Thomson Majesty's first cruise

[kalos]

just got the new thomson brochure it say that it set meal times i was led to believe it was open seating does any one know ? hope the reveiws are good going on the 1st of june and 28th december loved the destiny good bless her.:confused:

 

If you do a dummy run booking on the Thomson site right up to the payment page , you will see highlighted in yellow "

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION The seven seas restaurant on Thomson Majesty will offer open seating for dinner, not fixed sittings as stated.

 

So it must be a Thomson brochure misprint .:)

[Sailaway487]

So today we may get some reviews. I'm guessing if it has been bad then reviews will start appearing quickly. Hopefully we don't get too many today then! :D

 

Those doing Pearls of the Aegean this week, have a great time! Would love a bit of sun!

[Jakanne1]

So today we may get some reviews. I'm guessing if it has been bad then reviews will start appearing quickly. Hopefully we don't get too many today then! :D

 

Those doing Pearls of the Aegean this week, have a great time! Would love a bit of sun!

 

Well said. I second that:)

[Wightryder]

Just returned to UK from Majesty Adriatic Explorer. I think it's fair to say that the ship was rather undewhelming and I think a number of people were not too impressed judging from some of the comments made on board.

 

No idea why we went to Brindisi, not what I would regard as a cruise port of call.

 

I will post my own more detailed impressions later.....

[Sailaway487]

Just returned to UK from Majesty Adriatic Explorer. I think it's fair to say that the ship was rather undewhelming and I think a number of people were not too impressed judging from some of the comments made on board.

 

No idea why we went to Brindisi, not what I would regard as a cruise port of call.

 

I will post my own more detailed impressions later.....

 

Oh dear! Maybe what I feared. :(

 

Definitely don't understand why they have swapped Brindisi from Kotor for this year. Maybe if so many complain, they may decided to swap it back as has been known before for itinerary changes to occur.

 

Look forward to your account of Majesty in full. Thanks for adding this comment now (you must have only just landed! :)). I know many have been wanting some sort of information about the ship.

[Keith Jackson]

Just returned to UK from Majesty Adriatic Explorer. I think it's fair to say that the ship was rather undewhelming and I think a number of people were not too impressed judging from some of the comments made on board.

 

No idea why we went to Brindisi, not what I would regard as a cruise port of call.

 

I will post my own more detailed impressions later.....

 

Did you take in an excursion there?

[kruzseeka]

Oh dear! Maybe what I feared. :(

 

Definitely don't understand why they have swapped Brindisi from Kotor for this year. Maybe if so many complain, they may decided to swap it back as has been known before for itinerary changes to occur.

 

Look forward to your account of Majesty in full. Thanks for adding this comment now (you must have only just landed! :)). I know many have been wanting some sort of information about the ship.

 

Think Kotor is back next season and Brindisi dropped.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

 

Definitely don't understand why they have swapped Brindisi from Kotor for this year. Maybe if so many complain, they may decided to swap it back as has been known before for itinerary changes to occur.

 

Kotor is back on the intinerary next year, but they have dropped Split for Sibenik in Croatia.

[kruzseeka]

Just returned to UK from Majesty Adriatic Explorer. I think it's fair to say that the ship was rather undewhelming and I think a number of people were not too impressed judging from some of the comments made on board.

 

No idea why we went to Brindisi, not what I would regard as a cruise port of call.

 

I will post my own more detailed impressions later.....

 

Thanks for that quick post Wightryder - I look forward to reading a more detailed account and will be very interested to hear the rest of your impressions. :)

 

I had thought Brindisi may not be fab - certainly not compared with Kotor (but that takes some beating!). It will be interesting too to get any more feedback on what people did here and any trips that are recommended.

 

On a positive note, underwhelming, whilst a tad disappointing perhaps isn't too bad - when you think of all the issues when Dream started out - I'll settle for underwhelming at the moment - at least it's better than plumbing and a/c problems! :rolleyes:

[Sailaway487]

Think Kotor is back next season and Brindisi dropped.

 

Kotor is back on the intinerary next year, but they have dropped Split for Sibenik in Croatia.

 

Very glad they have decided to put Kotor back for S13. A pity that it's not on it this year though. Sibenik looks to be quite a nice place from what I have seen.

