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


twangster

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Hmmm.  Went to buy Voom on board and it reported "A problem with my account".  Went to guest services and my account is marked as cash, no credit card on file.  I know I used my card during check in, I've never done a cash account.  

Weirdly my laptop is still logged into Voom and working from last cruise.  However I want Voom to stream the ball game to tonight.  Guess I'm heading back to GS with my credit card.  :35_thinking:

The wonders of Royal IT.

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Dentist convention on board, roughly 600 (partial charter) .  No major impact other than watching people walk around with convention type name badges.  The main theater had a private event but it was in the afternoon when there was no other theater use going on so zero impact.  

With 600 dental related guests the C&A top tier numbers are way down so the Diamond nightly event has been smaller.    Since it's a four night cruise there won't be a top tier event and the bridge and galley tours offered for the five nighters are also absent but I knew that booking it so no harm there.   

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Day 12 Sunrise as we approach Key West

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Security is camped out down the hall on my deck.  Someone's cruise is ending early.  Have to give them credit for thinking this through and getting kicked off in Key West, a lot easier than getting kicked off in another country.  I suspect they'll have to pay the penalty for violating the PVSA though so there is that.   

MSC Armonia at the naval pier so we scored the better pier again this time.

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Some history on Mallory Square.

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When in Rome...

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I went for a walk along the marina waterfront and saw some Manatees doing what they do.  Just sort of float there.

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Interesting conversation with a multi-contract crew waiter today.  He did a contract with Princess on a newer ship, 4,000+ passengers. 

Pay is roughly the same but management style is very different.  He really likes Royal better and claims many people leave Princess for Royal.  It's about respect and expectations.  He strongly feels that Royal management style is geared to help him, not see him fail.  The difference is immediate from day one.  He has no intentions of going back.  

I didn't steer him to his remarks, they seemed to be sincere.  

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Time to leave Key West.

As we started to drop lines and get ready to sail away it seemed this one wouldn't be as majestic as the last Key West sail away sunset.

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The crowds gathered in Mallory Square to see me off.  Okay, may the sunset had something to do with it.

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Yeah not as spectacular as last cruise.

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But wait, what's that?  An opening between cloud layers?

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Maybe tonight would be a decent sunset after all.  

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Like that it was over.  

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Day 13 - Sea Day

Being only a four night cruise there is no top tier event.  However I received an invitation in my cabin for a Crown and Anchor "Meet & Mingle" at 9:45am for Platinum and higher.

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Several officers were on hand including the Captain.  They were circling the Viking Crown Lounge talking with guests.  A guitar player played live music.  

Regular top tier drinks were served but being this early a mimosa would have to do.  

It was a top tier "light".

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Later in the day I was wondering what to eat for lunch.  i thought I'd check out the Compass Deli for something light and maybe a bit more healthy.  But wait, what is that?  Is that what I think I see? 

Kümmelwecks!

Yumm.

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On 10/19/2019 at 11:00 AM, twangster said:

Last night at the Sky Bar I noted the cigar options on board.

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The lifeboat maintenance continues.  They are replacing the cables and drive motors that raise and lower the lifeboats.

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Last turn around day this crane was working more forward.  This time they are lifting the new drive system in an aft lifeboat area.  This is an example of the increased cost of maintaining older ships. 

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Seventeen B2B cruisers this time.  Off the ship for ~ 20 minutes.  Last cruise we had to go all the way down to the CBP area that everyone departing uses.  This time a CBP officer came up to us in area where you get scanned onto the ship basically at the bottom of the gangway.    

New cabin tour!

Standard ocean view on deck 5.  Definitely smaller than the spacious ocean view I've had for the last two cruises.

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I came down and met my new cabin attendant last night.  He made a point of doing my cabin first and it was ready as soon as we reboarded.

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Older and smaller TV.

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Can you tell me your room number from deck nine.  We are Considering a spring break cruise out of New Orleans. 

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Day 14, Nassau

We are arriving earlier compared to last week.  I took advantage of the dark sky to test the limits of the iPhone 11 Pro Max based on @JLMoran request.

It's isn't a very good night sky camera.  There is a lot of grain, noise, banding and arificats.  All of these were shot with a tripod and remote shutter release.

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Night mode on:

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Night mode off.

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It does better with some daylight starting to enter the sky.

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Still before sunrise so night mode is doing its thing.

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I wanted to see how night mode would handle motion.  We are sailing past the lighthouse so it is moving relative to the ship.  Night mode does a decent job but the picture still has a lot of grain and noise compared to what a proper camera woud produce.

