standing there for 5 hours). I walked off at around 10:45am though and the agent was going through some other passenger's luggage. The International Hostess was there and explained that the searches were mostly done on passengers that stayed in Aruba after the cruise.

The departure chaos was at the Aruba airport which is why I HIGHLY RECOMMEND to be at the airport no less than 3 hours in advance (4 would be better). It wasn't that the airline check-in lines were long; they were and that's expected nowadays (no self check-ins!). No, the reason to get there so early (hence the recommendation of non morning flights) is that for flights to the US you will do both Aruba Emigration Document check as well as US Immigration/Customs. The security line into the terminal was long and moved slow. Once inside, you go through a luggage area to be re-united with your bags (that you just left at the airline counter) to go through US Immigration/Customs. That line was very long too. Took about 35-40 minutes. After being done with that you drop off your bags at a conveyor belt (there's two: check which one is for your airline) and go through another security check (i.e. take off your shoes, etc) before actually entering the terminals where your flight gates are. I guess Aruba doesn't want you to leave and that's ok – it's a beautiful place.

On Board:

The biggest difference for me was that this was my first cruise whose primary language was not English. All announcements were Spanish first, then English, then Portuguese and then Dutch. I also heard some German announcements. However, most staff members knew English – language wasn't a problem.

Being that this cruise embarks/debarks passengers in every port it also means that there are five muster drills per week. That said, the Aruba/Curacao ones did NOT involve the whole ship but rather a presentation in the theater. Colon, Cartagena, and La Guaira however were full drills for those passengers that boarded that day. On board services were not closed during those muster drills.

The passenger mix was roughly 95% Latin (of which about 85% were Spanish language and the rest Brazilian) with the remainder mostly Dutch (through their direct flights to Aruba/Curacao) and the rest German. I personally only saw one couple speaking English (but, again, most crew did have some knowledge in English).

I saw plenty of multi-generational families on-board but they tended to be on the younger end. I'd venture that most of the "grand-parent generation" I saw tended to be in the late-50's/early 60's. The crowd was definitely younger, more in line with Carnival/Norwegian as a US reference.

Two special observations: It was so refreshing to be on a ship without the constant roving pods of the overly obese. This is something I constantly see on most of my US based cruises, especially those departing out of Florida and San Juan. On Pullmantur, the crowd was uniformly slimmer. On US ships I am a bit on the heavy side while here I was definitely one of the heavier ones around. Also, and interesting considering the all-inclusive nature, I did not see anyone completely drunk on-board. There was indeed heavy all day drinking but the crowd knew how to drink properly. The purpose to drink here is to have fun – not to get drunk as on most US ships when people go nuts.

While this math won't add up, roughly a third of all passengers boarded in each of the three major ports: La Guaira, Colon, and Cartagena. Aruba and Curacao were "the rest" (for example, the day I boarded in Aruba we were roughly 45-50 passengers from what I could see from "the list" at security where I was #33 about two-thirds down the page). I saw very long lines to check in at Colon and Cartagena. My parents told me that their La Guaira check-in was "typical latin organized chaos but it was ok".

The ship is a Sovereign class ship if you are familiar with those when they were in Royal Caribbean's line-up. This line of three ships (Sovereign of the Seas, Monarch of the Seas, and Majesty of the Seas) were the first true purpose built mega cruise ships. Up until these ships were built, cruise ships were - for the most part - still converted older ocean liners. If you like cruising on all the new ships out there, then these are the ones that gave birth to them including many features that we now think of as "standard" in newer ships such as multi-story lobby atriums.

It also means that the Monarch is an older ship. It doesn't have nearly enough balconies to satisfy the modern US client (or all the bells and whistles that Royal is known for now) and so it has been relegated to a "2nd class outfit".

I use the quotes on purpose. Pullmantur is no second class outfit. Rather, the product it offers is perfect for that type of ship.

