R
rshreib
Guest
I came back from NCL Majesty out of south carolina sailing Nov 29th. Its was absolutely the worst cruise I have been on and I have sailed Both RCCL and Carnival in the past.
In my opinion, this ship should be gutted and 90% of its crew retrained. From the moment we arrived on the ship, it was apparent that this ship was the dregs of the fleet and the crew knew it. The carpets are all discolored, the woodwork is rotting away and the ship on the whole is dirty and the entire ship reeks of cigarette smoke.
We arrived in our cabin to find trash from the previous occupants still there. The power outlet was hanging out of the wall (I notified the front desk but no one ever came) and the safe did not work. It took 3 separate visits from different people over 2 days to fix the safe. In addition, the cabin reeked of cigarette smoke.
Freestyle dining has many limitations. Service for the most part at dinner was severely lacking. This is probably due to the fact that your waiter isn’t really working for tips. Most often it took too long to get food and dinner could stretch for over 90 minutes. Twice we had to leave before finishing dinner so as not to miss a show. And you can only dine “When you want†if it’s really early or late. During the peak hours, the wait for a table exceeded 20 minutes.
The lack of Non-alcoholic drink choices is also a big issue. For those of us who chose not to buy a soda card, you were stuck with Tea, coffee and some disgusting unsweetened sour grapefruit juice. On both Carnival and Royal Caribbean, we had orange juice, apple juice, milk, and chocolate milk. And there is only one place on the Majesty to get a drink so wherever you are, you have to walk all the way over to the front buffet. A real pain.
And maybe they should think about training their dishwashers. There was NEVER a time when I reached for a mug or plate and didn’t find food stuck on it. This was not just my finding, I talked to one person who said they had stopped using the mugs altogether and was carrying their own around for just the same reason. It almost became a joke with the passengers. As was the tables in the buffet. I never once saw a crewmember wipe one down. They were always dirty and sticky.
The Kids program onboard the Majesty was nothing more than a glorified babysitting service. The counselors were unenthusiastic and didn’t seem to care about the kids. The brochure boasted a kids only pool but it was never filled. The Royal Caribbean Kids program was fantastic. The counselors were energetic and really wanted to be with the kids. They were involved with all the activities. On our ship, they sat by and kept an eye on things while the kids did their own thing. One night after returning from an excursion, we wanted to put the kids in the late night but they said that it was too late to sign up and they (the counselors) had been reassigned to other duties. Several parents had wanted to sign up. Later that night after the normal kids program ended, we saw the counselors dancing at the deck party.
Oh yeah, and the video arcade (if the closet they put the games in could be called that) was in shambles. More than 50% of the games were either totally broken (turned off) or were not playable because of broken equipment.
Our shore excursion on Grand Cayman was cancelled. I understand this is not their fault but I wasn’t notified until I had taken the tender across to the island. Our original excursion was snorkeling so I had 4 towels and gear with me. We chose to take another excursion and I ended up having to lug all that stuff around with me all day. We were at the meeting place 20 minutes before disembarking, we could have been told then. They didn’t have to wait till we were on land.
In General, it seemed most of the crew were not interested in taking pride in the job or the ship and I don’t blame them. The ship is old, small and uninviting. If I were a crewperson, I would think it a punishment to be assigned to this ship compared to the others in the fleet and many acted as if that were the case. A few exceptions were the fitness coordinator (Christine) and the Cruise director Bruce. Both were genuinely interested in your enjoyment.
Oh yeah...Before cruising, I ordered a Bon Voyage Cake to be in the room of a friend who was sailing with us. When we arrived on the ship, the decorations were there but the cake was not. I notified the front desk and they said it might take an hour because items were still being loaded on the ship. We waited and still no cake. Finally, after 4 calls to the front desk, a cake arrived at 10pm that evening. The cake had “Happy Birthday†written on it. Since I ordered a “Bon Voyage†cake to be there when they arrived and what I got was a birthday cake at 10pm, the entire gesture was a failure.
