Our Review for the Monarch of the Seas – June 29th

[jhmoore143]

First off - I wanted to be able to post photos as well, but I am having issues uploading to photobucket at work - so they will have to wait. Here is the text version - it is pretty long . . .

 

 

Monarch of the Seas – June 29th.

 

This being our first cruise, we decided to take a short 4 day cruise to make sure I like it since I am prone to motion sickness. We felt a three day was too short and a 7 day was too long in the event I got sick.

 

We headed down to Cocoa Beach on Sunday and stayed at the Hampton Inn, thanks to a Hilton rewards stay. That evening we went to Grills Seafood and Tiki Bar to see the Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Sensation and Disney Wonder off. The food there was great and not that expensive for what we got. My wife had the South Seas Spicy Shrimp (S.S.S.S.) and I had the Shrimp Scampi in traditional sauce. Now, I used to work in a restaurant and made shrimp scampi almost every night I worked, and this was the closest I have ever had to what I used to make. It was the traditional garlic butter / olive oil sauce versus the cream based sauces many restaurants serve now. Although the creamy sauce was available, I took a chance on the “traditional” hoping it was what I thought. I am very happy it was – and I will not even look at a menu WHEN we go there again on our next cruise out of Port Canaveral.

 

Monday Morning we had a wonderful complimentary hot breakfast bar at the hotel which included Belgium Waffles, omelets, French toast sticks, sausage, bacon, cold and hot cereal, fruits – definitely a worthwhile breakfast since we were not going to see lunch until after Noon (or so we thought).

 

We decided to take the shuttle from the hotel to the port. The cost was $20 for two of us, round trip. Not a bad deal when you think about not having to worry about the hassle of parking and paying for the parking. I know others are Free (like the Radisson), but since the hotel stay was free, what’s $20? The shuttle was supposed to show up at 11:30 but the driver showed up closer to 11:00 and since we (my wife, I and another family of 4) were all sitting in the waiting area ready to go – so we loaded up and left.

 

We got to the pier (?) and through security and up the stairs to check in. At the area to check in, I saw two different sections with signs stating which decks were to go to which sections. I saw the line that said "Decks 4, (something) and 10. (I didn’t bother to remember the other decks included with this - but I think it was 6). I said this is where we need to go and started walking down that line. There was about 20 or so people ahead of us in line. The lady (directing people) heard me say we are in this line because we are on deck 10 - and directed me to another line with no one in it. We were right up to the counter and checked in right away. We waited about 5 minutes from there to get on board and were pretty much the first ones in the Windjammer for lunch at 11:37 (I know the time because I posted on my Facebook account). . .

 

Since I have been reading these boards since we signed up for the cruise back in February, I was really looking forward to trying the Honey Stung Chicken. I had that with some salad, mashed potatoes and a piece of strawberry mousse pie I stole from my wife’s plate. Being one of the first one’s in the Windjammer, the chicken I got was moist and pretty good. It wasn’t great. It actually reminded me of the traditional recipe of KFC. By now, people were starting to pile in, so we decided to check out most of the ship. At 1:00 they let us down the halls where the cabins were (they were preventing people from going any time sooner than that). We got into our cabin to see the Anniversary decorations up and the wine package my wife ordered in a bucket of ice. Since we carried one bag on board with a 12 pack of water, I removed all the water and soda from the fridge and put our water in it. We then went out to check out Claude’s to see about dining. We had signed up for MTD, but our card said 6:00, table 30. When we got there, the head waiter (sorry, don’t remember his name) changed us to MTD. We explained that we were fine with 6:00 dinner and sharing a table with others, but on Tuesday night, if possible, could we have a table for two for our anniversary. He said not a problem and led us to table 244 (a table for two) and with our approval of the table, reserved it for us for 6:00 each and every night. (I know, why bother with MTD when it is the same seating as the first dinner time) It worked for us and we will probably do this again. I don’t mind having breakfast or lunch with a larger table, but I would prefer an intimate table for two for dinner. Our waiter and assistant waiter (Armiee and Manuel) were great. I only say “great” because right now I can’t think of an adjective that is better. . . Monday night we had the shrimp cocktail, the Black Angus steak with the same wonderful mashed potatoes I had in the windjammer for lunch. According to the menu, we had a choice of mashed potatoes, baked potato or rice pilaf. Armiee asked us if we had lunch in the windjammer and I made the comment about how good the mashed potatoes were and that’s what she brought. For dessert, I had the dark chocolate cake and my wife had ice cream.

