Majesty of the Seas Apr 3-7

As my signature says, this was my forth cruise, and my first one not on Carnival. In other words, expect compare and contrast with those experiences. Also, this cruise was with my daughters girl scout troop - 4 seniors, one junior, one freshman. They have known each other since kindergarten (or longer) and grown up together, 4 of them living on the same street (two are my girls). We had 5 adults - myself, my wife, our troop leader and two other moms. So this trip was not your typical family vacation - and for those doing the math at home, yes - it was myself and 10 women. Hired muscle.

The Trip Down

We'll keep this short, but we left Atlanta the day before the cruise for a Budget Inn in Cocoa, Florida. The drive down was fine (especially as I had all adults and luggage in my car). The Budget Inn was cost-effective. It was mostly clean, however our room had a towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door that housekeeping must have missed. There was a stray cat hanging out near our room. Very sweet - wish we could have taken it home. Didn't sleep well due to there only being a sheet on the bed and was cold. But we made it through the night. There was an IHOP using the same parking lot, so make for an easy breakfast with great service.

The Port and Boarding

It was a very short trip (17 miles) to the cruise port. There was no traffic getting there, and the layout of the port worked well - we saw where our ship was supposed to be one the signs, pulled in right into the parking deck. Compared to the nightmare that was Miami (drop-off and pickup traffic combined, even before you could get to the parking deck) this was very smooth. Found a spot, went down one level and the porters were there to take our bags, and then straight into the terminal.

In hindsight, what we should have done from this point on, was do better to stay together as a group, letting security, RCI etc know. Travel documents were with the parents (three kids were under 18) and one girl did not have a parent with her (thankfully she was over 18). But we made it through. Security was a breeze - no questions, no taking stuff out of bags or anything. Some of the group got ushered ahead of us so they were in the main line. Our troop leader had traveled RCI before and was a gold member, so we went to a quicker line. However at this point people in the same staterooms were in two parts of the line, one person had not done the online checkin, and the poor people at RCI had papers being handed to them left and right, at one point two people working on the same stateroom. It took about 15-20 minutes to check in and the customer service was great...just an odd situation.

At this point they were just calling the higher-end cruisers (Diamond level in Carnival parlance), so we had a very short wait in the terminal. We bought some lanyards, hit the restroom and before we knew it we were heading on board. The obligatory picture stop, and then on we go. I'd say it was probably 10:45/11am when we got on board. We had to change the SetSail cards around because the booking did not match the actual room assignments, but they couldn't do that until after we sailed.

We went up to the pool deck, and the girls, who were already in their bathing suits underneath, began their fun, grabbed lunch, and waited til 1 when we could get in the rooms.

The Room

We were in 2013,2514,2515. I had read that comparatively, the rooms on RCI were smaller than Carnival. That was not a lie. We had three people in our room, so one of the pullman beds was down. Good thing my wife and I have known our troop leader for 13 years! I think the last room we had on the Carnival Splendor was setup so well it seemed huge compared to this. But with the luggage stowed under the beds, and the pullman up during the day, it was easily workable. There was very little drawer space to unpack in, so I lived out of my suitcase. Also, the safe seemed very small. There were two plugs in the whole room, but the location worked fine for my CPAP. Phone charging was the other concern, but I always travel with a small extension cord with my CPAP and that helped with that.

Muster

This was interesting. In my vast wealth (aka three Carnival cruises) they always had you go to your stateroom for the muster drill. In this case, about 15-20 minutes before the drill, people started showing up at stairs to direct you to your muster station, so if you went out there right away you'd be standing there a while. We had an issue where our girls were told they had to be with a buddy and not to separate. However all but one of them were at station 2, the other one being at station 1 (both forward on deck 7, one on port, one on starboard) We were waiting for them at the stairwell on 7, where it would have been easy to get to either station. The problem was they were being told they had to walk down the outside of deck 7 to their station, but they wouldn't let the one for station 1 walk with the three for station 2. In other words, they were separating them. I know they have a job to do, but there was still a lot of time before the actual muster time and if they had just let them walk down the center of the ship it would have been easier. I talked to the person by the stairs and she told me what to tell them to tell to another crew member (while trying to get me to go to my station). Finally someone by where ever they were understood the situation and let the station 1 person walk down the port side with the rest so we could collect her. For as disorganized as the rest of this drill was, it was odd they were sticklers about that detail.

Also, right before the start of this we heard a code Alpha Alpha Alpha (medical emergency). After muster, when we went back inside, paramedics were taking a ambulance stretcher up the elevator. Never heard anymore but hopefully all was well

Sail Away

I've sailed out of Charleston (a 6 mile harbor cruise), Jacksonville (13 mile river cruise), and Miami (a cool turnaround by downtown and a 4 mile trip out the channel) and then Port Canaveral was a push away and 1.5 miles and you're in the ocean. Seemed a little bland compared to the others, but at least we left on time!

At this point I'll stop trying to a do an event-by-even narrative and just put everything into broad categories

Ports of Call

Nassau

We were at Nassau from 8am until Midnight. I made it a point to get up for the sunrise and docking. Love the turn around in the harbor. We were on the first pier which meant easy on/off, which was nice after being dragged all over all day.

