Majesty of the Seas 9/21 - 9/24: Detailed Review

[StangGT909]

Just got off the Majesty of the Seas 9/21 – 9/24… I spent a lot of time reading reviews so I wanted to post a very detailed one of my own.

 

Most reviews I read were positive, so we were excited.

Before reading my full review, note I’d say in summary we enjoyed our trip for the price we paid and do not regret going. It was fun. There were quite a few items that were below my expectations, which I will detail below.

 

 

We paid $219 each for a standard ocean view room

 

 

Parking

We made a reservation at globalairportparking.com

Found a coupon and paid $29 for Friday – Monday

The lot was easy to find, an actual garage, and the shuttle was quick.

No complaints, the garage exceeded what I expected after reading on here.

The garage just downtown Miami. I didn’t think it was in a bad neighborhood at all.

I strongly recommend if you wish to save.

 

Boarding

We boarded quickly, lines were short, no issues

 

Stateroom

The room was old, as expected, but very clean.

We had an oceanview state room on deck 3. Yes it was very small. No couch.

But to be honest the cruise was short and we didn’t spend time in the room so we had no issues.

 

The bed spread had light yellow stain at the end which was a little unsettling, but it didn’t ruin our time.

 

The smoke detector went off from the hot steam every time I took a shower! Nuts!

Thought we were doing something wrong, but I could hear at least two other rooms with the smoke detectors going off at the same time which just made me laugh. Our attendant finally came by to see if we were burning and he spun the detector and removed the battery. He put it back after dinner when he turned the room down but I just took it down again. Again, we handled it, but it was annoying.

 

The shower seemed nice to be a square with a curtain instead of the round door, but it turned out to be a problem… every time we took a shower the floor would get soaked. I tried to turn the shower head to point 15 degrees away from the open side and I used extra caution but it seemed impossible to keep all water inside. Again, not a big deal, but it was annoying.

 

Another thing that was a little gross was the towel animals were damp, we think he used the dirty towels to make them. It’s not a big deal but I’m not sure if the towel from the floor by the toilet made it’s way to the bed, then who knows maybe back to the rack to for use?

 

The TV was tiny and mounted up in corner.

The batteries in the remote were bad, but I suppose if I cared I could have asked for new ones.

We watched part of an NFL game but it made me laugh how it appeared that the TV was set to the wrong picture mode, (like crop or zoom or whatever) as the score on the upper left was completely cut-off and you didn’t know who was winning. Spent 10 minutes going through the menus to see how to fix it, determined I couldn’t, then we went to the bar and the 40” TV in the bar also had the score cut off. Lol… priceless. People kept stopping by the bar and asked, what’s the score? Lol Don’t know if it was the network or RCI’s AV control room.

 

 

Food

I know everyone has different standards, but all I can say was… AWFUL!

We only had 1 good meal on the entire trip.

 

Main Dining Room:

It was our anniversary and the RCI CSR who booked the room said oh congratulations! I’ll put you at a table for 2. Completely understand that’s usually possible but … the rep was insistent.

First off, my wife and I are in our early 30’s.

Got there and found we were put at a table of 10 =(

On our last cruise we were put at a table with another young couple about our same age.

We actually enjoyed having dinner with them.

On this cruise we were seated across from an older couple from another country probably in their late 50’s.

They were nice people, but being a short cruise out of Miami the boat was just FULL of young people.

After being seated last time with people our age we thought maybe they did that on purpose.

I wouldn’t think it would be that hard to at least put people together at a table that are from the same generation, you know like you’d do at a wedding?

It’s not a big deal, I’m just saying come on, we’re a young couple and it felt awkward to feel like we were having dinner with our parents especially after the rep made a big deal about having our own table.

 

Food in MDR:

Day 1:

Wife: Potato Gnocci (tasted like just butter and cream)

Me: Roasted Turkey (not that bad…)

Other choices: Fish, NY Strip steak (looked like a Denny’s steak)

My meal was good except for the hair in my salad…

My wife hated her meal so we left and went to the wind jammer.

