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Name: Cathy Jackson
Email: cathijaxs@myhost.com
Age: 34
Occupation: Legal Transcriber
NumberOfCruises: 2
TravelAgent: No
Ship: RoyalCaribbean-Monarch
SailingDate: 1/25/98
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 88
CruiseDirector: 89
CabinComfort: 88
FoodRoomService: 79
CruiseStaff: 93
CabinAmenities: 83
FoodLidoDeck: 85
DiningRoomService: 93
CabinQuietness: 90
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 88
ShoreExcVariety: 90
FoodVariety: 89
DeckService: 90
ShoreExcValue: 85
GoodForHoneymoon: 90
CasinoStaff: 88
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 85
LoungeService:
TenderService: 90
GoodForSeniors: 85
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 88
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 93
OverallPortsofCall: 89
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 88
CruiseActivities: 87
Casino: 86
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 85
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs:
DeckSpace: 88
Stabilization: 85
ShopsOnBoard: 86
SpaceRatio: 89
OverallCruiseValue: 93
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 09 Mar 1998
Time: 17:18:10
Remote Name: 207.94.169.111
Remote User:
Comments
This cruise was a birthday present for my husband who would turn 40 two weeks after our
cruise. We made arrangements with my husband's
parents to stay at our house and take care of our two boys, ages 3 and 6 1/2.
After many months of research and planning, we were very excited by the time January 25th
rolled around. I hardly slept at all the night before
because I was just too excited. We had a 7:00 a.m. flight out of Newark International
Airport which turned out to be a very bumpy flight. We were
scheduled to arrive at 11:45 a.m. but because of a change in flight patterns, we arrived
at 12:10 p.m. When we arrived in San Juan, we were
greeted by Royal Caribbean personnel who directed us to a lounge where we were to wait for
a bus to take us to our ship. It seemed like my
husband and I were the only two people waiting before a large group of people came into
the lounge and quickly formed a line to board the busses
waiting outside. The warm air and sunshine was a pleasant change after leaving cold New
Jersey that morning.
We boarded the bus and headed to the pier which was about a 20 minute ride. We were not
impressed with what we saw of San Juan, mostly a lot of
barbed wire fences and railings on some of the windows. I'm sure there are plenty of nice
sections of Puerto Rico but judging from what we saw, we
were glad we didn't spend any more time there than we had to.
It was so exciting to finally see the Monarch of the Seas up close. Once we arrived at the
pier, we went into the ship's terminal and got on line to get
checked in. The line wasn't very long when we got there but soon after we got on line, it
started to get very long behind us. The line did move very
quickly though. After showing our photo driver's license, birth certificates, marriage
license and credit card, we were issued our boarding passes
and directed upstairs to the ship. After we had our picture taken by the ship's
photographer, we entered the Centrum Lobby and were greeted by
more Royal Caribbean personnel who directed us to our cabin.
We were prepared for how small our cabin would be so it was no great shock when we
actually saw it. There was a lack of drawer space but the
shelves in the closet were adequate. We had some large suitcases and were able to store
them underneath the beds. I had arranged to have a gift
basket sent to our cabin from 'Just Because of You' for my husband and it was already in
the cabin upon our arrival. The basket contained Heineken
beer (my husband's favorite), beer nuts, a box of chocolate, peanuts and almond candies.
The gift basket was more reasonably priced than what
Royal Caribbean had to offer and was customized to suit what my husband liked instead of
the usual wine gift basket. There was also a bottle of wine
that was sent by our travel agent.
Since it was still early in the day, we decided to explore the ship for awhile and get
something to eat. We took a stroll on the deck and noticed
Carnival's Inspiration and the Norwegian Sea docked next to us. We got something to eat in
the Windjammer Cafe which was okay, and then walked
around some more. We picked up a shore excursion form and some other information from a
table that was set up in the Centrum Lobby. Since we
already knew what shore excursions we wanted, we filled out our form and dropped it in the
box next to the table. Then we went back into the
terminal building to a duty-free liquor store. We bought some rum, vodka and two 6 packs
of soda and returned to our cabin. They also had mixers
for sale (i.e., margarita mix, pina colada mix, etc.)
Shortly thereafter, our cabin steward, Johnnie, arrived to introduce himself and get
familiar with us. He asked what time we had dinner, how we
wanted our beds made up and whether we had any special requests.
