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Diana68
Cruiser
| Joined: | Sun Aug 19th, 2007 |
| Location: | Michigan USA |
| Posts: | 82 |
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Posted: Mon Jan 7th, 2008 12:42 am | 1st Post |
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We just got off of the worst cruise we've ever taken,...but we still had a great time!  We were on board the NCL Majesty from 12/29 to 1/5. This was our 11th cruise, 6th with NCL. We travel with our kids, DD-14 and DS-16. My son kept copies of the dailey Freestyles, and the Teen Crew activities, so I will try to scan those soon. There were no signs of Freestyle 2.0 yet on this ship.
We arrived in Charleston early on Friday, so we had a chance to explore the town a bit. There are many historic buildings near the pier. We had a great day walking all around the city, visiting the market, Battery Park, all of the homes in between, the riverside park, the cruise pier (so that we would know where we needed to be in the AM), Patriots Point, ... We had dinner downtown at A W Shucks, and it was a nice meal.
We had booked the Snooze B 4 U Cruise package at the Embassy Suites, and it is a very nice hotel. It's about 7 miles out of town, at the convention center. We had a suite with two double beds, plus a full size sleeper couch in the separate living/dinning room area, wet bar w/ fridge and micro, cooked to order breakfast, and they offered a two hour horderves and open bar manager's reception. We were able to park here while we were on the ship, plus had a free shuttle to and from the ship. It turned out to be a very nice choice. We met people that we would be sailing with at the manager's reception, so we started our sailaway celebration early. :drunkfriends:
We had asked for the shuttle to take us to the pier at 11:30 am. We were out waiting with our new friends at 11:15, but the shuttle was running late. We were picked up at about 11:50, oh well. The pier is very small, and the line of cars trying to park was crazy, so I was glad that we had decided to leave the truck at the hotel. The hotel shuttle dropped us off as close as she could, but we still had to drag the bags about a block to get to where they were taking them. We then jumped onto a little shuttle bus that drove us about a block, and let us out at the door to the pier. We would have walked it, but they wouldn't let us. When we entered, there was a long line. I asked for Latitudes, and was shown to a second line. This line was for Non US Citizens, Suites, and Latitudes, but was still a lot shorter. We saw friends from our roll call in the main line, and waved as we passed them by. Embarkation was quick and painless; there wasn't even a line at the photographers!
We knew that this was a smaller and older ship, but I was pleasantly surprised with the condition of the ship. We went down to our rooms, which were cleaned and ready for us, but the keys for my cabin wouldn't work. We threw our carry ons into the kids closet, and went up to reception. Our keys were quickly replaced, and we were able to get into our cabin. The guests before us must have accidently locked the safe when they emptied it, so we made another trip to reception. I thought that they were going to be sick of us, but they just sent someone down to fix the safe.
After we secured our passports, jewelry, etc....into the safe, we headed out to go to lunch, and my suitcase was already outside my door! It was only 1:00, and I'd never gotten luggage that quickly before. I was tempted to stay and unpack, but the rest of the family didn't have theirs, and were hungry, so I was out voted. We went to lunch in the Seven Seas dinning room which was almost empty. The service was phenomenal. Our waiters were at our sides chatting during most of lunch. Lunch was tasty, there was an assortment of sandwiches, fish, pasta, etc....on the menu, and we were happy with our choices. We did fill out the card on the table for the excellent, friendly service.
After lunch we returned to the room to see if we had received the rest of our luggage, but there was only one more bag out of the four that were still missing. When we entered the room we found out why...there were three letters on the door,...we were being summoned to the Naughty Room!  This had never happened to us, so I guess we were due. I even had the special Platinum Latitudes luggage tags on these bags, but that didn't help. We unpacked what we had, and at 2:30 went up to reclaim our luggage. The letter had said that we could pick it up after 2:30, but when we got there, the crew told all of us to come back later, since they weren't ready for us yet. We ended up going back about four times, before and after the muster drill, before we found our bags. We were walking away again at about 4:30, as we saw them bring our bags into the lounge. We pointed them out, and they were brought to a table. Each bag was dug through by the inspector. He checked every water/soda bottle for broken seals, pulled out anything solid, from deodorant to blow dryer, curling iron, snorkels, shoes... They took away mouthwash and shampoo bottles from others, as they were opening and smelling them. They even tried to take away my battery operated candles, I had to take the candle out of the box to show him that it couldn't be lit. Nothing was getting past them. 