 

Sidebar – when we were taken to our table for dinner, I noticed the one chair faced the windows and I saw the water line going up and down the window so I decided to sit in the other chair facing the center of the dining room.

 

Ok – I got a head of myself for a minute. For sail-away, we went all the way up to the upper most top deck (two above the pool) in the front of the ship. It was an interesting sail-away because I went from the side where everyone was waving (where Grills, Suncruz, etc were) to the other side. On my way back to the right side of the ship, the horn blew – just as I was under it. To say it was loud is an understatement.

 

Ok, back to where I was after dinner. That night we checked out the welcome aboard show and comedian – who was pretty funny and didn’t care about being politically correct. After the show, we checked out the “track” on deck 7 and my wife looked overboard and saw beautiful blue waters. I tried to look down, but couldn’t. If I did, I knew I would get sick. This was close to 9:00 PM so we decided to hit the fitness room. We started on the stationary bikes, but due to the curve of the window – and the fact it was dark outside, the reflection of the fitness room in the window was one that reminded me of a funhouse mirror. After 15 minutes of peddling, I started getting queasy, so I went to the room, took a Marezine and went back to the fitness room and moved onto the actual weight machines in the center of the room. That was much better for the duration of the work out. I was still feeling the ship roll from side to side – but it wasn’t as bad as that sounds. To me, it was amplified because I was worried about being sick.

 

When the fitness room closed at 10:00PM, we went down to the “stores” because earlier we were given a raffle ticket to be drawn at 10:15PM. I gave my wife my ticket and sat in one of the chairs in the center area trying to tell myself I wasn’t going to get sick, even though I could still “feel” the ship rock. When we didn’t win anything, we went over to the railing looking down to the 4th deck to get ready for the Disco Review. That was entertaining to say the least. We won’t talk about the Indian from the “Village People” . . .

 

After that, we went back to the room. In our previous trips to the room, I became fascinated with the “Location Channel” on the television. The channel that shows the current GPS coordinates, the speed, distance traveled and water depth. I was floored when I saw the depth at one point over 20,000 feet. I know there are trenches in the oceans that can get that deep and deeper, I just never knew there was one so “close” to the coast of Florida.

 

That first night, I had a very bizarre dream. I dreamt I was on the back of the ship watching shooting stars landing in the waters behind the ship. One star landed so close that it knocked the ship of course. What can I say, I would rather have weird dreams than be sick. Well, that dream wasn’t too far off in reality. No, there weren’t any shooting stars, but there was a pretty bad storm with some pretty good lightening throughout the night. It was bad enough that the Captain decided not the try Cococay and to use that as our day at sea – and go right onto Nassau.

 

That actually worked out better for me. I was able to get my “sea-legs” and by that afternoon, I was standing at the railing looking over at the beautiful blue waters my wife was telling me about the night before. From then on out, I didn’t feel the ship “rock” or was bothered by any of the movement on board.

 

We went to Vincent’s Dining room for breakfast and had a delicious “classic” breakfast. Two eggs of your choice. Bacon or Sausage, hash browns and toast.

 

I did have a soft-serve ice cream cone from the machine at the back of the windjammer, so yes – it is there. Being overcast, I didn’t worry about much and we went up to the deck right above the pool (the one that looks down on the pool) and laid out for about an hour. Well, that wasn’t a good move because my legs got burned pretty well. I got up and decided to check out the casino. I played the slots with no luck, but on the video poker game, I hit a straight backed with the very next deal with a flush. I earned (I can’t say I won since I didn’t cash out) about $13 total between those two hands. Not bad for only playing $3.

 

We went back to Vincent’s for lunch as well. I had the Yakatori and the “chose your own” salad bar. That bowl of salad was wonderful!!! I will be doing that again as well. The Yakatori was very tasty as well. My wife had the Singapore Noodles with chicken and shrimp. Her only complaint was that the chicken and shrimp were very small.

 

After lunch we walked the track for about 4 laps (3 ½ = 1 mile according to the sign). Then we went to the casino where my wife got hooked on the game with the quarters on the sliding trays. She was just standing by it and quarters fell, so she started playing it. By the end of the cruise, who knows how many quarters actually fell for her, but she did get one of the $5 bills and one of the $20 bills to drop for her.

