Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

I realized that I was making fun of the “build last night” Whittier cruise terminal without showing what a more grandiose terminal should look like.  One shouldn’t just say something isn’t as good without providing some support on what “better” looks like.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s unrealistic/unfair to compare the world class Florida terminals where they have millions of cruisers going through annually versus the part time seasonal Whittier terminal. But I just want to show newbie cruisers what we experience in the past.

 

I have seen YouTube videos of the new Miami terminal that houses the Oasis class ships and it looks very nice as well.

 

Although I must admit, since there is really no place for you to “sit and wait” at the Whittier terminal, as soon as you are processed, they move you along to the next stage.  Whereas in Florida, you can be sitting there for awhile until they let you on the ship.  So as nice as the Florida terminal may be, I rather be on the ship sooner than later so Whittier is a clear winner in that aspect.

 

Terminal 18 in Fort Lauderdale - designed with Oasis class ship in mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a seat folks.  You are not boarding for awhile...

 

[harryfat1]

Back to the trip report - now where were we?  Oh, yeah, just finished with the cruise terminal and walked outside.

 

 

 

 

By then it rained harder as we walk down this long cold corridor and in between openings, you can see the workers loading the baggage from the dock to the ship.  Most likely our luggage in there somewhere.

 

 

 

 

You ever wonder what it feels like to be a luggage? I mean, if toys can have feelings and emotions in the Toy Story series, then luggage can have feelings also. 

 

How does a luggage feel?  Most of the days, you are ignored and put in garage/closet somewhere.  Then when needed, your owner takes you out and cram 110% of your normal capacity with your zipper ready to pop a seam from so much crap as they throw everything and the kitchen sink into you.

 

Then you get to the airport and all the airline workers throws you around like a sack of potato and then if you are unlucky, they put 5 other suitcases on top of you as you are at the very bottom of the pyramid. Then you get to the destination airport and you go round and round on the conveyor belt.  The only time you really feel important is if you are lost.  Then your owner panics and freaks until you are found hours/days/weeks later. That’s about the only time the owner is happy to touch you.

 

At the end of the vacation, your owner throws all the crap back inside of you – including the 4 day old underwear and socks that they never washed during the whole trip as most people don’t travel with a laundry bag inside to store their dirty post vacation laundry.

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be a luggage. 

 

So y’all like how I add back the underwear talk back to the trip report? Theming matters, folks…

[harryfat1]

Then you walk out in the open in the rain to walk up some dingy little ramp to start your cruise.

 

 

 

 

Wait, WHAT? That’s the glorious welcome you get after spending thousands of dollar on a “bucket list” Alaska cruise?  I feel more like a stow away or like someone that missed their original boarding in Florida and have to fly to St. Thomas, the next port, to board the ship.

 

I sure hope ALL the cruisers boarding at Whittier are veteran cruisers such that they have cruised elsewhere before.  This boarding look is NOT typical of other major cruise ports in the US like Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles or Seattle. If you are cruising for the first time, you deserve something more grandeur than this entrance. 

 

Yeah, yeah, I know.  Whittier is not a major cruise port and has no fancy ramps but I do feel bad for any brand new cruisers sailing from Whittier.

 

Pics from previous boarding ramps:

 

 

 

 

 

Long Beach Carnival terminal that used to house Howard Hugh's Spruce Goose - super long walk way:

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So we hurried up the gangway in the rain to start our wonderful vacation.  I am pretty sure I flipped through every page of the Princess Alaska brochure numerous times while in the bathroom and I don’t recall Princess showing this “glamours” part of cruising on any of the pages.

 

 

 

Princess did roll out the Welcome Mat – literally.  The official time of start of our cruise vacation had the time stamp of 12:26 PM as we boarded the ship. 

 

Yeah, first time on a cruise ship since 2017!

 

 

Another round of cruise ship security to officially log you in as a passenger.  Think these folks went to the same friendly smiley training as TSA agents whereby being nice to people is frown upon.

