We sailed on the Majesty in Sept.'09 out of Phila.,our first experience with freestyle cruising ,and were somewhat disappointed. But since Phila. is only an hour away and we love Bermuda we chose do go again this year. Parking and check-in was much smoother,about 45 minutes, we were on board with the stateroom ready and to lunch by 1:30.Our luggage arrived by late afternoon so we were unpacked and enjoying a bon voyage drink as we sailed down the Delaware. We had dinner around 7:30 in either the Seven Seas or Four Seasons with very little wait time for a table for 5-7 people.The waitstaff were much friendlier and the food was excellent overall compared to last year.One evening we did the buffet ,also good.The breakfast and lunch buffet was standard fare but the hamburgers from the grill were delicious. The stateroom was tiny but always clean and the staff friendly and accommodating.
We were to dock in St.George but due to a bad weather forecast for Wed. - Thurs. we had to dock in Hamilton which we enjoyed for the shopping.Prior cruises except last year docked at both but few ships if any dock in Hamilton anymore which really hurts the merchants we spoke to. We taxied to Horseshoe Bay Mon. Tues. we were off to the Swizzle Inn then St. Catherine's beach,our favorite,.in glorious weather . The water was a little cooler but not too bad for Oct. Wed. it showered and was extremely windy ,as predicted ,so we shopped before the rain and stayed on the ship the remainder of the day. We have never used the bus-ferry transportation only taxis finding the drivers interesting and informative about their island.
We decided to do express departure for the first time and packed accordingly so we could manage our luggage.We got an elevator with no wait at 8AM then were stuck standing in line on and off the ship for almost two hours ! We were told the customs security wanted all non-US citizens to disembark first and that was a major hold-up since no one was notified until Sat. AM. The only negative experience of the entire cruise. The Majesty has been sold to a co. in Europe.This is the third cruise line ship out of Phila.this has happened to and so far there are no ships sailing from Phila. in 2010, a great disappointment to us since we've sailed out of Phila.the past five years to Bermuda.It sure beats flying to a port.Too bad to since the Majesty had improved so much since last year ! Oh well, we'll just sail on Royal Caribbean out of Bayonne again but will miss this itinerary.