To my surprise, lol, the exact same roasted turkey was at the carving station and the same “cafeteria style” deserts served in the MDR we in the wind jammer.

It was OK, but kind of a shock that the same food served in the MDR is served at the wind jammer!!!!

 

Day 2:

Formal night

We both had the beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and chocolate soufflé

It was excellent

 

Day 3:

Choices were lamb, chicken marsala.

We skipped the main dining room and found the same lamb and chicken in the wind jammer

 

Wind Jammer

The wind jammer was crowded, but I actually didn’t think it was bad as some have mentioned.

The quality of the ingredients seemed really low.

Maybe I’ve watched too much restaurant impossible lately but I just feel that the food was poorly executed. All the pasta was complete mush. A lot of the food was poorly seasoned.

I’m OK with the choices, but the way the food was prepared made it taste like horrible mushy cafeteria food.

 

Coco Cay

Chicken, burgers, hot dogs. It was just OK.

Excited to see pasta salad (favorite summer time side) but it was complete mush and had tuna in it.

Seemed odd…

It was OK but to be honest seemed like cafeteria food

My wife found hair, again, in the mac and cheese. Boo.

 

Sorentos Pizza

The pizza was great, we ate it twice a day for every day of the trip.

My wife would have starved if it were not for the pizza.

 

 

Entertainment

The entertainment was awesome!

We saw the same comedian give an early show and a late night adult show and he was one of the funniest we’ve seen in a while. A++

 

We went to a couple of the game shows… they were funny.

 

Karaoke was amusing.

 

Overall, the entertainment was better than on my previous cruise

 

Overall Ship Atmosphere

The ship was full of much much more younger people than on the more expensive cruises

Seemed like there were a lot of single people

It definitely had more of a fun / party atmosphere. The pool deck especially was very lively.

 

 

Ports

Coco Cay was OK. The beach was nice, we walked the 10 minutes to the “barefoot beach”

You could pretty much walk as far as you wanted and it got less crowded as you went.

The sand was white and perfect

The ocean was as flat as could be, almost no waves

Almost felt like being in a pool. It was lovely

The beach itself we liked but we thought the feel to Coco Cay was a little hit up.

The food was like cafeteria food.

 

Nassau

We had planned on taking a day pass to the Sheraton but we got burnt a little bit at Coco Cay so we opted to do shopping then we took a Taxi to the Atlantis to try and watch some football.

It was OK, but if we had to do it over again I would put more sun block on at Coco Cay and then go to the Sheraton at Nassau

 

 

Random

The coke freestyle machines were fun, but I don’t know why there are only two on the entire ship.

The lines were often long and there are so many choices where you’d see people “thinking” about what to get. They should just add 1 machine maybe to a lower deck.

 

The cruise director was a younger guy, very nice, friendly, and he actually had funny jokes. A+ to him

 

We were invited to a crown an anchor event that featured free drinks… that was very nice.

 

 

Summary

 

Despite our issues, we had a good time!

I think the expression, “you get what you pay for” sums it up.

For $200 a head, the boat was OK.

If you are looking for an inexpensive weekend get away with a fun atmosphere this is it.

If you are looking for fine dining and high quality, this isn’t it.

 

Hope this is helpful!

 

 

I have 1 question… does anyone know how RCI determines who you sit with for dinner?

Is it 100% random or do they usually try to match you up with someone your age / generation?

[LetzCruze]

Did you try the Compass Deli next to Johnny Rockets? It is awesome.

 

You said the pizza was excellent? We can agree to disagree as the pizza on the Sovereign class ships on Royal is the worst of the 5 lines I have sailed on.

[aurelius180]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise! I cruised on her in August and found the food to be pretty much as described. Although we found the Coco Cay buffet to be unexpectedly good.

 

Everyone talks about the shorter cruise being a party cruise, and we have for the most part, but ours in August was much different than yours. This is at 8pm on the first night:

 

[StangGT909]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise! I cruised on her in August and found the food to be pretty much as described. Although we found the Coco Cay buffet to be unexpectedly good.