Our Muster station was in the Palace Theater. This was the second cruise where we didn't have to stand outside for the muster drill, and it is a very nice improvement to be able to sit inside. We did over hear one elderly lady telling her friends that they "let us do it inside this trip since it was raining outside, and they didn't want us to get wet...", I just chuckled to myself.
We finished unpacking, explored the ship a bit, and watched the sail away. Sailing out of Charleston you can catch a glimpse of Fort Sumter and it's partner across the bay. Dolphins were playing in our wake, and following us out of the harbor. It was a beautiful evening.
We went down to sign the kids up for the teen club, and saw the line went through half of deck 9. I'm not sure how many kids total there were, but the teen club(13-17) had 99, sooooo there were a lot of kids onboard. My daughter was ecstatic, and we barely saw her all week....just when we walked past their activities and waved. She brought back a list of email addresses. My son wasn't as impressed, but he's more of a loner, so there was too much activity for him. He found other things onboard to do, sticking to more of the adult activities.
We headed off to dinner at the Four Seasons, but there is a sign saying that this is the dress up restaurant, and no jeans are allowed. I thought this was great, but DH and DD were still in jeans and didn't want to change, so we headed back to the Seven Seas. We did dress up the rest of the nights, and ate in Four Seasons five nights since I liked the ambiance better. I always love the food on NCL, but DH is a little harder to please. :eyeroll: He felt that the food on this ship was prepared much better than the other NCL ships that we have sailed. His lobster wasn't overcooked, lamb chops were cooked to perfection, and beef just the way he ordered it. Although it was the same menu and ingredients, he felt that the Majesty chefs paid more attention to the details.
On our way to the Seven Seas, we ran into our friends from the hotel, and asked if they wanted to join us for dinner. They said sure...it's Freestyle...so we were able to get a bigger table and enjoy our dinner with our new friends.:drunkfriends:
After dinner we went off to see the show. The theater is small!  Small, round, and has a low ceiling. The juggler said later in the week, "You wouldn't think that you could just reach up and touch the ceiling!"; he could. Not only that, but the ceiling is mirrored, so his four clubs looked like 8 coming at him...he was unable to do his normal act on this stage. The dancers are called the Majesty Production Company, so no Jean Ann Ryan Company on this ship. The kids were very energetic, despite the limits of the stage and the lack of props or backdrops. The shows all had a mix of music, so that there were songs for every generation. I'm sure that some of the older people were shocked by some of the more modern bits. The dancers preformed 4 of the seven nights; some nights as the only act, and some as a shorter act before or after another entertainer. Our magician was Krendl, Juggler Aaron Bonk, and comedian Ted Holum. We enjoyed them all.
After the show we checked out some of the other entertainment on board. There was a trio called Amadeus, a piano player Marcus Dagan, reggae band Caribbean Plus, DJ Tony in the Disco,... which were all ok, but we didn't have a favorite lounge. Actually we preferred looking out at the ocean, as it was a beautiful, crystal clear night, with barely a wave in sight. This was not a sign of things to come.
We woke up Sunday to sunny skies and smooth seas. Went off to breakfast in the Seven Seas. The breakfast menu is the same every day except disembarkation day which is more limited. After breakfast I stopped by the credit desk to see if our onboard credit had been added to our account. We had booked this trip onboard the Dream last year, and were given a credit for each room. My room was fine, but the kids credit was missing...luckily our Latitudes rep from that sailing had told me to bring my letter from her. I kept it safe all year, showed it to the credit rep, he made a copy, and sent it off to Miami. This was on Sunday morning, he told me to check back Wednesday....good thing that I didn't wait until later in the trip to check....
