A Graduation Cruise in Review: Monarch (with pics!)

I can’t believe believe it’s been a week since my AMAZING graduation cruise on the Monarch of the Seas, but it has :(. Still, that means I get to post another Cruise Critic picture review! Reading detailed reviews on this board is my favorite way to count down to my next cruise and it’s my turn write one (which is my favorite way to relive them!).

Obviously, this was my college graduation cruise and my ninth cruise overall. My last one wasn’t actually a cruise, but a 30 day voyage with Semester at Sea…but that’s a different story. I graduated last month in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and was accepted to the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim, Norway for passenger ship design at the graduate level, so a cruise was a perfect way to celebrate. Oh, and I’m spending the summer in Miami as an intern…with Royal Caribbean :)

WARNING: This review WILL be long and detailed. I know some posters like the simple reviews so I like to make that clear. You can check out my last review in my signature for reference….it’s a long one.

Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the review soon. I actually HAVE to finish by the end of this week, because I’ll be heading out for my second graduation cruise aboard the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda. I still don’t know how I managed that, but I can’t wait :D.

Oh, and PLEASE ask questions! I’ll try to answer any that I can.

Here we go!

Hello, can't wait for your review, we had an awesome time even though it rained everyday on the trip! We did the dolphin excursion and the Atlantis trip. I can't recommend that enough to people. I really enjoyed the Monarch, my wife said she wants to go back to the bigger ships but I had a great time.

I can’t believe believe it’s been a week since my AMAZING graduation cruise on the Monarch of the Seas, but it has :(. Still, that means I get to post another Cruise Critic picture review! Reading detailed reviews on this board is my favorite way to count down to my next cruise and it’s my turn write one (which is my favorite way to relive them!).

 

Obviously, this was my college graduation cruise and my ninth cruise overall. My last one wasn’t actually a cruise, but a 30 day voyage with Semester at Sea…but that’s a different story. I graduated last month in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and was accepted to the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim, Norway for passenger ship design at the graduate level, so a cruise was a perfect way to celebrate. Oh, and I’m spending the summer in Miami as an intern…with Royal Caribbean :)

 

WARNING: This review WILL be long and detailed. I know some posters like the simple reviews so I like to make that clear. You can check out my last review in my signature for reference….it’s a long one.

 

Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the review soon. I actually HAVE to finish by the end of this week, because I’ll be heading out for my second graduation cruise aboard the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda. I still don’t know how I managed that, but I can’t wait :D.

 

Oh, and PLEASE ask questions! I’ll try to answer any that I can.

 

Here we go!

 

This is a little off topic, but my son is going to be starting his Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering course in September, and was wondering how easy it is to get an internship with Royal if you are from the UK? It is pretty much his dream to design passenger ships :)

Oh, and I am looking forward to reading your review :D

Hello, can't wait for your review, we had an awesome time even though it rained everyday on the trip! We did the dolphin excursion and the Atlantis trip. I can't recommend that enough to people. I really enjoyed the Monarch, my wife said she wants to go back to the bigger ships but I had a great time.

Yes, that was the ONE negative of the entire trip. We still had a great time, but we could have dealt with a little more sunshine :rolleyes:. And I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the ship, even after sailing on some of the larger ones. I'll be sad to see her leave the fleet next year.

This is a little off topic, but my son is going to be starting his Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering course in September, and was wondering how easy it is to get an internship with Royal if you are from the UK? It is pretty much his dream to design passenger ships :)

 

Oh, and I am looking forward to reading your review :D

We have something in common then! I hope he enjoys it as much as I do. As for the internship question, I'm not really sure, though I know international students were encouraged to apply. I think internship programs with cruise lines in general are very rare. I'm only aware of a couple.

Okay, it's about time to get started:

BACKGROUND

This was my first cruise with a large group of people and first short cruise as well. We were a group of 8, including me, my sister (19), cousins (20 & 22), mom, dad, aunt, and grandmother. This was the first cruise for everyone besides my sister and I, so I spent a lot of time planning to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible.

Since I graduated in New Orleans on May 18th, one could easily ask why we chose to drive 10 hours in one day to cruise from Port Canaveral. The answer? The Wizarding World of Harry Potter :). Yes, my sister and I are huge Potter fans and we have talked about going for years. After crunching numbers, it was easy to see that a 4 day cruise + weekend in Orlando would be MUCH cheaper (and more fun!) than a full week on land. I chose the Monarch over other PC ships mostly for Coco Cay. Private islands/beaches are always highlights for me and I’ve already visited Castaway Cay, Half Moon Cay, and Labadee. My sister and I also LOVED our cruise on the Mariner and were ready to cruise Royal again.

