My Review of the Monarch of the Seas 1/24, With Many Pictures

[Yvonne]

Hi everyone, I just finished and submitted my cruise report but decided to post one here as well. I know I love reading any and all cruise reviews I can get my eyes on when I'm planning a cruise for us, so hopefully mine will be helpful to some. I have to warn you, it's long and detailed, and full of pictures. :) So, here goes:

 

After lucking out on $29 airfare from Detroit to Orlando, my husband and I decided to incorporate a short 4-night cruise into our vacation and we chose the Monarch of the Seas. Originally we had booked an inside room on deck 6, the "tween" deck they call it as it doesn't go all the way across the ship. But, knowing I would be missing a balcony on this cruise I called and upgraded to an outside on the same deck.

 

We spent the night before the cruise at the Radisson, which we have done a few other times before cruises. We had originally booked the cruise parking package for $139/night. But our plans changed and we would not be leaving the car there, so the young girl checking us in reduced our rate to $129. We could have gotten the room for $107, but we wanted to keep the breakfast buffet vouchers so we declined the lower rate. This was the first time I've been disappointed in the room. We were given #308 and it definitely needed refurbishing. Knobs were missing on the armoire, the deadbolt lock wouldn't work, there were bad stains on the bathroom floor, the shower curtain needed replacing, the paint on the tub was chipping off in large chunks, one of the chair cushions was badly stained, the pillows were flat, etc. The only saving grace of the room was that it was clean and the sleep-number beds were very comfortable. But next time we take a cruise out of Port Canaveral we will try a different hotel the night before. The buffet breakfast the next morning was nice, not a lot of choices but we enjoyed it.

 

We checked out of the hotel about 10:30 and drove to the terminal. We were able to park in the covered area ($60 for the 4 nights), dropped our one piece of luggage off with a porter (tipped $2) and walked into the terminal with our carry-on bags. It was about 11:00 when we went through security, and we had to wait a few minutes (seated in chairs) but soon we had our welcome aboard photo taken and the photo for our seapass card and we were on board the ship and eating lunch at the Windjammer before noon. Very easy and nice.

 

Kirk enjoying lunch in the Windjammer

 

We were able to go to our room at 1:00, #6040. Here are a couple pictures of our room.

 

 

We had the beds apart as my husband uses a CPAP machine when he sleeps so we just find it easier having our own beds, and it seemed to give the room more usuable walking space. Really missed the couch though, and not having a refrigerator or safe as well. The TV was on a shelf down below the vanity, kind of an odd placement for it we thought as you could not watch from both beds. The bathroom was small but functional. The shower curtain was in dire need of being replaced, and we missed the corner shelves we usually find in ship bathrooms. There just wasn't much space for toiletries. Another thing we found rather odd, there was a card asking you to hang up your towels if you would use them again, if not put them on the floor and they would be replaced. As we use a towel more than once at home, we did the same on the cruise and would hang our damp shower towels on the hooks of the door. Our room steward would fold the damp towels and hang them back on the racks. They didn't dry very well that way, so I would take them back off the rack and hang them back on the hooks so they could dry. Seems like he would have just left them alone since we had hung them on the hooks. The shower contained a shampoo dispenser.

 

I was surprised the hair dryer (in the top drawer of the vanity) was not built in. There was a night stand with bottom shelf, and a small glass topped coffee table which my husband used for his CPAP machine. I was glad he brought his own extension cord because the one that was left in the room by our room steward didn't have the right plug, so he couldn't use it. They did provide a gallon of distilled water. And there was a big red sign on the door "no smoking, oxygen in use and no naked lights." We had a good laugh over that. A CPAP machine doesn't use a tank of oxygen. We thought about removing the sign as it was magnetic, but left it there so we could easily find our room. :)

[Yvonne]

I see the website only allowed 6 photos per post, so this is going to be a chopped up review, sorry. :(

 

After dropping off our carry-on bags, we explored the ship a little and went up to the Viking Crown Lounge. Kirk had the drink of the day which was a Bon Voyage and I had a Lemon Drop (both in souvenir glasses to take home) and we enjoyed the nice view.