[Sailaway487]

Thanks for that quick post Wightryder - I look forward to reading a more detailed account and will be very interested to hear the rest of your impressions. :)

 

I had thought Brindisi may not be fab - certainly not compared with Kotor (but that takes some beating!). It will be interesting too to get any more feedback on what people did here and any trips that are recommended.

 

On a positive note, underwhelming, whilst a tad disappointing perhaps isn't too bad - when you think of all the issues when Dream started out - I'll settle for underwhelming at the moment - at least it's better than plumbing and a/c problems! :rolleyes:

 

Definitely agree that underwhelming is much better compared to plumbing and air conditioning problems experienced in the past.

 

Be interesting to see on a scale from '1' to 'Thomson Dream', how Majesty's inaugral cruise would score, compared to Dream's first sailing. :D

[davecttr]

I imagine there will be a number of teething problems, after all, the crew have only had a day or so to get used to the ship. For a good impression we need to have at least a couple of months of revues.

[Wightryder]

OK, these are our own impressions of the Majesty Maiden Cruise around the Adriatic. Other passengers will no doubt have had different experiences and opinions.

Previously we have done Norway and the Baltic with Thomson a few years back, both on Celebration so that has been our main point of comparison.

Getting there and back:

Flights (ex Gatwick) were on time both ways and the transfers from and to Corfu airport were extremely well organised. We were aboard the ship less than 40 minutes after touching down! The letdown, as usual, was the appalling legroom on the plane which really does put us off booking this type of holiday.

Thomson Majesty, First Impressions:

First of all, every credit to the crew, many of whom had transferred from the Destiny the day before and were faced immediately with a full shipload of passengers with no break. I think they did very well and were as helpful as we have come to expect from Thomson.

The ship is clearly not new, she is after all 20 years old, and this does show with some fraying around the edges despite being spruced up to join the Thomson fleet.

We found the interior décor to be very bland in varying shades of beige and brown and the whole impression given was blandness and no real character. By contrast Celebration is much more elegant inside. On most ships I like to take photos of the interiors but couldn’t really be bothered on this one as most of the interior was pretty uniform – no ‘wow’ factor at all.

Above decks the overall impression was one of overwhelming ‘blueness’ with blue decks, blue sun loungers, blue funnel etc. The deck of the sundeck was teak though.

We had a standard outside twin cabin on deck 3. Previously on Celebration we had a deluxe so can’t really compare it with standard cabins on other ships. However, we did find it to be pretty cramped to the extent that only one of us could move around or do something at a time, the other having to sit or lie on the bed. We found our beds quite comfortable. Hanging space for clothes was quite restricted although there were a reasonable number of drawers. There was also a small desk/dressing table and chair – the latter being used to hang our jackets on. Toilet & shower were adequate but not much space to put things down. Some passengers who had the double bed arrangement found that it was pushed into the corner of the cabin so that the inside person needed to climb over the outside one for a nocturnal loo visit – not much fun if you are getting on in years.

Thomson Majesty – the ship in operation.

We had pretty calm weather and the ship was very smooth with none of the all pervading vibration affecting the Celebration. It was hard to tell whether you were at sea or in port. Even the dining room over the propellors was relatively vibration free except when they were obviously doing something with the engines for five minutes on one occasion.

We had a plumbing problem in our cabin which was due to the lack of a cold water supply so no water to flush the toilet, no adjustment on the shower and no cold water in the basin. The only way to flush the loo was to use the shower to add hot water to the bowl– not very satisfactory! We reported this to the cabin steward on Friday night and again on three occasions to reception when no action resulted. It was finally fixed sometime on Monday while we were ashore. Halfway through the cruise some passengers at our table said they had had no hot water in their cabin since coming aboard!

Open dining should be more properly described as 2+ sittings! Following the initial feeding frenzy when the restaurant opened and filled up it was subsequently virtually impossible to get a table until after 8:30pm and then the service was really, really quick as if the waiters wanted you to finish so they could shut up shop! No sooner had you finished one course then the next one was plonked in front of you. Some evenings were better than others.

Food in the evening was generally quite good with some days being better than others. There was a good choice of items.

