"Live" Solo cruise. July 20-23

[MrFunInTheSun]

I've started what I hope to be a "Live" solo cruise on Monarch of the seas. I've started the live event and where I'll be posting below.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1674131

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse typographical errors.

[vivavegas]

Looking forward to reading your live review! Enjoy your cruise!:)

[MrFunInTheSun]

Looking forward to reading your live review! Enjoy your cruise!:)

 

 

Thanks. It was a great cruise other than being to short. :-)

[MrFunInTheSun]

Embarking:

Was a breeze, I was wisked through the gold line and right to a check in person. Only delay was getting into the building which isn't all that organized.

 

Room:

My room was at the very bow of the ship on the 7th floor. Think this was a first at the bow of the ship as most rooms I stay in are mid ship. This was a great location and the movement of the ship was just right. This was also a great location as it was easy to get to decks 4,5 & 6 where most things were with the exception of lido deck. My neighbors in the room next to me liked their room and the cruise a lot too. Lots of rumpy pumpy.

 

Food:

Food is very subjective. I read so many reviews where people go all out on food and some to the extent if the food isn't to their liking it ruins their cruise. My thoughts on this is some travelers don't go into cruises with Royal Caribbean or Carnival with the correct expectations. Experiences will vary from ship to ship and class of ship to ship. While I had some good food, I had some that was good but not Wow'ing. But my expectations were set and I wasn't expecting 5 star food, if I was cruising on Cunard, Holland America, Celebrity I'd have different expectations. All wait staff and all those involved with food on Monarch were very good and met all expectations.

 

Monarch:

She's a very nice classy old gal. This was my second time on her and while I had a great time the first time with her and met some wonderful people from that cruise I'm still in contact with now, I liked this cruise better than the first time.

 

I didn't notice an over abundance of kids on this ship, but like I said before it may have been because I really wasn't looking for kids. What kids I did see by the pool, common areas and what young teens I saw they all seemed well behaved and having a good time.

 

I didn't view any of the shows.

 

Other items:

While a majority of my cruises have been with Carnival I wasn't looking at this cruise comparing the two as there will always be differences to some extent. While I wasn't looking for it, I will say they are a lot a like in many ways. Carnival gets a bad wrap from some that it's a party ship, while on the three RC cruises I've been on they have all had the same clienteles so in that regard they are very much alike and none of the Carnival cruises I've been on were "big party cruises" . Know some will dispute me on that, but its the same to me from what I've experienced. Clientele will also change to some extent from a 3/4 night cruise to a 6/7/8 night cruise.

 

Time of Year Cruising:

For those new to cruising its important to cruise during the summer with the proper expectations. If you book a cruise from June-November, expect that your cruise might get altered or disrupted to some extent. If you don't go into your cruise with that expectation, you'll be very unhappy, as read on many posts and reviews. Expect the un-expected! (An example of that is what happened on Sunday on Coco Cay.)

 

This was a great cruise and I'm looking forward to "Enhancement of the Sea's" moving to Port Canaveral taking Monarch's place next spring. I didn't end up booking a cruise with Enhancement but I will be sailing on her next spring. This was my 2nd solo cruise and this cruise certainly re-affirmed that solo cruising is lots of fun and I'm looking forward to my next one. If one thinks about it when you go with a group you split up at times and in esance are "solo" for a period of time during you're cruise. Those that have been thinking of cruising "solo" but afraid to pull the trigger, go for it, you'll never regret it.