Majesty of the Seas: October 6-9, 2006

Made our cruise arrangements through Sandy Molloy – I have never understood why people do not use a travel agent on the cruises – the cost is the same to us. And, then Sandy owes us big time – right Sandy? (Well, maybe not for a three day….)

Flew into Miami the night before. Stayed at the Holiday Inn near Miami Airport; total room cost for the one night including tax was $116.xx. Supposedly had Wifi but signal was very weak in room and not real good in lobby. No continental breakfast included, but this Holiday Inn has a shuttle to and from airport and to the ship; no charges for shuttle except for tips to drivers. Remember to signup for shuttle to ship the night before, when you arrive. On Friday morning, the shuttle driver/bellman came up to our room and picked up the bags to put on the shuttle to the ship. Had not realized he would do that and I do not know if that always is done. Pretty nice.

On Friday morning, the shuttle to the ship left right on time at 11:00 a.m. The drive to the ship was about 20 minutes; the driver could have made it in 15, but he was a very cautious driver and also did not seem real sure of the way – I pointed out where to go to get to Majesty in port. The check-in was very quick and easy; there were no lines when we got there; and our Platinum priority check-in made no real difference in getting checked in. We were on board by 11:40 or so and we were sitting in the Windjammer with food on our plates by Noon. They asked everyone not to go to their cabin until 1:00 p.m. and we did not try to go any earlier than that. We were in an outside cabin, 3024, doing without a balcony for the first time in several years – this trip primarily to get our tenth Royal Caribbean cruise and Diamond status before going on Freedom in February. And, hey, three days on a ship is better than zero days on a ship. Given the short duration of this cruise and no sea days, we did not really miss the balcony. Our cabin steward was Stewart Wright and he was excellent – we had no problems. We got one of those all you can drink Coke products things for $18. The wife used it enough to justify it – I helped finish it off a few times. Our waiter was Rommel from the Philippines, who was very good.

On this cruise, there were 2527 pax on this cruise (full is around 2700). 2128 of the pax were USA. The next highest number given was 92 – for Cuba - ! – the Captain after saying that 92 were from Cuba made some kind of comment about how the statistics only refer to a person’s passport. Not sure what he meant, except that perhaps the 92 Cuban passport holders were all resident in USA. Could they be from Cuba? Can they come to Miami for a cruise? Not sure. Canada with 51 was next. A few in 20’s – 15 from China (PRC), which I thought was interesting. There were a LOT of kids, more than we had seen on a ship in a while. We figured it was because of Columbus Day Holiday on Monday, the 9th. The ship is very well designed and the only time we really noticed the numbers of people were on the first tenders to Coco Cay and getting off the ship on Monday morning. 825 in the crew, with over 60 countries represented among the crew. Hamish Davis was cruise director and he does a good job.

Brought the laptop and got signed up for using it with wifi, but since you have to go to one of hot spots and cannot get on in room, it was more convenient just to use their terminals, which I did. Bought a $25 deal, which with the free minutes in the Platinum book was all I needed. I had a few things going on and had to stay somewhat in touch with office stuff.

Friday night was the welcome aboard show and the comedian was Rick Corso. We have seen him before, but enjoyed his show, again. The best parts of his act in our opinion are the impersonations and singing.

Saturday was a stop at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. We were blessed with absolutely perfect weather. My wife got the two mandatory snorkel vests and signed my release. It really is not the six dollar rental – I just think requiring guests who bring their own snorkel gear to rent the vests is stupidly cheap. I also think making you sign a release to snorkel, when they do not ask you to sign a release to swim is kind of stupid. But maybe somebody had trouble and sued them, so I guess they do what they think is necessary. The snorkeling was OK. The drink vendors no longer scream out “Coco Loco” like they did in 2002, the last time we were on Coco Cay. We walked the length of the “Nature Trail” – no signs or markers of any kind are on the trail – it is just a trail. It goes the entire length of the length, with paths off trail over to beaches. If you want to walk length of island, you can find some pretty private beaches – but certainly not completely private. The BBQ lunch was good – about what you would expect. We never even looked at the straw market and bought nothing. All in all, we had a very nice time on Coco Cay.

Saturday night was Captain’s party in theater and we went through line to “meet” Captain Manolis Kasselas. He is from Greece and very personable. We told him that this was our third time on Majesty and he asked about our earlier trips and he was trying to remember where they originated and where they went. Most talkative Captain we have met at the Captain’s party – very willing to try to have something of a conversation with each guest coming through line. They really kept the drinks going at this party, too. I managed to have three rum punches – well, they kept coming around and offering to take my empty glass and give me another one – how could I say no?

Saturday night the RC Singers and Dancers put on a production show –Boogie Nights, I think was the name. I continue to be impressed with the talent they have in these groups. they have great credentials The dancers, in particular, on this ship were very good. A real nice show. All of the nights we tended to spend some time at the piano bar in the Schooner Lounge. The piano player was not in the same league as the one on Jewel in March or some others we have seen, but he did an enjoyable sing-a-long show. If they had a place to sit in the Centrum, we probably would have listened more to the Rosario Strings (name?).

Sunday was the stop in Nassau. Majesty was the only cruise ship in port – what a difference that made from our last time in March when there were 5 or 6. We had signed up for a non-ship snorkeling and beach excursion on Flying Cloud, but they called Friday and said that the boat was still under repair and they had to cancel. They made a real effort to make sure we got notice of cancellation, which I very much appreciated – I will try them, again. Rather than try to find a non-ship replacement online, we simply signed up for the Seatrek Sail and Snorkel, at $48 per person. This turned out to be the same excursion we had taken in March off Jewel on the Seahorse, a large catamaran which has a sail but ran on power the entire time, even though they put the sail up briefly on return. The March trip, however, was in lousy weather with about 80 pax. This time it was ideal weather with 22 pax. All very nice, but they advertised it as a 3.5 hour excursion, with 1 hour of snorkeling. We were on board just under three hours and were asked to reboard after 40 minutes of snorkeling. There were probably six of us still in water and all of us would have wanted the full hour. No explanation given but we all suspected it was because of small group. We did not complain to them, but did write it up on our survey to Royal Caribbean. A group of eight or so had also signed up for Flying Cloud but when that cancelled, they signed up through a travel service – which charged them $59 per person and put them on with the rest of us, who had paid $48 per person through ship. They were not pleased with that service, needless to say.

Sunday from 5:30 to 6, they had a Platinum/Diamond repeaters party in the On Your Toes Disco, which was well done. Sam, the Loyalty Ambassador hosted; we were disappointed that Captain did not come to this one. We meet some big time cruisers, who seem to live on the water in their retirements. Perhaps because of the liberality of the excellent free drinks, I left our digital camera and case in the lounge and only realized it after dinner (Main Seating). Went to lounge and it was not there. Went to Reception and they had it. Thank you whoever turned it in!

Sunday night show, the Farewell Show, had another comedian, Steve Carto. He was OK – we did not enjoy him as much as Rick Corso. They were having severe technical problems and Hamish did not do the top ten questions thing – first time in forever that we have not heard that bit. Did not miss it.

We got a note saying that since there were so few Diamond folks on board, the Platinum could also have use of priority departure. You had to be ready to leave ship at 7 in Library, where they had a continental breakfast. We did not make that. We just hung out in various lounges until toward the very end, when they were getting ready to start throwing people off.

Excellent three day cruise.