Majesty of the Seas 17 October 2016 Review

I don't have pictures on this computer yet, but here's my review from our cruise this past week on the Majesty!

We chose this cruise to take our daughter (8 years old) on her first cruise. We wanted a relatively short one that left from Orlando and over her fall break. This was my eight cruise and my husband's fourth. We arrived at the port at 10:30 am and security and check in were a breeze. We were through it within 5 minutes and on the ship at about 10:50. We made our way to the Windjammer for lunch, and there was no wait. Spent the next few hours at the pool and hot tubs.

Room: Our room was ready right at 1:00 and our luggage was waiting in the hall. Our room steward, Jean, was great and always able to get us what we needed. We had brought two bottles of wine with us, but forgot a corkscrew, and he had one readily available on his cart for us to use. We are platinum C & A members and he also brought our robes on the first night, which we weren't expecting since we had never received them before :-). We had an oceanview on deck 3. We had a pullman bed for our daughter. It was pretty tight in the room for 3 people, but we were really only ever in there to sleep or get dressed, so no big deal.

Dining: When my husband I cruise, we generally like to eat the main seating in the dining room at a table for 2. We are introverts and prefer not to be forced to talk to strangers. However, our daughter is a social butterfly, so we decided to just go with it and not request a special table. Royal did a great job of pairing our family up with another family of three who had an 8 year old daughter. They were also from the same general area of the country. The girls got along great and we had a nice time at dinner each night. Our waiters were Rommel and Jaywanna, and they were also great. They remembered our names and our preferences and service was generally good. The only issue was the second evening the time between appetizers and entrees was especially long. Rommel mentioned there was a backup in the kitchen and apologized several times. The food was pretty good, the best thing I had was the striploin on the first evening. It was very tasty! My husband was disappointed there wasn't free lobster on the formal night, but Rommel mentioned that is only on 7 night cruises.

Pools: We spent a good deal of time a the pool on this cruise. We didn't get off the ship at all on the day at Nassau and we also had a sea day. Both of those days was spent on the pool deck. Our daughter loved the new kid splash area, however, it was only open when they had someone from Adventure Ocean there to stand in the area and direct the kids on the slide. If there wasn't a staff member, it was closed. She's a great swimmer, so she was able to go in the other pools no problem when that area was closed. There are 4 hot tubs, and they were nice and warm and open in the evening too. There are some newer deck chairs on the pool deck that are mesh instead of the old style slatted kind, and they were more comfortable. On the sea day, we went to the pool pretty early, so had no trouble finding a spot, but we did notice people later in the day looking for chairs and not being able to find one that didn't already have someone's stuff on it. I didn't notice any staff removing people's things from chairs if they hadn't been to them in 30 minutes.

Adventure Ocean: We've never had to worry about Adventure Ocean before since we've never taken a kid on a cruise before. However, we knew enough to get her signed up on the first day in case she wanted to use it later. We signed her up about 3:00 on the first day. She went back the second and third night for about an hour each time. She had a lot of fun, but she preferred going to the shows and playing in the pool and making friends there.

Ship: The ship is one of the older ones, and we knew that going in so our expectations were not inflated. There were definately areas of rust and such, but nothing that I really cared about and didn't affect our vacation one iota. There was some smells in the hallway on the floor of our room sometimes that smelled of sewage, but nothing in our room itself. The seas were rockier than normal the first two evenings and it was very noticeable. Not enough to make any of us sick, but if you were first time cruiser you might have been a little worried.

Staff: Everyone we met, staff wise, was very nice and accomodating and did things to make our vacation better. We had one bar server not charge us for a frozen drink for our daughter the first day. We bought some pictures after formal night and my daughter came with me to pay and mentioned she liked the nice photo book they have for sale for $20. The lady who rang us up said, "For her, no charge" and gave us the photo book for free. It was little touches like that that made the trip special.

Medical: We actually had to visit the medical area on this trip. Our daughter slipped on the pool steps and banged her leg up. Not enough to have to see a doctor, but enough where she needed an ice pack. We went down to the medical facility at about 3:55. They didn't open until 4:00. Right at 4:00, someone opened the door. The facility looked nice, but we didn't see a whole lot since we just needed an ice pack. Turns out, they don't have ice packs. They gave us some plastic bags and told us to have our steward give us ice. Worked fine. However, we did notice they had free seasickness medicine in a box outside of the medical facility with a note they also provide them at guest services. Never knew that!

Entertainment: The singers and dancers were very good on this cruise. Probably some of the best singers we've seen. The headliner was en Elton John impersonator and his show was really good! We went to all of the shows and really enjoyed them.

Shore excursions: The only thing we did was rent the sun shade and lounger on Coco Cay. I burn easily, so it was nice to have the lounger and shade and it was on the quieter side of the island. We were the second ship to go to Coco Cay since the hurricane and the water looked gorgeous. There was some evidence of the hurricane on the island, but overall it looked great. It became windier as the day went on and the tender we took back to the ship at about 1:30 was pretty rocky, but nothing terrible. I believe they stopped the tender service early coming back from the island because it was getting so windy.

Debarkation: We decided to walk off the ship with our luggage, and this is the first time we've done this. Apparently, everyone on this cruise had the same idea. The line snaked from deck four up the stairs all the way to deck 6, I think. Once the line started moving, it went pretty fast and we were off the ship and through customs within 20 minutes of when we got in line.

Overall: We had a great time and would sail this ship again. My first cruise 20+ years ago was on the Empress, so I knew what to expect. Our daughter loved it and can't wait to go on another cruise. I would highly reccomend this trip to anyone, as long as you know what to expect.

Thanks for the review. We are on the MOS November 4 for a quick 3 day get away with our son who is visiting us from Michigan. We are from The Villages in Florida so it is only about a 2 hour drive to the port.

Medical: We actually had to visit the medical area on this trip. Our daughter slipped on the pool steps and banged her leg up.

My wife Gina and I were on the same cruise with you, I see we observe similar things. That pool deck has been a problem for a lot of people. If I remember right they pulled up the old carpet back around 2008 and put in that very slippery surface. I had a lady fall onto my chair at the pool Thursday. Fortunately she was a nice lady to meet by accident.

Here is my review of the same cruise.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2416209

Thanks for the review. We are on the MOS November 4 for a quick 3 day get away with our son who is visiting us from Michigan. We are from The Villages in Florida so it is only about a 2 hour drive to the port.

My parents live in The Villages and we visited with them for a few days before the cruise and left our 3 year old with them while we were on the cruise. They dropped us off and picked us up, was very quick!

My wife Gina and I were on the same cruise with you, I see we observe similar things. That pool deck has been a problem for a lot of people. If I remember right they pulled up the old carpet back around 2008 and put in that very slippery surface. I had a lady fall onto my chair at the pool Thursday. Fortunately she was a nice lady to meet by accident.

 

Here is my review of the same cruise.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2416209

I saw your review! We saw you on the Love & Marriage show too!

My daughter fell a few times, but that's not unusual for her, but she really did hurt herself on the one fall.

This photo shows that pool deck surface. It can be slippery. As a person with spinal fusion surgery I have to be extra careful.