Wanderista

I was on Majesty earlier this month. I didn't love that the pool deck really combined kids and adults in one area. Generally though, it was a nice experience. There are a lot of spaces to hang out indoors and outdoors. Very nice staff.

Yeah, the cabins are kind of small but if I want to do one of its itineraries, I'd consider it again. It is a nice value. 

Sorry to hear about the illness.

8 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

 I did not mention it earlier but the lack of sea views and the lack of feeling connected to the sea was the other significant difference from other ships we have sailed on. That, and the crowds and just the amount of walking to get from point A to point B on the ship.

 

 You can still have a great cruise on oasis class though.   It’s just not our “cup of tea“.     I’m actually considering a cruise on oasis class in early 2021  but only because we have one week open all of the other options stink.

 

Dan

The ocean is like its own destination. I tried explaining this to some friends who just aren't familiar with cruises and got told, "If you say so."

I'll also need to bring an epipen as a back up. I do have an allergy that is a little bit tricky in the Caribbean. It's one of the reasons I decided to try cruising. Cruising is actually probably the easiest way for me to deal with it.

22 minutes ago, Canmilitarywife said:

This is my first time doing this and it was a huge savings so I did it. This is also my second time cruising with RC. I looked online and the good thing about it Harmony balcony cabins are not blocked by life boats which is a good thing

Yep, saving money is never a bad thing. The cruise I'm going on is ... really cheap period, so I got a deal.

Because cruising involves planning with other people, I don't know what the next will be, but I'm open-minded. 

In two times of doing it, I would not say either room is bad but we'll see what I say when I get back. It's "ok enough".

I'd be interested in trying a bigger ship experience. My "cruising buddies" all prefer smaller ships. In my new experience, I like them because I like feeling "connected to the sea". I'd do a bigger ship to try that experience though.

People I know are intimidated by the overall number of people on a ship. Me? I'd try it out. I probably wouldn't do it in the Mediterranean personally, but I'd do it on a future cruise.

I don't have a lot of familiarity with the topic, but I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I guess we'll see if demand for those cabins drops without the perks.

I've decided I'm not doing this on this trip. I got my room assignment from GTY and while there are situations I would like better, there are also some I'd like worse. I'm not sure I'd want to risk the ship position this time around.

Also, we're traveling with friends so we probably won't be heavily in the room. I'm planning to be out in the ports during the day.

I don't think I'd use it enough this time around but maybe in the future.

It totally varies. For my upcoming one, I seem to have gotten it last week. I've been working a lot so I haven't been following as closely.

The assignment is ... ok. I like my position in the ship though not the deck. I could definitely be assigned worse. I'm under other cabins and in a decent part of the ship. This is my second time doing it. 

I think in next time if the price difference isn't huge, I'll pick my stateroom but I also might do this again. I'll base it all on price and how much I care on a specific cruise or based on who I am traveling with.

Hey there, I'm sorry to hear about what is happening in the northern Bahamas. Hopefully things will go well for my upcoming cruise and I'll be able to do my small part for the Bahamian economy by visiting the country soon.

I have a muster drill assignment for a guarantee of 011 on MOTS, does anyone know what that might indicate in terms of room assignment? Knowing that could help me decide if I'd rather chance a bet on RoyalUp. Thanks!

Thanks so much for posting this review and information. I'll be on a 5 nighter coming up. I've been a little apprehensive given that the ship is older but I am looking forward to it. Like you, I think that no day traveling (including on the sea) is a bad day. While the ship definitely looks a bit dated, I still think it will be a good time. 

All of your pics of the ease of walking around near the ocean views are very helpful. I do think that if I go on a ship, I want to see the ocean and feel like I am out at sea. It looks like MOTS has that as do many of the smaller ships. Larger ships look like they have some beautiful spaces, but to be able to walk around and admire the ocean easily, it looks like smaller ships are great.

The comparison between Empress and Majesty is helpful. Empress will be moving nearer to me. If I get the chance, I'll consider it. My friends who are willing to cruise prefer smaller ships themselves. 

I have gotten the Royal Up email. I am in an OV GTY on Majesty. (Last time, I stayed in an interior and I'm traveling with friends).

The minimums requested are: 

Owner's Suite: $800 pp

Grand Suite: $450 pp

Junior Suite: $200 pp

Seems pretty cheap. (Yes, I understand those are minimum bids). Part of me is considering the JS but I'm traveling in a group and we plan to be out sight-seeing on two of the five days. Rooms are also currently not a huge deal to me. 

