MAJESTIC Princess Review Inaugural cruise 4th to 9th April (Long)

[sidari]

Majestic Princess Inaugural cruise

 

Well our day began by having to get up at daft o'clock in the morning in order to be at the airport by Five am, car parked, we headed to the Jet 2 check in area which had very few people waiting and we breezed through check in and up to join the security line.

As usual this part takes a while especially when they decide to send your bag through for another scan, cabin bags sorted and off we headed to the lounge for breakfast.

 

As with all our previous Jet 2 flights this one was on time and boarding went fairly fast and soon we were on our way to Rome Fuimicino airport, we had forgotten just how far the plane has to taxi here once landed and it seemed to take an age,

As usual with Italy you park at the furthest point and then have a trek to get to the bag reclaim, once we checked in with the Princess staff it was another trek to the waiting bus for the Fifty or so minute ride to Civitavecchia having handed our cases to the waiting truck driver to be delivered to the ship.

 

Once at the port we went into the booking hall which had as mall queue, within around Ten minutes we were checked in and heading to the ship, then another queue which took about Fifteen minutes to get to the front of because there were only Two Italian port officials checking passports.

 

Cabin …

Once onboard we headed to our cabin 719 on Deck 14 Riviera on the Aft starboard side, having previously only cruised twice with Princess on Ruby Princess in November 2008 and 2009 in the same Suite L106 we were not sure what the Balcony cabins would be like on Majestic.

We were pleasantly surprised that it was an airy light well planned cabin with a walk in wardrobe with plenty of hanging space, the bathroom was somewhat smaller than the Suite on the Ruby but big enough, the shower cubicle looked a little wider than a few other ships we have been on with the addition of a foot rest, the only criticism of this area is the placement of the toilet roll under the sink on the wall where the door is, it needs to be Six inches to the right of where it currently is.

Another thing we noticed was that if you tripped when coming out of the bathroom you would go head first into the corner edge of the wardrobe, the room safe is in the cupboard between the bathroom and wardrobe,the flat screen TV is on the wall opposite the bed, the mini bar is next to the balcony door while the dressing table is between the bed and the balcony doors,the cabin also has two bedside cabinets with table lamps on them.

The Electrical fittings are the usual USA, Europe ones along with one for Australia and two USB connections for phone charging. The phone is on the dressing table.

 

As expected the beds being new were nice and comfortable as were the pillows, it was a little annoying when in bed to find that the lights above the dressing table could not be turned off from the bedside switches.

 

Our cabin steward came and introduced himself and anyone who has Carlos from Mexico will have a wonderful steward.

 

 

Lifeboat Drill …

Our designated area was the Vista lounge on Deck 7, the drill took around Forty Five minutes.

 

Sail away … The ship left its berth from behind the MSC Clea container ship with no fanfare considering it was supposed to be the Inaugural sailing.

 

Food/ Buffet …

Embarkation day in the Buffet the food was good with a decent choice of various foods, the odd thing was no bar in the Buffet area for anyone wanting beer etc which is the same as the other two in the class, the servers would get the hot and cold drinks rather than you have to go bring them yourself. The food over the following days seemed to be hit and miss and certain things in the wrong place ie Jam nowhere near the butter or bread. On the one evening we ate in the Buffet the Beef curry had more fat than Beef on it. One morning the Sausage, Eggs and Beans were almost cold. In general there is a good selection of food including Chinese.

 

Food/Dining Room …

The first night we had to queue for around Fifteen minutes for any time dining, the food that night was below par apart from the Cold Pina Colada soup and the sweet, the other three nights the food was a vast improvement with the Beef Medallions being the best of the food followed by the Steak on the last night in an almost empty dining room.

 

Food Elsewhere …

The International café did not disappoint on the two occasions that we chose food from there, the Lobster grill we had been told had wonderful burgers and after our trip into Kotor we decided to give it a try and again we were not disappointed. The mixed Chocolate and Vanilla Ice cream was ok from Swirls on Deck 16 outside the Buffet.

 

Drinks …

We had decided that we would not purchase a drink package for this cruise seeing as it was only Five nights and two days were port days and we knew we would be out all day on our Corfu stop visiting friends in the North of the island. We did try the smoothie bar and the drinks were great,other drinks such as the special Coffee and Chocolate we bought from the International Café bar and the Crown Grill bar. One thing we noticed that the seating areas were small in all the bars.

 

Theatre Shows …

The best show by far was Fiera by the ships dancers and singers and possibly the best show we have seen on a ship, other nights we watched the Beatle Maniacs (Beatles tribute group) who again were very good and they also did a show on the last night in the Atrium, the Unexpected boys who did a show based on the Jersey boys were also very good, there was also two comedians but we only saw around Five minutes of one and did not see the other one.