This is my third time going to Nassau. I won't cry if I never get there again. We took the girls to the Queens Staircase, Fort Fincastle, the Pirate Museum and Bay Street. The goal was to go to Fort Charlotte, but they didn't want to make that walk. These 6 girls have slept on aircraft carriers, gone caving, etc...not typical girly girls...but dang if they didn't know every shop on Bay Street where they could get a free pendant or something. It took us quite a while to get to the Pirate Museum because of all the stops. But they had fun. The Staircase is beautiful, though no one stopped to listen to any of the history. The Fort is okay...small, but a great view. The merchants outside were very nice to the girls. The Pirate Museum seemed pretty cheesy - had some interesting facts, but other than a small mockup of a pirate town, it was a few dioramas, narration on a loop and a gift shop. The straw market is annoying as ever. I can't stand that place...but it was hilarious listening to some of the girls think they were getting a deal because something was usually $20 but today only it is $7. As my daughter said "Hah...that means it's always $7 and you're still overpaying."

My wife and I and two of the girls had lunch at Sharkeez. Last time I was in Nassau we ate there and loved it. I wasn't as impressed this time around - some of the items on the menu that were awesome were gone. I did find a very tasty Jerk Burger which I loved, but the menu seemed more Americanized than I remember it. Also, an oddity - the drink I got was a 45oz fun bowl. It was actually $10 more than the 64oz drink. Weird pricing. My bad for not asking but I assumed that the smaller one would be cheaper than the 64oz one which I had asked the price on. Buyer beware! Also, my wife's conch fritters didn't come out. They guy that brought the food out didn't have it on his ticket...but we forget to check to see if they were on the bill.

The Carnival Sunshine was in port and left around 5. I lost track of time by the pool and didn't get to watch for dock runners. We set sail around 11:30 and headed for Coco Cay

Coco Cay

We we're trying to be the first on the island, so we at in the MDR and then made our way to the tenders. Other than some disorganization on our part for the rallying point, getting over there wasn't bad. The line for the tenders were pretty bad earlier in the morning, but was moving quickly at 10 by the time we got in it. The tender ride was quick and easy. The island itself is interesting. It's not a huge sandy beach like Half-Moon Cay is, but a series of lagoons with rocks at the end for breakers. Seating was plentiful. The water was a little cool for my liking but you got used to it quickly. Lots of crabs on the rocks and fish swimming around. We didn't do any of the activities, but there was snorkeling, and probably others. There is an aqua park, which has inflatables in the water to climb and bounce on. We got over there to find they were an extra charge (something like $30 for 50 minutes) and you had to wear a life jacket to go in that area. That was disappointing, but I guess it's a way of keeping 2,500 people from being on them at once. I liked the layout of Coco Cay compared to Half-moon. Everything was right there off the beach - food, bathrooms, drinks, and even a "straw market". I wouldn't mind going back and doing the snorkeling, but we had too many people to keep an eye on this time around. The tender back was an easy process. They x-ray the bags on the island, so it doesn't delay getting off the tender and onto the ship.

The Food

So to jump around here. I did breakfast and lunch at the Windjammer mostly. One breakfast was in the MDR and dinner was always in the MDR. The first day I grabbed a burger which was very bland. But after that one meal everything got better. I'm not a seafood person, so had none of that, but some of the highlights

Breakfast

Eggs, omelettes, bacon and sausage, biscuits and sausage gravy, pancakes, hash rounds, pineapple - I liked breakfast. The sausage links looked weird, but tasted okay. The biscuits had a bit of a sweeter taste to them but were good. The omelettes were thin and they didn't put much in them, but when you ordered one, they gave you a number and told you to come back in 7 minutes, which kept it all moving and less crowding. The breakfast in the MDR, I had the french toast. It was amazing, thick and with some cinnamon and sugar on it. They also had a small buffet in the MDR, with fruit, bacon and breads.

Lunch

As mentioned above, I wasn't that impressed with the burger, but I doctored it up enough. There were a couple of second lunches during the week where I picked and chose. It seemed they did a taco bar which was pretty good. The few things I'd grab just as a snack seemed good. The lunch on Coco Cay was very good. Basically a BBQ, complete with a suckling pig where your cut came fresh off of it. Ribs were good. BBQ chicken was okay. Better than what I remember from Half-moon cay.

Dinner

Since we had the late dinner, one night I did sneak a dinner snack from the Windjammer. They had a couscous salad which was amazing. They had some sort of chicken wing which I'm not sure if they were going for buffalo or BBQ - not that good. They had a jerk chicken wing which was incredible. If you've ever had the ones at Pollo Tropical it was like that but 10 times better with more spice. The curried chicken was a bit bland. Didn't have much there but I shall be ever hunting for something as good as those jerk wings were.

The MDR - again, not a seafood person which hampered me. I'm didn't take pictures of the menu so I don't remember exactly what all I had so am going from memory here

- Caesar Salad, Angus Sliders, Creme Brulee

- Roasted Duck (and Caesar salad), something obviously unremembered

- French Onion Soup, Lamb, Apple Struedel and strawberry something (like a mousse/sorbet)

- Rice and Mushroom balls, Caprese Salad, Lasanga, and something for dessert

The first night, nothing really appealed to me, hence the sliders. Should have gone with the NY Strip. The Caesar salad was good, everyone loved it. The duck was okay. French Onion Soup was very good, the lamb was good and the Apple Struedel was dry and flavorless (saw it in Windjammer the next day). The straweberry dessert was great. My daughter had it and I decided to get one as well. The rice and portabello mushroom balls were tasteless, though the cream cheese stuffed pimento that came with it made up for that. The Caprese was good and the Lasagna was amazing.

