A first timer's review of Monarch of the Seas (Thanksgiving)

Disclaimer - I tend to be a bit long winded. This report will be mostly for people who are looking for a novel to read haha I'm going to try to include plenty of pictures (mostly because I like pictures). If you have any specific questions and don't feel like reading through the whole thing, or if by some reason I didn't write about it just ask and I'll be happy to answer.

My husband (24) and I (22) went on our first cruise on the Monarch over Thanksgiving, November 23rd-27th. My husband (Matt) turned 24 the day before the cruise so we celebrated during. I'll do one post for each cruise day (within this thread). I'm guessing I can only put a few pictures into each post though so I may do a few posts of just pictures.

Around 11:00 we pulled in at Port Canaveral. I think I remembered one time when going to Cocoa Beach that there had been light up signs that told you which cruise line was in which area, A or B terminal or whatever. The signs weren't working or something so we just took the first cruise exit since we could see our ship from where we were... it was the right one. We parked the care and we passed by the porters with our luggage because we thought we could check it inside and the porters were only if you didn't want the hassle of taking them inside yourself. We get there get inside and have to turn right back around when we realized we couldn't check them from the inside.

Even with all of that we still go there and checked ourselves in by about 11:20. The sign said we would be boarding at 11:30 so thankfully we didn't have much time to wait because we were excited!! They started boarding right on time thankfully. In no time we were on the ship. We were probably within the first 40 people on or so. We were able to get right onto an elevator and go up to the windjammer. We got some food, which was pretty tasty. I had the honey chicken (which though I have heard bad things about, I liked) and some fries. Matt had fries and a burger and I think some chicken as well. As silly as it sounds we thought the fries were pretty good and were looking forward to having some more later on... we like our fries!

We were out and about discovering what the ship had in store for us by 12:15.

We were finally here!

We sat out on deck 7 looking at the Day 1 cruise compass, just kind of soaking everything in. Around 12:50ish we went up to the pool deck to take a picture on my phone to text it to a few family/friends as a goodbye for the next few days when my phone went dead... to which our vacation really started!

At 1:00 sharp our rooms were ready. We had an oceanview room 2026.

I had pre-ordered the birthday cake for Matt and when we got to the room it was already there which was fantastic.

It was bigger than I expected, much taller than I thought it would be. It was I'd say about 3 inces tall or so.

We decided to relax in the room for just a little bit while everyone else was loading the ship, we wanted this to be a relaxing trip, so we wanted to start it out as such. Because I'm, well a bit on the "blonde" side I couldn't figure out how to flush the toliet. I finally figured out that I had to pull UP on the knob, not push down... I later saw there was a sign... forgive me for my lack of common sense please haha

Around 2:00 went up to get a cookie, and because were were officially on vacation at this point figured what the heck might as well grab a piece of pizza while we were at it so we could have a taste. It was just okay for me. I think it was the only time I had it during the cruise. I may have have had one other slice at some point but certainly not more than twice.

Afterwards we went back to see if our luggage was there. I like to get my stuff unpacked as quick as possible on vacation so that I can feel like it has really started...Again I know I'm odd. We ended up getting our luggage a little after 3. Matt happened to see it in the elevator area and he just picked it up and brought it to our room.I finished putting my stuff away right as the announcment was made for the muster drill (first call). Went up to muster station 3. It was quick and painless. It was our leaders birthday and we all sang to her.

I don't know the allowed amount of pictures so I will separate the first day into two sections.

We were done with the muster drill by 3:50 and we went up and sat on what I guess would be the 13th level. We stayed there until after sail away. While there a bird almost pooped on Matt, twice. There were 3 chairs where we were so we moved over one to get out of the way of where the bird was perched so Matt could stop being his target.

Here we are waiting for sail away just in case you were wondering what our beautiful faces looked like.

Goodbye home, goodbye work, goodbye cell phone, goodbye dishes, goodbye cleaning, goodbye Florida!

We decided to go back to room to get changed around 5:15. We were leaving the room by 6. We went up to windjammer and looked around and grabbed a snack. We had to grab a snack because we had dinner at 8:30 and we are used to eating dinner around 6... so we were getting ready to decide whose arm we were going to eat when we realized we could just grab something in the windjammer! We wondered a bit then went to the 7:45 show.

