Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas - another good cruise adventure, but not my favorite
Written: May 11 '08 (Updated May 14 '08)
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Pros: Cruise length, good ports, good food, good service, reasonable price.
Cons: Ship is small, excursions expensive and not very good, not enough to do at night.
The Bottom Line: Majesty is a nice ship and the ports of call were enjoyable but it does not compare with the newer, larger ships.
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| uglybugg's Full Review: Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas |
Although my husband and I start to get a little stir crazy after being on a cruise ship for about 4 days we love the convenience of being fed and pampered and not having to think about anything so we book a cruise every few years. This year we were looking for a quick beach getaway from Michigan after spring break but before it gets warm so we booked a 4-day Bahamas cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas.
This is going to be a really long and comprehensive review, but I have broken it down into manageable sections so please feel free to jump to the specific section you'd like to know about.
Reserving the cruise
We made our reservation via the Royal Caribbean website and got a good deal on an ocean view stateroom on Deck 7. It was very easy to make the reservation online but I did have a quick question so I called Royal Caribbean’s customer service line and got my question answered in a jiffy. During the online booking process I was able to select the main dining seating, my desired deck and stateroom type, book an excursion, and even notify Royal Caribbean that my husband and I wished to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary on the evening of May 6th. I paid for the whole thing online, received confirmation emails, and was even able to complete the check-in process online and print our Sea Pass documents before leaving home for my cruise.
Embarking in Miami
Our first cruise (our honeymoon 14 years ago) left from the Port of Miami and the embarkation process was lengthy. I am happy to report that the situation at the port was much more organized and timely this time. We arrived at the port at 2pm and were met by a porter who secured luggage tags to our bags and placed them on a trolley for delivery to our stateroom later in the day. I'm glad that the bags made it to our room at all in retrospect. The porter specifically asked for a tip which kind of ticked me off but having talked to others on that same trip I heard that other porters were dropping hints that if they were not tipped $20-$30 their bags were not guaranteed to make it on the ship.
We entered the terminal building thru double sliding automatic doors where TSA agents were there to check our passports and SeaPass documents to make sure we were who we said we are and that we were in the right place. We rode the escalator up to the second floor where they were checked again and we were directed to specific check-in lines according to which deck of the shipped we were booked on. We entered the line for Deck 7 and there was no line at all so we walked up and were given our room keys and directed up another escalator to the gangway. Afterward we were again stopped for a TSA passport check before going up to the gangway and then twice more before being stopped by the ship’s photographer for a photo op, then another stop for the official, ugly account photo and we were finally cleared to board the ship.
It sounds like the whole boarding process took forever but it really only took about 20 minutes and much less time than checking in for an airline flight and going through airport security. It was much more stringent security than on an airline as well. It probably helped that I checked in online prior to leaving as well.
On board!
Majesty is part of the Sovereign class, which is the smallest class of Royal Caribbean’s fleet. Her maiden voyage was in April of 1992 so she’s getting up there in age. Although Majesty recently underwent a major refurbishment, she is small compared to the newer ships so the Centrum area and much of the ship is condensed in comparison. If you are new to cruising this is not something you’d probably notice, but when going from one of the newer, larger ships to sailing on Majesty, you will notice the size difference. Her passenger capacity is 2744 and her Gross Tonnage is 73,941 with a length of only 880 feet. By way of comparison, our last cruise with Royal Caribbean was on Enchantment which weighs 80,700 tons and is 990 feet in length and RC’s newest ship, Freedom of the Seas, weighs in at 160,000 and measures 1112 feet.
We boarded the ship on Deck 4, which is called the Centrum and is open all the way up to Deck 7. This is where much of the action occurs on the ship. While on Deck 4 we decided to check out some of the arrangements we had made. Our dining room (the Starlight) was on deck 4 so we stopped by there to locate our table and were happy to find it was a table for six (we prefer a big table so conversation with the strangers dining with us is more plentiful) in the center of the room. We then stopped by the Explorations desk where we cancelled my husband’s excursion for Thursday afternoon and booked a different one for the both of us. Deck 4 is also the location for the tiny library (most of the books were in foreign languages so not much good reading there), and the Guest Relations desk. Most evenings passengers can get formal or casual portraits taken in front of various backdrops which I find kind of fun as it’s the closest thing I’ll ever get to being a model.