The whole point of their cruises is participatory fun when on-board. There is a special emphasis on getting passengers to join the activities. The parties are big, the events are big, and the theater was packed. The cruise director's staff is large, is everywhere, and is very enthusiastic. So having all your passengers be on their private balconies at cast-off instead of at the pool party makes no sense. In more modern ships, people have stopped going to those. Here, the passengers actively seek those activities and are encouraged to do so.

There must have been many repeat cruisers because there was a lot of participation in the nightly "themes" for dinner/evening dress. The ones I remember were that the Aruba night was "dress in white", the Caracas one was "Red and black" (pirate), and the day at sea before Aruba was "Captain's night" which was an extremely casual version of "formal night". I saw one tuxedo and maybe 20% of the male passengers had a jacket on (one or two with ties); the rest in nice long-sleeved shirts or nice short sleeved ones. There was also a "dress 70's/80's night". Overall evening dressing was latin chic. Very cool and the crowd made it look good (i.e. see my earlier comment on waistlines).

The arrival and departure time on the itinerary are also interesting. For the three major ports, we arrived relatively late. This allowed one to 'party it out at night', still get some sleep in, and then see the arrival in each. This was particularly stunning for Cartagena as we entered the channel and had to sail for quite some time to reach the port; the views were great and would have been lost with the more usual 7am arrivals.

The food aboard was decent and is basically served at the buffet and the dining rooms. There is a pizzeria from around 1pm to 7pm as well.

Breakfast had a good variety of breads, eggs (always two types of scrambled plus pre-made omelets/fried eggs), and a constantly changing assortment of sausages/bacons. I saw mini pancakes as well as French toast. Of course you also have a wide variety of fruits and cereals (hot and cold). In the dining room, you could get the salmon. Breakfast in the dining room is just a mini version of the buffet one and also set up as a buffet (and is only open for 1 hour).

We had most lunches in the dining room. Again, like breakfast, a buffet is set up inside; you just get to eat at a table with tablecloth and waiter service for drinks. Here too the restaurant is only open for about an hour. On the two days at sea and the day in La Guaira, the latter because so few people went ashore, the facilities were very strained to handle all the volume of passengers (in La Guaira many tables were taken up by still departing passengers plus a veritable small army of Venezuelan 'customs officials' abusing lunch privileges on board); those three lunches were miserable experiences for me to the point that I was tempted to go via room service.

Dinner was special as we had our "Grand Class" table. The menus for my parents were personalized in both language (based on check-in passport) as well as with their names printed on the menus; very nice touch. My parents commented that this was something they'd not even seen on their 5 star cruise lines. The daily menu was sufficiently varied for everyone to be satisfied but there were also some "always available" items (I though that the fried eggs and French Fries was cute) as well as three for-pay items (lobster, tenderloin, and shrimp). You order your whole menu up front: appetizer, main, and desert. Opened wine bottles will be stored for you until your next meal. First seating is at 7:30pm while 2nd seating started at around 9:45pm if I remember correctly – proper Latin/Spanish dinner times.

I found waiter service speeds in the dining room slow for all meal times – especially on the drink side of things.

Overall food quality was ok. Nothing jumped out at me and the menu choices were safe ones for the cruise line. Nothing too extravagant. The food was more in the Applebee quality range than a Cheesecake Factory if this can somehow convey things.

There is also 24 hour room service. With the dining rooms/buffet only open at certain hours a day this could come in handy especially in the afternoon (lunch buffet closed at 3pm and didn't open again until 7pm for dinner). Hence the pizzeria from 1pm to 7pm. Room service items are all for charge (unless you are in a suite and – again – I'm not sure if for all suites or only the largest ones).

Bars were open most of the day with the earliest one being the Frigatta that opened at 7:30am and the disco closing at 4am. The pool bar was open from around 9am (I think) until 1am.

On this cruise, I did not go to the casino or the disco.

The Ports:

The 7 day cruise has 5 ports and 2 days at sea. Since I started my cruise in Aruba, my itinerary was: Aruba (check-in), La Guaira, Curacao, day at sea, Colon, Cartagena, day at sea, Aruba (check-out).

