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Trip report (Cruise/road trip) Majesty 10/17 (2nd ship back to to Coco Cay)


BillOh
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I think I forgot to include details of one of the most monumental days in cruise history. On night one they had the battle of the sexes game in the Centrum. This was our first experience with Marc as CD and Mo as his Activities Director. What made it monumental was the guys won! They won big and I'm pretty sure the drink packages had a big influence on the game.

 

The game itself was typical of what you have seen. On my first Majesty trip there was a family reunion onboard and all the guys were drunk and did terrible. But this time the tables were turned. There were two drunk women who volunteered for and screwed up every single event. I was worried about the one woman, I saw her earlier on the pool deck and she had the body of a Ultra runner or maybe a Tri-athlete, but she couldn't hold her liquor!

 

The guys were a mix of 20 somethings who were capable of following directions and quite agile and not shy. The guys won 7 of 8 events. My wife said she was ashamed of the women't performance.

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Absolutely beautiful pictures of Coco Cay!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I have a few more, I'll add those later, it was definitely scenic and picturesque. A relaxing day, I just wish I could have relaxed there after my scuba dive. They would have shuttled me back to this beach!

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We stayed at our little slice of relaxation heaven till around 3:45. We took the tram back to the tender boarding area. Once on the tender and we cleared the island the waves got rougher and many people got wet. 5-6 ft waves were pounding the ship on the other side, but on the protected side where people get off the tenders it was a little rough and getting off took a little more time and crew members individually helped about everyone transition from the tender back to the ship. Anyone over 6ft like like self could very easily smash their end trying to get back on the ship. It wasn't bad, but it did give me a taste of why ships don't stop at Coco Cay on some days. Again, I'm glad I'm 4 for 4 here.

 

This was Tuesday night and formal night. While we have toned down our participation in formal nights, My wife Gina decided she wanted to skip it totally this cruise. On the first night we told our excellent waiter that we would be spending Tuesday at Johnny Rocket's for dinner. I have a fondness for JR's on Majesty. Our first visit to a Johnny Rocket's wasn't the best on Voyager back in 2006, but we enjoyed the somewhat new JR's on Majesty in 2007.

 

If you have been to JR's you know what its like, I again had the Smokehouse Burger which I find very good. My wife had a BLT and the waiter here turned what could have been a disappointment into a plus. When she got her BLT she opened it up to look at it and I could see horror on the waiter's face. He was ashamed to have delivered that sandwhich. They have forgotten the Mayo and my wife asked for Mayo. But the sandwich as delivered was pretty sparse. The ****s fed their captives in Auschwitz more food than what was on this sandwich. He came back with more B, more L, and More T along with the mayo so my wife could built a decent sandwich. He said the guy who made it was new and he properly educated him.

 

While at Johnny Rocket's I did see something I wish I had my camera for. We had just left Coco Cay and probably were not more than 500 yards from where the ship was all day when a twin engine airplane flew by. It looked like a Cessna 404, but I am by far no expert on civilian aviation. What made it remarkable was it flew within 50 yards of our window at Johnny Rocket's and its altitude was probably 100ft or less. (Johnny rockets is on deck 12) It was an interesting site. I don't know if we were close to any airport, but I would guess the pilot was site seeing. It was probably quite a site from the loungers on deck 12.

 

We next attended the Diamond event in the Viking Crown Lounge. For a ship with no dedicated Diamond lounge, this was nice setup with a great sunset view each night. I think I can 4 run an Cokes that night.

 

We decided to close out the night by watching the movie under the stars on the pool deck. The movie was the latest Star Trek Movie and while I have seen it, I was anxious to see it again. I have a lazy eye and don't go to 3D movies because its of no value to me as I only see out of one eye at a time. I accidentally went to a 3d showing back home and actually fell asleep after getting so tired trying to watch it. We were able to use our Diamond vouchers for a few drinks and sat by the sky bar at the tables that are along the railing and right in line with the big screen. (Yes, we attended the Diamond event and then got a couple of free drinks at the sky bar. A scoundrel I am!

 

This was pretty good with the exception of a few groups of drunks who had to stand right where we were and be loud and obnoxious. Another lady sat down with a crying baby for about 20 minutes. We could have moved somewhere else, but we had seen the movie and we did have good seats with a great view. I was happy enough from the Rum and cokes to not be too bothered. We dealt with it until the movie ended and we changed into our bathing suits for our late night soak. A beautiful night and the hot tubs were a pleasant 101.5. That pretty much wraps up day 2! Good things were still coming for days 3 and 4!