Deck 5 has lots on it as well. There are boutiques that sell jewelry, cameras and camera equipment, Royal Caribbean logo’d items, cigarettes and liquor, snacks, and things one may have forgotten such as Tylenol, ties, or toothpaste. Deck 5 is also the home of the coffee shop, which sells Seattle’s Best coffee and ice cream.
Our stateroom
After checking out Decks 4 and 5 we walked up the stairs to Deck 7 to check out our room, which was located just next to the elevators and a set of glass doors leading out to the Promenade deck. I was a bit worried about our room’s proximity to the Promenade and the elevators but there is not much on Deck 7 so it was pretty quiet. After a long day in port and in the sun it was nice to be able to come up the elevator and have our room right there. The only issues we had with noise were on the last night when the porters were hauling luggage and I heard the glass doors to the Promenade deck bang open and shut a few times after midnight. And twice someone stole our Do Not Disturb sign from our door, which was kind of odd
Our room was very clean and adequate but very tiny at only 120 square feet. Our last cruise was on Enchantment, which is a huge ship, and our low deck, inside room was nearly twice as big.
The room consisted of 2 twin size beds pushed together to make a queen size. On one side of the bed was a small, built-in nightstand with sort of a cubbyhole built into it and one underneath it as well. We used those to stash extra pillows and our backpacks.
There was a small flat screen TV in the one corner and beneath that was a small glass table and a trash can. Near the door was a vanity with a large mirror and the telephone. On either side of the mirror were shelves with glass doors for stowing personal items and down below were eight small drawers for clothing. One drawer held the full size hair dryer which worked great on my long hair. The vanity was also the home of the ice bucket and drink glasses, which were very much in the way. I kept moving them to the nightstand area but our room steward kept putting them back on the vanity and that little battle went on for the duration.
Right next to the room’s door was a closet that had hangers and shelves and plenty of room to stow my husband’s suitcases and all of his clothes. The room’s life vests were also stored in there. The closet was also the home to a small safe, which we used to store our passports, jewelry, iPods, and other valuables. There was no extra charge for using the safe.
The bathroom was tiny. I have to say that the one thing about which I was happiest about leaving the ship was that I didn’t have to try to shave in that tiny shower and I’d not bump my elbows on the door or sink when trying to dry off. Royal Caribbean provided soap and conditioning shampoo in the shower and there were always plenty of towels and beach towels for our convenience, although the white bath towels were scratchy as if dryer sheets needed to be used. The bedding however was very soft and luxurious and the mattress was reasonably comfortable.
The room was very clean and in good repair as well. And of course our room steward kept everything ship shape in there from vacuuming up the sand we tracked in from the beach, bringing fresh towels, making the bed, turning down the bed, and leaving us towels shaped like animals and chocolates on the pillows. Of our four cruises, this was the only one where we regularly saw our room steward in the hallways and met him several times. The only real complaint I had about our room is that the PA system did not work so whenever there was an announcement I had to open my cabin door to hear it, which got old.
The whole ship was in good shape and very clean as well. The staff came out at night like elves and cleaned the brass banisters, mirrors, doors, and carpeting and kept everything looking fresh.
Other Decks
While much of the action takes place on Decks 4 and 5, the other decks have their purposes as well. Deck 1 is where the ship’s doctor is located and is also used for leaving and reboarding the ship in certain ports of call.
Decks 2 and 6 are nothing but staterooms.
Deck 3 is also mostly staterooms but also houses Moonlight dining room and the photo gallery where passengers can go to locate the various photographs the ship’s photographers snapped.
