Majesty Review 9/17-9/20/2004

My girlfriend and I booked this quick weekend getaway to give her a taste of cruising for the first time. We faced a lot of weather obstacles - Hurricane Frances had already washed away the beaches at Coco Cay, so we already knew that was out of the question. Hurricane Ivan was heading up the appalachians threatening our morning flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. Finally, Tropical Storm Jeanne was flooding parts of the Carribean and heading for the Bahamas, perhaps putting a damper on our scheduled port call in Nassau. It was in this environment that we made our way towards Miami for the magical mystrery cruise.

Luckily, Ivan's flooding rains held off long enough to let us out of Baltimore early on Friday. We landed in Fort Lauderdale 10 minutes early and took the Tri-County shared ride service to the port ($15pp). That worked out great. However, next time I will bite the bullet and take an extra vacation day before the cruise just to avoid sweating it out on embarkation day.

On to the cruise itself:

Embarkation: There was hardly anyone at the cruise ship terminal when we arrived. Check-in was a breeze. We were at the pier by 12:30 and in our cabin by 12:45, much earlier than I had expected.

Food: It seemed as if few moments passed where at least one of us was not eating. The Windjammer food was very good. Not 5-star quality, but better than what you would typically find in an all-you-can-eat buffet. A wide variety of foods, both healthy and unhealthy were available. Dining room menus were also varied. Again I would rate the food as "very good." Better than your average chain restaurant but not exactly gourmet. The service in the dining room was efficient if not outstanding, although breakfast on debarkation day was chaos. We ordered room service on formal night after picking up a menu from the dining room. The service was prompt considering the heavy demands placed on the room service crew that night. The tenderloin was as good as any steak I have ever had, and my girlfriend enjoyed the roasted duck, all in the comfort of our cabin while we recovered from a long day in Nassau. As I saw the crowd gathering for the midnight buffet poolside I was getting worried that the line would be enormous, but they did a great job keeping the flow going. The ice carving artist drew a crowd just as the buffet opened, so that kept the crowd spread around the deck. We stuffed ourselves silly. It was actually rather pathetic on our part. :o

Bars/clubs: While the Majesty is no longer one of the largest ships at sea, the selection of lounges should be enough for most folks. The one disappointment was the Mast Sports Bar, where I tried to watch some Sunday NFL football. The sun glare on the big screen TV made it impossible to watch the game in the "sports bar." Luckily the indoor Schooner Bar was also showing the game, but it was tough finding two seats together within view of a TV. As it turned out, the game was also available on the in-cabin TV. Sports fans take note: Only one game was available on the ship at any given time. They showed the Rams/Falcons game at 1pm, followed by the Bills/Raiders game which was joined in progress. They have the raw satellite feed, so you get to hear the announcers chat during breaks. The Sunday Night game was also available with commentary in English and graphics in Spanish. Other than that, the bars were fun and offered something for every type of partygoer from top-40 dancing and karaoke to the sophisticated champagne and martini bar where we spotted the Captain enjoying a glass of wine. We found there was plenty to do in three nights.

Cabin: Yes, the cabins on the Majesty are notoriously small. Then again, our 120 square foot cabin was perfectly cozy for the two of us. It got a bit awkward trying to eat our room service dinner and finding a place for all the plates and glasses. And don't drop the soap in the shower, because you WILL bump your head on the wall trying to pick it up. A few more days of eating and I would need to rub butter all over myself just to squeeze into the shower. I would not recommend our stateroom for more than two people or for the horizontally challenged, but for two average sized Americans on a 3-night cruise it was fine. The walls are quite thin and we could hear some noise from the next room but it was not a major problem and we did not lose any sleep from that. Besides, we made some noise of our own :p . I would have liked a better selection of TV channels and sporting events. It was tough keeping up with the NFL and MLB on their international channel selection, but that's a relatively trivial matter. Having US news channels and/or the Weather Channel would also have been a big help. I was left unaware of the flooding which was taking place back in Harrisburg that made our trip home an adventure. Douglas, our stateroom attendant did a great job keeping our ice bucket full, our Coke restocked and our sheets and towels clean.

Port and Shore Excursions: Because of Frances two weeks earlier, our only stop was Nassau, which we did one day earlier and stayed six hours longer than the original itinerary. We had pre-booked the Historic Harbor Cruise/ Discover Atlantis tour online, but with the loss of our Coco Cay day we wanted to scrap that. My girlfriend had never been snorkeling and I was determined to make that happen for her. Valerie at the excursions desk was extremely helpful. She not only cancelled our Atlantis excursion for us, but she also recommended an excursion that would allow my girlfriend to snorkel and me to accompany her without snorkeling. My girlfriend booked The Blackbeard's Cay Stingray Adventure and I signed up for the Blackbeard's Cay Beach Break. We travelled together to Blackbeard's Cay, she got to snorkel and I got to relax at the beach while watching her pet and feed stingrays. It was perfect.