All in all, I wasn't excited that much about the choices on the menu, but the quality of the food was good. There was a lot of trading of food items around the table, and it was hit or miss as to if someone liked something or not. Most of the adults were quite pleased.

Drinks

I did not get any of the unlimited packages - as much as a coke zero would have been nice, I can live on water, tea and lemonade....and whatever that great Strawberry Kiwi drink was. The bar drinks - the menu seemed kinda sparse, and the drinks of the day were underwhelming. The frozen drinks are interesting - I guess because they make virgin ones as well, the rum is poured over top of the frozen drink. They would walk around the theater and have premade drinks and just added rum as needed. The pineapple rita was nasty. Wish I could have found some more options for the frozen chocolatey type drinks, basically a milkshake with booze, but never did find one. Oh well...

Service

Our room steward was nice. Didn't see much of her, but the room was clean. We only had a towel animal one night - I don't know if that is normal or not, but my wife said she saw animals in other rooms as we walked by.

The MDR service was top notch - much better than the last cruise - I don't think my water glass was ever empty, which is a help after being in the sun all day.

Other service around the ship - minimal interaction my self, but usually very good. It took 20 minutes for the guy to come back with my Guinness one time, but that's about as bad as it got. We had to move people around rooms, and once we got underway, that was handled quickly as was some juggling of on board credits.

Ship Entertainment, activities, etc

Since half the girls were over 18, they did not do the teen club, so nothing to say about that.

Pool

The pool was not as packed as other ships I've been on. It may have been the temperature of the ocean water filling it. The four hot tubs were constantly filled with kids, so I stayed out of them.

Movies

They had some good recent movies, Rogue One, Lala Land, Arrival, and others. I saw parts of this and that because of other events getting in the way. The layout of the deck and screen location is odd - you have some sun covers above the hot tubs that block a lot of the screen from parts of deck 11. It seemed finding a good viewing location without obstruction was hard to do. But I wasn't there to watch movies so it didn't bother me much.

Trivia

We love doing this. We did a few of them - music, sports and general knowledge. It was fun - the hosts did a good job, kept it funny. The sports was all over the world of sports (thankfully), so if you're expecting NFL, MLB and NASCAR you're in for a surprise.

Compass

The compass is the daily activity guide. It sucked. Don't know what the deal was, but times were wrong for events on there, descriptions were lacking, and some events just didn't seem to happen. Whoever puts that together needs to do a better job making sure it's correct. You have people deciding what to do based on that paper.

Bands

They had a lounge band (bass, drums, keys, vocals) which were good. There was also a brass band (bass,horns, drums) who I heard a bit of - not my thing but they sounded good. And finally there was a band playing reggae/Caribbean music - also very good. Would have preferred a band which can do a bit more variety. Each one was locked into a certain style which got old very fast. Other than the reggae band, which played above the pool area as well, they played in the Centrum on a landing, which was a horrible place. There was no good viewing area to watch them. No place where you could grab a chair and watch. So mostly it looked as if they were playing just to play.

Shows

I only went to one of the production shows. It was "Boogie Madness" and had a bunch of 70s music. They sounded good, as did the band providing the music, but it was boring. I fell asleep for a bit. Nothing really major to it. However our girls loved it - three of them now have cruise stage performer as their goal in life.

They had a comedian which was great. He did a very good job of working through his routine but also bringing the audience into the show...usually as a source of more jokes. Only saw his second show, but the girls were talking about it all week.

They had a guy who did juggling and a unicycle act. Also very funny and worth it.

They had a high school band on the cruise who did a performance at 10am on the sea-day. While it was just filler material and I may have been one of the few in the audience not a parent of one of the kids on stage, their 100 years of Broadway chorus/band performance was great.

The Love an Marriage show - the cruise director Marc handled this one. He had a perfect ability to whatever was thrown at him and work with it. My daughter actually fell over in her chair laughing at one point.

The Quest gameshow - not as raunchy as it was on Carnival - but still fun.

Cruise Director

As mentioned above, the CD had a knack. I didn't see that much of him, other than at shows, but I also didn't go to the dance parties. When I did see him, he was always happy, always interacting and just seemed to be a generally nice guy.

The Ship

This ship is old - 25 years or so - but it didn't feel that way. It was clean, looked in good condition and the layout worked okay. Having a second set of elevators that hit all the decks would have helped. Much of any free area inside was taken up with this or that (next Cruise desk, internet access, etc) which took away from places to just sit for a moment.

Internet

I had the internet package for work, just in case. Facebook, e-mail and WhatsApp worked great. Instagram, being more photo based was slower. Others complained about it, but for where we were, it worked amazingly well.

Motion

I think I felt the motion a little more on this ship than any others, but it wasn't bad at all. I took my ginger pills and did not feel sick at all (and I get bad motion sickness). The worst location was theater. It was on the aft and you felt more motion, probably from the engines, than anywhere else.

