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  • 2 months later...

I would love to sail out of NO, but won't do it on Majesty.  I was at a college BB game last week.  Talked to people seated by us and they are D+.  They sailed on Majesty in this past yr and said no way would they ever sail on her again.  

FWIW, they love Lady G, so they did not expect the ship to be something huge with bells and whistles, they just did not feel the ship and staff were not up to what they expect from RCL.

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  We sailed out of NO on the Navigator in 2013.  It was in March and  the March winds were doing their thing in the Gulf so it was a little rough sailing.  New Orleans should be on everyones bucket list.  It is an interesting city with a lot of history.  Like any big city there are places and times not to go on a stroll.  Good Food!  One of the draw backs I have read about is the long transverse on the Mississippi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Living in Texas I am glad that Galveston is continuing to gain prominence and is a tier 2 port (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Port Canaveral Tier 1). I just don’t get how New Orleans, as great as a destination city, is on the same par as Tampa or Mobile when it comes to bigger/neeer ships. 

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20 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Interesting take, as when I hear people refer to this it's usually one of the things they actually like about the cruise.

Not a take from the passengers but a take from RC.  Both times I was on a cruise that was on the MIssissippi was nice but it is short in the day light.  In the Gulf was interesting seeing the oil platforms all lit up.

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We are taking this cruise out of NO this summer. Although it’s an older, smaller ship, people have told me they have enjoyed it. We’ve travelled on the larger ships with the bells and whistles and are aware this is not going to be anywhere like that. We decided on this cruise for several reasons. One, we’ve never been to NO. Second, we wanted to cruise and go to Key West, as we’ve never been there either.  Third, The price is very good and we will enjoy ourselves. We’re very easy to please. 

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10 minutes ago, GOcruising said:

 We decided on this cruise for several reasons. One, we’ve never been to NO. Second, we wanted to cruise and go to Key West, as we’ve never been there either.  Third, The price is very good and we will enjoy ourselves. We’re very easy to please. 

All excellent reasons to book the cruise, we're also booked on a smaller ship soon and are looking forward to a different experience with RC

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26 minutes ago, GOcruising said:

We are taking this cruise out of NO this summer. Although it’s an older, smaller ship, people have told me they have enjoyed it. We’ve travelled on the larger ships with the bells and whistles and are aware this is not going to be anywhere like that. We decided on this cruise for several reasons. One, we’ve never been to NO. Second, we wanted to cruise and go to Key West, as we’ve never been there either.  Third, The price is very good and we will enjoy ourselves. We’re very easy to please. 

Perfect reasons to choose this cruise.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/7/2020 at 1:11 PM, DublinFC said:

Id like to visit NO and sail from there too.  I am not sure Id like Majesty though.  We have sailed and are sailing on the lager ships.  However, the lower price for sailing on her is tempting.

I know that a few posters just before my response were in favor of taking this ship out of NOLA.  I just returned from a sailing on her, Majesty last week, also know I personally do not prefer the big Oasis class ships.  I will give my opinions, starting with, I have sailed from NOLA 6 times now, although the other 5 were on a carnival ship. 

Lets start with a few positives, the service is definitely up to Royal standards, all staff are pleasant and willing to help.  The food was good, maybe even some of the best I have had on 20+ Royal cruises in both the MDR and Windjammer.  Decent itinerary, that included Key West and CoCo Cay (interestingly on our sailing we were the only ship there)

First at this time Majesty is moving from doing 4 or 5 day sailings to 7 day cruises and experiencing a new home port.   This presents some noticeable adjustment for the crew, that should hopefully should work itself out over time.  The terminal Royal uses does not have a very large waiting area and the traffic flow for both people and cars is not the best.  There definitely seems to be a longer time from actual docking / tied up to actual release of passengers than on any other ship I've experienced (this could be attributed to new home port) 

There is no adult only area.  The rooms no mater what category, are much smaller than normal.  There is no specialty restaurant at all, if that's your thing.  Almost all bars have daytime activities ie trivia, next cruise event, that make for very little quite space during the day.  The centrum design makes it difficult to find somewhere to sit and listen music played there. 

The big screen on deck is of very poor quality, most noticeable if watching a movie, in addition not a lot of clear views of it (this is also a problem on a lot of Royal ships, but most noticeable on this one)  the best viewing are has been taken over by the smoking sections.  By the way the smoking sections are not clearly delineated on open decks and seem to expand more so than on other ships of the fleet.

The ships movement is very much more noticeable, so much so that some long time cruisers experienced motion sickness.   The ships ability to attain a higher top cruising speed is not there due to size and age of ship (this affects the ability to make up for lost time due to either delays or rough seas). 

Finally, if your are interested in the diamond lounge, there is not one and the old use of the Viking Crown has definitely ended.  You can get specialty coffee only at the Diamond and above breakfast in the MDR in the mornings, but you must ask to be seated in the section if you qualify.

Just our/my opinions above, and although we like to sail out of NOLA, once was enough on this particular ship.  Again just our opinion the slight cost advantage does not offset the many disadvantages.