 

[harryfat1]

A bit of background on the ship for as not everyone reading this this thread is familiar Princess ships.  The Majestic Princess is the 3^rd ship in the Royal class within the Princess fleet. At 144K Gross Tonnage, it’s not a large ship in comparison to the mega ships out there.

 

Per Wiki, it’s ranked 40^th in size currently:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cruise_ships

 

Princess designed the ship specifically for the Asia market as you can tell the signs are in both English and Chinese.  As I’m bilingual, I was able to read both versions so it’s no big deal but for my in-laws who don’t speak English, having the Chinese characters at various places makes things easier for them.

 

If ships have feelings, I wonder what the Majestic Princess would feel being sent overseas from day 1?  Do you feel dejected that your parent doesn’t love you and sent you to the ship’s version of purgatory from the start?  Do you feel like Rudolph the red nose reindeer being laughed at by other Royal class ships because you are different? Or do you feel special as being only ship in the family that can speak more than one language? 

 

Inquiring mind wants to know as these questions kept me up at night during the whole cruise…🤪

[harryfat1]

Anyway, back to boarding the ship.  After getting past the ship security, the “real” Princess staff greeted us warmly to welcome us aboard. They tried to direct us to elevators and to the buffet but we wanted to drop the backpacks in our cabins as we saw other people doing so even though it was typically before the 1:30 cabin opening I have seen on my previous cruises.

 

As we were on deck 8, it was a quick walk to the cabin from the atrium at 12:33. We were in cabins E501/503/505 with 501 and 503 being interior connecting cabins. As you can see from the deck plan below, it was near the elevators and staircases so super convenient.  No, we didn't hear any noises to speak of being so close to the elevators .

 

 

 

 

 

 

First time using the medallion device to open the door was very cool.  Just get within 6 feet of the door and the ring turns green with your picture on the pad to welcome you.  This part of the medallion worked very well for us the entire cruise.

 

In my previous cruises, my default preference for cabin is the oceanview as it’s cheaper than a balcony cabin and has natural light to help deal with my motion sickness. However, the Royal class ships have effectively no traditional oceanview cabins to speak of.  It was either indoor cabin (a big no for me as 20 years ago I was sick as a dog on the Star Princess in these same Alaska waters.  Was in the cabin a whole day tossing cookies) or the cheapest balcony Princess have.

 

The choice was made when Princess was willing to sell me 3 cabins back to back to back even though couple of the cabins were supposed to be “triples”.  Something RCI won’t do as they reserved their triples literally for 3 people so that’s how Princess got our business.

 

Nothing special here that you haven’t seen many times before.  It seems most of the cruise reports I have seen on CC are from folks with fancy balconies and suites.  Cheapo dad not going that route.  We are “slumming” it with the lowest priced obstructed balcony.  In theory we could have paid another $100 more to get the next level up obstructed balcony with a sofa but did I mention I’m cheap?

 

 

 

 

 

This view seldom shows up on CC reviews as most travel as solo or as couple.  Very few folks like us that wants the family connecting cabins.

 

The boys were in cabin 501 on the left of the picture and my wife and I were in 503 to the right.

 

 

I was surprised you can open the connecting cabins on your own from both ends.  With RCI ships, you have to wait until you meet with the cabin steward and then he has to get a special key from his supervisor to open it at muster drill time.

 

View from balcony looking Aft:

 

 

View of Whittier and the "built last night" cruise terminal and a series of connecting government tunnels:

 

 

View of Princess train dropping people off to check in

 

 

 

 

 

[CLE2CRUISE]

You ever wonder what it feels like to be a luggage? I mean, if toys can have feelings and emotions in the Toy Story series, then luggage can have feelings also. 

 

   I literally thought precisely this as I put away my luggage from a trip last week. 😄  You're hilarious!   Though, I was also thinking that now that luggage has some great stories to tell to the other luggage when you put it back away for storage!  🤣

 

Lisa N.

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, CLE2CRUISE said:

You ever wonder what it feels like to be a luggage? I mean, if toys can have feelings and emotions in the Toy Story series, then luggage can have feelings also. 