I had set up our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet for 10:30 am, so at 10:15 headed off to it. Rochelle did a great job notifying the crew and we had almost more crew than CC members. From the approx. 30 roll call members that said that they would come, we had 14 show up. From the staff we had Soozy-Cruise Director, Monique-Hotel Director, Rafel-Restaurant Manager, Norman-Bar Manager, Mohammad-Head Bartender, the Executive Chef, the First Officer, Rochelle-Group Coordinator,...I hope that I'm not missing anyone or butchering the names that I remember. They were there to answer our questions, and Soozy and Monique stayed to tell us funny stories about life onboard...ask Soozy about Kool-aid and Duct-tape...cute. I did ask about Freestyle 2.0, but no one onboard this ship had heard more than the press release. They were even surprised to hear that we had read reports of some things being implemented on the Dawn and the Gem, as they thought it wasn't starting until after the new year. Even Rusty, the Latitudes Rep., hadn't heard what the new Latitude benefits were going to be. As we left the CC meeting, we all agreed to meet at the Martini Tasting after lunch. :drunkfriends:
We met as planned, and with our group, there were over 20 people for the Martini Tasting. Bar tender Isabella told us that it was Mohammad's Birthday, so when he came out we all started singing to him.:balloons: He was shocked, said that they had never had so many people at a Martini Tasting on the Majesty, and in honor of his birthday, he was going to charge us $5 less each. We had a great time, they taught us about the history of the Martini, did tricks flipping bottles around, stacking the shakers and pouring six drinks at once,...we tasted a Cosmopolitan, French Kiss, Apple Martini, and Chocolate Martini(both with and with out Irish Cream). Mohammad said that if we promised to all show up, he would schedule a second Martini Tasting on the last sea day. I tried to talk him into a Margarita Tasting too, but he just laughed at me.:moping:
From the Martini Tasting, we all stumbled over to Le Bistro for the wine tasting. I think that all 20 some did both! No we aren't a bunch of drunks, but we were having too much fun together. They usually only use half of Le Bistro for the wine tasting, but we filled every chair in the place. When Mohammad walked in, we started singing Happy Birthday :balloons: to him again! He loved it, and said ok,...$5 off again. He had to go and get more wine, since there were so many people, and he picked out some very nice wines. We had five wines, two white, two red, and a desert wine. I didn't care for the desert wine, but loved the Clarendon Hills Syrah. I didn't like the $130 price on the wine list though...
The VIP Cocktail Party was from 6:30 to 7:15 pm, and was standing room only. It wasn't held in a bar like past parties that we've attended, so instead of ordering what you wanted at the bar, the waiters had trays of champaign and rum punch. They even offered these to my kids, but the kids said no thank you. When Norman saw the kids empty handed, he asked why. I told him that there were no non-alcoholic beverages, and he sent the waiter off to get the kids a soda. I mentioned to him how much fun we had had at the Martini/Wine tasting singing to Mohammad. Norman started laughing, they had tricked us, it wasn't really his Birthday! We finally met our concierge, Belky, at the party. I had called her earlier in the day to make reservations for New Years Eve and LeBistro, but we hadn't seen her yet. I asked about tender tickets for Grand Cayman, and she said that she would have our room stewards put them in the room.
We headed off to dinner after the VIP party, and had the only wait for dinner of the week. They took our stateroom number down, and told us that it would be about 45 min. This was Lobster night, at 7:30, about the busiest time possible, so I wasn't surprised. We went off to the Royal Fireworks Lounge to see the comedian which made our wait seem much shorter.
The Latitudes Party was scheduled for 11:30 am on Monday, New Years Eve, the second sea day. This seemed a bit early in the day to start drinking, but it's freestyle.... :drunkfriends:They had trays of Bloody Mary, Mimosa, and Screw Drivers ready for us, ...so Breakfast drinks. We knew Rusty, the latitudes rep from our Dawn sailing. He gave away prizes from each department onboard, and then had a bottle of champagne for the couple with the most cruises. There were two couples with over 40 cruises a piece, so he gave them each a bottle. At the end of the party he offered a bottle to anyone that wanted to come up and dance for the rest of us; only one couple went, so they got the bottle.
The dinner menu wasn't as special as last New Years Eve, that is our favorite meal onboard ever, but it was still a nice menu. They had veal-birds on the menu?? Our waitress just told us it was veal when we asked...which was the most asked question of the night...not sure where the birds came in, as none of us ordered it.
There were parties all around the ship, and we choose to party at the pool deck. The whole ship toasted in the New Year with champagne at midnight. :drunkfriends:
After the countdown, we headed down to the Disco. Soozy had let us know at the CC meeting that there would be a special event there. She was surprised that I knew what Ship N Male's were.  We had seen them on the Pearl. The Disco on the Majesty is really too small for this event, so she said that they only do it a few times a year. She said that the guys love it, but I felt sorry for them because they didn't get a lot of tips. They get to keep what they earn.