Casino

Walked through there once or twice - wasn't as smoky as expected, but it did reek of smokers past. Didn't spend a dime in there - $10 min bet for BJ (except one day it was $3 for a bit).

OVERALL (and comparison to Carnival)

I enjoyed the cruise. I would like to try RCI again, but on a newer and slightly larger ship. I do like the smaller ships because it is less of a zoo, but would like to see what they do with a newer ship. The passengers on this cruise seemed a step above what is on Carnival. People seemed more pleasant to each other, more restrained and less people-of-walmart. There was just an overall feeling on the ship than on the last couple voyages. Could be timing, pricing, luck of the draw or anything...but it makes me want to do another RCI.

What I feel Carnival does better

The staff on carnival seemed to go out of the their way to learn your names (dining and stewards). It is amazing how much they remember about you. And they try more to interact with you. It could have just been our steward, but that was a notable difference.

The quest show on carnival was a lot more fun, raunchy, hilarious, executed better, etc.

The shows on carnival were better, though RCI used a live band not canned music.

The bands were better on Carnival.

Carnival, where you have two elevator banks across from each other, pressing a call button works for both banks, which helps speed things up.

What I really liked about RCI

RCI seems to have taken a look at what they do and found ways to do it better. The flow of the ship mostly seemed better. Simple things like using your Seapass card to check out a towel - Carnival they write it down, here they scan the towel in an out. The soda setup for the kids - Carnival they find a can an open it. Here you have a special cup which works with Coke freestyle machines. Everything for the most part just seemed to flow better, run smoother, etc on the RCI. Like the omelette example above, they look at where they could make things better and do so. Carnival seems to be more about getting them on board and then letting them have at it.

In the end, I would like to go on a Radiance class (newer) or smaller Voyager class to see how I like those. I just can't see how the Oasis class would work...too many people at for some of the choke points - theaters, pools, ports, tenders. I guess they scale everything up, just seems like too many people for me.

Sorry this was so long! If you have any specific questions about this cruise or "hey...I'm used to carnival" questions, be glad to do my best.

Great review. Thank you. I love the Majesty.

I agree that the Radiance class may be a good fit for you but don't be afraid to try an Oasis class ship. It might sound strange to hear but the Oasis class ships feel the least crowded to us. Everything is designed so well and spread out that there have been several times where we asked ourselves "where is everyone?" I bet the kids would love the Oasis class as well as there is a ton more options for them.

Thanks again. I enjoyed the review.

The Voyager Class is larger than the Radiance Class, and have the Royal Promenade instead of an atrium. The kids would love it. They also have parades in the promenade.I fully agree with the poster about the Oasis Class ships. They rarely feel crowded, and there is so much to do. We are going on the Allure in Dec, and have been on the Oasis before. Loved it. There is no tendering on the Oasis Class ships. They only go where they can dock.Also, they have Broadway shows on that class ship.

Thanks for the review I will be on the majesty for my first rcl cruise on 5-15 after doing my first on Carnival and can't wait.

Thank you for the thorough review. We'll be on this ship for the first time in May. Your insights are very helpful.

Thanks for the input on the Oasis. My wife said she had more fun on Carnival. I'd like to give RCI another chance, as my first Carnival I was so drugged up on Bonine, I didn't enjoy it like the next ones. The ship had 2600ish passengers. It never really felt crowded at all, other than the lines for tenders and disembarking. I didn't think about the fact that on the larger ships with more to offer the crowds will be more dispersed. I just imagine a huge line for those 10 story slides!

A couple things I forgot...

One of the things said was on Carnival, the cast of the shows came out and mingled after their last show of the voyage. My youngest loved that...but that didn't happen here.

In the MDR, I was thankful that the dancing was kept to a minimum. One night they did a conga line with all the staff and the next night they brought out the cooks to give them thanks. It was a nice recognition without being annoying. For some reason I don't like that - I think part of it is the first trip we went on, one of the staff just had this look of "please kill me" on her face the whole time during that. Also, the napkin waiving disturbs me for some reason. I think it makes me think of Jerry Springer or something. But those are my hangups :)

During the formal night, they had a parade of flags, which was how they recognized the international nature of the crew which was pretty nice. They also gave stats as to where the passengers were from. The second in command of the cruise activities (Moe) recognized any veterans who were at the Quest show which was a nice touch.

The pictures were overpriced (to me I think $22 for an 8x10 and $14 for a 5x8). But my wife bought some anyway. I'd love to see one of them go to an option where you can purchase them after the fact, but that removes that artificial scarcity which creates the impulse buy. But the photographers did a good job and there were some great pictures.

The Schooner lounge was a nice bar. Trivia there, and at times during the day a guy named Pedro playing guitar, who was amazing. Later in the night they had a guy playing piano. He was pretty good, but there was a lot of backing track he was playing along with. Both of them had a good variety of music.

Disembarking - the sad day. We decided to self disembark. I prefer it to waiting around forever and then hunting for luggage. We got up early, packed and had breakfast. Some went to the MDR, some to Windjammer. Based on Carnival, I was expecting a lite breakfast with old pastries and such, but nope - they had the full buffet out. We went down to get our luggage. This whole time was mostly taking the stairs because people were trying to get down to deck 4 with their luggage. We brought out luggage up, got in the snaking line which as it was later in the self-disembark went quick. We probably waited in a the moving line for 20 minutes. It was a leisurely walk through the terminal and to customs which was a painless process. Then it was right outside and there was the parking deck. This port has been the easiest to get in and out of. Very well designed.