 

   I literally thought precisely this as I put away my luggage from a trip last week. 😄  You're hilarious!   Though, I was also thinking that now that luggage has some great stories to tell to the other luggage when you put it back away for storage!  🤣

 

Lisa N.

 

Haha, great (warped) minds think alike.  

 

We can be partners and write a script to sell to Hollywood for them to make a cartoon series on the adventure of Luigi the Luggage as he travels around the world and gets into bunch of mishaps as he gets mishandled by the baggage carriers and meets bunch travel companions like canes/backpacks/strollers...😜

 

Oh, yeah, if luggage can talk when they are piled on top of each other in the containers - think about all the secrets they will share with each other. 

 

"Hey, Guido, you will never guess what my owner packed in the suitcase for this vacation..."

 

"Yeah, that's nothing wait until you hear what my owner packed..."

 

Saw this article online on what baggage handler suggest what people should do with their luggage:

 

https://www.travelawaits.com/2792940/expert-packing-tips-checked-bags/

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

If anyone is comparing the Majestic Princess and the Discovery Princess (newest Princess ship sailing Alaska on roundtrip from Seattle), do note that Princess slashed a lot of connecting cabins on the new ship.

 

As I posted above, connecting cabins are seldom discussed here on CC but for many families like ours have a preference for connecting cabins so if this discussion doesn’t interest you, go ahead and skip it.

 

What's I'm going to show below with bunch of deck plan displays (yeah, I actually look at deck plans - you know, bean counters do what bean counters do) and you will see Majestic offers a lot more connecting cabin choices so if you are a family looking to sail to Alaska in 2023, look at Majestic (or even Royal) if connecting cabins are important to you.

 

If you look at the deck plan for Majestic for deck 8 on the Princess web site, the colored cabins displayed here are connecting cabins. 

 

 

If you try to look on the Discovery Princess for deck 8, you will find there are ZERO connecting cabins on deck 8. So don't even need to have a deck plan display as anything is more than nothing.

 

Majestic deck 10 connecting cabins choices:

 

 

 

Discovery deck 10 - finally have some connecting cabins but less than Majestic above:

 

 

Majestic deck 12  (A lot of choices):

 

 

Finally the Discovery Princess deck 12 - as before, less connecting cabin choices than the Majestic:

 

 

[harryfat1]

As we are discussing the cabin selection, when I booked this cruise, my travel agent told me of the sale their agency was having on the “Princess Plus” (PP) package and after some price comparison, they did seem to have the best price so I added the PP package at the then lower price.  Couple of months ago, Princess increased the PP for future bookings but we were under the old price scheme.

 

In case people are not familiar with Princess marketing lingo, the PP is basically a bundled plan that includes:

 

1) Unlimited drinks that costs $12 each or less (technically there’s a 15 drinks cap for alcohol drinks but personally speaking if you need more than 15 drinks a day, you shouldn’t be on CC.  You should be over at AA instead)

 

2) Wi-Fi service for 1 device

 

3) Prepaid tips. Being cheap, I typically avoid this bundled service as other than paying the tips to the hard workers (Cheapo Dad may be cheap but not going to stiff someone’s deserved pay), I don’t drink much and the cell phone typically gets turned off after sail away & goes inside the safe under last day of the cruise

 

However, as I said in the beginning, Princess is not my family’s preference for cruising but since it’s Alaska and Princess has a much better glacier offering option at a reasonable price than RCI, it made sense to go with Princess – knowing the tradeoffs/sacrifices we need to make in switching brands.

 

As I felt bad to drag the family onto a cruise that I wanted to go on (glacier viewing is key to me), I opted for the PP package as to give Wi-Fi to the boys so they aren’t as bored and having some specialty coffee/drinks watching the Alaska scenery will make up for some of the sacrifices in not sailing with RCI.

 

So the rest of the cruise, you will see more drinks pictures than my previous reports - be it specialty coffee or mocktails or the frozen drinks.

