4-Night Monarch of the Seas - Suite Life - Picture Review

[LittleMissMagic]

So, by the time we got to them, they had had enough of the sun and wanted to see our suite.

 

Now, the story about the suite:

 

I told you the cruise drama backstory. Well, when I was calling to book the cruise, I knew that we wanted a balcony, therefore, we'd need to get a Junior Suite. I was curious - so I asked the rep if there were any Grand Suites left. Yes, there was one left. I told him I wasn't ready to book yet, that I had to talk things over with my family first. So I called dad - "There is one Grand Suite and plenty of Junior Suites left. What should I book?" "Well, go ahead and get the Grand Suite." So I called back and booked the GS for us. Dad kept telling me that he would have to call back and change it (I knew he wouldn't) - that we didn't need a GS, but it was fun to have. Well, by the time he got around to switching the the JS, it had increased in price. It was only $300 cheaper - might as well keep the GS! Well played, Victoria, well played.

 

In the meantime, Rachel was already infuriated when she heard the word "suite" (JS) because she knew we'd get more C&A points than her (4 more points, darling - woohoo!). So Dad knew better than to mention the GS. What could we do? She was going to kill us!

 

*Idea* - it was an upgrade! A free upgrade!!!! Then Dad could brag to everyone about his free upgrade (he loves to do this), and Rachel couldn't be too angry at us!

 

So that's what we did. However, our plan was flawed, and if anyone was paying attention to detail, they would've realized that our story didn't make sense because our room number hadn't changed since we first booked the cruise. Luckily, I am the only detail-oriented person of the bunch, and that minor flaw in our fib slid past everyone else.

 

Our story as to how we got the free room was an exaggerated tale itself, though. First, we told them that we went through a lot of trouble booking the cruise - Dad complained a lot because he spent 6 hours on the phone (that is a true story). However, it was also our tenth cruise (total, not on Royal - another small detail that everyone let slide), so that could've been the reason we were upgraded. We weren't really sure.

 

So, we took all of the girls to the room and told them our story, and they were super jealous. In fact, they offered to trade - all three of their rooms for our one! :D

 

DSCN0044 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSCN0045 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

So, we were all sitting in the living area, and there is a knock on the door - someone answers it. And a crew member comes in, carrying a plate. "Sushi," and he puts it down on the table and leaves. We stare at eachother. "What just happened? Did he just BRING YOU SUSHI?" "People just randomly knock on the door and give you things?" Well, they devoured the sushi! :D

[LittleMissMagic]

Here's my lovely gold Sea Pass:

 

DSC_5847 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

I was initially very excited when they didn't hole punch my card, thinking that in all of the confusion, they had forgotten. However, it still says M2 (18-20 years old) and has the dancing kids in the background (next cruise there will be none!). This is the first cruise I've been on in a while when I haven't gotten my card punched for quick identification. Weird, too, it being a 4-night cruise with lots of teens.

 

In case you want clarification, several girls in our group got "the speech" (not us - yay for priority!). M1 = 21+, you may purchase and consume alcohol onboard, M2 = 18-20, you may gamble but not purchase or consume alcohol onboard, M3 = 0-17, you may not gamble or purchase and consume alcohol onboard.

Edited June 14, 2012 by LittleMissMagic

[Mrs.C05]

Love your review and the story behind the room! So who stayed with you in the GS? And btw, you and your sister look like twins!

[Hulalovestocruise]

:) Can't wait for more, your doing a great job.

Good job to your sister for being Valedictorian :) my niece just graduated and was valedictorian,she was so scared about giving a speech but she did a great job.

[MackC]

Awesome pictures and a great review.... Makes me Wang a suite.

[cruisefrost]

Going on the Monarch in that cabin 1038. Was the 2 chairs and table the only thing on the balcony?

[LittleMissMagic]

Going on the Monarch in that cabin 1038. Was the 2 chairs and table the only thing on the balcony?

 

Yes, it was, but Dad peeped next door to the left at the other GS, and there was a lounge chair on their balcony. For some reason, ours was missing. Dad was saying that he probably could've requested one, but he didn't bother because he didn't realize until the third day.

[Cruzin-K]

Great review. I got to read your Adventure review a few months before heading to the Southern Caribbean, and now this one - a few (10) months before heading out on the Monarch. I'm looking forward to hearing more about what you think of the ship. My cruise next March will be my first (and last) on her.

[cruising66]

Love the Monarch!! You are doing a great job. I'm sitting here just'a smiling. Life is short. Have fun, smile always!

