Monarch of the Seas 12/29-1/2 - LONG Review

[jb008]

My family recently came back from a 4-day New Year’s Cruise on Monarch of the Seas out of Port Canaveral. The itinerary featured Coco Cay and Nassau Bahamas. Here’s our review of this recent cruise. For some context, I’ve also provided a review of Crown Princess which I’ve linked to at the bottom.

Ship:

Monarch of the Seas is one of the older ships in the RCI line, and does show her age if you look closely. There are no balcony staterooms, some wear and tear visible in our stateroom, and it is a smaller ship. The recent refurbishment added some updated features such as the rock wall, and the Jade sushi restaurant, but it’s still a smaller ship that really packs people in. When comparing against Star and Crown Princess, the ship felt much more crowded, with few quiet spots on deck to relax and avoid the main pool bustle. We also were struck by how small the staterooms were, however our previous cruises were in much higher category balcony staterooms on Princess, whereas this time we were in M-3 level interior staterooms. Two major detractors from the accommodations, first was how poorly the rooms were insulated against sound. We were woken several times by our neighbors’ loud… “sounds” at night. Hearing “F- me harder” through the walls is not conducive to sleeping. Second, there was a persistent sewage smell in the starboard mid-ship third floor hallway outside our stateroom throughout the cruise.

All crewmembers on Monarch we encountered were universally knowledgeable, friendly, polite, and accommodating. This crew was recognized in 2007 within RCI for the customer service, and they really are a great group! Entertainment was generally good, with some exceptional performers. Monarch was featuring Rosario strings trio (sp?) and they did a great job. The shows were pretty run of the mill cruise level productions, nothing that stood out either good or bad. Cabin steward, bar staff, and dining room staff were all high side of average or above.

Somewhat surprising was the amount of motion experienced on the ship. This was our first time cruising in December, but everyone in our party of 6 (all having been on 2+ cruises) were surprised at the amount of motion. I can only speculate, but it’s possible that we were cruising at a slower speed due to the short distances involved, and this may have reduced the effectiveness of the ship’s stabilizers.

Food/Dining:

Windjammer café is the buffet dining room for the Monarch. We only ate 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts there, but it seemed like the food there was the same, pretty bland, and we were generally unimpressed. There were a few good items, but nothing I can remember three days after disembarking.

I tried Jade Sushi once, and it was nice. This truly is along the lines of a sushi restaurant, where you choose items off a menu, rather than the chef putting out a selection for the customer to then select from. The sashimi was fresh, tasted correctly, and staff there was very friendly. For passengers who do not routinely get to experience good sushi, this is a fun experience that I would definitely recommend. This easily costs 1/3 of what equivalent sushi would cost at many restaurants.

Dining room breakfasts were not worth the wait unless you wanted an omelet IMHO. Food was pretty similar to what was available at the buffet, and the portions for some dishes were undersized (e.g., 2 pieces, or 1 whole slice, of French toast). One of our party found a hair in his eggs, although to be fair that can happen anywhere.

Dining room dinners were very nice and met expectations. Staff was all very professional, food was plated well, and there was a wide variety of dishes. One important point to note though, RCI only offered an appetizer, entrée, and dessert as their normal menu, though our server never batted an eye when we often ordered 2 appetizers (making it a four course meal instead of three). This was fewer than was offered on Crown earlier this year, though may be standard across lines now? Because this was a shorter cruise, large ticket dishes such as crab legs or lobsters tails weren’t offered, and were substituted for with tiger shrimp and crab meat. One small slip-up from the kitchen staff was that the night they did jumbo scallops, they failed to remove the extra-tough muscle along the side of the scallop. I’m not sure if this was intentional, or an oversight. Two of the three of us having the scallop dish noticed the muscle, and the third wasn’t sure if she just chewed through it. However, this neither ruined the dish nor the meal.

We did have one longer/fancier meal on New Year’s Eve, which was something of a disappointment actually. They added a salad course that was very bland bordering on empty space filler, and they were serving their beef option as only medium-rare or medium-well. One mistake I noted that night in the food prep was that my steak was still rare (bleeding and raw in the middle – I did not finish this) which may have been due to a higher than normal workload on the kitchen staff because of the multi-course meal with a massive midnight buffet only a few hours following to celebrate the New Year.

Embarkation/Disembarkation:

We flew into Orlando the night before, rented a car, and drove to Port Canaveral the next day. Traffic was pretty smooth, though the lines for tolls were longer than expected (~1h20m drive). Embarkation went smoothly, with no extraordinary lines or waiting. The longest wait was clearing the initial security before doing the check-in paperwork. A small recommendation to others is to pre-fill your check in documents online. We didn’t need to lift a pen at the registration desk because everything was done in advanced.