 

That night for dinner I had the Lobster Bisque (excellent, by the way) the sirloin filet and a strawberry cheesecake. My wife had the shrimp cocktail, the sirloin and vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce on it. Armiee was very good about getting everything just right. When my wife questioned about the vegetables, Armiee brought out a second plate of just vegetables – and continued to do so each night after that.

 

I read a post on the fact that you had to initiate the formal photos and the regular photographer was nowhere to be found. Well, that was not the case on this trip. All we had to do was walk past the formal setting and we were asked if we wanted our pictures. There were many times we politely declined (like on Cococay when we were walking with snorkel gear in hand towards the water). . .

 

We were supposed to get into Nassau at 6:00PM (according to the first announcement) then it changed to 7:00PM – but when all was said and done, we were finally cleared to leave the ship at 10:00PM. We decided to not go off since nothing would be open except maybe Senior Frogs which we had no desire to go to.

 

Wednesday morning we got up and went to Vincent’s again for breakfast. She had the classic again and I had the Eggs Benedict. Then we went out to explore the town. We chose not the get our picture taken with the pirates as we got off the boat. We are from Fernandina Beach and we have a “Pirate” Festival (actually called the Isle of Eight Flags, Shrimp Festival) every year, so getting your picture taken with a pirate is no big deal. We went to Atlantis to check out the aquarium. The free parts were impressive. Saw some Southern Stingrays and a Manta Ray. We decided to pay for the rest of it and The Dig. That part wasn’t really worth the cash, but from there we went to the Predator Lagoon and Stingray Lagoon. That made up for it – at least for me it did. In the predator lagoon, we saw hammerheads and Sawfish. In the stingray lagoon, there were at least 30 rays (looked like golden) just swimming around in a herd. Right next to that was a smaller “pool” where obviously young ones were. These were no bigger than maybe a foot across.

 

We left Atlantis and were dropped off (by cab) a block away from Bay Street. We decided to check out the stores to see if there was something we wanted to buy before we got back on the ship later that afternoon. From there we went to the Hard Rock Café, had a drink and checked out the supposedly “free” WI-FI. Wanted to check in with the kid back home. Apparently, the Hard Rock no longer offers free WI-FI, but out on the street, just in front of it you can jump on to an unsecured WI-FI access point so it worked out. While at the Hard Rock, we asked which direction to Ardastra Gardens and about how far. The bartender said it was “about a mile, maybe less”. Well, we walk about a mile and a half each night so we thought “no big deal”. Well, in reality it is closer to 2 ½ or 3 miles (if not further). By the time we got to the intersection to the road leading up to Ardastra Gardens, it was about 12:30 or so, so we decided to have lunch first. Again, thanks to this board, I read some good things about Goldies so we went there. My wife had the cracked Lobster and I had the cracked Conch - and we shared. I have to say, both were delicious, but if I had to choose next time, I would have to go with the cracked lobster. From there we went to Ardastra Gardens and caught the Lory Feedings and the Marching Flamingo show. We decided to take the #10 bus back to town, went to the stores bought what we wanted, went back to the Hard Rock for another drink and more shopping and were back on the ship by 4:45.

 

We were met at the dining room door by Armiee and she took us to our table herself and asked us about our day. Wednesday night was Prime Rib, so we had that with the Spinach Salad starter and Chocolate Cherry cake for dessert. All of it was delicious. The Au Jus was thicker than a standard broth type with some really good flavor.

 

That night there was the pool party – midnight buffet and ice carving. He carved a very good fish out of the ice. Being one who tries not to eat anything past 9 PM, we didn’t have any of the buffets. We did notice that there was an announcement for occupants of two cabins to call the guest relations as late as 10 minutes before we pulled away from Nassau – so I wonder if they missed the ship. . .

 

Thursday morning I did take a Marezine because I wasn’t sure how I would be on the tender over to Cococay. We had breakfast in Vincent’s again this time we both had the classic again. Went down to deck 4 and got in line for the tender. It wasn’t too bad, but then again we were one of the last to get on so I didn’t sit very long before we started moving.

 

On Cococay, the first thing I did was sign out two snorkel vets while my wife found a couple of chairs in somewhat shade. From there we went into the water. . . We started on the right side of the beach area - near the rocks. The water was very shallow there - 2 feet or so. That whole roped off area is - they say from 3 - 15 feet, but I would be shocked it if was any deeper than 10 feet. You have to go out a decent ways to get a good depth to where you are not tripping over the rocks.

