Back from first RCI cruise on the Monarch

[SuiteCruiser]

Hi All,

 

Well we're back. I appreciate all of the information you all gave us prior to our first venture into RCI territory. Of course, having only sailed Carnival before, it's difficult not to compare the two, so here are our thoughts.

 

Please keep in mind that we were travelling in a grand suite, so I don't know what the regular cabins were like and also that my husband is a trained chef and that the food is probably a bigger issue for us than others, not for the quantity, but quality.

 

We arrived at the port at 11:40 AM and they announced priority embarkation as we walked through the door, so our timing was excellent. We proceeded to the special lounge because of our suite tags, and everything was a breeze. I would say this whole process was top notch.

 

We boarded and were told to wait until 1:00 to go to our cabins. This was fine, though our last CCL cruise we were able to drop our carryons into the cabin while they finished preparing it, but it wasn't too big a deal to lug it around.

 

We headed to the Windjammer and found a spot and had some lunch. I really liked the fact that both iced tea and lemonade were available, only water and iced tea were complimentary in the dining room on CCL. I also liked the fact that the staff had a cart they pushed around to refill your drinks. I thought this was a nice touch.

 

We went to our cabin when it was ready. It was quite nice, spacious and clean. The beds are horribly uncomfortable though. I did ask for an eggcrate topper and the steward put it on the fold out couch instead of our bed, and after sitting on the fold out I'm really glad he did! I still slept like a baby, I love the motion, it rocks me to sleep, but the beds on CCL are incredibly comfortable, these are really bad!

 

The balcony was huge, with a lounge chair and two chairs. The design of the ship, though, has the lifeboats underneath, so you can't look down directly to the sea. You are overlooking the boats and the promenade deck. The overhang is also jutting out about 8 feet, so you don't ever get any sun on your balcony. As the high temps for this cruise were in the 60s, we didn't really get much use out of the balcony. Certainly that is no one's fault, just stating it for the record.

 

We left the cabin and wandered around the ship. I did like the decor, obviously, the CCL ships are much brighter and gaudier, which is a matter of taste. I don't want to comment too much about the ship itself, as I knew getting on that it was older and had heard about the carpets and stains, etc. It was clean, though I didn't notice the constant work of keeping things up that I've noticed on my CCL cruises. They may save things up for drydock more than touching things up on the fly, but I don't know that for sure.

 

This probably won't affect too many people, but the ceiling height everywhere other than the lounges and dining rooms and centrum are all 7feet. When you are 6'9" like my husband is, that means walking hunched over throughout the ship as there are smoke detectors, lights, etc everywhere. It was like an obstacle course. Neither he nor I (I'm 6'2") could stand up in the bath/shower combo in our cabin. I could get by showering quickly, but he had to sit in the bath and use the hand held shower head because the ceiling was 8 inches shorter than he is. There were a surprisingly large amount of very tall men onboard, this will probably keep them repeating this cruise.

 

The infamous smells were there in various areas around the ship. I didn't use the washrooms on the main centrum area, but my husband took the boys in there a few times throughout the 4 days and he said he was surprised at how smelly and dirty it was in there. That surprised me.

 

We had dinner in the dining room each night. That has always been something we do, we aren't buffet lovers and dinners have always been a big part of our cruising experience.

 

We were really disappointed in both the quality and the presentation of the food. In the past, we've been known to order a couple of different appetizers because we just couldn't choose one and this time we didn't have that problem at all. The choice was much different. On CCL you have your soups (2) then you have your appetizers (3-4) then you have your salads (2) then you have your entrees (4-5) to choose from. On this cruise, you had 4 starters to choose from which included the 2 soups, and there was one salad selection. It may not sound like a big difference, but the appetizers are often the most interesting and different items which are good to try.

 

The presentation was very poor, it appeared that they didn't make any attempt to spruce it up, it was just plated. An example is the shrimp cocktail that came on a small plate with 4 shrimp lying on a piece of lettuce. On CCL we had that in a shrimp cocktail dish with the sauce in the center. Again, it may only be our perspective, but it looked like they didn't make an effort.

 

The food was okay. Nowhere near as good as on our CCL cruises. We tried many different things and some were perfectly fine, others not so much. I understand that food is a subjective thing, and that what we like others may not. I really enjoyed the onion tart on the starters on the 3rd night, but otherwise we never once said "OMG...this is soooo good" like we have on all of our other cruises.

 

We like to have wine with dinner and the service for that was really slow. We usually received our wine after the first course was finished. Perhaps introducing a sommelier would help? The waiter and assistant were very nice and they did a great job. I liked the idea of the head waiters who actually come by and check on you, rather than the one Maitre D that appears on the last night with his hand out on the CCL cruises.

 

The clientele was exactly the same on both lines. Good mix from babies to senior seniors. There were some young loud drunks on this one, but it was spring break in Arizona, so that was to be expected.

 

The dress code was practically non-existent. On formal night I would say 25% were truly formal (in our late seating dining room) and another 25% were semi-formal (some ties and khakis, no jacket) but the other 50% were casual. Yes, there were jeans in the dining room on formal night. No, it didn't ruin my vacation, but I don't understand why there are rules if no one is going to enforce them? I know, that's a whole other topic and that dead horse has been beaten into a second death.

 

On a regular night, there were actually jean shorts in the dining room. Lots of shorts, lots of t-shirts. Of course, I can only speak of my own experience, the other dining room and the other seating may have been all in tuxes and cocktail dresses:).

