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

[JF - retired RRT]

17 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

The very old school way you had to bring the life vest with you on deck and strap it on while standing on the Promenade deck (When there was a WIDE promenade deck for everyone to stand on – looking at you, Royal Princess class designers).

 

Then they made it “easier” in not asking you to bring a life vest to the muster drill.  Just show up at your life boat number on Promenade deck few years back.  Now it’s the next step of virtual learning in not even needing to assemble as a group. Just do it whenever it's convenient for you prior to sailing

AFAIK Princess never made you go to muster on the Promenade deck. Been cruising on Princess since 2013 and always went to the muster station inside, i.e. theater, Crown Grill, etc.

BTW: you don't have to watch the video first. On our April cruise, we walked by our muster station on the way to our cabin and checked in with them before we got to our cabin.

Edited September 5, 2022 by JF - retired RRT

[harryfat1]

10 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

AFAIK Princess never made you go to muster on the Promenade deck. Been cruising on Princess since 2013 and always went to the muster station inside, i.e. theater, Crown Grill, etc.

BTW: you don't have to watch the video first. On our April cruise, we walked by our muster station on the way to our cabin and checked in with them before we got to our cabin.

Maybe the reason why they don't make you go to Promenade deck is because on the Royal class ships, the Promenade deck wouldn't fit more than 10% of the passengers so the muster stations has to be inside.

 

This was RCI on the Freedom of the Seas.  You need to show up on your life boat area and they take attendance to see who came

 

 

Good to know you can check into your muster first.  But if you don't watch the video first, how do you know which one is your muster station?  Is it on the wonderful seldom functional Medallion app?

 

Speaking of Muster station, I forgot to mention that my in-laws' cabin were assigned a different muster station to ours.  Guess their cabin is the cutoff point on lifeboat capacity. 

 

So we had to go to 2 different muster stations on the ship to check in. 

[nini]

32 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

AFAIK Princess never made you go to muster on the Promenade deck. Been cruising on Princess since 2013 and always went to the muster station inside, i.e. theater, Crown Grill, etc.

BTW: you don't have to watch the video first. On our April cruise, we walked by our muster station on the way to our cabin and checked in with them before we got to our cabin.

One time, our muster station was outside on a deck by the life boats. Fortunately, it was decent weather.

[phabric]

We were on the Majestic August 27 - Vancouver-Whittier.  
 

They can tell from the tv that you have seen and checked in for the muster drill.  We were going to check in for the muster drill after our early dinner.  When we got to our check in at the Terrace bar on deck 6, there was no one there.  We went to Guest Services, she said “I can tell you saw the video, do you know what to do,  you will receive a letter tomorrow”.  There was a letter the next day in our cabin, explaining what to do.

 

The tv is set to continue showing the muster video.  We had to call Guest Services to rebook our tv so we can watch the tv.

 

We had 1,858 passengers on my cruise.

Edited September 5, 2022 by phabric

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Maybe the reason why they don't make you go to Promenade deck is because on the Royal class ships, the Promenade deck wouldn't fit more than 10% of the passengers so the muster stations has to be inside.

 

This was RCI on the Freedom of the Seas.  You need to show up on your life boat area and they take attendance to see who came

 

 

Good to know you can check into your muster first.  But if you don't watch the video first, how do you know which one is your muster station?  Is it on the wonderful seldom functional Medallion app?

 

Speaking of Muster station, I forgot to mention that my in-laws' cabin were assigned a different muster station to ours.  Guess their cabin is the cutoff point on lifeboat capacity. 

 

So we had to go to 2 different muster stations on the ship to check in. 

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

 

Princess did a good job of having the Muster Stations inside a venue before the Medallion fully kicked in. 

 

Old - Old - Drag your life vest with you / scanned in with cruise card.

Newer - Old - Don't need to drag your life vest with you / scanned cruise card or Medallion.

 

There was always someone who didn't listen to instructions.  "DO NOT TRY IT ON"...until after instructions.  That was my goal to find that one person.

 

On one HAL ship, we stood outside...in the cold...as we WAITED and WAITED and WAITED and WAITED for that one straggler to appear.  I finally told someone I had to sit down and plopped down on the deck.  

 

I much prefer the comfort of my own stateroom and timeline to do the muster drill.  On the back of your cabin door is your muster station assignment.  And you are correct, there is a cut off (by fire doors) for your in-laws.  

 

I saved your building photo.  During the winter months, all but the brave remain.  They are ALL housed in that building.  Even the school and grocery store. Only one building to heat, clean, repair, etc.

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Maybe the reason why they don't make you go to Promenade deck is because on the Royal class ships, the Promenade deck wouldn't fit more than 10% of the passengers so the muster stations has to be inside.

