Cruise Blog 1

Kimberly and I just finished a 4 night Bahamas cruise with Kristen (Kimberly's sister) and Andy (Kristen's husband). There were enirely too many cool/fun/hilarious things about the trip to put into one blog post, so I'll break it up into sections. First section will be the ship:

From my understanding, the Monarch of the Seas is small in comparison to other ships. It houses about 2,000 guests (along with the 800 crew members). I have heard that other ships hold around 4,000 to 5,000 guests. Regardless, having never been on a cruise, I was still impressed by it. Most of the ship had 11 floors, with the exception of one end, which went up to the 14th floor, where a circular bar could be found.

In the middle of the ship was a large, multi-floor lobby. From this lobby, one could easily reach the dining rooms, the collection of duty-free stores, the casino, and the piano bar.

The staterooms were nice. Small, like everyone told me they would be, but nice nonetheless. No difference - we were rarely in our room. It had two beds that had already been slid together to make one queen-size bed, an adequate closet, a tiny bathroom, a tiny TV, and that's about it.

There were two pools on the (second from the) top deck. Both were saltwater pools that we learned were filled with ocean water pumped through a filtering system. We spent most of the pool time lounging on the balcony deck that overlooked the pools.

There were two clubs: Boleros and The Circuit. Boleros was where the bulk of the people hung out. It was where most of the games, karaoke, and dance lessons were held. The Circuit was more the late-night dance club. If one has enough to drink and lets go of the concept of embarrassment, one can have a really good time dancing at The Circuit. That party usually started around 11:00pm and was still going strong at 2:00 or 3:00 when we decided to turn in for the night.

There were two main dining rooms (that I know of). Each party generally was assigned one of the two. There was also the Windjammer Cafe next to the pool that housed a buffet that was open almost all the time, only closing overnight and shortly between meals to prepare for the next meal. Inside the Windjammer was also a Pizza bar that was open just about any time someone had a hankering for pizza. It should be noted that the Windjammer had a soft serve ice cream machine, and I never knew until this week how much people LOVE soft serve ice cream. There was almost ALWAYS a line.
The food - ALL of the food - was good. I'll get into that in another post, though.

That I'm aware of (there are probably more that I never saw or that I don't remember), there were no fewer than 9 bars. In addition, there was ALWAYS a server walking around that was more than willing to bring you a drink. If one wanted a beverage of any kind, one would never have to wait more than about 5 minutes. Alcohol was extra, but when you aren't paying for food, it doesn't seem that bad.

I'd really like to try another ship next time, but to be honest, my experience on this one was so good that I don't want to mess with a good thing. We'll see, though, as my wheels are already turning for making another cruise happen.