Memories on the Majesty -- a Mother/Daughter Cruise

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Francesco Orlando is the best. He was so good to us on a recent Majesty cruise. I am going to be seeking him out again.

 

Matt - you should, he'll take care of ya. He's a good guy, been on Majesty a long time.

[emeraldcity]

After dinner we made a quick detour to our room to drop off my camera before heading to the theater for the Opening Night Show. At some point during dinner, Francisco had remade our beds, slipping in those comfortable foam toppers. He’d even remade my bed to put the head of the bed in the opposite direction, since that’s where I’d positioned the pillows. This guy is a real keeper!

 

We selected seats in the front of the balcony in one of those cozy groupings that looks so much like box seats reserved for the well-heeled patrons of the theater. There were a couple production numbers and then the CD and his staff took the stage. Despite the fact that the staff was already made up with outrageous frizzy wigs for the 70s night, I was instantly struck on how much the staffer on the far right reminded me of Jimena from the Grandeur this past December. Sure enough, when the introductions were made, it was Jimena and I resolved to make certain I found a chance to say a personal hello at some point during the cruise.

 

The comedian was Miguel Washington, and he put on a great show. He started off by posturing and gloating with great emphasis. “I’m going on a crooooze. I’m going on a croooooooze!” And he chided us that every one of us had been doing that earlier that day – to everyone we came in contact with. Yep. That was us! We’d told the people at check-in at the Hilton shortly after midnight, we told the pastry clerk at Publix, we told the guy at Bayside we bought souvenirs from, we told the bell hop that shared our elevator on the way down to check out. We had shared the news by texting friends back home and we mutually gloated with everyone on the shuttle to the port. We probably would have told everyone on the people mover as well, but it’s necessary to show a little restraint.

 

After the show we slipped back to the cabin to regroup and consult the Compass. We found we were left with a little window of 30 minutes before the next party, which was line dancing in the Centrum. Somehow we found ourselves stretched out on our beds chatting about the fun of the day. Five minutes of giggles slowly morphed into a state of lethargy and I sat up with a start. This is not going to happen. Seasoned cruisers know that this is the danger zone. If you break your stride at an hour that closely resembles the approach to bedtime at home, your body will betray you and you’ll miss the party. I might miss a few parties on a 7-day, cruise, but this cruise offered only 3 evenings for this, so I insisted that we needed to go for a walk on the upper decks to clear the gathering cobwebs. I’m not sure how DD felt about the marching orders, but she obliged and we abandoned the cabin to make a circuit or two in the fresh air.

 

Then we headed down to the Centrum for the 70s dances. I am not a big fan of events staged in the Centrum. The rationale is that there are plenty of viewing levels and a dance floor at the base. The reality is that the sight lines are abysmal and the seating is limited. OK, I’ll rephrase that – the seating is limited on the Vision class … on the Majesty, seating was non-existent. The lounges work so much better since many people just like to watch, and they can relax at a table with a drink in front of them, partaking of the fun at a lower energy level. Majesty had two suitable lounges … but we were stuck with the Centrum anyway.

 

The first event was actually a warm-up game show and Jimena was running it. She would toss out a trivia question and people would yell “Tequila!” if they thought they knew the answer. If she called them and the answer was right, they were tossed a blinky ring, to be used later that evening during the 70s party. I managed to be one of the happy winners. After several rounds, the show broke off and I used the break in the action to scurry down the stairs and catch up with Jimena to say ‘hi’. All I had to do was mention the Grandeur and the Thriller Dance my daughter joined … and the recognition kicked in. She immediately noted that it was the holiday cruise. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t my charismatic face she remembered, it was probably my bubbly youngest daughter. She wanted to know if my DD was on the ship and I told her I was with my other DD this time. So I introduced her and Jimena made sure she got a blinky prize as well. So now we have 2 blinky rings and DD has three kids at home … what to do, what to do?

 

Shortly after the game show it was time for 70’s dancing and Jimena was in charge of marshalling a group of enthusiastic dancers into a credible back-up group for the Macho Men who would be making an appearance about 30 minutes later. We started with a sizeable group and we kept adding to it. We were shoulder-to-shoulder, with no personal space in between rows. When Jimena said “Go left” we paid strict attention, since it would have been catastrophic to do otherwise. As for the direction to go forward or back, everyone was limited to about 6 inches of motion in either direction. I am eternally grateful to the person in front of me, since I emerged from the melee without any crushed toes. The size of the crowd on the dance floor always seemed to be insufficient in Jimena’s eyes because she kept dashing up the stairs to pull more people onto the floor. One such fellow should have been left where he stood. He had undoubtedly been trying to maximize the value of his drink package and he clearly didn’t grasp what the objective of the event was. Jimena handled his advances rather well, but it would have been helpful if one of her co-workers had shown up to lead the guy off.

 

Although the line dance and the Macho Men appearance had been billed as two separate events, there was really no break in the action. One minute we were going through the final stages of our newly learned dance and the next moment the Macho Men (and their disguised female counterparts) burst onto the floor. We really couldn’t see the Macho Men, unless they mounted the stairs to turn and give us direction about which way we were supposed to be swaying. Our cluster of humanity was simply charged with being the unpaid cast of extras. So we danced and we swayed and we had a fantastic time. As things started to wind down, there were options being discussed about where you could continue the party, but we didn’t even have to discuss the next thing on our agenda. We slipped away and headed up to our cabin. It was clearly time to go recharge our personal batteries so we could continue the party the next day.

Edited September 20, 2014 by emeraldcity

[MissCheekx]

I'll catch up, I swear!

 

Imagine you're at work one day and you get an email from your mom that reads something like this:

 

"Project at work finally wrapping up. Placed a courtesy hold on a 3-night cruise. Will be my first solo cruise...unless you want to come?"

 

Unless I want to come? Oh, I couldn't possibly...could I? I'd have to get time off work, DH would have to do Mom Duties for a long weekend with three kids and I'd have to come up with the funds somehow. That's never going to happen, right? Well, maybe I could. I could ask the boss there's no harm in that. So, I wander into my bosses office, tell her my story and she says, "How could I say no to that?" How indeed? Now that I have the time off, next step is clearing it with DH, and I figure the money thing will fall into place.

 

I go home that evening and broach the subject with DH, who, of course, has no objections. Though, I did leave out the part about going on a cruise, thinking that at some point he would ask me where we're going! He didn't ask till the next day...men! You should've seen his face when I admitted I was going on a cruise. Having just gotten off our very first cruise four months prior, he had been bitten by the same bug we are all so familiar with! I tried not to rub it in too much, but I'm afraid I failed miserably!

 

By the end of that night, we had gone from a maybe to cruise, airfare and hotel booked! It was time to start looking at excursions. One of the things I regretted about our first cruise (on Liberty) was that though I had technically been to Jamaica, I hadn't really been to Jamaica. I know a lot of you out there probably see that as a good thing, but I felt a little cheated. We, literally, got off the ship, did a little shopping right at the port, and then returned to the ship. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen when we stopped at Nassau. I wanted to SEE the Bahamas. We booked a tour excursion that would give us an opportunity to see some of the island and it's history. As for Coco Cay, I wanted to snorkel again, since I had really enjoyed it in Labadee and my mom recommended the jet skis, having done them before in Coco Cay. So, with excursions figured out it was time to play the waiting game :)

Edited September 20, 2014 by MissCheekx

[DonnaK]

Loving this review! It's wonderful that the daughter has the same engaging writing style as the mother! :)

[Heytray41]

So enjoying your review(s)!!! Was on the majesty in 2005 and have some great family memories as well :-)

Can't wait to read more....