As for a few tips I would like to know for my first time on Majesty:

• Press the button on both sides of the elevator bays - they are not linked
  
• Deck 7 is the lowest deck with outside access, and it circles the ship. Great for getting some air, watching things. Deck 11 and 12 also have good vantage points for leaving, arriving, etc...but no cover there
  
• Tips are automatically added to drink orders - forgot this at first. Doesn't mean you can't tip extra, which they seem to prefer cash.
  
• The Centrum (center where lots of things happen) is easier to get to via the stairs. Use the elevators for when you're going from 2 to 11.
  
• You can bring your own bottle of wine to dinner, and they will open it for you without a fee (unlike Carnival)
  
• At the Windjammer, there is a front and rear buffet, the rear one is usually less crowded, and there are seats back there. Also, don't be afraid to go up to level 12 inside Windjammer. More seats up there usually forgotten as well.
  
• Kids under 18 wanting to do the rock climbing wall need a parental consent form signed. (and socks)
  

I hope you all have a good time. It's a nice ship with a nice crew.

Thank you for all the info! We are sailing on Majesty for our 1st ever cruise later this month. Very helpful review.

I have been on this ship back when the itinerary was Nassau, Coco Cay and Key West. I enjoyed it very much, but totally agree with you on some points. I think I remember having minimal towel animals as well and the staff just seemed to "be there" compared to Carnival's always smiling and helpful employees.

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I have been on this ship back when the itinerary was Nassau, Coco Cay and Key West. I enjoyed it very much, but totally agree with you on some points. I think I remember having minimal towel animals as well and the staff just seemed to "be there" compared to Carnival's always smiling and helpful employees.

 

 

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This crew sees new passengers every 3 or 4 days, On the larger ships with 5-7 day cruise I have always thought the crew tried to learn who you are. No problems with Majesty crew though. Been on her 4 times.

As my signature says, this was my forth cruise, and my first one not on Carnival. In other words, expect compare and contrast with those experiences. Also, this cruise was with my daughters girl scout troop - 4 seniors, one junior, one freshman. They have known each other since kindergarten (or longer) and grown up together, 4 of them living on the same street (two are my girls). We had 5 adults - myself, my wife, our troop leader and two other moms. So this trip was not your typical family vacation - and for those doing the math at home, yes - it was myself and 10 women. Hired muscle.

 

The Trip Down

We'll keep this short, but we left Atlanta the day before the cruise for a Budget Inn in Cocoa, Florida. The drive down was fine (especially as I had all adults and luggage in my car). The Budget Inn was cost-effective. It was mostly clean, however our room had a towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door that housekeeping must have missed. There was a stray cat hanging out near our room. Very sweet - wish we could have taken it home. Didn't sleep well due to there only being a sheet on the bed and was cold. But we made it through the night. There was an IHOP using the same parking lot, so make for an easy breakfast with great service.

 

The Port and Boarding

It was a very short trip (17 miles) to the cruise port. There was no traffic getting there, and the layout of the port worked well - we saw where our ship was supposed to be one the signs, pulled in right into the parking deck. Compared to the nightmare that was Miami (drop-off and pickup traffic combined, even before you could get to the parking deck) this was very smooth. Found a spot, went down one level and the porters were there to take our bags, and then straight into the terminal.

 

In hindsight, what we should have done from this point on, was do better to stay together as a group, letting security, RCI etc know. Travel documents were with the parents (three kids were under 18) and one girl did not have a parent with her (thankfully she was over 18). But we made it through. Security was a breeze - no questions, no taking stuff out of bags or anything. Some of the group got ushered ahead of us so they were in the main line. Our troop leader had traveled RCI before and was a gold member, so we went to a quicker line. However at this point people in the same staterooms were in two parts of the line, one person had not done the online checkin, and the poor people at RCI had papers being handed to them left and right, at one point two people working on the same stateroom. It took about 15-20 minutes to check in and the customer service was great...just an odd situation.

 

At this point they were just calling the higher-end cruisers (Diamond level in Carnival parlance), so we had a very short wait in the terminal. We bought some lanyards, hit the restroom and before we knew it we were heading on board. The obligatory picture stop, and then on we go. I'd say it was probably 10:45/11am when we got on board. We had to change the SetSail cards around because the booking did not match the actual room assignments, but they couldn't do that until after we sailed.

 

We went up to the pool deck, and the girls, who were already in their bathing suits underneath, began their fun, grabbed lunch, and waited til 1 when we could get in the rooms.

 

The Room

We were in 2013,2514,2515. I had read that comparatively, the rooms on RCI were smaller than Carnival. That was not a lie. We had three people in our room, so one of the pullman beds was down. Good thing my wife and I have known our troop leader for 13 years! I think the last room we had on the Carnival Splendor was setup so well it seemed huge compared to this. But with the luggage stowed under the beds, and the pullman up during the day, it was easily workable. There was very little drawer space to unpack in, so I lived out of my suitcase. Also, the safe seemed very small. There were two plugs in the whole room, but the location worked fine for my CPAP. Phone charging was the other concern, but I always travel with a small extension cord with my CPAP and that helped with that.

