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The Magic of Majesty. August 2019 and then again in October


twangster

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Here is the aft section of the Viking Crown Lounge that's open to the public while the forward half is used for Diamond happy hour.  A rain storm was just moving off so the ship and any guests who didn't see it coming while on CocoCay had the salt washed off them.

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Navigator arrived first and left first to the two ships following along on their whistles.  Shortly after it was our turn to depart.  

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Having been sitting for a while enjoying bottomless drinks at the Diamond event I was motivated to get up and move.  I saw a hint of a sunset so decided to check it out.

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Again not much of a sunset but there is always tomorrow.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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24 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Man, those night pics are just phenomenal

Yes definitely. Pretty sure Twangster used a polarizing lens on his daytime shots, based on the depth of color in the clouds, water, flowers, etc. I always use one when shooting outside, especially oceans shots. :27_sunglasses:

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On my way to my cabin after taking the stargazing pictures I came in off of deck 7 and saw...

So which way is the exit?  Maybe it's just me in my happy hour induced state that found this humorous.

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Speaking of drinking, they're multiplying.  Jorge the GSM who followed me over from Empress sent me a bottle of wine.  Combined with the two from Crown and Anchor I've got a lot of drinking to do starting tomorrow, day 4 of a 5 night cruise.  

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Fernando my cabin attendant dropped off a letter this morning.  We have to be processed by CBP tomorrow morning in Key West.

A disadvantage of not having Key West as our first stop like I had on Empress recently is that this marks our return to the U.S. after being out of the country at foreign ports so the whole ship has to be processed.  Based on our muster stations we all have a designated lounge to visit to see a CBP agent.  

Mine is the Spectrum Lounge at 8:15am.  

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1 minute ago, twangster said:

A disadvantage of not having Key West as our first stop like I had on Empress recently is that this marks our return to the U.S. after being out of the country at foreign ports so the whole ship has to be processed.  Based on our muster stations we all have a designated lounge to visit to see a CBP agent.  

Interesting...I wonder if they bring in more CBP to process people quicker?  How does disembarkation go?  Do you have to repeat the process or are the two situations-on ship vs disembarkation-very different?

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4 minutes ago, CruisinUpinLife said:

Interesting...I wonder if they bring in more CBP to process people quicker?  How does disembarkation go?  Do you have to repeat the process or are the two situations-on ship vs disembarkation-very different?

Same CBP process occurs in Bar Harbor on some itineraries.  

Typically they have several CBP officers and multiple locations.  Other muster stations go to a different lounge.  Non-US citizens have a different location for processing that is typically more involved.  

I'm assuming it will be like Bar Harbor.

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You're amazing.. If I'm browsing through and see you've posted something it's a must view item..  Always positive.. Always beautiful pictures.. We're very fortunate you're a part of this group.  Thanks for your amazing talents and reviews. 

My first Royal cruise was on the Monarch,Majesty's sister ship,  for my honeymoon.. still love the old Viking Crown Lounge of the old style..  when everyone else would head for the Windjammer my wife and I headed there.  We sailed on the Majesty a year after honeymoon..  maybe the wife and I will again.

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5 hours ago, JLMoran said:

And now my daughter isn't the only one thinking about a DSLR at some point in the near-to-middling future

Check this link out: https://swappa.com/cameras. I've purchased a couple of smart phones for my wife and I. Very reputable website, great place to sell phones, cameras, etc. :27_sunglasses:

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On top of $212 in OBC for this being a cancelled Cuba cruise I discovered another $50 in OBC on my account that must be from my TA.  I'm actually having trouble spending it all.

On CocoCay I bought a shirt at a Royal Shop kiosk where they take SeaPass cards (the straw market is cash).  On CocoCay they don't apply the logo shop C&A discount plus since it is the Bahamas there is a 12% VAT on any purchase.  

Last night I ate more Ben & Jerry's and had an iced coffee to burn up some OBC.  

I asked at guest services and they tell me my non-refundable TA OBC should be consumed first and any of the refundable OBC left over should be applied to my credit card as a credit after the cruise.

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Day 4 continued...

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

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Getting my steps in before...

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

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Like most Diamond events there are finger foods every night.

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

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Day 5 - Key West

An early start to the day to watch as the Starship Majesty came in for a landing in Key West.  Just kidding, the channel markers strobe every few seconds so I did a 30 second exposure as we made our way through the channel.

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Today we'll be at the NAS pier.

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Looks like the Carnival Sensation snagged the better spot closer to Mallory Square.  

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I had a hot date this morning that was a not to be missed... with CBP.  

The Spectrum lounge was a staging area while we waited for our turn.  Muster station 9 was called first and eventually muster station 10 was called.  We were led in a procession out of the lounge, down the stairs, around the Centrum and down one more flight, back around the Centrum, through the Schooner Bar and into the theater where our cards were scanned and CBP officers were there to inspect our documents.   

With that complete I was cleared so my day could proceed. 

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

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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). 

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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.

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

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Sunset from the aft section of the VCL.

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

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Or a Jack o' Lantern... 

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In Boleros there was live music.

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Awesome review as always.  Even though I'm a bigger ship person, you've sold me on Majesty (mind you, Brilliance is on my bucket list someday). 

Is that Schooner Bar bigger and more spread out compared with other ships?  Looks really nice (with wonderful views).

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and safe travels home.

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

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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.

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Freestyle drink dispensers for those with a beverage package.

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

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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.

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It was the Celebrity Equinox arriving just before us.

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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.

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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.

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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.  

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When I was onboard in 2015 it seemed like the VCL was very underutilized. The only thing I remember going on up there was the diamond happy hour. Do you recall any other events going on up there?

I wonder if its donut shape makes it hard to program for. This was the last class to have a wrap around VCL, there must have been a reason.  

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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:

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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. 

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39 minutes ago, StayFrosty said:

When I was onboard in 2015 it seemed like the VCL was very underutilized. The only thing I remember going on up there was the diamond happy hour. Do you recall any other events going on up there?

I wonder if its donut shape makes it hard to program for. This was the last class to have a wrap around VCL, there must have been a reason.  

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.  

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