 

Everyone talks about the shorter cruise being a party cruise, and we have for the most part, but ours in August was much different than yours. This is at 8pm on the first night:

 

 

 

Wow what a difference. Maybe this past weekend was slammed with party people because it had fallen to $169 the week before I booked mine.

 

The Balleros bar was absolutely packed, standing room only most nights.

 

I just was a downer that the food was poor. If I hadn't been on a cruise with amazing food maybe I wouldn't find issue, but it was a drastic downgrade that I wasn't expecting considering it was the same company.

[StangGT909]

Did you try the Compass Deli next to Johnny Rockets? It is awesome.

 

You said the pizza was excellent? We can agree to disagree as the pizza on the Sovereign class ships on Royal is the worst of the 5 lines I have sailed on.

 

 

Sorry, I will correct myself on the pizza. By shore standards, the Pizza was not excellent. I watched the guy make them by spreading the sauce around with the palm of his blue rubber glove. Awesome.

Compared to some of the wind jammer food however, it was something that could fill you up if you were hungry. It was hot and fresh.

 

I did try the compass grill... it was OK.. pre-made sandwiches heated on a press. It was better than most wind jammer food.

[aurelius180]

Wow what a difference. Maybe this past weekend was slammed with party people because it had fallen to $169 the week before I booked mine.

 

The Balleros bar was absolutely packed, standing room only most nights.

 

I just was a downer that the food was poor. If I hadn't been on a cruise with amazing food maybe I wouldn't find issue, but it was a drastic downgrade that I wasn't expecting considering it was the same company.

 

 

My first cruise was on the Majesty and we've been on it 3 times since including our wedding. I LOVE this ship...but it was quite a downer how poor the food quality was this time. It was like night and day from when we were on it just a year prior. We had a great time but it just wasn't the same this time around. You have to wonder if she's headed to Pullmantur sooner rather than later. All the focus seems to be on the new ships. :cool:

[oneputt18]

I have 1 question… does anyone know how RCI determines who you sit with for dinner?

Is it 100% random or do they usually try to match you up with someone your age / generation?[/quote

 

This is from Adam Goldstein's blog on Answer it Royally website:

Hi Adam, I have just returned from a Baltic cruise on Jewel of the Seas and our table companions were fantastic. I was wondering how you choose who sits with who when planning the seating arrangements as we were all from similar backgrounds and location? Thank you. – Kay W.

 

It’s interesting that we receive this kind of question because seating our guests is actually a very complex operation! While nearly one third of our guests select My Time Dining as their preference, the remaining two thirds select traditional dining at a set time with the same table and table mates for their cruise. We assign nearly 75,000 seats each week!

 

Seating assignments is one of the many planning tasks handled by a special restaurant operations group shore side. In addition to the shipboard team, a team of five in Miami handles the seating arrangements, which includes the reservations process for My Time Dining, traditional dining and all of our specialty restaurants. My Time Dining and specialty dining seat assignments may also be done by guests themselves online through our Royal Caribbean web site.

 

Traditional dining seat assignments with table mates are largely handled by a seat assignment system using a specially designed algorithm. However, both our shore side team and the shipboard team personally coordinate the seating for guests with special circumstances, including those guests enrolled in our Crown & Anchor loyalty program or with a group. Other guest bookings that require personal attention include those guests in Suites, with children or guests who have special needs or special requests. We often get requests from guests to be seated with guests of similar age or demographic.

 

Once the seating process is completed our shipboard restaurant coordinator spends additional time on seating to ensure other needs are met such as those with similar languages and age range. Special attention is paid in this area for our international itineraries as well. We are not always able to put guests with the same language or age range together but we realize how important it is to the cruise experience if guests are able to relate well with their table mates.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[FloridaMomma]

Glad you had a good time, despite the few issues. I sailed on Majesty on 9/7 and had a fantastic time.

 

I had the SAME thoughts about the pasta salad at Coco Cay! I was not feeling the tuna in it....it was steaming hot out, and tuna in the pasta didn't do it for me.