 

 

Traci

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[emeraldcity]

So enjoying your review(s)!!! Was on the majesty in 2005 and have some great family memories as well :-)

Can't wait to read more....

 

Thank you for the compliment ... My first cruise was on the Sovereign class, so the Majesty is a special gift from the past for me.

 

You may want to steal away for a long weekend sometime to do it again before she is gone ... it was fabulous.

[emeraldcity]

Despite going to bed relatively late, we woke up about 7:00 a.m. It’s really hard to sleep when you’re on an adrenalin high. We headed to the Windjammer for breakfast and opted to make our selections, and then meet on the upper level for breakfast. It works out very well to avoid the crowd, since most people don’t want to climb the stairs. For DD, this offered the bonus of being close to the Coke machines. I’m not sure what the rationale is on how RCI lays out the options on the food islands, but it involves a bit more exploration than one would expect. I was disappointed at the waffle/pancake station to find that there wasn’t a container of strawberries for maximum indulgence … at least it wasn’t by the maple syrup and cinnamon sugar topping. I should have looked at the other end … they put the main offering in the middle and toppings resided at both ends. Consequently, I missed it that first day … but I noticed somebody else at another table had been a better hunter, so I resolved to explore further tomorrow.

 

While we were finishing breakfast, the announcement was made that the tenders were ready for boarding. So we went back to our cabin and assembled the necessary “stuff” for the day … sunscreen, water cameras, sunglasses, and snorkel tickets. Oops, we had failed to grab beach towels when we were at the pool deck. So we had to head back up there for towels, only to be told that Coco Cay beach towels could only be had on Deck 4. OK. That’s weird. What happens if you stuff a pool deck towel in your beach bag? I visualized alarms going off when I broke a beam on my attempt to board the tender … security rushing up with a German shepherd on a leash for an extra measure of intimidation, and my sinister self being hauled off for interrogation in a little room with a single chair in the middle and a naked light bulb dangling from a cord in the ceiling. But since we had already confessed that we were going ashore, there wasn’t any way to acquire a pool deck towel at that moment. We meekly headed back down to Deck 4 … with the elevator obligingly stopping at every deck along the way. The towels were quickly acquired and off we went to board the tender.

 

 

We were happily one of the last to board and were en route to the island within minutes. There’s barely enough time on the tender to realize just how impossibly hard the seats are before you are entering the little harbor and being told repeatedly that you are to go to the blue building when it’s time to go back to the ship. One very eager fellow jumped up and moved forward to stand at the steps to get off the tender first. I bet he’s one of those Delta premier wannabees. We were far more poised and we waited our turn to shuffle along till we could step off the dock … during which time we got two more admonitions that we are to go to the blue building when we are ready to go back to the ship. Thanks, I think we've got it now.

 

We stepped off the tender and headed past the nearby market area. Neither of us were interested in shopping for the moment, but we eye-balled the gaily displayed fabrics blowing in the breeze as we went by. The concept was that we might do a bit of shopping after we were done with our water activities. First order of business was to go schedule the waverunners. Once we knew when that activity was planned, we would be able to schedule our snorkeling around it.

 

There had apparently been few people who had pre-booked the waverunners, as we were able to secure spots in the next group, so we only had a 25 minute wait. We whiled away the short wait doing some wading at the nearby beach area. Then we wandered back, stowed our stuff in a locker and reported to the orientation room. I got to watch a rerun of one of my favorite movies of all time – the waverunner do’s and don’ts. Then our fearless leader stepped in to jump on the waverunner at the front of the room to go over hand signals and controls. Then came the good part … assignment of who gets to go first. It was my good fortune that nobody else raised their hand for this honor, because he really didn’t want to give it to me. That gray hair always dooms me to age-profiling. He cautioned that the first has to be the fastest, or else he will change the order, and I assured him “you won’t lose me.” Then we went out to don life jackets and head for the dock. Everyone was assigned a machine and we each were slipped backwards into the water where we started them up and puttered out to the white buoy. Then the leader headed out, followed by fearless leader #2 (who I think was in training) and then it was my turn. What an awesome thrill it is when you hit the full throttle and the machine surges out of the water and quickly gathers speed. This is the moment when I’m totally in exhilaration mode … reminding myself that my normal routine on a Saturday doesn’t include anything anywhere close to this much fun. We headed straight out and I was loving the wind, the splashes of the water, the sunshine and even the bumps (more on that later). It was too soon for me when they signaled the first stop and we slowed to let everyone catch up. There was a little bit of reassignment of travel order and then we were off again, this time to try a few maneuvers, which adds to the fun. We zig-zagged a bit and headed even farther out toward one of the nearby islands. On the second stop our fearless leader wanted to know if we wanted some history, or just more riding. It turned out that history wasn’t on anyone’s list for the day, so they shuffled a few more people around in the riding order, and we were off again with the intent to circle the island we had been aiming for. We got to practice our instructions about what to do if someone falls off, because fearless leader #2 fell off his machine on one of the turns. When you show down and kill the engine, the waverunner settles down into the water like a brooding hen settling into a nest. We wallowed around on our fat hens until he expertly demonstrated the proper way to climb back on board, and then we were off again. At one point I spotted another group of waverunners heading off in a straight line in the distance. They looked like a bunch of little white comets skimming across the water, tossing their white tails toward the sky. It simply doesn’t get any more carefree than this. I never once thought about work, or car maintenance, or grocery shopping or the back section of the yard along the fence that seriously needs some weeding done. There were a couple more stops and some additional re-ordering. A couple riders asked for a bit slower pace, but our fearless leader couldn’t comprehend the concept.

 

When he announced that this was our final stop and we would be heading in at that point, I was a bit disappointed. I was up for a longer ride, but I had to tell myself that you savor what you’ve experienced and look forward to coming back some day to do it again. After all, I had made good on my challenge. He didn’t lose me and he didn’t demote me. I was still the first rider when we did that last leg. Even better, I managed to dock the thing right, which is not something I can attest to on the last two times I’d done this excursion. I killed the engine one final time and stepped off the machine onto the dock. This is the moment when I realized that it truly had been a lot bumpier ride than I’d done before, because my legs weren’t working all that well. First of all, they really didn’t seem to want to straighten out, and secondly they didn’t seem to think it was a good idea to support my weight and allow me to walk. Of course, I was too cool to collapse on the dock and wait for the paramedics to arrive, so I did my best to move naturally, even though I really doubt I pulled it off. DD seemed to be dealing with a similar malady, so at least I had good company.

 

RCI is leaving an awful lot of money lying on the table with this operation. Unused waverunners make the same amount of money that unsold cabins make. And I saw plenty of unused waverunners bobbing up and down on that floating dock. They need to consider offering two completely different rider experiences. I love the speed and maneuvering challenge, but at my age I probably can’t do it very much longer. And I’d love to take my grandkids out on these things on our next family cruise, but I have this visual of the kid flying through the air, arms waving wildly and screaming my name as I disappear into the horizon. What’s wrong with adding a family waverunner experience that involves a slower pace? You can choose whether you’re into an extreme ride or family-style ride. There were several people on our ride that were clearly not being heard when they said it was too fast … so they probably have no intention of doing it again. That’s a whole market that’s not being addressed.