 

Be aware that the seats at the rear most part of the Theatre are not high enough to see the stage clearly.

 

 

The Ship …

Having a friend who worked on the building of the ship and who kept me updated with photos some of which were posted on C.C we were keen to see the real thing but were disappointed with its overall layout which appears clumsy in places and badly designed, after Ruby Princess we had high hopes for the Majestic but sadly this ship has no wow factor in it and despite its nice fabrics and carpets and interiors was a let down with things missing that are in the other two ships. The ship appears to be a Grand Class interior in a Royal class hull and there appears to have been little to no changes in the general areas and layout.

 

To get to the back of Deck 18 and 19 you have to go through the Basketball court, there is no running/jogging/walking track on this ship as there is on the Royal and Regal, to go from aft to forward on Deck 17 you either have to go through the Gym or up and over Deck 18, to go from Deck 19 to the Aft Deck 16 Wake view bar you can only do this on the Starboard side of the ship down to 17 due to the kids play area on 18.

 

The Hollywood Conservatory appears to be a waste of space,it is supposed to be a quiet area but has musical instruments inside which anyone can play on, so not a good area to read a book, you have to pay for the Cabanas around the outside of this area as you would in the Sanctuary. The Hollywood pool area appears to be good again with Cabanas along each side and a fixed roof.

 

For anyone at the back of the ship who wants to get to the Atrium or Deck 5 or 6 you have to go down to Deck 7 then go across to the Atrium area.

The outside Promenade/Boat deck is broken up into small areas with a narrow corridor behind the lifeboats, the gates were across so not sure if you can or cannot continue through that area.

 

The Greens Mini golf area is very poor. Basically it’s a flat deck with holes in and shares the area with people playing Crocket! The Laser shooting range we never found open. The Wake view bar only had tables and chairs down the sides and none of the loungers/settees that they have on the other two ships, there is also a Hot drink station here, none of the three had hot milk.

The Buffet is easy to get around but food needs to be better marked and things like butter near to the bread and jam instead of making people search around for them.

 

The Aft of Deck 17 to us and others we spoke to is a waste of space and the waste of a good sunbathing area due to the outdoor Gym equipment being there.

During the cruise we never saw the Fountains on deck 17 working.

 

The were many sun beds left in large numbers strapped together on either side of the ship, we found out on the last night that the ship was not full despite the website saying it was sold out three days before departure.

 

 

A few people we spoke to said their air con did not work and their rooms were always cold, others complained of cold areas inside the ship.

 

The Lifts/Elevators no longer tell you the deck name just the floor numbers, the Carpets on the Starboard side is Red and Blue on the Port side for those who easily get lost.

The shops are mostly high end aimed at the Chinese market,the casino appears to be much smaller than on other ships we have been on although it does have a separate VIP casino alongside it.

The photo gallery has the face recognition screens for ordering and looking at any photos you have had taken, be aware though that you can end up with photos of someone else among your own, plus there are times when you may have missing pictures. We had to get a staff member to look for our missing photos and have them move them into our file.

 

Deck 5 also houses the forward starboard Karaoke rooms that people can hire, during the cruise we could not get the Princess@sea app to work on either of our phones or tablets.

 

Despite the fact that the ship is heading to China it gives an impression of less having been spent on it in some places, even some of the crew along with long time Princess cruisers had the same reservations of areas of wasted space and a lack of atmosphere.

 

Ports …

Kotor … We left the ship early doors and bought tickets at 20 Euros pp for the Ho Ho bus tour and decided on the 10 am bus, the tour was pleasant enough in warmish sunshine apart from some areas along the route where the sun had not got to yet, there was a lightish wind which made the non sun areas cool.

 

On return to the starting point we headed to the small shopping centre for drinks and in search of wifi, after our pit stop we crossed the road to take photos of Majestic and our first MSC ship Poesia, from there we headed up the road away from the ships. As we crossed the road the rain began so we headed into the small tunnels under the old town and into the centre.

As we waited to go back to the ship the heavens opened and we headed back soaked through, a Chinese guy sat next to Kerry spotted our MSC rucksack and said you are on the wrong boat, Kerry explained that we had previously sailed on the Poesia from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale. Also in Kotor but further down the fjord was the Viking star cruise ship.

 

The sail away began with the “Love boat” theme tune being played on the ships horn and once again as we sailed farther out between the mountains, which gave a great echo back.

 

Corfu …

We were joined by the Viking Star once again.

