Royal Caribbean International
Majesty of the Seas Cruise Review
Bahamas

Sam
Age: 49
Occupation: Self-Employed
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: October 15th, 2007

We got an excellent price on this cruise and had a good time, so overall we were satisfied with the experience. Existing reviews seem to cover it pretty well, but I can add a few comments.

On the positive side, the stateroom was small but entirely adequate, and the bed was very comfortable. The shower was nice and hot with plenty of pressure. The worst feature was the ice bucket, which held only enough for about three drinks. As a result, we were constantly traveling between deck 3 and deck 11 to get more.

Dinner in the dining rooms was fine, with very good service. But reviewers who claim that the Windjammer buffet has the same food are only partially correct. On night one, we had prime rib in the Starlight dining room. The Windjammer had minute steak. Some of the food is the same, but the best entrees are not available at the buffet. If you eat there, look around. The minute steak was tough and overcooked (we tried it on day 4), but the steak on a stick from the oriental counter was much better.

Breakfast in the Windjammer is OK if you get the custom-made omelets or eggs, but the rest is on par with a college dorm cafeteria. The biscuits are awful, the gravy is watery and tasteless, and the sausages are the worst I have ever had. They didn't even taste like meat; sort of like a tofu-lard mixture stuffed into a casing.

For lunch, we just grabbed pizza from Sorrento's. It's made continuously pretty much all day and all night. It's good enough, but the crust is mass-produced and doesn't rise much, so what you get is basically like a supermarket frozen pizza (better than Totino's and worse than DiGiorno's).

You may or may not get away with bringing your own liquor aboard. In my opinion, it's definitely worth a try. For obvious reasons, I won't detail any of the successful methods of disguising your stash of alcohol, but keep in mind that x-rays are not good at detecting plastic. If you bring your own, I advise boarding as late as possible, when there is less time to inspect the incoming baggage. On board, a "double" (yeah, right) vodka will run you $12.65. I paid about $5.50 for a Red Stripe beer. Your bar tab can easily exceed the base cost of the cruise. Note that if you buy liquor from the duty-free store on the last night, you can take it back to your room with you. Customs says you can take only one bottle and one carton of cigarettes without paying tax, but they didn't check. Load up your suitcase.

Bottled water runs about $2.00. You are not allowed to refill water bottles from the ice/water machines, and the staff will stop you if you try. They claim this is for sanitary reasons. Ho, ho. But you can fill as many water glasses as you want, carry them to the pool area, and refill your water bottles there. It's a hassle, but better than paying for something that is otherwise free.

Coco Cay is a tiny little thing. If you're from up north, maybe you'll like it. Being from Florida, we weren't impressed. We live 10 minutes from nicer beaches. The barbecue was not bad, not great. Obviously machine-made frozen burger patties, but they tasted OK. Ribs were too fat (baked in their own grease), and the chicken was dark meat only. But the fruit and side dishes were good. Note that the barbeque closes at 1:00, though, so get there by noon.

Live entertainment was iffy. The 70's music review was mostly lame R&B. We skipped the juggler. At poolside, they played the same tape loop over and over, so we heard the same tunes at least four times. The band played reggae-style stuff, so it all sounded the same.

As I said, we had a good time for not much money, but I don't think we'll go Royal Caribbean again. From what I've heard, Carnival is better if you want more of a party atmosphere, and Holland and others are more luxurious. Royal is somewhere in between, which is not the best place to be.















 

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