The cruise still has some empty space due to the Cuba cancellation and probably the assignment of Nassau over CocoCay. I'm looking forward to Nassau because I'm a fan of history, culture and beaches but if they were to add a CocoCay stop for one of the sea days, I'd like that too. 

Anyway, I have some time to think about it. If my GTY OV is terrible or if I just decide to bid for the JS anyway, I have some options. I just posted this as general information.

22 hours ago, Biker19 said:

It can happen anytime inside final payment (up to 90 days out). The 30 day requirement (if it works at all) is if you go directly to the site without getting an e-mail invite.

Thanks for telling me. I'm pretty new to that. 

It looks like Royal Up needs to occur within 30 days of the sailing. I'm anticipating that I will be pretty busy so I don't think I will be available then for placing a bid.

No evidence of a room assignment for me yet. I have friends staying on the 7th floor interior on Majesty so it's possible that I might get assigned one of those outside rooms. Our reservations aren't synched but our dining reservations are.

Anything other than the bottom deck will be considered a plus by me, especially if it's more of a mid-deck assignment.

Thanks,

Krista

33 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

 

Hope you like raisins!

I'm guessing there are raisins in the apple pie?

I have access to the menus for my sailing on the app and I had been thinking about getting apple pie. I'm not a big fan of chocolate cakes but I like pie and fruit. It sounds like it is a good choice provided that the ice cream is at the correct temperature.

I can't compare to the past but I generally have access to great food, so I'm hoping that it will be decent. Individual tastes are one thing but poor quality is an area of concern.

1 hour ago, Rogueperson said:

Much of this depends on crew and fellow passengers which can change from cruise to cruise.

I love the Pride as that's the ship I got married on.  I intentionally chose Carnival for the more upbeat atmosphere.  Carnival in general, I believe have better cruise directors overall than Royal Caribbean.  They do a better job stirring and connecting the passengers together.  If you like group fun with your fellow passengers, Carnival is the line to do it on.

 

I also LOVE the decor on Pride because I like Renaissance art.  I was actually on it before the refit and after, and surprisingly, they toned it down.  I was not as happy with the new layout because well, it was too bright.  One of my favorite lounges was destroyed.  Before, the lounge was kind of like a medieval castle with faux candle lights.  They destroyed it and put in the Alchemy Bar and white furniture.  Totally not the same anymore.  

 

Food is good on both, but I found Royal Caribbean edges out slightly here.  Maybe the escargot every night on Royal won it over, but its close.  Service, i have to give it to Carnival here.  Grandeur is great, don't get me wrong.  However, Carnival is consistent across the board, but Royal can be up and down.  I've gotten better service from some on Grandeur but at the same time, I've gotten worse.  The crew on the Pride seems to genuinely engage the passengers a little better, but that's my experience, crew can vary.

 

Shows, I would give a slight edge to Grandeur, but both are good.  Pride has a dedicated comedy venue, which is awesome, but then it depends on the skill of the comedian.  Some are great, and others, are okay.

 

Grandeur stands out with their itinerary.  Pride will only consistently do Grand Turks/Bahamas, Bahamas/Florida or Bermuda.  The Grand Turk stop is always short which i hate.   Once or twice a year, Pride has a 14 night voyage cruise.  Grandeur varies between Canada, Caribbean, Southern US and Bermuda and also varies between 5 nights and 12 nights.  I like that variety.

 

I think they are more similar than they are different.

Thanks for your feedback. I looked at photos of the ship. I've got a specific friend who I would try it with if I want one of the Carnival itineraries. Grand Turk is one of the places that I would visit but I agree that the stop looks to be pretty short.

Where I work now, getting leave approved isn't that standardized so I don't know what my plans are for next year in general. 

I might be willing to give this a try but I'll see. It is great to have a couple of options in Baltimore.

It sounds like the staff needed additional training. If anything, I'm glad that they were inspected and I hope that they will be stricter going forward. It sounds like they had a problem with fruit flies, some storage problems in their breakroom and some issues with food labeling and storage. They also needed some maintenance and cleaning. 

Hopefully they have tightened up after that.

2 minutes ago, mkbonfardine said:

We are going to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts. I will definitely start researching some things. Thank you!

I hear that and I just think ... amazing. Maybe have ports where you are more active and others where you chill out more.

I agree that you can take your own approach to this. I'm an experienced land traveler. For my first cruise, I did just go through a ship excursion that I ended up enjoying. That was a whole island bus tour in Bermuda. I did research prices and it was pretty comparable to going independently. On the second day, I just went to a beach near the ship and I enjoyed that too. There were other factors involved, there was a local national holiday and our arrival and departure times were a little awkward.

