Monarch OTS Pics and review

We just got off the Monarchs 3 night cruise out of LA yesterday so I thought I'd try brief review of cruise to go along with our pictures of the ship posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/dougp26364 .

Pre-cruise stay:

We had booked a 3 star hotel room through Priceline for the night before our cruise. For $50 we got the LAX Hilton. On the outside, this is a black glass building built in the shape of a +. The hotel looked very nice upon entering with a small convenience store, a nice restaurant and a lounge. Check in was quick when we arrived around 9 PM.

Our room took our breath away. NOT because it was grand but because there was only ONE DOUBLE bed in the room. Not even a full sized bed. Now we've been married for over 15 years but the last time we both slept (and fit) into a double was many, many years ago. This made for a very uncomfortable nights sleep and we will not ever book the LAX Hilton again or use Priceline for a 3 star hotel in the airport location.

If you're a lite sleeper, this hotel provides plenty of airport noise with jets taking off just outside the hotel. Most airport hotels today seem to be decently insulated but not this one. Fortunaely, we're normally day sleepers so noise doesn't always boher us and it wasn't much of a factor in the poor nights sleep.

Embarkation:

We took the LAX Hilton's shuttle back to LAX and grabbed a Suppershuttle bus for transfer to the pier at 10:00 AM. After trolling around LAX once to pick up extra passengers we were on our way by 10:15. We arrived at the pier and we're in to check in by 11:00 AM. We sat for about 30 minutes in chairs that were provided and waited for our group to be called. We were in boarding group #2.

When they started calling boarding groups, they essentially called groups 1-4 at the same time. We could have arrived 30 minutes later and I don't believe it would have made but 5 minutes difference in how soon we would have been on the ship this day.

The Ship:

Monarch still looks pretty new after her refurbishment a year ago. Rooms were supposed to be done by 1 PM but we couldn't get into ours until 1:30. All the common areas are well maintained and I was surprised at how many shops were available in the Centrum. The dining rooms don't have the open area in the center that the Vision, Radiance and Voyager class ships have. This gave the dining rooms a slightly smaller feel to them IMO. The lounges had ample seating in them. The showroom, while two story, seemed smaller than the other ship classes. The casino seemed larger and better laid out than than the other ship classes. The Windjammer is two story but the buffet area is considerably smaller and I felt offered less variety than on other ships.

The cabin:

We had a catagory SO cabin on deck 9. This is a larger outside cabing that is listed as 157 sq ft. It was in good shape but the size took our breath away as we had just stayed in a JS cabin on Explorer. However, after the initial shock wore off and we became accustomed to the size, it wasn't so bad. It is well designed and the wall with the desks and drawers was lined with mirrors to make the room feel larger.

Normally, the view from these cabins is partially obstructed from the tops of the life boats. There is a large gap in the life boats and cabins 9032 and 9034 have essentially unobstructed views. The window let an ample amount of light in when the curtains were open and the curtains were heavy enough to keep most of the light out when closed. If you wanted to sleep in light wouldn't be a problem IMO.

There was ample storage space under the bed for the suitcases. There were plenty of drawers and shelves for clothing. The closet was pretty small but there was plenty of room for a 3 or 4 night cruise. There was a small refridgerator under the counter and a small safe in the closet that required a card with a magnetic strip (credit card I suppose) to opperate. The bathroom was tiny but functional. In the corner of the room was a small sofa that would sit two people comfortably. The television was on the counter at the foot of the bed. I have pictures of the room posted on link above.

Food and service:

I have a slightly biased opinion since they served two menu's that I don't partiularly enjoy. Therefore, I'm not going to be positive.

The first night was Venetian night. I have never enjoyed Ventian night and this was no exception. Most of the table ordered the sirloin as they felt the same way. It was so unappitizing that I don't recall what I had. I do know that it wasn't the shrimp scampi, which looked as if it was the best choice that night. A table mate had this and the head waiter came over to take the shrimp out of the shell for her. Most ordered the steak off the alternative menu, which was served cold to all at the table and was almost as tough as boot leather. We ended up supplementing our dinner in the Windjammer, which I will review later.

The second night was Formal night. I was surprised at how many people were dressed nicely. From the reviews I had read, I was prepared for mostly a business casual atmosphere. Instead people were dressed mostly in smart casual atire of suits and ties for the men and evening gowns for the ladies. There were a few men I noticed who showed up in blue jeans and polo shirts but not many. Just enough to be very noticable amongst the better dressed cruisers.