As I am writing this mostly with the US public in mind, I will just comment on those three ports least likely to be known in the US. Aruba and Curacao are well known ports as they are generally featured in most Southern Caribbean cruises leaving from Florida or Puerto Rico.

La Guaira (Venezuela): Frankly, even if my parents live there, I had no desire to step ashore. As it turned out, neither did most of the other passengers on board. That morning/afternoon, the pool area and buffet were a mess. Remember that roughly a third of passengers board/de-board here. That would be ok if the rest of the passengers would be ashore but it was painfully obvious that no one wanted to go ashore. So the pool offered a strange sight of fully dressed people with carry-ons waiting next to tiny bikini clad sun worshiping beauties… While there were a lot of Venezuelans here, the fact that the airport is just some 5-10 minutes away (you can see it from the ship) also meant that plenty of Europeans and Brazilians started/ended their cruise here. I guess I should have asked my parents to give me more details on their check-in experience… From what I could see from the ship, the port facilities were poor (but at least they do have "patria" - lol).

Colon (Panama): This is – technically – actually the "start" of this itinerary. Here too about a third of passengers are sourced. Most people went ashore for shopping purposes. Whole busses full of Venezuelans drove off to the port's free trade zones to shop and also to Panama City. Other people went to tours for the Canal gates. I wasn't too impressed by the port facilities. It's obviously a cargo port and you get a sense that passengers are just one more piece of cargo. It didn't feel inviting at all. I was here some years back on my Canal cruise and nothing has changed. Personally, we went to Panama City for some family business. It took some 45-50 minutes to get to the outskirts and then another good 30 minutes to cross town. Lots of traffic in PC with too many cars for the small roads. We got back to the ship with about an hour to spare (and plenty of family style temper flare-ups caused by the decision not to have a quick lunch in PC!!!). Since the buffet was closed, we had our lunch at the pizzeria which was barely ok.

Cartagena (Colombia): What a beautiful jewel of a port; our "grand discovery" of this trip. My parents had been there over 30 years ago and this was my first time. Our arrival was scheduled for 12 noon but we arrived at around 1:30pm due to the strong wind we encountered at sea that night.

As you cruise the navigation channel into the port one can see a whole number of modern high rises lining the shore. If you ripped them out and transplanted them to Miami/Fort Lauderdale they would have fit right in. The modern Cartagena looked great but we were here for the old town.

The port is basically a cargo port (Colombia's 2nd biggest) and the pier that we docked at was a cargo pier. A free shuttle bus (much welcomed during the daytime heat) drove us a short distance to the cruise facilities. There, they created a truly nice welcoming facility. By far the most tourist friendly one of the trip (Aruba is just a shopping hall; in Curacao we were in the Canal but the main dock is also shopping intensive).

Here, you are welcomed by a small garden with flamingoes and black ducks; from there you are led through a duty free store that sells far more local things than most other ports. After the store, a nice wooden walkway leads you by a whole series of cages that had all sorts of animals there. It was like a mini zoo. At the end you get to the taxi/tours area.

My mom haggled around with a driver and got us our own mini-van with a driver and a tourist guide for $20 for each of us. We drove out (there was a lot of traffic) and our first stop was the Fort: Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. There we spent a good amount of time in our own little group with our private guide. He was very knowledgeable but, then again, we ourselves know quite a bit about those types of fortifications. The whole series of tunnels underneath are fascinating and the whole fort is easily as well preserved as both Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo de San Cristobal in San Juan (Puerto Rico).

After the fort, we stopped by a supermarket and then did a little tour through the old town (or rather, mostly its periphery as only the horse drawn carriages may actually go through ALL streets in the old town; taxis can only go through some). However, it was good enough. At one point we got off the van and walked through town while the van raced ahead to meet us at the other end. It was fascinating. Like Old San Juan but on steroids. One could tell that, in colonial times, this city was much more important and attracted much more money than OSJ.