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Night mode on with 26mm lens.

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Night mode off with 13mm lens.

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As the sun continued to rise the camera was doing a better job.

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Still not as good as a full size camera but marginally okay.

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I applied a special Snapchat filter to this one.  

A Schooner Bar salty window filter.  Best sunset filter on social media.  Last sunset picture of this blog   I promise.  Maybe?

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When observed across the expanse of the Schooner Bar windows it was pretty wow.  

It’s dark now so you are safe from more sunset pics.  

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Day 15, Debark in Port Everglades

Wow where did two weeks go?

The scheduled arrival listed on itinerary was 7am.

Ship arrived at the pier around 6:30am.  I had talked with Vernon our loyalty ambassador last night at the nightly Diamond event to see if there was a way to get priority debarking in the morning since I had an early flight.  No problem, meet at 6:45am he said.  Loyalty pays.

Woke up early to finish packing my bags and grab a Windjammer breakfast then off to meet at the designated point at 6:45am.  On these shorter cruises self-assist is a popular option since most people have smaller bags for a four night cruise and I knew the self-assist queue would be busy.

There were a group of guests that had to be cleared by customs first.  They had boarded in Nassau... yesterday.  You know there is a story there.  I'm guessing they missed the ship and couldn't board in Key West as that would violate the PVSA so they joined the ship in Nassau.  However this raises a flag with CBP so they must be cleared first before anyone else is allowed to clear customs.  

Around 7am those guests were let off the ship and we were held for another 5 minutes.  Five suites guests and myself were then let off next followed by the masses that had queued very early for self assist.  

Down at CBP the "Nassau people" were still at customs so they held us all waiting for them to clear.  Some grumbling as the queue behind me grew and grew.  I was literally #1 in line.  

By 7:20am I was outside hailing a Lyft ride to the airport.  Today's fare $8.81.  The roads to terminal 19 is a bit of maze and I could see my driver make a wrong turn in the app before looping around.  Pick up area is to left once outside.  The cab area is straight across a roadway while the rideshare area is on the same side right against the terminal building. 

my Lyft receipt says I was picked up at 7:29am and dropped off at Ft Lauderdale airport at 7:38am.  Checked in luggage and through airport security by 7:45am.  Not bad.

I don't normally book an early flight but it just worked out this way and I was fortunate everything went ideally.

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While waiting to be let off the ship I saw our Guest Services Manager who came over with me from Empress back in August.  He was due to go on vacation after the next cruise.  He's going to Rhapsody after vacation then on to Explorer for the dry dock. 

Explorer will have a couple of transits during the Amplification.  It leaves service in Miami with workers on board to begin the AMP.  It sails to a shipyard in France first where some AMP work will be performed and then transits to a shipyard in Spain where more AMP work will be done before transiting to Civitavecchia to return to service.

This is the first time that he knew of a refresh and dry dock activities being spread out between countries with transits during the process with ongoing work around the ship while it moves between shipyards. 

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Cruise Summary

Originally booked for a 5 night to Cuba once that cruise was altered and Majesty fares became so attractive it was hard not to book more cruises on her. 

She has a great crew and I really appreciated having time on board to get to know many of them.  It was interesting to see how positions like bartenders and wait staff move to different areas between cruises.  Certain areas maybe more lucrative in terms of volume of drinks served so to keep it fair the beverage staff move around the ship.  The main theater for example is slow compared to the pool bar.  Schooner Bar can be very popular and so on.

The beverage staff know pretty early early in a cruise if it will be a good one for them.  The vibe changes between cruises and each drink served has gratuity applied plus people often tip more.  They like being busy not only since they make more money but also because it makes their shifts go very quickly.  When it's slow the time drags and a shift seems to go on and on.  

This truly is a great thing about B2B and B3B bookings - getting to know the crew and having them recognize you around the ship.  It really makes you feel welcome.  I wasn't the only guest doing multiple sailings.  Some of the guests were completing their B3B when I boarded for my first and others were starting their B3B during my last.

Majesty is an older ship and in places she shows her age yet she has a great crew that makes up for it.  With her move to New Orleans I may need to keep an eye on her to see what aligns with my calendar.  

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One last small thing...

As it happens to work out (with a lot more planning than it should have taken) this was a crystal block cruise for me.

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With that my collection is complete - one crystal block from each class of Royal Caribbean ship in the fleet.  

Not sure how this became an obsession, rather silly really and it's really sort of meaningless but it became a target to shoot for and justification to book yet another cruise.  

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