Formal dinner was the menu with the beef tenderloin for main entree and shrimp cocktail and escargot on the apitizer portion. The cocktail sauce served with the shrimp cocktail looked like thousand island dressing to me rather than what I think of as traditional shrimp cocktail sauce. It pretty well ruined the shrimp cocktial for me. The tenderloin was cooked appropriately for us (medium rare) but was cold, tuff and didn't have much flavor to it. If it weren't for the sauce, it wouldn't have had any flavor at all.

There was no name listed for the third nights meal but it was the menu which included the tom turkey or the sirloin steak. My wife had the tom turkey, which she described as very dry but keep in mind she was wearing a scopolamine patch, which will dry your mouth out. I orderd the sirloin, which was sent back with nothing else ordered to replace it. I had ordered the creamed mushrooms for an appitizer and the onion soup instead of the salad. The mushrooms were good, but not as good as the previous Nov. sailing on Explorer. The onion soup had a thin slice of cheese on top which did not even cover the entire surface of the soup. It is the second worst onion soup I have ever received in a restaraunt.

The only morning we ate breakfast in the main dining room was the day we left. I'm sorry we didn't eat breakfast here more often. The service was prompt, the food was hot and had good flavor. It was one of the best breakfasts I had on this cruise. However, my wife likes ham for breakfast and it wasn't on the menu, thus we ate breakfast in the Windjammer where she could have ham and fresh fruit for breakfast.

I ventured up to Jade one afternoon to try their sushi. First, I have never really eaten sushi before so I have nothing to base my opinion on. The most I have ever tried was a few bites of california rolls in the past. Not knowing anything, I ordered the $10 combination plate of sushi and shashimi (sp?). To my surpised I really enjoyed this and for me, it was the best meal of the cruise. Most reports I've read have rated Jade's sushi as grocery store quality but, not knowing any better I really enjoyed it.

Windjammer was another big disappointment for us. The buffet tables seemed smaller than on other ships and the offerings seemed less. There was always scrambled eggs, bacon, pork and turkey sausage, fried potato's and ham at the carving station. You almost had to beg for them to put any decent amount of ham on your plate as they put what appeared to be a toddler sized portion on the plate. When we asked for more it seemed as if it annoyed the server.

The fruit was typical mid winter fruit without much flavor. I hardly can blame RCI for that. There was the typical seleciton found on any RCI ship.

I couldn not find an area where omletes were made to order. Generally there was one omlette selection put onto the buffet each day. It basically looked like a dried out egg casaroul cut into serving squares. A completely unappatizing presentation IMO.

Sorrento's Pizza was a decent snack but not great pizza. They stayed pretty busy during the day as there was a ton of kids on this trip. I noticed several adults eating here as well.

We did not eat lunch in the dining room. The menu served was completely unappitizing to either of us so we just skipped it. In fact, we never really ate lunch as nothing looked appealing to us. Most of the time we just snacked or grabbed a piece of pizza.

There was one midnight buffet, which was held in the Windjammer rather than in the dining room or on the pool deck. It was a Mexican buffet. As we were awake we ventured up to see it. It paled in comparison to the buffets on the newer ships, had little selection and was of fare quality for taste and pesentation. I tried a little of everything and while it was decent, it wasn't something I'd stay awake just to experience.

Service:

For the most part service was good and employee's were friendly and helpfull. I enjoyed our dining room staff but the assitant waiter did not keep up with our drinks. I have noticed this as a problem area on our last two cruises with RCI and hope it's not the service we can come to expect in the future. All glasses at our table ran dry and we often had to ask for a refill, then wait for some time before getting it. I watched our assitant waiter and it wasn't that he was lazy, he just had to many people to attend to. Between trying to pass rolls and keep glasses full, he couldn't get to everyone efficiently. This is a major problem in how RCI staffs it's dining room staff IMO as how long a glass sits empty is a major way that I grade service in any restaurant.

The cabin steward was rarely seen but was efficient and kept our cabin in good shape. I miss the way it was on our first two cruises when we actually got to see and interact with our cabin stewards. It made the service more personal and friendly. This new team concept for cabin stewards has taken the service down a set IMO and I do not like it as much.

