The Majestic Princess was launched in Spring 2017 and sailed its inaugural voyage from Europe. The 143,700-tonne ship is part of the Royal Class, joining the Royal Princess and Regal Princess. The interesting fact about Majestic Princess is that it was built for the Chinese luxury market, offering itineraries from Shanghai. Even all signage onboard is written in dual language. Former NBA star Yao Ming and his wife were the naming ambassadors of the ship. Here is an overview of cruising on the Majestic Princess:
Majestic Princess Overview
The Majestic Princess accommodates up to 3,560 passengers and 1,346 international crew members over 19 decks. The ship’s appeal to the Chinese luxury market is reflected throughout the ship: onboard tax and duty-free shops carry brands like Cartier, Bvlgari, and Chopard. Luxury skincare lines in the gift shop include La Mer and SK-II. Specialty restaurants feature menus crafted by two Michelin-star awarded chefs. There is no shortage of expensive taste and good eats!
Onboard ship features and activities include Seawalk, a 60-feet glass-bottom walkway that spans over the ocean, Hollywood Pool Club, an indoor solarium pool that transforms into a nightclub, and Sea Karaoke offering six private karaoke suites because Asians love to rock the mic! There’s also a putting green area on Deck 19, a skeet shooting simulator, Movies Under the Stars, and Sports Central. If you want to kick back and relax, there is Lotus Spa, the Fitness Center, and some tucked-away bars and lounges.
Pros & Cons of Majestic Princess
Pros
If you sail on the Majestic anytime soon, everything would still be in brand spankin’ new condition! Who doesn’t love the smell of new things?! This ship and much of Princess’ fleet cater to adults, and unlike the Royal Caribbean ships, there seemed to be fewer families with children. This made it easy to find kid-free zones to relax in peace – although we did try to sneak into the Teen Zone to play skee ball but left when everyone stared at us!
Cons
The main disappointment for me is the Fitness Center. The gym occupies a narrow stretch of the ship. During at-sea-days, the gym became really crowded. There is only one open studio space, making it hard to find a spot for floor workouts when a class is in session. Another con: during the supposedly serene morning stretch session, the fitness instructor inadvertently transformed it into a boot camp and barked orders at 7 in the morning!
Maybe because the ship is still in its inaugural season, but it didn’t seem like the ship was at full capacity. Our first dinner onboard was so eerily quiet since the dining room was at most, a quarter-full. It was like being in the movie, Passengers!
There was a large number of mature clientele, making it nearly impossible to meet other xennials and millennials onboard. So we ended up chatting up some of the fitness instructors in the gym instead!
Onboard Majestic Princess
Stateroom Cabin
Nothing beats having a balcony in your cabin! Our room was spacious and it was so nice to get fresh air on the private balcony while watching the sunrise and sunset.
Food & Restaurants
Onboard, there was the Juice Bar, Gong Cha, and Lobster & Dim Sum Bar (additional charges apply).
Harmony is a Cantonese restaurant from Chef Richard Chen whose restaurant was awarded a Michelin star for the first Chinese restaurant in North America. La Mer, offers French cuisine from Chef Emmanuel Renaut who received three Michelin stars for his restaurant, Flocons de Sel in Megève, France.
Traditional dining room service operates on both the traditional dining option and anytime dining. Once we got to know the Maître d’, we never had to make reservations. We would stealthily stand to the side while he slipped us in bypassing the long lines during anytime dining!
We ordered multiple dishes per person, per course. This prolonged our dinner for 3 hours each night! Soon, we asked that we are served all dishes per course, at once so we could save time. So long for being classy! Other guests commented that we could eat so much!
Cost Saving Tip: all guests are permitted to bring one bottle of wine or champagne per person per voyage.
Hollywood Pool Club
The Pool Club is a covered pool area with loungers, cabanas, hot tubs and an adult only pool. At night, the area transforms into a nightclub with glowing lights.
Fitness Center
We attended a session on maintaining a healthy metabolism where the Fitness Centre tried to push some of their weight loss supplements, etc. The one and only takeaway we found amusing was the fact that we should consume seaweed to detox our bodies because just like how algae purify seawater, it has the same effect on our bodies. As a result, we always took a stack of nori sheets from the sushi bar and walked around the ship eating seaweed!
Lotus Spa
One of my favourite past times on a cruise is going to the spa. Lotus Spa is the Princess Cruise Line’s signature spa. On the Majestic Princess, there is an additional pass you could purchase to enjoy the thermal suite, called The Enclave. Here, you’ll find a hydro-therapy pool with cascading rain showers and heated stone beds. On this particular cruise, I had the Seaweed Detox Body Wrap. Once I was slathered full of seaweed, I was wrapped in a large sheet of plastic and tucked into a heated cocoon on a floating water table bed. The whole process was glorious.
Princess @ Sea
Princess @ Sea is a free mobile app where you can access ship events, daily itineraries, account details, and it has a messenger service where you can message your family and friends onboard.
Have you cruised on Majestic Princess or with Princess Cruises before? Share your comments below.
Safe Travels!
xx Deb
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