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Day 3 on this cruise was Nassau, and I figured out this was our 8th time a cruise has stopped in Nassau. Twice we have done Segway excursions. If you have never ridden a Segway its fun and worth trying at least once. Its no longer offered by Royal, but we found it the 2nd time as a private excursion. (That was 2011 I think) Twice we have stayed on the ship 2013 and May 2016) I left this open thinking we might stay on the ship or just get off long enough to walk around, but with my dive scheduled at Coco Cay canceled I had a dive with Stuart's Cove in my back pocket. I knew Stuarts was the official provider for Royal in this port. At one time Royal cracked down on vendors who offered to other cruise lines or mixed cruise people with private customers, but Stuarts seems to have a pass on this.

 

Stuarts gets rave reviews on many sites and from divers I've talked to here and other forums so I felt good using them. If you want to dive with them and you come into Nassau on Oasis or Allure (current itneraries) where port time is limited, definitely use them through the cruise line. It was a 45 minute drive to their shop and they do work well with the cruise line's schedule.

 

Getting off the ship, there were small signs of damage from the hurricane the previous week, but the port was operating normally.

 

minordamagenassau.jpg

 

Because we had to meet the excursion at 8:15 we didn't have time to do the Diamond breakfast so we went to the WJ for the first time for breakfast. I am happy to report real scrambled bacon, fresh fruit and plentiful bacon. That's all I ask for! Ok, I might like better tasting sausage links, but that might just be me.

 

We got off the ship and found the Royal Excursions persons and were told to wait. We got there maybe 10 minutes early and were the first people there. The guy told us that "Shirley" would be along soon. Sure enough right at 8:15 the Stuart's rep showed up and escorted us out of the port area to her nearby bus. There were already people on the bus, some picked up at Atlantis, and a couple of people who reserved privately from our ship. (we were the only ship in port Wednesday)

 

The ride do their area took about 45 minutes on the way down and was uneventful, for the most part. We did see frequent light examples of hurricane damage and repair crews actively working on other damage. Clearly this wasn't their first hurricane. Our bus, about the size of your typical airport shuttle did got through a couple of neighborhoods that were flooded and bus drove through roads with at least a foot or more of water still covering the road.

 

After a scenic ride we arrived at Stuart Cove's place.

 

stuart1.jpg

 

The inlet has room for about 5 boats. The photo above shows our dive boat. Along the right is several buildings, a dive shot, rental place, restaurant, restrooms, and a crew building. It has a rustic look to it, but it is a first class operation.

 

While this was very organized and the dives were excellent, I had a minor problem with the guy at the rental shack. I am for the most part a cruise diver and dive once a year in the Caribbean. This is my 5th dive and I have just enough experience to know what is going on, but also enough to pay attention to people who know more. The only dive equipment I own is a mask and snorkel that I am comfortable with. The clerk looked at me and said, "medium or large wetsuit" Its been years since anyone suggested a medium anything for me! I told him XL, and we argued for a bit, but I finally insisted on the XL. For a weight belt, he looked at me and said "13 lbs". I told him I used 14 lbs with a shorty suit in St Thomas and with the full suit I would need at least 15. He insisted on 13 and I quit arguing knowing they had more weight on the ship. I ended up using 16. Before you know it, we were on our way out to sea.

 

By the way, I think i paid an extra $30 for my wife Gina to come along as an observer and she got to sun while I was diving. A small price to pay for those of us with non-divers we cruise with.

 

ginaonboat.jpg

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Thanks for taking the time to post an informative and enjoyable review. Your review has been helpful as my daughter and I will be on Majesty for the first time in January - happy to hear about the Diamond lunch.

 

It looks like you had an unbelievably beautiful day at CocoCay. You must be living right because we are batting only 50% on stops there. We are going to try one of the new cabanas this time around.

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I could try to post more pictures of the dive, but I'll save that for another forum section, but I highly enjoyed my two dives with Stuart's. I did cross seeing sharks off by bucket lists, I did see a 4ft sharp nose and maybe a 5 ft reef shark. I may have seen a larger reef shark, but he kept his distance and the water wasn't the clearest I've experienced. The group of us swam with a large turtle for a minute or so, I'm not sure why my go pro didn't catch that, something else I have to work on. I'll finish up with we had an enjoyable ride back to the ship, that didn't drive through the flooded neighborhoods. The driver was great, we enjoyed the ride and we were back to the ship in plenty of time.

