Majesty of the Seas
 

Needing a short get-a-way for our anniversary, we booked Majesty out of POM for four nights.
Because it was cheaper, and we were visiting friends in the area, we flew into Ft Lauderdale. We used this shuttle company from POM to Ft Lauderdale Airport.
Miami Port Express. $26.00 total for two each way. They were easy to work with, exactly on time and reasonably priced. Highly recommend them.

Boarding and disembarking was smooth and quick.
Staff was nice, helpful, friendly, but not overly so.
Ship was very clean.

It was one of the biggest when it was built, but at 70,000 ton, Majesty was the smallest ship we have been on. I had been worried about that, but it felt extremely sturdy and stable, even in big waves. Motion was even, not rocky as it felt on the mega- ship, Epic.

Cabins are very small, but I knew that going in and the rep also asked if I realized how small they were. There was no mini fridge, which I missed. TVs were small, but nothing worth watching anyway.

It was also the oldest, 22-23 years, we have been on and a little dated and lacking charm in some areas, tiny bits of rust here and there, but lovely pool area and beautiful theater with good seating. It had a bit of recent refurbishing, new deck carpeting, etc. Seeing some areas with old teak made me wonder how it looked new. Bet it was a beauty. If you want glitz, bells and whistles, and shiny bright new, it would not be for you, but if you enjoy cruising in general, and do not mind the tiny cabins, it is fine.

Food was great a few times, average to good most of the time. Salads & breads were excellent, always fresh. Creme Brûlée and apple pie - excellent, cheese cake - very good, other cakes - ok. Steaks: some were tasty, but a little tough, some very tender, but not as much flavor. Salmon & pork dishes - very, very good. All vegetables were excellent. Fresh fruits were always available but limited variety. A lot of Caribbean influence and I am not a good judge of that.

Formal night was not really formal. I prefer it to be more formal.
Dining times were set. I prefer anytime dining.

Entertainment: clubs had little appeal to us personally and we saw only two shows in the theater. The dancers were the most well trained we have seen on any ship and the choreography was more complex and well done, probably because the dancers had more ability than most. The lead singers were also better than most, the lead male the absolute best we had heard on a ship. Wish the song selections had been more current and arrangements had made better use of his voice.

Ports: Nassau, Coco Cay and Key West. Because of rough water, we did not stop at CoCo Cay and did not take excursions or anything at the others. We enjoyed Key West more than I expected. One thing I highly recommend is the museum right near the port. It is a fantastic little museum which gives an interesting and informative history of Key West.

I wish they could keep this smaller ship and give it a really nice makeover. If they did that, I would happily pay more to be on it.

We met several lovely people on their first cruise, and they were all happy with the ship.

As usual, we wanted, "just one more day".

Oops, forgot to tag the above as a trip report.

Good report. I always enjoy reading them. One question, how long were you in Key West?

As I remember, about 7 hours off the ship. We were able to get off the ship earlier than expected. Key West was not crowded at all. There were all kinds of things to do, like hang gliding and boating or fishing.
We had an interesting tour of the oldest house in Key West, and families of importance then, followed by a tour of the Hemingway house, given by a most enthusiastic young man with an obvious passion for the subject, and met several of the famous cats.

We walked over to the old cemetary, then meandered back streets. Chickens walking free range around town looked beautiful and cared for, like someone's pets. I met one man who is a gardener and he kindly shared knowledge about plants he was working on.
The museum was really good. It had a nice section of photos and history on Hemingway and another about the railroad built by Flagler. One gallery filled with wonderful models of unique buildings and homes in Key West. The artist used bits of wood left from the house during renovation of if they were torn down. They were beautiful and a treasure. It should have been our first stop, then we could have looked for them during out walk.

Glad you had a nice anniversary trip Sass.

How was Nassau? Our upcoming cruise has a scheduled stop there and we haven't been there in more than 25 yrs. I have read that it's gotten rough. How was it for you?

We did not do any tours, beach or anything. DH & I were both feeling lazy. We walked outside of the port area to the regular shopping part of town. Mixed bag of shops from cheap to very high end clothing. Overall rather boring, but felt safe.

It would have been more fun to have something planned.

Sounds about right. :D.

I suppose we will wing it. I am sure there are plenty of cabs, etc. by the dock but maybe we will just relax. Depends on our mood.

Cheers, Larry. :).

Cabs and a couple of little travel stands right at the pier. People went to Nautilus for all the water stuff, or to Paradise Island and walked or sat on the beach.

Sorry, I meant to say, "Atlantis", not Nautilus.

OK. Atlantis is actually a cool idea. We would like to see that.

7 hours was good. I thought about going on one cruise stopping in Key West but it was a shorter stop. I will be in Nassau October. My children and grandchildren might do the mini subs. I will have to see how the weather is. It needs to be hot for me to get in the water. When I was there in December six years ago it was too cold for water activities. Iam glad you felt safe in Nassau, so did I.

We did a similar short getaway on this ship - I think it is a great value for a relaxing trip. A little embarrassed to admit that at end of Key West stop we had a good laugh sitting on deck, having a few drinks, and watching fellow passengers stumble and run back to the ship as it signaled its intention to leave if they did not get back ASAP. They were even announcing missing passengers names over the PA, and sometimes you could see, by their reaction, that the name matched the identity of the sprinters. Something about Key West made people linger a bit longer than the itinerary planned.

Fond memories of the Majesty. First RCI cruise I took back in 1997. It was a large ship back then!

BarbAnn, was the ship pretty then?
Gail, Key West does make you kind of slow down. I liked it more than I expected, based on what I had heard, and would enjoy a few days in the Keys.

I think RCI will sell it off next year. They have sold the Splendour to Thompson cruises.

Jacket,
it is already slated for transfer to Pulmanturs next April, 2016. They are doing renovations first.

Thats what happens to older ships. They get sold to the smaller cruise companies. Better that than the scrap yard I suppose. BTW one of the cable channels, maybe Discovery shows from time tom time a documentary about ship breakers, I think in India where mostly cargo ships are taken to be scrapped. Pretty interesting feature if you ever run across it.

Sass, she was gorgeous back then! I still have photos of her beautiful interior. Man, how the ships have changed. But, I loved the Spendour. We sailed her in the Med back in 2008. Now my favorite RCI ship is the Serenade. We will be on her in May for a b2b Norwegian Fjord/Baltic cruise. This will be the 6th time on the Serenade for us. Happy cruising!!

In 2002 our very first cruise was on the Splendour.