Compare Valor/Glory to RCCL Majesty?

[PaperSniper4]

First a bit of background. We're in our mid-70s. We have taken about 36 cruises. We usually book aft view cabins or "mini<junior>-suites". We like Princess, Celebrity and HAL mostly. However, we have about 9 cruises on Carnival, and find them "fine" if over 7 days in length. Same for the 3 or 4 cruises we had on RCCL.  We much prefer 10-14 day cruises. Probably 75% of our cruises were over 8 days. BUT; never found a cruise line we'd avoid, just several we like better. We always have a good time....for our subdued, conservative lifestyle. 😎

 

We canceled two Princess cruises in the last 9 months, one for a family illness, the second for recovery from that illness plus the current virus situation. The last we canceled would have sailed January 2021. I am thinking we might try cruising again April 2021. We are conservative in estimating when we can resume some sort of vacation taking.

 

Now to the topic. We live within driving distance to New Orleans (NOLA). For several reasons we decided our next cruise would be from NOLA; no airlines nor hotel needed. NOLA has only NCL, RCCL and Carnival cruises - we'd prefer longer, but all are 7 day max cruises. We do not care for the mega-ships, so the NCL Breakaway is not being considered. I'm sure it's a lovely ship, but we do not like those big' uns. <g> That leaves the Carnival Glory and RCI Majesty of the Seas. Both are older, smaller ships. Smaller is nicer for us, older could be....depends.

 

Has anyone sailed the Carnival Glory and RCI Majesty or sister ships in that class? Taking into consideration our particulars above,  which do you recommend? And why?

I should have added that we do not care about the itinerary as we've been to those ports many times. We care much more about the cabin, balcony, food. We would probably avoid the shows and buffet, although we normally partake of both. But, we're trying to stay healthy! 😉

 

Thanks, ya'll!

 

 Doug

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by PaperSniper4
addition

[wesorbeth]

We were on the Glory last October, we had a great cruise.  The one complaint I have about the ship is to get forward or aft on certain floors you have to go up or down a level. 

[PaperSniper4]

Roger that, thank you for the reply. That deal about going forward/aft a lot to find a stairwell or elevator isn't unusual. We were on a Celeb ship, had an aft suite, had to walk about '2' miles forward to get an elevator work out way all the way aft again! Good exercise, eh?😉

 

Doug

[firefly333]

Majesty had the smallest regular cabins I've ever seen. I know you arent thinking of a inside but even I draw my limits. Teeny tiny cabins. I'd look at sf of what I was booking.

 

I havent looked at the suites. It's one of rcl oldest ships they are always talking about selling off.

[firefly333]

50 minutes ago, wesorbeth said:

We were on the Glory last October, we had a great cruise.  The one complaint I have about the ship is to get forward or aft on certain floors you have to go up or down a level. 

I never had trouble, yes there is one or two decks, I think deck 3 and 4 where the galley is you cant walk forward. Just have to remember that one number. I didnt find it hard to remember. Every other deck goes thru.

Edited May 2, 2020 by firefly333

[mslhb]

We were on the Majesty last summer. It was originally a Cuba cruise. Ended up with a different itinerary and more sea days when Cuba was closed. We really liked the Majesty. It is an older small ship but I thought the layout was good and most of the venues had large windows with great ocean views. We had a suite. I think that was the only way we could get a balcony. Balcony cabins are very limited on the majesty. Our balcony was wide and very comfortable. Being in a suite there was a specific dining venue we could use for breakfast and lunch. Was nice to avoid the chaos of the buffet that way. Overall I prefer larger and newer ships but I wouldn’t hesitate to sail the Majesty again.

[PaperSniper4]

6 minutes ago, mslhb said:

We were on the Majesty last summer. It was originally a Cuba cruise. Ended up with a different itinerary and more sea days when Cuba was closed. We really liked the Majesty. It is an older small ship but I thought the layout was good and most of the venues had large windows with great ocean views. We had a suite. I think that was the only way we could get a balcony. Balcony cabins are very limited on the majesty. Our balcony was wide and very comfortable. Being in a suite there was a specific dining venue we could use for breakfast and lunch. Was nice to avoid the chaos of the buffet that way. Overall I prefer larger and newer ships but I wouldn’t hesitate to sail the Majesty again.

Thanks for that information. Good points.

Doug

[skrufy]

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Thanks for that information. Good points.

Doug

 

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Thanks for that information. Good points.

Doug

Glory is our favorite ship, have sailed on her 5 times with a 6th booked out of NOLA a year from this August. We only book cruises that add up to 14 days or longer because of the long distance we have to travel. Have you thought of a B2B on your cruise to satisfy your likes.