[harryfat1]

So the cabins are technically “obstructed” balconies.  Then the question is how obstructed?  There is a web site that has pictures of some of the obstructed balconies such that you can see as not all obstructions are created equal. If you want less obstruction, try the 400 series more forward.  Those have less as they are directly above the Promenade deck but they didn’t have 3 cabins together when I was booking it so it didn’t work for us.

 

Anyway, I showed the obstruction in prior posts.  For some pictures, I took it with the obstruction but others, you can “shoot over it”.  Especially at glaciers where its far away anyway, it’s not going to be right beneath you.  I guess in theory you might miss some wild animal swimming underneath the obstruction but not willing to pay the premium for the higher balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just then a train was pulling in at 12:48 dropping off more passengers as various groups have started to arrive at Whittier.  You can really tell when a train is coming as the train horn echo within the mountain range as it approaches.

 

 

 

As we were checking out our cabins, our luggage showed up.  That’s super early as it wasn’t even 1 PM yet and they all showed up. Guess not that many people have boarded yet and the luggage people didn’t have to deliver as many of them as our previous cruises.

[harryfat1]

At any rate, time for lunch at 1 PM as we moved the luggage out of the way while we made our way to the buffet at deck 16.

 

First cruise in Covid era is getting used to wash basin outside of buffet area.  Last time we cruised, seems like eons ago (2017) didn’t have such hand washing basins and had to rely in Purell hand sanitizers instead.

 

 

 

Although I did miss the “washy-washy” little rhyme tune RCI server hummed while squirting sanitizers on people entering the buffet.  This was back in 2017 as every day we were greeted by this gal with her little rhyme in squirting hand sanitizers for everyone.  To this day, all we have to do is say “washy-washy” at home and we automatically think of her.  Didn’t hear any jingles on our cruise.

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

As part of pre cruise planning, I saw many warnings on CC talking about the buffet area being a “zoo” on boarding day.  Having been on the Oasis class mega ship on boarding day where people have to stand in line to wait to go into the lunch buffet because it was full, I was anticipating the same thing. 

 

This was the Allure buffet line to get in from the old days.  This picture was taken on boarding during lunch time. As the buffet instead was at full capacity, people had to stand and wait outside until the people inside are done and vacate the tables to have lunch.  Yes, mega ships do have drawbacks.  Like many things in life, you get something and you give up something.

 

 

 

Then we get to the Majestic Princess:

 

 

This was the “zoo” like condition greeting us at 1 PM when we arrived at the buffet.  Lines? What lines? Crowds? What crowds?

 

Are we even at the right buffet?  There is ONLY one buffet on deck 16, right?

 

 

Yeah, that was the advantage of one way sailing as it’s not as popular as the round trip sailings.  If someone has photos of Discovery Princess on boarding day at 1 PM, I suspect it does not look like this as the Discovery has been sailing at 90%+ capacity and our sailing was at 60%.

 

I can’t speak for all other cruisers’ experiences but for our sailing (and I suspect many one-way Alaska sailings in 2022 from Whittier), on board lunch was a very pleasant and relaxing experience. Maybe other sailings were filled to the rim but for us, there was plenty of space. 

At one point toward the end of the meal at 2 PM, there were more servers than diners in our area.  They were standing by hovering asking us asking if we needed anything.  Never would get such attention on a more crowded ship or larger ship so smaller ships do have some advantages.

 

 

[harryfat1]

I read on CC that for the Discovery Princess, buffet was self served. Not for the Majestic as it was a "hybrid" system such that any hot food items, the workers will serve you. 

 

Just point and give them your plate and they will plop the food on it.  You will notice all the serving utensils are pointed inward toward the workers so you can not help yourself.

 

However, for the desserts and the "grab and go" items, you can help yourself.

 

For food and drinks, you are NOT allowed to go back to the drinks area to get your own.  Ask a worker and they will bring whatever drinks you want.