 

We were back to the MDR for dinner again and the other couple didn't show up again. We enjoyed good food and good service despite being so close to that work station, but our waiter put us at ease. Wednesday night was Love and Marriage which we always enjoy and to me it gives a little insight into the CD and how he operates.

 

We were fortunate to be selected as the middle couple in the show on Oasis last April with Drew Divine.

 

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We went to this event with the full intention of just watching and enjoying. Most of the time I have seen this event someone from the Cruise director's staff does the audtioning process and then the CD comes out at the start of the show. There usually is a quick audition from the Neyweds and they try to pick the couple that was married the longest , and then they audition someone married between 10-40 years as the middle couple.

 

Marc did things a little differently. He auditioned Newlyweds to 5 years as couple number 1, then he did 5 years to 25 years as the middle couple, and 25 years plus as couple number 3. For the first time, this put us as couple number 3. The audition process was drug out way too long and I think it took 2/3rds of the show. When it came to the last couple, only 2 couples stood up and we were tired of the lame auditions, so we decided to "show these fools how its done" Normally I haven't seen them have this much trouble getting volunteers. Well we did blow the other two couples away in the auditioning process, though the thunderous applause wasn't as impressive as it was with the Oasis crowd. :D

 

So we were couple number 3 and I don't know if anyone has any pictures, I haven't looked at the DVD yet. But Marc had to shorten the show down to 2 questions each and there were no new questions, so we wont this one easily. Ok, now that we have won, I guess we should retire, but the prices for winning on an Oasis class ship are much nicer! We got a bottle of champagne, some RC stuff and a his and her watch set. It was fun, but these other two guys were a stick in the mud back stage.

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In my previous experiences 3 and 4 day cruises seem too short, but this one seemed different. It was day 11 for 2016 as we usually only cruise once a year, and this one was a bonus on a ship we were very familiar with. We were achieving everything we wanted out of the cruise, total relaxation and had great weather.

 

The final sea day would be another great weather day. I got up early and ran a couple of miles on deck 12 and my wife grabbed one of the nicer deck chairs by the pool. She is the Sun Goddess and we don't see much of it from November through April and when the sun does come out in Dec, it is probably below freezing, so this was her bonus sun - day. By 8:30am most of the poolside deck chairs were occupied. A few were "hogged" including 2 right next to me. This was held my a knowledgeable chair hog;) A lady came and put four towels down on the two chairs next to me and departed. Watching, and photographing chair hogs. Judge if you like, its one way I enjoy spending my time. :p

 

I say she was a chair hog well aware of the rules. She would come back every 30 minutes, right on time, sit down for a minute, go smoke a cigarette on the other side of the pool all while keeping an eye on her chair. Then she would disappear for another 30 minutes. This continued until around 10:45 when I noticed she was 15 minutes late for her check in. Just before 11, she showed up with her husband and they occupied the chairs the rest of the day. They were from Finland and a fairly nice couple to talk to, so I guess not all chair hogs are evil.

 

smarthog.jpg

 

Notice, this is a closer shot of the newer style of deck chair that I saw on the lower pool deck. I see a similar style of chair in the reviews coming in from Harmony this week. They are much more comfortable than the previous ones. I was having a great relaxing time and nothing was going to dampen it. The first minor irritation came when they set up the T-shirt sale on the pool deck. The crew setup the deck chairs over night and we occupied two right where they put them. By 10am when the sale started all the pool chairs were occupied and we weren't moving. They could have set up the tables on the other side where there were no chairs, but they set them up on our side including right behind our chairs. This became an irritation, but we dealt with it.

 

Next came an unexpected surprise. They brought out some grills and fired them up on the outside of the deck behind us. I haven't had a pool cookout in awhile. The grills heated for about 30 minutes. They mostly cooked the food in the galley and then brought it up and heated it on the grill. They had chicken, pork chops, burgers, potatoes and a couple of other things. Much to my surprise it was all excellent. Now, my taste maybe blue collar , but I know good. Pork Chops can be tough to do in large quantities, but even it was moist and excellent. The burger was the same way and the chicken was the best grilled BBQ chicken ever for me. My mood and a couple of Coors lights helped, but this was one of my best cruise meals in quite a while!

 

We had prime seats for the Belly Flop and we did enjoy that. Below is Marc doing his last duties as a CD for 4 months and his AD Mo.

 

cdad.jpg

 

Overall we liked Marc and Mo, We learned about Team Bing Bong, and the Chubby Bunny contest, but I could see hints that Marc was phoning it in before his 4 month vacation. That said, I think he did a good job.

