LIVE - 4cats4me’s last-minute cruise on the Majestic Princess, August 29, 2021

[rheathslc]

10 hours ago, lbfluffy said:

Thanking you for starting another Live thread. We are going on the Majestic for a 3 day on October 6th and a 7 day on December 4th. I keep checking arrival time on the medallion app, but still too early. Plus we haven’t been assigned a cabin yet. Patience is key. 

I'll be on that 3-day as well! Plus a 5 day on the Ruby for Thanksgiving. SOOO excited to be cruising again!

[brisalta]

Do the bed side lamps on the Majestic Princess have USB charging ports?

[caribill]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

. 

@Steelers36  Yes, I had to pull up Captain Circle Benefits on the web and quote straight off the page regarding the 50% OBC for Internet packages.  I was shocked that it was not common knowledge on the representative's part.  She had never heard of that perk.

 

It really does not matter since the rep does not have to do anything special for the purchaser to get the 50% OBC back.

[4cats4me]

KLM3164 has been  nice enough to weigh in on our live thread ,  so please do not turn this into a debate about masking or unmasking in one’s own cabin.  

 We are giving up our time to keep people posted,  and we don’t need folks trying to steer the thread in a different direction. Thanks so much. @Host CJSKIDS 

Now, back to the cruise.  

I’m able to get on again tonight,  probably because everybody went to bed 

 

Had  a lovely dinner at concerto this evening. I showed up at my allotted time of 630 and I had reserved a table for one.  There were two lines when I entered the dining room. A long line on the right hand side and a few people assembled on left side of the podium. Are they waved me toward the left-hand side, and asked me if I had a reservation and I indicated yes so they assured me right in but those without reservations were on the right hand side of the podium  

I told them I would be happy to share a table so they allowed me to start a shared table for eight. The dining room appeared relatively crowded. Shortly after I had been seated a mother and daughter were seated at my table followed by a single guy followed by another single woman. That comprised our dinner table at an eight top. We all had a lovely time and left the dining room at approximately 845.  Our service was excellent.  The food was good, albeit, tiny portions, but that was not a problem for me.  

Afterward, I went to the 9:15 Carlos Oscar comedy show, which was very well attended, felt like 50% of the seats were filled,  but it could have been less. 

Now I’m sitting in the atrium having a drink! The band sounded really good. Unfortunately, they had to end their set at 10:45. I might go up to the disco now. 
The energy level here is quite high.

Cruise Director Kevin indicates we have 1900 on board, 65% capacity. 
not surprisingly, most of us are from America if not 99.9% of us.  
even more interesting, based on the responses to the question in the show room, we are from all over the United States. Seem to be a lot of midwesterners. Based on the applause, it seems that half of us are on our first cruise and half of us have cruise princess before. Only A smattering of people have been to Alaska 
Unlike former Alaskan cruises i’ve been on, the crowd here is quite lively, more what I would expect on a Caribbean or Mexican Riviera cruise. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the drink package. Haha. 

also, went to the platinum, Suite, elite function and had a  deep blue sea martini. The Hollywood Conservatory is a lovely venue. 
 

Well, that’s all for now. Tata. 
 

Edited August 30, 2021 by 4cats4me

[farsight]

@4cats4me If there are only 1900 passengers on the Majestic, that would be 53.4% of 3560 which the Majestic carries at full capacity. On last week's cruise 2400 passengers were reported for a 67.4% capacity. I think the stress of obtaining timely testing may have made many passengers cancel. This is probably not something someone could ask about but it certainly would be nice to know. I'm sure the boat doesn't feel deserted by any means, but does it feel pretty thinned out?

[4cats4me]

Hollywood Conservatory

 

 

 

[4cats4me]

2 hours ago, brisalta said:

Do the bed side lamps on the Majestic Princess have USB charging ports?

Yes.  

[4cats4me]

12 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Thank you for starting yet another live thread.  Always good to get other perspectives.  Is there a reason you didn't purchase the wi-fi package pre-boarding?  What is the current onboard price?  I recently made the call to 800 Princess to pay for my order.  Representative hadn't heard of the 50% OBC to platinum and elite passengers.  

$52 including tax. The reason I didn’t pre-order it is because I wanted to make sure that I passed the “test “before boarding. 
I rarely pre-order anything   
 

The medallion net is working great right now; it’s 2:00 a.m. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by 4cats4me

[matadams4u]

5 hours ago, farsight said:

@4cats4me If there are only 1900 passengers on the Majestic, that would be 53.4% of 3560 which the Majestic carries at full capacity. On last week's cruise 2400 passengers were reported for a 67.4% capacity. I think the stress of obtaining timely testing may have made many passengers cancel. This is probably not something someone could ask about but it certainly would be nice to know. I'm sure the boat doesn't feel deserted by any means, but does it feel pretty thinned out?

When I called to add WiFi my PCP mentioned cancellations had started to pick up again so the occupancy might be going down.  Also as mentioned above she was unaware of ho the elite WiFi package worked in terms of 50% OBC refund.  

