My wife and I are thinking of taking a cruise in the Caribbean this winter, and considering either the Celebrity Mercury (7-day cruise out of Miami) or RC's Monarch of the Seas (5-day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale). This would be our first cruise. We want to have fun and relax, but are not interested in a party-like atmosphere (e.g., Carnival) where we hear that customer service is pretty poor.

Also, for those who have cruised on either of these boats, any things you wish you knew about them before you boarded?

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Originally posted by groundhog:
My wife and I are thinking of taking a cruise in the Caribbean this winter, and considering either the Celebrity Mercury (7-day cruise out of Miami) or RC's Monarch of the Seas (5-day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale). This would be our first cruise. We want to have fun and relax, but are not interested in a party-like atmosphere (e.g., Carnival) where we hear that customer service is pretty poor.

Also, for those who have cruised on either of these boats, any things you wish you knew about them before you boarded?

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Hi,

the "Mercury" is by far the better ship if you ask me. Much larger cabins, better food & service etc. "Monarch of the Seas" has very small cabins, on the other hand. If you would like to relax and have a decent amount of "cultivated fun" (if I may say so), you should have a great time on Celebrity. You might want to check out reviews of the "Mercury" at CR.

Best regards,

Raoul Fiebig
Das Ruderhaus

Hi Groundhog,

My wife and I just did the 5-day Ft. Lauderdale-Ocho Rios-Grand Cayman in the middle of November. This was our second cruise in 2 years. We are hooked on cruising and all that it includes. We are probably not your average tourist/cruiser. Our experience with our second RC cruise was even better than the first (though we are not experienced cruise-people), we know how to have a good time and love to meet new people. A lot of our praise was a result of getting a super deal on a deck #10 room with a balcony!, we are definitely spoiled now. We enjoyed the room so much that we never left the ship at either port. Neither one of us are big shoppers/sightseers so we used the time in port to get to know the ship without all the crowds, very relaxing.... We met so many nice people around our age 40-50 and cannot wait to cruise again. I cannot comment on the Mercury, but I am sure it is as good or better than the Monarch. I must rate our experience as a 95% success. We were so relaxed and not in to the dinner scene, we ordered room service and dined at the casual "Windjammer Cafe" every evening, but we certainly tipped the cabin attendent, bartenders and all the staff that work so hard with barely a day off (or none) for 6-8 months at a time.

Good luck on our choice and have a great time.

Jerry K