This time, I'll be doing more independent traveling but I'll be in a larger group and there is a list of things that we want to do. I honestly don't know that we'll manage to do everything that we've talked about. We're relaxed about Key West but we actually have a list of things to do in Nassau that we might need to narrow down.

I think that for me, it would depend on the specific port and what I want to do there. I'd then price out what I want and I'd see if it would be cheaper to go on my own. In some cases, I might still pick the convenience of going through the cruise. I might do that if it's a place I'm really unfamiliar with or if there's something specific that I want to do that they offer.

On 8/8/2019 at 4:18 PM, tkline said:

Carnival isn't an option for us. My Fiance isn't a fan of them at all, and won't even consider them. I wouldn't mind trying them though, but her 2 votes always beats my 1. We've done the Celebrity Solstice to Alaska and Regal Princess to new england. We feel like Royal Caribbean would be a good fit for some of their cruises so we would really only be interested in the grandeur from Baltimore, or others from NY. I like Baltimore because it seems like it boarding will be painless and I like the idea of a smaller ship. We don't really do a lot of the extra stuff offered on cruises. We never go to shows, we don't really hang out in lounges, we don't use the pool. Most of our time spent on board is eating or gambling (slots and bingo). We are bigtime foodies, but we also don't do the speciality restaurants often because we already paid so much for the cruise and would rather spend money to eat at a local place in a port  if we can.

 

So maybe we'll give the grandeur a try. We are doing an Ireland & Iceland cruise with Celebrity next summer, so we were hoping to plan for the caribbean probably Jan or Feb '21

From my one trip on Grandeur, it does sound like a fit for you two. 

I would definitely go on Grandeur again, I just don't have infinite ability to travel at this time and I do more land traveling. I told some of my friends over the weekend about how I'm going on a cruise in October and they looked like they'd seen a ghost because they just think of stereotypes or aren't that familiar. Eh, I make my own decisions about travel.

If Baltimore is convenient, Grandeur is an easy experience. I'd go again if I want the itinerary and price. I left that trip feeling positive, I just went onto other travel like land travel in New England, Canada, France and Spain. I regret none of it.

11 minutes ago, fscool said:

We go down and stand in line to get off at least 30 or more minutes before the ship is due to "arrive" at the port. For getting back to the ship, the private excursions that end closer to departure time we take ones that are really not far from the port to limit potential issues.

 

I get that I am the only one making a big deal out of this.  I just felt a little ripped off that I was told the ship was in port at the times on the invoice/booking but in reality you have to shave off 30mins at the start and 30mins at the end + get back a bit earlier than that to get back on the ship. 

I agree that it might not be readily clear if you aren't familiar with cruising. Comparing it to a boarding time for an airplane makes a lot of sense. I've been fortunate to never unintentionally miss a travel arrangement. It's definitely true though that unexpected things can happen. I've had to run through a few airports to make flights due to unpredictable reasons before. 

Generally speaking though, it sounds like with cruises, it is not a good idea to cut it too close in terms of returning.

I enjoyed the food on Grandeur so I hope that I will be ok on Majesty. I really liked the MDR on Grandeur and went there for breakfast and lunch during most of the cruise last time. There was also a poolside BBQ that was actually good.

I will probably have lunch in port on port days. I might be willing to try out more of the WJ. Last time, I actually only ate there once. 

Mine is more recent but I've only done one RCCL cruise before. (I'm generally more of a land traveler but I'm enjoying cruising too). When I called RCCL, they had no problem finding me and synching up my reservations. Admittedly, mine was in 2016 but they found it easily. 

I think it's a good idea to get the loyalty points because you never know when you might need them again. I'm pretty sure that I'll be willing to cruise again on Royal sometime, I just like different types of traveling. It's a bit like accruing airline points without the restrictions (hopefully).

Via the app, I've been able to look at some info for my sailing. It's a 5 night sailing and it appears there will not be lobster. I'm just posting that as information.

I'm a big fan of lobster but I had a lot of it in my land travel to Maine last summer. In this case, I'll be looking forward to the steaks and maybe I'll try some new things. The MDR menu for my sailing has been posted. There is only one night that I am iffy about due to an allergy of mine when they are serving several dishes with it but I already noted it in my reservation and will remind the MDR when I board. I'm sure I'll be fine, I'll just have less choice that night. 

On 8/3/2019 at 7:43 PM, Merion_Mom said:

 

I can’t think of a cabin location that would subject you to loud parties, unless you are unfortunate in your neighbors. 😳

Thanks, it sounds like I will be ok then. (I think I tried to post this reply a few days ago and my internet was acting up).

Thanks again for the reply.