 

This was RCI on the Freedom of the Seas.  You need to show up on your life boat area and they take attendance to see who came

 

 

Good to know you can check into your muster first.  But if you don't watch the video first, how do you know which one is your muster station?  Is it on the wonderful seldom functional Medallion app?

 

Speaking of Muster station, I forgot to mention that my in-laws' cabin were assigned a different muster station to ours.  Guess their cabin is the cutoff point on lifeboat capacity. 

 

So we had to go to 2 different muster stations on the ship to check in. 

I don't know how Princess did muster before 2013, but it was always done indoors since I started cruising (way before the Royal class ships).

How we found our muster station...checked in, walked through the boarding doors and the muster staff for the theater was right there. I know it was our station because the theater is forward and our cabin was A101. Can't get much more forward than that.

[JF - retired RRT]

39 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

There was always someone who didn't listen to instructions.  "DO NOT TRY IT ON"...until after instructions.  That was my goal to find that one person.

And "don't blow the whistle".🤣

[MustangGT]

35 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

And "don't blow the whistle".🤣

There’s always one…..  

[Outerdog]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Good to know you can check into your muster first.  But if you don't watch the video first, how do you know which one is your muster station?  Is it on the wonderful seldom functional Medallion app?

 

It's on the back of your cabin door. Also, there are signs all over the place pointing to the nearest muster station, all of which are the large venues on decks 5, 6, and 7.  Given your cabin location, I would guess your muster station to be Vista Lounge.

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, phabric said:

We were on the Majestic August 27 - Vancouver-Whittier.  
 

They can tell from the tv that you have seen and checked in for the muster drill.  We were going to check in for the muster drill after our early dinner.  When we got to our check in at the Terrace bar on deck 6, there was no one there.  We went to Guest Services, she said “I can tell you saw the video, do you know what to do,  you will receive a letter tomorrow”.  There was a letter the next day in our cabin, explaining what to do.

 

The tv is set to continue showing the muster video.  We had to call Guest Services to rebook our tv so we can watch the tv.

 

We had 1,858 passengers on my cruise.

Interesting to know that you can't use the TV until after the muster drill as they lock the other channels until you are cleared.

 

We had about 300 more people than you guys while sailing 3 weeks earlier as we had 2,162 on our sailing.

 

I think I saw less than 40 kids on our cruise and with most (if not all) of the K-12 and many colleges back in session, most of the family cruisers like us are already done with our summer vacation.  I would think the next couple weeks are going to be all adults so the guest numbers are likely to remain low for the remainder of the Alaska season.

 

 

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Princess did a good job of having the Muster Stations inside a venue before the Medallion fully kicked in. 

 

Old - Old - Drag your life vest with you / scanned in with cruise card.

Newer - Old - Don't need to drag your life vest with you / scanned cruise card or Medallion.

 

There was always someone who didn't listen to instructions.  "DO NOT TRY IT ON"...until after instructions.  That was my goal to find that one person.

 

On one HAL ship, we stood outside...in the cold...as we WAITED and WAITED and WAITED and WAITED for that one straggler to appear.  I finally told someone I had to sit down and plopped down on the deck.  

 

I much prefer the comfort of my own stateroom and timeline to do the muster drill.  On the back of your cabin door is your muster station assignment.  And you are correct, there is a cut off (by fire doors) for your in-laws.  

 

I saved your building photo.  During the winter months, all but the brave remain.  They are ALL housed in that building.  Even the school and grocery store. Only one building to heat, clean, repair, etc.

I had to go pretty far back to the archives to dig up some old photos back muster drill.

 

This was from Carnival back in 2008 when everyone, including kids, had to put on the vest and make our way to the Promenade deck and stand and wait (yeah, I know, I used to have more hair when I was younger).  All you see is a sea of orange as people walk around with the vest on.

 

They disabled the elevators so everyone had to use the stairs to get to Promenade deck.

 

 

 

 

 

If you like the building photo, go ahead and email me at the email address by my signature.  I can forward to you a copy of the photo if the CC download is degraded.

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention that for Whitter, during the harsh winter, everyone in town lives in that big building.

[cr8tiv1]

Don't need a photo, but thanks.  I did a turn around day in Whittier and was able to walk around the town.  It was a most interesting experience.  I met someone at an ice cream shop that came all the way from Maui to work the summer.  Unless you get out, explore, and talk to the locals, you are missing the best part of visiting cruising.

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, JF - retired RRT said:

I don't know how Princess did muster before 2013, but it was always done indoors since I started cruising (way before the Royal class ships).

How we found our muster station...checked in, walked through the boarding doors and the muster staff for the theater was right there. I know it was our station because the theater is forward and our cabin was A101. Can't get much more forward than that.

 

36 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

 

It's on the back of your cabin door. Also, there are signs all over the place pointing to the nearest muster station, all of which are the large venues on decks 5, 6, and 7.  Given your cabin location, I would guess your muster station to be Vista Lounge.