We left a little early to make it to dinner on time.

I didn't like when they only had one show at night. This happened on two nights of our cruise. When this happened I felt like we needed to leave the show early. I'm sure some people stayed for the whole thing but I hate feeling like I am late. I would much rather be early than late.

We got into the main dining room (we were on deck 4). We sat alone for a while at our 8 person table. After a bit a 2nd couple a little younger than us came, sat on other end of table, no one else came to our table at all for dinner. It was a bit awkward because the other couple sat on the opposite end which meant we didn't talk at all. Oh well we enjoyed ourselves anyways.

Our main waiter (not the head waiter than I saw once and yet tipped just as much...) was Jaycee. He was fantastic! He was really great. Our assistant waiter was great as well. Our drinks were always filled, and we never lacked any bread, and boy did I love the sour dough bread! I had the scallop rosoto, Tiger Shrimp and angel food cake. When Jaycee brought my shrimp he actually took the shrimp out of the shell for me after he set it down in front of me. I thought it was a nice touch. Of course I get excited over little things. The rosoto was good, I love scallops. The shrimp was okay. The angle food cake was pretty tasty.

Matt had Antipasti (okay), lamb shank (he had never had it before and decided he doesn't like lamb but ate it and was satisfied), for dessert he ordered the warm chocolate cake. Before they brought out the dessert birthday cake was brought by the staff. They all sang Happy Birthday. Then waiter brought the warm chocolate cake he ordered, THEN he came out and said something along the lines of "This ice cream is from me to you for your birthday" so 3 desserts were brought to Matt haha he was in heaven.

They brushed off the table in front of me before dessert...remember how I said I get excited about little things?? Now if I could just get Matt to do that at home... By this time the other couple had already left, so it was just us at what seemed like a huge table - they skipped out way before the whole birthday thing, they didn't order dessert.

We were sooo tired that we came back to room. Upon returning we found turn down service, with some Happy Thanksgiving note with mints. I figured this would make some people happy who were angry about the lack of mints.

We did not have a Cruise Compass, Matt called and they said it would be dropped off later or he could come get one. He went and got one and they told him to gaurd it with his life because they hadn't passed them out yet lol We never did get one though so I think we just got skipped over.

I had a small piece of cake (Matt may have even had a small sliver just to taste!) and we went to bed even though it was only somewhere around 10:30 because we were soooo tired!

Coming up in my next post (probably not tonight): CocoCay, I was so nervous about not being able to tender because I had read some stories of not being able to and it was what I was looking forward to the most!

I am LOVING your review! Please keep it coming...lol

I miss the Monarch and the staff SO MUCH!

Your writing skills on your review and pictures are awesome!

Thank you!

Julie

Look forward to the rest. I will be on board in three days.

Thanks for the review. The Monarch is older and smaller has so much class and charm. I was so nice to have a 3/4 day cruise out from LA. I so hope we will get another ship doing the short cruises on the West Coast.

Wide, all the cruise terminals are the 1st exit. It's a mystery why PC put the big signs up in the first place. They are very unsightly. The 2nd exit is for casino ships.

Rumer is; PC is making so much money from cruise taxes and parking fees they don't know what to do with it so they buy unnecessary stuff.

Enjoying the photo-review, keep it comin'! :)

Monarch was our second cruise and we loved that ship. In fact, I'm enjoying my morning coffee in a Monarch mug. ;)

Thanks everyone, I will try to do another installment tonight. We are getting ready to leave to go to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional.

Really enjoying your review. Will be on the Monarch December 18th. Can't wait!

Great review, so far. Been on the sister, Magesty, and had a great time.

Thanks everyone, I will try to do another installment tonight. We are getting ready to leave to go to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional.

Glad you had a good time on the Monarch. We went last January. Hey, while you're at it can you give a review of the Candlelight Processional? ;)

We went three years ago and were touched! :)

Steve

Woke up around 6 on our own seeing as we had went to bed so early. We had scheduled at 7:30 wake up call though just in case, but it was a good thing we woke up early on our own because I had actually meant to set it for 6:30. Who knows what I was thinking. We enjoyed looking out our tiny window for a little bit and I took pictures out the window.

We had a GREAT night's sleep and were ready for the day.