We brought our own blender from home, a cheap one, because of our past experience with how
quickly a bar bill can add up on a cruise. I would
definitely recommend this if you like to drink blender drinks. It doesn't take up that
much room in your suitcase and our bar bill for the week was only
$34 (for 6 drinks). Not bad for a 7 day cruise. My husband followed our cabin steward to
the ice room so anytime we needed ice, we didn't have to
bother him, he just got the ice himself. We bought two drinks in souvenir glasses and
refilled them with our own concoctions whenever we needed to.
We also brought a power strip from home which was very useful because there were only two
outlets in the cabin.
Since it was Superbowl Sunday the day we boarded the ship, we decided to watch the game in
the Schooner Lounge. We had talked with several
other couples that we had met via the Internet and decided that this would be our
designated meeting place that first night. We met with two of the
four couples that night and watched the Superbowl together. They had a buffet table set up
and although I am not much of a football fan, my
husband had a great time watching the game with our new found friends. The Superbowl was
also being shown in the Sound of Music Lounge on a
big screen T.V. but we were comfortable where we were. The Captain even delayed the muster
drill until after the game was over. I was exhausted
by the time the muster drill was over, having not slept at all the night before. The beds
were quite comfortable and I just loved falling asleep to the
rocking motion of the ship. The first few nights we did feel a lot of rocking but it
wasn't bothersome at all and we never encountered anyone who
complained about it. For me, it was just part of the fun.
MONDAY - ST. THOMAS - The next morning we woke up in beautiful St. Thomas. I woke up early
and sat by my porthole window with my binoculars to
watch the beautiful scenery pass by. There was a lot to see and I was grateful that I had
brought my binoculars with me. My husband wanted to eat
breakfast in the dining room but I was afraid it would take too long. We decided to give
it a try and were pleased to find that the service was very
quick and the food was delicious. After breakfast, we went up to the top deck of the ship
to get a better view of the island. I felt like I just stepped into
a postcard! St. Thomas Harbor was just gorgeous. Then we got off the ship and had a taxi
take us into town for some shopping. There were plenty of
jewelry stores and lots of people in the streets trying to get you to come into their
stores. My husband bought me a belated anniversary gift, a
beautiful diamond and tanzanite ring. We felt we got a really good deal on it after
bargaining a bit.
Before getting back on the ship, we called home from a group of pay phones that were
located just steps away from the ship. We had lunch in the
Windjammer Cafe. Then it was time to meet for our shore excursion on the Kon Tiki Party
Raft. This boat was a lot of fun but I was a bit disappointed
in the beach they took us to, Honeymoon Beach. It just wasn't as pretty as I had imagined
it to be. We only stayed there for about an hour and then
got back on the Kon Tiki to head back to the ship. It started to rain quite heavily at
this time so we went to the lower part of the boat where they were
having limbo contests and all kinds of fun games. It had stopped raining by the time we
got back to our ship so we walked around the Havensight
Shopping Mall which is within walking distance of the ship. There were on and off sun
showers for awhile but that was the only time it rained on our
entire trip so we can't complain.
We came back to the ship and went to the top deck to watch the beautiful sunset as we
sailed away to the sounds of calypso music being played by
'Hot Sands'. Then it was time to get ready for the Captain's Cocktail Party. We were
grateful that we had the late seating for dinner to give us time to
watch all the beautiful sunsets. This night we really felt a lot of rocking. After having
our picture taken with the captain, we had complimentary
cocktails in one the lounges. Everyone looked very elegant. We then went to have dinner in
the Flower Drum Dining Room. Our waiter, Irfan
(pronounced Ear-Fahn) from Turkey was wonderful. He had a delightful accent and kept
trying to tell us which entrees were 'real excellent' but it
sounded like he was saying they were 'relaxing'. He was a lot of fun, as was our assistant
waiter, Mario. I had arranged to have a birthday cake
delivered to my husband and it was presented to him tonight.
After dinner, we had our formal portraits taken, then went for a stroll on deck. What a
beautiful night it was. We stopped into the Sound of Music
Lounge to catch the tail end of a performance by Herb Reed and The Platters, which was
very good.