Staff in the stores seemed to be either new, didn't care or just wasn't their best staff. Most had trouble answering the simplest of questions about prices or merchandise. Some were having difficulty ringing up purchases in a timely manner and some just didn't seem to know what to do and required someone to give them directions to keep them from standing around staring into space. At one point a customer ask the employee in the liquor store what the customs allowance was for bringing liquor back into the states. He didn't have a clue and couldn't answer the question for the man. To me this was unaccaptable for someone working in a liquor store on a cruise ship.

Entertainment:

We did not go to any of the shows. They had the love and marriage show, which we watched in room on or TV. It was the typical Love and Marriage show and was entertaining. The headline entertainment was the guy that wrote the them song for Happy Days. We did not go to this show or watch it on TV. The final show was a comedian juggler, which was funny but did not appear to be the best juggler I ever saw. He dropped several balls and it did not appear to be part of his act or on purpose, just drops.

I did stick my head in briefly for the production show. IMO, it was of typical RCI quality. Decent but not something I'd come in off the street to see and pay money for.

We did enjoy the dueling piano's in Bolero's on the second and third night. My wife really enjoyed this show but, IMO, the crowd really makes or breaks this one. The more drunk and rowdy the crowd the more entertaining the show. Both were better entertianers than they were singers or piano players. They were pretty good at keeping the crowd into it and everyone had a lot of fun. Unfortunately they're only allowed to play for an hour. That's just enough time to get the crowd really wamred up and then they have to stop for the next band. RCI needs to look at expanding this to a three or four set show with 15 minute breaks for the entertainers. Each night the crowd was literally BEGGING them to stay and do more. Since there was another act following them the couldn't.

The act that followed was a really good salsa band that we stuck around hear. However, they would put in the dueling piano's, then the salsa band, then dueling piano's followed by the salsa band again. Each act attracted a different crowd. Just as their crowd was getting into it, the acts had to quit. There would be a break and the next act was on. This had the crowds coming and going which I suppose is what RCI wants. To me it was annoying and made it harder to have an enjoyable evening.

The pools and hot tubs:

This cruise was over run with unsupervised children. I could not have swam in the pools or sat in the hot tubs during the day unless I wanted to regress to my childhood and enjoy splaching other people, doing cannon balls into the pool or enjoy seeing pre-teen and teenage hormones running wild in the hot tubs. I saw several parents sitting with their adolesent children in the hot tubs with staff never saying a word. I guess I was mistaken about hot tubs being for 18 and over only.

The only time the pools were suitable for adults was in the early morning hours before the kids were up and just being kids. Since there is no solarium, there is no adults only section. There was two pools but both were filled with children enjoying the day. As the temps were in the 60's/70's, most of the cruisers seemed to be Californian's who thought this was to cold to swim anyway so I guess it didn't matter.

Passengers:

The term "booze cruise" fits the 3 night run pretty well. I'd hate to see some of the bills other passengers racked up. Even though there was a lot of drinking, most people acted pretty well and handled their liquor well. There was a few times I heard someone in the restroom burping up the days meals though.

Kids were everywhere on this cruise. They were not horribly behaved but they were unsupervised kids. Kids are going to run, yell, scream that high pitched scream of theirs and run up and down the stairs. They're not always going to look where they are going and you have to stay on guard or get run over. I did not observe anyone punching all the elevator buttons, playing tag in the cabin hallways, knocking on cabin doors and running or reversing the do not disturb card to clean my room. Overall I'd have to say they were just kids being kids. It can still be annoying if you're an adult trying to relax and I do get frustrated seeing kids run free without parental supervision.

Teenage love/lust was running high. Several times I felt I was interupting a moment and would get the dread "stare" when if I didn't vacate the area quickly enough. My feeling was to bad, get a room. On evening I heard a parent ask one of the younger kids where their older brother was. The answer was he didn't know but he was probably with "HER." My thought was check deck 7 or 8 aft just below the half court basketball court. It is somewhat secluded back there, provides a nice romantic view of the wake and seemed to be frequented by young teenagers in "love" everytime I went back there to enjoy watching the ships wake.

Port:

Ensenada is nothing special. But I think most on these forums knows that. We took the Fox Studio tour. We enjoyed it and my wife really likes seeing the working studio's that explain how things are done. It is a very small studio with no active production going on. If you're accustomed to Universal Studio's in California, you'll probably be disappointed. We're from KS and found it to be an interesting way to spend the day. There were set pieces from Planet of the Apes, Titanic and Master and Commander. They still have the mock up of the ship surprise from Master and Commander that you allowed to climb up on. There were many interior set pieces from Titanic and a few from Planet of the Apes. As English is a second language for most of the tour guides, we found them to be somewhat difficult to understand at times. There were very friendly and could answer most the questions asked.

