Our voyage on the Majesty

[tiggere]

We were on the Majesty Dec 6-13 out of Charleston. Any questions? Please ask. In Summary, I was very pleased. I would sail again on the Majesty but only if it were on mega-sale like it was this time! I wouldn’t pay more to sail on Majesty. So… here goes…

 

We took a limo service so we didn’t park at the port. Check-in was as good as it could be in Charleston. No problems, but there was of course a long line. We had a 4year old so they put us in the short line which helped. We got there about 1pm. A LOT of people had already checked in so I don’t know what time they opened up for check-in.

 

We had a bite of mediocre buffet food and then chilled in the room unpacking for a bit. The luggage was in very quickly. It was cold (duh) in Charleston so we didn’t go up on deck that day much.

 

NOTE~~~~~~~~~ Room 470. I am certain this room is mis-categorized!! We had the same category as our grandparents in 468 next door. 468 is MUCH smaller. I felt bad for them in that room (but we had 3 people so we couldn’t trade with them). Their room had 108 sq. feet. Ours had 145. On the website, all the outside rooms show the same picture and it is deceiving to know which are 108 ft and which are 145 ft. If you care, please be sure to find out how many sq feet YOUR stateroom has to be sure. I called. 108 sq. feet is teeny-tiny! My room felt spacious to me at 145 ft. I loved the layout. The beds were comfy enough (I’m not picky there.) The rooms are pretty ‘old’ looking compared to the public areas of the ship but they were fine. Very clean. They gave us no washcloths. We asked for them twice and they brought them but they never replaced them when they were used. They just removed them. So we used the handtowels as really big washcloths. We couldn’t get the hot water on even after running it for about 10 minutes. We tried again later. No luck. Called. Guess what? There’s a trick! Who knew? J The “trick” is to turn the sink and shower on full blast for (as long as it takes). Then it gets very hot and stays that way for a day. Repeat the trick as necessary. The grandpeople in the tiny room next door didn’t have to resort to the “trick”. They called to ask about paying more to switch to a bigger room though and were told there were none available. Remember that last sentence later in my post. It will be relevant… So, we get the hot water rollin and all is good.

 

Dinner in Seven Seas Dining Room was superfantastic. The Kids’ Club was opening at 8pm that night and my kiddo was READY! Here’s a little tidbit about dinner timing. They open at 530pm. There is a line at 530 so we went about 630 every night therefore we missed the early show (730). But the late show ends after Kids’ Club closes so we didn’t make those either (usually). Therefore, I will not be reviewing the shows. But the bald comedian dude was awesome when I saw him (twice). Tim something was his name.

 

We went to the Four Seasons dining room once. There was a long line there and it had the same menu as Seven Seas so we went to Seven Seas every other night except once at Le Bistro. Le Bistro was awesome. $15 per person charge but ½ the entrees were an additional $10 on top of that. My favorite thing was cold soup. Chilled this and that every night. It rocked. Most were fruity. I had peach, granny smith apple, pineapple, strawberry, etc. AWESOME (except cherry – too much color – looked like blood). The food was just overall wonderful. The servers were exceptional. We ate buffet breakfast and lunch once (first day) and didn’t do that again. The restaurants were much better and less chaotic. We had breakfast and lunch in the Seven Seas every day.

 

OK now about the ship itself…. The main rooms (dining rooms, theatre, etc.) were lovely and up-to-date. Some off-the-beaten-path areas (a stairwell beside kids’ club in particular) looked like the titanic would today. Scary. Some doors had rust and/or scratches and some dipsh$t defaced the pictures in the elevator.

 

About the Kids’ Club: Ironically, there was a running “commercial” on all week about the NCL Gem and how fantastic it is. Part of that looked at the Gem’s Kids’ Club and made the statement, “Remember when Kids’ Clubs used to look like a small converted conference room?” (as it showed a big, fun, state-of-the-art club on Gem)… Well, Majesty has the Kids’ Club they were referring to in that comment! It lookes just like an old converted conference room. Very small. Very “just functional”. Just a place to stash kids. BUT, my son is 4 and he had just as much fun there as he did on Disney where the Kids’ Club is an entire deck! They did combine the kids most of the time (since there is just that one room for all of them). I think they did a decent job with what they had to work with. I was not disappointed but not wow’d either. Again, my son is 4 so he’s easy to please. He just likes to play! The kids’ club accepts 2 year olds which surprised me. I don’t think other lines take them until they are 3. The 2 year olds (or others in diapers) get a pager for the parents. The parents are paged when a diaper needs changing. The other parents do not get a pager. I guess they’ll just try to track you down if they need you. Here’s a part I didn’t love but I kind of understand it… We had 1 sea day where they were open all day but then 4 back-to-back port days where the club was only open at night (either 6pm or 730pm opening time to 1030 close time). If you wanted to use the club during those 4 days or after 1030pm, you had to pay $5 per hour. They only take the kids to dinner once all week so the other nights I had to feed him early so he could get to the club when it opened. He was ready to play!!