In place of our organized excursion, we did Atlantis on our own. We cabbed it to the resort ($4pp) and paid the $29 admission for the Dig and Marine Exhibits. The price was a bit steep, but it was definitely worth seeing once.

Other than Atlantis and Blackbeard's Cay, Nassau was less than impressive as a port of call. I had read many reviews about the pushy vendors but just figured that these people were oversensitive. After all, I'm originally from NYC. I'm used to pushy people! Let me tell you, NYC is a walk in the park compared to Nassau. We could not walk ten feet without someone trying to get us into a cab, braid my girlfriend's hair, sing us a song or sell us beads. I gave one guy three bucks just to get him off my back after he literally put a bracelet on my girlfriend's wrist without even asking. I guarantee you that we would have spent a lot more money in Nassau if the pushy vendors had not disturbed us so much. We did all our shopping on the ship.

Entertainment: The various lounges had a range of performers. We were not especailly impressed with any of them. The comedy show on the last night, however, was absolutely hilarious! Hank McGauley had some very funny takes on cruise ship life. We skipped the big musical productions, so we can't say anything about them. The movie theater was a nice touch even though the "first run" movies are actually just recently released DVDs. Nevertheless I did get to see Shrek 2, which I missed in its big-screen run. The poolside parties were fun and well-organized.

Debarkation: S-L-O-W, but we had only carry-on luggage. We were told that we could get off as early as 7:45, but decided to "sleep in" until 7:30 and have breakfast in the dining room. After all, we really didn't have to be anywhere. Dining room breakfast on debarkation day was chaotic. Toast and coffee were hard to come by and omelets were on the menu but we were discouraged from ordering them. It was the only bad service we had the entire weekend. After that we just kept an eye on the debarkation line and got off the ship when the line got short enough, which was around 9:30. We hopped a cab to the Dollar Rent-a-Car in Miami Beach and spent the day sightseeing and visiting local relatives before returning to FLL and flying back to Baltimore. We returned to flood-ravaged Harrisburg around 11:30pm.

Overall: We paid Hurricane Season prices and got excellent value. Good food, good service, entertainment and more. It was an excellent quick getaway for a couple without a lot of vacation days or money to burn. A great way to introduce cruising to someone who has never done it before. No major complaints. Would recommend it to new cruisers, young couples and those looking for fun with limited time and resources, but not to experienced travelers who have "been there, done that" types. Ironically, the folks back home who were so worried about us actually got it much worse than we did. We plan to do a longer cruise next year, and Royal Carribean is very much on the short list.

Thanks for the review of the Majesty!! She's one of my most favorite ships and I love to read good reviews about her. We're leaving for our Majesty cruise on Thursday with a pre-night stay in Fort Lauderdale. :D

APagano,

Thanks for the great review! We sail on her November 8th on the four nighter and I had a few questions. First of all, what table games are available in the casino? ( i.e. blackjack,3 card poker,etc...) Second, did you see very many tuxes on formal night while you strolled around? ( as you ate in that night) Did she handle the seas well? And last, how would you rate the overall condition ( cleanliness, attractiveness) of the cabin and public areas?

In closing, in the last three years we have sailed Explorer, Navigator, and in June of this year , the Mariner. Let me just say do not give another thought on staying with Royal Caribbean. In my humble opinion, they give first class service at mid-level prices. This will be our first experience on a smaller and older vessel, so, we are a bit apprehensive while happy to be out there, nonetheless! Sorry to throw so many questions at you!

Thanks,

Mike

No problem, Mike. I'll do the best I can.

Casino: To be honest I did not spend much time in the casino as I am not much of a gambler. We played the quarter slots for kicks but I did not pay particular attention to the card games on board. I did, however, see bits and pieces of the casino video on TV and it looked like they had a nice variety of games. they definitely had blackjack and a couple of different poker games.

Formal night: We saw a wide variety of dress onboard on formal night. Most men wore suits, there was a smattering of tuxes, some men opted for the khaki pants and polo shirts, while guys like me stayed in shorts all night because we did not eat in the dining room. It is worth noting that our waiter Michael told us the night before that formal wear was not required and we shouldn't feel shy about coming to dinner in casual wear, but we opted for room service anyway. We were exhausted from running around Nassau and we just didn't feel like looking presentable that night.

Ship condition: I thought the ship was in great shape for an an older vessel. The cleaning crew was always hard at work. Our cabin was in good shape. Some hairline cracks around the sink drain, but I wasn't going to get my panties in a bunch about that. The seas were amazingly calm considering all the tropical madness in the Carribean. I noticed very little movement.

The only reason I'm considering going with a different line is that Carnival is the only one of the "big three" I haven't tried yet. Tentatively our plan is to book a cruise directly out of Baltimore, so it will really depend on what dates and itineraries are available. I would absolutely love to cruise with RCI again, but it would also be cool to see what Carnival is all about.

While I've sailed a dozen times with RCI (most recently the Explorer of the Seas last month), I always seem to be drawn to go back on the Majesty.