 

On our way back to our room to prepare for the muster drill we spotted our luggage on a rack so grabbed it and brought it to the room and we unpacked. There was plenty of storage. The closet was large with plenty of hangers and shelf space, plus the vanity had drawers. We were able to put the luggage under one of the beds. We used our luggage as our "safe" and locked our valuables in it and had no problems but still would have preferred a safe.

 

We met our room steward, Conroy from Jamaica, in the hall. He was very friendly and greeted us every time we saw him and he did an excellent job in keeping our room clean. We gave him an extra cash tip at the end of the cruise, in addition to our pre-paid tips.

 

We went up to deck #7 for muster drill at 3:45, you no longer have to wear or even take your life jackets. For us, we thought that was great. But for new cruisers it might not be, as they really should know how to put their life jackets on I think. After the drill we went up to the deck just above the pool for sail-away. We enjoyed seeing Fishlips (we'd had dinner there the night before and watched the Carnival Sensation, Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas and the brand new Disney Dream leave) and of course Jetty Park. Now our cruise had begun!! :)

 

About 6:00 we went down to the My Time Dining Desk. We had signed up for MTD and we were really looking forward to trying it. But we were told by Lloyd that there were no available tables and there wouldn't be until after the show around 8:30. That was very disappointing. We didn't want to wait that long for dinner so for the first time in any of our cruises we went to the Windjammer. We enjoyed having dinner there. The lights were dimmed, and it wasn't very crowded. I had antipasti, chilled raspberry soup, lamb with mint jelly, mashed potatoes, etc. We found several of the food choices each night were also on the regular dining room menu. We never went back to try MTD, we were perfectly happy with the buffet. And it was wonderful to be able to be more relaxed and casual and not have to dress up for dinner. My only regret was not deciding beforehand, and we could have left the dressy clothes and shoes at home!

 

Another nice thing about the Windjammer, we could eat quickly if we wanted to go to a show or do something else, or we could linger over coffee and dessert. After eating we went to the Welcome Aboard show in the Sound of Music Theater. There was only one show that night, at 7:45. I prefer two shows, so we got there extra early to get good seats. They had a comedian, Phil Palisoul, and we really enjoyed him. After the show we went to Bolero's for adult karaoke, some were very good, some were not but we enjoyed it. We stayed to listen to some rock music by the group Horizon, and for the 70's Disco Party. Drew Devine (director) and other crew members really put a lot into it and we thorougly enjoyed watching and enjoying a few drinks from the bar.

[Yvonne]

Day Two:

We went to the buffet for breakfast about 7:00. I had bacon, smoked salmon (it was the only morning I saw it :() with cream cheese and capers, and fresh fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and pineapple). I never saw papaya or mango the entire cruise. :( We went upstairs by Sorentos (usually found it less busy upstairs) to find a table. Most of them had coffee cups on them from the 6:00 Early Risers and there were no crew members clearing them but we finally did find a clean table.

 

After breakfast we went to the Schooner Bar to read.

 

We were scheduled to go to Coco Cay that day, but because of the weather the tender boats wouldn't be running so they were heading to Nassau instead and we would have a day and a half there, thus losing out on our sea day. And they would try for Coco Cay on Thursday. We've been to Nassau a few times and didn't have any excursions planned. At 9:00 the shops opened up so I went to the Logo Store and bought my ship model (I collect them) plus a coffee mug, Christmas ornament, book of ship pictures, a postcard, ink pen and refrigerator magnet. With my Gold Member discount coupon from the booklet I was able to save $6 on my purchases. :)

 

We went back to the Schooner Bar for Name That Movie Tune and played with a few other people sitting near us. There were 33 tunes and we knew quite a few of them so we enjoyed it. About 11:30 we went up to the buffet for lunch. Big, big mistake as it was super crowded. Everyone was wanting to eat lunch before we docked in Nassau at noon I guess. But this was the only time the buffet was really busy. We finally found a small table for 2 and took turns going for our food. I know some people frown on that, but I don't enjoy walking around in circles looking for an empty table when I have a plate and drink in my hands and my food is getting cold. I had a plate with a couple different kinds of salad (missed the Greek salad they had the day before, I could eat that every day!), sliced cold turkey, a slice of cheese, a hot dog with no bun (I am gluten intolerant), mashed potatoes with butter and lemonade.