 

 

 

Muster

This was interesting. In my vast wealth (aka three Carnival cruises) they always had you go to your stateroom for the muster drill. In this case, about 15-20 minutes before the drill, people started showing up at stairs to direct you to your muster station, so if you went out there right away you'd be standing there a while. We had an issue where our girls were told they had to be with a buddy and not to separate. However all but one of them were at station 2, the other one being at station 1 (both forward on deck 7, one on port, one on starboard) We were waiting for them at the stairwell on 7, where it would have been easy to get to either station. The problem was they were being told they had to walk down the outside of deck 7 to their station, but they wouldn't let the one for station 1 walk with the three for station 2. In other words, they were separating them. I know they have a job to do, but there was still a lot of time before the actual muster time and if they had just let them walk down the center of the ship it would have been easier. I talked to the person by the stairs and she told me what to tell them to tell to another crew member (while trying to get me to go to my station). Finally someone by where ever they were understood the situation and let the station 1 person walk down the port side with the rest so we could collect her. For as disorganized as the rest of this drill was, it was odd they were sticklers about that detail.

 

Also, right before the start of this we heard a code Alpha Alpha Alpha (medical emergency). After muster, when we went back inside, paramedics were taking a ambulance stretcher up the elevator. Never heard anymore but hopefully all was well

 

Sail Away

I've sailed out of Charleston (a 6 mile harbor cruise), Jacksonville (13 mile river cruise), and Miami (a cool turnaround by downtown and a 4 mile trip out the channel) and then Port Canaveral was a push away and 1.5 miles and you're in the ocean. Seemed a little bland compared to the others, but at least we left on time!

 

At this point I'll stop trying to a do an event-by-even narrative and just put everything into broad categories

 

Ports of Call

Nassau

We were at Nassau from 8am until Midnight. I made it a point to get up for the sunrise and docking. Love the turn around in the harbor. We were on the first pier which meant easy on/off, which was nice after being dragged all over all day.

This is my third time going to Nassau. I won't cry if I never get there again. We took the girls to the Queens Staircase, Fort Fincastle, the Pirate Museum and Bay Street. The goal was to go to Fort Charlotte, but they didn't want to make that walk. These 6 girls have slept on aircraft carriers, gone caving, etc...not typical girly girls...but dang if they didn't know every shop on Bay Street where they could get a free pendant or something. It took us quite a while to get to the Pirate Museum because of all the stops. But they had fun. The Staircase is beautiful, though no one stopped to listen to any of the history. The Fort is okay...small, but a great view. The merchants outside were very nice to the girls. The Pirate Museum seemed pretty cheesy - had some interesting facts, but other than a small mockup of a pirate town, it was a few dioramas, narration on a loop and a gift shop. The straw market is annoying as ever. I can't stand that place...but it was hilarious listening to some of the girls think they were getting a deal because something was usually $20 but today only it is $7. As my daughter said "Hah...that means it's always $7 and you're still overpaying."

 

My wife and I and two of the girls had lunch at Sharkeez. Last time I was in Nassau we ate there and loved it. I wasn't as impressed this time around - some of the items on the menu that were awesome were gone. I did find a very tasty Jerk Burger which I loved, but the menu seemed more Americanized than I remember it. Also, an oddity - the drink I got was a 45oz fun bowl. It was actually $10 more than the 64oz drink. Weird pricing. My bad for not asking but I assumed that the smaller one would be cheaper than the 64oz one which I had asked the price on. Buyer beware! Also, my wife's conch fritters didn't come out. They guy that brought the food out didn't have it on his ticket...but we forget to check to see if they were on the bill.

 

The Carnival Sunshine was in port and left around 5. I lost track of time by the pool and didn't get to watch for dock runners. We set sail around 11:30 and headed for Coco Cay

 

Coco Cay

We we're trying to be the first on the island, so we at in the MDR and then made our way to the tenders. Other than some disorganization on our part for the rallying point, getting over there wasn't bad. The line for the tenders were pretty bad earlier in the morning, but was moving quickly at 10 by the time we got in it. The tender ride was quick and easy. The island itself is interesting. It's not a huge sandy beach like Half-Moon Cay is, but a series of lagoons with rocks at the end for breakers. Seating was plentiful. The water was a little cool for my liking but you got used to it quickly. Lots of crabs on the rocks and fish swimming around. We didn't do any of the activities, but there was snorkeling, and probably others. There is an aqua park, which has inflatables in the water to climb and bounce on. We got over there to find they were an extra charge (something like $30 for 50 minutes) and you had to wear a life jacket to go in that area. That was disappointing, but I guess it's a way of keeping 2,500 people from being on them at once. I liked the layout of Coco Cay compared to Half-moon. Everything was right there off the beach - food, bathrooms, drinks, and even a "straw market". I wouldn't mind going back and doing the snorkeling, but we had too many people to keep an eye on this time around. The tender back was an easy process. They x-ray the bags on the island, so it doesn't delay getting off the tender and onto the ship.

