Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

Few more ships pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did stop at the big store in front of pier #4 to check out the merchandise as a lot of people were inside shopping. I forgot to take picture of the place but we got some Ketchikan holiday ornaments for a good price.

 

[harryfat1]

After that, it was back to the ship at 1:15 PM as all abord was the much earlier 2:15 PM instead of the original 5:30 PM if it wasn’t for the high tide in Vancouver that forced us to leave earlier.

 

I think if we were there later, we would have walked back down and check out some of the hills of Ketchikan as I saw some good views of the port area from YouTube.  Oh, well, maybe next Alaska cruise in 10 years.

 

Security screening at the atrium area as we came back to the ship.  As always, security team members get their pay reduced if they are seen as being friendly to the cruise passengers

 

 

Buffet lunch.  I really like these meat dishes with rice

 

 

Seafood was pretty good - note they serve you.  Can't touch that...

 

 

 

Desserts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got the specialty coffee after lunch as it was part of the package

 

[harryfat1]

Afterwards, time to go to top deck for our last sail away for this cruise.  Always sad to have the last sail away on any cruise as that meant the next time you touch land, your cruise is over

 

 

 

Looks like the tour is over as it's empty

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a big James Bond fan - so let's play the Diamonds are Forever theme song:

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Few more pictures of Ketchikan area before we left the top deck area

 

 

 

 

With the sun and warmer weather, more people hanging out at the pool area

 

 

[harryfat1]

We didn’t do much of anything else that afternoon except to look around the gift shop to decide if we want to spend any of the Carnival stock shareholder OBC in getting some Princess souvenirs or not (yeah, don’t get me started on how badly the stock has been performing).

 

 

 

 

Speaking of OBC, I didn’t mention that starting on day 2 of the cruise, I had been emailing my travel agent on the OBC that she was supposed to provide to me as part of the cruise booking. I am not allowed to mentioned travel agencies here on CC but it’s a large agency that rhymes with Encyclopedia.  This is first time I used this agency with the branch in NJ and it’s been a bad experience.  Will never use them again.

 

Anyway, per the agent, we were supposed to get OBC credited to our ship board accounts by day 2 and by day 3 when I still haven’t seen anything in the account, I started emailing her to say nothing is showing up.  She kept insisting I check the account with guest services.  Princess disabled the account balance viewing on the TV as it just says, “use the app”. 

 

Well, the internet on the app and the app itself is not really working most of the time.  That meant I had to do it the old school way to stand in line daily at the guest services to request a balance printout so I can take a picture of it on the phone to email to her I got ZERO OBC from her agency.

 

Supposedly some other Princess ships have kiosk by guest services where you can print your own copy without standing in line.  Well, no such thing on the Majestic.  So had to stand in line…

 

Got the print out as of day 6 and NOPE, Nada.  No OBC.  Emailed the agent and by this time, she stopped replying.  Just terrible service.

 

 

[harryfat1]

As it was a warm day by Alaska standards, we just ordered some drinks and sat by the balcony as there’s not much else to do.  This isn’t RCI. No rock climbing.  No bumper cars.  No ice shows. No parades. Just nothing that fits what we like to see/do.

 

 

 

 

 

TV map to show where we have traveled on this cruise as we make our way to stop #7 (Vancouver) as we started from #1 on the upper left in Whitter.

 

 

Not sure if you can read it but if you look at the upper left under #4 – Somebody spelled Ice “Straight” Point instead of “Strait”.  That’s embarrassing to have that mistake on a major cruise line and broadcasting to all.  Guess since the port was a late substitute, there was no review of the screen info.

 

[harryfat1]

Second formal night. Here's our pic from dinner in case the fashion police on CC is out inspecting whether or not we followed the dress code

 

 

Nobody at the other side where we sat on the first formal night

 

 

No Menu.  But it's lobster & escargot

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know what sauce Princess adds on but it's very salty.  If you are on a low sodium diet, be sure to request they put the sauce on the side so you can portion control (or just leave it off)

 

 

As with all the cruises we have been on, the waiter cuts the lobster for you

 

 

Here's a video of him cutting it

 

 

 

 

Time to queue up the B-52 song:

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I always wanted to get one of those crumb scrapers :

 

 

Desserts:

 

 

Princess seems to love these dome types of desserts as we see them at various places

 

 

[travelin.sisters]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

 

birthday? anniversary? 

whatever it was...hope it was great!

[4x4bob]

9 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Second formal night. Here's our pic from dinner in case the fashion police on CC is out inspecting whether or not we followed the dress code

 

 

Nobody at the other side where we sat on the first formal night

 

 

No Menu.  But it's lobster & escargot

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know what sauce Princess adds on but it's very salty.  If you are on a low sodium diet, be sure to request they put the sauce on the side so you can portion control (or just leave it off)

 

 

As with all the cruises we have been on, the waiter cuts the lobster for you

 

 

Here's a video of him cutting it

 

 

 

 

Time to queue up the B-52 song:

 

 

 

You have some very nice photo's of your family.  I think the best one of your Wife was her sitting by her self on the balcony with a plate on her knee.  You should have a 8x10 print made of that photo and then display it back home with your family photo collection.