[Yvonne]

After lunch we went back to the room to change into our swim suits and went to the deck above the pool to relax on loungers in the sun for awhile. We never had a problem finding deck chairs the entire cruise, and we never saw very many that were "saved" with towels. Maybe checking towels in and out has helped put a stop to that so it's a good thing and really not a hassle to do it. It was warm and sunny but a bit breezy, and it did get chilly when the sun went under the clouds for a bit. I went back to the room to change and read my book before my husband did, so he got a little more sunburned than I did. We went up to the Viking Crown Lounge to read for awhile.

 

Music was playing and they had the TV's on so it wasn't very quiet, and we got a bit sleepy so decided to come back to the room to take a nap so we could stay awake for the evening activities. :) We weren't able to sleep well though as we could hear the thump-thump-thump of joggers running on deck #7 above us. They did have signs posted "No jogging or power walking between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m." but not all abided by that and we were awakened a couple mornings around 6:00 by the incondisderate joggers. My husband turned the TV on to see how many channels were available and we were surprised to see so many. We watched the pilot episode of "Mike & Molly" and it was nice to watch it with no commercials. After that we decided to go for a walk on deck #7, it goes all the way around the ship. We also, by accident, found a small quiet deck by going through a door (I don't remember if it was unmarked or not, but it did not say "crew only" so we used it). There were a few loungers there and we had intended to go back another time to enjoy the quiet, but we never made it back. It was a very nice little known area though.

 

We went up to the Windjammer for dinner about 6:30. I had several salads, anitpasi, papaya and pear soup, a leg and thigh of roasted duck, several kinds of cheese (they had platters of different ones mixed in with the salads), and a strawberry mousse type dessert. It was all delicious. I wanted to go back and try a few other things, but I was just too full. We saw one of the ship's officers and his wife/girlfriend eating at the buffet too. After eating we went to deck #7 to sit there for a few minutes and enjoy the quiet and the water.

 

We went to the 9:00 show, El Gaucho was the entertainer. This was my husband's 2nd time and my 3rd time to see him, but we enjoyed him again. After the show we went right to Bolero's for the Majority Rules game. We teamed up with 2 other couples and had a good time. We stayed for country music by Horizon and enjoyed that too.

 

Our room steward made a bat for us to enjoy that night.

[Yvonne]

Day Three:

We were up at 6:30 this morning, I wore ear plugs that night as the ship's walls are very thin and I could hear others snoring, coughing, sneezing, etc. so with the ear plugs I slept just fine. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast and I had a small scoop of corned beef hash, 3 strips of bacon, 2 sausage patties and fresh fruit.

 

 

My husband decided to go exploring and I came back to the room to read, but first stepped out on deck #7 and saw the Carnival Fantasy coming into Nassau. Later we both went up to the Viking Crown Lounge to read and my husband had picked up a Soduku puzzle from the library so he worked on that and we watched it rain and heard some thunder too. The ship seemed rather crowded that morning, with the rain everyone must have stayed on the ship and were staying indoors. It finally stopped raining around 11:00 and turned off sunny and warm with a nice blue sky so we got off the ship so I could take a few pictures.

 

[Yvonne]

At 1:00 we went to Name That TV Show in the Schooner Bar. We were disappointed with it as it was an older (50's - 70's) crowd and the themes he played were from 2000 and up so many didn't know them. It would have been nice if he would have played themes from the 60's - 80's. And the paper was numbered to 33 and he only played 17.