 

I will now climb off my soap-box and continue with the narrative for those I haven’t managed to lose yet. Ocean watersports are thirsty business, and anyone foolish enough to lick their lips to address this issue only made matters worse (did I fail to mention this ride involves a lot of salt water in the face?). Fortunately there were nearby showers to rinse off and facilities to allow you to get a bit more comfortable before heading off for the next item on the day’s agenda. But even better yet, it was just a short walk to where the food was laid out and the beverage station already sported plenty of glasses of lemonade already full and waiting to snag on the way by. It was sincerely appreciated. While sipping our lemonade we headed over to the snorkel hut and I produced the tickets for this excursion … only to discover that they were tomorrow’s tickets for a tour of Nassau. Apparently, DD had carefully separated the tickets and slipped the wrong ones back into the envelope. In dismay, I froze as all the logistics of going back to the ship for those tickets went flitting through my mind at rapid speed. I think the attendant had to repeat it a couple of times, because I wasn’t paying attention, but she already had my name on her list so it was not a big deal. I displayed my sea pass and I was given another piece of paper to take around the corner to give to the equipment guy. With relief, I took it and went to get my equipment. The first guy gave me the mask and refused to take my ticket. I was supposed to give it to the next guy. OK, a few steps more, I’m collecting a vest and this guy is refusing that little piece of paper too. Finally, when I got to the flipper guy, he allowed me to rid myself of the thing, but he wanted me to part with personal information before he’d give me my flippers … “Shoe size?” I looked right and left before I admitted how big my feet are and I swear the things he gave me were two sizes too small, but he claimed that they are supposed to be that tight.

 

There was an available orientation, but it wouldn’t be for 20 minutes, so we figured we’d at least check out the equipment. We headed for the water and I stopped to drop my sandals at the foot of an occupied chair and asked the lady there if it was OK to leave them there. She said it was fine and I felt a bit more comfortable that they were at least in a location that looked like they belonged to someone who was sitting right by them. It’s not that the sandals are that expensive, but I order them from Hawaii and the last time they were back-ordered for a month. I’d left their predecessors on a beach chair on Labadee and they apparently had an awfully strong appeal to someone, because I never saw them again.

 

I can’t remember the last time I snorkeled from a beach. Apparently it was so long ago I forgot about the duck factor. You simply cannot put the flippers on at the water’s edge and flop your way into water deep enough to swim. The only reason that ducks get away with it is that they have really short legs. I put on my flippers and lifted my left high enough to clear the water and flapped down with a spectacular splash. I hadn’t covered much ground. I then tried the maneuver with the second foot and the results were equally disconcerting. I quickly reassessed my mode of operation, in light of the amount of entertainment I was undoubtedly providing for the nearby beach-goers. I decided that the only way I was going to continue to run this show was that if somebody was passing a hat. I bent down and pulled off the flippers and then moved out to deeper water to put them back on. DD and I checked out our equipment and she found that her’s was clearly defective. Every breath she took in the snorkel brought in an alarming amount of water … which sort of defeats the purpose. She had to go back in for an equipment exchange. We then reported to the orientation location and Georges (I hope I spelled that right) showed up on time to give us a personal explanation of where we could go to see what had been set out to attract fish. So we headed back into the water to challenge the waves.

 

I’d heard plenty of warning about the fact that jellyfish were likely to be pretty plentiful, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. I quickly discovered that it meant you could count on seeing several every minute. So for those who have spent a considerable amount of cash for experiences like swimming with the dolphins and swimming with the sting rays, you’ll find that at Coco Cay, the experience of swimming with the jellyfish is complimentary. It was pretty startling to be paddling along and find your thumb inadvertently moving over a filmy surface. I watched a couple of fish that seemed to be following jellyfish, feeding on the tentacles or whatever might have been tangled in the tentacles. I was startled by the size … they were a bit larger than a Corelle cereal bowl. My last swimming-with-the-jellyfish experience had been the bonus feature attached to the Royal Dolphin Swim at Cozumel. There were plenty of dime-size jelly fish in the water that day and I think DD came away with a few stings. All I ended up with was a few flat souvenirs … the hapless jellyfish that managed to culminate their life’s experiences by floating into a momentary gap between my bathing suit and my er … chest. Back at the ship after the excursion, I peeled them off my suit in the shower and watched them slip down the drain.

 

DD has pictures that are much better than mine at this point. I was working with my old Kodak EasyShare in an aqua-pack. The shots are serviceable and they satisfy the main objective, which is to preserve the memory.

 

 

 

Despite the concerns about the jellyfish, the snorkeling experience at Coco Cay was much better than the one at Labadee. I saw plenty of fish and there was a wide variety to marvel at. We swam out toward the floating rest stop and took plenty of pictures along the way. The only downside was that the water was a bit choppy (which, of course, all waverunner riders for the day can attest to) and I was starting to tire. When we got to the floating rest stop, there were three other people who were already reclining on it and contemplating their next move. DD tossed her flippers atop and began to negotiate the climb. I bobbed about for a bit weighing the cost of the energy necessary to hoist myself out of the water. I opted to forget it and head back. I called to DD that I would see her on the beach and began to meander back. I made the delightful discovery that it was so much easier going back because now I wasn’t going against the waves. In a state of bliss, I moseyed along enjoying the view of the bottom. When I paused to look around above water, I discovered that the charming ride I’d been experiencing was actually a current that was carrying me off around the point. Well, that’s annoying. Now I had to work in earnest to get back to the rocky point and make it to the beach … where DD was already waiting for me. She had apparently been a little wiser about how she handled the return trip. I pulled off the flippers and sloshed my way to the beach. First I made a brief stop at the beach chair of the lady who was “guarding” my sandals and collected them. She was clearly napping and not taking her guard duties seriously, so I just scooped them up and went on my way. Again, the first objective was a stop at the fresh water showers on the beach to rinse off most of the salt water and then we returned our equipment.

 

Rather than choose to eat at the buffet on the island, we each grabbed a lemonade to quench our thirst and head back to the ship. Both of us wanted a more relaxed dining experience, and how do you relax in a wet bathing suit, with your wet hair dripping onto your plate, sitting on a hard picnic bench and shooing away flies? We wanted a quick shower, a padded chair and a strongly reduced likelihood of a fly issue. This meant that the possible option of shopping at the vendor booths on Coco Cay quickly dropped off our radar. Shopping is supposed to be enjoyable … and I wasn’t going to enjoy much until after I’d had a shower.

 

So we dutifully headed for the blue building as instructed and were among the early boarders on the tender. This afforded me a chance to choose a seat that would give me a chance to get a few shots of the ship as we approached. Although I’d taken the old Kodak Easy Share to the island, I’m relatively satisfied with the results.

 

[Heytray41]

Thank you for the compliment ... My first cruise was on the Sovereign class, so the Majesty is a special gift from the past for me.

 

You may want to steal away for a long weekend sometime to do it again before she is gone ... it was fabulous.

 

I may have to do just that!!! Our first cruise was on Sovereign in 2003 and have been hooked ever since. I try to get on a ship at least every two years, last October was on the Allure....WOW!

I think the Enchantment will be a nice balance between the sovereign class and the oasis class, however, any class is fine by me :-)

Also got a little chuckle with your wave runner review..I LOVE that excursion, it's soo much fun!!