 

angela

[Poorplaya]

Awesome pics of the suite.

[swwake]

Love your review. I found this yesterday and linked through to review your entire AoS Christmas review during my breaks at work today. Great review! And I love the photos. I'll probably become a creepy stalker too since I'm a Disney nut myself, and read your Disney trip reports.

 

I have a photo-intense Oasis review link in my signature if you're interested. I know you were considering Allure or Oasis when you wrote the Christmas report.

 

Oh and I wanted to comment on the Buffet link. I'm sure you know your screen name is one of his song titles, right? We have a story behind that, as we almost named a dog (registered) Little Miss Magic. She ended up being Bring Back the Magic because LMM was taken, but her litter had to be named after Buffet songs.

 

Sorry to hijack! Looking forward to more. I have a daughter your age who is a Junior at the University of Colorado. :)

Edited June 15, 2012 by swwake

[QTMichele]

FUN review, and I love your photos! My family is going on the Monarch in July, so I'm really looking forward to the rest of your review. :) THANKS for taking the time to post.

[LittleMissMagic]

Love your review and the story behind the room! So who stayed with you in the GS? And btw, you and your sister look like twins!

 

Thanks! We get the "twins" thing a lot. I think we were asked four times on this trip.... we've decided that we should just start saying yes because when we say no, they just stare at us longer, then try to guess who is older (almost always choose my younger sis).

 

But, we've embraced the look-alike thing. Rachel keeps asking me if I'm ready for "our" 21st birthday!! :D :rolleyes:

 

I stayed in the suite with my parents. It was just the three of us, so I got the sofa bed to myself.

Edited June 15, 2012 by LittleMissMagic

[mp2010]

I really enjoy your reviews and pictures! Looking forward to more.

[bionicman97]

GS looks very nice.

[LittleMissMagic]

Love your review. I found this yesterday and linked through to review your entire AoS Christmas review during my breaks at work today. Great review! And I love the photos. I'll probably become a creepy stalker too since I'm a Disney nut myself, and read your Disney trip reports.

 

I have a photo-intense Oasis review link in my signature if you're interested. I know you were considering Allure or Oasis when you wrote the Christmas report.

 

Oh and I wanted to comment on the Buffet link. I'm sure you know your screen name is one of his song titles, right? We have a story behind that, as we almost named a dog (registered) Little Miss Magic. She ended up being Bring Back the Magic because LMM was taken, but her litter had to be named after Buffet songs.

 

Sorry to hijack! Looking forward to more. I have a daughter your age who is a Junior at the University of Colorado. :)

 

Stalk away! Writing Disney TRs made me want to write cruise TRs. I'd say that they have improved over the years (picture quality especially).

 

I'm checking out your Oasis Review right now! I love picture reviews - they are so addicting! We were and still are considering Oasis/Allure, but right now, the ship we want to sail on the most is the Disney Fantasy - Rachel for the Aquaduck and me because it's Disney. It'll probably be a year or so until that happens, though. I think my parents want to make it my college graduation gift in 2014, which is fine by me! I'll be studying in Italy during the 2013 spring semester, so we are planning on taking a Mediterranean cruise with our friends Derrick and Jennifer who we met on the Adventure.

 

Yes, my username LittleMissMagic is after Jimmy Buffett's song, Little Miss Magic. My Mom is a diehard Parrot Head, so I grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett songs and know every word to them. It also just happens to be great cruising music!

[ATLD]

Thank you for sharing your time on board the Monarch, really enjoying the review and photos, can't wait to see more! You got us thinking of booking one of these short trips soon. :D

[LittleMissMagic]

One of the suite perks that we really enjoyed was being able to order room service from the main dining room menu. All of the menus were in a folder in our room. Knowing that many CCers like to know what they're going to be eating ahead of time, I took some photos for you. These menus work for both 3 and 4-night cruises, as they have the day of the week that they are served.

 

DSC_5840 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5841 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5842 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5843 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5844 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5845 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Here are some photos around the ship that I snapped at some point during the first day (I think on my quest to find the girls' staterooms):

 

DSC_5831 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5832 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

One thing I enjoy about the smaller ships is the Centrum. It's just so much more intimate than the Promenade. However, the Centrum on the Monarch only went up to deck 7 (remember - glass elevators at Aft only go to deck 7), whereas on the Grandeur, Radiance, and Serenade, it went up to the pool deck. By the way - have you checked out the video on the Grandeur's enhancements? They have acrobats in the Centrum!

 

DSC_5833 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5835 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I forgot to tell you - I went to the shopping show while we were still in port.... or at least long enough to walk in, get the at-the-door freebies, and walk out.