 

We went from the right side - out to the first life guard stand to the sunken canon. There we saw some good fish and one Angel Fish swimming around the cannon. From there we went left along the rope line (separating the snorkel area from the jet ski area) to the sunken "wreck". I almost stepped on a beautiful starfish that was about 10 - 12" across. This was about 6 feet of water. My wife warned me and I got some good pictures of it (and the angel fish as well).

 

From there we went left a little ways more to a "floating dock" and rested for about 5 minutes due to always fighting with the clearing of my mask. About 15 yards behind the dock (towards the second lifeguard stand) is the sunken plane. Lots of yellow tail snapper there.

 

Now - here is something I wish I did first - we moved to the last lifeguard stand (with a red umbrella on it - furthest most life guard stand on the left when standing on the beach). There they must feed the fish because once we were there; they all came up to us. We must have been surrounded by 30 - 40 fish all within inches of my mask. . . But the reason I wish we did this first is because we went to the left of the rocks (another set of "Jetties" on the left side of the beach) There the water drops off to about 40 feet. It got much bluer than the normal swimming area and about 5 degrees colder too. But I went out as far as I could (to the rope line) and was in about 40 or so feet of water, just floating face down in the water looking at all the marine life. About 15 - 20 feet below me was a southern stingray just swimming around.

 

Getting out there was a very pretty experience too. Once you felt the water get cooler, you could see the first "shelf" drop about 10 feet. Lots of colorful coral and fish (one very small very bright blue with iridescence blue and yellow spots) just swimming around. The further you go out (towards the rope) the deeper and more marine life you see. If I knew this, I would have foregone the cannon and airplane and spent all my time in the deep area.

 

We were unsure of the beach barbeque, but I have to give RCI credit. It was very well organized and very well laid out. It wasn’t the cluster I was expecting. After lunch we checked out the mini-straw market and then headed back to the ship.

 

That night for dinner, Armiee again met us at the door and took us to our table. We both had the scallop risotto, and then I couldn’t decide between the garlic tiger shrimp or the chicken marsala – so we started with the garlic tiger shrimp and then shared the chicken marsala. For dessert we had the warm chocolate cake.

 

After dinner we went back to the track and walked about six laps around the ship. Then headed to the “You can’t stop the music” review show. (At least I think that’s what it was called). . .

 

Friday morning was the worst of the whole week – because we had to get off the ship. We didn’t think we would have enough time to eat at Vincent’s for a sit-down breakfast and still get to Bolero’s (deck 7) in time for our 8:20 departure so we ate in the Windjammer – only the second time the entire cruise. It wasn’t bad, but we’re glad we utilized the main dining room as much as we did.

 

After breakfast, we went up and found a table to sit at in Boleros. I needed to go down to the Guest Services desk on Deck 4 to confirm that everything was ok with our account and when I got there, I saw the line starting at the doors leading off the ship, up and around Claude’s to in front of the Guest Services and through the elevator area and up the stairs. It was pretty ugly. I tried to go up the stairs to get back to Bolero’s but was stop by a Customs agent saying the stairs are closed and I had to use the elevators. When I finally got on one (there were all crowded) – one family tried to find the end of the line. We stopped at deck 5 – no end in sight. We then stopped at deck 6 and saw that the last person in line was on the landing between the two sets of stairs between decks 6 and 7. Why anyone would chose “express” debarkation is beyond me. We sat comfortably in Bolero’s and our tag color was called at about 8:15 and we were off the ship, through customs, with our bags in hand – back on the shuttle (which made two other stops before the Hampton), loaded up the car with our bags, made a “pit stop” at the Hampton and double checked with the front desk that we didn’t need to do anything else before we left – and were in the car and on the road by 9:10AM . . .

[yogimax]

Wow - what a great review!

 

Thank you!

[arucruzn]

Very nice and detailed review. Thanks for doing such a thorough job. I will be on the Monarch in a couple of weeks, same itinirary, so thai is good help. Was the ship full? I keep checking our sail date, and there is still many cabin's available, although no price drop. (But I can't complain, I think I got it at a very good price...):)

[jhmoore143]

Was the ship full?

 

Officially, I don't know. I kept checking and praying for a price drop or the upgrade fairy, but that never happened. I did see on the RCI webpage that the Thursday before the sail, only 5 cabins were listed.

 

I heard a crew member say it was a sell out, but it was in passing in a conversation - nothing officially stated.