 

 

 

Traci

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[emeraldcity]

Once we were back on board, we quickly showered and then headed for the Windjammer for lunch. I decided on pizza and salad since I hadn’t tried Sorrentos yet. It was passable and it was quick, which was high on the criteria rating at that point. But in keeping with the other reviews I’ve read, it was nothing to swoon over. Someday, RCI needs to send a pizza chef to Chicago for training on the secret to make those deep dish pizzas … Wow, I would brave the long lines that would be stretching out the door to get one of those pizzas again. And the salad was good in that they offered my two favorite lettuces and a nice variety of additives. Here’s where I get to the “but” part … but the dressing wasn’t memorable. You shouldn’t go home, crack open a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch and sigh in relief. There are some restaurants in town that make an awesome homemade ranch dressing, and I will go there for dinner, just because the salad dressing is outstanding. I know the meat lovers of the world think that’s really pathetic, but there you have it.

 

With food in our tummies, and salt washed off our persons, we were in a nice frame of mind to contemplate next steps. We agreed that the afternoon had a nice gap in the schedule, so we could fit in a bit of time to relax. DD interpreted that as a nap and I wanted to go someplace awesome and embroider. I gathered up my latest project and headed for the Viking Crown Lounge were I settled into a chair and worked on my project in that amazing space overlooking the ocean. A few people wandered through from time to time, but for the most part, it was my private little domain. Imagine! 2600 passengers on this sailing and I have this entire lounge to myself! I sealed that moment in time into a little gaily wrapped box in my head and I will open it and focus on it some cold January day when I’m trudging up the hill to the office.

 

As the time closed in on the planned jewelry workshop, I transferred my operation to the Schooner Bar to meet all the other women who would be joining me for the event. And there I sat embroidering, waiting for the crowd to show up. Eventually the host showed up and there was still no crowd. He finally admitted he wasn’t supposed to run the event if he had less than 4 participants. I scanned the bar wondering which people in the sparse crowd I could cajole into joining me. Maybe the host read my mind and took pity on me. Of maybe he correctly read my body language as I scanned the room and took pity of the folks who just wanted to enjoy their drinks uninterrupted by a crazy lady who thought that stringing beads was a great way to spend a chunk of time. He pulled out the supplies anyway. I’ve made a couple jewelry pieces in the past, with some help from someone who really knows what they are doing, and the project he produced involved a technique I hadn’t used before. So it was much appreciated. And the rest of the people in the bar probably don’t know that they should also appreciate it.

 

Project completed, I headed for the pool deck in the hopes of getting a relatively good spot for the men’s belly flop competition. Apparently, the jellyfish hadn’t chased too many people away from the beach, since there were plenty of available deck chairs on the sun deck overlooking the main pool. Shortly before the big event the Activities Director arrived to begin the task of rounding up the participants. He was painfully unsuccessful. He tried appealing to the women to volunteer their significant others since the guys were deaf to his appeals. The women didn’t seem to be interested in alienating their partners either. One guy had agreed, but one guy does not a contest make. DD had joined me by this time and we surveyed the hapless AD as he wandered the pool deck being rebuffed by each person he approached. “He should offer them a free drink”, I commented to DD. That would have likely produced some results. It is unfair, I know, but I visualized Darryl of the Grandeur in this spot and there is no question that Darryl would have handled this with more energy and humor. He wouldn’t have been begging, he would have created such a party atmosphere that guys would be swept up by the moment. Finally one highly excitable woman managed to convince her partner that he should sacrifice himself for the greater good and he dragged a friend along. They rounded up a couple more and the event was staged. It was good, but it lacked the sheer exuberance of the one we’d seen on the Liberty. Having the big screen to do instant replays on the Liberty really added another dimension to this event. This one was entertaining, but not one of the belly-flops I will bother committing to memory. Probably the most memorable thing was that highly excitable woman. She kept repeatedly blurting out something that was a cross between a cheer and a squeal … as her guy was introduced, as he made his splash into obscurity, as he climbed out of the pool, as the next guy took the podium. Finally Carlos, the Cruise Director asked if anyone had a remote to turn off the alarm.

 

We decided next to go watch the Jive class before getting ready for formal pictures and for dinner. This was unfortunately held in the Centrum, which I have already noted has a seating issue. We did discover a few chairs on the upper lever, but this vantage point was woefully inadequate for the objective. Humor me here for a moment and think about a football game. When there’s a questionable call, they don’t ask the guys in the blimp to rule on it … all you can tell from an aerial view is that people are moving from A to B. You can’t really get a sense of how they are accomplishing it. At dance competitions, the judges stand on the edge of the floor and the spectators sit around it … which offers the maximum opportunity to get a sense of the fluidity of the moves as the couples step through the dance. So we didn’t stay very long.

 

We returned to our cabin to spruce up for pictures. I realized that I’d forgotten to allow for time to go to the Top Tier C&A event, but it wasn’t a big deal. The number one item on my agenda was getting a bunch of pictures taken so I could have a formal picture of the two of us with which to remember this wonderful weekend. I think we hit every one of the backdrops except the Titanic staircase … that thing is seriously creepy. Then it was on to dinner.

 

I really hesitated on the appetizer choice for the evening. But I decided eventually to go with my gut instinct (and my resolve to try something new) and I chose the scallops in garlic butter sauce. Oh my! What a find! The scallops were really small and you had to go fishing for them under all that rich garlic butter, but they were very good. The bonus was the two breadsticks that you got to layer butter on top of and savor every bite. I’d seen them serve escargot like this, but my interest in trying something different draws a line between my fork and a snail. The scallops, however, were amazing. I stuck with the seafood theme for the night and ordered the shrimp. Sandip took pity on me when he saw me struggling to lift them out of the shell and he expertly handled the maneuver for me.

 

I don’t know … isn’t it a bit weird to go snorkeling in the morning to marvel at the sea-life in the ocean and them sit down at dinner and do your part to reduce the number of the ocean inhabitants. I have decided to believe my dinner was raised on a farm.

Edited September 22, 2014 by emeraldcity

[emeraldcity]

There was to be a music trivia contest in the Schooner Bar in that hour gap before the evening show and we figured it would be an interesting way to spend the hour, Trivia contest are a nice way to challenge yourself and feel terribly satisfied when you can come up with the right answer. There is the question period, during which time various people challenge the host to explain things better, and then there is the answer period where some other team grades your answers and you groan every time you know they are marking yours wrong. So on the entertainment-o-meter, this generally ranks about a 4. I was unprepared for the 80s challenge on the Majesty because it was certainly not a dull Q&A session … and it was a standing-room-only crowd. We teamed up with two other women and they were a riot. The hostess played intros to songs and we wrote down the names of the songs. When it came time to reveal the answers, the snippets were played again and the entire end of the Schooner Bar burst into song. It was an event laced with laughter and singing – incredibly up-lifting. Our 12 correct answers fell short of a winning effort by 2 points, but we had a great time … I’d give it a 7 or 8. And the two teams that tied for the win received that amazing keychain that Royal Caribbean has been giving out since the dawn of time. What is it with the keychain? Did their order for 50,000 get screwed up and they got 5 million instead?

 

I really like the theater on the Majesty. We arrived for the evening show a bit early in order to get some good seats near the front. The newer ships have theaters that are very nice, but the opulence of the Sovereign class theaters sets them in a class of their very own. I was awestruck on my first cruise that a theater on a ship could be so big and so gorgeous. And the one at the Majesty takes me back to that first cruise. We were in one of the first few rows on the starboard side near the aisle, which was a great vantage point for the show. Tonight was comedy/juggling, which is generally pretty entertaining. Airborne delivered on all levels. The juggling was good and the commentary was very funny. The audience “volunteers” did a good job of playing straight man, although I suspected some of the responses they made to the entertainer’s questions had been fed to them prior to the show … but it didn’t make it any less enjoyable.

