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Any Recent Monarch Sailors Want To Share A Review?


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I am sailing on September 5th, the 4 day Baja Mexico Trip. Anyone go recently? Do online check in? Buy tequila anywhere specific in Ensenada? Do something fun and out of the ordinary? Any and all info would be great. Thank you in advance.

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Nooo, we didn't post a review. We have sailed this itinerary on several occaisions. I can share photos with commentary, though :) One of our tablemates was going to stock his bar with purchases in Ensenada, and ended up buying on the ship, because it was cheaper. The exception was Tequila, it was cheaper to buy the Tequila in Mexico, it is widely available. I can probably answer questions.

 

Photos are at the link below:

 

http://www.herbytoys.com/monarch_05.htm

 

Have a great time. We are heading back to Florida and the Caribbean in October :D

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I sailed the Monarch in January (3 day). It was a nice little ship. I say little since I had just sailed the Mariner in September, so the Monarch was a pipsqueak in comparison!

 

Okay, let's get the "negatives" out of the way. There wasn't anywhere near as much to do on the ship as on the Mariner (obviously). Our cabin was a porthole view and was smaller than our Promenade cabin on the Mariner. The 3 and 4 day cruises are the perfect length for being in a small space like that. There wasn't much room to unpack your stuff if you have more than two people to a cabin (I went with my singles group at church and some of our people were 3 to a cabin and they were forever bumping into each other and had no room to unpack everything). So please pack light. That's pretty much it for the negatives.

 

The "positives" are that although it is an older ship they are still keeping it up in good shape. The disco lounge is spacious with a huge dance floor and the sound system was great. The shopping was standard RCCL. They offered dance lessons in Bolero's I think it was and it was quite popular. The service in the dining room was excellent. The food was good, although I did find the desserts at time to be rather bland. The gym is stocked with the usual stuff and spacious. I used the sauna for the first time and REALLY enjoyed that! The showers in the gym locker rooms are larger than the one in your cabin so enjoy it after your workout.

 

I did as much online check in as possible in advance, but the new system wasn't up and running in January. Getting to the port was easy--just followed the Mapquest directions and we were there. We pulled up in front of the loading/unloading area to drop off the luggage then I drove the car to the parking lot. We were there at 11 a.m., I think, so got a great parking place and breezed through check in. They gave us a number and once they started calling numbers at noon we were through the security scan within ten minutes, then stood outside in line for our Sail & Sign photos to be taken. Once that is done you can board the ship! My cabin was clear to drop my stuff into, met my steward and then joined my friends for lunch upstairs in the Windjammer. Food there was great, especially the pizza.

 

Didn't get off the ship in Ensenada, just stayed onboard with a friend and did an afternoon long workout and time in the sauna. I didn't buy anything special or booze on this cruise, although I did break down and buy the rum cakes. Yummmmmmmm! That's pretty much it!

 

Theresa

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Thanks PBHunt..........some great photos. I appreciate your sharing.

 

10 of us will be aborad on the 29th. Seems like it's just around the corner. I think our adult children (all over 30) have plans to visit the zoo in San Diego. Is there something special that many agree on to do on Catalina Island. It's been over 30 years since I have been there.

 

Also, in Ensenada, I seem to be the only one that wants to see Foxploration. Any comments?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Rick

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Drop off area at Port? If you get there early, say around 11am, do you park and then take luggage to ship or waht is this drop off area, is it easy to do? Do you go just past it to parking?

Thanks for cruise info we sail Sept 5th, in a Superior Oceanview Room.

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A lot of folks we talked to had visited the San Diego zoo, and enjoyed it. Golf cart rentals seem to be the big thing in Catalina, we thought the Avalon Casino tour was interesting. We have never taken tours in Ensenada, but the winery tour was popular.

 

Formal dress on this cruise is much less formal than 7 nights and the Caribbean. For men ties only, or sport jackets only seemed to be common. Some wore suits, I don't recall many tuxes.

 

The parking lot is right next to the pier building. Someone local would need to answer parking questions, since we fly down and take the shuttle. :)

 

The cabins are very, very small. We reserve a junior suite, which is about the size of an E-1 on newer ships.

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The San Diego Zoo is a wonderful place. I resently spent a day there while visiting for a few days. Take the package that includes the tour bus, express bus (you will be able to jump on an off all day, and the arial tram. The San Diego Zoo is very very large and very very hilly. Try to see the Panda exhibit. By the time you reach the far end of the zoo you will be glad to take the tram back to the front area!!!

 

The Midway is also available to tour. DH loved it .. but he is an old Navy Salt.

 

San Diego has a Tourist Trolly that will take you on a circle tour (2 hours). You can get off and on at any stop. I don't know how much this is....sorry.

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We were on The Monarch last week. We realized that she is an older and smaller ship so our expectations weren't too high. We still had a great time, however we were spolied by cruising on newer ships. Our reasoning for taking a shorter cruise this year was to obtain Platinum status :D

 

Positives:

 

We registered online it was very easy, we left our car at 11:35 and were in our cabin by 12:30.

 

On Friday we left our cabin at 8:10 and were back in the car by 8:36, that still amazes me.

 

Except for a few occasions the staff was friendly and accommodating.

 

I won $201 playing bingo.

 

Negatives:

 

As soon as the ship left the pier there was a sewer smell in our bathroom (Junior Suite), the smell stayed with us the entire cruise :D

 

At least our cabin wasn't flooded (Wendy if you read this, I'm sure they would love to hear your story!) It's amazing how many fans they have onboard lol.