 

The Food

So to jump around here. I did breakfast and lunch at the Windjammer mostly. One breakfast was in the MDR and dinner was always in the MDR. The first day I grabbed a burger which was very bland. But after that one meal everything got better. I'm not a seafood person, so had none of that, but some of the highlights

Breakfast

Eggs, omelettes, bacon and sausage, biscuits and sausage gravy, pancakes, hash rounds, pineapple - I liked breakfast. The sausage links looked weird, but tasted okay. The biscuits had a bit of a sweeter taste to them but were good. The omelettes were thin and they didn't put much in them, but when you ordered one, they gave you a number and told you to come back in 7 minutes, which kept it all moving and less crowding. The breakfast in the MDR, I had the french toast. It was amazing, thick and with some cinnamon and sugar on it. They also had a small buffet in the MDR, with fruit, bacon and breads.

 

Lunch

As mentioned above, I wasn't that impressed with the burger, but I doctored it up enough. There were a couple of second lunches during the week where I picked and chose. It seemed they did a taco bar which was pretty good. The few things I'd grab just as a snack seemed good. The lunch on Coco Cay was very good. Basically a BBQ, complete with a suckling pig where your cut came fresh off of it. Ribs were good. BBQ chicken was okay. Better than what I remember from Half-moon cay.

 

Dinner

Since we had the late dinner, one night I did sneak a dinner snack from the Windjammer. They had a couscous salad which was amazing. They had some sort of chicken wing which I'm not sure if they were going for buffalo or BBQ - not that good. They had a jerk chicken wing which was incredible. If you've ever had the ones at Pollo Tropical it was like that but 10 times better with more spice. The curried chicken was a bit bland. Didn't have much there but I shall be ever hunting for something as good as those jerk wings were.

 

The MDR - again, not a seafood person which hampered me. I'm didn't take pictures of the menu so I don't remember exactly what all I had so am going from memory here

- Caesar Salad, Angus Sliders, Creme Brulee

- Roasted Duck (and Caesar salad), something obviously unremembered

- French Onion Soup, Lamb, Apple Struedel and strawberry something (like a mousse/sorbet)

- Rice and Mushroom balls, Caprese Salad, Lasanga, and something for dessert

The first night, nothing really appealed to me, hence the sliders. Should have gone with the NY Strip. The Caesar salad was good, everyone loved it. The duck was okay. French Onion Soup was very good, the lamb was good and the Apple Struedel was dry and flavorless (saw it in Windjammer the next day). The straweberry dessert was great. My daughter had it and I decided to get one as well. The rice and portabello mushroom balls were tasteless, though the cream cheese stuffed pimento that came with it made up for that. The Caprese was good and the Lasagna was amazing.

 

All in all, I wasn't excited that much about the choices on the menu, but the quality of the food was good. There was a lot of trading of food items around the table, and it was hit or miss as to if someone liked something or not. Most of the adults were quite pleased.

 

Drinks

I did not get any of the unlimited packages - as much as a coke zero would have been nice, I can live on water, tea and lemonade....and whatever that great Strawberry Kiwi drink was. The bar drinks - the menu seemed kinda sparse, and the drinks of the day were underwhelming. The frozen drinks are interesting - I guess because they make virgin ones as well, the rum is poured over top of the frozen drink. They would walk around the theater and have premade drinks and just added rum as needed. The pineapple rita was nasty. Wish I could have found some more options for the frozen chocolatey type drinks, basically a milkshake with booze, but never did find one. Oh well...

 

Service

Our room steward was nice. Didn't see much of her, but the room was clean. We only had a towel animal one night - I don't know if that is normal or not, but my wife said she saw animals in other rooms as we walked by.

 

The MDR service was top notch - much better than the last cruise - I don't think my water glass was ever empty, which is a help after being in the sun all day.

 

Other service around the ship - minimal interaction my self, but usually very good. It took 20 minutes for the guy to come back with my Guinness one time, but that's about as bad as it got. We had to move people around rooms, and once we got underway, that was handled quickly as was some juggling of on board credits.

 

Ship Entertainment, activities, etc

Since half the girls were over 18, they did not do the teen club, so nothing to say about that.

Pool

The pool was not as packed as other ships I've been on. It may have been the temperature of the ocean water filling it. The four hot tubs were constantly filled with kids, so I stayed out of them.

Movies

They had some good recent movies, Rogue One, Lala Land, Arrival, and others. I saw parts of this and that because of other events getting in the way. The layout of the deck and screen location is odd - you have some sun covers above the hot tubs that block a lot of the screen from parts of deck 11. It seemed finding a good viewing location without obstruction was hard to do. But I wasn't there to watch movies so it didn't bother me much.

Trivia

We love doing this. We did a few of them - music, sports and general knowledge. It was fun - the hosts did a good job, kept it funny. The sports was all over the world of sports (thankfully), so if you're expecting NFL, MLB and NASCAR you're in for a surprise.

Compass

The compass is the daily activity guide. It sucked. Don't know what the deal was, but times were wrong for events on there, descriptions were lacking, and some events just didn't seem to happen. Whoever puts that together needs to do a better job making sure it's correct. You have people deciding what to do based on that paper.

