Ensenada Cruise - Monarch of the Seas

A group of friends and I originally planned on caravaning to San Pedro, from San Diego.  But, due to a few last minute errands, my group and I decided to just go ahead, in hopes that we'll make it to the ship in time.  We left San Diego around 12:45pm, hitting traffic outside of Del Mar and, again, where the 73 toll road met the 405 Fwy.

Luckily, we made it with an hour to spare, with boarding ending at 4pm.  I parked my car at the lot and lugged my luggage over to baggage check-in.  If you already have your tags, which you would have received with your cruise packet, you can just hand your check-in baggage over to the porter.  Afterwards, I went into the terminal, so I can check-in.  I had forgotten to do online check-in.  If you get the opportunity to do this, you might want to keep in mind that they close online check-in 24 hours before the actual boarding time. 

By the time we got onboard, it was too late for us to have lunch and it was time for us to practice the "emergency evacuation" procedure.  You definitely need to bring your life jacket for this practice.  And, if you don't do this, they will hunt for you.  Apparently, several people from several cabins were missing, so they kept us in line for an extra 20 minutes in the hot sun until everyone was accounted for.  Don't piss off your fellow passengers by thinking you can ditch this one.

We decided to go ahead and hang out by the pool.  Already both jaccuzzis and the kiddie pool were filled.  For some reason, the adult pool was empty and had a safety net thrown over it, possibly to prevent some drunk person from trying to do a nose dive into the empty pool. 

Our dinner time was schedule for 8:30pm, so we decided to leave the pool scene and get ready.  We were assigned a head waiter, waiter and assistant waiter for the entire length of the cruise.  You can order as much as you like to eat.  My friends and I opted to order different dishes so we can try everything.  We also ordered multiple desserts, especially after finding something we liked.

After dinner, we decided to walk around and explore the boat.  When we got back to the pool area, the adult pool was starting to fill up.  Apparently, they use filtered salty sea water to fill the pool.  We headed down to the music room where they were holding 'Disco' night.  We didn't stick around too long, as we had our kayaking adventure early the next morning.

Running around all day, stuffed with eating a ton of food and tired from all the excitement, I was ready to go to bed.