Just back from Majesty 12/9-12

[baileymouse]

I decided to book a 3 day trip for just the two of us to celebrate a certain someone's birthday. I sailed on Enchantment in August and Liberty a couple of years ago, and wanted to experience another ship. I booked Majesty of the Seas because I figured it would be a good, short weekend itinerary.

 

We flew down from Newark on Thursday the 8th. We had a two hour delay but we made the best of it. I had booked a car with Avis and we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites on S. Conway. Hotel was good but under construction so it looked a little rough in areas. We had a newly renovated room and were happy.

 

The next morning we were up & out early. I drove out to Canaveral, dropped the car with Avis, and we took the shuttle over to the port. I have to say embarkation was a breeze, probably the easiest I've ever experienced. The ground crew were great.

 

We went upstairs, walked around, went to the Windjammer and didn't have any trouble getting a seat. I'm used to that being crowded so I was surprised. We had a nice little lunch and then continued to explore. We stopped by the Schooner bar to see if we could find the meetup people but we didn't know who was there for that.

 

Muster went off without a hitch. It was chilly out so you didn't see the usual hordes heading into the pool, but a bunch of people were in the hot tubs.

 

Our room....

Cabin was small! The head of the bed is up under the porthole window. There's a lifeboat and strut obstructing the view, which wasn't an issue for us, we weren't originally planning on spending time in the room. The ceiling looks like it had some water damage because you can see the staining through the paint. If you're lying on the bed, there's one shelf on the right, but the only outlet in the room is on the left, over by the desk, so plugging in a CPAP or other medical equipment is rough. The outlet was loose. Our travel agent had sent a request for an extension cord for the CPAP but our cabin attendant had no record of that and had to hunt one down. We were also supposed to get distilled water but that never materialized.

 

Bathroom was clean but the toilet seemed to have some trouble flushing properly. The safe needs to be replaced because it's hard to operate, the buttons don't take commands easily. The shower was small but very good.

 

Majesty is smaller than Enchantment and I figured that since we'd be in port both days that wouldn't be an issue, but we missed Coco Cay due to weather & that missing space was truly missed. I would have loved a solarium at that point. People wandered around looking for TVs to watch the NFL games, they ate & drank, and pretty much just stayed indoors.

 

Here's a summation of what I loved about our 3 days:

 

The ship was beautifully decorated for Christmas which gave it a very festive appearance. It was great for pictures.

 

Captain Pehr Pehrsson was very personable and knew what he was doing, which is always a plus.

 

I enjoyed Cruise Director Susan McColl's humor and thought she did a good job.

 

Music in the bars and in the Centrum were great. I loved the jazz, Latin jazz, and some of the pop.

 

We enjoyed the game shows and the trivia, too.

 

Our favorite thing? Our Rainbow Reef Snorkel shore excursion was well worth the money. We saw an amazing array of beautiful fish and coral.

 

The people at Guest relations and the shore excursion desks were all wonderful.

 

I always love the Parade of Flags, I'm such a softie.

 

So, what was disappointing:.

 

We bought the Voom package, which had worked fine on Enchantment, but I experienced a lot of drop-out on Majesty.

 

The toilets were a pain. They didn't flush well. I was fine on Liberty and Enchantment, but on Majesty they just didn't seem to work and the hallway often had a bit of a stench. I noticed they were spraying air fresheners and workers were constantly working on the pipes in the hallways.

 

The dining room experience was very poor. I had been wowed by the staff on both Liberty and Enchantment and was sorely disappointed here. We were in the later dinner seating at 8:30. We were always right on time, but our table and the other tables serviced by our waitstaff were always the last ones out. Dinner would stretch until 10:30 or later, and we'd miss entertainment. I wasn't happy about that. I never felt like the wait staff knew who we were. I remember mentioning my allergy (crustacean) to the waiters on both Liberty & Enchantment and they noted it. On Majesty when the menu was explained each evening the shrimp dishes were pointed out as recommendations to me. Annoying, but not the end of the world. The three night menus were Mojo, Saffron and Pimiento. Formal night was Saffron night.

 

Day 2, Nassau: When we arrived we walked up to the library to see it (it's historic) and then came back for our shore excursion. Again, I loved the snorkeling and would definitely recommend it.