 

Yeah, I know about the muster station at the back of the cabin door.

 

What I was curious about was back at post #151, JF mentioned that they knew before going going inside the cabin of where their muster station was.  So I thought maybe it was buried inside the not-always-reliable app that I didn't see or they stayed in the same cabin on previous cruises and just "know where to go" from experience.

 

I should have taken pictures of the muster drill check in (I'm starting to realize I have so many gaps in my lack of photo support in this trip report) but I want to say we checked in around Princess Live area and the in-laws outside of Concerto dining room (or vice versa? Old mind start to lose memory daily).

[harryfat1]

OK, couple more photos and then it's time for shower and change for dinner.

 

Note the gap between balcony and the life boat

 

 

Float plane taking off.  Other than Alaska/Vancouver area, I seldom see float planes elsewhere

 

 

Shampoo and shower gels from previous post.

 

 

There’s been various discussion on CC regarding the placement of the toilet paper holder on the newer Princess ships so I was curious to see for myself and pass along the info.  Guess not too many people photograph toilets to post online.

 

 

One can see that the placement of the toilet paper can be a far reach if you don’t have a long reach.  Maybe Princess should have one of the grabber tools right by the toilet seat to assist those who are “toilet-paper-reach-challenged”.

 

Isn't there a Federally mandated law that requires establishments to assist people people who are reached-challenged?

 

 

 

Since we (as in ME) are on the subject of toilets, I must share one of my favorite photos from Allure of the Seas from years ago.  I bow down to the evil genius who added this picture in the men’s room. CLASSIC…

 

[harryfat1]

You know you are reading a classy trip report when the author constantly displays bathroom and underwear humor...

 

As I truly admit one of my favorite comedy shows of all times on TV was the Benny Hill series  so that's all you need to know.🤪

 

=============

 

In theory you can check the MDR menu from the app on your phone.  In reality, the app doesn’t always show up on our phones as it kept saying “loading” as you try to move from menu to menu. 

 

I found it much easier/faster to use the old fashion TV screen in the cabin.  The one drawback is that it’s presented in landscape mode as to fit the TV so you have to spend lots of time to scroll up and down the screen to get what you wanted.

 

I’m not a big menu photographer.  Sometimes if I remember, I take the pictures. Back to the same concept of them being hard to read once you upload the picture on CC.

 

But here is tonight’s menu that you can check out from your TV as you shower and get dressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, here’s something I’ve been wanting to ask the veteran Princess cruisers – what’s the story with the Southern Fried Chicken on the menu on first night of every cruise report I have seen?

 

I mean, that strikes me as KFC/Popeye Louisiana chicken food.  Is there something special about it or history behind having fried chicken on first night to introduce newbie Princess cruisers to the "glamorous world of cruise dining"? I'm sure Princess Corporate is not showing the fried chicken on their marketing web site when trying to drum up new business.

 

Just seems so odd to see friend chicken in a the adults menu in MDR.  I can see it if it's on the kids’ menu but being on the adults menu leaves me puzzled.

 

Here's another cultural difference I wish cruise ships would adopt – have displays outside of the MDR on what the food looks like.  Some of us peasant crusiers have no idea what the final outcome of the food looks like based on fancy description.  Yeah, yeah, I know the purist will argue it’s not classy to show the food display and yadda-yadda.

 

The Japanese culture has made an art form in displaying what each restaurant serves.   This is what a typical restaurant displays outside in Japan.  Super helpful to see what it looks like ahead of time.

 

Couple examples from our Japan visit few years back.  Typical of displays you see in front of resturants:

 

 

Sample display with price and description outside.  No surprises by time you walk in.

 

 

There are even stores that just sells these art displays. These are over the top displays but worth sharing since we are on this topic:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happiest when cruising]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

Yeah, I know about the muster station at the back of the cabin door.

 

What I was curious about was back at post #151, JF mentioned that they knew before going going inside the cabin of where their muster station was.  So I thought maybe it was buried inside the not-always-reliable app that I didn't see or they stayed in the same cabin on previous cruises and just "know where to go" from experience.

 

I should have taken pictures of the muster drill check in (I'm starting to realize I have so many gaps in my lack of photo support in this trip report) but I want to say we checked in around Princess Live area and the in-laws outside of Concerto dining room (or vice versa? Old mind start to lose memory daily).

I had the same question on another site. Apparently you can just tap your medallion at any bar, and they will tell you where it is. Many people head there right away as soon as they board, tap in at the right location, and watch the video later. 

[dides]

9 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

Yeah, I know about the muster station at the back of the cabin door.

 

What I was curious about was back at post #151, JF mentioned that they knew before going going inside the cabin of where their muster station was.  So I thought maybe it was buried inside the not-always-reliable app that I didn't see or they stayed in the same cabin on previous cruises and just "know where to go" from experience.