I got up to go into the bathroom and when I got in there I found a spider in there! It was on curtain. I called Matt in from the bedroom (haha) and he came in and took care of it. We had planned on going to the MDR for breakfast, but wondered into the windjammer. I have no clue what we ate, but I know it included bacon... plenty of bacon. Oh I found a picture of it - The sausage was terrible. It was like rubber. We at breakfast again in the WJ though and we saw that the sausage differed based on which side you went on, and the other side had MUCH better sausage.

I was very surprised though because we saw a guy with no shirt on! I know you want to think that I am lying or fibbing or whatever but I assure you, this guy had no clothing on above the belt. I suppose I should count myself lucky that he had clothes on below the belt at least... Anyways...

We saw land ahead so went upstairs to watch/get pictures.

Went back down to room to finish getting ready/chill until it was tender time (8:30) At about 8:40 we went to the 1st level and had to wait a rediculously long time, we waited for a whole 2 mins before they let us get right on a boat, the nerve of all the other people on the ship allowing us to have a non crowded tender experience! We were on our way to the island within 5 minutes.

We got on the island and there were VERY few people there so far. We wondered around for a bit. We found ourselves at the water's edge, kind of hard not to do considering we were on an island in the middle of the ocean I guess.

It was kind of cold but it was clear water. We worked our way around to the other side of the island, where we found a beach that we pretty much felt like we had to ourselves.

We waded in the water, then laid down for awhile. Pretty much heaven on earth... Got back in the water, saw two small sharks and didn't get back in because we got a little spooked. After awhile we headed back over to the other side of the island.

I think my picture limit is out for this post...

Yea! I noticed your light was on so I watched your video on youtube again and then refreshed this page and Voila! you had submitted another portion of your review. I've never considered making the trip to Florida for a cruise of less than seven days, but your pictures and review are causing me to have second thoughts about that. Thanks for the great review and awesome pictures. They are helping to keep me going until February and our cruise on the Voyager out of Galveston.

Thanks for staying up so late so that those of us that are obsessed with this cruising thing can get our "fix".

Jan

Glad you had a good time on the Monarch. We went last January. Hey, while you're at it can you give a review of the Candlelight Processional? ;)

We went three years ago and were touched! :)

Steve

It was great! We went last year and had some not so great seats but still enjoyed ourselves. This year we did the dinner package because we were interested in getting good seats because it was Steven Curtis Chapman. We've been to a few of his concerts and really like him and were really excited to see him do it. He did a fantastic job. He really believes in the story he is telling and it makes for a great night.

Loving your review and photos! You are a clever author. Keep it coming. I just finished a review of the Carnival Sensation today and really was invigorated by the number of people who told me they enjoyed it as I wrote it. I am sure you will enjoy the same positive feedback!

Thank you SO much for your review and especially your creative video. I've enjoyed reading it and watching the video several times! We are going on the Monarch this month and can't wait. :-)

I'm hoping we can stop at CocoCay. On our last two cruises, (Sovereign of the Seas and Holland America Eurodam) we were unable to stop at the private islands because of the weather :-(

I too am enjoying reading your review! Please tell us more about Disney too! Where are you staying in WDW?? We're going on the Monarch in February, and we're going to WDW in June. We'll be staying at either the Swan or Dolphin, and then we'll be staying at the Contemporary!

What did you do at CocoCay?? Did the cruise line have any activities planned for everyone? How was the food??

Thanks SO much!!:D

I too am enjoying reading your review! Please tell us more about Disney too! Where are you staying in WDW?? We're going on the Monarch in February, and we're going to WDW in June. We'll be staying at either the Swan or Dolphin, and then we'll be staying at the Contemporary!

 

What did you do at CocoCay?? Did the cruise line have any activities planned for everyone? How was the food??

 

Thanks SO much!!:D

We actually live about 30 minutes from Disney, so we have Florida Resident annual passes. :)

I'm gonna start writing where I left off so there should be another post from me after a bit

Last time I left you with us walking over to the other side of the island.

On our way over we checked out the powerwheel area, and the big jumbo slide. I thought the powerwheel area was so cute and such a great idea for the little ones.

It looked like people were having fun on the big slide as well. We were looking for lunch but we were a bit too early.

