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Embarkation We arrived early and after we checked in, we were told to go have a seat. We saw the sign that said To Ships and sat in the first seats of the second row next to the sign (the first row was for Diamond cruisers). Three or four RCI employees saw us sit there and didn't say anything to us. When the announcement was made to start boarding, the diamond cruisers boarded first and then they started to board passengers from the second row and they started from the other end of the second row, so rather than being at the front of the line, we were now at the end of our row. No biggie, hey we are on vacation and getting ready to board a ship, but, it would have been nice for one of the three or four employees to tell us the line would be moving from the other side.
Boarding Ship. Monarch has people meet you once you step on the ship with someone selling drinks of the day, another area scheduling My Time Dinning and another area selling wine packages as well as the Pursers desk and the Explorations desk. They also have a staff member advising people to go to deck 11 and that lunch was being served in the Jade dinning area. We purchased two drinks of the day and went over to order the Wine Package. After ordering our package, the young lady advised us that we had a nice table in the dinning room and asked if we would like to see our table. We said yes and she took us to see our table. We were going to switch to MTD but decided not to since we liked our table. DW commented to me that it was nice that the young lady asked us and then took us to see our table. We then went to the pursers desk to get a safe deposit box, thanks to cc members advising us that safes were not in all rooms.
Decor The first thing, other than the different stations in the lobby, we noticed was the decor of the ship. The Monarchs decor is more subdued than other ships we have been on. We noticed this around the entire ship. Now, I am not one that cares about the decor. Decor will never make or break a cruise vacation for me and this is a very subjective area.
Cabins After having lunch we were allowed into our staterooms(1 PM) to stow our carry on luggage. On this cruise we had an ocean view stateroom. When we open the door we were stunned. The room seemed so small to us. We were in cabin 6566 and the stateroom is 122 sq ft. There was a small glass table in the corner with a trash can underneath, a vanity area with 6 drawers and two panels along the mirror that opened up from the outside of the mirror toward the inside of the mirror with three tiny shelves on each side. The vanity table had an ice bucket and two glasses and sodas and water on it and was full ( no room for our stuff). The closet opened from the door into the stateroom and had three or four shelves and enough hanging space for our clothes. The bathroom was very small and had a shelf under the sink as well as the shelf to the right of the sink. The shower was 3x3 area with a curtain. The shower area had a dispenser of shampoo and a small bar of soap wrapped in paper. No trash receptacle in the bathroom. The bed was comfortable but the pillows weren't very good.
Windjammer/Jade Restaurants DW and I are not huge fans of buffets, but we generally eat breakfast and lunch there, because of convenience. Monarch does not have an omelet station in the Windjammer or Jade restaurants. They each have a variety of foods which are OK. Food gets cold after sitting for a while. Granola cereal is available and they have an excellent salad area. Each day, the windjammer would set up a lunch station of hamburgers and hot dogs out at the pool area. Also, the Windjammer and Jade restaurants had a different cold soup each day.
Main Dinning Room I have been reading on the Royal board that the food quality is going down hill. Our experience is the food in the Main Dinning Room is good and tasty. It is mass produced and isn't as hot as I would have liked, but that is a common occurrence on all three of the cruise lines we have been on. The up charge for the Fillet Mignon is no different than Carnival and NCL charging extra for the super clubs, IMHO. I did miss not having lobster tail on formal night.
Ice Cream Royal has a Ben & Jerrys on board for sale and the Chunky Monkey is fabulous. I heard that the Monarch has soft serve frozen yogurt for free, but I couldn't find it in any of the dinning rooms.
Overall Entertainment The piano player on Monarch was fabulous, however he is shoved to the side of the Schooner bar. The band in the Boleros was very good and they played different types of music. The comedy of Rodney Johnson was fabulous and Bob Cates the Juggler was one of the best I have ever seen. The calypso band was good, but I feel they should have been at the pool playing throughout the day on embarkation day, not just at the sail away party. Karaoke bar was good. We heard a young lady from Birmingham sing and I told her she is missing the boat. She should audition for Americas Got Talent. WOW, what a voice. The Monarch singers and dancers were good but their performance was more of an amateur production than a professional production. They had four lead singers that were all good, but one of the lead female singers was fabulous.
Activities I was shocked to see that Royal had a late night Belly Flop contest, and a men's hairy leg contest and a woman's bicep contest(very risque and suggestive). They also had the Love and Marriage show, ice carvings, trivia contests, art auction, scavenger hunts and a demonstration with a bartender tossing bottles of booze around like Tom Cruise in the Movie "Cocktail". One of the things that got to me was the risque acts that couples had to perform to be a contestant in the Love and Marriage game. Perhaps the assistant CD should have advised people that the audition could be R rated and small children shouldn't have been in attendance. Also, one of the questions to the husbands was what color of underwear is your wife wearing. When one of the participants picked up his wife and threw her onto his shoulder, everyone in the first three rows knew the answer to be black, but the husband said beige. The CD even thanked the husband for sharing the view with us.
Service. I have saved the best for last. While I have never had a problem with the overall service on any other cruise, some of the best service we have received on our 10 cruises was on the Monarch. Our Waiter Derick we fabulous. He is without a doubt the best server we have ever had. I made sure to mention this to the Head Waiter(Maitre D) and to write it on our comment card. He called us by our first name every time he saw us, made suggestions and recommendations, had our wine bottle delivered to us nightly, crumbed our table and overheard us talking to table mates about Sun being our anniversary and brought the Head Waiter over with a piece of cake and they sang Happy Anniversary to us. He always had a smile and asked how our day went. He gave us advice on meal times on on how the dinning room worked on Debarkation day. The bar service in all the areas we were in, Boleros, the Casino, Crown and Anchor Lounge, poolside bars, Schooner bar was excellent and everyone thanked us by first name when giving us the receipt (They got the names off our Sea Pass). The room steward was the only exception. We made one request of him to deliver clean wine glasses to our stateroom every night and he did not do it. He did keep our stateroom clean and organized and advised us on how debarkation would take place. He also greeted us on the first day and showed us everything we need to know in the cabin and moved the sodas and water from the vanity counter area.
On a side note. We saw people in jeans and a short sleeve shirt in the MDR on formal night, a 20 something girl in Daisy Dukes in the MDR and an elderly gentleman wearing a dirty ball cap in the MDR. We saw people so drunk they had to be helped on board the ship in Nassau and others so drunk at the midnight deck party that security had to stand close by. We also heard the CD make a comment on stage about drinking more booze on your cruise. We sure had a good time and there was as much partying if not more than on most of our other cruises. Would I sail Royal again? Yes, until the Yankees relocate from New York. We were worried that we would not enjoy ourselves. How foolish. I tried hard to be fair honest and unbiased in this review. I hope it helps someone that is afraid to try the Monarch. Now excuse me, I have to go look for our next cruise.
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