My Majesty Review.. part 1

[SWACK]

Before I begin, a bit about us as travelers. We are a 50's couple that enjoys travel. This is our 8th cruise, on four different lines. We usually have 2-3 land or air trips for every Cruise. We are budget travelers, not so we can save money, but so we can travel more. That said, we have stayed and ate in 5-star places, and also enjoy a meal in a greasy-spoon, along as the food is good.

 

 

The New year's Eve trip on the Majesty was our second on a Sovereign class, and our 3rd on RCCL. Our first cruise was on RCCL, and we enjoyed it enough to continue cruising.

 

 

Our arrival in Miami was fairly uneventful. We drove from Buffalo, and had arranged a room and parking deal at the Hyatt Place near the airport. The hotel portion was a disaster, but I truly believe that that was the result of an untrained staff member, who caused our $99 fee to increase to over $600 before it was corrected. The parking place was fine, breakfast was included, the transportation worked, and we ended up at the port at 11:30am.

 

 

We walked right on to the ship. No lines, no delays, no waits. There were people besides us there, but the staff was moving everyone just fine. We did a quick walk-through on the ship, and saw no problems with it. It appears the recent refurb helped keep the ship competitive, it looked clean and had a lot of new amenities compared to the Sovereign.

 

 

For lunch we went to the WJ, and were pleased with the new layout. There were several station, which kept the lines short, however, there were no clear beginnings or endings, so you often had people coming at a live from both directions. I had the honey-stung chicken, and it was as good as promoted here. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the food on this cruise.

 

 

Overall the food ranged form so-so to poor, with very few exceptions. Sarrento's was very good, as was the Compass Deli. But throughout the 5 days, all four of us were definitely displeased with the food in both the MDR and the WJ. Why? The food was bland, barely warm and quite often soggy.

 

 

Breakfast in the WJ was fine, with fresh-made omlettes and sausage and bacon. But to be honest, if you wanted anything else for breakfast, like the meats, they never changed. Good luck finding a bagel, or freshly made toast.

 

 

Lunches were not very good either, with most of the offerings pasta and other casseroles, and almost all of them barely warm. It didn't seem to matter what time we ate, the conditions were the same.

 

 

Dinner in the MDR was the real disappointment. One of the things I enjoy on cruises is the opportunity to have a good meal with new friends and to be catered to by the staff. We got the friends, but the rest did not happen, The food was dry and bland, from the duck to the lamb to the filet. Nothing was prepared with much more taste or care then you get at your local Ryan's. This is written by someone who occasionally enjoys a trip to Ryan's.

 

 

In addition, our dinners all took over 2 hours, and in many cases it was 45 minutes before we even got our appetizer. I was not able to determine if this was a problem with our servers or their workload, but each night there were many tables empty while we were still waiting for our desert. On the 3rd night we mentioned that we would like to get out early for a show, but we still had to walk away without desert.

 

 

Speaking of shows, another reason for our cruises is the entertainment. I'm not a good judge of the song-and-dance shows, but they seemed even more amateur to me then usual.

 

However, the comedians and jugglers were very good, and we made it to every one of those performances. The music on the ship was good and plentiful, with just about every genre available. We enjoyed several hours at the Piano Bar, and also enjoyed the on-deck Calypso group as well.

[bluegirlum]

I don't know what Ryan's is, and I'll eat just about anywhere too, but I had a similar experience with the MDR on my Majesty cruise in December, as I posted in my review. It was very disappointing. We actually did enjoy the WJ, so I'm sorry you didn't. I look forward to reading the rest of your review.

[SWACK]

Thanks.. will try to finish tomorrow

[sentner]

Thanks for your review, as we are headed to the Majesty in a few weeks in Feb. I look forward to seeing part two tomorrow.