twangster

I for one have stopped trying to promote the cruise industry and agree wholeheartedly with everything they said.
The last thing I need is more people to book cruises (driving up the cost for me).  
It's terrible out there folks.  The sea was 90' yesterday (away from the Promenade deck).  I hear that 99% of all cruise ships got stranded (away from a boring existence) yesterday.  Everyone on board is sick (of being on land).  I went missing (and none of my clients know I'm on a ship).  There were 75 mph winds (for anyone driving on the interstate with their hands out the window in Florida). 
Yep, it's not a life for the faint of heart.  Avoid cruising (so I can book cheaper cruises).
If they don't want to go, please don't try to correct them.  
 

Since I booked this cruise with the intent of capturing Majesty in photos here are some of the Schooner Bar.




You don't get views of the sea like this on the big ships.

Once you have entered the EU you are not required to carry a passport with you.  Many well known travel sources recommend not carrying your passport.  Pickpockets are common and a damaged passport such as water damage renders a passport useless.  
Ships have process in place when a guest misses the ship.  Before leaving a guest behind they will go into the safe looking for passports and secure them with the local port agent who will give them to a guest who has missed the ship.  This is standard protocol.
I often use a passport card as my form of ID when leaving a ship.  It's small, lightweight and waterproof.   Plus if I lose it or get pickpocketed my passport book is in the safe.  
I know you have talked about your St Kitts experience before but they were just wrong that day or there was more to the story like it was required for St Kitts residents only.  Many, many guests on closed loop cruises don't use a passport and use DL/BC.  How have those people left St Kitts day after day, week after week?  I have been there a dozen times and never had to produce a passport to leave or return to the ship.  No one on my dive boat took passports on the dive boat.  We all made it back onto the ship without any issue.  A wet passport is useless because water smearing is a common counterfeiting tactic.  A passport book on a dive boat would be a disaster waiting to happen.  If your passport ever gets damp or wet just start heading to a consulate right then and there because your passport is now useless.
Once you are in the EU you don't meet any immigration or customs agents as you move between countries.  Driving from Germany into France is no different than driving from Maryland into Virginia.  Reboarding a ship will not involve immigration or customs within the EU.  It's quite pleasant actually and on a B2B you usually don't have to leave the ship because there is no immigration or customs for cruises that stay within the EU.

Once you have entered the EU you are not required to carry a passport with you.  Many well known travel sources recommend not carrying your passport.  Pickpockets are common and a damaged passport such as water damage renders a passport useless.  
Ships have process in place when a guest misses the ship.  Before leaving a guest behind they will go into the safe looking for passports and secure them with the local port agent who will give them to a guest who has missed the ship.  This is standard protocol.
I often use a passport card as my form of ID when leaving a ship.  It's small, lightweight and waterproof.   Plus if I lose it or get pickpocketed my passport book is in the safe.  
I know you have talked about your St Kitts experience before but they were just wrong that day or there was more to the story like it was required for St Kitts residents only.  Many, many guests on closed loop cruises don't use a passport and use DL/BC.  How have those people left St Kitts day after day, week after week?  I have been there a dozen times and never had to produce a passport to leave or return to the ship.  No one on my dive boat took passports on the dive boat.  We all made it back onto the ship without any issue.  A wet passport is useless because water smearing is a common counterfeiting tactic.  A passport book on a dive boat would be a disaster waiting to happen.  If your passport ever gets damp or wet just start heading to a consulate right then and there because your passport is now useless.
Once you are in the EU you don't meet any immigration or customs agents as you move between countries.  Driving from Germany into France is no different than driving from Maryland into Virginia.  Reboarding a ship will not involve immigration or customs within the EU.  It's quite pleasant actually and on a B2B you usually don't have to leave the ship because there is no immigration or customs for cruises that stay within the EU.