[PaperSniper4]

1 hour ago, skrufy said:

 

Glory is our favorite ship, have sailed on her 5 times with a 6th booked out of NOLA a year from this August. We only book cruises that add up to 14 days or longer because of the long distance we have to travel. Have you thought of a B2B on your cruise to satisfy your likes.

No, I have not considered a B2B, but I might do that this time.  Your experience on the Glory sounds like ours on the NCL Spirit several years ago; we really liked that small ship and probably sailed on her 3-4 times before she left NOLA.

 

 Doug

[hayesktrm]

We've been on all three.  Much prefer Glory/Valor to Majesty.  Like a previous poster said, the cabins are tiny.  Not nearly enough to do.  I love the size of the Glory and Valor.

 

Happy cruising!!

[PaperSniper4]

39 minutes ago, ronbe65 said:

 

Hi Doug,

It's very easy as you don't care about the itinerary.

The Glory wins in cabins (largest standard cabins on mainstream cruise lines) and balconies, and likely in the MDR food as well.

The Glory features more space indoors and especially outdoors that may be critically important for cruising in the post-coronavirus era.

BTW the Majesty is much "larger" than the Breakaway in number of passengers per square foot.

Just a note, the Breakaway is far above (both Glory and Majesty) in food quality. The spa is one of the best at sea. And the shows (I know you don't care) are far more professional.

A thing to consider in favor of the Majesty: this ship is an artifact of the shipbuilding history. 

Happy cruising!

 

All good info, thanks. I saw that with passenger/space ration; the Majesty was the worst I'd seen! I understand about the Breakaway, but that ship and others of her size don't appeal to us. I recall the research I did a while ago showed her cabins were not so good either. Carnival's cabins have always been good for us, so it's looking more and more like the Glory will be the one, IF I decide to book. I was hoping for really good prices, but they don't seem to offer any great deals in April 2021.

 

Speak of an artifact of cruising history, our first cruise was in 1989 on the Carnival Mardi Gras. Grand old ship, and I mean OLD! 😉

 

 Doug

Edited May 2, 2020 by PaperSniper4

[N7786W Flyer]

As an aside, I've noticed that several people in this thread referred to the Majesty as a "small" ship....which is correct, at least by today's standards.

 

Interestingly enough (to me anyway), when she was completed in 1992, she was the world's second largest passenger ship...second only to the legendary classic, NCL's SS Norway.

 

Anyway, I guess it goes to illustrate how far the cruise industry has come in the past 30 years or so.

 

Garnett

[Heymarco]

Royal is currently considering doing a cold layup of some of their ships (1 year+). Many are speculating that Majesty will be one of first ones to go. Hope that helps. 

[firefly333]

On 5/2/2020 at 1:44 PM, PaperSniper4 said:

 

All good info, thanks. I saw that with passenger/space ration; the Majesty was the worst I'd seen! I understand about the Breakaway, but that ship and others of her size don't appeal to us. I recall the research I did a while ago showed her cabins were not so good either. Carnival's cabins have always been good for us, so it's looking more and more like the Glory will be the one, IF I decide to book. I was hoping for really good prices, but they don't seem to offer any great deals in April 2021.

😉

 

 Doug

Lol breakaway was my first ncl cruise out of florida. There is a light over the cabin to tell steward to clean or not. I asked and asked. Finally half way thru the cruise stood in line at customer service and they told me to look up at the light.

 

I wanted to cut stewards tips but didnt, but kinda mad. After 3 days check and ask me. Nice ship but they clearly dont care about service. Was my first time on ncl  had no idea to look up at light over door. I know, I know there was a printed sign I didnt read and take in. Still after 3 days the steward could have asked me.

[cruisegus]

On 5/2/2020 at 1:41 PM, hayesktrm said:

We've been on all three.  Much prefer Glory/Valor to Majesty.  Like a previous poster said, the cabins are tiny.  Not nearly enough to do.  I love the size of the Glory and Valor.

 

Happy cruising!!

We have also been on both the Glory and the Majesty.  The Glory wins hands down in our opinion both for variety of and available options.  Note we are not generally big ship lovers and sail more on RCCL than Carnival (have done 2 Oasis class ships and they were not our favorite cruses).  I like the RCCL Freedom Class of ships and in general would choose RCCL over Carnival when given the choice, but in this case Glory wins hands down.  At least on Glory you can book a balcony and not have to pay Suite price for that luxury.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise what ever you do.

[lazydayz]

Majesty is one of the few ships I said never again.  Cabins are tiny. Not much to do.  We would pick the Glory. It is newer, the cabins are larger, and a lot activities.  And I usually pick Royal over Carnival.