[Philly Steve]

Thanks for the review. One of our fav cruises was aboard Monarch. Glad to hear you got your "sea legs" and no doubt, you'll be ready for a 7-or-10 day cruise next time. :)

[hotrod1954]

First off - I wanted to be able to post photos as well, but I am having issues uploading to photobucket at work - so they will have to wait. Here is the text version - it is pretty long . . .

 

 

Monarch of the Seas – June 29th.

 

This being our first cruise, we decided to take a short 4 day cruise to make sure I like it since I am prone to motion sickness. We felt a three day was too short and a 7 day was too long in the event I got sick.

 

We headed down to Cocoa Beach on Sunday and stayed at the Hampton Inn, thanks to a Hilton rewards stay. That evening we went to Grills Seafood and Tiki Bar to see the Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Sensation and Disney Wonder off. The food there was great and not that expensive for what we got. My wife had the South Seas Spicy Shrimp (S.S.S.S.) and I had the Shrimp Scampi in traditional sauce. Now, I used to work in a restaurant and made shrimp scampi almost every night I worked, and this was the closest I have ever had to what I used to make. It was the traditional garlic butter / olive oil sauce versus the cream based sauces many restaurants serve now. Although the creamy sauce was available, I took a chance on the “traditional” hoping it was what I thought. I am very happy it was – and I will not even look at a menu WHEN we go there again on our next cruise out of Port Canaveral.

 

Monday Morning we had a wonderful complimentary hot breakfast bar at the hotel which included Belgium Waffles, omelets, French toast sticks, sausage, bacon, cold and hot cereal, fruits – definitely a worthwhile breakfast since we were not going to see lunch until after Noon (or so we thought).

 

We decided to take the shuttle from the hotel to the port. The cost was $20 for two of us, round trip. Not a bad deal when you think about not having to worry about the hassle of parking and paying for the parking. I know others are Free (like the Radisson), but since the hotel stay was free, what’s $20? The shuttle was supposed to show up at 11:30 but the driver showed up closer to 11:00 and since we (my wife, I and another family of 4) were all sitting in the waiting area ready to go – so we loaded up and left.

 

We got to the pier (?) and through security and up the stairs to check in. At the area to check in, I saw two different sections with signs stating which decks were to go to which sections. I saw the line that said "Decks 4, (something) and 10. (I didn’t bother to remember the other decks included with this - but I think it was 6). I said this is where we need to go and started walking down that line. There was about 20 or so people ahead of us in line. The lady (directing people) heard me say we are in this line because we are on deck 10 - and directed me to another line with no one in it. We were right up to the counter and checked in right away. We waited about 5 minutes from there to get on board and were pretty much the first ones in the Windjammer for lunch at 11:37 (I know the time because I posted on my Facebook account). . .

 

Since I have been reading these boards since we signed up for the cruise back in February, I was really looking forward to trying the Honey Stung Chicken. I had that with some salad, mashed potatoes and a piece of strawberry mousse pie I stole from my wife’s plate. Being one of the first one’s in the Windjammer, the chicken I got was moist and pretty good. It wasn’t great. It actually reminded me of the traditional recipe of KFC. By now, people were starting to pile in, so we decided to check out most of the ship. At 1:00 they let us down the halls where the cabins were (they were preventing people from going any time sooner than that). We got into our cabin to see the Anniversary decorations up and the wine package my wife ordered in a bucket of ice. Since we carried one bag on board with a 12 pack of water, I removed all the water and soda from the fridge and put our water in it. We then went out to check out Claude’s to see about dining. We had signed up for MTD, but our card said 6:00, table 30. When we got there, the head waiter (sorry, don’t remember his name) changed us to MTD. We explained that we were fine with 6:00 dinner and sharing a table with others, but on Tuesday night, if possible, could we have a table for two for our anniversary. He said not a problem and led us to table 244 (a table for two) and with our approval of the table, reserved it for us for 6:00 each and every night. (I know, why bother with MTD when it is the same seating as the first dinner time) It worked for us and we will probably do this again. I don’t mind having breakfast or lunch with a larger table, but I would prefer an intimate table for two for dinner. Our waiter and assistant waiter (Armiee and Manuel) were great. I only say “great” because right now I can’t think of an adjective that is better. . . Monday night we had the shrimp cocktail, the Black Angus steak with the same wonderful mashed potatoes I had in the windjammer for lunch. According to the menu, we had a choice of mashed potatoes, baked potato or rice pilaf. Armiee asked us if we had lunch in the windjammer and I made the comment about how good the mashed potatoes were and that’s what she brought. For dessert, I had the dark chocolate cake and my wife had ice cream.