 

You said the pizza was excellent? We can agree to disagree as the pizza on the Sovereign class ships on Royal is the worst of the 5 lines I have sailed on.

 

I was disappointed in the pizza as well. It looked and tasted like a frozen Tombstone pizza.

[StangGT909]

I have 1 question… does anyone know how RCI determines who you sit with for dinner?

Is it 100% random or do they usually try to match you up with someone your age / generation?[/quote

 

This is from Adam Goldstein's blog on Answer it Royally website:

Hi Adam, I have just returned from a Baltic cruise on Jewel of the Seas and our table companions were fantastic. I was wondering how you choose who sits with who when planning the seating arrangements as we were all from similar backgrounds and location? Thank you. – Kay W.

 

It’s interesting that we receive this kind of question because seating our guests is actually a very complex operation! While nearly one third of our guests select My Time Dining as their preference, the remaining two thirds select traditional dining at a set time with the same table and table mates for their cruise. We assign nearly 75,000 seats each week!

 

Seating assignments is one of the many planning tasks handled by a special restaurant operations group shore side. In addition to the shipboard team, a team of five in Miami handles the seating arrangements, which includes the reservations process for My Time Dining, traditional dining and all of our specialty restaurants. My Time Dining and specialty dining seat assignments may also be done by guests themselves online through our Royal Caribbean web site.

 

Traditional dining seat assignments with table mates are largely handled by a seat assignment system using a specially designed algorithm. However, both our shore side team and the shipboard team personally coordinate the seating for guests with special circumstances, including those guests enrolled in our Crown & Anchor loyalty program or with a group. Other guest bookings that require personal attention include those guests in Suites, with children or guests who have special needs or special requests. We often get requests from guests to be seated with guests of similar age or demographic.

 

Once the seating process is completed our shipboard restaurant coordinator spends additional time on seating to ensure other needs are met such as those with similar languages and age range. Special attention is paid in this area for our international itineraries as well. We are not always able to put guests with the same language or age range together but we realize how important it is to the cruise experience if guests are able to relate well with their table mates.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

Hmm so they try to match you up by age and demographic.

I think that would make sense.

 

I must have just gotten the short straw on this cruise.

 

It's OK, it was a short cruise. Interesting though...

[StangGT909]

Glad you had a good time, despite the few issues. I sailed on Majesty on 9/7 and had a fantastic time.

 

I had the SAME thoughts about the pasta salad at Coco Cay! I was not feeling the tuna in it....it was steaming hot out, and tuna in the pasta didn't do it for me.

 

 

 

lol... a second on the warm tuna pasta salad!

It's not a big deal, I just passed, I'm just saying this is an example of a poorly though out choice...

I mean # 1) don't cook it to mush, # 2) use some of the bell peppers from the wind jammer, and # 3) maybe some cheese or salami from the wind jammer, and 4) some simple dressing and presto... a good side dish all from things already on board.

They just need Robert Irvine from restaurant impossible to come on the ship and tell them what they are doing wrong!

[alfaeric]

 

The Balleros bar was absolutely packed, standing room only most nights.

 

That's our favorite place to be on this cruise. Hard to find a seat, but with the music so fun, we don't spend a lot of time sitting.

[PattyG12]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise! I cruised on her in August and found the food to be pretty much as described. Although we found the Coco Cay buffet to be unexpectedly good.

 

Everyone talks about the shorter cruise being a party cruise, and we have for the most part, but ours in August was much different than yours. This is at 8pm on the first night:

 

 

I think you guys are comparing the 3 night to the 4 night sailing. The 3 night tends to be much more of a "Party Weekend" atmosphere.

[aurelius180]

I think you guys are comparing the 3 night to the 4 night sailing. The 3 night tends to be much more of a "Party Weekend" atmosphere.

 

 

We are and I've been on both. There isn't that much of a difference in the two and on here they both tend to get grouped together as "party" cruises. I've also never seen or heard it reported to be as "dead" as we found it. I simply posted the picture to point out how unusual my cruise was in light of those that make a generalization of these short cruises as "party" cruises. My week was the exception that proves the rule...as they say.