New Years Day in Grand Cayman was a beautiful, sunny, 80 degree day. We spent it at Seven Mile Beach and in town shopping. We didn't want to do anything too strenuous after having a late night, and we've been here three times before.
Sometime during the night our luck took a turn for the worst.  I awoke in the middle of the night to the boat rocking and rolling; waves crashing over our window. The bad thing about the Majesty being so small is that it really feels like you are on a boat when you hit rough seas. I have had problems with seasickness before, so I took a ginger tablet as a precaution, but I ended up ok. I guess I've finally earned my sea legs. Most of the passengers weren't so lucky. :pukey
We were due to dock at Cozumel at 10:00 am. As we came into port, we could see the other 8 ships due in that day.  The Captain announced that all tenders and ferries had been canceled for the day, and we were waiting to see if we would be able to dock. The weather wasn't good, and the dock ended up being closed too, so no Cozumel. I don't think that any of the ships made it in that day.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are a blur of rocking and rolling seas, sea sick bags around the ship, and unhappy people everywhere. We stopped eating with strangers, since we didn't want to hear them complain. Yes, it was cold and rainy, but that couldn't be changed. My DH loved the rough seas, comparing it to a rollercoaster, or huge funhouse...crashing into walls. We were lucky it didn't affect us.
We had dinner in Le Bistro Wednesday night. Our waitress had been on the Dawn with us too. It's really nice to see familiar faces from ship to ship. :smiley: DH and I had the tasting menu, chateaubriand, while DD had the filet and beef rib. I asked for chocolate fondue, even though it wasn't on the menu. I was told no problem, but I think that the staff was hating me later  ...a gasp went through the dinning room when my desert came out, and everyone started ordering it. Rusty was having dinner with a group of crew there, and he even thanked me the next day for ordering it...the crew didn't know that it was available! Just one of the many benefits of CTT!
We filled our time with trivia, name that tune, shopping the gift shop, going to the casino, movies, and naps. The entertainers did extra workshops during the day,and tried to keep everyone entertained.  70's night in the Disco included a visit from the Village People, the crew show had a nicer version of Fountains than what we had seen before, chocoholic buffet, Liar's Club,...and Karaoke is always fun for a laugh.
I returned to the credit desk Wednesday morning, no word from Miami.....Wednesday afternoon, no word.....Thursday morning, no word......
Walking down the hall I caught a familiar smile, heard a squeal, and got a huge hug! It was Miss Maria Virginia who had been our concierge on the Dream.  She not only remembered my face, but my name and room number! I was shocked...I didn't even remember the number until she said it. She had been a wonderful concierge, even giving the infamous Alex a run for his money, and I couldn't believe that I had missed her for five days onboard. She was working in Reception for this sailing, so I asked if she had any influence over the credit desk. After hearing my story she disappeared into the office for about a minute, then came back and said it was all taken care of. Whether she is magic, or it was just great timing I'll never know.
We did have a quick stop in Key West on Thursday night. The Captain had hoped that we would get in earlier, but the seas tossed us around like a rag doll,  so by the time we got into port, the sun was getting ready to set. We watched a few of the freaks at Mallory Square, then walked around town a bit. Most of the attractions were closed, and it was chilly,  so we headed back onboard for dinner. Key West broke a record low temperature, that had been set over one hundred years ago...I told you our luck had changed...
Friday, our last sea day, Mohamed had his promised Martini Tasting, but my other CC friends didn't hold up their end of the deal. I know that some were sick in their cabins, and some just forgot. Others did show up though, so we had about 17 for this tasting. We were treated to Lemon, Peach, Melon, and Chocolate Martinis,...yummy. The passenger talent show consisted of a bunch of singers, and one banjo player. The banjo won. The farewell from the crew after the last nights show was moving, as always....it's when you know that it's time to pack, and the trip is almost over. Luggage had to be in the hall by 3 am. I heard banging in the hall most of the night, and 6 am came way too early. 
We needed to pick up our liquor at 6:30 am, and then pay our duty to the customs guys at 7 am. They charged us $2.25 per bottle that we were over our allowance. We proceeded to the dining room, hoping that we could get breakfast in before we had to meet Belky at 8:15 for VIP disembarkation. We sat there with our coffee for 25 min. before our waitress got around to taking our order. I told her that I was afraid to order much, since we had to leave to meet the concierge; she said no worries. She kicked it up into high gear, and I had my fruit in less then five minutes, and the hot food less than ten minutes later.:breakfast: I was really impressed. We made it out in plenty of time, met Belky, and she walked us off the ship.