 

Tonight was to be the pool deck party, but we decided to pass. We had a shore excursion booked for early the next morning and getting a good night’s sleep had a huge appeal. That is our story, and we’re sticking to it … the aching leg muscles that were reminding us of our jet ski adventure were not part of the decision criteria.

Edited September 22, 2014 by emeraldcity

[roseshayit]

Thanks for such an in-depth review. I can visualize based on your details, and it's certainly making me want to push my family into a Majesty cruise in the near future! Looking forward to hearing about Nassau!

[wnycruisefam66]

Thanks for the very enjoyable review! My husband & I are trying to decide between the 4 day on the Majesty or the Enchantment in May, so I'm reading all I can find. This will be our first child free cruise! While mine are older than your DD's, my husband & I are most looking forward to taking naps while on the cruise!:)

[emeraldcity]

Thanks for the very enjoyable review! My husband & I are trying to decide between the 4 day on the Majesty or the Enchantment in May, so I'm reading all I can find. This will be our first child free cruise! While mine are older than your DD's, my husband & I are most looking forward to taking naps while on the cruise!:)

 

Naps are sheer luxury ... kids just don't understand.

 

Glad to have you along for the ride. I used to think a 3-day would never be enough, but we packed so much into it. It made for such a great refreshing get-away.

[emeraldcity]

I woke up as we were making the final approach to the pier in Nassau. Carefully I rolled over, put my feet on the floor and stood up in slow motion. Jet ski riding certainly extracts a cost beyond the dollars spent. My thigh muscles ached with a vengeance. DD was in similar shape, so we were clearly going to spend the next few days trying to determine how to move without adding any unnecessary stress on those muscles. We had become “Those People” … you know, the ones who take the elevator just to go down one deck.

 

As the ship nestled up against the pier I glanced out the window at the Carnival ship and wondered how many other ships would be arriving to dump passengers into the streets of Nassau today. I would soon discover that we were to be the only ones. By the time we walked off the ship to meet our tour, Carnival had left, since that ship had been doing an overnight.

 

We allowed ourselves an hour to get ready for the day and have a Windjammer breakfast. It was plenty of time. I easily found the strawberries for my waffles and chose a table by the window. The resolve of yesterday to have breakfast on the upper level was quickly scuttled given our current physical condition. I settled down at the table to start with the bowl of fruit and one of the attendants stopped at the table to ask if I wanted coffee. Really? At a buffet someone wants to save me the hassle of braving the confusion around the beverage station! I accepted the offer with relief. Not only did she return with coffee and FOUR individual creamers (which is the correct amount to tame a cup of RCI coffee), but she had added a coffee roll to the plate. It’s those unexpected surprises that you think about when you’re at home reliving the experience. So of course, you start thinking about booking another – which makes that a very expensive coffee roll.

 

We had originally arranged a pirates and forts tour, which had been on those tickets I tried to get snorkel equipment with the previous day. Those tickets had gone into DD’s pocket and then we went snorkeling. We didn’t even try to peel open those sodden bit of paper to see if any ink was left. We figured we could easily get them replaced and had gone to the shore excursion desk to do so. The tuxedoed guy who waited on us turned out to be the one who had given us our snorkel directions for the day. I sure didn’t recognize him all spruced up, but DD did. In any event, he had to be the one to break the news that our tour had been cancelled due to insufficient numbers, but he offered us a 20% discount to book something else. A nice touch, because we probably would have booked something anyway, but the 20% was appreciated. We chose a forts and Paradise Island tour. So that meant that shortly before the appointed time we arrived in the theater to await the assembling of the masses. Well actually, there was only one mass … which was the Atlantis mass. The other two groups were far too small to qualify for mass status.

 

Here’s where the seasoned cruisers shine. We have arrived with sea pass cards and photo ID. The newbies have sea passes only. Who’s to blame them? The previous stop was also the Bahamas, and they didn’t need a photo ID to get off the ship there. DD was among the group that had to go back for hers. The fellow in charge of mass management kept repeating the information over and over again, English and then Spanish. Each time another couple of people would get up and scurry out of the theater. It was not a lost chunk of time, because I emerged from the experience having added pasaporte to the list of about a dozen Spanish words I can fluently utter.

 

There was a bit of a delay in getting the go-ahead to lead us off the ship, but we were eventually on our way. The Atlantis mass got to go first and they were herded together on the dock to await the go-ahead to move to the ground transportation. Our group consisted of probably only about 10 people and we had a very short wait on the dock, which I believe was for a no-show. Soon we were led down the pier and around the terminal building to our waiting bus. The doors to the bus were on the wrong side, of course, which felt very strange. The driver took his seat and addressed the rules of the road right off the bat, “Left is the right side, and right is suicide.” Then off we went driving on the wrong side of the road. He pointed out points of interest as we went, often filling in the prices, just in case we wanted to come back and try something out after the tour. There was the Graycliff Restaurant, which he noted was the only 5-star restaurant in the Caribbean and dinner for two would set you back $500 minimum. He told us about their wine cellar, which apparently included an offering that cost $200,000 a bottle. I had to google that when I got back home and the Graycliff’s web site backed him up. He pointed out churches and government buildings as we passed and as we passed the hospital he noted with pride that any visit to the hospital cost a mere $10. Having plunked down five times that for my cruise insurance, I was a bit annoyed to think that if I had a medical emergency in Nassau, the insurance guys would get off really cheap. I can see them now at the call center yukking it up, “I just sold another $50 policy to somebody going to Nassau … what a sap!”

 

The folks who chose the location of the Queens Staircase weren’t very forward-thinking: they situated the approach behind a modern-day guardrail that marks a dead-end road by a hospital parking lot. Our tour guide pointed out the site as he made a right turn and began the climb to a parking area at the top. We were advised that it had been built over 300 years ago by slaves and its purpose was to facilitate easy access to the sea if they needed to escape the fort. While that may have made a nice story, it made no sense to me. If the fort were under siege and in danger of collapse, how would the defenders manage to get to the staircase without being cut down by the attackers? So I researched it and found that the fort was purportedly built from the stone that was chopped out of the ground to build the staircase (so it’s the age-old question of “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”). So I’m not buying the escape story. I would think that the attackers would already be holding that piece of ground … having used it to get to the top of the cliff in the first place.

 

 

Out tour guide parked the little bus and announced that we had 20 minutes to explore. We slowly straightened up by grasping the back of the seat in front of us to try to reduce the amount of strain being put on our thigh muscles. I stiffly stepped down the bus steps under the watchful eye of the tour guide, who probably wondered why that infirm little old lady wasn’t using her cane. We walked over to the top of the staircase and stood there for a few moments contemplating the amount of pain involved in going down and then returning. We both decided that it was worth the pain and I admit I was hanging onto the handrail for every one of those 65 steps. At the bottom, we found ourselves in a lovely handmade gorge. Viewing the staircase from this angle was quite charming. Although the internet advised me that there was a relatively recent addition of a waterfall next to the staircase, I have to report that it was only a water-dribble. If they kick up the volume of water flow, they will have a stunning attraction. I’ve seen a number of pictures that show tables of vendors with goods lining the walls of the gorge, but there was nothing of the sort when we were there. Hopefully, they have banned the activity, although it simply may be that it wasn’t worth anybody’s time on a Sunday with only one ship in port. I truly loved the gorge and I marveled at the amount of effort that it would have taken to create this with hand tools. After a few pictures, we climbed up the steps (did I mention there were 65 of them?). Apparently there are supposed to be 66, but the bottom step was engulfed in the paving.