TUESDAY - MARTINIQUE - The next morning we were still at sea and were not expected to
arrive in Martinique until 12:00 noon. We had breakfast
and went up to the Pool Deck to get some sun. As we pulled into Martinique, it sure looked
pretty from a distance. At first we had decided to stay on
the ship in Martinique because of all the bad things we heard about it but we decided to
share a cab with one of the couples we met and decided to
see what it was all about. We didn't bring any cameras or valuables with us. The main part
of town didn't look appealing at all. We decided to take a
ferry to the other side of the island. There were two ferry operators at the dock who were
fighting with each other for our business. They were each
trying to get us to board their ferries. We were glad we got seats inside the ferry
because there were some people who sat outside that got
drenched on the ride over. After reaching the other side, we went to a beautiful beach by
the Meridien Hotel. We had some awful, over-priced drinks
at a beach side bar there. Then we left the Meridien and walked through some nearby shops.
You would feel lost here if you are not familiar with
French since everything is written in French and all prices are quoted in French francs.
We decided to take the ferry back to the other side and go
back to the ship. When the ferry got back to the dock, there was a lot of commotion
amongst the cab drivers fighting for business. They were actually
pointing to us and shouting 'You, you're coming with me!' At that point, we had seen
enough of Martinique and couldn't get back to the ship fast
enough.
We relaxed on deck for the rest of the day and then got ready for dinner. Tonight was
American night at dinner and all the waiters sang 'America,
the Beautiful'.
WEDNESDAY - BARBADOS - By the time I woke up this morning, we were already anchored in
Barbados. After breakfast we made our usual trek up
to the top deck to get an overall glimpse of the island. We were right next to a shipping
yard and couldn't see much else. We got off the ship and
walked over to the shopping mall by the pier. There was a steel drum band playing outside
the mall. We found the Bajan people to be very friendly, a
nice change after visiting Martinique. We went outside and got a cab to take us into town
for some shopping. We weren't too impressed with this part
of town. After walking around a bit, we had a taxi take us back to the mall by the pier.
We bought some liquor to take back home and a 6-pack of
beer at one of the stores in the mall. When we returned to the ship, our bags were
inspected and only the boxed liquor was kept until the last night
of our cruise. Since we had signed up for the Malibu Beach Break, we had to go back
through the mall to the other side and wait to board a bus to
take us to Malibu Beach. We were given vouchers for a free drink made with Malibu Rum and
if you wanted to, you could also take a tour of the
Malibu Rum Factory which we declined. Malibu Beach was really beautiful. They had all
kinds of water equipment for rent and lounge chairs were
provided. We had a lot of time to relax before heading back to the ship. I would recommend
this tour if you just want a nice, relaxing day at a
beautiful beach.
Tonight was Italian night and our waiters sang 'O Solo Meo' for us. After dinner, we went
to the Sound of Music Lounge for an excellent performance
by Billy Prudhomme, a comedy juggler. He was fantastic! He was preceded by a performance
by Bobby Arvon who sings the 'Happy Days' theme
song.
THURSDAY - ANTIGUA - This morning I made sure I was up early since we were going to pass
the volcano on Montserrat between 6:15 and 6:45
a.m. and I wanted to take pictures of it. I also wanted to make sure that I saw at least
one sunrise on this cruise and I figured this would be the best
day to do that. I went up to the pool deck and saw a beautiful sunrise as well as the
volcano. Once again, I was glad I had my binoculars with me to
get a closer look. I headed back to my cabin and slept for a bit until we started to pull
into Antigua. Antigua is a really beautiful island with all of its
inlets, coves and hills.
After breakfast we headed into town which is a short walk from the pier. We walked around
Heritage Quay and Redcliffe Quay and did some
shopping. We found the people of Antigua to be a bit pushy to the point of being desperate
to sell you anything. There were so many vendors lining
the streets with tables filled with all the same stuff that it's hard for them to compete
for business.
Back to the ship for a quick bite to eat, then we headed off to the Jolly Roger Pirate
Boat. I highly recommend this shore excursion as it was one of
the best we took while we were on this cruise but if you go, please heed the advice you
are given about the rum punch. It is potent! It's not like the
rum punch that was served on the Kon Tiki in St. Thomas -- this stuff is dangerous. We
were taken out to a beautiful cove where you could swing
from a rope into the water or jump off a plank or take another boat to the beach. The
water in Antigua is a beautiful turquoise color. I don't
remember much about the ride back to the ship (too much Pum Runch!). I know it was about
4:30 when we returned and we fell asleep and woke up
at 8:45 that night. I was really disappointed that we missed dinner since it was Caribbean
night and I was looking forward to a lobster dinner but at
least we were still able to get our dinner from room service. After dinner, we went right
back to sleep.