I grabbed a porter, while DH and the kids looked for our luggage. We collected almost everything, but my DD couldn't find her suitcase.  I tried to look at other color tags, but the dogs were sniffing the luggage still, so I couldn't go past the gold tags. Belky had walked most of the others through customs, and was surprised to see us still searching. She alerted the port official, who made me fill out a missing luggage form. She then took the form, and went searching. She did find the suitcase eventually, in another color grouping, at the other end of the port building. We waited while the dogs sniffed up and down the suitcase; now DD is worried that our Sheppard will think she cheated on her.
I called the Embassy Suites to send the shuttle, and we waited by the Customs Building to be picked up. It seemed that every other hotel had come and gone, but ours, so after 25 min. I called back to ask if I should be worried. The girl reassured me that I was waiting in the correct location and that he should be by within ten minutes. He was there after twenty, still, waiting 45 minutes for a free ride isn't too bad.
Considering how lucky we have been on our other 10 trips; with beautiful weather, mild seas, never missing a port, suitcase, or going to the naughty room; this was the worst trip ever...but we had a blast. The service couldn't have been better, the food was great, and we made lots of new friends, I can't wait till our next trip on the Jewel!
If you have read this far, thank you! I will be happy to answer any questions that I can.
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NCL Dream 4/13/08
NCL Jewel 2/15/08
NCL Majesty 12/29/07
NCL Pearl 4/8/07
RCI Grandeur 2/17/07
NCL Dream 12/30/06
NCL Dawn 2/23/06
NCL Wind 8/3/05
Celebrity Zenith 3/27/05
NCL Dream 2/13/05
RCI Vision 8/20/04
RCI Vision 8/13/04
Regency
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hstrybuf
Founders
| Joined: | Sat Jun 17th, 2006 |
| Location: | Kansas |
| Posts: | 21180 |
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Posted: Mon Jan 7th, 2008 01:21 am | 2nd Post |
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| Thanks for doing a review! We have never really had a bad cruise either. The one that came the closest was followed by bad weather at every port, but we still have wonderful memories thanks to the cruiseline, the ports we did make and the people we met!
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/hstrycrsr
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OceanGirl
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Posted: Mon Jan 7th, 2008 03:02 am | 3rd Post |
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Wow!!! You write a very good review!!!!!! I felt as if I was there!!!!
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DOLPHIN- A FREE roaming mammal found throughout the world's oceans. There are no confines large enough to justify CAPTIVITY.
http://www.inkokomo.com/dolphin/captivity.html
http://www.bluevoice.org/Videos/expose.mov
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Diana68
Cruiser
| Joined: | Sun Aug 19th, 2007 |
| Location: | Michigan USA |
| Posts: | 82 |
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Posted: Mon Jan 7th, 2008 04:12 am | 4th Post |
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| Thank you! The people on our cruises are always an important part of the experiance. That, and all of the time that I spend on here and CC researching our trips. I just wanted to give back a little bit of the information that I've learned from others.
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NCL Dream 4/13/08
NCL Jewel 2/15/08
NCL Majesty 12/29/07
NCL Pearl 4/8/07
RCI Grandeur 2/17/07
NCL Dream 12/30/06
NCL Dawn 2/23/06
NCL Wind 8/3/05
Celebrity Zenith 3/27/05
NCL Dream 2/13/05
RCI Vision 8/20/04
RCI Vision 8/13/04
Regency
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Welove2cruise2
Frequent Cruiser
| Joined: | Sun Feb 18th, 2007 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 528 |
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Posted: Tue Jan 8th, 2008 12:23 am | 5th Post |
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| Diana, that was a great review! We've been on this great little ship several times, and while she's nothing compared to the Star Class ships of NCL, she has a quaint charm and character all her own. We will sorely miss her in Boston (now we have the Dream)...
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"I'll take the deck of a ship any time..." Jimmy Buffett
Majesty 10/00 & 01, 7/03 & 04, 5/05, 6/06, 9/06, 7/07 Dawn 11/04, 10/05, 3/07 Spirit 11/06, Dream 7/08 Noordam 10/07, 3/08
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