When I returned to shore, I called repeatedly to get a refund for the botched cake. They have never returned my calls or faxes. I finally put a stop payment on the credit card order. I will not be sailing with NCL again..
In my opinion, this ship should be gutted and 90% of its crew retrained. From the moment we arrived on the ship, it was apparent that this ship was the dregs of the fleet and the crew knew it. The carpets are all discolored, the woodwork is rotting away and the ship on the whole is dirty and the entire ship reeks of cigarette smoke.
We arrived in our cabin to find trash from the previous occupants still there. The power outlet was hanging out of the wall (I notified the front desk but no one ever came) and the safe did not work. It took 3 separate visits from different people over 2 days to fix the safe. In addition, the cabin reeked of cigarette smoke.
Freestyle dining has many limitations. Service for the most part at dinner was severely lacking. This is probably due to the fact that your waiter isn’t really working for tips. Most often it took too long to get food and dinner could stretch for over 90 minutes. Twice we had to leave before finishing dinner so as not to miss a show. And you can only dine “When you want†if it’s really early or late. During the peak hours, the wait for a table exceeded 20 minutes.
The lack of Non-alcoholic drink choices is also a big issue. For those of us who chose not to buy a soda card, you were stuck with Tea, coffee and some disgusting unsweetened sour grapefruit juice. On both Carnival and Royal Caribbean, we had orange juice, apple juice, milk, and chocolate milk. And there is only one place on the Majesty to get a drink so wherever you are, you have to walk all the way over to the front buffet. A real pain.
And maybe they should think about training their dishwashers. There was NEVER a time when I reached for a mug or plate and didn’t find food stuck on it. This was not just my finding, I talked to one person who said they had stopped using the mugs altogether and was carrying their own around for just the same reason. It almost became a joke with the passengers. As was the tables in the buffet. I never once saw a crewmember wipe one down. They were always dirty and sticky.
The Kids program onboard the Majesty was nothing more than a glorified babysitting service. The counselors were unenthusiastic and didn’t seem to care about the kids. The brochure boasted a kids only pool but it was never filled. The Royal Caribbean Kids program was fantastic. The counselors were energetic and really wanted to be with the kids. They were involved with all the activities. On our ship, they sat by and kept an eye on things while the kids did their own thing. One night after returning from an excursion, we wanted to put the kids in the late night but they said that it was too late to sign up and they (the counselors) had been reassigned to other duties. Several parents had wanted to sign up. Later that night after the normal kids program ended, we saw the counselors dancing at the deck party.
Oh yeah, and the video arcade (if the closet they put the games in could be called that) was in shambles. More than 50% of the games were either totally broken (turned off) or were not playable because of broken equipment.
Our shore excursion on Grand Cayman was cancelled. I understand this is not their fault but I wasn’t notified until I had taken the tender across to the island. Our original excursion was snorkeling so I had 4 towels and gear with me. We chose to take another excursion and I ended up having to lug all that stuff around with me all day. We were at the meeting place 20 minutes before disembarking, we could have been told then. They didn’t have to wait till we were on land.
In General, it seemed most of the crew were not interested in taking pride in the job or the ship and I don’t blame them. The ship is old, small and uninviting. If I were a crewperson, I would think it a punishment to be assigned to this ship compared to the others in the fleet and many acted as if that were the case. A few exceptions were the fitness coordinator (Christine) and the Cruise director Bruce. Both were genuinely interested in your enjoyment.
Oh yeah...Before cruising, I ordered a Bon Voyage Cake to be in the room of a friend who was sailing with us. When we arrived on the ship, the decorations were there but the cake was not. I notified the front desk and they said it might take an hour because items were still being loaded on the ship. We waited and still no cake. Finally, after 4 calls to the front desk, a cake arrived at 10pm that evening. The cake had “Happy Birthday†written on it. Since I ordered a “Bon Voyage†cake to be there when they arrived and what I got was a birthday cake at 10pm, the entire gesture was a failure.
When I returned to shore, I called repeatedly to get a refund for the botched cake. They have never returned my calls or faxes. I finally put a stop payment on the credit card order. I will not be sailing with NCL again..