You are lucky she sits still for photos.  My Wife has a built in GPS unit that tells her when I am near her with my camera and she disappears like a puff of smoke.

Bob

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

birthday? anniversary? 

whatever it was...hope it was great!

Haha, must be a veteran Princess cruiser to recognize the special cake as a celebration.

 

Yeah, it was father-in-law’s birthday.

 

Here's a camera app edited photo at dinner:

 

 

Actually, my wife’s birthday was the week after but she didn’t want the singing at MDR.  I made a note in our cruise personalizer with Princess and they noted on the door display but true to Princess disorganized fashion, they had both of us as having birthday on the door greeting (DOH!)

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, 4x4bob said:

You have some very nice photo's of your family.  I think the best one of your Wife was her sitting by her self on the balcony with a plate on her knee.  You should have a 8x10 print made of that photo and then display it back home with your family photo collection.

You are lucky she sits still for photos.  My Wife has a built in GPS unit that tells her when I am near her with my camera and she disappears like a puff of smoke.

Bob

Our whole family is pretty immune to being photographed. I have hundreds more pictures from the cruise that I didn’t upload that has many of us in the pictures.  We are used to being on either end of the camera.

 

The boys have been brainwashed since young on previous cruises that being photographed by us and shipboard photographers are part of the vacation experience. 

 

Maybe you can use the photo editing apps to change the appearance so she’s more receptive like I did on the post above.

 

Speaking of edits, I used to do more of the tilt-shift miniatures or pencil sketches in my earlier trip reports.  I like those as they break up the monotony of the same-old same-old regular photos.

 

Here are few photos on what I should have done:

 

 

 

 

[SiliconCruiser]

On 10/13/2022 at 10:46 PM, harryfat1 said:

Seafood was pretty good - note they serve you.  Can't touch that...

 

 

Was that just this particular dish?  We were on the Ruby in July and everything in the buffet was self-serve.

[harryfat1]

After dinner, we went to the show at the Princess theater. It was OK.  Not bad but nothing special that anyone hasn’t seen on a typical cruise the past 25 years.  Just rehash of various older songs but no dancers or elaborate sets. 

 

 

 

Entertainment is definitely Priciness cruises’ weakest aspect from our perspective. Take that into consideration if night time entertainment is high on your priority on what you want from your vacation.

  

As previously noted, the Princess theater is located next to the shops so you are forced to go past the shops if you depart on deck 7.

 

 

Nothing much happening at the piazza area other than some couples dancing.

 

Let’s have some rock music to stir up the Piazza – wonder what it would look like if they had a rock party there:

 

 

Let’s start with Queen to get the rhythm going:

 

 

 

Billy is next:

 

 

 

Here’s Pat & Blondie with two songs in one video:

 

 

 

Dire Straits talking Economics:

 

 

 

Van Halen:

 

 

 

Bon Jovi wrapping up:

 

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

If security is in a public area and I am nearby, I will often drop off chocolates for security.  I love catching people off. guard.

 

 

 

Not sure if you can read it but if you look at the upper left under #4 – Somebody spelled Ice “Straight” Point instead of “Strait”.  That’s embarrassing to have that mistake on a major cruise line and broadcasting to all.  Guess since the port was a late substitute, there was no review of the screen info.  This is really sad.  The teacher in me has such an issue with errors like this.

 

 

What an awesome app.  I love it!  Is it "free"  ????

 

[harryfat1]

10 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Was that just this particular dish?  We were on the Ruby in July and everything in the buffet was self-serve.

For the Majestic, anything hot food related servings were provided by the staff.  We self serve on desserts/smoothies but even drinks are are served by the staff.

 

You can check out the pictures I posted on #114 and #273 that showed the hybrid system.

 

I think it may be due to the more restrictive rules the one way sailings this past summer in Alaska as those sailings were required to have masks on in all public areas (at least officially - how they strict implemented the policy is different story).

 

Signs everywhere on the ship saying "masks required" but enforcement was non existent for our sailings.  I saw on YouTube that Royal Princess had more Covid cases in September and they were more strict on the mask policies for those sailings

 

 

If you area able to read the mask requirement on the daily platter on the upper right as officially requiring people to wear masks for our sailing

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

If security is in a public area and I am nearby, I will often drop off chocolates for security.  I love catching people off. guard.

 

 

 

Not sure if you can read it but if you look at the upper left under #4 – Somebody spelled Ice “Straight” Point instead of “Strait”.  That’s embarrassing to have that mistake on a major cruise line and broadcasting to all.  Guess since the port was a late substitute, there was no review of the screen info.  This is really sad.  The teacher in me has such an issue with errors like this.

 

 

What an awesome app.  I love it!  Is it "free"  ????

 

Go to your phone's app store and search for pencil sketch and you should find several options.  Download them all to try and see which ones you like more.

 

Of course they are free.  Cheapo Dad would never pay for a phone app...🤪

[harryfat1]

Same routine to go down to IC on deck 5 to get water and tea for the cabin.