 

We had to put up with a crying child in the casino (hmmm, I thought there was an age limit). After 15 minutes I asked the bartender to ask them to leave, he would not! He said "awe come on, they are just trying to enjoy some family time" Unreal :mad:

 

Everything seemed dirty me, especially our cabin. On the first day we showed some "items" to our steward and asked him to at least vacuum and clean the bathroom floor the next day, which he did.

 

Hope this helps!

 

###

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Monarch cruises are very casual. We've been on the weekend 3-night and a midweek 3-day night that was a special itinerary so they could have a 4-night New Year's Eve cruise right after ours.

 

Most of the male passengers we saw wore khakis or jeans on the casual nights with polo or buttondown shirts. Also some T-shirts. On formal night, there were just a handful of men in tuxes (DH was one of them:D ), a few suits and mostly sportcoats & ties. Women were also causally attired, not too many long dresses on formal night either.

 

There is a Captain's Gala even on the 3-night, and most of the attendees were pretty dressed up. A lot of pax don't go. We have a blast dancing to the Monarch orchestra for 1/2 an hour or so before the Captain's welcome speech. We'll be hearing it for the 3rd time in a few weeks!

 

As for the parking lot, it's $11/day. You can either drop off your bags in front of the terminal or park first and bring them in. We generally do the latter. In the summer, the lot isn't too full because Monarch & the Disney Magic are the only 2 ships sailing. When the other ships come back from Alaska in late September, you might have to use the auxiliary lot. In that case, unless you just have carryon size bags you might want to drop the bags off w/the porters and then park your car. It's a bit of a hike and I've not seen a shuttle bus.

 

Phoenix, which cabin were you in? We're going on the 9/2 cruise, also in a JS. Hoping not to choke on fumes!:eek:

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Iceman,

 

I posted a review a couple of weeks ago about our Monarch cruise on 7/11/05. We really enjoyed our cruise. We felt we had plenty of space in our cabin actually didn't even use all the shelves and drawers we had. We had an oceanview room which made it nice. Food was pretty good. Service was great. I didn't really care for Ensenada but my husband enjoyed it. I love Catalina. I suggest you rent a golf cart and tool around the island it's alot of fun. There's plenty to do on the ship, lots of different games to participate in if you want, lots of lounges to hang out in etc.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Lori:)

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There's not a lot of off the wall stuff to do in Catalina. We walked up to the Wrigley Botanical Gardens, which turned out to be about a 5 mile hike round trip. Several of our fellow passengers remarked later that they thought we were insane as they passed us in their golf carts. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and we rationalized a lot of caloric consumption that evening!

 

You really don't need to book a ship's excursion on Catalina. You can walk to the Casino and take their guided tour without paying the premium the ship will charge. Or you can take a bus trip to the interior - again, you can walk to the bus depot from the tender point and buy your ticket at the ticket office there. You'll go by the airport to the "point" between Avalon and Twin Harbors, then on the way back stop at the Wrigley farm for a show by their Arabians (horses:D ). It's quite a pleasant way to spend 4-5 hours.

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We had a blast! There were 44 of us and we went non stop the whole time.

Check out the pool parties in the afternoon and hit the dance floor at night, Don't forget the comedy show, great, but not for kids.

Have fun

laura

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This past July was my third time on this cruise. It is what it is, a small, old ship in good shape perfect for a quick little "get away" cruise. I wouldn't fly across the country for this cruise and I would only do it if the price is right. Sometimes you just can't get away long enough for a full cruise with all the perks.

 

As for the ports, I love just being in Catalina, San Diego has loads to do and Ensenada is much cleaner than I thought it would be. I have done the Fox Studio tour and it was ok, although the drive up to Rosarita along the coast was the best part...and it is beautiful. I really enjoyed the wine tour, pretty scenery and a great way to spend the day.

 

As others have said, this is a much more informal cruise than a 7 day. Don't miss the Dueling Pianos, although they play off the crowd so if the crowd isn't fun, they won't be.

 

Have fun!

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Iceman: We will be on the same cruise.... it will be our 7th cruise, the third of which of the short variety. Just remember the cruise will be what we make it, we intend on partying the entire time. After the cruise we are heading for Vegas for a couple of days more of partying and gambling.

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We did the 4 day in March on the Monarch. I can tell you that if you have been on a newer ship (we had just sailed the Voyager and Princess Star) it is hard to get used to an older ship. We had fun though. We didn't book any excursions through the ship. Since I grew up in SD, that was just a ship day for us. I would recommend the SD Zoo if you have never gone, It is well worth it. In Catalina, we rented the Golf cart and had so much fun. We went to the Wrigly Gardens and paid the $5.00 to get in. Unless you are into the plants and nature, we didn't enjoy it too much. But we did enjoy Catalina, we walked around the shops and had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. It was fun. We have been to Ensenada a few times, but decided to do the La Bufadora tour offered off the ship. We hadn't been in years and it was raining the whole day, which made the blow hole great. The water really sprays high. I didn't find anyone in the marketplace to be pushy, so it was a nice day.

We went and checked out the spa, but decided not to do it, we hung out by the pool and watched the games. Go to the Quest, it is really fun.

The food was fine to us, we are not picky, I agree the deserts could be a little bit tastier, but hey I wasn't cooking or cleaning up so I enjoyed all. The bar service is a bit?????, we had to send several drinks back because they had no alcohol.

I will go on the Monarch again.

I hope you have a fun cruise.

 

kathy

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