Nancy

Age: 47
Occupation:
Number of Cruises: 5
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Monarch of the Seas
Sailing Date: January 21st, 2005
Itinerary: Baja, Mexico

This was our first time on Royal Caribbean, although not our first cruise. Having been on another cruise line for our previous cruises, we decided to see what Royal Caribbean was like, and went into the cruise with a bit of anxiety about trying this line. But I must say, we ended up liking it so much that before we got off the cruise we booked a summer Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas leaving out of Florida in July.

We basically walked on to the ship; there were only a few people there when we arrived at the ship. When we stepped into the ship, I was immediately impressed about how elegant looking the decor was. Everything was clean and neat and the crew people were extremely friendly. We had taken one of the owners' suites, but our room was not yet ready, so we went to the Windjammer where they offered a full buffet as well as hamburgers. So we settled back and waited until our room was ready. When we got into our room (it was only about a 20-minute wait), we were further impressed...there were flowers waiting there! The suite was roomy and very clean and we had a large balcony with multiple deck chairs. I might also add that the Saturday of the cruise, we received a plate full of chocolate-coated strawberries and Sunday chocolate-coated strawberries, petit-fours and cookies, all gratis as part of staying in the suite. On the other cruise line we've been on, we've always stayed in the top-end suite & there were never any perks like the ones on Royal Caribbean.

Dinner in the dining room was great. Our waitperson and her assistant were absolutely on top of everything. I never had an empty glass for the whole meal. I felt that there was a good selection of food and that what was served was well presented and tasted fine. This same service continued for all three nights. The food in the Windjammer was okay. There were salads, several choices of entree as well as several dessert choices. We ate lunch there every day; one day my husband ate sushi at the sushi place but I'm not into sushi so I didn't join him. His opinion was that if you're used to really good sushi, you may be disappointed.

As far as entertainment, we really didn't go to any of the shows so I can't say anything about them. The atmosphere in the different bars was never rowdy and they were pleasant places to be for an after-dinner drink or just to hang for awhile during other times of the day. I did do a lot of shopping in the Centrum and thought the prices were extremely reasonable and that they weren't setting out to rip us off. We spent a great deal of time in the casino. My husband played blackjack & I played the slot machines. In the Monarch's casino, there are both smoking and non-smoking sections, and the distinction was strictly enforced by crew members.

Finally, we had the most pleasant debarkation experience. We had asked for and received blue and white striped tags for early debarkation. The morning we were to leave the ship, we went up to the Windjammer for coffee, brought it down to our suite & waited there until they called our tag color. It was the smoothest exit process we've ever encountered and no one was hustling us to get out of our suite.

I must say, it was such a pleasant experience that we were hooked on Royal Caribbean our first night. I'm looking forward to our Caribbean cruise in July.


 

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