As we departed Cartagena at 10pm (giving plenty of time for one to have dinner ashore if so inclined – and next time I will) one could see that most of the high rises were dark. Just a light on here and there. I still don't know if that is a sign that these apartments are just weekend/vacation homes for their owners or that they were really just empty (and available for sale).

I really liked Cartagena and plan on returning – hopefully soon.

Conclusions:

As mentioned earlier, I went into this cruise with very low expectations so I wasn't disappointed.

In fact, I actually ended up enjoying it very much. I loved the latin atmosphere, the all-inclusive concept, and the itinerary. Yes, the ship is older and shows its wear but there's a very good vibe on the ship comprised of fun passengers and enthusiastic crew. The food was adequate and meals enjoyable.

While my everyday "standards" are more Royal/Princess, if this cruise was a good sample of Pullmanturs, then I would have no hesitation in booking another cruise with them (but keeping honest expectations).

Thank you for the very comprehensive review. I've booked a cruise on CDF Croisieres de France, which is also owned by Pullmantur which in turn is owned by RCCL. While they cater to a French clientele, I expect the experience to be somewhat similar, albeit with perhaps nicer ports of call.

Thank you so much for this review. My husband and I are booked on this cruise in October and I could not find any information on it. Could you please elaborate why none disembarked in La Guaira?? Is it due to the political unrest??

Thanks

Fengshui626:

There were a few tours going out (something like 3: I know there was a beach trip and a trip into the Mountain park - but on the ocean side of it only. There might have been a third one.) but anything Caracas related was cancelled at the time because of the unrests. Also, since this cruise was in March, there was still the overhang of a German tourist having been killed in a mugging on Margarita Island some short time ago which rocked the local news and caused Aida Cruise Lines (I think) to drop Margarita from their itinerary (don't know if they have re-instated it since). Margarita is quite a way east so no direct correlation but, still, something that happened and that shocked the locals too.

While I was waiting for my parents to come aboard, I did see some people go ashore but truly not that many - probably people just curious to see if there was a duty free store in the building. Maybe some decided to go up to Caracas on their own via Taxi.

So the passenger density on-board was like a day at sea. Everyone out of their cabins with just a bizarre mix of debarking people (remember, about a third of the ship) hanging around everywhere with the (basically) other two thirds "in vacation" mode having a "day at sea in port". Debarkation was quite late for the Venezuela sourced passengers; they were still mostly aboard at lunch time which accounted for the lack of tables at that time. They camped out from the time they had to leave their cabins until they were finally allowed to leave the ship so tables were camped for both breakfast and lunch...

As it so happens, my birthday is in September (it will be when we are in Cartagena so we WILL be having dinner at one of the many nifty boutique restaurants there) and we decided to do the same cruise again to see each other so I will be able to give an "update" on Caracas for you when I get back. I'll make it a point to add info to this thread.

I'll be doing Aruba/Aruba again but instead of flying in on Sunday for Monday embarkation, I added a couple of vacation days and am doing 4 night Aruba pre-cruise as well.

Thanks so much for the response. We are doing the same in Aruba - a 4 day holiday before the cruise. I am looking forward to hearing about your next cruise in September and any suggestions that you may have for shore excurisions at the ports and resturants in Columbia. Thanks again.:)

Thank you for a great review. We are considering the same cruise for early in 2015, but out of Curacao and appreciate your comments. We are Canadian and have been on three Pullmantur cruises before and are always very comfortable with the Spanish approach to cruising even though we don't speak Spanish. Our last Pullmantur cruise was in a Grand Suite on the Sovereign and we appreciated the space and the extras a lot. We are only planning on a Junior Suite for our next cruise but were interested in your comments of being able to upgrade to Grand Class service at what sounds like a reasonable price.

Based on our experience on other cruise lines including MSC,Celebrity and RCCL we found the Pullmantur food to be as good or better, and very acceptable wines and other drinks being included only made it better..