Breakfast in the main restaurant was essentially self service after you had been shown to a table and given coffee/juice & toast. There was a good selection of cold and hot items except that the latter were frequently lukewarm only as the ‘Full English’ items were decanted into serving containers in the middle of the room which appeared incapable of keeping them hot.

The Buffet on the Sun Deck suffered from too little inside seating which meant overspilling either alongside the pool area or taking your food down to the Royal Observatory Bar below which was not really what it was intended for. During good weather the buffet diners were all mixed up with pool users creating a very crowded space. The Pizzeria at the stern was rather quieter with salad on offer as well as pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs etc.

Entertainment.

We went mainly for the itinerary and the entertainment was not a deal breaker for us. However, on the couple of occasions we sampled the main entertainment I have to say we were not very impressed and it was a real comedown from the production shows on our previous two cruises. I can well understand why regular cruisers feel so strongly about this. The two main entertainment venues are obviously limited in what you can use them for but I will leave it to others to comment on the entertainment as we didn’t really take much notice of it.

Itinerary.

Koper is a small but quite attractive place with not much there and even deader than otherwise given that we visited it on a Sunday when absolutely nothing was open! We did the Postjona caves excursion which was very good, especially as this was the only day we had rain!

Venice was fantastic! We had not been there before – loved every bit of it.

Split was a very attractive place to visit and we spent the day walking around visiting the Roman Palace, markets and just chilling out on the promenade. Very relaxing.

Dubrovnik was also a star destination, we did the wall walk, took a boat trip and explored the town. Definitely met expectations.

Brindisi is a dump! It has a lovely archaeological museum but I suspect this is something of a minority interest. I just can’t imagine how Thomson see it as an acceptable port of call. And if it has been substituted for Kotor then I think it is diabolical!

Destiny

We never sailed on Destiny and she was lying on an outer berth at Corfu looking rather forlorn when we embarked. Sometime during the evening she slipped away with no farewell announcement that I heard which seems a bit sad for what was clearly a well loved ship.

Conclusion

We did enjoy our cruise as it was the three big ones on the itinerary that we wanted to see and we saw them all in superb weather. The Postjona caves were good too. Brindisi was a washout except for the museum but maybe it was cheaper to park the ship for the day rather than swan around at sea. As for the ship, well, she is OK up to a point but I have no wish to sail on her again as we found her rather boring to be honest. I look forward to reading the impressions of others!

[glittergal1]

Very good review thank you we go in June and my issue is with the dining. we booked the Destiny for the set dining so with this open dining Im not looking forward to it . Can you tell me please how the Gala night worked with the dining?

[Wightryder]

Can you tell me please how the Gala night worked with the dining?

 

On the Gala night there WERE two sittings! We had a slip pushed under the door the night before telling us which one we had been assigned to. There was a captain's cocktail party in the Jubilee show lounge immediately prior to each sitting and you had the option of two queues, one which included meeting the Captain, the other which fast tracked straight into the lounge.

 

Funnily enough, the 'best' meal (with the lobster) was on the penultimate night and included a free glass of champagne from the Chef!

 

From our experience this week I can't see any advantage at all to the open dining as it simply means disappointing some people who would like to dine early and arrive a bit too late. Two sittings without specific tables would be best in our view.

[mtt]

I think the itinery is the best one, we booked this for next year mainly for that, so hoping the ship will improve by then, loved venice that much we had a city break ther last month, we stopped in a hotel on the grand canal not far from p/roma and could see the cruise ships from the roof terrace, another fave was dubrovnik

[kruzseeka]

Thanks Wightryder for a very interesting and informative review. :) It seems as though things were running reasonably smoothly which is a relief - but there are some issues which hopefully can be addressed or tweaked to improve the overall 'package' over time.

 

At least the destinations (Brindisi to one side) are a redeeming feature so with some decent weather hopefully the cruise overall will be worth doing and people will enjoy their cruises on Majesty.

 

Rest assured I will give my assessment of the entertainment :eek: but have decided that, whatever, other apects of the cruise (provided there aren't any problems) will compensate so I'm going with a positive mind set!