I sailed her years ago with my family, when she was doing 7 day itens. Went on her last Dec (solo) for a quick weekend - the ship is in great shape & I had a fantastic mini-vacation!

I'm going to book her yet again for ANOTHER weekend getaway for this Dec. This will be my 5th time onboard.

Going solo again, and hate paying the single supplement; but it's still worth every penny to be onboard this majestic vessel :D

Thanks for the great review! We're looking forward to our upcoming voyage on Majesty...

I too was on the Majesty this past weekend. I was going to post a review but there's nothing left to be said. That was the perfect review and my feelings about the ship were similar.

It was a great ship for it's age, we too had some cracks in the sink but...who cares?? ;) The only thing that dissapointed me was the midnight buffet...why? Because I slept right through it!! After walking around Nassau all morning, spending all afternoon on the beach and having second seating dinner, my bf and I decided to go back to our cabin and relax for a while before the midnight buffet. I think I fell asleep before I even sat down! :) Oh well, like I really needed to eat something else!!

The only other thing I could add is about the beaches and diving. My bf went on the Scuba trip through RCI, although we had been told to use a local instead. He's dove over 150 times and he said it was the best dive he's ever been on. There were tons of sharks to see without having to pay the extra $$ for a shark dive through a local vendor.

We went to Paradise Island in the afternoon. There was lots of beach errosion due to the hurricanes and if you had any type of physical limitations you would have had a hard time just reaching the beach. The water was beatiful and warm but the undertoe was extremely strong. I had to get out of the water because it was so strong I was having difficulty staying above water. The waves were huge, over my head and I was extremely close to the shore. So we went ahead and rented a jet ski so that we could enjoy the water a little more. There were a ton of people asking us to rent them so you can definitely talk them down with the price. But it was the highlight of my trip, so much fun!!

One of the funniest things over the whole weekend though was watching the football game!! Despite the fact that my Redskins game wasn't on (apparently that was a blessing in disguise) we were able to see the Falcons game. Listening to the broadcasters unedited was absolutely hillarious!! I honestly couldn't believe some of the things that were coming out of their mouths. It was also really cool to see all the work they actually do during commercials.

Thanks for the terrific review! One month and 3 days away....

Can any recent Majesty cruiser tell me what time the dinner seatings were? Thanks much!:)

We had the 9:00 pm (8:45) seating. I can't remember if the first seating was 6:00 or 6:30.

I would suggest that if you have kids go to the first seating. If you don't like kids definitely go for the second seating. Since we had the later seating there weren't any kids except for the cutest little girl who was always asleep in her chair before the first piece of bread was served.

Thanks so much Morristk! We are signed up for the first seating (there are 17 of us). I wasn't sure of the exact scheduled seatings, and how much time was between dinners. Trying to manage our on land time/getting together for meal time :)

morristk, we were also exhausted after our day in Nassau but we hung around the midnight buffet because they were serving drinks in hollowed-out pineapples. Funny thing about that - we had ordered room service breakfast that morning and my gf ordered the fruit plate. She noted that the fruits were nice and chunky except for the pineapple which was all mushy. Then she saw the pineapple drinks and it occurred to her that they just scooped all the meat from the pineapples and dumped it on the breakfast plates. I'm sure there are better examples of food recycling on ships, but that one was funny, at least to us.

There were so many times on the ship that I was absolutely full, but then I saw something that I just HAD to taste. One night after already having dinner and dessert in the dining room, I had a slice of pizza at the sports bar and out of the corner of my eye I spotted rice pudding with cerries in the windjammer, so I had a scoop of that too! Sometimes you eat just because you can.

cnmiranda, dinner seatings were at 6 and 8:30. We opted for the late seating, which worked out great. We never had to rush back from activities and no worries about being hungry (see above paragraph.)

Thanks so much APagano! The dinner time should work out perfect. We are hoping to have our vow renewal and then proceed to dinner afterwards.

Lol at your dining experiences! I am going to force myself to stay up for the midnight buffet this time, just because I can!

Just wondering... are there mini fridges in the rooms on Majesty?

No mini fridges, at least not im my category H oceanview stateroom. There were always cans of soda and bottled water in the room along with a bucket of ice. The room was too small for a fridge I guess. Our room didn't even have a safe, but we did not really have any valuables to speak of.

Gosh, I didn't even think that it wouldn't have a fridge. Surprise surprise.

I assume the cans of soda are like $2 each eh? "Help yourself!" :)

We were charged $4.03 each day for the sodas/water in our room. It didn't matter how many we drank or opened we were charged the same each day. Which I didn't really mind because it was so convienent and was probably cheaper than getting them anywhere else on the ship.

There were no mini-fridges and no safe in our room either. We were told we could take valuables to the pursers desk but we didn't have anything worth any value other than his wallet and my purse.

$4.03 per day... what's that about?

We had a mini fridge and a safe in our room but we were in a JS...

The posted charge was $1.50 per soda can and $3.00 for the bottled water. I don't recall seeing it on my final bill, but I was paying closer attention to the bigger numbers on that sheet.