Thanks so much for the response. We are doing the same in Aruba - a 4 day holiday before the cruise. I am looking forward to hearing about your next cruise in September and any suggestions that you may have for shore excurisions at the ports and resturants in Columbia. Thanks again.:)

Regarding the tours on Pullman, I found them to be a tad more limited compared to the main lines. Cartagena has about the most (like 5 or 6 of them with some overlap). Earlier today I popped into the tour part of the website but I only scanned it very very quickly. But in any case, it's the old city you want to see (and I really loved the fort).

We decided on a restaurant called Salou. It's fairly well ranked in tripadvisor and seemed like the right thing for us (somewhat special for my b-day and good portion size for my 75/80y.o. parents). I then found them in Facebook and made a reservation by messaging them. They open at 7pm for dinner on Saturdays so we should be more than done by 9pm which we told ourselves would be the absolute limit to go back to the ship (10pm departure). Doubt we'll leave the restaurant past 8:30pm in any case or Dad will have a conniption - lol.

Thank you for a great review. We are considering the same cruise for early in 2015, but out of Curacao and appreciate your comments. We are Canadian and have been on three Pullmantur cruises before and are always very comfortable with the Spanish approach to cruising even though we don't speak Spanish. Our last Pullmantur cruise was in a Grand Suite on the Sovereign and we appreciated the space and the extras a lot. We are only planning on a Junior Suite for our next cruise but were interested in your comments of being able to upgrade to Grand Class service at what sounds like a reasonable price.

Based on our experience on other cruise lines including MSC,Celebrity and RCCL we found the Pullmantur food to be as good or better, and very acceptable wines and other drinks being included only made it better..

Thank you Plato! Since there is so little info on Pullmantur here at CC, I decided to write the review. I used to write 'em up all the time at the beginning of my new cruise run but, well, I guess the writing enthusiasm broke down after a while - lol.

Yes, the Grand Class 'upgrade' was available for a fee which I found very reasonable. I think it basically covered the use of the private lounge and not the other goodies though. For example, on the 2 days that I had it, I did not get the evening canapes the private dinner table (I was with my parents anyway), the coupons, etc. But having access to that lounge is worth it by itself anyway to get a little "less crowd time".

Having re-read my original post, I just realized that I forgot one thing and made a mistake in another:

Forgot: Tips were not included and instead charged to your account daily. I left extra for my cabin attendant as I feel that they get gipped on us solo passengers. It takes just as much to clean a solo cabin as it does one with two people in it.

Mistake: In Cartagena it was flamingos and black swans, not ducks... Beautiful creatures.

Thank so much for this additional information on the tips - I hate surprises:) I found the tours on the website and you are right not much of a selection - we will go to the Pananma Canal and do the old city in Cartagena. Thanks again and I cant wait for you to come back in September with more information for us. Oh Don't miss the ship in Cartagena I would hate for your Dad to have a conniption - LOL - Enjoy

Off to Aruba in the morning. Will update after I get back.

This is an incredible review...thank you...we will be doing the Curacao to Curacao cruise on November 5 and are looking forward to your next review.

I would love to visit Caracas so am interested to know if those excursions are now available.

My husband and I have previously travelled on CDF Horizon in the Caribbean and have enjoyed these cruises even though we speak very little French or Spanish.

We have added an extra day in Curacao at each end of our cruise and would appreciate reading any experiences of Check In/Out at Curacao airport.

Anxiosuly awaiting your return:) Just got my tickets for our October cruise.

Thank you for the review. We will be sailing the monarch in June doing the "Mayan Caribbean"

We sailed Pullmantur on the Horizon in 2011 and found a experience similar to yours.

We are American expats living in Belize, so this sailing departing from Mexico is perfect.

Any "tips" regarding the Monarch?

Hello everyone.

Well, I'm back (and sort of glad). It was great seeing my parents again and my birthday dinner at Salou Cartagenadeindias was spectacular!!! Truly worth the high rating they have from tripadvisor's readers.

First, the overall review at the top remains the same (with the small update I did a tad later).