Disembarkation was equally smooth. We were about 15 minutes late arriving to our assigned lounge, and we just joined the line heading to the door when we arrived at our lounge. We were completely off the ship, collected our luggage and through customs in easily under an hour. Comparing to Princess, there were a lot less lines and waiting during disembarkation. This was definitely a smooth way to finish a vacation.

Ports of Call (CocoCay, Nassau Bahamas, Port Canaveral)

Coco Cay was a great private island to visit. We did the earliest Jet Ski excursion, and were priority tenders arriving. Being there before 10:30 AM is recommended if you want to claim a nice set of chairs, or if you have a larger party and need a line of chairs together. The jet skiing was fun, and a really interesting way to see some of the surrounding islands. As others have mentioned, this is a follow the leader – caravan type of tour, not a free wheeling jet ski ride. If you’re up front, run the machine full-out or expect to be moved back in the line. I was in the lead machine as the only one with open ocean jet ski experience, and got bumped back for slowing down through a turn.

Snorkeling at Coco Cay was so-so. There was a gorgeous deep water area to the left of the snorkel beach, but the water here got pretty rough (white caps) by later afternoon I saw a quartet of large spotted eagle rays in this area though. The more protected shallower snorkeling area was less exciting. Much of the area is simply sea grass, with a few fish. There were some man made structures, and a reef that did have some more excitement, but overall the fish were small to medium sized and nothing that was highly notable. One thing to note about snorkeling at Coco Cay is that ALL snorkelers are required to wear a snorkel vest. I pack my own snorkel, mask, and fins, but had to rent the vest. I originally was annoyed at having to pay $6 vest, but after braving the rougher open area it was money very well spent and I understand why they require vests. Water was cool and briefly unbearable, but I snorkeled for almost 2 hours straight, without being uncomfortable.

The barbecue lunch was very good, and the straw market area here was nice (though prices ran higher than expected or is available at other ports). Tendering back was pretty crowded towards the end of the day, but the wait was only about 20 minutes.

Nassau, Bahamas was the second port of call. A word of caution to everyone… normal arrival for Monarch into Nassau is 8 AM, NOT 7 AM as our itinerary listed. This nearly caused us to miss third-party excursions we’d booked through shoretrips. We spoke with Guest Relations on board, and they were surprised that our itinerary listed 7 AM arrival, and told us that it was a mistake and for the last 3 or 4 arrivals into Nassau had been 8 AM. They were very helpful, and gave us about $80 worth of free ship-to-shore calls to try to address this, but we ended up flying by the seat of our pants and being ok.

Nassau featured the standard tourist shops, with reasonable prices and a wide variety of options. The straw market was pretty empty due to heavy rain, and was muddy, smelled bad, and we spent only a few minutes there before giving up on shopping it. In general though, Nassau felt safe, clean, and very tourist friendly. We booked morning excursion through Shoretrips, and loved it! We did a “Scenic Underwater Bubble” through Stuart’s Dive Shop. We got to snorkel and use single person subs to explore a beautiful reef, and saw tons of fish! This is one of our top excursions we’ve ever done and we’d love to do it again! The other part of our party did the Dolphin Encounters program, and loved that as well. Water in Nassau was cool, but not unbearable. I spent about 30 minutes snorkeling without discomfort, got out briefly, then used the sub for another 30 minutes and was fine.

Port Canaveral was our arrival/departure port. Getting there using a rental car is pretty easy, and I would recommend that option if you’re at all interested in sight-seeing. We were off the ship by 9:30, and headed over to Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center. It was a really neat spot to visit, and using a rental car got us there before the cruise ship excursion buses, and we beat the major crowds for much of the tour. Plan hours for the center if you go though, we had 5:30 PM flights, and spent 4.5 or so hours at the center, and still could have used another hour or two to see more of the stuff.

Summary

Another cruise vacation that was enjoyable and relaxing! We likely would not choose to cruise on the sovereign class of ships (Monarch or Majesty of the Seas) again. All things being equal we’d probably prefer Princess, but will definitely consider RCI for our next cruise vacation.

Previous review of 7-day Southern Caribbean Explorer Itinerary on Crown Princess:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=14652936#post14652936

[dolfandude]

Thanks for the review! We're leaving tomorrow on her and can't wait! I lookout for the muscles!:D Glad you had a good trip. Thanks!