 

OK – now about ports. The excursions are crazy-expensive!!! Do your own thing! Great Stirrup Cay was awesome. Do take the hike to the lighthouse on the other end of the island. It says 2 miles on the sign but that must have been round-trip and an over-exaggerated estimate. It was an easy walk to and fro with a kid wearing ill-fitting flip flops. Go past the lighthouse too. Lovely area!! Oh and I loved the way the tender boat held 200+ people and pulled RIGHT up in the sand at the island! Very convenient. Nassau. Poor Nassau. I’ve been there 6 times now and have never given it a chance. We walked around debating on going to Atlantis and never did. We didn’t get to really experience Nassau is my point. My fault. The people there nag you to no end too. Annoying! If you want very good looking fake designer purses, the straw market is the place to be. Kate Spade is being sold for under $20. I’ll bet she’s ticked about that. Haha. Freeport: Our first time there. Taxi ($5 per person) to Port Lucaya Marketplace. Beautiful beach. Beautiful Westin. Beautiful shopping area. Beautiful marina. Beautiful day. Loved it. But it was SO deserted. That was strange. The Westin has like 800+ rooms and we literally didn’t see ANY hotel guests. Empty pools. Empty beaches. Just a few cruise passengers wandering around. The economy? The season? I don’t know but it was weird seeing that. The port in Freeport was very well laid out, very easy. Very industrial but nice nonetheless. I wish I could have seen the whole island as the map shows it being large and full of possibilities. Port Canaveral: We had our own tickets to Universal so we rented a car and drover over on our own. F-U-N day! Note that the car rental places at Port Canaveral brag about free pickup and delivery to/from the cruise port but they close at 5pm so when you show up at 730pm to turn in your car, they are closed and you have to take a cab.

 

Our last day was another sea day so the kids’ club was open all day and that makes the little guy happy!

 

After 4 nights, there was this annoying clanking noise outside (we had an outside room) in the middle of the night and my hubby couldn’t sleep and got annoyed. The front desk gave him another room to sleep in that night! And the next morning, it was still clanking (every 7 seconds = annoying and repetitive) so he asked them if we could all move to his ‘crash pad’ room and they said yes. So we moved. (Remember they told my grandparents there were no available rooms.) The new room worked great until the last night when the air conditioner got stuck on blowing COLD air full-blast. It took 4 calls to get that fixed. He couldn’t fix the broken thermostat but instead went up into the vent and made hot air and cold air blow out together so it was comfortable but not adjustable and very loud. Just one night though.

 

Check-out was easy. Nothing worth mentioning there.

 

I don’t have time to proofread this. Sorry, I typed it very fast but I wanted to say a few (thousand) words about Majesty. In summary, it was an old, charming ship with great employees. The price was great. The itinerary was good so we went for it and it was a great vacation!

[*Wink*]

Really enjoyed your review.. very informative and entertaining to boot. We've sailed Majesty twice and simply love her. We'll be doing the Bahamas run in April and you've convinced me that going to Atlantis IS the best thing to do in Nassau. We're going to get a room at the Comfort Suites so we can have use of the facilities.

You are absolutely right about cabin 470 being the wrong category. On cruisestaterooms.com the picture of the cabin even looks larger, but it's still listed as a 108 sq. ft. cabin. So lucky you!

 

I see you're near Charlotte, We're in Lancaster.

 

Thanks again for your review.

 

A.

[Lyman713]

Thanks for the review! We are doing this same run (after sailing the Majesty a couple other times to Bermuda) in just a few weeks! Definitely looking forward to it!

 

Room 470 does appear to be mis-categorized and it seems it should be a 'superior' ocean view rather than an ocean view. Even NCL's site shows it as a larger room, but in the same category as 486.

 

AWinkler and tiggere - Near Greensboro here! Seems like Charleston is a great port for us NC folk! Hope they continue using it in 2010!

[tiggere]

Awinkler & lyman713, Hello neighbors! Yes, the Majesty was FULL of our neighbors as Charleston was very appealing as a drive-to port for us! I had to be on my best behavior in case I was recognized by anyone onboard. :) Just Kidding. Seriously though, I only met one couple from outside of NC/SC/TN/VA and they were from Chicago (via 20-hour drive). They were the ones in the pool while I wandered around in my feather-stuffed faux fur coat on deck the last day. Brrr....

[Whippets]

Hello fellow NC people, we are just outside of Charlotte too, in Waxhaw.

 

Sorry to say 2009 will be the last for the Majesty. I don't think her schedule runs past the summer. She has been sold and leased back to NCL.