I need to add one thing: the "upgrade" to use the Waves Club. It is only available to people that booked on the 10th deck (i.e. Jr Suites and up). The large suites have that included. How did I get it last time (and this time too)? Quite simply: Mom. They were in Suite 1520 and she got me those daily passes to the Waves Club. That is not normal but, well, Mom being Mom got it done. The fact they were in the largest category of suites after the Royal Suite probably helped... ahem, ahem....

Now to the bad part of this particular cruise: the ship had major mechanical problems this cruise. The announcements were vague in details but I figured that their power generation was down big time resulting in little air conditioning (the blowers in the cabin worked but only tepid air would come out). At night it seemed to get a bit better as I figured that they shifted the limited power from hotel non-essentials at night to a little a/c.

I overheard that it has been going on for 3 weeks... Passengers were departing mid-cruise especially those on lower decks. On the pre-Aruba day at sea, I saw people setting themselves up to sleep on the Promenade deck (whether they ended up there all night I don't know).

On that day at sea, the line also (finally) decided to open all possible doors to get some outside air inside. At dinner, the doors to the galley were even open.

I felt most bad for the crew members. Day in and day out they were there doing a terrific job even if they probably slept in hellish conditions. :mad:

Due to these power generation/propulsion problems, we also arrived late by about 1.5-2 hours in each of the major Ports. This caused some of the longer (and earlier departing) tours to be canceled plus people missing out on earlier flights (the announcements said: any extra costs associated with late arrival and missed flights should be handled through your travel agent who would then bill Pullmantur).

What ticked me off is that this wasn't something that just happened. It was 3 weeks ago and this company didn't even have the courtesy to inform its future passengers of these problems. Had this been an "American" ship, I could see passengers taking a more active attitude toward the management. Not here though...

Personally, I will be writing my T/A something a tad more formal for them to send to the company. There's no point to give OBC as everything's basically included but a partial refund is absolutely warranted IMO. I'll research the name of the current name of Pullmantur's President & CEO and will copy Richard Fain as well.

Caracas Tours: There were 2 tours offered but not into Caracas proper. In fact, the paper they handed out strongly discouraged going there.

Finally, they are indeed moving the ship from this itinerary to Mexico. Crew scuttlebutt gave a range from April to June 2015. Maybe Royal will give Pullmantur the Majesty when their own new ships come on line and it takes over this route? I don't know as I haven't followed RCL too much lately.

Overall, apart from the a/c and timeliness issues, the cruise was on par with the one I did in March.

Yikes - not the review I was hoping to get as I will be sailing 10/13/14. I pray that they fix the mechanical problems by then. :(

Thanks for letting us know about the upgrade to the Waves Club - my T/A did not have any information on it. I will let everyone know how my cruise goes when I return. I am hoping to make lemonade out of lemons if need be:) Thanks again for the speedy return review.

Thank you yet again for your review.

We cruise on November 5th so hopefully things will be resolved, and if not, then we will be making lemonade from our lemons.

fengshui626

How was the cruise?

We received out tickets last week and I was waiting for your review.

Hopefully you had a good time.

thank you for this review.

I want my extended family to be able to experience one and I am working on putting one together. This seems to be the only ship that departs from Cartagena which is their closest port. This review will be valuable as we plan the trip.

Thanks again.

We cruised on the Pullmantur Monarch at the beginning of November and had an amazing trip...(no A/C problems Ancldca).

We joined the cruise in Curacao after overnighting there...lovely island with beautiful people.

We did the Canal & Shopping tour in Panama...good choice...fascinating visit to the locks, and as we wanted to see the Pacific coast too, we did the shopping trip....electronics were very cheap and although we are not shoppers, many people did come back with lots of shopping!

In Cartegena, we did the Bus & Walking Tour....very interesting tour through the old town...found some neat souvenir stores and street vendors who were not on the "recommended" list, with people who were not "pushy". Also bought some good quality T shirts from one of the "pressing vendors" who was following the tour around. Hopped back on the bus and completed the rest of the tour.

In Aruba, we walked the main street and then took a local bus to a beautiful beach by the RIU hotel.....the water was warm and relaxing....we spent about 3 hours there....took a shower (on the beach outside the RIU hotel) then took the bus back to the ship.