 

Sidebar – when we were taken to our table for dinner, I noticed the one chair faced the windows and I saw the water line going up and down the window so I decided to sit in the other chair facing the center of the dining room.

 

Ok – I got a head of myself for a minute. For sail-away, we went all the way up to the upper most top deck (two above the pool) in the front of the ship. It was an interesting sail-away because I went from the side where everyone was waving (where Grills, Suncruz, etc were) to the other side. On my way back to the right side of the ship, the horn blew – just as I was under it. To say it was loud is an understatement.

 

Ok, back to where I was after dinner. That night we checked out the welcome aboard show and comedian – who was pretty funny and didn’t care about being politically correct. After the show, we checked out the “track” on deck 7 and my wife looked overboard and saw beautiful blue waters. I tried to look down, but couldn’t. If I did, I knew I would get sick. This was close to 9:00 PM so we decided to hit the fitness room. We started on the stationary bikes, but due to the curve of the window – and the fact it was dark outside, the reflection of the fitness room in the window was one that reminded me of a funhouse mirror. After 15 minutes of peddling, I started getting queasy, so I went to the room, took a Marezine and went back to the fitness room and moved onto the actual weight machines in the center of the room. That was much better for the duration of the work out. I was still feeling the ship roll from side to side – but it wasn’t as bad as that sounds. To me, it was amplified because I was worried about being sick.

 

When the fitness room closed at 10:00PM, we went down to the “stores” because earlier we were given a raffle ticket to be drawn at 10:15PM. I gave my wife my ticket and sat in one of the chairs in the center area trying to tell myself I wasn’t going to get sick, even though I could still “feel” the ship rock. When we didn’t win anything, we went over to the railing looking down to the 4th deck to get ready for the Disco Review. That was entertaining to say the least. We won’t talk about the Indian from the “Village People” . . .

 

After that, we went back to the room. In our previous trips to the room, I became fascinated with the “Location Channel” on the television. The channel that shows the current GPS coordinates, the speed, distance traveled and water depth. I was floored when I saw the depth at one point over 20,000 feet. I know there are trenches in the oceans that can get that deep and deeper, I just never knew there was one so “close” to the coast of Florida.

 

That first night, I had a very bizarre dream. I dreamt I was on the back of the ship watching shooting stars landing in the waters behind the ship. One star landed so close that it knocked the ship of course. What can I say, I would rather have weird dreams than be sick. Well, that dream wasn’t too far off in reality. No, there weren’t any shooting stars, but there was a pretty bad storm with some pretty good lightening throughout the night. It was bad enough that the Captain decided not the try Cococay and to use that as our day at sea – and go right onto Nassau.

 

That actually worked out better for me. I was able to get my “sea-legs” and by that afternoon, I was standing at the railing looking over at the beautiful blue waters my wife was telling me about the night before. From then on out, I didn’t feel the ship “rock” or was bothered by any of the movement on board.

 

We went to Vincent’s Dining room for breakfast and had a delicious “classic” breakfast. Two eggs of your choice. Bacon or Sausage, hash browns and toast.

 

I did have a soft-serve ice cream cone from the machine at the back of the windjammer, so yes – it is there. Being overcast, I didn’t worry about much and we went up to the deck right above the pool (the one that looks down on the pool) and laid out for about an hour. Well, that wasn’t a good move because my legs got burned pretty well. I got up and decided to check out the casino. I played the slots with no luck, but on the video poker game, I hit a straight backed with the very next deal with a flush. I earned (I can’t say I won since I didn’t cash out) about $13 total between those two hands. Not bad for only playing $3.

 

We went back to Vincent’s for lunch as well. I had the Yakatori and the “chose your own” salad bar. That bowl of salad was wonderful!!! I will be doing that again as well. The Yakatori was very tasty as well. My wife had the Singapore Noodles with chicken and shrimp. Her only complaint was that the chicken and shrimp were very small.

 

After lunch we walked the track for about 4 laps (3 ½ = 1 mile according to the sign). Then we went to the casino where my wife got hooked on the game with the quarters on the sliding trays. She was just standing by it and quarters fell, so she started playing it. By the end of the cruise, who knows how many quarters actually fell for her, but she did get one of the $5 bills and one of the $20 bills to drop for her.

