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| - The Monastery is a great place for kids until 8 PM when they kick out all of the families that brought their kids. I sat down on the patio by one of the sand volleyball courts at about 6:20 PM. It took five minutes for the waitress to make an appearance (6:25 PM), and another ten minutes for the waters I order to arrive (6:35 PM). Apparently, you have to order menus as well. Most places just give you menus when you take your seat. I order our menus, and five minutes later placed our order for food (6:40 PM). At this point, I sent my daughter off to play. She tried her hand at volleyball. On one of the sand courts, a mixture of adults and kids were having a friendly game. Everyone was welcome. Then she ventured over to the other court where the kids were just playing in the sand. Around 7:20 PM, I couldn't see her from my table and initiated a fruitless search. She finally came running out ten minutes later looking for the bathroom. There was a hidden play area with sand and sand toys. After visiting the bathroom, we placed our raffle tickets at the table with the prizes we wanted to win. A charity for animals was going table to table, trying to raise money. At 7:30 PM, a waitress came out with food, but wasn't sure what table it belonged to. At 7:40 PM we were told that our order was just about to come out, and that we were lucky that we placed it early, otherwise it would have been an hour and a half. Somehow, by 7:45 PM, it seemed like it had just been about an hour and a half. Maybe we were just starving, but the food seemed good. The personal pizza wasn't enough for my daughter. I would have order a second one, but I didn't want to wait around till 9:15 PM for a second pizza. We were promptly told to leave at 8:00 PM.
What I discovered, is that the best way to enjoy The Monastery, especially if you have kids, is to eat somewhere else beforehand. Under no circumstances should you ever order food at The Monastery, even if only half the tables are full. Enjoy the volleyball, the other games, and the sand toys on a full stomach.
By the way, we won a prize from the raffle.
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