I booked the cruise in January and the time flew by! I don’t know if it was because of the late booking (we usually book a year in advance) or my hectic final semester, but we were on our way after what seemed like no time at all.

PRE-CRUISE

I was blessed enough to have 11 family members travel from North Carolina to see me graduate. It was a tough four years and I couldn’t wait to get my engineer’s cap and walk across the stage!

We spent the next day, Saturday, being as touristy as possible around New Orleans. We fit as much as we could into one day, including a full tour of the French Quarter. We even took a pre-cruise cruise on the steamboat Natchez down the Mississippi.

After a long, hot, tiring day, we bid farewell to the non-cruisers and prepared for the long drive to Florida. For some, this would be the second 10 hour drive in three days :o. Thankfully, it would be more than worth it!!

We spent Sunday on the road and drove straight to Cocoa Beach, FL. I had a plan to be at the port as early as possible the next day, so a close hotel was a must. We stayed at the Best Western, which was fine for one night but certainly nothing spectacular. We spent Sunday evening visiting the HUGE Ron Jon Surf Shop and the beach (which was very nice) before calling it a day.

Up next: Monarch of the Seas and Day 1...

nice start

THE SHIP

Before I get into the day-by-day review, I’ll go ahead and give a quick photo tour of the Monarch. This will be easier than posting pictures throughout the review and will allow me to focus on the activities rather than the ship later.

As I’m sure you all know, the Monarch is now the oldest member of the RCCL fleet and ALMOST the smallest (the Legend and Splendour are a TINY bit smaller) and can’t be compared to today’s giant vessels. I knew not to compare her with some of my past cruises (Mariner of the Seas, Crown Princess, etc.) and I was pleasantly surprised. She really is a beautiful ship inside and out. Sure, there are some signs of her age (the carpet on the outer decks was most noticeable), but overall she is still impressive 21 years later. Those in my group who had never cruised before thought she was amazing, of course!

By the time I left the ship, I really had become attached and will be sad to see her leave the fleet.

I’ll start with the most impressive space onboard:

The Centrum

The four deck atrium sets the tone of the ship. I found it to be as elegant as many of those I’ve seen before though definitely not as “flashy”. One annoyance is that the glass elevators only go up to deck seven. This caused a bit of confusion on embarkation day!

Viking Crown Lounge

This has to be the neatest space onboard most RCCL ships, though I found it to be much more impressive from the outside. A portion of the lounge serves as the ship’s cigar lounge and the smell made it a bit off-putting. We only came here once during the entire cruise.

The Sound of Music Theater

I unfortunately didn’t get a great picture of the main show lounge, but this shows a portion of it. There were two production shows on this 4-night cruise in addition to a welcome show and comedy act. I was very impressed with the production troupe, even though they were small in number (8 dancers + 4 singers). We thought all of the shows were very entertaining.

Main Dining Rooms

There are two main dining rooms onboard: Claude's and Vincent's. They aren't as impressive as the multi-deck dining rooms aboard other ships but they were simple and elegant. My Time Dining and traditional dining are split between them. We went with the traditional early seating because I always like to get to know our waiter and I'm not a fan of pre-paid gratuities. It was a good choice since we really enjoyed our head waiter (Vergel!!).

Windjammer Cafe

The Windjammer Cafe is the ship's casual buffet serving all meals. We ate every breakfast and lunch here and every dinner in the main dining room. I found the food here to be very good overall. There were some things that I didn't like, but it's hard to complain when you can get up and choose something else :). Peak lunch and breakfast hours were pretty packed and it was difficult to find an empty table at times.

Jade

This is the Monarch's only surcharge restaurant. We never ate here and I honestly would have preferred any other RCCL restaurant since I'm not a sushi fan. Oh well! The space is used for overflow for the windjammer during breakfast and lunch.

Schooner Bar

This was one of my favorite spaces on both the Mariner and Monarch. Various activities were held here throughout the cruise, including most of the trivia competitions.

Boleros

Boleros was the lounge used for many of the music and dance activities.

The Circuit Lounge

This is the secondary show lounge located on deck 8, aft. There didn't seem to be many shows held here (or any that we were interested in) and most of my group didn't know what it was by the end of the cruise. This was the venue for the returning guest reception and infamous "Quest", however.