On Deck 5 you’ll find the Schooner Bar, which is a nautical themed club that is a bit of a quiet place. There is lots of seating, a bar, a piano bar, and some comfy sofas. On our last cruise we hung out at the Schooner Bar a lot but on Majesty we were not impressed with the pianist who was not a very good singer and was singing along to karaoke type music. We felt it was kind of cheesy and did not want to stay long.
Also on Deck 5 is the Chorus Line Lounge where the evening shows were held. We went to the welcome night show which featured a comedian who was not very funny and the ship’s singing and dancing crew. There was nothing wrong with the show but it was just not our thing. The second night’s show was a juggler/comedian who was very funny and talented and we really enjoyed his show. The other nights were a Motown review and some sort of Latin entertainer that didn’t sound all that interesting so again we skipped the show.
As I mentioned above, Deck 7 was fairly quiet but there are some things there other than staterooms. The Centrum opens up to Deck 7 so you can look down from there all the way down to Deck 4. There are also conference rooms on Deck 7, Boleros lounge which is a Latin bar that specializes in drinks with tequila and things like caipirinhas and mojitos. The balcony level of the Chorus Line lounge can also be accessed from Deck 7. As mentioned before Deck 7 is the Promenade deck, which is used primarily for smoking as the only place you can smoke inside now is the casino. Joggers and power walkers also use Deck 7 for working out however those activities are prohibited between the hours of 10pm and 7am as there are staterooms below on Deck 6. There is a good supply of comfy lounge chairs on the Promenade deck and it’s a nice place to stand or walk while pulling into or out of port as you can see the world going by.
Deck 8 is mostly staterooms but the aft section is home to the Spectrum lounge which is a very large bar with a big dance floor and the Aquanaut Playroom that is a separate play area for kids ages 3 to 5 and is part of Royal Caribbean’s Adventure Ocean Youth Program.
The aft section of Deck 9 is the Day Spa and Fitness Center; two areas I did not check out at all on this cruise. There are special fitness classes and
Deck 10 is one of the upper decks that consist mostly of staterooms, but they are suites rather than the smaller rooms on lower levels. The sauna is also located on this floor as is the main Adventure Ocean area.
Deck 11 is the pool deck where there are two large saltwater pools and two spas. Both pools are open 24/7 (no lifeguards though) but the spas are drained and cleaned in the evening so they are not usable. There is always an abundance of loungers around the deck both in the sun and in the shade and loud music playing most of the time. The pool bar is also located here as is Windjammer Café, which is the buffet, and the sports deck where one can play basketball or volleyball.
Deck 12 is the upper pool deck where there are tons more loungers but you’ll also find the Viking Crown lounge, which is a great, high place to look out the windows and have a drink. The Viking Crown Lounge is a designated quiet place during the day but is a hot spot at night for cigars and martinis. The jogging deck and rock climbing wall are also on Deck 12 as are some other dining options (Sorrento’s Pizza, Compass Deli, and Johnny Rockets).
Onboard Activities
I was a bit disappointed with this cruise in that there did not seem like a lot to do in the evening. About half the shows were good and half were not interesting so we had to find something else to do. We looked at all the shops on the first night and did the formal and casual portraits. The Schooner Bar was cheesy. The other bars and pool deck were for the younger crowd with music blasting so loud you could hear it on the moon. Most nights we were back in our cabin by 10pm and snoring by 11 as we were so tired from the day’s activities. There were a few adult shows but they did not start until almost midnight and by then we were sawing logs.
There are activities on ship during the day but most people are out visiting the ports of call and not hanging out on the ship. One day we came back to the ship a bit early and found the men’s belly flop competition just starting so we found a cool place in the pool to watch the show, which was hilarious.
The fitness center had special classes scheduled, there were things like art auctions and jewelry shows, and the spa had specials on in port days as well. The spa prices were about double the price at home so I did not bother.