[Wightryder]

Obviously in a review you tend to highlight problems a bit. The ship has been laid up for a while so plumbing problems will be inevitable, the issue is really how long it takes to fix them. Our trip was by no means a disaster in any sense of the word, in fact, in the circumstances I think the crew did a first class job and I'm sure that the various teething troubles will be sorted out quite quickly and things can only get better. For what we paid I think we got quite reasonable value but people's expectations do differ. Yes, there were some specific moans and groans on board, but I thought that most people appeared to be reasonably happy. Many of them seemed to be from Yorkshire and they are not slow to say what they think!

 

For those waiting to sail I don't think you will have a bad experience at all. My impression of the ship being a bit unexciting is a personal one and may not be shared by those to whom the internal decor is not very important as long as it is quite smart (which it is). I'm not really qualified to comment on the entertainment side.

 

So, if you are booked to travel in the near future I think you will have a pretty good time. (But if you are on the Adriatic Explorer, book an excursion at Brindisi!)

[rainbow73]

Thanks for reviewing. This time next week I will be on majesty and can't wait. Glad to here she was a stable ride...weather permitting! That's the only worry I have.the swaying..ha. Re the gala night , do men HAVE to wear a suit, or will shirt/trousers be ok, or even jeans?? plus ladies ' does it have to be a dress. .? First cruise for us.

See ya there wolf.

 

Karen and dave

[kruzseeka]

 

So, if you are booked to travel in the near future I think you will have a pretty good time. (But if you are on the Adriatic Explorer, book an excursion at Brindisi!)

 

Advice taken and acted upon! Thanks! :)

[Wightryder]

Gala night men should at least wear a jacket and tie. I just wore a blazer with shirt & tie and black trousers. For ladies smart trousers and top is acceptable or of course a nice dress. Just be smart really.

 

If you don't want to do that you can just eat in the Buffet on deck 10.

 

Gala night means a bit of effort. For all other nights just shirts and trousers for men is fine but not really jeans. For ladies just dress in something nice - not T shirt and shorts!

[twiggs travels]

just got the new thomson brochure it say that it set meal times i was led to believe it was open seating does any one know ? hope the reveiws are good going on the 1st of june and 28th december loved the destiny good bless her.:confused:

hi terry cruise i will see u on the 1st june were on the majesty too.... i will buy u a drink to cheer u up that your not on the destiny!!!

[Jakanne1]

Thank you very much for your detailed, interesting review. It seems to be a very balanced report and positive overall and I am sure quite reassuring for those going on the Majesty soon. Hopefully the hot/cold plumbing problems will be sorted soon.

 

Kruzseeka, when are you going on the Majesty and are you doing the Aegean as well?

[glittergal1]

There seems to be quite a few of us on here who are sailing June 1st I have asked Thomson if due to the Queens jubilee we will have any themed nights but they havn't got back to me yet . Also It will be my 40th Birthday on the 3rd (KOPER) so If you see a rather merry looking person holding a cocktail ( in both hands) with the large i'm 40 badge that will probably be me :) so say hi

[mazzzzz]

Obviously in a review you tend to highlight problems a bit. The ship has been laid up for a while so plumbing problems will be inevitable, the issue is really how long it takes to fix them. Our trip was by no means a disaster in any sense of the word, in fact, in the circumstances I think the crew did a first class job and I'm sure that the various teething troubles will be sorted out quite quickly and things can only get better. For what we paid I think we got quite reasonable value but people's expectations do differ. Yes, there were some specific moans and groans on board, but I thought that most people appeared to be reasonably happy. Many of them seemed to be from Yorkshire and they are not slow to say what they think!

 

For those waiting to sail I don't think you will have a bad experience at all. My impression of the ship being a bit unexciting is a personal one and may not be shared by those to whom the internal decor is not very important as long as it is quite smart (which it is). I'm not really qualified to comment on the entertainment side.

 

So, if you are booked to travel in the near future I think you will have a pretty good time. (But if you are on the Adriatic Explorer, book an excursion at Brindisi!)

Thanks Wightryder for the review, me and 8 other members of my family are going on the Majesty on the 29th June. Do you know if you can get a wine package on the Majesty, 2 years ago on the Destiny i remember you could get so many bottle of wine outside the dinning room. Also on the day sailing how was it for getting a sunbed and did the entertainment crew keep you entertained.