 

The muster station is displayed on the app and can be viewed before you board the ship

Select Personal Information & Docs and then the link My Journey at the bottom of the screen. Here is the screencap showing ours:

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by dides

[caribill]

14 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 The very old school way you had to bring the life vest with you on deck and strap it on while standing on the Promenade deck (When there was a WIDE promenade deck for everyone to stand on – looking at you, Royal Princess class designers).

 

 

 

Muster drill outside has never been a Princess thing. The muster drills were always (in my memory at least) held inside in the muster stations you would go to in case of emergency.

 

Princess does inside mustering because the length of an emergency can be many hours and it is much more comfortable to stay inside for the duration.

 

Even in the extremely rare case of needing to abandon ship, there is no guarantee that an assigned lifeboat would be functional. So in case of needing to abandon ship, crew will lead passengers from the inside muster station to working lifeboats.

[JF - retired RRT]

15 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I did a turn around day in Whittier and was able to walk around the town.  It was a most interesting experience.  I met someone at an ice cream shop that came all the way from Maui to work the summer. 

I thought everyone went to Las Vegas.😂

[JF - retired RRT]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Muster drill outside has never been a Princess thing. The muster drills were always (in my memory at least) held inside in the muster stations you would go to in case of emergency.

 

Princess does inside mustering because the length of an emergency can be many hours and it is much more comfortable to stay inside for the duration.

 

Even in the extremely rare case of needing to abandon ship, there is no guarantee that an assigned lifeboat would be functional. So in case of needing to abandon ship, crew will lead passengers from the inside muster station to working lifeboats.

Reading this, I just had a thought...mustering indoors also keeps passengers out of the way in case the crew needs to run/walk speedily to an area that's on the Promenade deck.

[Essiesmom]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Muster drill outside has never been a Princess thing. The muster drills were always (in my memory at least) held inside in the muster stations you would go to in case of emergency.

 

Princess does inside mustering because the length of an emergency can be many hours and it is much more comfortable to stay inside for the duration.

 

Even in the extremely rare case of needing to abandon ship, there is no guarantee that an assigned lifeboat would be functional. So in case of needing to abandon ship, crew will lead passengers from the inside muster station to working lifeboats.

We mustered outside on Royal Princess I in 1999 in Buenos Aires.  EM

[Happiest when cruising]

12 hours ago, dides said:

The muster station is displayed on the app and can be viewed before you board the ship

Select Personal Information & Docs and then the link My Journey at the bottom of the screen. Here is the screencap showing ours:

 

 

Well, thanks for lesson. Now…how do you know where that is? To answer my own question, I just Utubed it, and I found a video and the person was showing their muster station. Turns out, it is the same as mine. 
I’m looking at the deck plan now, but I do not see it marked, though. 

Here is the fun part, thanks to your post, I see we will be on the same cruise! 

[dides]

16 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

Well, thanks for lesson. Now…how do you know where that is? To answer my own question, I just Utubed it, and I found a video and the person was showing their muster station. Turns out, it is the same as mine. 
I’m looking at the deck plan now, but I do not see it marked, though. 

Here is the fun part, thanks to your post, I see we will be on the same cruise! 

Yes, look at other videos or my other half snapped this from a screen on Enchanted Princess last month (so Discovery is likely to match).   Oh so we are! 

 

[Happiest when cruising]

11 minutes ago, dides said:

Yes, look at other videos or my other half snapped this from a screen on Enchanted Princess last month (so Discovery is likely to match).   Oh so we are! 

 

That’s fantastic. I have started taking  pictures of different types of things and places that I have not given much thought to..but curious minds want to know, it seems. 
I hope to meet you on board. Are you on the roll call? We are only on for the 6 nights, as we live near the Vancouver port, we thought it would be a nice fall cruise. We are hoping for decent weather. 

Edited September 6, 2022 by Happiest when cruising

[dides]

29 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

That’s fantastic. I have started taking  pictures of different types of things and places that I have not given much thought to..but curious minds want to know, it seems. 
I hope to meet you on board. Are you on the roll call? We are only on for the 6 nights, as we live near the Vancouver port, we thought it would be a nice fall cruise. We are hoping for decent weather. 

No the roll call was a bit quiet and we've got a lot of hurdles to get through before we get on. First flight in almost 3 years, first trip over the pond in 3 years, having to get from Seattle to Vancouver (we were so hoping for Amtrak to re-start their train service and it's now starting 2 days after the cruise!) and doing our proctored test in our Seattle hotel at 2pm UK time, 7am US time! All booked and lined up now but we don't want to tempt fate by getting too excited!  

 

Oh and going on Discovery Princess will mean we would have cruised on all 6 Royal Class ships - we're calling it our Royal Flush lol.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by dides