Our first cruise!

Wow! I made it my goal to gain some weight on this cruise, and I'm happy to report I was successful! The buffet was like what we have when we go to Las Vegas. Plenty of food, and lots of variety. The suppers were well done: We sat at the same table every time, and had the same wait staff. The meals were ample and high quality, and our waiter was able to answer any question immediately. It is evident to me that someone has really thought through this entire operation. I'm impressed, which is not easy to do. Furthermore, it appears that these people are eager for feedback to improve their quality. If only public education could learn a little from these people.... I digress...

There is more to do on the ship than you can get to in a week. I was content to spend time on the upper deck reading. Even solitude can be found on such a busy vessel. I didn't participate in all the activities aboard, but there is a lot to fill your time. If you get bored, you only have yourself to blame.

These people want to see to it you have a good time. That is their goal. It would be easy to recognize someone who didn't care about their job on the ship, but everyone we came across was eager to please. This is kind of remarkable, in light of the fact our waiter told us he works 7 days a week for six months straight. I wonder about that... Regardless, all the staff we met were happy to be helpful and friendly. If it were not so, I'd be the first to say otherwise.

The ship is pretty big. It is more like a seaborne city than a ship. It took a bit for us to find our way around, but half the fun was discovering a new nook or cranny. There are six elevators in the center of the ship to move people up and down (there are about 12 levels), and four passageways to move people from forward to aft, two inside on each level, and two more outside on Deck 7. This makes it easy to move quickly from one location to another in multiple ways. If one way was clogged, you could find another way around the ship easily. There are an enormous number of people on the ship, and therefore it is important that movement of people is well thought through. This is the case on Monarch. One improvement to the public areas would be in the Men's Rooms. There should be a exhaust fan over the urinal areas to remove the odor. Otherwise the restrooms appeared clean and well maintained. I estimated the ship was carrying 5000 people on my cruise.

Ample room, cleaned a couple of times a day, small but big enough, television with cable news. My wife and I concluded that we were probably traveling in a lot more luxury than was available on the Queen Mary or the Titanic a century ago. The only negative was the bathroom smelled a bit odd. I'm not sure what it was, but it never went away. I didn't mention it to the staff since it was minor.