 

We went up to Windjammer for a late lunch. I had a piece of Asian chicken, mashed potatoes with butter, corn and broccoli, cheese, slivered turkey, German potato salad and a couple other salads. It was all very good. My husband ate quickly as he wanted to go back to the Schooner Bar for the Soduku challenge. They were supposed to pass out 4 puzzles, but they only gave out 1.

 

My husband went to find a quiet spot to read, and I walked all over the ship taking pictures. Many people were off the ship and in Nassau so I was able to get a lot of nice photos without strangers in them.

 

 

 

 

[Yvonne]

We went back to the room and watched an episode of "Big Bang Theory." Then we took our books to deck #7 and found a couple chairs to sit and read in for awhile and enjoyed a lovely sunset over Nassau.

 

 

At 6:30 we went to the Windjammer for dinner, I don't remember everything I had that night but the strawberry pavlova for dessert was really delicious! We went to the Sound of Music Theater for the 7:45 show. They had Bobby Borgia, a magician/illusionist as the entertainment. My husband enjoyed the show more than I did, as Bobby did mostly card tricks and you had to watch them on the monitors. After the show we went to Bolero's for Finish That Tune at 9:00. They had 6 contestants from the audience, but they didn't know very many of the songs that were played so we found it kind of boring.

 

At 10:00 we went back to the Sound of Music Theater for the "Love and Marriage" show, and it was extremely enjoyable as it always is. After that we went to the Circuit Lounge for Quest. We had never gone to one of these before, so we chose to just watch rather than participate. Some folks might find parts of it offensive, but we howled with laughter and really enjoyed it. It's amazing what some people will do to win! :)

 

We went to the sail-away party up on the pool deck, and enjoyed the midnight buffet they provided. It was extremely crowded though so we didn't stay long and by this time the late nights were starting to catch up with us old fogies so we headed back to our room to get some sleep. Our room steward made a monkey for us that night.

[Yvonne]

Day Four: Our Last Full Day on the Ship

We slept in until 7:45, and we weren't really ready to get up even then but we didn't want to waste the day sleeping. About 9:00 we went up to the Windjammer for breakfast, there were a lot of dirty tables and crew members were not cleaning them very fast at all. Sometimes we would only see one or two crew members, and even when there were several it seemed like they were more interested in chatting with people rather than cleaning the tables. We relaxed in loungers for a little while, then at 11:00 we checked out a couple beach towels, grabbed our beach back, and headed to a tender boat to go over to Coco Cay. The weather was beautiful today, very warm (80-ish), sunny and humid.

 

 

 

We walked awhile, then found a couple lounge chairs and hammock and relaxed awhile. It was so nice to look up and see palm trees swaying in the breeze, knowing it was super cold back home in Michigan.

 

 

I enjoyed seeing the chickens, and the resident cat Coco. The cat was super friendly and enjoyed being petted by people and sharing their food.

[Yvonne]

 

We took turns wading in the water. We had thought about renting floats and enjoying those in the water, but what to do with our bag? If it was just towels and a book that would have been fine, but I didn't want to leave my camera. I really think they should have a few areas with lockers for people to rent.

 

I enjoyed relaxing in the hammock after getting a CocoLoco drink from the bar. Those are delicious!!

 

My husband was getting hungry so we started walking up to the BBQ area so he could get something to eat.

 

 

About 2:00 we started making our way back to the tender to go back to the ship.

 

[linkerbink]

Thanks for the review and photos so far, Yvonne. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Yvonne]

After getting back on the ship we went to the Windjammer before they stopped serving at 3:00 so I could have some lunch, and my husband had a plate as well. He loves to eat on a cruise. :) Then we went to the Viking Crown Lounge to read, and went back to the room about 5:00 to take a short nap as the sun had made us very sleepy. We also got most of our packing done and filled out all the paperwork and the tip envelope for the room steward.

 

About 6:30 we went to deck #7 for "one more walk" around the ship then went up to the buffet for supper. I didn't write down what I had, but I know it was good. :) We are not super picky people, and if I don't have to cook it or clean up then I'm happy as a clam. :)

 

We went to the Sound of Music Theater for the Farewell Show, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" which was a brand new production show premiering that night the the Monarch singers and dancers. The theater filled up fast, even though there were two shows that night. Although we didn't know some of the songs, we still enjoyed the show, and I loved the costumes.