 

When we got back there was a huge line to get onto the ship. The Xray machine had broken and we had to stand outside, cold & damp, for about 20 minutes. We went upstairs, showered and changed and decided to go back out for a walk. When we came back down the line was 6x as long and people were beyond upset. They had been rained on, the weather was cool, and the line was extremely slow. I'm betting some people missed their early dinner seatings. Royal really messed up with that one. We couldn't get off the ship because they had people coming in the exit in order to get them out of the rain, but the line stretched almost the entire length of the ship.

 

Day 3 would have been Coco Cay. The Captain made the announcement early in the morning. I was up on deck with my early coffee, and I knew it was coming. The seas looked pretty bad and the wind was whistling.

 

Not being able to go to Coco Cay put a slight damper on the weekend, but we made do. We're go with the flow types of people and don't usually complain, we find something to do. At one point we went back to the cabin to take a nap but were woken up by workmen welding right outside of our cabin window! Good thing we were dressed, haha!

 

There's not much shopping on the ship. I think this is the first time I didn't buy anything. We played (and won) the holiday trivia, went to the Friendly Feud show, the Quest game show, and we took in a lot of music in the bars. I checked in on the Packers game. There were a lot of happy Vikings, Packers and Giants fans on board.

 

We went to the Boogie Wonderland finale show and I thought it was kind of silly. I liked some of the singers & dancers, but the song choices were strange. If you're focusing on the mid-late 70s disco craze, why would you suddenly throw in Three Dog Night's Joy to the World?

 

I noticed on night 3 that a lot less people showed up for dinner in our area. I had high hopes that it would mean we'd get out earlier but it still took an hour and 45.

 

We finished the night with the Quest game show and then went back to the room to pack.

 

We made the decision to self-carry in the AM because we had an early flight back to Newark. I think we were off the ship in record time. Port Canaveral gets points for that. We booked our return on Cortrans and they were wonderful, very prompt and courteous. I can definitely recommend them.

 

It was just the two of us on this trip. Honestly, if this had been my first cruise, I would never have booked another. I'm glad I have prior cruising experience because I know that the lack of service in the dining room and the lack of communication is not standard. I'm booked on Majesty again in January of 2018 and I think I'm going to move that reservation to another ship.

 

Next up: Anthem of the Seas in June, 2017. It's about time we sailed from our home.

[easyboy]

Thanks for your balanced review. Hope that your next cruise will be a lot better than this one. Looking forward to your next review.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[reallyhooked]

Majesty was the 1st ship that we cruised on years ago that got us hooked. We were on Anthem in October. Our favorite spot was the solirium.

Enjoy your next cruise.

[Philly Steve]

Thanks for the review. :)

[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry to hear about the poor dining room experience, seems I'm reading that more and more throughout the fleet.

[alfaeric]

The other sorry thing- you missed a launch that was scheduled on 12/12. They rescheduled it to today, 12/13.

 

It would be really cool to see a launch from a ship.

 

BTW, whenever we have bathroom problems, I never hesitate to call for it- it seems as if many people don't understand that the only paper that's supposed to go down is the toilet paper. We've been blamed for putting something clogging things up, even though we've only been on the ship for a few hours....

 

Oh, well.

[vickiw0318]

So sorry to learn of your negative experience. It sounds as though the cosmos wasn't properly aligned for this trip - problems with the pipes, no Coco Cay, x-ray machine problems, inefficient waitstaff. I can understand why this combination would put you off the Majesty.

 

Fortunately, this is not always the case. The cabins will always be small. There's no changing that. However, in October, we had the same My Time dining staff twice and they "knew" us and took care of us well. The food was good. (We like shrimp. :)) We were able to go to Coco Cay and there were no boarding problems in Nassau. (Other than the usual backup at the Bahamian port building.) The toilets did not present any problems either.

 

As a personal aside, I do find that the more I cruise, the less I buy at the shops on board. I always go through looking for new to me items, but that rarely seems to be the case. Specifically, I had bought a cute t-shirt on the Vision and hoped to find a somewhat like it on the Majesty. I found it and it was like it - only one color option which was the same as the sole color option available on the Vision. That's one of the reasons that first time cruisers are money makers for the line. Everything is brand new!

[Lionesss]

Very sorry for your mis adventures.

 

It seems that now once we are addicted to the Oasis class ships we would never go back, we would be looking for the things we would miss.

 

But you were cruising while I was watching the snow fall and fall and fall...............

 

Would rather have been cruising.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post.

[baileymouse]

We still had a nice and relaxing time, I just don't think Majesty is the ship for me. I adored Enchantment and Liberty. I'm still looking forward to the other cruises I have booked.