In Venezuela, we did the cable car & Caracas tour .... felt a little uneasy as there were many police everywhere but still thought it was worth seeing Caracas for ourselves....we were not disappointed and the cable car gave us some spectacular views.

The crew on the Monarch were amazing and made our stay enjoyable...we ate mostly in the dining room and occasionally at the buffet...could not fault the service nor the food...excellent!

Our cabin was comfortable and the steward was very attentive.

Tips were added to our main account, but we still tipped the people who made our cruise extra special.

I have just booked my mother and myself into suites on the Pullmantur/CDF Zenith on her repo from La Guaira to Marseille in March 2016 and I am very eager to pick up the sort of detail in your review. Thank you.

We have paid extra for the standard all-inclusive package, so I assume this is a change of policy that may come with better waiter service. I hope they have put back the bar stools too.

What was your parents' experience of the minibar in their suite? I have read, via Google Translate, on the Brazilian web site that we booked through, that the mini bar is included for those in Grand Class who book one of the two all-inclusive packages. A friend aboard an MSC ship who stayed in their Yacht Club through a party for a group of non Yacht-Club friends, including me, and he essentially had a butler with trolleys of canapes and drinks brought to his suite. I wonder if I might be able to do the same?

I very much agree with your sentiments on obtaining value rather than just low cost. Hence we are booked in to 'Grand Class' suites (there were no solo supplements on this repo cruise).

Anyway, thanks again and please follow my journey, when it happens, on CC.

My wife and I are booked on the Monarch out of Curacao in February 2016, one year later than our earlier plans, but stuff happens. We will be in a Junior Suite and have purchased access to the Waves Club. We have cruised on Pullmantur four times previously and have enjoyed the "Spanish" style of cruising even though we don't speak Spanish.

On a previous cruise on the Sovereign we had a Grand Suite and also Grand Class service which was great, We are not sure if being in a Junior Suite will also entitle us to Grand Class service but at least we will have the Waves Club benefits.

Our travel agent has provided the regular drinks package to us as a bonus. Previous cruises with Pullmantur were all inclusive, but things change.

Our disappointment with planning this cruise was the substitution after making our booking of La Guaira/Caracas for Bonaire which we really would have preferred. Rather than be stuck on the ship in La Guaira we hope to get on a cruise excursion into Caracas to make the most of our trip.

We would appreciate any comments about cruise excursions to Caracas, as well as thoughts about Curacao as we will be there for three days before the cruise. We definitely would like a little beach time in Curacao.

We are somewhat experienced cruisers esp Royal Caribbean but happened into this cruise and ship because its itinerary fit our needs, the price was right and because I am a Spanish speaker. We booked a Grand Suite and highly recommend this despite the added cost because we much enjoyed the Waves Yacht Club lounge. It gave us fee internet, private sunning deck, excellent service and food. We found the crew very courteous, activities and shows good, karioke much fun for native English speakers.

At Cartehega we recommend the on-off bus tour.

Curacao we walked the town.

Aruba great snorkling-take public bus to Cabana resort to rent equipment then go to Faro (lighthouse or California) beach.

Bonaire bicycle 26 kilometers to Sorobon beach.

We had hoped for more dancing afterall it was a Latin ship.

Overall it was a great experience. Do read the long review above from 2014 and its followup.

In 2016 Monarch will go to Europe and my friends and I booked a cruise on it. For our region it is an un-known ship that's why your tips are extremely useful! Could you tell us about any peculiarities about it? For example, SPA (maybe you Mum used), a sauna...Is natural espresso included into the pre-paid pack of drinks? Is water in the swimming pool seawater or not, is it warmed (our cruise is to Norway, where the weather is cool even in summer) Thanks in advance...

Monache is a bit dated but well maintained. There is a Spa but we did not use. The water in the pool was warm. Food in buffets was a "B". Expresso in the Grand suites and in the Yacht club but not elsewhere. Bring electric plug in strip since limited electric receptacles. Have medium level expectations and they will be met.