 

 

We weren’t left with enough time to take the short tour of Fort Fincastle, therefore I regret that this was only a 20-minute stop. We did walk the perimeter of the fort and take a few pictures. This is probably the oddest shaped fort I’ve ever seen. To me it looked like two different crews started building parallel walls, and they failed to take any measurement at the onset to assure they were parallel. In relatively short order it should have been apparent that they were going to meet down the ways a bit, instead of being able to make a couple of right angles and build a serviceable rectangle. Neither one of the crews could agree on who should make the adjustment; since that would involve an admission of error. They just stepped up the pace and continued to lay stone. Eventually, they met at the point, laid down some capstone to round it off a bit and called it a day.

 

 

One other point of interest at the same stop was the imposing water tower. I went over there to get a shot and found another couple grinning at the iPhone he was holding in his outstretched hand. I offered to take the picture and rescue them from selfie failure. They accepted with obvious relief.

 

We climbed back in the bus and dropped into our seats making that “old people” noise. The thigh muscles weren’t loosening up yet. If anything, the amount of time that we spent sitting down made them stiffer.

 

Our next stop was Fort Charlotte. There apparently wasn’t enough time to visit the fort, so the driver stopped by the stone structure that had been used to house the ammunition. We climbed the 29 steps to the top (I always count when I’m in agony – it gives the brain something else to focus on). From this vantage point, we could see the ship off in the harbor. We also happened to have a good view of the new resort being built by the Chinese. Our guide noted that the Chinese had already built a stadium and given it to the people. Very altruistic! My cynical side says that they got something for it … and maybe it was simply permission to build a resort to compete with Atlantis. From the looks of the web site, this place is going to be a destination in itself (if you can afford it). While our group wandered the area admiring the view, the driver offered to take pictures for anyone who was interested … he must not be part of the selfie generation either.

 

Back down the 29 steps (Going down is somehow worse that going up) and we headed for Paradise Island. Once again we had 20 minutes to wander around when we were let off in Atlantis. DD and I went out to the lagoon and took pictures and wandered through the casino for a few shots as well. Of course we had to take a couple pictures of that bridge that houses the luxury suite. Our driver had also provided some basic numbers for our shock and amazement … $25,000 a night, and that’s with a 4-night minimum stay. And they apparently don’t have a problem keeping it occupied, since he also claimed it books out two years in advance.

 

 

I think while we were wandering around inside, our driver was standing by his bus with a sign that said Majesty of the Seas. When we climbed back into the bus to return to the ship, we found another couple already seated there. They seemed very surprised when our tour guide started up his commentary as we negotiated the route to the road. They thought it was just a shuttle to the ship. But this was the section where the driver told us about how the Bahamians pay no taxes and how we would also pay no taxes if we were to come to the Bahamas and buy a home … unless you topped a certain dollar amount. The excess was taxed at one percent. He seemed to think this was Nirvana. Then he came to the “but” part. But the government slaps crippling import duties on everything coming into the country … gasoline was well over $5.00 per gallon” Cars generally had a 100% duty assessed. Even if you were given a car by a stateside relative, you had to pay duty on the value of the car when it arrived in the country. So he doesn't pay taxes -- he pays duty. Is there a difference?

 

All in all, I thought it was a good tour. It wasn’t the history tour I was expecting. I frankly think our driver moonlights at the Greater Bahamas Growth Association when there are no ships in port. But we got to see a fair amount of the island, which made for a nice way to spend the morning.

Edited September 24, 2014 by emeraldcity

[MissCheekx]

I'm Baaack!

 

Normally when counting down to a vacation, I count down to the day vacation starts. However, I found I couldn't do that with this trip as I was taking an evening flight after working all day. You can't countdown to a workday! My shift flew by, thankfully, since I kept myself busy tying up loose ends so as not to burden my coworkers with any extra work. I'm so thoughtful!

 

Anyone who knows me, knows I suffer from severe road ragitis. I swear I got stuck behind every single law-abiding driver in Cleveland that evening. Don't these people know I'm going on vacation?!? Fortunately, despite promises to the contrary, DH was already home when I got there. We hopped in the car, picked up Mom and got behind every law-abiding driver I had missed on the drive home. Finally, we made it to the airport and we are officially on vacation!

 

I only have one observation to add to Mom's description of the flight. Coming into Atlanta, it was clear we were steering around some serious thunderstorms. It was really something to watch a storm from the side instead of from the ground. I have never seen a thunderstorm from that vantage point before. You can't really appreciate the magnitude of the cloud height from the ground. It was a sight that will stick with me for a long time to come.

 

Miami:

 

I really enjoyed this city! I would certainly consider returning to explore it more in the future. It has a bit of a watered-down Vegas vibe to it with the palm trees and the colorful neon lights here and there. The view from our room couldn't have been more spectacular. We left the curtains open all night so that we could check out the city while nodding off.

 

If you're sailing from Miami and have never been to Bayside, you owe it to yourself to check it out. The little shops are fun to poke through, but the best part of Bayside is the banyan tree. I have never seen anything like it. It defies description and completely took my breath away. I could've taken a zillion pictures and spent hours lost in it's beauty. The sheer expanse of the canopy is unbelievable and could probably keep you dry during a torrential downpour.

 

[emeraldcity]

When the tour ended we had one last item on the agenda before getting back on the ship … it was time to go shopping. DD was going to need to get something for each of the kids and it was agreed that we might as well take in the experience of the Nassau Straw Market in order to accomplish that objective. It was a short walk to the open air icon and we stepped inside with a bit of reluctance. I’m not a fan of the whole bargaining system and I try to avoid putting myself in the position where it becomes part of my world. However, our money-focused tour guide had given us plenty of instruction on how to handle these exchanges and he said the appropriate cost was just 50-60% of what was initially quoted. I prefer to have clear expectations, so I felt that I was now in a position to survive this experience without feeling that either I or the shopkeeper had gotten a poor deal. I wasn’t seriously considering buying anything, but I spotted an attractive carry-all bag that perfectly matched one I had seen on the tour … of course, it was hung outside a shop we passed going about 25 MPH, so I hadn’t been able to take a close look at the time. (I suspect that women are the only ones who can effectively handle drive-by shopping.) The shopkeeper said $30, I countered with $15, she came back with $20 and I paid $18. It was terribly satisfying, relatively brief and I was done with my shopping less than 5 minutes after we entered the market. I saw other things that were terribly unique and appealing, but I truly don’t need more “stuff” in my life. DD spread out her shopping efforts so that one vendor didn’t get all her business. She bought something for everyone in her immediate family back home, and something for herself. One shopkeeper collected the money but hung onto the item and moved off to the other side of her booth to try and encourage some additional consideration of her other wares. DD politely thanked her for the opportunity and gave things a cursory glance, but the tactic conjured up images of extortion and she lost any chance of an additional sale with the ploy. As DD was working the price down at each booth, I played the devil’s advocate and kept interjecting things like, “I’m not so sure it would fit.” And “I’ve seen one in blue a couple booths back.” This would quickly drop the price into the 50-60% range and we were able to move along.

