Dinning room seating

[trbarton]

My wife and myself will be on the Monarch of the Seas in October for a Panama Canal Cruise. Do they assign seats for dinner or is it open seating?

 

If you been on the Monarch what did you think of the ship?

 

I can be reached at barton4974@aol.com.

 

Thanks! :)

 

Tom

[PH8]

They do assign seats for dinner.......your TA (or RCCL,if you booked directly)should have asked you if you want early or late seating.....small or large tables........

 

Monarch is a great older ship.not all the bells and whistles of the big new ships,but you will enjoy her just the same...

[cb at sea]

If you've never done this before, ask for a large table--they have alot of fun, and you'll have a lot of folks to talk to, meet, make friends with.... ever so much more fun than a 4-top, with only 1 other couple. We've done both--the larger tables have more fun!

[critterchick]

I've been on her 19 times, so I guess you could say I love sailing on her for a long weekend or short week cruise. I confess that I would be leery of that long sailing because the crew isn't used to them, the chef will be scrambling and who knows what the entertainment will be? Johnny O can't play EVERY night, can he?

 

We go on her over and over becasue the crew is the best we've encountered and they keep her in great working order while making sure that we're having a good time.

[dougp26364]

The Monarch is a very nice, well maintained older and smaller ship. It was built back when they didn't have balcony cabins and was one of the first of the super cruiseliners when she was built.

 

We sailed her for a 3 night cruise out of LA a few years back. I'm not sure I'd want to sail Monarch for an extended cruise as I really like the amenities that the newer ships have.

 

The link below in my signature has our pictures of Monarch if you're interested in seeing them. We were in a larger outside cabin on deck 9, which was pretty small IMO, even for a 3 night cruise.

[glgolfer]

The Monarch does have balcony cabins on deck 10. It was the first RCI ship to have balconies. For a Panama Canal transit, I highly recommend getting a balcony. We've done the full transit 3 times, 2 with a balcony. Only way to go.

[silentbob007]

I like the Monarch, though the standard cabins are frightfully, "never-again" small. The dining room also feels very cramped to me, but it may just be that it is not as vertically open as newer RCCL ships.

[dougp26364]

The Monarch does have balcony cabins on deck 10. It was the first RCI ship to have balconies. For a Panama Canal transit, I highly recommend getting a balcony. We've done the full transit 3 times, 2 with a balcony. Only way to go.

 

Hmmm, I thought the balcony's it does have were added after a refurbishment. I have to admit I don't know the full history of this ship.

[glgolfer]

The reason I remember the Monarch had balconies is we were talking to a guy when we were on her in 94 and his story was he got up one morning and wanted to see what the weather was like. He whipped open the drapes and stepped out on the balcony in his underwear and was looking across the pier into the dining room of a ship as everybody there was looking back at him. He said all he could do was wave and go back inside.

 

They added balconies on the Sovereign during a dry dock.

[Markmom18]

My wife and myself will be on the Monarch of the Seas in October for a Panama Canal Cruise. Do they assign seats for dinner or is it open seating?

 

If you been on the Monarch what did you think of the ship?

 

I can be reached at barton4974@aol.com.

 

Thanks! :)

 

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

We took the Monarch cruise out of LA in November. We had a Grand Suite on the 10th floor, we loved it! On our cruise next month (on the Serenade)we'r staying in the Owners Suite. Anyway, we did the 3 night cruise and were not at all impressed by the dining room. We were crammed off to the side of the main dining area. Our head waiter seemed to have forgotten about our family and the two gentlemen that were next to us. Our entree's came out separate and warm. The steak was unedible. That was our only meal here. The WJ Buffet was not much better. Oh well, we just wrote it off and had a blast anyway.

My husband saw the 2 guys during our cruise and they said our waiter wondered what happened to us. We now know that we should have let the staff know we weren't coming back. This was our son's (16) first cruise, he loved it so much that we all decided as a family to skip our normal Kauai vacation to go on a cruise to Alaska.

Have a fun trip!

:-) Bobbi

[financialgrl]

I am recently off my first cruise. Definitely go for a larger table. We travelled as 3 and were seated at a table for 6. The other tablemates were two older parents with a 6 year old. That child was spoiled rotten, running the waiters ragged and the parents encouraged it. Each night the kid ended up with multiple meals in front of him because something was wrong with something on each. The parents enabled his every whim. He'd then take a bite off one of the plates, say he was full and the parents told him not to worry, they'd go get him pizza or a hamburger. BTW, all 3 idiots were at least 20 minutes late each night.

 

Because we only ate 3 nights in the dining room we chose to not relocate. Had it been a larger table there would have been others to communicate with and they could have all been ignored.