Library

I loved this ship, but this has to be the smallest library I've seen at sea...

Pool Deck

This is almost certainly the most popular spot on board even though it was sadly underused during our last two days because of the weather :(. This was also my favorite place to take pictures...I don't want to count how many pictures I took of the Viking Crown Lounge...

Other Decks

Deck 12 had lounge chairs everywhere, so finding a chair shouldn't be a problem IF you're willing to venture away from the pool :)

Another of my favorite spots on the Monarch was the outdoor aft section. I really enjoyed the aft deck design much more than those of today's more blocky, contemporary cruise ships. These decks were always quite and I loved looking out at the wake.

Finally, another great spot not found on many cruise ships was the full wrap-around promenade deck on deck 7.

I'll end the photo tour with random shots of a passenger hallway (deck 8) and stairwell.

That does it! If anyone wants to see a picture of something else, let me know!

Next i'll start with the day-to-day review of the cruise. If anyone's following along, thanks!

Up next: Day 1, Port Canaveral, FL

Pool Deck

 

This is almost certainly the most popular spot on board even though it was sadly underused during our last two days because of the weather :(. This was also my favorite place to take pictures...I don't want to count how many pictures I took of the Viking Crown Lounge...

 

 

Other Decks

 

Deck 12 had lounge chairs everywhere, so finding a chair shouldn't be a problem IF you're willing to venture away from the pool :)

 

 

Another of my favorite spots on the Monarch was the outdoor aft section. I really enjoyed the aft deck design much more than those of today's more blocky, contemporary cruise ships. These decks were always quite and I loved looking out at the wake.

 

 

Finally, another great spot not found on many cruise ships was the full wrap-around promenade deck on deck 7.

 

I have to agree that the outdoor aft section is a great spot and I also found the Deck 7 area that you photographed to be an excellent quiet spot and the darkest spot on the ship to watch the night sky.

First of all congratulations on graduation and going into graduate school

Enjoying your review. It reminds me of my first RCCL cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas

Great photos of the Monarch. I have sailed the Monarch 4 times since 2009. I will truely miss the Monarch when she leaves the fleet. I am looking to take one more cruise on her before she retires.

Keep up the review.

ChampionCruiser: Enjoyed your great photos of the ship; I am looking forward to reading your review. Congrats on your degree and being accepted to post-grad studies in Norway. You had an interesting major in college, and an extremely fascinating topic in the upcoming post-grad studies!!! Your family & friends must be quite proud of you!!! Were you at Tulane in NO?

As you may (or may not) know, I had posted on the Roll Call for 5/21 Monarch -- we were supposed to be on Monarch with you all, but our cruise was aborted 5 days prior to boarding when Royal informed me that our group (husband+me+17 yr old granddaughter+4 of her 18 yr old girlfriends, all new high school graduates) would not be allowed to board -- if you want the whole dreadful story, see my thread here "Royal kicked us off".

Your pictures are wonderful. It's making me consider a cruise on the Monarch before she leaves the fleet.

ChampionCruiser: Enjoyed your great photos of the ship; I am looking forward to reading your review. Congrats on your degree and being accepted to post-grad studies in Norway. You had an interesting major in college, and an extremely fascinating topic in the upcoming post-grad studies!!! Your family & friends must be quite proud of you!!! Were you at Tulane in NO?

 

As you may (or may not) know, I had posted on the Roll Call for 5/21 Monarch -- we were supposed to be on Monarch with you all, but our cruise was aborted 5 days prior to boarding when Royal informed me that our group (husband+me+17 yr old granddaughter+4 of her 18 yr old girlfriends, all new high school graduates) would not be allowed to board -- if you want the whole dreadful story, see my thread here "Royal kicked us off".

Thanks very much. I graduated from UNO, which is (sadly) now the only school for engineering in New Orleans. And I have seen your board. I'm sure it was a nightmare, but I hope all ended well. I'm sorry you couldn't be onboard with us!

Your pictures are wonderful. It's making me consider a cruise on the Monarch before she leaves the fleet.

Thanks! I would love to cruise her again before she leaves. The same thing happened to me with the Norwegian Majesty. She was an older ship but I fell in love with her before she was sold :rolleyes:. At least the Majesty of the Seas will be staying around a bit longer.

Moving on!