If we had wanted there would have been about 90 minutes of shopping time in Ensenada after the tour. However, after looking the town over from the bus we decided to just head back to the ship. We did a little shopping in the small buidling just off the pier but didn't find much in the way of bargains. I did price Don Julio tequilla and found the price to be only $2 cheaper for the same sized bottle as back home. I found that amazing since liquor taxes in KS are considered pretty high.

Overall Impression:

If I lived near the pier or could get there with little expense, this might be an enjoyable, inexpensive get away for the weekend. However, coming from halfway across the country I think I can find better alternatives for these vacation dollars. Ensenada isn't a very good port of call IMO, the service and food was subpar compared to the other three cruises we had been on, and the number of kids running and screaming made it difficult to relax. On the proverbial 1 to 10 scale I'd have to give the total experience a 4 1/2. I had booked this cruise for January of next year because it seemed like a reasonably priced winter getaway. I'll be cancelling that reservation shortly and using those dollars somewhere else.

Thanks for posting your photos. We are taking our British friends on the Monarch in February. They have never been on a cruise. I will show them your photos. However I won't show them you review as I don't want them to think bad of the cruise before they get there. We have done the Monarch twice. Granted it's not as nice as the larger ships but still it's a good cruise. As with any cruise it's what you make of it.We are going on their Murder Mystery cruise on the 11th, which is different and are expecting to have great fun.

To be honest, I rarely pay attention to others opinions. Everyone's expectations will always be different and what is a great cruise for some isn't for others. We mainly go on a cruise to relax and see the ports. This cruise was more of a party atmosphere with tons of kids. It just wasn't our cup of tea. I think the 4 day midweek cruise would have suited us better but our work schedules just wouldn't allow for it this time.

There were several fist time cruisers that were having a blast and raving about how great it was. We also ate breakfast on the last day with a retired travel agent who's experience with the dining room food was exactly the opposite of ours. She felt the food and service were great.

Individual experiences are bound to differ. If they didn't, the cruise lines would all be able to offer identicle cruises, service and quality.

Thanks SO much for all the pictures! I am leaving on the Monarch on Monday for the 4 day cruise. I am hoping since this one is during the week that it will not have as many kids and drinkers. From what I hear the 4 day trip is much more sedate :) Our cabin is the same floor and category as your's so I was thrilled to get more info abotu that and see pictures

Thanks for posting your photos. We are taking our British friends on the Monarch in February. They have never been on a cruise. I will show them your photos. However I won't show them you review as I don't want them to think bad of the cruise before they get there. We have done the Monarch twice. Granted it's not as nice as the larger ships but still it's a good cruise. As with any cruise it's what you make of it.We are going on their Murder Mystery cruise on the 11th, which is different and are expecting to have great fun.

ricko1....

I am considering booking the Murder Mystery cruise for next Oct (during Halloween weekend) and would love to hear all about it when you get back from your Murder Mystery cruise. (I would have booked it for the same time as you are going in Feb, but I had already booked my group cruise for the following weekend.)

DougP....

Great pictures! As you can see by my signature, I have a group of 50 family & friends going on this ship in Feb. Several in the group have never been on a cruise before and many of them have asked for pictures of the ship. If you don't mind, I plan to share your pictures with them. Thanks so much!

I will be happy to let you know about the Murder Mystery cruise when we return. I probably will post a review titled Monarch Murder Mystery.

We agree that the 4 night cruise is a better one but the Murder Mystery was on the 3 night. But still we will enjoy it. :)

I'll be on that cruise also. Too bad there's no Meet n Mingle. Wow, how did you get your group together? This will be my first Left Coast cruise. Can't get more than a long weekend at this time of the year. What do you think the temps will be, and do you think we'll see any whales?

Rhonda (from Delaware)

That you weren't on the cruise the prior weekend! We got record amounts of rain then, especially on Sunday. I cannot imagine how horrible that cruise must have been. This past weekend the weather was absolutely beautiful and we are very fortunate it is continuing for the rest of the week. As for swimming in 60-70 degree temps in an unheated pool????? The people on the cruise this week are very fortunate, we get a couple great weeks of weather every winter and it looks like it is right now.