[thefortunes]

Seriously though, I only met one couple from outside of NC/SC/TN/VA and they were from Chicago (via 20-hour drive).

 

Not to thread-jack (ok, maybe), but I am driving from the Chicago area in March, and am surprised to hear 20-hour drive.

 

Is this what they said (or are you "rounding" :))?

 

Google shows 14 hours.

 

Thanks.

 

P.S. There's 6 of us so it's worth saving the airfare (I hope).

[*Wink*]

Thanks for the review! We are doing this same run (after sailing the Majesty a couple other times to Bermuda) in just a few weeks! Definitely looking forward to it!

 

Room 470 does appear to be mis-categorized and it seems it should be a 'superior' ocean view rather than an ocean view. Even NCL's site shows it as a larger room, but in the same category as 486.

 

AWinkler and tiggere - Near Greensboro here! Seems like Charleston is a great port for us NC folk! Hope they continue using it in 2010!

Hello SouthEasterners! Just to let you guys know, I've informed cruisestaterooms.com about the size discrepancy with cabin 470. It's also listed as the categories below Superiors. Maybe they'll make a notation like they did with the small Superior cabins. I'm hopeful that NCL will replace Majesty, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

[Lyman713]

Not to get off topic -- AWinkler - I had the wrong Lancaster - the latitude seemed a bit off, since Lancaster NC is about the same latitude that we are here near Greensboro! So, your addressing us as follow southeasterners is more appropriate!

[*Wink*]

Not to get off topic -- AWinkler - I had the wrong Lancaster - the latitude seemed a bit off, since Lancaster NC is about the same latitude that we are here near Greensboro! So, your addressing us as follow southeasterners is more appropriate!

Yeah.. it's funny... I grew up in Kansas City, right around the state line.. People always ask, "Kansas City Kansas, or Missouri?". I say both.. I've lived in both states many times. Now I'm in the same boat. I say I live in SC near Charlotte.. That seems to really confuse people.

 

Lyman, I had no idea there was a Lancaster, NC.. Now I'll really need to specify.

[ninkb]

. . . who is from the Charlotte area (Fort Mill) and glad to read this review. We're on the same cruise as Lyman713 and are looking for any details that will help to make our cruise smoother.

 

Unfortunately, we're in one of the tiny little outside cabins, but knew it when we booked and have asked to have the beds separated so there's some space to get in and out of bed.

 

We're just so glad to not have to fly to the port!

 

:) ninkb

[*Wink*]

. . . who is from the Charlotte area (Fort Mill) and glad to read this review. We're on the same cruise as Lyman713 and are looking for any details that will help to make our cruise smoother.

 

Unfortunately, we're in one of the tiny little outside cabins, but knew it when we booked and have asked to have the beds separated so there's some space to get in and out of bed.

 

We're just so glad to not have to fly to the port!

 

:) ninkb

Hiya ninkb.. You're just a stone's throw from us.

 

Don't worry about having the smaller cabin. We had one once on Majesty and it was fine. Good idea to keep the beds apart.

 

Have you tried a call to your TA or NCL (whomever you booked with) to see if you could possibley get an upgrade? Doesn't hurt to ask. Just remember, if you do get an upgrade it will most likely negate your current deal, and you may lose any OBC you might have.

 

I hope you'll love the Majesty like we do. :)

[ninkb]

Hiya ninkb.. You're just a stone's throw from us.

 

Don't worry about having the smaller cabin. We had one once on Majesty and it was fine. Good idea to keep the beds apart.

 

Have you tried a call to your TA or NCL (whomever you booked with) to see if you could possibley get an upgrade? Doesn't hurt to ask. Just remember, if you do get an upgrade it will most likely negate your current deal, and you may lose any OBC you might have.

 

I hope you'll love the Majesty like we do. :)

 

Thanks for the encouragement. We've changed cabins 3 times already and think we'll stay put.

 

And you're right about being a "stone's throw" from each other. Many of us can say that!!! 3 other couples are going on this cruise with us and they're from Rock Hill - still in the area but not Cruise Critic posters! Maybe we can have a mini cruise critic reunion someday!

 

:) ninkb

[tiggere]

Not to thread-jack (ok, maybe), but I am driving from the Chicago area in March, and am surprised to hear 20-hour drive.

 

Is this what they said (or are you "rounding" :))?

 

Google shows 14 hours.

 

Thanks.

 

P.S. There's 6 of us so it's worth saving the airfare (I hope).

 

Yes, they said that it was 20 hours. I think they had some stops - perhaps more of a zigzag than a B-line. But it was still closer to drive to SC than to FL so it was all good by them. I also think they liked our accents and wanted to be surrounded by southerners for a week. HA~ :)