Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Review of my trip on the Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas (LONG with pictures)

Ldyandrea

Recommended Posts

Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

Posted
Posted

The full review is posted over here on Livejournal, and has pictures and lots of details, but to sum up my highlights of good and bad on the Majesty of the Seas:

 

Good things

  • Super easy and fast embarkation at RCI terminal in Miami
  • Beautiful artwork all over the ship, and recent renovations don't make this ship look nearly as old as it is.
  • Smaller ship made it faster to get to various points in the ship, much easier to navigate around than the bigger ones.
  • Really cool and neat-o insulated soda cups when you purchase your soda sticker (prettier, more design options, and ability to close the opening on top)
  • Free soft serve ice cream and soda stations on the pool deck!
  • Awesome pools with gated off area in the shallow end for little ones, and sunken pool perimeter
  • Neat hottub overhead shades to keep you from frying as well as boiling
  • Cabin is small, but makes great use of space. Has wonderful storage spaces, closet, and larger than expected shower
  • RCI Reality TV channel showing ship building and rennovation is not to be missed!
  • Bedding was pretty comfy, and really nice!
  • RCI's Compass daily schedule was conveniently formatted for carrrying around
  • Windjammer Cafe buffet area nice and open, and was easy to find a place to sit, with the exception of the morning we got back to Miami.
  • Johnny Rockets was lots of fun, cool tabletop juke boxes, great service, and nice informal place to have an easy meal.
  • Compass Deli was quiet, had a nice variety of lunch foods, and a nice view.
  • Crown Lounge (?) was generally pretty quiet, had full drink service, and a lovely view for people watching night or day.
  • 24 hour room service with limited menu, and only a charge between midnight and 5am.
  • You could order a light breakfast to be delivered to your door in the mornings....no charge.
  • Toweldog!
  • Boleros had the comfyest lounge chairs on the ship, and was a great location for Bingo.
  • Dining room meals were certainly good, relatively comparable to quality of Princess.
  • They offered some neat coupons that could be used in various places around the ship (casino, bingo, etc.)
  • Offer laundering and pressing of clothing at relatively reasonable prices. Did a good job on the pressing from what I saw.
  • Mustering drill didn't require that you tow along your life jacket, and staff did what they could to make it a little less boring.
  • Overall, I found that the crew on this little ship seemed a very close-knit group, and appeared to really get along well. The bartenders, and activity crew members in particular all really engaged the passengers in conversation, and just seemed really the happiest and most effective crew I've ever seen on any cruise ship yet.

Bad Things:

 

  • Disembarkation at the Miami RCI terminal was congested, lengthy, and generally just AWFUL.
  • Pool deck chairs NEED to be replaced quite terribly, as they were old, difficult to get into and out of, and since they're made of vinyl you stick to them immediately. Yeesh.
  • No little tables for drinks or whatever were available on the pool deck at all, and chairs were WAY too close together for comfort.
  • Have to check towels in and out of a station on the pool deck, rather than just having them in your room where they are easy to get.
  • No balconies unless you're in a suite or jr. suite, but lots of OV cabins (I suppose this could be seen as a good or bad thing, depending on your preference)
  • Couldn't get into cabins until after 1pm.
  • Very tiny cabins in general, nice size for one, but two or more would be seriously close quarters.
  • Mustering took place out on deck in the sun, and seemed to take a very long time.
  • Their karaoke collection is severely limited and the system itself is positively ancient with corded mikes, etc.
  • No self-service laundry rooms or irons available
  • No Movies Under The Stars (If you've been on Princess, you'll understand)!
  • Casino slot machines mostly quite old, and still operate on coins rather than with printed tickets.
  • The weather was awful......okay, I'll admit that's not the cruise line's fault. ;)

So, in closing, I think that I really did enjoy my overall experience on Royal Caribbean for the first time. The good stuff far outweighed the not-so-good stuff, and I would have no compunction about sailing with them again. Not so bad for what is nearly a 20 year old ship!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Try one of the newer ships and a 7 day itinerary and many of your "bad things" will disappear. I've also heard that the movies under the stars on Princess can be loud and annoy people.

 

Yeah, none of the "bad things" (with perhaps the exception of the kerfuffle of disembarkation at the terminal) were intolerable, and I was overall very pleased with my experience.