We have been on Monarch 2 times, both of them the 4 dayer, I would have to say it is dramatically different from the OPs experience. They were also on a holiday weekend, hence, many more children than average. We have also been on the Carnival 4 dayer a few years back, the only comment I will make about that is, we would go back on Monarch any time, we probably will never sail Carnival again.

The food we had on both our Monarch cruises has been pretty much hit or miss. I've learned to never order the alternate steak, or any chicken dish on RCI, through personal experience and these boards. We never go to the buffet unless we have no other choice, not only RCI, but any cruise ship. Or even buffet restaurants on land, the food just tastes too much like buffet food. The dining room was great for breakfast, much less of a hassle than the buffet.

If you go on Monarch, do yourself a favor and go on the 4 night cruise, you stop in San Diego and Catalina, both much better than Ensenada. It also sounds like the OP is giving good advise when arriving at LAX, take a shuttle to the port area and spend the night there, away from the airport noise.

We all go with different anticipation of a cruise experience. I'm sorry you did not have a wonderful time and hope you come back to CA again and have a better experience. But I am glad you got some great weather.

I will end that we never get off the ship in Ensenada, we have enjoyed the ship to ourselves on that day.

I enjoyed your photos! Thanks for posting them.

I'll be on that cruise also. Too bad there's no Meet n Mingle. Wow, how did you get your group together? This will be my first Left Coast cruise. Can't get more than a long weekend at this time of the year. What do you think the temps will be, and do you think we'll see any whales?

 

Rhonda (from Delaware)

Well...Hubby & I have been on several cruises (as you can see from my sig line) and we've been trying to get a big group of family/friends together for many years now and this time it just seemed to "work". I planned it for the holiday weekend because most people get the Monday off. That way they really only had to take one day off work, Friday. In the past we would always say we wanted to get a group together, but never made any commitment to a specific cruise/date. This time I made a group booking, made up flyers, emails and sent them to all our family and friends. I was hoping to get maybe 10-15 cabins, but in the end it ended up being 25 cabins! It just sort of took off! Plus, except for a few of them, we all live within an hour from the port so we don't have the added expense of airfare.

Like everyone has said, Ensenada is nothing special. I've been on many cruises down there and the only reason I get off the ship now is to go to Papa's & Beer....LOL I wish the ships here in southern California would go somewhere else for those 3 day weekend cruises. But, we just go on them because they are a quick getaway for us and it satisfies our "cruise need" until we can take a longer one.

As far as seeing whales...hmm...not sure. We did the same weekend a couple years ago and we didn't see any. Trying to remember what the temps were last time....I don't remember the temps while at sea, but while we were in Ensenada it was around low-mid 70's.

On our sea day, the captian came on the intercom and told eveyone that we nearly hit a whale on the starboard side. I'm pretty good at looking for whale spouts and happened to be on deck 5 (I think it was deck 5?) when he announced it. I leaped up the stairs and out onto the starboard side of the promanade deck and started looking. At this time the ship was barely moving. Despite searching the horizon for maybe 15-20 minutes, there was no sign of the whale or any of it's friends.

This cruise would not be the best for whale watching. You would have to stand out on deck for many hours looking at the horizon and needing to know what that little whale spout looks like to even have a chance of seeing one. It's unlikely and there are so many other things to do. Another clue that whales may be scarce in these waters is that there are no whale watching tours offered in Ensenada. If the whales were out there and there was money to be made, boats would be sailing out for paying customers to see them.

This cruise would not be the best for whale watching. You would have to stand out on deck for many hours looking at the horizon and needing to know what that little whale spout looks like to even have a chance of seeing one. It's unlikely and there are so many other things to do. Another clue that whales may be scarce in these waters is that there are no whale watching tours offered in Ensenada. If the whales were out there and there was money to be made, boats would be sailing out for paying customers to see them.

Good point Dougp.

Thanks for the review and the pix, Doug. I am leaving next Friday for the 3 dayer with a group of 64 from my singles group at church (30s-mid 40s). I don't think many of them have cruised before so this will be a nice starter for them. Question: was there a lot of motion on the Monarch? I don't think I have ever seen that mentioned before and I have many who are worried about getting seasick. I have, of course, told them of all the alternatives (Bonine/Dramamine/Seabands/the patch) so they should be prepared. Also, they let you actually board the ship before noon? I was planning on arriving at noon, but now I might leave earlier (I am in Palmdale, so I am nearly 2 hours away from SP). Would rather "waste" my time onboard ship than in my car!