[JF - retired RRT]

15 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

 

 

I've been wondering...is there a "hole" in the paper where the medallion sits? IOW: is that blue paper with the Sea Witch logo a solid piece of paper or is there a hole for the medallion?

[PescadoAmarillo]

@brisaltaIn our balcony cabin, there were two USB outlets on the wall next to ONE side of the bed, nothing on the lamps. Luckily, we had a 10 foot cord we ran from there, behind my husband’s bed to the nightstand in my side. 
 

@JF - retired RRTYes, there is a hole in the paper. 

[cruzrbachoua]

1 hour ago, JF - retired RRT said:

I've been wondering...is there a "hole" in the paper where the medallion sits? IOW: is that blue paper with the Sea Witch logo a solid piece of paper or is there a hole for the medallion?

I used the logo paper as a template to create my own.  The writing is so tiny on the medallions so I used the logo paper and used it as a template to make one in purple for me and one in green for my DH on our last cruise.  that way we just picked up our color instead of having to read the writing on it.  I have a single hole puncher so i punched a hole in the center and then cut up to the line i had drawn as the hole in the center....after I finished mine DH comes up with hey will this work and whips out an exacto knife which made a nice cleaner cut line as I followed it around the circle i had drawn.  

[CruzeQueen2]

@4cats4meThanks for keeping us posted. I'm enjoying your reports!

You mentioned that Kevin is the cruise director...is it Kevin Tugwell? From my recollection, he is Canadian. That's good news for him. Thanking you in advance, for a response.

If it is him, please tell him that a fellow Canuck misses cruising from my home port, in Canada! I met him on the Star in 2017.

[geoherb]

50 minutes ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

@4cats4meThanks for keeping us posted. I'm enjoying your reports!

You mentioned that Kevin is the cruise director...is it Kevin Tugwell? From my recollection, he is Canadian. That's good news for him. Thanking you in advance, for a response.

If it is him, please tell him that a fellow Canuck misses cruising from my home port, in Canada! I met him on the Star in 2017.

 

Yes, it's Kevin Tugwell.

[geoherb]

19 hours ago, LinnieRed said:

I have a Fitness Center related question for someone on the ship. Can you tell if the spin bikes are available at any time or does one need to be in a class in order to utilize them. I appreciate everybody’s willingness to post these very fun trip reports and answer questions. We are on board in October, so looking forward to it! It will be our first princess cruise.

 

There are dedicated bikes for the spin classes that they keep locked up and other bikes available for anyone to use.

[4cats4me]

9 hours ago, brisalta said:

Do the bed side lamps on the Majestic Princess have USB charging ports?

 

[4cats4me]

So nice having continental breakfast delivered.  chose the 8 to 830 time slot and it was delivered at 8:01. 
It’s a little bumpy this morning. 
 

Edited August 30, 2021 by 4cats4me

[gvre]

We are in a Rivera mini suite with the extra balcony corner. It gives you some extra real estate.

The comedian Carlos Oscar was really funny.

With only 1900 on board, it’s like our private yacht.

Everything is great!!

[wondertwinsmom]

46 minutes ago, gvre said:

We are in a Rivera mini suite with the extra balcony corner. It gives you some extra real estate.

The comedian Carlos Oscar was really funny.

With only 1900 on board, it’s like our private yacht.

Everything is great!!

Awesome! Hoping for the same for next week!

[trey420]

56 minutes ago, gvre said:

We are in a Rivera mini suite with the extra balcony corner. It gives you some extra real estate.

The comedian Carlos Oscar was really funny.

With only 1900 on board, it’s like our private yacht.

Everything is great!!

Sounds real nice.

[geoherb]

Wow! Only 1,900 on board. We had 2,438 last week. That's quite a drop.

[farsight]

28 minutes ago, geoherb said:

Wow! Only 1,900 on board. We had 2,438 last week. That's quite a drop.

I'm sure the additional stress of cruising in the current environment adds to the drop. It has added stress to our Sept. 26 Majestic cruise.

[PescadoAmarillo]

47 minutes ago, geoherb said:

Wow! Only 1,900 on board. We had 2,438 last week. That's quite a drop.

We had 3300 on August 8. It has definitely dropped after they started requiring testing. 

[farsight]

1,900 would get me into my comfort zone. Would like our cruise to be at this capacity.

Edited August 30, 2021 by farsight

[coastcat]

8 hours ago, 4cats4me said:

So nice having continental breakfast delivered.  chose the 8 to 830 time slot and it was delivered at 8:01. 
It’s a little bumpy this morning. 

Oh yes, the "first full day, welcome to the west side of Vancouver Island, hope you took your Bonine" portion of an Alaska cruise...

 

How good is the room service coffee? The one time I ordered the continental breakfast on NCL the coffee was wretched, so I'm hoping for better things on Princess.

 

I'll be curious to see the numbers for the September 5 cruise (for which I need to start packing). Our roll call lost several people after the testing/mask requirement was announced. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by coastcat