Dining
There are tons of dining options when cruising and Majesty is no exception. Most food is completely free and part of the cruise fare but there are a few things that cost extra. Beer, liquor, soda, bottled water, and specialty coffee drinks are an extra charge and a 15% gratuity is automatically added (you can tip more for exceptional service). Dining at Johnny Rockets involves at $3.95 cover charge per person but food is free. Sodas, malts, and shakes however are not. You can get a soda package which allows adults unlimited sodas for $6 a day and kids are $4 a day but you have to lug around this huge plastic cup with you everywhere so that seemed kind of like a pain to me. Plus I don't drink much soda so it would not be worth it for me. In addition, you have to buy it for the duration of the cruise, not just for one or two days of it.
Passengers can choose from the main dining rooms (Moonlight and Starlight) on Decks 3 and 4 where a more formal, 3-course dinner is served. Main seating is at 6m and second seating is at 8:30pm. Menus are posted outside the dining rooms each morning so one can plan their dining options for the day. There are a wide variety of dishes from which to choose and there was never an occasion where nothing appealed to me. In addition to the approximately six entrees served each night, sirloin steak and herbed chicken dishes were always available. Portions are on the small side but were large enough to satisfy my hunger, however the men at our table frequently ordered multiple appetizers or main dishes each night as they were still hungry and needed more.
Food quality in the dining room was good. It was not great nor was it fair or bad, but it was not as good as on the larger ships. I think that back in the heyday of cruising the food quality and quantity were higher but now that cruising is more mainstream it seems to have declined somewhat.
Service was also pretty good but not great. Our waitress and assistant waitress were efficient and attentive but not very friendly. The assistant waitress was new and from China and was very difficult to communicate with.
We had most dinners in the Starlight dining room but on Wednesday we decided to try Johnny Rockets as we had a long day in the sun and didn’t feel like sitting for a 2-hour dinner. As a repeat RC cruiser I received a coupon booklet with free cover charge for Johnny Rockets so we dined there on French fries, onion rings, burgers and malts for a total of $10 (for the malts). I’m really glad I had the coupon as the burgers were nothing to write home about and I would have been bent if I had to pay for them.
We ate breakfast each morning at the Windjammer Café. There are two sections that have the exact same buffet setup. There are several different stations and you’ll find pretty much anything and everything you can imagine for breakfast from hot foods such as bacon, sausage, eggs, and oatmeal, to cold cereal, fruit, and any kind of bread you could imagine. If you can’t find something for breakfast you want to eat, there’s something wrong with you.
There is never a shortage of wait staff looking to bring you a drink. They are walking around all over the pool deck and bars looking to find someone who wants a drink. They just sort of walk by and say “cold drinks” or “bar service” and if you want something you just catch their eye and they’ll bring it to you. You just present your SeaPass card and it is automatically added to your total, which is paid off on the last night of the cruise.
It used to be that you could eat from sunup to sunrise on a cruise ship and you still can only it takes a little more effort and cannot be done as lavishly. Gone are the days of the over the top midnight buffets. You can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the dining room or Windjammer, pizza is available most of the time at Sorrento’s and Johnny Rockets is open a lot as well. There is also an ice cream machine on the pool deck, which is free. There was one midnight buffet on the pool deck but it was not lavish like in days past nor was there a huge selection. In addition anything remaining at 12:30am was promptly thrown away (not sure why) even while people were still trying to serve themselves.
Ports of call
Majesty’s 4-day itinerary consists of three stops – Nassau, Bahamas, Coco Cay (RC’s private island in the Bahamas), and Key West, Florida. As the ports of call are not really related to Royal Caribbean or Majesty I will not cover them in detail here, with the exception of Coco Cay as RC owns it.
The first port of call for this 4-day cruise is Nassau on Tuesday morning. Our ship docked there at 8am on Tuesday and it was just a short walk down the pier from the ship to the city, shopping, taxis, and straw market. We had to be back on ship at 5:30pm, which left a good amount of time to wander around the city, take in a tour, or go to the beach. I got my hair braided, we did a little jewelry shopping, and then spent the better part of the day at Atlantis.