BTW, the pix were great. Were you shooting digital or film? If film, what speed?

Thanks again!

Theresa

There is no way to predict how much motion you may feel on your cruise. You would have to check ocean and weather conditions right before you leave. You will sometimes feel motion, usually on the northbound leg of the trip. It just depends. As you stated, you are prepared for seasickness with meds, I hope you have great weather and calm seas.

I know many people talk about stabilizers and such and they do help, but you are still on the ocean on a ship, if the ocean is rough, you will feel it.

We felt more motion on Monarch than we have on the other ships we've been on. This was in very calm waters with wavelets to 1-2 ft swells. As mentioned we noticed this more on the northbound leg of the trip and not as much going south.

I believe there are a few reasons for this:

1. You are actually sailing on the southbound leg at a decent speed.

2. The northbound leg, or sea day, you are barely moving and at times the engines are actually off and the ship is either anchored or allowed to drift. This is when we noticed the most side to side motion. I believe the waves have a greater affect on a ship that is not sailing through them but rather is sitting still bobbing like a cork on a pond.

3. I'm not 100% sure but since Monarch is one of the oldest ships in the fleet, she may not have the stablizers that the newer ships have. If not then you will feel more motion.

My wife is very sensitive to motion sickness while I am not. She got a little queezy on the sea day but, she had worked the night before we left (12 hour night shift, she didn't sleep before the flight and ended up awake all day, the bed at the LAX Hilton was only a double and the mattress sucked. By the time we were onboard the ship she had spent almost 40 hours awake and then had a very bad nights sleep the night before the cruise. I think lack of sleep just caught up with her.

I, on the other hand, am rarely affected by motion sickness and don't generally notice the motion of the ship in clam waters. On this trip, I could tell some side to side motion on the northbound leg. I would look out to see what the sea conditions were like and they were calm but the ship was sitting still or barely moving. Thus, I think the northbound leg has more motion due to the slow pace the ship sails back at.

Thanks for your review and the great photos, Doug! I am considering doing the 4-day next May in addition to spending the weekend before at Disneyland to celebrate a milestone birthday. :) I was also considering Carnival Paradise, but would really like to stop in San Diego.

Thanks for your review and the great photos, Doug! I am considering doing the 4-day next May in addition to spending the weekend before at Disneyland to celebrate a milestone birthday. :) I was also considering Carnival Paradise, but would really like to stop in San Diego.

This is what we're considering too--but like the stop in San Diego--thinking Seaworld?? We're planning OCt. 2006

While I would never cruise the Monarch with the expectation of seeing whales, I was very shocked last July when we saw a whole pod of whales from the deck when we were drifting on our "at sea day"! It can happen and during the winter months there are whale watching excursions out of San Diego.

Thanks for your review and the great photos, Doug! I am considering doing the 4-day next May in addition to spending the weekend before at Disneyland to celebrate a milestone birthday. :) I was also considering Carnival Paradise, but would really like to stop in San Diego.

While this wasn't a bad cruise (is there such a thing?), I'd never fly from the midwest again just to go to Ensenada. I wouldn't fly that far again to take the 4 night trip either.

This year we're going to try the new extended Enchantment out of FLL in December. If that one goes well, then maybe next year well take one of the short Texaribbean cruises out of Galveston. Galveston is a little bit of a drive but it can be done in a day. With the price of airfare it could be our best bet for a winter time cruise that's less than 7 nights.

While this wasn't a bad cruise (is there such a thing?), I'd never fly from the midwest again just to go to Ensenada. I wouldn't fly that far again to take the 4 night trip either.

 

This year we're going to try the new extended Enchantment out of FLL in December. If that one goes well, then maybe next year well take one of the short Texaribbean cruises out of Galveston. Galveston is a little bit of a drive but it can be done in a day. With the price of airfare it could be our best bet for a winter time cruise that's less than 7 nights.

Why not try a bigger, newer ship? Try the Radiance or Voyager Class? If you really want to keep in shorter than a 7 day cruise the Rhapsody out of Galveston is also a good choice.

dougp26364: Thanks for the well-balanced review. We will be on the 4 day this winter. I'm glad to keep hearing about the Monarch.

