Q.C. Amore

Age: 52
Occupation: USAF retired/Resident Manager
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Monarch of the Seas
Sailing Date: June 14th, 2004
Itinerary: Baja, Mexico

1st day: Boarded at San Pedro. We were booked the Junior Suite which we found out was very beneficial on boarding because we bypassed hundredS of the other passengers. The expedited boarding was very helpful. We didn’t have to wait in line. The lady that checked our travel documents was very unprofessional. She had her chin on her left hand, typing on the computer with one finger on her right hand, chewing gum, no “welcome aboard” greeting. She just said “Passports and ID?” Then she gave us our documents and boarding pass without a thank you or directions or where to go. We had to ask another employee on where we were suppose go next. For a minute, I thought that this was indication of a terrible cruise. But fortunately not. We got on board and shown our suite.

The rest of the crew were very accommodating. Previous comments about avoiding the elevators during boarding time were right. There were too many passengers waiting for the elevator so we decided to walk up from what I believe was the 3rd deck up to the 10th deck. Long walk!! We were carrying a carry on luggage so we were all exhausted by the time we go to our suite. The suite was very nice with a big balcony. Nice lay out. Since the bathroom was one step up and the bath tub was elevated another 4 to 6 inches above the floor, I strongly recommend you be very careful with the step up to the bath room. The first day, all 3 of us tripped on the door step up and almost fell out of the bathtub because we forgot about the extra step and extra inches up the tub and stepping down. They had one life jacket with the wrong room number so during the mandatory muster drill, there was some confusion on were my son was supposed to go. The ship was very very smooth. We hardly felt the motion at all.

2nd day: San Diego: We decided to go to the Wild Life Park. Not too impressed with that because the animals were too far away to see when you ride tram. I’ve been to the San Diego Zoo and I would recommend that one instead. San Diego Zoo is one of the best if not the best zoo I’ve ever been to. The ongoing activity and eating on the ship caught up with me. I fell asleep on the tour bus both ways.

3rd Day: Catalina: Enjoyed it! We went on the partially submerged boat tour. I forgot the name of that tour but it was OK. I highly recommend that you rent a golf cart and drive around. My wife really enjoyed it.

It was rather cold but very relaxing. So tired from the ship activities and eating I fell asleep on the tender going back to the ship again.

4th Day: Ensanada: Forget it. We went to the Fox Tour studio. Very interesting to see the Titanic tour. The tour guide really tried to make it interesting but we came on the wrong day. They had hundreds of local students between the ages of 8 up to 16 or 17 years old touring the place and they unfortunately did not believe in having “chaperones” They were rudely running all over the place, screaming, and bumping into us without an offer of apology or what ever. Very distracting indeed! A few times i personally wanted to discipline them. I only saw one employee try to discipline them in one of the theaters while we were watching a show. Other than that, they allowed them run all over the place. Ship activities and eating caught up with me again. I fell asleep on the tour bus both ways. We stopped by down town Ensenada on the way back. The merchants were a little bit too pushy to buy their products. With all the stories she heard about the water and food, she did not want to take any chances with the local restaurant.

5th Day: Return to San Pedro. The disembarkation was rather long and confusing. Be sure you go the right place with the right group of people, base don't the color of the ticket that they issue the night before the morning of disembarkation. Suggestion: Even though you are not required to have a passport if you have all the other documents, I highly recommend you bring one. Not only for your own safety when going to a foreign country but it definitely helped when getting off the ship. Again there were hundreds of passengers in line. One of the employees asked for passengers with passports and when we showed him our passports, we were able to bypass all the hundreds of other passengers waiting in line to pass Immigration and customs. Apparently, the procedure is faster and expedited if you have your passports. So instead of waiting in line for an hour so, it took us only a few minutes.

Overall rating of cruise on a scale of 1 to 5 star: Food: 4, Service: 4, Ship accommodation: 4, Itinerary: 3

Total overall rating of trip: 4 They definitely feed you and keep you busy 24 hours a day. Would we go on a Royal Caribbean Cruise again? Yes.

Peter, our waiter, was outstanding!. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner time. The crew tried really hard to accommodate us and entertained us while we were eating with their dancing and singing!!

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