Once you have entered the EU you are not required to carry a passport with you.  Many well known travel sources recommend not carrying your passport.  Pickpockets are common and a damaged passport such as water damage renders a passport useless.  
Ships have process in place when a guest misses the ship.  Before leaving a guest behind they will go into the safe looking for passports and secure them with the local port agent who will give them to a guest who has missed the ship.  This is standard protocol.
I often use a passport card as my form of ID when leaving a ship.  It's small, lightweight and waterproof.   Plus if I lose it or get pickpocketed my passport book is in the safe.  
I know you have talked about your St Kitts experience before but they were just wrong that day or there was more to the story like it was required for St Kitts residents only.  Many, many guests on closed loop cruises don't use a passport and use DL/BC.  How have those people left St Kitts day after day, week after week?  I have been there a dozen times and never had to produce a passport to leave or return to the ship.  No one on my dive boat took passports on the dive boat.  We all made it back onto the ship without any issue.  A wet passport is useless because water smearing is a common counterfeiting tactic.  A passport book on a dive boat would be a disaster waiting to happen.  If your passport ever gets damp or wet just start heading to a consulate right then and there because your passport is now useless.
Once you are in the EU you don't meet any immigration or customs agents as you move between countries.  Driving from Germany into France is no different than driving from Maryland into Virginia.  Reboarding a ship will not involve immigration or customs within the EU.  It's quite pleasant actually and on a B2B you usually don't have to leave the ship because there is no immigration or customs for cruises that stay within the EU.

Cruise Summary
My biggest complaint is the 5 night duration.  Even though I came off another ship before hand it's a lot of unpacking and you just get into cruise mode when it's over.  I feel like I didn't have enough time to really experience the ship properly.   I have a B2B booked in the fall so hopefully that will solve this problem.
Majesty definitely feels like a bigger ship than Empress (the ship I was on before this) but it is a bigger ship so it had better feel bigger.
Majesty is dated in places such as decor and the outdoor carpets on the upper decks.  You can tell some new carpeting has been installed in places but in certain areas or staircases the carpet is older.
Crew was fantastic and I only experienced great service.  
It was great to visit CocoCay again and I look forward to my next cruise when I have the water park and zipline booked.  
O3b Voom was great and I really wish Royal would upgrade more ships to O3b.  
This was a relatively inexpensive cruise and there is great value at the price point I paid.  Majesty has a lot to offer and I'm looking forward to going back to spend more time on her. 

I think it is just an observation area for guests.  I imagine as ships evolved over time the ship architects were able to determine ways to increase the space and orientation.  The early ones where cutting edge design back in the day but ship architects didn't have a lot of history or experience to work with adding a VCL.  
Just like ships themselves have grown and become more complex so have the VCLs over time.  

A note about Voom.
Majesty uses the new satellite technology that the newer ships use.  Consequently it works very well.
Typical results for Surf and Stream:

I asked a Voom person on board and he reported that Majesty has 120Mbps down and 100Mbps up for total bandwidth.  This is shared but individual Voom accounts are rate limited to what you see above so that no one guest can hog all the bandwidth. 
The cap also forces streaming application to work within 4Mbps of throughput otherwise a user streaming something like Netflix could go way over that consuming even more expensive usage while 4Mbps offers very reasonable streaming results. 

Our scheduled start of self-assist was posted to be 7:30am.
I joined the line around 50 people back at 6:45am.  It is routed into the MDR on deck 4 to keep it orderly.

At 7:12am we started moving.  
Through the terminal to CBP where they were making queues for the normal post cruise CBP check.  Some people were already doing the thing with an CBP officer.  As I was getting closer they just opened the lane in the middle and told everyone to walk out.  I guess because we cleared immigration in Key West they decided to go easy on us.  
Out to the waiting taxis where a lady following after me just threw her luggage into trunk of my cab without asking where I was going.  Hmmm.  So I confirmed she was heading to FLL airport.  Why not split a cab?  
Dropped off curbside at airport terminal at 7:28am.  
I had a 4:45pm flight booked because it was the cheapest flight of the day when I booked it.  Being A-List on Southwest I can standby for free so my strategy is to often book a later flight then take my chances at the airport.  I lucked out, seats were available on the 8:45am direct flight.  Through security and at the gate by 7:40am.
Soon after boarding in my window seat I looked out and saw my bag going into the belly of plane.  Twenty five minutes later my luck continued when the door of the plane closed with the only empty middle seat on the whole plane being right beside me.  Phew.  

