Monarch of the Seas Cruise Review by cruisefan0503

Our room was filthy, with mildew in the shower, my 2 year old picked up candy on the floor from the previous tenants that obviously had not been cleaned up after, and I had to clean our room! We never even knew the name of our steward and the sleeping arrangements were not what was promised. I expected the rooms to be smaller because it was an older boat, but there was not even a bed for my toddler to sleep in! I had contacted customer service prior to our travels to ensure that he would have somewhere to sleep as we paid full price for him and was told he would have his own bed. Not true! I'm not sure but I am assuming he was to sleep on the pullman bed but I am not putting my toddler on a bed that is so far off the ground! We ended up making him a bed in the window since we had an oceanview room. My husband and I had to put our own bed together and call repeatedly for housekeeping to bring sheets (we had already been calling all day to get them to put the beds together and by 9:45 pm, we were fed up and exhausted).

Our dining time was a mess too. What is the point in "my time dining" if you can't go eat when you choose? We were originally told we could have early seating as we have a toddler and 8:30 pm is too late to eat with him but once on the boat, 8:30 was what we were assigned. When we changed to MTD, we were told the only time we could eat was 7:30pm which was still too late. We ate at the buffett all week except for formal night which we managed to get them to let us go to at 6:00 pm because of a cancellation. When asked why we couldn't set our time earlier for MTD the rest of the week, we were just told it was full but "reservations were recommended, not REQUIRED". We had to wait for different venues to open up for food and as anyone with a toddler knows, when they are hungry, they need to eat. Good thing I grabbed bananas for him when we saw them because when we asked staff for even cereal we were told it wasn't available. There wasn't even anywhere to store milk for him or get him milk from anywhere except during meal times and he doesn't drink soft drinks. No refigerators in the room either and you have to beg and call repeatedly for ice!

Speaking of the toddler program though, the partnership with Crayola and Fisher Price is a big joke. The "toy" selection was very limited and the staff wouldn't even let my son in the room to color or play with the "3 year old" toys because he was only 2. I was very disappointed in this. We didn't want to leave him there, we just wanted him to be able to have fun and I didn't see any harm in him playing with a ball or a small kitchen or even coloring but this was "not allowed". I couldn't believe it when we were told that!

The staff was rude to us when we got back on board from Nassau and I didn't pay to be treated so badly. There was not need for the tone the guy got with me when we were trying to get our son and his stroller back on the boat. It was just a disaster all week long, one thing after another. We contacted Guest Services many times regarding issues and were told there was nothing they could do. One of the managers did give us a discount card for future cruises, but I can assure you this will be our LAST RCI cruise ever! This was a birthday trip for me and thanks to your cruise line, this was the WORST birthday ever! Never have I ever been so disappointed in a vacation. My husband and I love cruising and this was far under par.We realize this ship is older and about to be sold but there is not an excuse for the level of service we received and not a reason for the RCI standard to be lowered. We are never ready to get off cruises but we were more than ready to get off this horrible ship and end the disaster of a week! Complete waste of money!