 

Our final dinner in the MDR was a good one, its the same menu, it was enjoyable and the service was good, we dined alone again.

 

The Quest that night was fun, I do like it in the smaller venues. I imagine CD Marc was packing to get off the ship and he Let Mo handle it. Mo did a good job, for the most part, there were many new quests, and not many repeats. He did do one Quest that was irresponsible and shouldn't be repeated. I think it was the 2nd quest. We let a young newbie couple be the captains for our section. The quest started out as " I need to see a guy carrying a purse" My wife offered up her small purse so we could be first. Our Captain went out and showed the purse when Mo, modified the quest and said, "It must be empty" Our Captain immediately dumped my wife's purse on the dance floor and her cell phone crashed to the floor along with our passports, and a prescription bottle. My wife ran out to retrieve everything as a dozen other people ran out with their quest. Mo was making jokes about the pills being spilled saying, "What are these little blue pills?" An obvious Viagara reference". The rest of the quest was fun, but this was a stupid stunt.

 

We completed our night with a final soak in the hot tubs after midnight, something I enjoyed immensely and never got to to in our previous 11 nights on Majesty. I found the changes to Majesty including the water play area to be excellent and found the ship looking great. All the crew we encountered seemed hard working and ready to please and I never heard any crew member beg for a 10. This was an improvement over my last Oasis sailing. The CD mentioned there were 200 kids on this cruise, more than I expected, but it was no factor in our enjoyment of the cruise.

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Glad you and Gina had a great cruise. I was on the weekend before with my daughter and my "wife-in-law" (my ex's current wife). She apparently got as many "who are you going with?" comments from her friends as I did from mine. This was my 5th time on the Majesty, my daughter's 3rd and the first for my wife-in-law (a Royal virgin).

 

We spent Thursday night in Orlando and toured both of the Harry Potter Worlds at Universal. We had a great dinner in the Italian restaurant in the resort area outside of the entrances to the parks. We shuttled to the port on Friday via Cocoa Beach shuttle and that went smoothly as did check in. It was my first trip out of Port Canaveral and would go from there again.

 

I, too, thought the revamped kids area was great. Windjammer food was good. Main dining room was okay. Chocolate Sensation desserts were great. We all opted for them both nights we ate there. We ate at Johnny Rockets on formal night - a family tradition. My BLT was all right the first time around.

 

We did do the Segway tour in Nassau and had fun - until my wife-in-law took a tumble at the very end of the trip. She ended up with a sprained ankle and made a trip to medical when we got back to the ship. To my great surprise, her bill was only $243 including the visit, x-rays, wrap and crutches. I had always heard horror stories about the charges. Because she couldn't tender, we skipped Coco Cay on Sunday. That turned out to be a great day reading and relaxing on the balcony - a much needed respite for my daughter.

 

Shuttle back to Orlando went well too.

 

I had two trips on the Enchantment this summer and now this one on the Majesty. The cabins on the Enchantment do have pluses and it is nice that the four day out of Miami does include Key West. However, I had great cruises on both ships.

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Glad you and Gina had a great cruise. I was on the weekend before with my daughter and my "wife-in-law"

 

BillOH- do you know who the Hotel Director is?

 

Vicki,

 

Great to hear from you again. I have a picture of all of us on the rocks watching Oasis sailaway in my digital picture frame, so I see you often ;)

 

Cruisegal, sorry with no Captain's Corner and no speeches in the dining room the final night, I didn't see the hotel director this time. Being the ship was in great shape and all our needs met, I didn't interface with their staff much this visit.

 

 

To all, I have done much of this hurried while at lunch at work and there are a lot of typos. I apologize for some incoherence! I enjoy doing these recaps and home somebody finds it useful.

Edited by BillOh
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Ok, let me close this out by talking about express departure. On our previous 13 cruises we only did express departure on our other road trip/ cruise on Jewel in 2012 out of Tampa. That was an easy process.

 

With Express departure on Majesty, I knew much less than many of you, but figured I knew the basics. Since Majesty's layout is a little odd (Deck 6 only is in the front half of the ship and boarding/leaving on deck 4, I figured logistically we could carry our luggage down 4 stairs to the centrum, take the elevator to deck 4, and walk off the ship. WRONG! I probably should have listen to the CD's show the final night. i'm sure he probably explained the process.