 

Anyway, less talking, more food pictures:

 

Notice the utensils are all pointed for the server to use - as MC Hammer says, CAN'T TOUCH THIS... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's what at each table in case anyone's wondering:

 

 

 

One drawback of reading my trip report is you are forced to see what I ate the entire cruise:

 

 

And drank (inclusive with PP drinks plan):

 

 

The wife had a glass of red:

 

 

Boys had virgin strawberry daiquiri: 

 

 

MC Hammer reminding you on what to do at the buffet:

 

 

[Essiesmom]

I think the ease of boarding and rapid delivery of luggage has to do with getting to Whittier itself.  You can’t just drive to the port and park, to get there first.  You are limited by bus and train services and schedules.  So arrivals are spaced out.  EM

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you for your very informative and entertaining report!  Loving it!

[dickinson]

One reason that it wasn't crowded for lunch is because a lot of the people on the cruise are doing cruise tours first and they arrive later.  When we did our cruise tour we arrived at dinner time.  

 

The wash basins at the buffet have nothing to do with Covid.  All Royal class ships have them.  We first cruised Royal Princess in 2015.  I think it was almost two years old.  Wash basins.

 

Some ships seem to be using the Covid protocol of not allowing you to serve yourself at the buffet except for certain cold items that are packaged for individuals.  Other ships seem to have gone back to pre pandemic serve yourself everything.

[JF - retired RRT]

Interesting buffet pix. Never actually seen the buffet on boarding day, we've always had our first lunch in the one open MDR. Much more relaxing than what is described as the first day madness.

Even after the first day (when eating is more spread out), the buffet can be extremely busy/crowded. We often head there for lunch and just keep on walking.

[harryfat1]

15 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

I think the ease of boarding and rapid delivery of luggage has to do with getting to Whittier itself.  You can’t just drive to the port and park, to get there first.  You are limited by bus and train services and schedules.  So arrivals are spaced out.  EM

Agreed. I have pictures later on of passengers arriving at 5 PM so the boarding process is much more staggered than a Seattle sailing as we didn't sail away until 8:30 PM.

 

 

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, alibabacruisers said:

Thank you for your very informative and entertaining report!  Loving it!

 

Thank you for reading along and your kind words.

 

My 47 page contract with CC to write this trip report stipulates I must entertain all the readers so that they feel like they're getting their money's worth from the annual membership dues.

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, dickinson said:

One reason that it wasn't crowded for lunch is because a lot of the people on the cruise are doing cruise tours first and they arrive later.  When we did our cruise tour we arrived at dinner time.  

 

The wash basins at the buffet have nothing to do with Covid.  All Royal class ships have them.  We first cruised Royal Princess in 2015.  I think it was almost two years old.  Wash basins.

 

Some ships seem to be using the Covid protocol of not allowing you to serve yourself at the buffet except for certain cold items that are packaged for individuals.  Other ships seem to have gone back to pre pandemic serve yourself everything.

Thanks for the background info on the wash basins.  I thought they were post Covid as the previous ships we were on were older built.  Good to know.

 

I have read on CC on different Princess ships implementing various policies so don't know how much autonomy each ship has versus what Princess Corporate wants.

 

Not sure if it makes any difference on staff serving food at the buffet, but this Alaska season, ships sailing the one way route starting/ending in Vancouver have the official policy of having to wear mask indoors whereas Seattle round trip sailings for Discovery Princess are not requiring the guests to wear them.  

 

As I will discuss later on, the mask policy wasn't enforced on the Majestic.  Without getting deep into the mask policy policy, I will leave it at that.

 

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Interesting buffet pix. Never actually seen the buffet on boarding day, we've always had our first lunch in the one open MDR. Much more relaxing than what is described as the first day madness.

Even after the first day (when eating is more spread out), the buffet can be extremely busy/crowded. We often head there for lunch and just keep on walking.

We are buffet people - we go there breakfast and lunch - as we have a bigger group of 6 and multi generational group tends to prefer different food so the buffet suits us needs better.