 

We had booked a hire car some weeks earlier from Ocean Corfu hire cars in order to go to visit friends in the North West and North East of the island, having had 14 land holidays here and this our third visit by cruise ship it is always like coming home. We also needed to take a trip to check out our land there, friends on the ship had decided to do a tour which took them to Mavromatis for the koum Quat tasting, Paleokastritsa and on up to the Golden Lion at Bella Vista and on to Lakones before heading back to Corfu town. We timed our route so as to arrive at the Golden Fox after all the buses had been and gone.

Once again as we left Corfu the “Love boat” tune was played on the ships horn as we headed back to Civitavecchia.

 

This cruise was listed and sold as the Inaugural Five night cruise of the Majestic Princess, there was nothing special about this cruise,no special food or evening dinner to mark the occasion and to us it was just like many of the other cruises we have been on.

 

The Captains welcome back party was just a get together in the Vista gaming lounge while they went through the usual who had travelled on how many days etc and held a draw carried out by Captain Sagani who called out his own name as the Third prize winner for a laugh, as we left we were all given a voucher in order to get a drink in the evening, We have no idea if this is the norm now on Princess but on other ships these parties usually have waiters etc walking around with drinks.

 

A week prior to sailing I had ordered flowers via the Princess website as a surprise Anniversary gift for my other half Kerry which were to be onboard on embarkation day, no flowers were in the cabin so I asked our Cabin steward Carlos from Mexico if he knew anything about them. I ended up at customer services who told me that there were no flowers on the ship because the Majestic does not have a florist onboard! I asked that they refund my CC but was told that I would have to take the refund as OBC.

 

Coming away without a happy resolution I then had to explain to Kerry why I needed to go to customer services without her, as you can imagine she was not best pleased.

 

I contacted Princess once home via email about the issue,the following day I received a call from Princess saying that they were going to refund the cost to my CC and were sorry etc etc. So, credit where it is due to Princess for dealing with the issue quickly.

 

In thinking back about the ship it is not one that we would travel on again in its current configuration or again for that matter, we also said that we likely would not travel on the other two, the Majestic appears to lack something, certainly some of the bars for sure that are on the other two in the class. Having had chance to study the deck plans of Royal and Regal I would say that these two put the Majestic in the shade and the only redeeming quality it has is the covered pool.

 

Of the other two the Regal would be the likely one we would try in the future if we fall out with MSC after our Seaside trip over Xmas on December 23rd from Miami which will be our Fifth with them.

 

 

The next Royal class ship needs to have the covered pool and not have the mish mash of things mentioned above in its design in order for it to be better than the other three.

 

Overall the cruise was good and considering what we paid for the trip was certainly value for money, the food was good to very good in the Dining rooms in general, but we found the ship itself a let down sadly having been looking forward to it.

Edited April 14, 2017 by sidari

[Alessandrina]

Thank you for your thorough review.

Cheers.

[cdngrl]

5 weeks until i sail. i've not been looking forward to the big ship and it sounds like i won't be pleasantly surprised. i'm glad that there was much of it that was good.

it does seem a shame that the inaugural wasn't more special.

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. It is interesting to read about the things they changed on the Majestic to suit the market in China.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Thank you for your review. As far as the Captain Circle party (not the welcome aboard party), having a drink voucher is normal for passengers not being platinum or elite. There is a cocktail party for platinum and elite passengers.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[sidari]

Nina ... Thanks for that info re the Captains Circle, not sure why they call it a party when everyone is seated and all you do is listen to someone talking.

Maybe they need to change the title for those in the lower part of the club to the Captain`s gathering .... :D

[rumbalizw]

Hi Sidari . The Captain told me that he cannot play the Love Boat out of Rome port due to local noise restrictions. We thought that the Ents staff could have done more at that Sailaway to get the crowd going .

Years ago on the Golden coming out of Barcalona on a normal cruise , they played Freddie Mercury "Barcalona " loudly and had streamers . Something along those lines may have gone down better I think

 

 

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[rumbalizw]

We found that the VIP Gaming Lounge bar was ideal to get a drink at quickly, as was always empty and then take through to wherever you were heading to

 

 

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[sidari]

Hi Liz ... Considering that Civitavecchia is a commercial port as well as a turnaround port you would think that the ship would be allowed to wave goodbye by using the ships horn, very odd, good that they did in the other ports though.

 

I remember the MSC Divina leaving Venice when we were on the ships first T.A to Miami, the very same happened no fanfare, no noise just a silent sail away.

 

I agree that the entertainments team could have had something organised or maybe once again they could not make any noise! having said that we only saw one of them all cruise lol, apart from the Lifeboat drill.

 

Good idea about the V.I.P lounge for drinks though.

[rumbalizw]

Yes very low profile Ents crew . On the Golden, the CD and the Asst CD were always present around tge ship and did a very funny Wake Show each morning.

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

Thank You nice review.

Tony

[sidari]

Thanks for the replies .... :)