I notice that you comment several times about how some venues are smaller than they are on the larger ships. I guess I'm just a little confused as to why this would surprise you. It's a smaller ship with fewer pax; I'm already planning for things to be "scaled" down from the Radiance and Voyager classes that we're used to. I know for sure that we'll miss the Solarium.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "Instead people were mostly dressed in smart casual attire of suits and ties for the men and evening gowns for the ladies." Those are regular formal night options. Smart casual has always been coat/tie/slacks combos for men and dresses/pantsuits for women. So I guess I'm asking whether they were dressed in typical formal night attire or not?

Otherwise, I really appreciate hearing your feedback. We'll be sure to watch the menus carefully--Venetian is not our favorite night either. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

beachchick

dougp26364: Thanks for the well-balanced review. We will be on the 4 day this winter. I'm glad to keep hearing about the Monarch.

 

I notice that you comment several times about how some venues are smaller than they are on the larger ships. I guess I'm just a little confused as to why this would surprise you. It's a smaller ship with fewer pax; I'm already planning for things to be "scaled" down from the Radiance and Voyager classes that we're used to. I know for sure that we'll miss the Solarium.

 

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "Instead people were mostly dressed in smart casual attire of suits and ties for the men and evening gowns for the ladies." Those are regular formal night options. Smart casual has always been coat/tie/slacks combos for men and dresses/pantsuits for women. So I guess I'm asking whether they were dressed in typical formal night attire or not?

 

Otherwise, I really appreciate hearing your feedback. We'll be sure to watch the menus carefully--Venetian is not our favorite night either. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

 

beachchick

I probably should have written newer rather than larger. Actually, while the Soveriegn class ship is an older ship, it's still a 70,000 ton vessel which is about the same tonage as a Vision class ship. They also hold about the same number of passengers as a Vision class ship. However, the rooms are smaller and the common areas seem to be smaller. Basically, the ship is just not as well laid out as the newer ships but, it is as large (or almost at least) as the Vision class.

Examples of deficiencies are the windjammer, the design of the atrium (only 4 levels) and the stair in the atrium. With the stairs, you can't just keep going from level to level. You must go from one level to another, then walk around that level to get on another set of stairs going either up or down.

I really think that in the showroom, it probably seats as many people but the overall design is different. It just did not seem as well laid out.

Also, the centrum elevators only go up or down about 4 floors. We made the initial mistake of getting on them, thinking we could go up to the top deck to get to the windjammer. Wrong, they only went to the fith or sixth floor. Basically they only go to the centrum floors and nothing else. They are also considerably smaller than Vision class elevators and are somewhat claustrophobic.

The dress codes for Formal and Smart Casual are actually two different things but, a lot of people follow Smart Casual guidelines on formal night anyway. Essientially, people were dressed down more so than on the longer cruises but not as much as I expected from previous postings. On our longer cruises, I've seen a larger percentage of tuxes on the men.

Smart Casual nights for men had been listed as suites or sports coat and tie. This was the majority on formal night for men rather than wearing a tux. On a three night cruise, I actually expected to see fewer suits and more dockers and polo shirts on formal night. At least that's what I had come to expect from reading other reviews in the past. The ladies still got dressed in their finest (most of them did at least) and were by far more formal than the men.

In the past I've taken both a suit and tie for smart casual and my tux for formal as that's how I understood the suggested dress guideline. Perhaps I understood the guidelines wrong.

doug26364: Thanks for the clarification. BTW: We've been on several RCI cruises so I do actually understand the difference between smart casual (which DH hates) and formal. It's just that you said they were dressed in the smart casual attire of suits and ties and formal gowns. That was my confusion. Suits and ties and formal gowns are typical formal night attire, not smart casual. So I couldn't tell if you meant that on formal night most pax were in smart casual or if they were actually in formal attire.

beachchick

I was on yhe 4 dayer last week, and I was surprised to see virtually no unsupervised children. We found the food to be quite delicious in claude's/vincent's (especially the soups). We also thought very well of the entertainment, especially wilde & haines, and the quest game show. Having only last year's cruise aboard the carnival pride for comparison, we did find the cabins to be considerably smaller and definitely felt a great deal more movement. And while we enjoyed this cruise immensely, ensenada is definitely the weakest of the three ports, so I could see why the 3 dayer would be less enjoyable.