Srp431

On my first cruise ever on Liberty of the Seas in 2015, I decided to try and bring a banana on shore as a snack to Cozumel (being totally oblivious of the rules at the time). 
I was with my future in-laws (before husband and I had even gotten engaged, fairly early in our relationship), and all 9 of us had walked off the ship together. As we approach security, a dog walks up to my bag and sits. At this point, all of my future in-laws turn to look at me in horror, thinking I had drugs in my bag. 
And that's how I learned not to bring fruit off of the ship. 

Following....because I'm on this cruise too!  Been on land for 26 years. See you on board!! 

We sailed her in 1996, our very first cruise, which was our honeymoon and we have been hooked on cruising ever sense. Our kids, especially our son who's 14 looks forward to each and every cruise.

October 9, 2019.
Back from the wasteland of being land locked, I'm writing this from Majesty's VCL.
Rather than creating a whole new thread I'll just revive this one.
IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!
This booking started as a Cuba booking departing on Oct. 14.  As it turns out that wasn't going to be so to drown my sorrows I added the Oct. 9 cruise.  Very recently (last week) the Oct. 19 sailing was very inexpensive.  I looked at Southwest and could change my return flight for a $2 credit.  So... YOLO, this has become a B3B.   When you can book a Royal Caribbean cruise at these rates it's hard to say no.
5 nights to Mexico, 5 nights to the Bahamas and 4 nights to the Bahamas.
Cozumel, Costa Maya.  Key West, Nassau.  Key West, Nassau.  
I've managed to book the same cabin for the first two legs but change cabins for the 3rd.
We embarked at terminal 19 in Port Everglades today.  Arriving to the terminal at 10:21am I was on board at 11:01am after a short wait in the terminal.
I'm going to be lazy from this point forward, only posting when it's blog worthy.  
Cabins are almost ready, time to go...

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. 

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.

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). 

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.

Day 4 continued...
Majesty has the old style TV's and map displays.  Our progress...

Getting my steps in before...

... heading up to the VCL for the Diamond event.

Like most Diamond events there are finger foods every night.

The bridge crew did their best to avoid the downpours as day turned into night.

Man, those night pics are just phenomenal!
And now my daughter isn't the only one thinking about a DSLR at some point in the near-to-middling future...

There is a lot going on around the ship but I'll be back soon enough so I'm not doing the ship's entertainment staff justice.  I'll post the Cruise Compasses once I get home to scan them in properly.
Outside for a walk on the Promenade deck there were a lot of stars visible.  That made me pull out my night sky photography app and see where the Milky Way might be tonight. Sure enough...
Majesty has these shelves along the forward section of the Promenade deck that worked great for my little tripod.

While we were well past sunset the long exposure catches enough light coming over the horizon to make it look like a sunset.  The lights of a city were on the horizon to starboard.
The big dipper was very prominent tonight.  It stood out more with the naked eye compared to this 10 second exposure.

In this one I caught a passing airplane with it's strobe light flashing every second.

For this one I setup on the floor of the deck trying to get into the shade of those Windjammer lights.  In the darkness of the forward deck I got some strange looks as random guests walking past were wondering what I was doing crouched down low in the dark.  Oh well, all in the name of taking a picture.

All in all not bad.  Majesty like Empress is also a good ship for stargazing with it's dark forward Promenade deck.

Back to the ship to change and get my good camera.




I tested Voom on CocoCay and once again the speeds were very good for satellite internet.

Always good to avoid scaring the mermaids away.

Back to the Snack Shack for a Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich, a Greek salad and fries.  The mango fruit drink is surprisingly additive.

Yum.

The floating bar remains popular.


The pool was hopping again.  Having been several times to the new CocoCay I couldn't imagine it now without the pool.

One last trip back to the ship.
Someone's not going to have a Perfect Day when they get charged for leaving a pool towel behind...

I would have been sorely pressed not to just pick up that entire mega-tray and walk back to my cabin while saying, "OK, thanks for the great tour! Have a nice day!"

The nightly Diamond event is hosted in the front half of the Viking Crown Lounge where Vernon our Loyalty Ambassador is there to take great care of us from 4:30pm to 8pm.  Other bars also accept the three Diamond happy hour drinks loaded on SeaPass cards.  In the VCL cards are not swiped and the servers are quick to find you when you arrive.  They even remembered my drink from the night before.  Great service.