 

That night for dinner I had the Lobster Bisque (excellent, by the way) the sirloin filet and a strawberry cheesecake. My wife had the shrimp cocktail, the sirloin and vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce on it. Armiee was very good about getting everything just right. When my wife questioned about the vegetables, Armiee brought out a second plate of just vegetables – and continued to do so each night after that.

 

I read a post on the fact that you had to initiate the formal photos and the regular photographer was nowhere to be found. Well, that was not the case on this trip. All we had to do was walk past the formal setting and we were asked if we wanted our pictures. There were many times we politely declined (like on Cococay when we were walking with snorkel gear in hand towards the water). . .

 

We were supposed to get into Nassau at 6:00PM (according to the first announcement) then it changed to 7:00PM – but when all was said and done, we were finally cleared to leave the ship at 10:00PM. We decided to not go off since nothing would be open except maybe Senior Frogs which we had no desire to go to.

 

Wednesday morning we got up and went to Vincent’s again for breakfast. She had the classic again and I had the Eggs Benedict. Then we went out to explore the town. We chose not the get our picture taken with the pirates as we got off the boat. We are from Fernandina Beach and we have a “Pirate” Festival (actually called the Isle of Eight Flags, Shrimp Festival) every year, so getting your picture taken with a pirate is no big deal. We went to Atlantis to check out the aquarium. The free parts were impressive. Saw some Southern Stingrays and a Manta Ray. We decided to pay for the rest of it and The Dig. That part wasn’t really worth the cash, but from there we went to the Predator Lagoon and Stingray Lagoon. That made up for it – at least for me it did. In the predator lagoon, we saw hammerheads and Sawfish. In the stingray lagoon, there were at least 30 rays (looked like golden) just swimming around in a herd. Right next to that was a smaller “pool” where obviously young ones were. These were no bigger than maybe a foot across.

 

We left Atlantis and were dropped off (by cab) a block away from Bay Street. We decided to check out the stores to see if there was something we wanted to buy before we got back on the ship later that afternoon. From there we went to the Hard Rock Café, had a drink and checked out the supposedly “free” WI-FI. Wanted to check in with the kid back home. Apparently, the Hard Rock no longer offers free WI-FI, but out on the street, just in front of it you can jump on to an unsecured WI-FI access point so it worked out. While at the Hard Rock, we asked which direction to Ardastra Gardens and about how far. The bartender said it was “about a mile, maybe less”. Well, we walk about a mile and a half each night so we thought “no big deal”. Well, in reality it is closer to 2 ½ or 3 miles (if not further). By the time we got to the intersection to the road leading up to Ardastra Gardens, it was about 12:30 or so, so we decided to have lunch first. Again, thanks to this board, I read some good things about Goldies so we went there. My wife had the cracked Lobster and I had the cracked Conch - and we shared. I have to say, both were delicious, but if I had to choose next time, I would have to go with the cracked lobster. From there we went to Ardastra Gardens and caught the Lory Feedings and the Marching Flamingo show. We decided to take the #10 bus back to town, went to the stores bought what we wanted, went back to the Hard Rock for another drink and more shopping and were back on the ship by 4:45.

 

We were met at the dining room door by Armiee and she took us to our table herself and asked us about our day. Wednesday night was Prime Rib, so we had that with the Spinach Salad starter and Chocolate Cherry cake for dessert. All of it was delicious. The Au Jus was thicker than a standard broth type with some really good flavor.

 

That night there was the pool party – midnight buffet and ice carving. He carved a very good fish out of the ice. Being one who tries not to eat anything past 9 PM, we didn’t have any of the buffets. We did notice that there was an announcement for occupants of two cabins to call the guest relations as late as 10 minutes before we pulled away from Nassau – so I wonder if they missed the ship. . .

 

Thursday morning I did take a Marezine because I wasn’t sure how I would be on the tender over to Cococay. We had breakfast in Vincent’s again this time we both had the classic again. Went down to deck 4 and got in line for the tender. It wasn’t too bad, but then again we were one of the last to get on so I didn’t sit very long before we started moving.

 

On Cococay, the first thing I did was sign out two snorkel vets while my wife found a couple of chairs in somewhat shade. From there we went into the water. . . We started on the right side of the beach area - near the rocks. The water was very shallow there - 2 feet or so. That whole roped off area is - they say from 3 - 15 feet, but I would be shocked it if was any deeper than 10 feet. You have to go out a decent ways to get a good depth to where you are not tripping over the rocks.

