Hi all. My wife and I just returned from a nice quick weekend getaway cruise on the Monarch of the Seas so I thought I’d give you a little review.
By way of background, this was our seventh cruise on Royal Caribbean and for those of you who are Crown and Anchor members, this cruise put us over the hump into the Diamond category…woo hoo. We had been on Monarch last October for the 3 night cruise as a present to our older daughter to celebrate her getting her tae kwon do black belt and to introduce her to cruising.
The cruise itself is a three night leaving in the late afternoon on a Friday from Los Angeles and returns early Monday morning. The only port of call is Ensanada, Mexico. Suffice to say that you don’t take this cruise for the port. Ensanada is, for the most part, not a great place. The real appeal of this cruise is the price, convenience, and the ship itself. While the Monarch is an older ship and doesn’t have all the super special bells and whistles, she more than makes up for that with her crew. While I’ve almost always had good service experiences on Royal Caribbean ships, the crew on Monarch is a step above. Maybe its because the ship is smaller and more intimate; maybe its because there are a lot of repeat cruisers (I met passengers who had 20 and 15 trips just on the Monarch); maybe its the attitude of the Captain and senior staff. I don’t know but the Monarch crew was great.
This was our first time in having a straight inside cabin. We have always had a balcony or suite before this. However, since it was only a three nighter and we were trying to keep costs down, we took the plunge into “steerage.” While I wouldn’t want the tiny cabin for a longer voyage, for the three nighter, it was more than adequate. I can now appreciate all the “small cabin” jokes the on board comedians make. I dropped the soap in the shower one morning and had to basically step out into the hallway in order to have room to pick it up.
Since it was just my wife and I, our cruise routine differed from our last trip on the Monarch when we had a 7-year old with us. The lunch upon boarding in the Windjammer Cafe was fine with normal buffet fare. Living in Las Vegas, I know a good buffet when I see it and while it wasn’t great, it did hit the spot. One routine we always have is to make our massage appointments first thing on boarding. This is a good tip for those new to cruising. Get to the port early so you can get on right away and then head straight to the spa and any speciality restaurants. Bypass the buffet for 10 minutes so you can pick and choose your spa times. If you wait too long, all the good times are taken.
We both got massages later on Friday. While they aren’t the best massages I’ve ever had, I love the massages on board because it really gets me relaxed and into the “vacation” mindset.
Dinners in the main dining room can be hit or miss for someone like me who is a very picky eater. However, I’ve been pleasently surprised with Royal Caribbean’s “alternative” menu as it always has a nice steak for those nights when I can’t find something on the main menu. I think I this cruise, I managed to have multiple appetizers and/or main courses on 2 of the three nights so I was doing well.
Activities on board the ship were not as numerous as I remember from other cruises or even my Monarch cruise last year. There was never a time when I had to choose between multiple activies and there were even times when there was no activity scheduled. This was a bit disappointing but it just meant that I had more time to read/watch movies/lay out and relax/nap etc.
I don’t really view the three night cruise as a “cruise” in the real sense. Its a great weekend getaway but as the place you “cruise” to is like within a couple of hours of the homeport, its a stretch to call it a cruise, especially when you spend the sea day basically sitting dead in the water off the coast of California. However, there is no better way to spend a nice weekend then sitting and looking at the beautiful blue water.
One of the best parts of the three night cruise is the attitude of the other passengers. Everyone is just out to have as much fun as possible over the weekend. We met some really great people on this trip and hope to see Jean, Jim, John, Shauna, Mike (and family), and everyone else again really soon.
I would encourage everyone to get on board and enjoy the Monarch before she leave Los Angeles. Her last 3-nighter is October 10, 2008. She is then moving to the east coast to replace the Majesty of the Seas. Unfortunately, Royal Caribbean is not replacing Monarch on the 3-night run out of LA so my long weekend getaways are over 