 

Looking at the desserts we never got the entire cruise

 

 

This picture from the TV in the cabin at 11:30 PM showed that we are busting our tail to get down to Vancouver at 21 knots. Look at #4 on the left – you can easily see the misspelling for ISP.

 

 

Since we had a lot of loud rock music in previous post, let’s end the night with something more mellow.

 

For some unknown reasons, I’ve been watching a lot of classic piano videos on YouTube lately.  I can’t figure out why.  Maybe astute cruisers like Bob can help me identify the reasons…

 

 

 

 

This concludes day 6 of the trip report.  We are near the end of the marathon trip report.  As always, appreciate everyone for reading along and contributing to the report.

 

[cr8tiv1]

Hmmmm.  "Watching" the pianist or closing your eyes and listening to the music?

 

I bring along a collapsible beverage carrier for my hot drinks (thank you In 'n Out freebie).  Really hard to carry drinks and a plate of peanut butter cookies.

[harryfat1]

Day 7 – Sea Day (Time to Say Goodbye)

 

Daily Scan:

 

 

 

Last day of cruise is always a downer as you need to pack and say goodbye and get ready to go back to reality of work and real life.

 

However, day 7 is still a vacation day so we make the best of what’s left on the cruise. Woke up later today as there’s no need to wake up early for any shore excursions. 

 

Picture from the balcony at 8:30. The bright skies left us and we have more cloud covers this morning.

 

 

Warm day by Alaska standards.

 

 

Trying to get back by 3:30 AM

 

 

As one can see, due to the size of the Royal Class ships, we have to sail on the west side of the Vancouver Islands (dotted line roue below).  Some people on CC have posted this inside passage on the east side is much more scenic than the open ocean.  We did that back in 2002 but I don’t recall much details.  Next Alaska cruise, we will try the north bound voyage that travels the inside passage but I will have to give up the bigger ships to do so.

 

 

 

Anyway, by taking the west side route, it’s like taking the long way home as we have to wrap around:

 

 

 

Not exactly West Virginia, but the country (ocean) road home

 

 

 

Hallway picture on our way to breakfast:

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

More buffet pictures today than the previous few days as it’s day 7 and one realizes the time is running out to take pictures.

 

As you can't get your own hot food, this is how you get served

 

 

Not as crowded on the lighter wood of the buffet area at 9:08 AM but lots more people at the dark wood side

 

 

 

No guests are allowed to self serve drinks.  Note the napkins on the right - they give you the napkins/utensils via tong

 

 

As it’s end of the cruise, the Majestic Princess staff must have abundance of the salmon left over that they had been rationing so now there’s no need to hide them. 

 

 

You order your specialty coffee here – on the opposite side of the waffle section

 

 

Dude tells me to go to the ice carving show as he will be the one doing it.  Guess he remembers me from the other day when I took a picture of him and his co worker

 

 

 

This is self served

 

 

This is not self served - note the serving tongs are facing the workers

 

 

Waffle man...

 

 

 

Can't get your own bread or pastries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My breakfast

 

 

 

[Coralc]

I didn't know they were bonking on a cello during "Long Way Home". Nice song. ☺️

[MustangGT]

I echo others who have thoroughly enjoyed your trip report!

Love your writing style and the pictures were beautiful!

 Thanks for taking us on the journey!

[harryfat1]

20 hours ago, Coralc said:

I didn't know they were bonking on a cello during "Long Way Home". Nice song. ☺️

Yeah, Supertramp is an underappreciated band. They had several hits from their “Breakfast in America” album.

 

I guess I must be old as I have a copy of that vinyl album in my garage along with many other vinyl albums from my younger days.  I’ll never sell them as they represent an era in my life but one day after I’m gone and my kids/grandkids will have no use for them and all those could be worth something…

 

Here’s their biggest hit – the Logical Song.  Especially worthwhile for those of us that went to school to learn about a “facts based” profession.

 

 

If I was a better trip writer, I should have added this song on days 4 or 5 breakfast pictures when the ship was still in US waters.  Oh, well, better late than never (Breakfast in Canada instead) 😜

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, MustangGT said:

I echo others who have thoroughly enjoyed your trip report!

Love your writing style and the pictures were beautiful!

 Thanks for taking us on the journey!

Thank you for your compliment and following along this far into the trip report.  To use the party analogy, by now, most of the food have been eaten and many people have already left.  I appreciate the remaining few who have stayed to the bitter end. 

 

My trip report is like a buffet – you have a little of everything but it’s good at nothing in particular.  Quantity versus Quality. 

 

Here’s my trip report in a nutshell:

 

Lots of pictures although none are spectacular.  Lots of words but mostly non sensical gibberish. Lots of whiney about Princess’ lack of big entertainment venues when we know that’s not that forte. Lots of bad jokes as my comedy writing staff of one is overworked and numerous music videos as fillers when I run of ideas on what else to write…

 

But hey, you got your money's worth in your annual CC membership dues! 🤪