The second port was Coco Cay on Wednesday. More on that later.
The third port was on Thursday morning in Key West, Florida. Again we docked at the pier and it was just a short walk to the newish pier shops, Duval Street, Hemingway’s house, and tours. As we had come from the Bahamas we had to go through the US customs process so no one was allowed off the ship until they had presented themselves to customs agents waiting in the Chorus Line lounge so we did not actually get off the ship until almost 10am. We pretty much just wandered around until noon then came back to the ship and prepared for our excursion at 1pm. We had to be back on the ship at 5:30.
OK back to Coco Cay, the private island owned by Royal Caribbean, which you can only go to if it is a stop on a RC cruise itinerary. We arrived and dropped anchor a ways from the island. The water is too shallow for the large ship to dock at the pier so small tender boats were used to shuttle us to and from the island. We were advised the previous evening that the wait for tenders was busiest between 9am and 11am as people like to sleep in a little, have some breakfast, then head over to the island. That’s what we did as well and headed for the tenders about 9:30 and found no wait at all so perhaps many people went over really early in the morning or waited until later. I am just happy to have made it to the island as I have heard the waters off the island can get rough and there is like a 50/50 chance that it will be too rough to tender and the port is sometimes skipped.
The island itself was lovely and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. It is mostly sandy but there are a few areas where there is a concrete surface dusted with sand to look more authentic. The island is covered with small, brightly painted buildings in the island style. Immediately after getting off the tenders there is a small straw market where passengers can buy t-shirts, sunglasses, hats, sunscreen, and all sorts of souvenirs. Although it is owned by the cruise line, the SeaPass cannot be used to purchase items at the straw market so cash is necessary.
You can, however, purchase drinks on the island using the SeaPass and the bar waiters are wandering the island with the featured island drink called the Coco Loco which is a delicious frozen concoction loaded with rum and served in a keepsake reusable cup with straw.
The island is not very large so we were able to walk much of it easily and in a short amount of time. There were tons of lounge chairs, bathrooms, bars, a nurses’ station, and hammocks strung between palm trees. The water was warm and clear and a real joy to swim and relax in. We snorkeled about 20 feet from the shore in very shallow water around some rocks and saw all kinds of fish from tiny to kind of large for my liking. We saw stingrays and little swordfish as well. It was the first time I had ever snorkeled and I was scared but felt safe knowing I was in shallow, clear water just steps from solid dry ground.
A BBQ lunch buffet was served from about 11:30am till 1pm and consisted of hot dogs, burgers, ribs, and all kinds of sides, drinks, salads, and desserts. There were tons of pavilions with picnic tables at which to sit but the seagulls were so annoying I could not wait to get away from their noisy squawking. The buffet was OK. Not great not bad. By dinnertime I was starving and very anxious to eat.
At the end of the day when we were headed back to the ship my husband saw a map and decided that he wanted to check out the nature trail and one last bar. I was too tired so I sent him on his way with a bottle of water and found a nearby hammock. Not long after a waiter found me and set me up with a CocoLoco and there I lounged for about two hours being rocked gently by the island breeze. A memory I will never forget.
Cruise Line Hosted Excursions
In the past I’ve been rather disappointed with cruise line hosted excursions and this cruise was no exception. Royal Caribbean offers several excursions at each port and there is usually something for every taste. In Nassau passengers could take a cruise-sponsored tour of Atlantis, go snorkeling, parasailing, swim with the dolphins and much more. In Coco Cay we could rent jet skis, parasail, snorkel, use the inflatable water park, rent a floating mat, and a few other things. In Key West there were pub-crawls, tours of Hemingway’s home, and tons of other things.
Passengers book the tour and pay the cruise line but the cruise line usually contracts the tour out to a local operator. These cruise line-sanctioned tours always sound really good but are expensive and rarely as good as they sound. I should have learned from previous disappointments and booked our tours separately but I was too lazy to do so in Key West and went with a cruise tour.