 

DSC_5836 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5837 by vshingl, on Flickr

[KristinTravels]

I loved your Christmas review and loving this one so far. So glad to see another 20 something woman's point of view. I am 23 (almost 24) and looovvve cruising since the first one on the Monarch in high school.

 

Though while I appreciatey your enthusiam, I can't get behind all that Clemson gear as a Florida State University grad. Go Noles!!!

[LBumb]

ready for more

[LittleMissMagic]

You can always count on the Schooner Bar.

 

DSC_5838 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5839 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5791 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5793 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Though while I appreciatey your enthusiam, I can't get behind all that Clemson gear as a Florida State University grad. Go Noles!!!

 

Noles.... I bet you were crushed last fall when we made that field goal!!! :D Yeah, I rushed the field.

[LittleMissMagic]

So the girls, in awe over our giant stateroom, were describing their "closets," and decided to give us the tour of their room...

 

They were having a problem with their beds. The two oceanview rooms were adjoinging, but the beds were blocking the doorway so they couldn't walk through the rooms without jumping on the bed...

 

Here are the videos from earlier that day:

 

Cruise Day 1: Rearranging the Beds

Cruise Day 1: This Room is So Big

Cruise Day 1: Where do we put the luggage?

 

Well, the girls returned to their room, and the bed that they had rotated in an L-shape (against the wall, under the window, how it is in the pictures online and where I'm assuming it was attended to be, based on the cushion strip on the walls) was rotated back and blocking the door, again.

 

So Mom was in Danielle and Liz's room, and I was in Meredith and Rachel's rooms (these are the two adjoining that you can't walk through at the moment), and the stateroom attendant came by. "Are you Kimberly?" he asked my mom (Kim, Meredith's mom, was booked as the adult in the room). "Yes, I am." He asked about making up the room, and she told him the problem with the beds and asked if he could rotate the bed against the wall (how it was intended to be, based on the online pictures). He says, "It's heavy." "The girls can't walk through the door to eachother's rooms. Can you move it?" He mutters some stuff and finally agrees to move the bed.

 

What the HECK? It's heavy??? You're LAZY!!!

 

My guess is that the beds are more difficult to make when they are in the L-shape, so he had been pushing them on opposite sides of the wall, which works when the doors are closed, but not when they're open.

 

The awkward layout of the room:

 

DSC_5874 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

See where that cushion strip is on the far wall? Pretty sure that's where the bed was supposed to be...

 

DSC_5876 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The blocked doorway:

 

DSC_5875 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

And this is Mom telling the crew member he BETTER move those beds!

 

DSC_5877 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

What was also weird about their rooms was that they were adjoining, but each room had a different stateroom attendant. These rooms were splitting the inside hallway across from them (where the inside cabin which had three girls was), so maybe that was just the breaking point, but it was weird to me that adjoining staterooms had different attendants.

Edited June 15, 2012 by LittleMissMagic

[LittleMissMagic]

After straightening out the bed situation, my parents and I decided to go check out the Suite and Diamond Plus nightly event in the Viking Crown Lounge.

 

We get up to the lounge, and I guess we entered on the wrong side. Dad asked an older gentleman sitting down, enjoying a cocktail, "Is this the suite party?" He responded, "If you're Diamond Plus and above." "Okay, thanks," and we went and sat down. A bartender came to us quickly and offered us cocktails. He didn't ask us to show any credentials proving our Diamond Plus or Suite status, but our gold cards were laying on the table.

 

They served different wines and champagne. Nothing fun, hard, or fruity. We sat there for a bit, but the atmosphere was very stuffy and so we left (and I took my drink with me, haha).

 

It just wasn't our scene. We were surrounded by older people who thought they were the stuff. We tried to strike up a conversation with our neighbors, but they weren't interested. They were probably looking at us, wondering why the Beverly Hillbillies showed up.

 

As we left the Viking Crown, we ran into Kim who was lounging on the pool deck. She had decided to miss the show, so we sat down with her to chat, and Chip and their 13-year-old son, Will showed up. Will was very interested in the "Diamond Lounge" and wanted to go up there... I told him I'd take him another day, but we never went back there.

 

Everyone's always talking about the Concierge Lounge like it's a huge, wonderful perk, but if it's anything like the Diamond Plus nightly event at the Viking Crown Lounge that we attended, I'm not sure if it's my kind of perk. That being said, I'm always willing to try it again. Maybe it was just the people in the lounge when we were there that gave us the wrong vibe.