My Regal Experience On Majestic Princess

On the 31st of March I was lucky enough to sample the first voyage of the Majestic Princess. This was my very first Princess cruise and whilst I was allowing for potential teething problems (such as I experienced on Harmony of the Seas’ maiden voyage last year), my expectations were pretty high. I had heard really good reports about Princess, especially the food and service and I am happy to report I was not disappointed.

I will be going in to more detail on my next blogs on the food, entertainment and the public areas of the ship, but this is just to give you a brief overview and my first impressions of Princess & her newest ship.

We flew to Venice and sailed from Trieste to Civitavecchia with one call at Kotor. When we arrived in Italy the sun was shining and the check in at Trieste was swift and we were off our transfer coach and enjoying the sunshine on deck within about 20 minutes. The captain of the ship Dino Sagani hails from Trieste and it seemed like the whole town had come out to wave him off. It was quite an emotional sailaway, despite the ship’s horn deafeningly tooting the theme tune to the 80’s TV series The Love Boat!

Being a new ship everything on board was immaculate and had that ‘brand new’ smell. I was in a standard balcony cabin almost at the front of deck 11 – next-door but one to the rather large Premium Suite which I managed to pop in to for a quick nosy (it had great views over the pool deck and you could actually sit in your cabin and watch the movie screen). Our cabin had plenty of room, ample wardrobe space with plenty of hangers and the in cabin entertainment system had a fantastic choice of on demand films and TV programs.

Although we were at the front of the ship and sailed through a rather dramatic storm one night I can’t say that I felt the motion of the ocean any more than I did when walking in the mid-ship areas.

This ship is the 3rd ship from the Royal class, so if you have sailed on Regal or Royal Princess you would easily be able to find your way around. As this ship was designed to be based in China there are some noticeable differences such as signage in both English & Chinese, the addition of karaoke suites, less drinking venues, a bigger casino area and more high-end retail space. The decor everywhere on the ship was plush and very easy on the eye.

Briefly on the food, the buffet restaurant I have to say was nothing special. Everything was perfectly displayed, there was a good choice & everything was warm & well cooked, but nothing out of the ordinary (other than more Oriental choices throughout the day & night). However all the other restaurants were excellent. I dined in the main dining room for breakfast and dinner,  La Mer French bistro, Alfredos Italian, Harmony Asian restaurant and my favourite, the Crown Grill. The food and service in all was top notch.

I’m not really a big fan of the theatre entertainment when I cruise, but I did see the Tenors Of Rock who were brilliant & really got the crowd going. There are alternative entertainment venues such as the Piazza in the atrium which had bands and dancing, the Crown bar which had a pianist and band, Movies under the stars where you can watch a film on a comfy mattress and have popcorn brought to your lounger, the Vista Gaming lounge, the Princess Live lounge which had quizzes, talks and karaoke plus a really unique area – the adults only Hollywood Pool Club which was a relaxing pool area with cabanas and loungers by day and at night turned in to the late night club area. Great for a paddle, ladies if you need a break from your high heels!

I had a good look around the kids facilities and they were incredibly impressive and took up a huge area. Princess work closely with the Discovery Channel to provide fun and educational activities as well as providing the latest games consoles, arts & crafts and chill out areas for the teenagers that want to simply sit and look miserable.

Overall the ship was beautiful. Everything was very efficiently run, the food top class and the service is some f the best I’ve had on any cruise, so would I choose to cruise with Princess in the future? Damn right I would!

Next blog is on my favourite subject  – it’s all about the Majestic food!