 

As others have mentioned, being in Whittier and the staggered boarding due to the land portion of the cruise tours arriving late, we were part of only few hundred people on board at 1 PM for lunch.  I have seen buffets more crowded on port days in the Caribbean when many people are off the ship the whole day.

 

The sailing itself wasn't very crowded at 60% capacity versus 90%+ at the Seattle roundtrips I have been reading. I think when we were eating lunch, there were probably only the few buses from ACT and Princess as well as maybe one train full of people that have boarded the ship by then.

 

There are 2 sections in the buffet - we call them the "dark wood" and "light wood" sections. As the ship wasn't near capacity, they only opened up part of the buffet facilities at the "dark wood" seating areas. Whereas the light wood seats are further away and people don't want to carry their food an extra 75 feet so the light wood section is seldom crowded even on sea days the entire cruise. 

 

We were always able to easily find a table at the buffet  for 6 on this sailing.  Couldn't say the same for RCI ships that caters more to families and we always had to fight/scramble to find bigger tables on those ships

[harryfat1]

Back to trip reporting - time for dessert pictures from the lunch buffet. You didn't think we would eat lunch without desserts, right?

 

I like how they have to say "display only" in case anyone just grabs them from the case (also note all the empty tables in the background on the port side):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresh fruits served by workers only:

 

 

Technically people always say "there's always room for Jello" but I passed as I rather make room for something else that's bad for me🤪

 

 

Note to self - never make appointment to see your doctor right after a cruise for the annual physical where you have to do the blood draw.  Yeah, your numbers are gonna to spike after eating this and many other "bad" things... 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So after stuffing our faces, it was time to explore the ship.  Since we are already at deck 16, the first thing we saw was the sky walk.  Looking at various YouTube reviews, it seems these clear see through walkways have become increasing popular in various ship designs. At home you don’t really feel it but when you get on a moving ship, it does make your knees buckle a bit from being so high up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally, I wanted a picture of someone at the sky walk looking down and taking a picture of someone from deck 7 beneath and vice versa.  The concept of me taking a picture of you taking a picture of me taking a picture of you – I love these infinite loop ideas. But we never did the shot as it was raining the first day and got busy with port days and glaciers and forgot all about it until now (yeah, yeah, I know I suck but not a professional reviewer).

 

If anyone does go on the Royal Class ship in near future, take a picture of that and see what it looks like. Although as I cautioned my wife while proposing the concept that if it’s a gal at the sky walk looking down, she shouldn’t be wearing a dress as the person from below looking up might catch glimpses of something with a mega zoom camera that shouldn’t be posted on family friendly sites.

 

Yeah, this camera can zoom pretty far…

 

[harryfat1]

As the Majestic Princess was designed for the Asian market, the ship has an Asian noodle bar.  I believe it’s the only one in the Princess fleet.  I think RCI has noodle options for Ovation and other ships destinated for the overseas market.

 

The setup is simple, you get a noodle “special of the day” on the upper picture and the bottom 2 are always available. After you get the noodles, you add whatever condiments you want and you have yourself a small bowl of hot noodles. Perfect for cold weather sailings like Alaska or Norway.  Unlikely to be as popular in St. Thomas in August (I love to be Captain Obvious…)🤪

 

 

 

Condiments:

 

 

Of course, we were still full from lunch so we passed on it for the day although the special of the day (Dan Dan Noodles) is typically pretty good on a land-based restaurant as it can be spicy and have a good "kick" to it. Sometimes you wish you have 2 stomachs on cruises so you can try different food. 

 

Although I want to point out that when the ship was back in Asia years ago, the menu was different.  This menu you see above has been “Americanized”. 

 

Per the YouTube videos from back in 2018, the original offerings for the two daily specials were “Fish Balls and Vegetables” and “Tofu and Vegetables”. Princess must feel the concept of eating fish balls is too ethnic and switched to the won ton and miso soup offerings instead in the North American market.

Edited September 3, 2022 by harryfat1
Typing with your feet is harder than it looks...