 

After the show ended, we stayed to wait for the 10:30 "adult show" with the comedian Phil Palisoul and really enjoyed it. There was a little language in the show, but nothing we found offensive.

 

One thing I need to mention, there were only 150 children on this sailing. I think that is the fewest amount of children we'd ever seen on a cruise before. We rarely saw any children ever.

 

We went back to our room after Phil's show, we were just too tired to do any bar hopping that night. Our room steward had made a dog for us that night.

[Yvonne]

Final Morning: Disembarking

We slept well last night, but we were up at 5:30 to get ready to disembark and went to the buffet one more time for breakfast. About 7:30 we went down to Claude's as we were doing the self-assist disembarking. We'd never done that before so I was actually very surprised to see so many, with lots of luggage, doing it. The dining room was full, so we had to stand outside and wait. The line finally started moving and we went through customs super fast and we were able to skip baggage claim and we were off the ship and in our car and on our way by 8:00 a.m.

 

For an inexpensive cruise we definitely felt we got our money's worth. Yes, the ship is 20 years old but we didn't find any excessive wear and tear and we saw crew members constantly cleaning and polishing. Crew members were extremely friendly and helpful. We wouldn't hesitate to sail on the Monarch again if we had the opportunity.

 

[Yvonne]

 

 

 

 

This is the director, Drew Devine. We were sitting quite far away so I had to zoom in so it's not a good quality picture.

 

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)

[linkerbink]

Did you pre-pay your tips? If not, how do you tip the wait staff if you didn't go to the MDR at all?

[Yvonne]

Did you pre-pay your tips? If not, how do you tip the wait staff if you didn't go to the MDR at all?

 

Yes, because we chose to do MTD we had to pre-pay our tips.

 

I almost wish we would have tried MTD once more, so I could say I experienced it but after the first night's disappointment we were happy with the Windjammer. Plus I read here that the tables for two in the dining room for MTD are so close that even the waiter's can't get through. Tables in the Windjammer have more space between them so we enjoyed that as well.

 

I think they should have either Claude's or Vincent's dining room strictly for MTD, instead of just offering a few tables, and the other for traditional dining.

[Purplehaze21]

TYVM for the wonderful review!

Me and my daughter are taking this cruise soon.

It will be her 1st so shes soaking in all reviews and pics.

[Texas Teen]

Thanks for the great pictures!

[linkerbink]

Yes, because we chose to do MTD we had to pre-pay our tips.

 

Oops....I forgot that you started going to the Windjammer because of the MTD slipup! We've never done MTD nor pre-paid our tips, so I was just wondering how people handled them if the decided not to eat in the MDR.

[Lynne95]

Great review, thanks for sharing!

[Eng23]

I was just wondering, you mentioned that on departure day you saw the Freedom of the Seas, a Carnival ship, and a Disney ship, was this in addition to the Monarch. If I remember correctly there are only three cruise terminal buildings at Port Canaveral. Freedom of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas use the same terminal building usually. So I was wondering if there were four ships in port at the same time. I'm sorry just disregard this, I reread the original post and see that you saw these ships depart the day before while you were having dinner at Fishlips.

[alexkrn46]

Very nice review, thanks for posting.

[Kevdog71]

Really enjoyed your review. Brings back fond memories sailing on the Monarch (gulp!) nearly 16 years ago...

[cruising grandma]

Thanks for the great, informative review and photos! I'll be cruising Monarch later this month for a three night. My other cruise on Monarch was two years ago.

[KellyJean]

We were on the Monarch with you! Good times!

[cj'smom]

Enjoyed reading the review. My family is on a 4 night on the Monarch in April. Would you be able to scan and post your daily Compasses from this cruise? (Or I could send you my e-mail.) That would be a big help in planning. Thanks.