In Coco Cay we were told that if we wanted to snorkel we were required to wear a life vest so we rented two of them at $6 a piece and found when we got to the snorkel area that hardly anyone was wearing them and they are not required. So there went $12 down the drain.
In Key West we took an excursion called The Big Three – Dolphins, Sea Kayaks, and Snorkel for $89 each. There were four people running the tour and one of the guys (who I will call Beavis) told us that we’d first be going out to a preserve where we would kayak and see some tropical birds. Well we drove around on that boat for over an hour while Beavis, his sidekick Butthead and Barbie, the boat’s captain, totally ignored us and drove right past the preserve. We were all pretty bored by the time she finally stopped in the middle of the ocean and hooked up with another boat, which held the kayaks. Then they just put us all in kayaks and said OK go to that island and paddle around for a bit and come back in an hour. They didn’t lead the tour or explain anything and there was nothing to see on that island at all. I understand wildlife is fickle and not guaranteed to be seen but it was kind of lame.
Later when we came back from kayaking it was time to snorkel out to a set of four buoys about 100 yards out where there were some sunken ships where there was supposedly lots of fish living. After a quick and dirty safety lesson we were free to swim out there on our own. The crew did not come with and they spent their time loading the kayaks back onto the other boat while the captain yakked on the cell phone with her back to the snorkelers so if anyone actually needed help, the crew was oblivious. The current was really strong so unless you were a really strong swimmer it was just too far to swim so most of us didn’t go out that far. Also, right when we docked with that other boat, Beavis yelled to Barbie “Stop the boat, there’s three sharks out there!” so no one was particularly interested in getting into the water and some did not. I snorkeled near our boat and without fins so in case I saw anything larger than my foot I could scramble back up to the boat. The few people who made it out to the sunken ships said there wasn’t much to be seen. Afterward we drove around a bit looking for dolphins again but saw none. Fortunately I have seen them in the wild before so I was not too upset. We did see several sea turtles though which totally made my day.
So as you can tell I’m not a huge fan of the cruise-sanctioned excursions. The only good thing about them is that if they run over and you don’t make it back to the ship on time, the ship will wait for you. If you are on your own privately booked tour and you miss the ship, well that’s your problem.
Disembarkment
This process is always a real drag for me. Not just because my vacation is ending, but because the process is so painful. During disembarkation I get the distinct feeling that the cruise line is basically herding us around like cattle and since we have no more money spending opportunities left they cannot wait to get us off their ship. You’d think by this time in history they could streamline the process a little but no such luck.
The night before disembarkation we had to have all luggage placed outside our cabin doors by midnight so that the porters could take them to a central area for sorting and collection in the morning. Fine, that worked well.
The next morning we were told to vacate by 8am and stand by in one of the public areas while we waited to be called down to the 4th deck to disembark. I wanted to watch the national news while dressing and doing my hair but all of the few stations on the TV had a canned message that read “Please vacate your stateroom by 8am.” We vacated at 7:30am and went up to the Windjammer for breakfast and to wait for them to call our number. About 8:30 we went down the elevator to the 4th floor where a crewmember literally screamed at us to go up to deck 6 and to the end of the line because all the people on deck 4 were there before us. It was very out of control and when I got to the end of the line and back to the point where that screaming crewmember was she again screamed at me to get back to the end of the line and it took everything in me to keep from decking her. So the disembarkment process pretty much unwinds all of the unwinding I’ve managed to get done while on my vacation. It is very disorganized and stressful.
Bottom Line
Although I enjoyed this trip and the ports of call it is not my favorite ship. It is perfectly fine and nothing wrong with it, I think I’m just spoiled by the larger ships where there is more room to spread out and more activities are offered. I recommend this cruise and would consider going on it again one day just to be able to go back to Coco Cay but I’d bring some good books with me to fill the down time, not do any cruise-sanctioned excursions, and not expect it to be the really great experience I’ve had on other ships.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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