Back From Majesty, 8/9/09- 8/16/09

[MikeACY]

NCL Majesty
August 9th- 16th 2009

First time leaving out of Baltimore, and it was a breeze. Boarded the Majesty around noon time. They announced that the rooms will not be ready until 2pm. The crew tried to direct everyone onto the top deck for the lunch buffet. We decided to head to the dinning room since there were no seats available at the buffet. (everyone sat around waiting for their room to be available) For some reason the crew does not like to tell you that the dinning room is open, but from past cruise experiences, we knew it would be.
We knew the ship will be small and I have read some mixed reviews. However my group’s impression (15 of us) was that the ship was spotless. The workers were very kind and always saying hello or giving a smile. Our outside room on the 4th floor was one of the largest I have been in..excluding the bathroom which was extremely small. The room was a little on the warm side…but we brought a fan. ALSO..and I keep telling everyone this. Do yourself a favor and bring a surge protector or something that has lots of outlets in it. There is only one outlet in the room. And with Ipod’s, camera’s and other types of charges, that one outlet isn’t enough. There is no clock in the room. So I brought my own. What I didn’t realize was that though the voltage was the same (120) the MHz was different on the ship, therefore the clock ran slow. As much as 2 hours slow after 8 hours. The first full day on the ship we were surprised to see that what we thought was 9am was actually 11:30 am. Bring a battery clock!!
Food: Excellent at the dinning rooms for all meals. Very good to good for lunch at the buffets, not so good at the breakfast buffet where the food was often cold. Again the service was excellent. They always had 24 hour pizza, burgers, fries, etc etc. However they were slow bringing out the pizza.
Entertainment: The shows were one of the best I have ever seen on a cruise ship. The comedian was actually fun. They had a ventriloquist who was funny, and a group that impersonated Frankie and the 4 season.
We lucked out. The seas were calm both ways. The weather was beautiful. We picked a good week.
Arrived in St. Georges Bermuda on time at 3pm on Tuesday. We went to dinner at 5:30 (This was the earliest we were allowed in the dinning room). We had an excursion at 7pm. So we asked the waitress to please hurry our meal. It was lobster night, but she did an excellent job to get us out by 6:35. At 7pm we went on the Sunset Glass bottom boat ride. It was so so. It was a little cloudy, so we didn’t see the sun set. The reef we went to didn’t have much fish. The best thing about it was the open bar. Unlimited beer and mixed alcohol drinks. Otherwise I would not recommend it.
On Wednesday we walked over to Tobacco Beach. I have read that it is small…and believe me, the sand area was maybe 150 feet across. Very crowded and very small. But the water was beautiful. Not very deep, and unlike the sand area of the beach, it was very large. Calm water and a great place to snorkel near the rocks on the far right. Also there were facilities with a snack stand and bar serving all sorts of soda, beer and wine coolers.
Tobacco beach is either a 20 min walk up a steep hill, or a $6 cab ride. We chose to walk. On the way there, there is a “super market” type of store that sold all sorts of goodies that you can take to the beach.
Late in the day we decided to do a horse and buggy ride. You can either book this thru the ship for $47 per person for an hour, or simply wait outside the “White Horse” tavern directly in front of the ship, and flag down one of the two carriages that park there. They have no time table, so you have to be patient. We flagged down a carriage driven by “John”. His carriage holds up to 9 people. (The other carriage we saw around the dock held only 4) Since we were all adults, he would not take any more then 7 of us for the horses’ sake. John charged $40 per half hour, or $80 for a full hour for the entire carriage. Not per person!!! Now I understand that the cruise excursion office needs to make money, but what a different from $47 per person to $80 for everyone. Anyways, I recommend John for your tour. He was polite, spoke English very very well. Took his time explaining the Island to us, and answered all question. Others on this site also recommend him. He is excellent, ask for him.
Thursday we went to Horseshoe Bay Beach. We decided to take the bus for $12 round trip, instead of a taxi for $50 or more each way. It did take approx 1 ½ hours by bus. The bus had to stop in Hamilton where we would transfer to bus number 7 to the beach. We decided to walk around Hamilton for a while, and then head to the beach. If you have never been to Horseshoe Bay Beach, you must go. They have facilities; the beach is beautiful and unlike Tobacco, very very large. Being that it is on the south side of the Island, it can have some waves. But we lucked out and it was calm. The only thing this time (we have been there before) was that the top of the water had a “film” of algae. We didn’t know it then, but when we got back to the ship, our bathing suits smelled like rotting fish. We have washed them over and over again here at home, and still can’t get the smell out. We will keep trying.
Friday left at 11am for a peaceful calm ride back to Baltimore. We arrived in Baltimore at 6am. We got off the ship around 9:45am after having breakfast in the dinning room. Again no hassle getting off.
In summary, the ship is clean, the food in the dinning room was excellent, and the crew was friendly. Yes the ship is small, and doesn’t have the large atriums, 2 floor theaters or the large dance “clubs” that the larger ones have, but it was still a very nice ship. Take a battery clock and a surge protector. Purchase your alcohol on Monday on the ship were it is 10% off the entire order. The rest of the week they never had this sale. Alcohol is cheaper on the ship then on Bermuda. Oh..one more thing to mention. And all ships do this. They nickel and dime you all week long. There is always some sort of an announcement that there is Bingo, Art sales, Jewelry sales, on and on. Anything to take more money out of your pocket. But all in all a great time. Too bad this ship will be gone in a few months.
If you would like more information, please e-mail me at MikeACY@Comcast.net

[Lvteks]

Thanks so much!

We are on the Majesty Sept. 3rd so a very positive up-to-the-minute review is great. Need to start packing....but it takes me longer to unpack. Guess I think as long as the suitcast sits around it might get used sooner.

Really glod to hear such good news.

Blessings,
Gail

[doglover3]

Your information was very helpful. We leave on the Majesty on Aug 29 and have an outside cabin on the fourth deck. Glad to hear it won't be that small. We're looking forward to being on a smaller ship, but had been a little concerned about some of the negative reviews. You've helped put my mind at rest and now I can just look forward to having a great time.

Thanks.

[browe]

Very nice review. Thank you for writing it.

[MikeACY]

As stated in my review, the rooms are larger then on most ships. We had a quad, my son had a triple. These rooms were basically the same size. One of our guest had a double. This room was small...but no smaller then you would have found on another cruise line. So if you have a quad or a triple, you may be impressed with the size. A double...well...probably not.
Again, the bathrooms are extremely small.

[Philly Steve]

Thanks for the review!

Glad to hear Majesty remains in great shape.