Once you have entered the EU you are not required to carry a passport with you.  Many well known travel sources recommend not carrying your passport.  Pickpockets are common and a damaged passport such as water damage renders a passport useless.  
Ships have process in place when a guest misses the ship.  Before leaving a guest behind they will go into the safe looking for passports and secure them with the local port agent who will give them to a guest who has missed the ship.  This is standard protocol.
I often use a passport card as my form of ID when leaving a ship.  It's small, lightweight and waterproof.   Plus if I lose it or get pickpocketed my passport book is in the safe.  
I know you have talked about your St Kitts experience before but they were just wrong that day or there was more to the story like it was required for St Kitts residents only.  Many, many guests on closed loop cruises don't use a passport and use DL/BC.  How have those people left St Kitts day after day, week after week?  I have been there a dozen times and never had to produce a passport to leave or return to the ship.  No one on my dive boat took passports on the dive boat.  We all made it back onto the ship without any issue.  A wet passport is useless because water smearing is a common counterfeiting tactic.  A passport book on a dive boat would be a disaster waiting to happen.  If your passport ever gets damp or wet just start heading to a consulate right then and there because your passport is now useless.
Once you are in the EU you don't meet any immigration or customs agents as you move between countries.  Driving from Germany into France is no different than driving from Maryland into Virginia.  Reboarding a ship will not involve immigration or customs within the EU.  It's quite pleasant actually and on a B2B you usually don't have to leave the ship because there is no immigration or customs for cruises that stay within the EU.

Exciting news !  I hit a Royal Flush tonite on Ultimate Texas Hold’Em.  $5500.  Yippee !  Good way to start the week.

Third party shuttle services (small buses typically) will yield the most economical approach but you may find yourself on a "milk run" stopping at several hotels to pick up a few guests here or there.
Often the same companies offer private car services (sometimes called limousine service) where you are the only occupants and it's straight from resort to port.  These come at a higher cost and may be the most expensive option.
Uber/Lyft is a ride sharing service although you don't have to share the ride with anyone but you don't always know what kind of car or driver you might end up with.  People like you or me can enroll their personal car and become a driver.  So as you can imagine the results can be great or just okay.  For two people this isn't a bad choice because the total charge is for the trip, not per passenger.  Plus if you choose not to do the cheaper shared ride option then it is dedicated and direct resort to port.  A less expensive version of a limousine. 
I know you mentioned not hiring a car but Orlando is pretty much the car rental capital of the U.S. so it can be a low cost option.  If you are staying in a hotel in the Canaveral area or plan to explore such as visiting the Kennedy Space Center a car hire can give you a lot of flexibility to explore the area.  

A note about Voom.
Majesty uses the new satellite technology that the newer ships use.  Consequently it works very well.
Typical results for Surf and Stream:

I asked a Voom person on board and he reported that Majesty has 120Mbps down and 100Mbps up for total bandwidth.  This is shared but individual Voom accounts are rate limited to what you see above so that no one guest can hog all the bandwidth. 
The cap also forces streaming application to work within 4Mbps of throughput otherwise a user streaming something like Netflix could go way over that consuming even more expensive usage while 4Mbps offers very reasonable streaming results. 

Cruise Summary
My biggest complaint is the 5 night duration.  Even though I came off another ship before hand it's a lot of unpacking and you just get into cruise mode when it's over.  I feel like I didn't have enough time to really experience the ship properly.   I have a B2B booked in the fall so hopefully that will solve this problem.
Majesty definitely feels like a bigger ship than Empress (the ship I was on before this) but it is a bigger ship so it had better feel bigger.
Majesty is dated in places such as decor and the outdoor carpets on the upper decks.  You can tell some new carpeting has been installed in places but in certain areas or staircases the carpet is older.
Crew was fantastic and I only experienced great service.  
It was great to visit CocoCay again and I look forward to my next cruise when I have the water park and zipline booked.  
O3b Voom was great and I really wish Royal would upgrade more ships to O3b.  
This was a relatively inexpensive cruise and there is great value at the price point I paid.  Majesty has a lot to offer and I'm looking forward to going back to spend more time on her. 

