Majesty thoughts 19th Sep cruise

[trickyoat]

This is my review of the Thomson Majesty's Adriatic Explorer cruise out of Corfu on the 19th September. Having had time to reflect i will give you a measured review based on experiences on board. This review runs in tandem with derekkeith35 on the reviews tab on the front of this site as my wife and i were one of the 3 couples travelling together. So here we go.

 

FLIGHT: We flew out from Aberdeen with Germania on a direct flight to Corfu. The flight was on time and otherwise uneventful, landing in plenty of time for the transfers etc. Germania although a relatively small carrier with a fleet of only 23 planes impressed me a great deal. There was even 2 in flight films to keep you occupied. Luggage was fairly prompt upon arrival in the terminal, although i would say we were lucky that our flight seemed to arrive before a rush of others. I would say a word of caution the carousel area can get extremely packed very quickly.

 

CHECK IN: The coach transfer was swift, a health form filled out on the bus eventually twhen they did eventually put interior lights on to help you see what you were writing. At the terminal a drink was offered, card details taken as well as your photo. Have to say the official photograph portrait before boarding should really be the only one taken of you, but more on that later.

 

CABIN: We had cabin 3145 an inside twin berth cabin, and despite having asked for a double not one of the group of 3 couples received one, this was a let down. Bizarrely my brother-in-law and his wife were 3 decks higher in a relatively spacious cabin compared to the ones we has on deck 3. This despite us all having booked together as a group.

 

Now 3145 is a small cabin there's no getting away from it, for a weeks cruise it's ok but any longer than this may be pushing it somewhat. The shower is compact, although it has exceptional pressure. We kept our suitcases under the bed to aid storage as the wardrobe is tiny. Tea & coffee making facilities were in the cabin, along with bottled water, soft drinks and snacks which come with a price list to boot - we left these items well alone. There was quite a bit of noise in this cabin from the engines, and for those not familiar with this ship the laundry was very close by, so bare that in mind for this deck in particular.

 

SHIP: The ship is utterly spotless, crew were always busy polishing & hoovering away. Whilst we had great weather for the entire cruise the passage from Chioggia to Zadar had a rough patch but the ship handled this with ease and it soon passed. The ship has a interesting layout, slightly ungainly at times finding your way around but you soon got used to it. A raft of cabins run along from the casino which is up ahead of them, kind of strange but there you go.

 

The pillars in the Jubille Lounge are annoying. The best thing to do is keep away from them if you can. The Dining facilities Four Seasons, Seven Seas and San Marco all had the same food which i found really disappointing. Where is the imagination to have something completely different in each one?, that i think is a missed opportunity, and most likely a victim of a tightening budget from head office but more on the food next.

 

FOOD: Where do i start?....well the food was an extremely hit or miss affair, and one sector that i felt failed to live up to the standard that should be on a cruise ship, even if it is a budget line like Thomson. The Brother-in-law's review mentions the spam pate, and fake baked Alaska so i won't dwell on these points again. The food in the buffet, at lunchtime whilst plentiful could be found repeated though out the ship so in retrospect the choice while it seems a lot is quite restricted.

 

Service in the Four Seasons is far and away better than the bigger Seven Seas, where we had dinner twice, once for the Captain's dinner, and secondly on the third last night when to be blunt we were practically ignored for long periods. The Four Seasons waiters, and wine waiters, seemed more engaged and top ups were very frequent the complete opposite of the other eatery.

 

We did not try the al a carte with it's £19.95 surcharge.

 

Overall the food was average, and was seriously put into perspective when we got ashore to the Louis Corcyra Hotel, then and only then did we feel the food had the wow factor, this is what the ship should have delivered but didn't. Don't get me wrong we had nice meals too, but it could have been to a higher standard overall.

 

DRINKS PACKAGE: We had a drinks package at £98, and we definitely consumed more than that The wife loved the cocktails especially! The House Wines are good, as is the lager. Coffee's like Latte and cappuccino are included in the package as well as fruit juices which is good value for money and something i would recommend.

 

STAFF: The staff are very friendly in all areas, the waiters/waitresses were most attentive around the bar areas, and cleared empty glasses promptly. The housekeeping for our cabin were awesome, they turned our cabin around to spotless twice every single day.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: There are shows in the Jubilee Lounge most nights and /or a comedian aka Maurice Grumbleweed!! Enough said....

 

I will say the show team performed well, the effort put into the productions could not be faulted, even if i would say the guys had the edge on vocals most nights.

 

In Fireworks there was a funny edition of Mr & Mrs, which was repeated later in the week also.

 

Music Unlimited and Rhythm of Three played either in the pool area or lounges, Rhythm of Three are most definitely the weakest.

 

GIMMICKS: The continual pushing of the ships photographers was a source of irritation for me and i was not alone. They pounced on you in passageways and whilst you were trooping off down the gangway, in fact it got just a little bit tiresome to be honest.

 

DESTINATIONS: This was a hectic cruise with only 1 sea day en route to Slovenia. The countries visited were amazing for varying reasons some personal ( meeting friends in Koper) some just for their outstanding scenery.

 

My only gripe was having to pull into Chioggia instead of sailing into Venice direct. We took the Gondola excursion full day trip and were directed on a speedy craft for our trip into Venice, however the return later in the day was a chaotic scrum awaiting a boat back, in fact the one we got put on felt like a slow boat to China as it very nearly took 2 hours to return to Chioggia!.

 

Zadar was beautiful as was Dubrovnik, with the view from the cable car sticking in my memory even now. Kotor in Montenegro is simply stunning. I was up early on deck and the fjord was a perfect mirror of the surrounding mountains.

 

The ships berths pretty much a walk away from most things of interest in all the ports except Chioggia. Dubrovnik is a short hop on the bus from Gruz port.

 

RETURN: Upon our week ashore the return flight to Aberdeen was at noon. The transfer to the airport was smooth and despite having to queue twice in the airport (thankfully the Aberdeen line was inside unlike others) we got through to the departures lounge fairly quickly. Yes Corfu airport is way to small for the volumes coming through, and could be a reason why Thomson are home porting out of Dubrovnik next summer.

 

SUMMARY: This was a family holiday but we were all treated as separate couples all the time whilst on the ship, including transfers etc. This was poor.

 

I did enjoy the cruise and whilst the ship is no spring chicken it got me to all the ports without any major incidents. The Hotel ashore had superior food though.

 

I think i would cruise again in the future, would it be with Thomson well that's debatable, i may just have got more for my money from another line.

 

These are just my personal opinions on certain things, and i leave you all to make your own judgement regarding future plans.

 

Thanks for reading! :)

Edited October 11, 2014 by trickyoat

[gillhalfpint]

Thank you for a great review of Majesty which we were on in May. Brought back memories.