A Majestic journey from LA to Sydney 2022
Majestic Princess Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 94
25 Night Hawaii Tahiti & South Pacific Crossing (Los Angeles To Sydney)
Sail date: September 24, 2022
Ship: Majestic Princess
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
This was our belated honeymoon cruise after our Ruby Princess 21 March 2020 was cancelled. Well worth the wait and ironically the same ship that was 1) where we got engaged in 2019 & 2) our last cruise pre Covid.Embarkation
Was surprised how basic the embarkation area was to be honest with little more than a tent covering the entrance of a tin shed.
We had an 11 am-11.30 arrival time, and whilst it seemed fairly disorganised we were still on board having a drink at 11.45. Not quite sure how they were doing it ( we we given a sign to hold we were Elite, but there was no specific line for priority boarding passengers. Later dining companions told of 4+ hrs of waiting to board so I can’t complain about time it took us personally.
With all the fuss about making sure we had uploaded our medical and identification into the Princess app, we were asked to show all the original paperwork anyway. They weren’t interested in seeing the app Thankfully I had all the documents,ents handy on a plastic folder in my carry on.
Collection of our medallion from desk was seamless
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We dined mostly in Allegro as this was most convenient for us.
Plenty of food choices, and as always the dinner rolls are a firm favourite.
Plenty of our dining companions complained about the ‘ reduced quality of food ‘ but I don’t understand, the thought process around this.
Meals I don’t need to shop, prepare, cook and cleanup after, is winning to me.
We did miss not having the same meal companions and waitstaff each night, as it used to be pre Covid, But the trade off, is we enjoyed the extra flexibility of mixing up our meal times instead of being locked into having only early or late sitting times.
We had pizza for lunch several times- fresh and delicious.
Crown Grill twice …. Steak as always = cooked to perfection as was the key lime pie. Great value speciality restaurant, amazing steaks. $29 for 3 course steak dinner is a bargain.
We visited Harmony for the first time and impressed with the menu,. The food was lovely as was service.
International cafe is a firm favourite particularly for those late night snacks.
Mid arvo snacks were the tacos poolside, tasty and fresh,
We only visited the buffet on the odd occasion, but plenty of variety
Onboard Activities
We are not great ones for the onboard organised activities instead preferring to lounge poolside, reading, watching the big screen and relaxing.
We finally managed to get a cabana at the Hollywood inside pool, only after getting early, whilst hubby had a sleep in. We only used it once on an inclement day. The space beyond the Hollywood pool, seemed to be pretty much taken over by Cruise Critic people,who held regular catch-ups, even to rally about complaints, according to one dinner companion who was keen to attend one the following day about the food quality and choice….. whatever lol… not our thing.
Usual issue of people dumping towels on loungers then disappearing for hour +. This is apparently an issue on most cruise lines. We asked a staff member to remove towels, after waiting for people tl return for over an hour. This is something that should be monitored more by deck staff.
We walked regularly 5km day on deck 17 which, can be a little dizzying 😂 passengers regularly played pickle ball as was mini golf
Entertainment
Pre Covid our last cruise happened to be on the majestic, where the entertainment overall was boring and repetitive to the point we simply stopped going to the nightly shows.
Happy to report lots of variety on this trio, although bit top heavy early in the trip with comedians that seemed to think that there were only Americans on board so a lot of the performances weren’t always overly relatable to others in the audience.
3 Princess entertainment staff shows. Seen these before so was a bit disappointing to know that despite the Covid break, they haven’t really explored new Princess shows.
Ami Williamson, Vicki O’Keefe, Bevan Addinsal we’re just a few of the talented Australian singers we enjoyed.
Mockingbird Band where amazing and hope to see them on many cruises to come, this was their first contract, and very talented band,. Every night after the late show we would head to the Crown Grill bar for music time. Our favourite was a West Australian man called Cameron Dunbar. He was fabulous to listen to, lovely voice and a wide range of cover songs.
Service and Staff
As always service with a smile.
Many brand new staff on their 1st contracts.
MDR service sometimes slow but we are on holidays so not generally on any rush to be somewhere anyway.
Sad that staff maybe don’t feel empowered or confident to enforce hand washing and mask wearing ( mandated inside ) requirements
Ship Quality
Clean as always. Big ship means lots of walking space, so would prefer to see a bigger promenade/ walking track instead of the tiny on on deck 17
Cabin / Stateroom
Best mattress ever! The Beaty of an interior room is the darkness allowing is to have a decent sleep in.
They’ve included sensor lights at floor of bedside tables and then the sensor light outside toilet, misses the point by being as bright as a lighthouse.
Would have liked to have USB on both bedside tables , but luckily we knew these they were only one Side so brought an extra long charging cord. An EUR | UK plug in bathroom, US | AUS plug on desk meant plenty of choices and we simply used adapters for our devices.
Plenty of hanging space , drawers and cupboards.
Ship tip
Visit library asap. It gets stripped quickly
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Disembarkation
We enjoyed a later breakfast before adjourning to the Elite priority lounge to wait.
Took longer than it should have because passengers not listening to instructions, and being caught with fruit in bags and not filling out their arrival cards.
It took us 2 hours later than expected to get off and we were joking that we would be having lunch in the MDR instead of the passengers supposed to be embarking.
Traveler Photos