 

On Majesty I would guess about 1/2 the ship wants to do express departure so the demand was higher than perhaps it is on the bigger ships at times. I tried my scheme above only to find out the elevators in the centrum locked down. Then I saw the snaking line already going. I ended up going the line right outside my stateroom. I would guess we were probably around guest 200 in that line. Once this was figured out the line went smooth and were outside an on the Radisson shuttle by 7:45. That shuttle service was great and we were back on the road again by 8:15. All I will say about the road trip home is we knew that when 6pm or so came around we would be far enough in our trip to probably think about driving the entire distance that day. Sure enough we did. After a extremely relaxing drive down and cruise, we ran into heavy cold rain on I77 in VA and WV. That road in the rain is a chore. I told my wife that I felt like I just wrestled a bear. She took over once we reached Ohio and we made it home about 12:39am Saturday and had all day Saturday and Sunday to recuperate.

 

My 13th cruise and 4th Majesty cruise was over! Now I have 1/2 a year till another!

 

I would summarize this as a great value cruise. It wasn't Spring break, so there wasn't a lot of trash on the pool deck in the morning. A good diverse passenger make up and everyone seemed to get around. Majesty looks better than it did in 2007, 2009, and 2013. I'd happily sail her again, but I hope to try Enchantment some time.

 

Love the Diamond Breakfast and the reception in the Viking Crown lounge each night, what a view and sunset.

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Thanks for the great review, yours is by far the best I have seen of the Majesty. I know you mentioned that you ordered lunch from a menu when you booked a bed but how about bar service? If not, is there a bar near by? We have never been to Coco Cay and are trying to figure out whether we want to book something like this or just wing it.

Edited by NC Mountain Cruiser
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I love your reviews! We will be on The Majesty Nov 11th. I am not familiar with the special dinning area for Diamond members. Can you tell me how you found it and where to go take advantage of the perk?

 

I think it was night 1 in the dining room where our Headwaiter, I think her name was Shelly from Jamaica mentioned it. She noticed we were Diamond when we showed our Sea Pass cards to get a coke at dinner. Our dining room spot was deck 3, Deck 4 had the breakfast for Diamond and above, We entered on the right side.

 

Funny thing now that you mention it, Sometime the crew just lets people do what they want without being too pushy. When we went to breakfast on Day 2 a guy came in and said, "As of today, I'm officially Diamond and I'm eating here" We all know and I be he did too he wasn't officially Diamond until after the cruise, but it didn't hurt me any and the crew didn't argue. I saw him later at the Diamond event.

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Thanks for the great review, yours is by far the best I have seen of the Majesty. I know you mentioned that you ordered lunch from a menu when you booked a bed but how about bar service? If not, is there a bar near by? We have never been to Coco Cay and are trying to figure out whether we want to book something like this or just wing it.

 

There was a nearby bar, I'll look to see if I have a picture of it, I think I do as I remember it had minor shingle damage to the roof. Being that Hurricane Matthew had been through there the week before, I was looking for damage. There was also reportedly a siwm up bar in this area, but it was destroyed in the hurricane.

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Thanks for a great review, Bill! Those beach beds on Coco Cay looked beautiful!

 

I'm glad you were able to dive with Stuart's Cove. I enjoyed my dives with them, but I was glad it was a ship's excursion because we barely made it back to the shipmon time. DH got a call in our cabin from guest services looking for me just before our all aboard time. When he told them I was on the scuba excursion they said they were always late getting baack to the ship. Once we boarded they pulled up the gangway and off we went!

 

I do think I may have to plan a Getaway on Majesty while she is based in Port Canaveral. :D

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Bill where did you post those dive pics, post a link please:p

 

I'm still working on it, I got a new GOpro4 and somehow I missed a bunch of stuff, I started video when I jumped in, and shut it off when I got out, but at least 15 minutes is missing from each dive, not sure what happened.

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T

I'm glad you were able to dive with Stuart's Cove. I enjoyed my dives with them, but I was glad it was a ship's excursion because we barely made it back to the shipmon time. DH got a call in our cabin from guest services looking for me just before our all aboard time. When he told them I was on the scuba excursion they said they were always late getting baack to the ship. Once we boarded they pulled up the gangway and off we went!

 

I do think I may have to plan a Getaway on Majesty while she is based in Port Canaveral. :D

 

I'll bet that was on Oasis or Allure? Those ships on their recent itineraries spend so little time there and it was a 45 minute drive to their facility. At least Majesty didn't depart until 5pm.

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Thanks so much for the beach bed photos! I reserved one for our Spring Break cruise and my husband thought I was crazy. The photos will shut him up. :)

 

I rarely cruise on spring break, but this is probably the only quiet spot on the island, so perhaps it will be even more worth during spring break.

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