Little did we know when we embarked on a 4-day, 3-night cruise in August that it might be our last unencumbered vacation. Although the trip itself was fraught with some disappointment, we did enjoy our time abroad Monarch of the Seas. Well, I can’t very well say there was disappointment and not tell you what it was, so let me get it out of the way quickly. We had not intended to take this cruise alone. The original idea came from a couple in our Bible study. They thought it would be fun to sail with friends and invited us, her sister and another guy from our Bible study. Things began to unravel in their plans quickly when they found out that they would not be able to take their less than 6-month old son onboard. The other invitees changed plans as well, so we were left to shift our thinking from a social event to a second honeymoon of sorts. The other disappointment came in the form of raindrops, and lots of them. The Caribbean stereotype is sunny and perfect. We returned to the ship drenched both in Nassau and at Coco Cay.
Now that we’ve got the drippy part of the story out of the way, let me tell you about what we enjoyed. We enjoyed the food. From within the first hour of our boarding to a fast breakfast before leaving the ship for home, we ate. There was pizza and quick snacks, fine dining and escargot. Most evenings at the formal dining room we ordered multiple appetizers or entrees just so we could experience more. Surprisingly, our stomachs handled all the food quite well. I personally didn’t feel the ramifications of all the delicacies until we had returned home. Part of what made the dining delightful was the kind people who were also assigned to our dining table—an older, seasoned couple who had plenty to teach us about cruising and a younger couple who approached the cruise experiences as eagerly as we did.
Besides dining we did plenty of walking to explore the ship from bow to stern and back again. Although there are elevators on board, I was thinking that the best plan for being able to eat more and gain less was to stick to the stairs. We did until our calves started to ache. We also took advantage of the onboard gym one morning. We followed the gym with an early morning swim and hot tub soak. The morning was the best time to do popular activities (like swimming) because we were up and the late-night partiers were not. We found that the art activities on board were a little less popular. They actually sell art on cruise ships. Although we purchased none, we enjoyed the galleries and listening to the auctioneers talk about their favorite pieces. More than salesmen, they were truly art lovers.
There were some pretty entertaining shows on board too. We saw a champion juggler with a flare for stand-up comedy. One evening they had a game-show modeled after the “Newlywed Game.” Hearing a wife come up with a totally different answer than her husband is always funny, but I’m not sure D and I would have done much better. They were asking some pretty obscure things. We also saw a Broadway-style show of singing and dancing. It was mostly tunes from the 70’s. The performers were very talented and I wondered if they wished they were performing elsewhere or if performing on a ship was fulfilling for them. Perhaps it is a good way to get experience before attempting to find fame elsewhere.
It was interesting to find out how many different countries the servers, engineers and housekeepers were all from. Our head waiter said that he was from India. His family is still there and he only gets to see them every six months. The six months he is onboard, he is working every day. That has got to be difficult! Though it is probably a welcome job for these people, one maybe Americans couldn’t handle as well.
Our favorite place on board was an aft deck. There were only a few lounge chairs there and rarely other people. We could rest and watch the wake trailing us. A very peaceful place.
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