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Thank you so much for this review, CruiseGus.  Our next cruise (May 16) will be on Majesty.  We booked this b/c it was a "free" casino cruise but now I am having trepidation.  I don't really care about any of the negatives that you discussed EXCEPT for the noticeable motion of the ship.  Neither Dan nor I get seasick but I still do not like the idea of bobbing about.  We really booked this cruise as much for the fact that it is leaving out of NO as for the cruise itself.  We will spend a couple of days on the back side in the city.  Even though I am from Louisiana, it has been many years since I have been in NO.  I will try to keep a positive attitude.

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11 minutes ago, CruiseGus said:

The ships movement is very much more noticeable, so much so that some long time cruisers experienced motion sickness.   

I was starting to be convinced to give her a go.  However, this sentence changed that.  My wife is prone to motion sickness.  Taking meds for it helps, and being on the bigger ships prevent her from feeling the rocking of the ship.

I appreciate the rundown of your experience and hope you had a great time.  

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@WAAAYTOOO @DublinFC  what I can tell you about the motion is that one the first night I ran into a friend from other cruises.  We spent some time almost every night with a group of 8 of us all diamond plus, all but us were on at least a b2b, some even longer.  On our week the last portion, 2 sea days, at least 2 were sick.  3 reported being sick the week before, but said the seas were rougher.  One of our servers, who had recently, joined the staff was missing the last night and reported to be motion sick also.  My wife was able to head it off, by taking "Bonine" starting the morning of the first sea day and again that night and next morning.

We have been in rougher seas on other ships with a lot less motion noticed.  Maybe it was a combination of time of year and the storms that have been effecting the southeast US this pas few weeks.

I am certainly not trying to influence anyone's decision, this is just my opinion of my experience and yours could differ.  We did enjoy our cruise, but it is not at the top of our list to repeat again, although in my opinion the food served and variety in Windjammer was superb.

 

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We just sailed on Majesty Jan 18-25 and I agree pretty much with all that CruiseGus said. We were disappointed they cancelled the nightly Diamond event starting with our cruise. The best alternative to mingle with other cruisers was the Schooner Bar and that was very busy before dinner. Had trouble finding a few seats together and waited a long time for drinks. 

We LOVE Oasis class ships but we did Majesty as it was a 7 hour drive from Nashville vs 10+ hours to Port Canaveral. We also had never been to Key West and wanted to try that port. The cruise had some mediocre weather (had to skip Nassau and do Key West a 2nd day).  We did have good weather and a fun day at CocoCay. 

The entertainment was pretty bad. Partly due to an entertainer not being able to come on board at Nassau since we skipped that port.  The singer at the beginning of the cruise was good. But then one night of the “Royal Caribbean Dancers” followed by 2 nights in a row of the Royal Caribbean Orchestra was not entertaining at all.  We are spoiled by the much better entertainment on the Oasis class. 

Luckily we met some great people at our dinner table. We so enjoyed the 3 other couples and that saved this cruise for us. 

We normally do balcony cabins but did not want pay a lot for a suite to get one on this ship.  We did the larger Ocean View on deck 9 and chose one we had researched that was not as obstructed by the lifeboats.  It was a pretty decent cabin - better than what I was expecting.

We would never do this small of a ship again and was not impressed at all with the port. We had to drag our luggage across the road with railroad tracks to get from the parking lot to the terminal. 

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I was on the same time as CruiseGus. I have sailed on Majesty 6 times now.  Despite her size compared to the newer ships, Majesty is still relevant.  She has been well maintained and her staff is as good as it gets. The food in the main dining room is as good or better than most in the fleet.  If your the type of person that MUST have something to do 20 hours a day then Majesty might not be for you.  However, if you want to slow down, relax and enjoy a slower pace then she is PERFECT!  Don't let anyone talk you out of not cruising on her because she doesn't  have "Specialty Restaurants" or fancy slides.  There is plenty to do.  Enjoy this Classy Middle-Aged Lady and remember not to many years ago she was the largest most advance cruise ship in the world. She may not be around in the next couple of years so enjoy this classic while you can.

I really have not noticed any more movement on this ship vs any other in the fleet.  The seas, wind, currents and an individuals tolerances make each cruise different. This applies to all ships so don't let that discourage you.

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13 minutes ago, RoyalGreek said:

I really have not noticed any more movement on this ship vs any other in the fleet.  The seas, wind, currents and an individuals tolerances make each cruise different. This applies to all ships so don't let that discourage you.

I agree with this. I haven't noticed where Sovereign class move any more or less than other ships. I am sure it does move a little more just because she is much smaller than say an Oasis class but I think the difference can't be too much - mostly depends on sea and weather conditions. 

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49 minutes ago, Thrifty99 said:

Cabin 9532 was great. Close to the stairs and had the small boat outside the window that blocked much less of the view compared to the larger life boats as seen in the 2nd photo. 

2D51AE00-3953-409E-BC0E-1C3857BB7816.jpeg

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Great news for me! I am in Room 9532 at the end of March.  Looking forward to the cruise.  Thank you for posting this information.

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