This became a great place for our sail away from Nassau on this formal night.  Can't visit Nassau without a lighthouse picture.

Flag of Nations today in the Centrum.



With confetti falling it was time for the U.S.A. to be represented.  

Captain Per addressed the crowd.

Day 2 - Nassau
Been there, done that and it's raining so I'm staying on the ship today.  Besides I'll be back twice in as many weeks.

Navigator joined us shortly after our arrival.

Galley Tour at 11:30am.  Despite it being in the middle of a port day there were a dozen or so participants. 
Here they are getting cheese plates and appetizers ready for dinner.  Formal night tonight.

Bacon.  Yum.

Beef Tenderloin and Duck getting readied for dinner.

Making whipped butter for dinner.

The bakery.  Always the best smelling spot in the galley.


Pastry chefs hard at work.

Chocolate covered strawberries anyone?

First noted on Empress so I inquired some more here on Majesty.  Powdered or "bulk" scrambled eggs are a thing of the past.  They were having trouble with the product turning black upon cooking so the fleet has standardized on fresh eggs being used for scrambled eggs, in fact for all egg purposes, only fresh eggs are used.

Once we sail Empress next summer, we will have done the same.  Majesty was our first ship - sailed her in 1992, when she was brandy-new! 
Edited to add, now that I think about it, once we sail on Empress, we will have sailed every class of ship RCCL has ever had!  We also sailed Song of America back in 1997.  

Following along, always enjoy your blogs and pictures, they provide great ideas for future cruises.

Really loving the dusk pics.

Muster drill at 3:30pm.  
The bridge announced that anyone who had ever sailed before didn't need to attend muster.  Just kidding, they never say that.  It's required by international convention so what can you do but go with a smile on your face and participate as a means to let the cruise begin.
Sail away at 4pm.


Guests lined the popular spots but it wasn't too hard to find some railing space.


With that it was full on cruise mode.


A Diamond happy hour event is hosted in the forward half of the Viking Crown Lounge with great views forward.

An hour or so later I saw some ominous looking clouds heading our way and with that the salt was washed off the ship.  Such is a Florida afternoon in the summer.

This led soon after to a rainbow and sunnier skies.

At 1pm they announced our cabins were ready.
Ocean View 4564






Once we were at sea I opened the curtains to get a picture of the ocean view.  It's actually been quite some time since I've been in an ocean view cabin.  Plenty of interiors and balconies with a sprinkling of suites thrown in for good measure but it's been around 18 years since I've sailed in an ocean view cabin.

The Schooner Bar already had a number of patrons so I decided to wait to try to get some photos of it and the Spectrum Lounge.
Besides, my tummy was rumbling so up to the Compass Deli given the Windjammer was quite busy.

A first look at the pool deck.

A quick look into the MDR.

A first look inside this little beauty.

Between you and @PRC, I am so jealous! I want to cruise, get off for a week, and cruise again over and over. Have fun ?

Fresh of the Empress with a night in a hotel in between I'm ready and pumped for my next cruise.
Did I mention...  IT'S CRUISE DAY!
I thought about starting this thread before my Empress cruise even left the dock (like some others around here do) but that just wouldn't be right.
This five night Majesty of Seas cruise was necessary.  I needed something to justify the airfare to Empress so this side-to-side was the perfect solution.
Itinerary
Ft. Lauderdale Nassau Perfect Day at CocoCay Sea Day Key West Ft. Lauderdale I love Empress but this way I'm upgrading to a much larger ship!  Plus, I gotta get back to CocoCay.  :) 
I originally booked a number of Empress and Majesty sailings when the Cuba cancellations were forced upon the industry.  I feared Royal might move these ships out of the fleet.  My plan was to take lots of pictures and document this legacy class of ship that were the foundation of so much that became even much more on later ships.  It was because of the success of ships like this that Royal has become what it is today.   Success breeds success.  As it turns out they aren't moving these ships out to pasture just yet plus I get to sail on some of the best (small) ships in the fleet!  That's a win-win.
To be fair I split my time between Empress (3 bookings) and Majesty (3 bookings).  I already had some fall bookings that were bucket list type cruises so I had push some my Majesty cruises into October but that's okay, she'll be here waiting for me.
When you stay in a hotel and pay for things like meals and drinks you quickly appreciate the value that cruising represents.  Spoiler alert - the view out my hotel window never changed and I woke up right where I was the day before.  #boring
Cabin this time is an Ocean View on deck 4.