 

We went from the right side - out to the first life guard stand to the sunken canon. There we saw some good fish and one Angel Fish swimming around the cannon. From there we went left along the rope line (separating the snorkel area from the jet ski area) to the sunken "wreck". I almost stepped on a beautiful starfish that was about 10 - 12" across. This was about 6 feet of water. My wife warned me and I got some good pictures of it (and the angel fish as well).

 

From there we went left a little ways more to a "floating dock" and rested for about 5 minutes due to always fighting with the clearing of my mask. About 15 yards behind the dock (towards the second lifeguard stand) is the sunken plane. Lots of yellow tail snapper there.

 

Now - here is something I wish I did first - we moved to the last lifeguard stand (with a red umbrella on it - furthest most life guard stand on the left when standing on the beach). There they must feed the fish because once we were there; they all came up to us. We must have been surrounded by 30 - 40 fish all within inches of my mask. . . But the reason I wish we did this first is because we went to the left of the rocks (another set of "Jetties" on the left side of the beach) There the water drops off to about 40 feet. It got much bluer than the normal swimming area and about 5 degrees colder too. But I went out as far as I could (to the rope line) and was in about 40 or so feet of water, just floating face down in the water looking at all the marine life. About 15 - 20 feet below me was a southern stingray just swimming around.

 

Getting out there was a very pretty experience too. Once you felt the water get cooler, you could see the first "shelf" drop about 10 feet. Lots of colorful coral and fish (one very small very bright blue with iridescence blue and yellow spots) just swimming around. The further you go out (towards the rope) the deeper and more marine life you see. If I knew this, I would have foregone the cannon and airplane and spent all my time in the deep area.

 

We were unsure of the beach barbeque, but I have to give RCI credit. It was very well organized and very well laid out. It wasn’t the cluster I was expecting. After lunch we checked out the mini-straw market and then headed back to the ship.

 

That night for dinner, Armiee again met us at the door and took us to our table. We both had the scallop risotto, and then I couldn’t decide between the garlic tiger shrimp or the chicken marsala – so we started with the garlic tiger shrimp and then shared the chicken marsala. For dessert we had the warm chocolate cake.

 

After dinner we went back to the track and walked about six laps around the ship. Then headed to the “You can’t stop the music” review show. (At least I think that’s what it was called). . .

 

Friday morning was the worst of the whole week – because we had to get off the ship. We didn’t think we would have enough time to eat at Vincent’s for a sit-down breakfast and still get to Bolero’s (deck 7) in time for our 8:20 departure so we ate in the Windjammer – only the second time the entire cruise. It wasn’t bad, but we’re glad we utilized the main dining room as much as we did.

 

After breakfast, we went up and found a table to sit at in Boleros. I needed to go down to the Guest Services desk on Deck 4 to confirm that everything was ok with our account and when I got there, I saw the line starting at the doors leading off the ship, up and around Claude’s to in front of the Guest Services and through the elevator area and up the stairs. It was pretty ugly. I tried to go up the stairs to get back to Bolero’s but was stop by a Customs agent saying the stairs are closed and I had to use the elevators. When I finally got on one (there were all crowded) – one family tried to find the end of the line. We stopped at deck 5 – no end in sight. We then stopped at deck 6 and saw that the last person in line was on the landing between the two sets of stairs between decks 6 and 7. Why anyone would chose “express” debarkation is beyond me. We sat comfortably in Bolero’s and our tag color was called at about 8:15 and we were off the ship, through customs, with our bags in hand – back on the shuttle (which made two other stops before the Hampton), loaded up the car with our bags, made a “pit stop” at the Hampton and double checked with the front desk that we didn’t need to do anything else before we left – and were in the car and on the road by 9:10AM . . .

Great review. We go to the shrimp festival every May also. Swingin Medallions is my favrite group.

[EmpressofPurple]

Wonderful review! I really felt like I was there with you.

 

I had the pleasure of cruising on the Monarch when she was still in LA with a great group of cruising CC pals... haven't had the pleasure yet with her on the east coast, though I did enjoy the Majesty there...

 

Thank you so much for sharing all of the day-to-day details. That is my favorite type of review, because I really experience your activities and your tastes and your feelings... even though I have never experienced any type of motion sickness, you described that very clearly, and I understood what you were dealing with.

[stazerd]

My daughter and I are on monday's sailing of the Monarch, July 13th. It is her first cruise, so I am choosing this short itinerary. Thank you for the review!