Bands

They had a lounge band (bass, drums, keys, vocals) which were good. There was also a brass band (bass,horns, drums) who I heard a bit of - not my thing but they sounded good. And finally there was a band playing reggae/Caribbean music - also very good. Would have preferred a band which can do a bit more variety. Each one was locked into a certain style which got old very fast. Other than the reggae band, which played above the pool area as well, they played in the Centrum on a landing, which was a horrible place. There was no good viewing area to watch them. No place where you could grab a chair and watch. So mostly it looked as if they were playing just to play.

Shows

I only went to one of the production shows. It was "Boogie Madness" and had a bunch of 70s music. They sounded good, as did the band providing the music, but it was boring. I fell asleep for a bit. Nothing really major to it. However our girls loved it - three of them now have cruise stage performer as their goal in life.

 

They had a comedian which was great. He did a very good job of working through his routine but also bringing the audience into the show...usually as a source of more jokes. Only saw his second show, but the girls were talking about it all week.

 

They had a guy who did juggling and a unicycle act. Also very funny and worth it.

 

They had a high school band on the cruise who did a performance at 10am on the sea-day. While it was just filler material and I may have been one of the few in the audience not a parent of one of the kids on stage, their 100 years of Broadway chorus/band performance was great.

 

The Love an Marriage show - the cruise director Marc handled this one. He had a perfect ability to whatever was thrown at him and work with it. My daughter actually fell over in her chair laughing at one point.

 

The Quest gameshow - not as raunchy as it was on Carnival - but still fun.

 

Cruise Director

As mentioned above, the CD had a knack. I didn't see that much of him, other than at shows, but I also didn't go to the dance parties. When I did see him, he was always happy, always interacting and just seemed to be a generally nice guy.

 

The Ship

This ship is old - 25 years or so - but it didn't feel that way. It was clean, looked in good condition and the layout worked okay. Having a second set of elevators that hit all the decks would have helped. Much of any free area inside was taken up with this or that (next Cruise desk, internet access, etc) which took away from places to just sit for a moment.

 

Internet

I had the internet package for work, just in case. Facebook, e-mail and WhatsApp worked great. Instagram, being more photo based was slower. Others complained about it, but for where we were, it worked amazingly well.

 

Motion

I think I felt the motion a little more on this ship than any others, but it wasn't bad at all. I took my ginger pills and did not feel sick at all (and I get bad motion sickness). The worst location was theater. It was on the aft and you felt more motion, probably from the engines, than anywhere else.

 

Casino

Walked through there once or twice - wasn't as smoky as expected, but it did reek of smokers past. Didn't spend a dime in there - $10 min bet for BJ (except one day it was $3 for a bit).

 

OVERALL (and comparison to Carnival)

I enjoyed the cruise. I would like to try RCI again, but on a newer and slightly larger ship. I do like the smaller ships because it is less of a zoo, but would like to see what they do with a newer ship. The passengers on this cruise seemed a step above what is on Carnival. People seemed more pleasant to each other, more restrained and less people-of-walmart. There was just an overall feeling on the ship than on the last couple voyages. Could be timing, pricing, luck of the draw or anything...but it makes me want to do another RCI.

 

What I feel Carnival does better

The staff on carnival seemed to go out of the their way to learn your names (dining and stewards). It is amazing how much they remember about you. And they try more to interact with you. It could have just been our steward, but that was a notable difference.

The quest show on carnival was a lot more fun, raunchy, hilarious, executed better, etc.

The shows on carnival were better, though RCI used a live band not canned music.

The bands were better on Carnival.

Carnival, where you have two elevator banks across from each other, pressing a call button works for both banks, which helps speed things up.

 

What I really liked about RCI

RCI seems to have taken a look at what they do and found ways to do it better. The flow of the ship mostly seemed better. Simple things like using your Seapass card to check out a towel - Carnival they write it down, here they scan the towel in an out. The soda setup for the kids - Carnival they find a can an open it. Here you have a special cup which works with Coke freestyle machines. Everything for the most part just seemed to flow better, run smoother, etc on the RCI. Like the omelette example above, they look at where they could make things better and do so. Carnival seems to be more about getting them on board and then letting them have at it.

 

In the end, I would like to go on a Radiance class (newer) or smaller Voyager class to see how I like those. I just can't see how the Oasis class would work...too many people at for some of the choke points - theaters, pools, ports, tenders. I guess they scale everything up, just seems like too many people for me.

 

Sorry this was so long! If you have any specific questions about this cruise or "hey...I'm used to carnival" questions, be glad to do my best.

DH and I have sailed on Majesty plenty of times, We never had Marc Walker as our CD, but have heard he plans good activities on board. When you mention the Cruise Compass, the CD is responsible for it -- and it is all printed on board. Did you by any chance point out to the staff (either Marc himself or at Guest Services) especially if 'times were wrong' because people do plan their day using the cruise compass. We have sailed with Mo (the Activity Manager) and he is very good. There is more to do on the larger ships, especially when you go to the Voyager or Freedom class that have a Royal Promenade (but they also tend to be like 'shopping malls'), where they have a great venue for parades. Radiance class ships are different than Majesty, although not necessarily very different because they only have a Centrum from which to do many of their activities.

Food is very subjective, no matter what ship or cruise line.

Comparing ships is fine....all lines give cruisers different things and experiences....try another Royal ships, since it does seem that you had an overall good time.