 

I doubt if the shopping trip lasted much longer than a half hour. We exited the market and began to walk back to the ship and we encountered a delightful surprise along the way. There was one thing I hadn’t gotten on this trip that just screams “Caribbean” – no steel drum music. So it was so much fun to discover some street musicians that included steel drums. We dropped a couple dollars in their tip buckets and relished the light-hearted feeling that always goes with steel drum music. As we moved off, I was thinking we had satisfied all our shore-side objectives, but DD announced she still wanted to get some Bahamian money. I’ve had this objective before. And it’s a tough one. You’re interacting with shopkeepers who want to sell you things and they always claim they have no local currency until you buy something. At that point, they are often willing to return local currency in change. So it was a bit late to be announcing this objective. The only chance of success lay in finding someone who was not trying to make money off the tourist. My first attempt was a young woman handing out brochures – she shot me down with a look designed to convey the utmost scorn. So I took my scorned little self down the street, surveying the locals to see if I could figure out where we might have a fighting chance. There were two policemen chatting with the driver of a car parked at the curb and I decided to give it a shot with these guys. They reacted to my request with a bit of surprise, but they didn’t turn me down. One of them fished out his wallet and we exchanged dollar bills while the other one chided his partner about assuring that it wasn’t any sort of bribe. DD happily tucked her prize in her purse and we moved off to the terminal building, discussing our options for lunch.

 

I was hoping the MDR would be open for lunch, but it wasn’t. Salad and sandwich sounded like just the right offering, so we went to the Compass Deli and had a nice light lunch. We briefly looked over the dessert options, but we agreed that what we really wanted was some real ice cream, smothered in hot fudge – so we went around the corner to Johnny Rockets. It was the perfect way to top off lunch and we got the bonus of a performance by the dancing waiters.

 

We knew we had a full evening planned of intense partying, so the only sensible thing at that point was to go get a nap. And I actually decided to be sensible. Napping in oceanview cabins on the Tween Deck can only be successful if you are immune to pounding feet overhead, because you are located right under the promenade deck. Since the Promenade goes all the way around the ship on the Majesty, the runners favor it. However, I long ago learned to nap to the sound of a pounding hammer in the basement. It was so restful and reassuring to know that my ex was actually working on some project I’d been trying to interest him in. I could always fall asleep to pounding. I woke over an hour later, shortly before there was a knock on the door to the call of “Room Service”. I didn’t order room service. I opened the door and was handed a plate of petit fours … no note or anything. I’m still wondering if that was a diamond perk. On the Grandeur I had gotten one plate of treats on a 10-day cruise. Here on the Majesty, I’d managed to rate 2 of them on a 3-day cruise. I felt so loved!

 

It was mid-afternoon at this point and we decided that the pool deck was the place to be until time to get ready for dinner. DD wanted to hang out in the hot tub and I planned to get some embroidery done. So I settled into a deck chair and relaxed. This is one of my favorite places in the whole world. A beautiful day, with a bit of sun, not too hot, the ship underway … it’s the sort of thing I fanaticize about when I’m not cruising. The Sexiest Man contest was held shortly after we arrived on the pool deck. It was a bit of a struggle again to round up the appropriate number of contestants, and several of the guys weren’t exactly sure they were happy about it. Half of them never ever thought to take off their shirts. This disappointed a number of the ladies in the crowd, but you can’t always score a wildly entertaining spectacle when the participants can’t exactly be classified as willing participants. One of these days, some enterprising fellow is going to enter the arena in a jacket he borrowed from one of the waiters, bow to the lady of this choice, draw her onto the floor, sweep her into a few basic waltz steps, complete with an underarm turn that ends in a dip … and the crowd will go wild. I know I’m a relic out of time, but I think that a sexy man is the one who can make the lady of his choice feel special and desirable … and that takes romance, not a series of jiggles and gyrations.

 

With the spectacle over, I slipped off my deck chair and decide to cool off a bit in the pool. This didn’t mean I felt like swimming – I just wanted to lounge in a wetter environment. DD joined me shortly and we shared the kid’s wading area of one of the pools with about a dozen other adults. What a reversal this was! Cruisecritic is full of posts of adults complaining about kids in adult venues, and here we were hogging up the kids wading pool. I bet if we log onto kidscruisecritic we’ll find some viral posts about those irresponsible adults on the Majesty.

 

Five o’clock rolled around and a group of the ship’s officers showed up on the pool deck for a line dance sail-away party. I didn’t feel like taking my soaking wet self over to the dance floor, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in dancing. Fortunately, there were a few others who did the line dancing right where they were – at the pool’s edge or on the sun deck – so I got to do a bit more dancing since I was apparently in very good company.

[MrBanana1240]

Thanks so much for posting! Loving the writing style and pictures. Keep it up and I hope you had a great time!

 

Finally back on the RCI boards with a Royal cruise. Our Enchantment '12 was amazing (thanks Hurricane Sandy), so I booked the Majesty during summer with some friends. Excited to be Bahama hopping and revisiting Key West. Wasn't sure if I wantd Majesty or Enchantment (got off as it went for the refurb) but this review helped me choose, and I'm happy with my choice!

 

Thanks again for your amazing review

[emeraldcity]

Thanks so much for posting! Loving the writing style and pictures. Keep it up and I hope you had a great time!

 

Finally back on the RCI boards with a Royal cruise. Our Enchantment '12 was amazing (thanks Hurricane Sandy), so I booked the Majesty during summer with some friends. Excited to be Bahama hopping and revisiting Key West. Wasn't sure if I wantd Majesty or Enchantment (got off as it went for the refurb) but this review helped me choose, and I'm happy with my choice!

 

Thanks again for your amazing review

 

You've made a great choice ... wonderful ship ... wonderful crew. And the Majesty won't be part of the fleet much longer, so you won't get many more chances at her. Frankly, I've only been home 2 weeks and I'm already trying to think of whether I can squeeze in another getaway before my Alaska cruise next summer.

[emeraldcity]

I left the pool deck first to go take the first shower, and then while DD was cleaning up I headed down to the Guest Services to cash a check for tip and travel money. There was a relatively long line and a rather small staff, so the process took nearly a half hour. I have to wonder if the staff was a bit inexperienced. Every situation seemed to involve lots of discussion and consultation. Really? How many different types of requests can there possibly be? I figured mine was going to be pretty simple, but I was mistaken. The guy at GS studied my driver’s license and my checkbook with all the intensity of a Junior High English Teacher, intent on discovering a dangling particle in your essay. I was beginning to think I was going to have to put my three Crown & Anchor Majesty cruise points up for collateral. He finally reluctantly agreed to exchange some money for the check and I returned to our cabin to ready the tip envelopes. I added a thank you note to each and we signed them. I also added a comment on the envelope for our cabin steward that we loved the monkey. DD had particularly gotten a big kick out of it and she had been disappointed when I had told her the cabin stewards are pretty busy the last day and we probably wouldn’t get one that evening. As we left to head for dinner, Francisco was in the corridor and we handed him the envelope, shook his hand and thanked him for his part in our wonderful escape vacation.

 

Then it was on to dinner. Our beverage of choice appeared magically shortly after we sat down and our favorite rolls from the previous evenings were slid onto our plates before we even had to ask. One couple at our table was late in arriving, and Francisco expertly severed different courses to different diners as they were ready for them, rather than making the whole table wait for the late-comers. Clearly, they are one of the best serving teams I have ever had.