Day 1: Port Canaveral, Fl

After (of course) a restless sleep, the Monday of the cruise was here! We ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and were in our cars and ready to go around 10 a.m. We timed everything perfectly and arrived at the terminal exactly at 10:30. We might not have been the first ones there, but we were pretty close. We breezed through security and sat for less than 15 minutes in a line for check in. I enjoyed my gold member status here, because we were all allowed to sit in the priority line. It probably didn’t make much of a difference at all, but I was all for starting the vacation ASAP!

After another short wait following check-in (which seemed more than short) the announcement for boarding was made. We gathered our things and made our way (in an orderly fashion, of course) to the ship. We were on board a little after 11:30 and were enjoying our first meal in the Windjammer by noon. I’ll be sure to get to the port as early as possible for all of my future cruises after it went so smoothly here.

The gangway connects directly to the Centrum, where a band greeted us.

One great thing about getting there early is being able to explore the ship before the masses pile aboard!

We hadn’t even left yet, but I could already tell this would be another great cruise.

It was announced that cabins wouldn’t be ready until 2, so we explored the ship until then. I’m pretty sure we at least walked into (and took a picture in) every available public space aboard during that time.

The wheel in the Viking Crown Lounge was a nice touch :)

One GREAT thing about the Monarch is that she is easy to navigate. Not only is she small by today’s standards, but her arrangement is unique. Unlike most ships, almost all of her public spaces are situated aft and accommodations forward. So simply figure out which way is which and you should be good to go!

As promised, rooms were available promptly at 2 and we split up to go check them out. We were divided into three cabins: a deck two oceanview (2506) and two deck 8 oceanviews (8056, 8058). I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone this, so I’ll only say it once: the cabins are small! BUT, I was pleasantly surprised. I’m not sure if I had convinced myself that they would be way worse, but they were adequate for a four night sailing. Storage space was limited, but suitcase-under-the-bed trick fixed that. I wouldn’t want to sail in a cabin this size on a longer cruise, but I wouldn’t hesitate booking one again on either the Majesty or Monarch.

I stayed in cabin 8058 and this was my first time in an obstructed view stateroom. I booked too late to snag one of the staterooms in between lifeboats, so I had to make do with our view. Still, for the price, it wasn’t that bad. At least we could see the sky and water each day and the sunlight in the morning was a must! I also preferred being on deck 8 to one of the lower decks simply because of its convenience. We only had to walk down one deck to the promenade and up three to the pool. Here's the view from 8058:

So yes, I would book an obstructed view stateroom again, but would I book THIS one? Nope. The reason:

I had no idea shuffleboard was so popular! No matter what time, it seemed like there was ALWAYS a group of people right below our cabin and they can definitely see you when you look out. It wasn’t a big deal, but having somebody wave at you from below does affect your privacy...

 

 

I had no idea shuffleboard was so popular! No matter what time, it seemed like there was ALWAYS a group of people right below our cabin and they can definitely see you when you look out. It wasn’t a big deal, but having somebody wave at you from below does affect your privacy...

LOL!!! Great review! Great pictures! Thanks for posting. Because of your great pictures of the rooms my might want to post them on CruiseLineRooms dot Com. Cool site for people to see what the view really is.

LOL!!! Great review! Great pictures! Thanks for posting. Because of your great pictures of the rooms my might want to post them on CruiseLineRooms dot Com. Cool site for people to see what the view really is.

Thanks! I'll look into that. People should certainly be warned :D.

We were lucky enough to have our luggage delivered right after we arrived at our cabin (that may have been a first?) and unpacked as much as we could before stuffing the rest under the beds. I then had the burden, I mean privilege, of waiting in the long line outside of the main dining room for table issues. Somehow three of us were assigned to a different table…in a different dining room…at a different time. I was nervous, but they were able to move us all to a table of 8 without trouble.

After taking care of that, I met up with everyone else just in time for the muster drill. This is always the worst (but most important!) part of the cruise and I was glad to get it over with. It was a very typical drill with a lot of people stuffed together on the promenade deck. I should be used to it by now, but Princess’ method of seated, air conditioned drills spoiled me, I think.

Following the drill we joined everyone else at the top of the ship to watch the Monarch set sail. We were joined in port by the Carnival Ecstasy, which took off right before us.

It was a beautiful (but HOT) day in Port Canaveral. This would actually be the hottest day on the entire cruise.

We were a a couple of minutes late but soon after the Ecstasy we were Bahamas bound!