FRIDAY - ST. MAARTEN - When we woke up this morning, there was nothing to see but water
outside our porthole (our cabin was on the right side of
the ship). We had ordered room service for breakfast this morning since we had booked the
St. Maarten Beach Rendezvous shore excursion and it
was to leave at 9:00 a.m. We were not happy with the scrambled eggs that room service had
delivered and they had forgotten two other items we
ordered. No big deal. We thought we were 5 minutes early to meet our group for this shore
excursion but already found everyone boarding the
tender boats. Make sure you're on time for any shore excursions because they are very
prompt. Someone else didn't get there on time and had to
find their own transportation to the beach.
We got onto a nice, air-conditioned tour bus for our ride to Orient Beach. Our tour guide,
Jolene, was from Moriches and had a lovely accent and
really made the trip enjoyable. When we arrived at Orient Beach, we were overwhelmed by
how beautiful it was. There was a designated section of
lounge chairs for those of us with Royal Caribbean. There are dozens of little beach
bar/restaurants on Orient Beach. We were a little disappointed
that we were in the only section that didn't have chair cushions. Orient Beach is a
clothing optional beach and we did see quite a few topless women
stroll by. Our curiosity led us to the other side of Orient Beach, the nude section. This
was very interesting if you've never been to a nude beach
before, not at all what you would expect, mostly older people. All in all, I highly
recommend this shore excursion.
We spent a couple of hours there and decided to take the tour bus back into town for some
shopping. We were given the option of staying at Orient
Beach, which a lot of people did but that meant they had to find their own transportation
back to the ship. We shopped in town a bit but found that
most of the stores all had the same stuff. We found a beach bar that we had heard a lot
about called Every'ting Cool and decided to go there. We
were very glad that we decided to spend our day at Orient Beach instead. The beach at
Every'ting Cool was really small and not too nice. It was a
great place to get over 81 different flavors of frozen drinks though and they did have a
live band playing.
We decided to try to find a pay phone to call home and found that the only phones we found
required a credit card. We only had an AT&T calling
card with us so we were directed to the end of Old Street to where we found about 25
AT&T phones but we were never able to get an outside line.
We were disappointed that we couldn't call home. After taking a tender back to the ship,
we headed up to the Pool Deck to watch another beautiful
sunset. We decided that we would definitely return to St. Maarten someday. This was our
favorite island of all.
Tonight was the Captain's Gala Dinner, another formal night. We had some more formal
portraits taken before dinner. This was also the only night
that we ever made it to the midnight buffet. The Gala Buffet was incredible.
SATURDAY - DAY AT SEA - Today was very hot. We must have been traveling very slowly
because there didn't seem to be any breeze at all which
made it seem even hotter. The Pool Deck was a bit crowded but there were enough lounge
chairs available. This was the day they had the horse
races which was fun to watch.
Before dinner, we decided to start packing since our luggage had to be outside our cabin
door by 12:00 midnight. Then we headed up to the dining
room for dinner. This was our last night at dinner and we were very sad that our cruise
was almost over. Once again, all the waiters sang for us. I
must say that the entire staff of Royal Caribbean, at least the ones that we encountered,
really seemed to enjoy their jobs.
We searched through all the pictures that were on display in the lobby to make sure we
bought all the ones we wanted before it was time to leave. I
recommend that you look for your pictures as soon as they are put up because as the week
goes on, it becomes impossible to find any pictures you
might be looking for. We never did find our boarding picture.
SUNDAY - DEBARKATION - We woke up very early this morning and headed to the dining room
for breakfast. Since we had an 11:10 a.m. flight out
of San Juan, we were given some early debarkation tags to put on our luggage. As soon as
we had finished our breakfast, our flight was called. We
went back to our cabin to get the rest of our belongings and went down to the terminal to
claim our luggage. I found the whole debarkation process
to be very organized and not at all the nightmare I expected it to be after our past
experience with Carnival. We quickly found our luggage and had
a porter take it out to the designated truck to be brought to our airline. Since we had
bus transfers tickets, we boarded one of the busses waiting to
take us to the airport, however, no one ever checked to see if we had tickets or not. We
had an uneventful flight back home and were very happy to
see our boys again.
Overall, we had a fantastic cruise on the Monarch. I would definitely recommend Royal
Caribbean to anyone. Feel free to contact me at
cathijaxs@myhost.com if I can answer any questions about the Monarch for you. This was
definitely one vacation we wll never forget!
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