 

We didn't go to the shows and we were with our 7 year olds and didn't think they'd be all that interested, so I can't comment on them. We did do a few trivia-type games, and that was fun. We actually won a gold medal at one, ok my husband did, and I was on his team. It's a nice souvenir to have.

 

The kids went to AO for an afternoon and for a bit in the evenings twice and LOVED it! They really had a blast, I think they do an awesome job with that.

 

The ports were fun. We went to Sea World in San Diego, on our own. It was $60.00 cheaper than going on the excursion (for 4 of us) and the cab ride was $20.00 each way, so we were a bit ahead. As well, we could leave the park when we wanted, so we liked that flexibility. We had a blast there.

 

On Catalina, we did the golf cart rental and we enjoyed that. We were pleasantly surprised at how undeveloped the island is. Lots and lots of green and beautiful views. Very nice way to spend a day.

 

We almost didn't leave the ship in Ensenada as we'd heard such bad things about it, but were pleasantly surprised. We took the shuttle ($3.00 round trip) into town and wandered the strip there. It really was much like any other town in Mexico. The strip was for tourists and the vendors sold the same rings every ten feet and leather, and masks, etc. There were some people with their hands out, and little kids selling chiclets, but that's the way it is there. I've been to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, it's pretty similar wherever you go. We had lunch at Mango Mango on the strip and it was really good. Margaritas were tasty too!

 

Debarkation was a breeze, the best I've ever experienced. On all of my other cruises I've had my passport held, as I'm Canadian and we've had to wait in a separate lounge very early, and clear customs together and get my passport back. This time I kept my passport and we all left when our luggage tag colours were called. Straight forward, simple and very well done.

 

All in all we had a great family holiday. I do have to say that all of the comments on this board about how RCI is a step up from Carnival really surprise me though. I think Carnival does a better job on the food (by far), the bar service, the amount and quality of organized activities, the beds, dining room lunches (only open one day on the 4 day cruise on RCL), people who follow the dress code. I'd say RCI did a better job on embarkation and debarkation, decor, AO (though we never used Camp Carnival), and onion tarts.

 

I am booked onto another RCI cruise on the Explorer which I am sure will be a different experience again. So far, though, the experience was better on CCL, but that doesn't mean we didn't really enjoy this trip, it just wasn't the "step up" that I keep hearing about. We had this discussion with others on the ship and the consensus was the same. Maybe CCL has improved since the people who don't like it sailed last, or maybe RCI's going a bit downhill...

 

...it was still much, much better than spending the time in the office.

[Coralc]

Great review, thanks for sharing! :) Wow. You flew all the way from Canada for a 4 night Monarch cruise. Have you ever taken the 4 night Carnival cruise with the same itinerary?

[PhoenixCruiser]

We had pretty much the same experience as you last August on the Monarch. We too could not get over how short she was! Getting on and off the ship was the best part of our vacation, could not believe how fast it was and we don't have passports.

 

She is one of the oldest and smallest ships in the fleet, I don't think you'll be disappointed on the Explorer.

 

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[mohavemommy]

Having sailed both Carnival and RCI too, I still prefer RCI. To us, the staff make a big difference. I believe the automatic tipping on CCL has made the service drop. We also prefer the decor on RCI.

Thanks for the Monarch review. We will be sailing on her next month in a Grand Suite. Will you be posting pics? We would love to see how they look now.

[montekat]

Absolutely have to agree with you on the differences between CCL and RCI. We were unimpressed with the food, CCL is far better. We felt the service was comparable. CCL has better entertainment and more shows. RCI wins with their past guest rewards, however I understand CCL will be starting something similar in the future.

 

I think one problem we had with RCI is that we were told it was a "step up", etc, etc. so our expectations were too high. Yes, the decor is much nicer but for the money, CCL wins hands down. We will sail RCI when the price is right or there is a good itinerary we really want to do (i.e. the Transatlantic).

[SuiteCruiser]

Hello All, thanks for the replies.

 

I did use the prepaid gratuities for RCL too, it's just easier and if anyone goes above & beyond, then you can tip extra. I think it helps protect from the people who stiff them on the tips, and there are plenty who do.

 

On CCL, you can remove the tips from your account and hand them over yourself if you wish, so it's basically the same thing.

 

We've never done the Paradise sailing out of LA. I believe there was one stop less on that route AND we were going to be in the penthouse suite for the same price as the Grand Suite, but the decor was way too loud for our taste!

 

We actually drove to Albany, flew to LA on the Saturday and had a couple of days in LA, then cruised Monday - Friday and flew home, so it really was a full week's vacation. It was the kids' spring break.

 

I do look forward to the Explorer, and please know that I expected what I got out of the ship itself as I know it's one of the oldest in the fleet.

 

I am still feeling the motion of the ocean. The last night was pretty rocky and I don't have my land legs yet!

[lephysteria]

Hi,

I've done the Ecstasy for the 4 day cruise and the Monarch for the 4 day cruise. I like CCL and I like RCCL. I've had good and bad everything on both lines, but overall I like the food better on RCCL than Carnival. But that was just on my sailing ... its all subjective ..... and it is a crap shoot .... granted the odds are very favorable, but still you're taking a chance and only on a select few cruises has everything been perfect. :)

 

I still had a great time though, and I appreciate your review. It is nice to see honest opinions of what you've experienced and I hope you cruise soon. Stay tuned to these boards because these are the neatest, most nicest cruise freaks you'll ever want to meet :)