 

As for the MUTS, I know there are some who don't care for it, but for me it's a big plus. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
newlu

newlu

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review, have been on Majesty 2 years ago, and going again in September, 3 women, early 40's, hope to have some nice weather, and some fun!! Did you stay up late at night? How was Boleros at night, or any other venue for some dancing?

Thanks

newlu

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SensFan11

SensFan11

Posted
Posted
Will be heading out on the Majesty later this year. Thanks for taking the time to provide this review. One question, you mentioned a soda station on the pool deck is it for those with a soda package? Is it staffed? Thanks.

 

The soda station is near the pool, and is specifically for those with a soda package. As mentioned above, everyone with a soda package gets one of those fancy cups...when you place one of those cups under one of the taps of the soda machine, it "beeps" to recognize your cup, then will dispense soda. Must have a microchip in the base.

 

Noel

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Puffinater

Puffinater

Posted
Posted
The soda station is near the pool, and is specifically for those with a soda package. As mentioned above, everyone with a soda package gets one of those fancy cups...when you place one of those cups under one of the taps of the soda machine, it "beeps" to recognize your cup, then will dispense soda. Must have a microchip in the base.

 

Noel

 

Thanks for the information.I don't think I have seen that before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
orimeep

orimeep

Posted
Posted

Thanks so much for the review - we leave on the Majesty in less than 3 weeks and have never cruised with RCI before, so it was a good reminder about a few things that are different from Carnival...

 

Regarding the towels, I am assuming that you don't have to keep the same towel for both days - you can take it back and switch out for a new, clean one? Got quite used to clean beach towels being delivered before port days on Carnival.

 

Also, thanks for the reminder that we can't get into our cabins til after 1pm, so I can pack my carry-on appropriately! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ldyandrea

Ldyandrea

Posted
  • Author
Posted

@newlu "Thanks for the review, have been on Majesty 2 years ago, and going again in September, 3 women, early 40's, hope to have some nice weather, and some fun!! Did you stay up late at night? How was Boleros at night, or any other venue for some dancing?"

Yep, stayed up late pretty much every night. :D Didn't hang too much at Boleros at night, but was there during the day for Bingo. At night, the main dancing club was Spectrum, which was also where they held karaoke most of the time.

 

@CP3O "Self serve soda is new to me on Majesty. Do you have a picture of it? "

Sorry, no pictures. But it's located right next to the soft-serve ice cream cone station.

 

@TPCRUISER2 "Ldyandrea: It was good to meet you on the cruise and soo glad you enjoyed rccl. And keep letting others hear your beautiful voice."

Good to meet you too! Thank you! :)

@hannibal54 "Been on the Majesty twice but can't remember what is open for lunch on the first day when boarding? We are going back on ship in Oct. "

The one thing I saw open was the Windjammer Cafe. Didn't end up looking elsewhere as I was starving! :eek:

@orimeep "Thanks so much for the review - we leave on the Majesty in less than 3 weeks and have never cruised with RCI before, so it was a good reminder about a few things that are different from Carnival...

 

Regarding the towels, I am assuming that you don't have to keep the same towel for both days - you can take it back and switch out for a new, clean one? Got quite used to clean beach towels being delivered before port days on Carnival.

 

Also, thanks for the reminder that we can't get into our cabins til after 1pm, so I can pack my carry-on appropriately! :) "

 

No, you can switch out your towel as frequently as you like. But you have to go to the pool deck to do it. I agree, I like the idea of having your pool towel kept right in your cabin. Easy to get, and the steward can replace it for you if needed.

 

Yes, I'd heartily recommend packing a carryon or beach bag with stuff to keep you busy, or possibly a different change of clothes/swimsuit just to be on the safe side!

@BroncosFan2010 "Thanks for the review... Have you done anything longer than 3 days? That just seems so short to me, I would never consider it (unless I moved close to a port) as it is a long way to fly from Michigan!"

Since I live in South FL, it's not such a thing for me, and gives me the chance to take a cruise without having to take several days off of work. However, there were plenty of people from Canada, Oregon, Seattle, Maine, and other rather distant places on my sailing. Many of them did the cruise as part of an overal longer vacation in Florida.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...