 

I believe it was a strawberry bisque night, which both DD and I ordered. But there was another appetizer that caught our eye and we were tempted to try it. That is, of course, one of the beautiful aspects of cruising. You can succumb to whims and try new things without ending up paying for something that didn’t appeal to you. I wish I could remember the appetizer we tried. We just ordered one and split it between the two of us and it was really good. We chatted a bit with our Columbian tablemates, but I think most of what we said later got translated for the three who just did the “Smile and nod politely” thing. But we made conversation with the other couple and had a wonderful final evening at dinner.

 

After dinner, we stopped by the cabin to check our Cruise Compass to make sure we knew what the plans for the evening were. There on the bed sat another towel animal. DD exclaimed in delight “Oooo, an elephant!” I glanced back into to hall to see if Francisco was around. He was just stepping out into the hall from one of the interior cabins and looking our way with a smile. I have a feeling our little note on the tip envelope was appreciated, because he added one final special touch to our getaway vacation and he was hanging around to see our reaction.

 

We would be wrapping up our cruise with an entire evening in the Spectrum Lounge. We settled into some seats at the edge of the dance floor and ordered a Bahama Mama for each of us. As the room began to fill up we heard a number of lively exchanges about how much fun various people had experienced the previous evening at Karaoke. It became clear that they were expecting to repeat the experience. DD and I exchanged glances. We thought this was a “Finish the Lyric Game Show”. I finally went and borrowed someone’s Compass long enough to review the evening’s schedule and confirm we were in the wrong venue for the game show. We had to huddle. I’m not sure how DD feels about Karaoke, but I am still scarred from a miserable office Christmas party many years ago when the owner’s son booked a Karaoke set-up instead of the traditional dance band, and all attending employees were compelled to pretend we found his fraternity hijinks amusing and his vocal talent noteworthy. DD and I concluded we were relatively comfortable and not willing to give up our prime seats, so we resigned ourselves to dealing with an hour of Karaoke. It would turn out to be a good call since this Karaoke event would make me completely rethink how entertaining this event can be. The hostess for the event arrived to announce that folks could begin making their song selections and that announcement was probably the only time she was in control of the room. There was a dynamic group of women from Grand Rapids, Michigan and Atlanta, Georgia who had claimed a group seats to our right on the edge of the dance floor. They were incredibly gregarious and loaded with energy. Whenever one of them would step up to the microphone to sing, several others would leap up and come along to be their back-up singers and dancers. The Dynamo from Grand Rapids was their leader and she was all over the dance floor creating a party atmosphere and engaging others to join in the fun. This woman should have been on the pool deck running the belly-flop and the sexy men’s competition; she would have created so much energy that they would have had to stage a drawing to select only a handful of guys from the volunteers to participate. More importantly, the people who chose to take the mike were very talented and we enjoyed a wonderful hour of great music and lots of laughs.

 

Next up was the Battle of the Sexes. Unlike many of the ship-board game shows, this one is designed to involve the entire audience. If your objective is passive entertainment, you’d better select a seat way in the back … and even then you may not be safe. They started with a couple events focused on the few volunteers they’d gotten onto the dance floor, but it wasn’t long before they were creating opportunities for the whole room to help. When they tossed the balloons onto the floor and charged the audience with the task of blowing them up to fill the T-shirt of the appropriate gender, my DD flew out of her chair so fast I was convinced she had overcome her aching muscles.

 

They never did announce the winner of the Battle of the Sexes, but then we had all been drawn into the action and had such a good time, that I think everyone won. As people returned to their seats from the conga line they began to announce team composition for the Quest. It was to be teams of 4-6 people. I quickly scanned the groups on either side of us and there were two young couples to my left who were not actively jumping up and trying to form a team, so I asked them if they wanted to be in ours. They readily agreed. I was to find out that this was their first cruise and they weren’t really sure what they had just agreed to get involved in. I was to discover quickly that they had no inhibitions about going all out for the win. Of course, details can not be revealed. It is enough to say that we medaled in this prestigious event. We had a little help from some near-by watchers and I thank them for their invaluable assistance. I only regret that I failed to get a group photo of our team wearing our bronze medals, but DD and I made sure we got a picture of the two of us wearing them the next morning on the pool deck. As we thanked our team members for being such sports and joining our team I told them. “You’ll cruise again” and they each enthusiastically agreed that I was right. It had been a wonderful weekend, capped off with a riotous evening of fun. It’s amazing how much you can actually experience in just a three-day getaway cruise.

 

 

As DD and I headed back to our cabin, I realized my legs were still sore … funny that I hadn’t noticed that at any point in the evening when I jumped up from my chair to go after some quest article. DD mentioned the same thing. Is that what they call “mind over matter”? … when the quest is on your mind, nothing else matters.

 

It would be a short night, but we didn’t care. We could nap on the plane. We had come on the cruise for a chance to break-off from the daily routine and have a great time. We had accomplished that. It had been 18 years since the two of us had taken off for a little vacation together without anyone else along … and we’ll both cherish those memories for a very long time.

Edited September 30, 2014 by emeraldcity

[MattInFLL]

What a great review!

 

I was just on this past weekend and Francesco Orlando was my head waiter and remembered me from mid-August. I was at a 6 top in the center of the dining room and no one ever showed up besides me. Francesco was falling all over himself worried I was going to be unhappy. But I was fine - got excellent service from my waiters. But Francesco is a special guy.

[emeraldcity]

What a great review!

 

I was just on this past weekend and Francesco Orlando was my head waiter and remembered me from mid-August. I was at a 6 top in the center of the dining room and no one ever showed up besides me. Francesco was falling all over himself worried I was going to be unhappy. But I was fine - got excellent service from my waiters. But Francesco is a special guy.

 

Thank you. I had fun writing it ... it makes the trip seem longer when I get to relive it. I'd cruise more often if it weren't for the airfare ... but maybe the fact that I only get about one trip a year makes it more special.

 

It sure is a thrill to get to meet up with favorite crew when you cruise again. That's not something that I had ever experienced when I was only able to go once every two years.

[cmpells87]

Great post. Heading on Majesty Feb 2nd..my bf's first cruise!

[WinksCruises]

I discovered this review while doing some preliminary research on Majesty and just have to say it's one of the wittiest, best written reviews on this site. Just incredible. Please cruise again, soon, so we can get a chance to read more of your entertaining travel logs.

[emeraldcity]

I discovered this review while doing some preliminary research on Majesty and just have to say it's one of the wittiest, best written reviews on this site. Just incredible. Please cruise again, soon, so we can get a chance to read more of your entertaining travel logs.

 

Thank you for your compliment. I have a number of my reviews out there. ... but this is the short one. The others require a serious investment in time...

 

Serenade - 2010

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1180486

 

Grandeur - 2012

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1621018

 

Grandeur - 2013

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1962469&highlight=christmastime

 

and then there's the one from the Hawaii cruise, but that's another screen name, because I was incognito during the planning, since DD did know I was taking her on a cruise that vacation.

[kdnurs]

You have eased my mind about the Majesty. I am booked for August 28, 2015 with 5 other amazing women for a Girls Weekend. I have sailed RCI many times but never on a small ship. I get sea sick for one reason and the other reason I just didn't think there was that much to do. You have assured me on the second point how wrong I was. To address the first point, is there an issue with seas sickness? Do you feel every motion of the ocean? :eek: Thank you for a nice review and for the answers to my questions.