Our scheduled start of self-assist was posted to be 7:30am.
I joined the line around 50 people back at 6:45am.  It is routed into the MDR on deck 4 to keep it orderly.

At 7:12am we started moving.  
Through the terminal to CBP where they were making queues for the normal post cruise CBP check.  Some people were already doing the thing with an CBP officer.  As I was getting closer they just opened the lane in the middle and told everyone to walk out.  I guess because we cleared immigration in Key West they decided to go easy on us.  
Out to the waiting taxis where a lady following after me just threw her luggage into trunk of my cab without asking where I was going.  Hmmm.  So I confirmed she was heading to FLL airport.  Why not split a cab?  
Dropped off curbside at airport terminal at 7:28am.  
I had a 4:45pm flight booked because it was the cheapest flight of the day when I booked it.  Being A-List on Southwest I can standby for free so my strategy is to often book a later flight then take my chances at the airport.  I lucked out, seats were available on the 8:45am direct flight.  Through security and at the gate by 7:40am.
Soon after boarding in my window seat I looked out and saw my bag going into the belly of plane.  Twenty five minutes later my luck continued when the door of the plane closed with the only empty middle seat on the whole plane being right beside me.  Phew.  

The pre-dawn arrival into Port Everglades isn't nearly as interesting as arriving into the Port of Miami.  I thought I spotted another ship in the distance.

It was the Celebrity Equinox arriving just before us.

A final sunrise was in the making as I headed down to gather my stuff, vacate my cabin and prepare to join the self-assist line.

A last breakfast with the WJ opening right at 6am on the final morning.


There is another forward section with additional food station that was closed on this morning.
Upstairs where there is more seating, the Compass Deli and Sorrento's.

Freestyle drink dispensers for those with a beverage package.

For a small ship Majesty has a lot of big ship features.

Majesty has a computer area with printer just off the Centrum on deck 4.

Lazy day in Key West.  When at the NAS pier there is a shuttle used to get "downtown".  I stayed on the ship like a few others did today.  It's my 3rd visit in a month so I decided to skip it this time.

Soon enough it was the Diamond event.  Service has been great, long before my drink is empty another one magically appears.

Sunset from the aft section of the VCL.

Maybe I've been at sea too long, I'm seeing faces in the sunsets now.

Or a Jack o' Lantern... 



In Boleros there was live music.

Viking Crown Lounge when it's not hosting the nightly Diamond event.






There is a bar but I've never seen it used.  When waiters are present they use the area behind this as a service bar for serving drinks during the Diamond event but also I saw them serving non-Diamonds in the aft section of the VCL (paid using a SeaPass card). 

Fitness Center






There is a steam room in the change room.  I'm assuming the ladies change room has one as well.

Adventure Ocean and the Living Room Arcade

Since I booked this cruise with the intent of capturing Majesty in photos here are some of the Schooner Bar.




You don't get views of the sea like this on the big ships.

This resort is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I’m making some sand art to take home too. I love it!
 

Yesterday was our first port day.  We chose to take a taxi to Mullet Bay Beach.  I was going to go to the beach at Holland House, but after hearing talk of the water there failing toxicity tests I didn’t want to chance it. 
Mullet Bay Beach was absolutely gorgeous.  The color of the water there is something out of an advertisement.  
We ate at Rosie’s snack shack there.  Two chicken and rice platters, an order of fries, a beer and a soda cane to $24.
Some catamarans came and anchored for about 30-45 minutes.  We scored free rum punch from their staff because their people weren’t swimming out to where the cooler was. That was a win!!
We snorkeled and saw a few different kind of fish and some crabs.
We have only had one other ship docked with it’s there...MSC Seaside.