Lunch wasn't scheduled to open until 12, and there was no other food on the island (I think there may have been a vending machine. We decided to pass the time and check out the market, there really wasn't anything there that we wanted. Down here in Florida where we live you can get touristy shirts like 5/$5 so I hoping to score one of those but the only cheap ones I didn't like.

We came up on a fun guy on our way to see if lunch was open yet:

There were a few older kids who were trying to annoying him and he moved on because of them, but it was nice getting to see him while he stuck around.

We finally went and sat down at a table waiting with the rest of the impatient people...yes we are one of those people. Here I am waiting:

Finally they opened up the lunch lines. I got two plates of food while Matt held down our table. Don't worry though we let 2 men sit with us, we weren't selfish, we shared! The food consisted of ribs, hamburgers mac and cheese and rice. That is what we ate anyways. There was also a salad bar and I'm sure various other food. The ribs were good, but did have a decent amount of fat on them, and the mac n cheese were well, mac n cheese. Matt said his hamburger and rice were of normal quality. It satisfied us, but wasn't winning any awards or anything.

Goodness I think I am out of picture space already... I will continue in the next post

After we finished our lunch we ventured over to an area we had set our eyes on earlier. We basically had this whole area to ourselves! Oh and we took a small plate of food to snack on with us too. Have I mentioned we ate a lot on this vacation??

Matt read and I took pictures.

Left that area and went to find a place to swim. On the way we posed for a picture.

Gathered a few shells (which we didn't find out until later that we couldn't take sadly...) We found ourselves in the water even though the water was pretty chilly. It was nice though to be in the nice clear water. It was probably about 2:30 at this time and we decided to go ahead and start heading back to the ship. I forgot this part earlier. We pre-rented a locker ahead of time for $4. We did use the locker but I was a bit frustrated with it. No one directed us on who to go to, we had to find someone to let us know how to use our rental. Then it is a one time use thing, after you lock it you can only reopen it to get your stuff. I guess I was thinking we could keep coming back to it. Anyways here is the locker:

It held our towels (we brought our own from home for whatever reason) and Matt's wallet and our camera bag.

Went to go back on the boat. We went through the security check point. This is where I saw the signs saying we couldn't take shells back with us. I'd like to lie to you and tell you that I put them back, but I saved 2-3 of my favorites... don't yell at me too much. Well I actually saved 2 on purpose, 3rd I found in my pocket later that night that I forgot I had put in there. I'm sure the ocean will forgive me, but in case some of you don't forgive me, sorry! Okay I'm rambling... where was I?

Oh yeah, after we got through the check point one of the security people chased down a lady on a wheelchair and yelling and screaming and tackled her all the while a siren was going off... okay I'm exaggerating but he really did chase her down and they were yelling. Apparently he didn't realize she walked through and got on the wheelchair after going through so he didn't remember her. It did cause quite a scene. We loaded and waited a few minutes and were back on the ship in no time. We showered the ocean water off and surprise surprise, ordered some room service. Pizza, corn chips, hamburger. It was pretty good. I didn't have any of the hamburger but did eat the corn chip Chorzio or whatever it is called and it was pretty good. The pizza was actually really good but could only eat a few bites. We watched the Welcome Aboard show (since we missed out on the last part of it since we had to leave early for dinner) while we ate.

I have to finish the rest of the night tomorrow because my facebook isn't working right and that is where my pictures are stored.

Thanks for all the info. I'm curious to hear what you did in Nassau since a lot of the Bahamas posts haven't been too favorable lately. We are on the MOS in March, after 2 days at Disney World. (Caribbean Beach Resort).

Did you go to Atlantis?

Oops. I just watched your you tube video - very nice! What song was that you sang through it?

And I see you were at Atlantis - did you like it?

celebrate you by corbin bleu

just curious, how much was the birthday cake? was it worth it? Did you finish it?

Were you not able to go in the water at the section where you were somewhat secluded? the section with the lounge chairs with the covers? And where is the beach where you saw the sharks? is it a long walk? I would like to go to a different beach than that cove section that fills up. I will be there next month. thanks

We actually live about 30 minutes from Disney, so we have Florida Resident annual passes. :)

 

I'm gonna start writing where I left off so there should be another post from me after a bit

Is it safe to assume that you are a scrapbooker??? My wife is one, so I know all the signs!! Do you have a cricut? I'm sure you make really good scrapbooks:cool: